joey_big_nose

Good to see you're on the 352 train now too Chadders! As always with the Championship any team gets a couple of good performances in a new system before other managers start to watch the videos back and adapt.... I'm wondering what the oppo will do. Hard for me to figure out though. Can't out number us in midfield as we have three in there, hard to outnumber us down the flanks as the wide CBs and CMs can provide additional cover to the wing backs, hard to play it long as Scott Wharton, Hyam etc will head out with ease, hard to play a high line due to Breretons and Gallaghers pace, hard to play deep as Adam Wharton will pick the passes. I'm sure there will be something we haven't thought of but it's great to go into a game feeling confident we are competitive and will cause problems in every area of the pitch.

The background is Mark Hughes took over Rovers in 2003, and he had previously the Wales job. In that job he had formed a very positive opinion of Robbie Savage and thought he was exactly what Rovers needed when he joined us. At the time Savage was playing for Birminghan City and was one of their better players, loved Mark Hughes from working with him for Wales and wanted the move. He also was very money motivated, and I think the contract he was promised was about double what he was on at City. Rovers made multiple approaches to Birmingham to sign Savage, but we were turned down. In the end Savage refused to play until he was sold, making the rather bizarre excuse that moving to Blackburn would get him "closer to home" - I think there was little in it. To be honest Savage behaved like a complete bastard, and if I'd been a Birmingham fan I would have hated him as they all do... Anyway in the end Birmingham relented and sold him to us. I think their manager or chairman or someone made the comment that why would Savage want to move from such a big club like BC to a small club like Rovers. A bit odd as a) Birmingham City pull small crowds for a club in the second biggest English city, b) they've won absolutely f-all and spent most of their existence in the lower reaches of the football league. That's where the "big club" Birmingham City nickname came from! Still going strong nearly 20 years later...

Why would you want to go back to 343? With that lineup I can see us ending up being out muscled in midfield and the forwards isolated. Two wins on the spin with 352, surely we will stick with it. That said I guess you could have the same lineup but drop Hedges into the middle three... I guess he could do a bit of a Rothwell tribute act thinking about it, playing on the side of the CM three and carrying the ball? Quite like the sound of that.... Kaminski Hyam Ayala Wharton Brittain Hedges Morton Wharton Pickering Gallagher Brereton

Yeah, he's a bit physical unit too. Very powerful. I can see him making a good wing back if he sorts his positioning out a bit. And we play him on the left side...

Having Adam Wharton in will give us a bit more passing from midfield as he drifts into the number 10 role. I am a bit fearful however that we will maybe play Smodics and Travis which wil lead to us finding it hard to get the right passes into the front two. Also think he may stick with the inverted wing backs.

Feels like Dack is out of the picture now... If we weren't even going to put him on the bench yesterday with Travis out Obviously JDT wants the workrate even in a midfield three... I don't really agree with it myself as the other two can play deeper and one in the 10 role, but he had all three in a line all game but saying that it worked well. If wed had a 10 on I think it would have really helped with getting the final ball right, but I suppose the trade off would be a bit less defensive solidarity.

On reflection really happy with last nights result. What was great about it was we managed to combine both being defensively resolute and always looking a threat on the counter. We were lucky with the pen and the offside but deserved the victory I would say. I was skeptical about the inverted full backs but offensively they worked very well. Defensively Brittain and Hedges lost their positions quite a lot but managed to recover well. Hedges looked like he'd played wing back all his life with some great tackles. I'd still prefer it if we swapped Brittain and Hedges over. Midfield three also very good, Szmodics fitted in nicely. His workrate is phenomenal. I did not run think we missed Travis tbh. I'd say the midfield three is here to stay so looks like it will be rotated between Morton, Travis, A Wharton, Szmodics, Buckley, Garrett We played some good stuff last night, although the final ball was off. Our set pieces are the best they've been since Allerdyce. Our defending of the box has been brilliant. Reckon we can start being quite optimistic. What's mad is we've played pretty much everyone in the squad, including a ridiculous number of young players (incidentally how refreshing is it that JDT just dunks totally green youth into a full 90 mins like Garrett ), only just finding a dependable system and formation, yet we are top! Still feel we have a couple more gears when everyone settles. I don't think automatic promotion is on the cards - we've had an easier run of fixtures - but we have a fantastic shot at top six.

Thought he was much better in midfield today than he has been up front earlier in the season. Great energy and harrying, and has genuine pace and carries the ball forward well. Only issue was poor passing. Could have released the strikers several times but couldn't find the right pass. Can see him playing in midfield more.

4 league games till Burnley. All look quite winnable to me. Would be great if it was a top of the table clash...

Were going top !!

Blimey didn't realise Brereton was so quick!

Superb! Think we've found the system lads.. ei ei o..

Good half. Very defensively solid. Final pass not great though, so I'd get Wharton on for Szmodics to help with that.

Thought it wasnt a pen but yeah defo was on the 10th replay.

Great goal, this has been a very good half.

Think we're missing Adam Wharton. Szmodics energy and persistence is great but he's not really about picking the passes.

I like Szmodics in midfield, great work rate, gets his foot in, and can break with real pace. Garrett also looking good. Don't know why we've totally surrendered our width though with wing backs on the wrong side?

Looks like szmodics is in midfield, so good... But why on earth are we playing inverted wing backs?

Yeah I'm thinking that maybe Szmodics will play in midfield rather than up top. He's got the engine and technical ability for it. We shall see.

Back to 343 wtf? Maybe Szmodics will play deeper than he has in the past?

Yeah I quite like what JDT is doing with the under 21s. Means everyone gets more game time and is quite chastening when you get instantly dropped down instead of sitting on the bench game after game. I think if Buckley gets a shot playing in a three he will come back. I'd say our only mid who can really physically play in a two - ie. is able to cover a lot of ground game after game - is Travis but he has really lost form.

Don't really agree with the bit of bold. 352 trades having two wide forwards and either a striker or false 9 for a number 10 and a front two. Means we can play Gallagher and Brereton through the middle with Wharton or Dack in at 10. That just feels much more effective than having Gallagher or Szmodics running the wing and having no one to link up. I agree Pickering doesn't have the engine on the left but Brittain is great getting up and down. Just seems much more comfortable for our players.

We have to stick with a system for a while and settle into it. The first half 352 looked the best we have put together for a some time. Have to stick with it. We can always change later in the game if needed. Also I don't really subscribe with 352 being more defensive than 4231 or 343. It can be very offensive as you can get a lot of players into dangerous areas. The wing backs and the number 10 will provide a lot of support to the front two. We created very few chances with either the 343 or 4231 despite having a lot of players pushed very far forward, because while they were positionally advanced they ended up seeing very little of the ball so had no impact. The 352 let us win the midfield battle which then meant we could create the opportunities. Two strikers who have something to work with is much better than three strikers running around chasing the opposition all game.

He was very good first few games of the season.

I'm reserving judgement till he gets to play when we've got three centre mids on. He's been hung out to dry when we've played two centre mids like all the other strikers.