BlackburnEnd75

Opinions hey.

I think eustace will for baker as a straight swap for cantwell. If we were going to shoehorn someone in there I'd rather play Buckley.

Pears Brittain Hyam batth Pickerin Travis tronstad ACD. Dolan. Beck Gueye

Ridiculous if it was indeed him

Pears Brittain. Hyam. Batth. Beck Travis. Tronstad ACD. Cantwell. Dolan Gueye Subs: keeper, fadz, duru, JRC, baker, Buckley, Hedges, Leonard, Ohashi

Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination. But it never was going to be in those conditions. We didn't play particularly well, going forward we strung one good move together and scored from it (with the aid of a defldcfion). That's why it was very pleasing to come away with a win here. Would've been an easy game to come out on the wrong side of. But yet again we showed all the qualities of recent weeks and that identify this eustace side: resilience, organisation, hard work, pragmatism. It shows how by doing the basics very well you can grind out results in this league. That's said, despite the current form we aren't going to continue in the top 6 unless some attacking thrust emerges over the next few months. But that's a problem for another day. Eustace who I wasn't that impressed with last season is doing a great job with what he's been given.

The team would pick itself for this one but we have two pressing issues: Is cantwell going to be fit Who replace trav in cm On the cm issue. I'd go with Buckley personally but I'd be expecting eustace to go with baker as the more senior player. Baker is a player I've not quite figured out yet. Is cantwell doesn't make it I'd start ACD and play dolan as the 10

Agreed he was excellent but I'd still give it to tronstad. A couple of really vital interventions.

I've absolutely hammered him over the last few years but he's turning it around. Has been a lot more consistent of late.

I always thought he was but from listening to him on a podcast we paid Liverpool £100 per 100 appearances. Apparently John Williams described it as the best money he ever spent at rovers.

Hard to disagree with this but for me our first name on the team sheet is Tronstad.

Is there a link to the recent q & a anywhere?

Pears Brittain. Hyam batth pickering Travis. Tronstad Weimann. Cantwell. Beck Ohashi Subs: toth, fadz, jrc, Buckley, baker, hedges or siggy, dolan, ACD, Leonard

I was thinking about this watching the game yesterday. Helps that Pickering has played well in the last 2. Could Beck perhaps be deployed left wing in the meantime?

Honestly don't get this critique. Has created plenty of chances over the last half dozen games. Not his fault we miss them. That said he's been slightly wasteful today in the final third but played his part in the goal we did score.

Agreed. Don't understand this criticism of cantwell, he created two great chances one for ohashi and one for gueye. The gueye one he couldn't have put it more on a plate for him. He's taking the ball, carrying it, giving it the wide players in good areas. Putting great through balls and crosses in. He's really not an issue. He won't be here that long, he's too good for this team.

Very worrying, the lack of ability in the final third really starting to show. I don't agree with eustaces team selection especially the wingers and I was very disappointed with his hesitancy to change the attacking line in the second half. That's said we're stuck with the players we have and that's on the venkys. The real and only positive for me was cantwell. He's a class above and created 2 fantastic chances, and kept getting the ball on the half turn driving at their back 4. Problem is the runs were largely poor and lacking in numbers. We then proceed to miss every chance we made. Gueye - I thought he'd score more if we actually put the ball on his head in the box. I was wrong. Weimann - hes got it between the ears but he's past it. I've no idea why he plays so frequently. Hedges - very poor. Wasted his big chance, got the ball in plenty of space down the left and did nothing with it. Dolan was an upgrade off the bench, which says it all. Ohashi - isnt as bad as gueye, has shown patches of quality. Isn't doing it right now. Leonard - missed his chance, I'd give him a run up top to see if he can do it.

I'd probanly be recalling markanday, garrett and o'riordan in January. Markanday I'd be loaning out to a league 1 side. He's got regular game time at l2 level but if he's ever going to make it here he's going to have to do it at a high level. He's got games under his belt now, a good time to test him in league 1 provided he continues in the same vain up until January. Garrett if he's not getting regular game time then he needs sending somewhere he will. The lad needs to play week in week out. O'riordan could recalled as cb cover depending on the severity of the Carter injury. Especially if we are going to a back 5 more regularly.

Rumour over on another thread was he refused to play for the under 21s and has been banished. I'd prefer to change the shape to a back 3 to utilise brittain and Becks width and attacking threat due to our lack of decent wingers. That said we are pretty good defensively in the current shape so if we are insisting on 4-2-3-1 you'd be looking at siggurdson in on the left and cantwell at 10. Neither Weimann, dolan or Hedges really deserves to start and at the moment only offer work rate /defensively work. I'd be going: Pears Hyam. Batth. Pickering Brittain. Buckley. Tronstad. Beck Cantwell Ohashi. Leonard

I wouldn't describe us as low effort

Agree 100%. Performancs of late have been poor, thought we were good today, moved the ball well and created 2 must score chances. I know a lot of the focus is on the striker position but it's the 3 behind that concern the most for me. Other than cantwell we are missing quality and pace. Ultimately that's a problem with the budget and the recent recruitment.

Pears Jrc. Hyam batth. Beck Brittain Trav Tronstad Cantwell Gueye Leonard Subs: toth, Fadz, pickering, Buckley, siggy, Hedges, dolan, weimann, ohashi

Leonard having a good game

There's an argument to freshen things up a bit after looking very flat at Coventry which was the first mid week league game. I agree getting your best players in their best positions. Carter for example. On cantwell, I think ideally he plays as 10 but we really lack pace and ball carrying out wide at the moment so that could be influencing the decision to play him there. Ultimately for cantwell his best position is one where he gets on the ball more, maybe starting from the left and drifting helps that more atm. If you look at the way we press (in a 4-4-2), dolan as the 10 presses higher up the pitch. Perhaps the worry for cantwell is if he plays there he drops too deep to look for the ball affecting the press or if he's pressing higher up then he might go longer periods without touching the ball. I'd like to see eustace explain it tbh.

I think he is good defensively in that he works hard and protects his full back. Interesting that eustace has admitted he was going to start ACD before his knock and he thought Hedges was very good on Saturday or something to that effect