Admiral Nelsen

4-2-4 with extremely attacking full backs! Certainly if Douglas plays. Don't think we'll be short of more high scoring games before the season's out! I can definitely see Dack working well as the most attacking of three midfielders. He has the ability to create, especially now he has much more to work with our front three. Obviously we don't want him to lose his knack of getting in the area and scoring, but Lampard made a career of doing that from a deeper position. In a strange sort of way it might even be a bit easier for him to find space given that defenders will be more closely occupied with Armstrong and Brereton.

At the very least he shouldn't be near any of the more attacking positions in the midfield. I still think he has has the skillset to do quite well in the deeper role, but his weaknesses are dreadfully exposed when he's asked to go further forwards, especially when he plays on the left of the three. Having said that, seeing as he's already a reserve I'd be looking to have Davenport in front of him in the pecking order anyway. Maybe slightly harsh on Evans as it's not really his fault that the system has changed to not suit his strengths, but he isn't the future whereas Davenport could be with more game time.

Without ever having seen him play, I hold my hands up to being an Elliot-sceptic when we signed him. Not any slight on his talent, but it's so rare that a 17 year old boy can come into man's football straight away and do the business consistently. Remains to be seen how he'll deal with the rigours of a long season, but so far I'm eating my words. Tremendous talent who without question will go far.

It really did, I turned it off after Wigan scored their second, turned it back on after I saw they were a man down. There was a good 20 minute spell at the start of the second half when they absolutely dominated.

Delighted for Chorley, just a shame that probably the biggest result in their history was behind closed doors. Would love for them to sneak through the next round and draw another one of their more prestigious Lancashire neighbours. Or failing that, PNE.

Wave upon wave of Chorley attacks at present. Wigan hanging on at 2-2

I think that's a fair point, although as you say you could level the same at a few others. Dolan (who I'm delighted we've signed) is probably the best example of that, but you'd let him off with it at such a young age. Not quite speaking to the same point that you're making, but it was encouraging to see him take his chance when the sides were level and the pressure was growing. It's been commented that his goals before season were in dead rubbers, and the Watford goal was when we were already two goals down. One of the next stages in is development will be to make more match winning contributions, so yesterday was a good start.

V. true, and I think you can say that about quite a few of our attacking players. Rothwell is certainly a player who comes to life when he has other creative players around him. Looking back to last season, even someone with the experience and quality of Downing was a completely different player when he wasn't our sole creative midfielder. One of the reasons I'm not against re-signing him is that this season he'll be playing alongside Elliot and Rothwell/Hotlby instead of the likes of Samuel

Getting all of the attacking players in the side is undoubtedly going to be a huge challenge. Says a lot about Brereton's form that at present he would be near impossible to drop.

Great post. Inelegant but effective sums him up perfectly this season. I was thinking along similar lines after the Wycombe/Derby/Cov games, and which other players could be put in the same category. The name which came to mind immediately was Kevin Davies. They're not too similar in their style of play, but they're both players who don't look like they'll ever be prolific and yet are well worth their place in the side by being a nightmare for defenders. I think we can see his value in Armstrong's form. Obviously Armstrong is a top goal-scorer anyway, but having scored double any other player in the league this year bar Toney, and having enough chances to have scored a good four or five more, I think we have to see Brereton's form as a major reason why he is getting so many chances.

Couldn't agree more. Other players rightly got the plaudits today but Buckley was a crucial cog in our midfield. He obviously has talent in abundance, and showed it this afternoon. Has to work on his consistency and decision making, but on today's showing we have a real player on our hands if we're patient with him.

Very creditable and deserved three points given where we're at in the season. Wharton was good, Ben Brereton superb. Returning players made an enormous difference.

Can't say that I'm delighted that he's playing, but agree that some of the criticism is OTT. Playing slightly further forward in a three really doesn't suit him though, especially on the left.

Reading are up there with QPR as clubs that you want to play on a horrible midweek fixture in poor weather. Would be a perfect game for Travis this one, but I'm still confident that we'll win without him.

His pass to Brereton was wonderful, and if I was being hyper-critical, slightly overdue. Since moving back to the right this season he has been decent enough, but until that pass had seemed to get into promising attacking positions before putting in a disappointing final ball. I'm not saying this to have a go, only to highlight that he's had a solid introduction to the first team with rare flashes of real quality, and that we might need to be a bit patient before we see him realise his potential.

Basically agree, but I'd have Nyambe in front of Rankin-Costello. Not an easy call, but both Joao and Meite (assuming they both play) can be a handful and I'd much rather have a rested Nyambe helping to deal with any counter attacks than JRC coming back from a hamstring injury.

Counterpoint: our squad that season was always likely to stay up comfortably but was much more than a 7 million pound striker away from being top 6 contenders. Obviously we were all hoping for more from him before now, but seems to me that our need is much greater now we have a squad who on paper can challenge rather than when we were a nailed on mid-table side.

Even though he won't be playing in his preferred position, I'm increasingly excited about seeing how Dack fits into this team. We might lose a bit with him not playing as a 10, but we should gain much more with him playing in a team with so many other attacking options who will occupy the attention of opposition defenders. Thinking who gets dropped for him is the difficult part.

I can't believe that the lad is only 17. It will be a challenge for him to sustain his form over a season with plenty of three game weeks. Even so it's as clear as day what all the fuss is about with him. Extraordinary talent for a boy so young.

This is becoming a bit of a concern, hopefully we'll put them to the sword in the second half. Brereton has been superb

Agree - but on the back of a 3 game week and with the new few weeks looking congested I think we'll have to ring the changes quite a bit over the coming games. Attack like we did on Wednesday and we should have too much for them. 1-3 Rovers

Agree apart from Buckley. With any luck he'll be starting tomorrow.

Sharpe says that both are registered in time for tomorrow's game. I think this would be one occasion where Mowbray's tendency to not start new signings is completely understandable given their lack of game time, but I'd love to see Douglas thrown straight in.

On Evans, he's completely won me round from a few seasons ago when I would have happily let him go for nothing. I think the way that we're playing now though he would need to be the deepest player in the 3 for it to make sense, and I wouldn't want him trying to get as far forward as Holtby has been getting at times. In fact I think one of the things which did for him before Mowbray was that he had to get up and down the pitch too much in a 4-4-2, which clearly he isn't up to doing. Different story if it's a 4231 or if we have two players in front of him doing more attacking. Need to get Buckley in for Saturday.

You can see his influence on Pep - identify the way you want to play and commit everything to following that approach to the fullest extent, to hell with the weaknesses which comes with it. Sacrifice is the essence of strategy etc,