riverholmes

We did sign Markanday and Hedges who are forwards, if not proven scorers. I think a possible reason for not signing an out and out striker, say, Keinan Davis, who joined Nottingham Forest from Villa, on loan, is that Mowbray had no intention of playing strikers. He was all set for his Brereton and Gallagher wide forwards and Buckley through the middle tactics, until it went pear-shaped. That is, it seems like he's suspended those "tactics," but we'll have to wait and see for the next game. Incidentally, here are some quotes from Oct 2021 from the LET on the Mowbray's tactical masterplan of using Gallagher as a right forward/winger, despite the player wanting to play centrally: “Gallagher’s game is based on hard work. He’s an amazing athlete Gally, for someone who is 6’4, he’s really powerful, has really good stamina levels, that’s why generally through my time here I’ve played him on the right,” the manager explained. “I’ve had lots of chats in my office with Gallagher about the fact he would like to play down the middle. Yet towards the end of Danny Graham’s time here, Sam was playing out wide, Graham and Dack played up front, last year Armstrong played up front and we got the rewards as a football club, this year with the front three generally of Dolan, Gallagher and Brereton I assess the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and I think they can all play off the left, off the right or down the middle." There have been occasions when the tactic worked, as you would expect with any that is persisted for so long, but, overall and despite that, I'd suggest it's been a huge failure and a mark against Mowbray's record as a manager in recent times. Being powerful and having good stamina levels are not sufficient criteria to be effective from a wide position, needless to say.

Good to see Sam Barnes play and score, albeit, only his 6th or something appearance of the season. I see that Goddard from the U18s was in goal with Stergiakis on the bench. The game-by-game rotation of the goalie continues to surprise me. It suggests little or no confidence at all in Stergiakis who is ostensibly 3rd choice at the club and was brought in with a transfer fee from Slavia Sofia. An attempt to evade some sort of appearance fee? I can't understand why the club don't select a No.3 and consistently play him to compete with Pears.

Look at our subs and reserves - Dack, Poveda, Dolan, Ayala, Edun, Zeefuik, Giles, Davenport - quite a few of those, I'd guess, would start for other clubs in the league. If there was a season, this was definitely it. Though, I was thinking of the relegation threatened Everton squad and the strength of the Premier League and that's another universe.

It's a fair point that a variety of formations have been tried with short-term effects. However, there is no doubt that tactical and formational mismanagement has been a significant contributor to our failures this season. Our squad is surely far better than others that are higher than us at the moment. Is this the first game of the season that Sam Gallagher has started in a central role? If so, that, in itself, is criminal. However, I take your point, that Mowbray can't sustain a team. For 4-3-3 to work, the team has to press intently and the wide players have to work non-stop to get up and down the pitch. Quite simply, Mowbray has not been able to get his team to do this. Even in the more defensive 5-2-3, we fell apart partly because of this failure to maintain intensity. Edit: Last season, 4-3-3 was so porous defensively for us because our team didn't press intently or support the full backs, so Bell, Douglas and Nyambe were exposed time and time again.

I think playing forwards as forwards, rather than Buckley, might be helping too, as well as the additional solidity of three central midfielders, albeit, with one less defender. The Buckley as striker gamble briefly worked but stopped and long needed to be shelved, under the Jon Douglas left wing, Nils Eric Johansson at left back, Aaron Mokoena central midfielder etc. makeshift experiments with a short half-life. Edit: It'd make sense to throw on Poveda and Dack or Dolan to try and increase the goal difference.

Drastic shift in formation, going back to, presumably, 4-3-3, which was so porous last season but with, perhaps, Ryan Hedges or Gallagher in the central forward role. Something had to change but this formation will only work with intense work-rate, particularly, from Gallagher or whoever plays on the right, because Darragh Lenihan is not a right back. As I recall it, players who have started at RB or RWB for us this season now includes Nyambe, JRC, Lenihan, Carter, Magloire, Zeefuik and Buckley.

Mowbray arguing, in the LancsLive article interview, that he has helped to contribute towards creating a self-sustaining club: "When I arrived there were a lot of 35 and 36-year-olds with very little value, and now the club has lots of assets, even below the first-team there’s a bunch of lads ready to burst onto the scene, because of the information and structure passed down and how we want footballers coaching." We do have four/five academy players in the first team and a strong U18 set coming through. However, aside from David Raya, if I'm not mistaken the last "top" player "produced" by the club was Grant Hanley, who was sold in 2016. I could be overlooking players but I can't think of any other academy produced player who has consistently reached that level since - which is lower end Premier League standard. I suspect Wharton might be able to reach Hanley standards but players like Travis, Nyambe and Lenihan just have not developed in recent years, after early promise. So, arguably, aside from Raya, Mowbray has not helped or overseen any of these young players push on and realise their potential. Moreover, Mowbray taking credit for the youth system, which hasn't produced real top talents of late (Buckley remains a, perhaps, distant hope), overlooks that he benefited from a system that preceded him. The likes of Nyambe, Wharton, Travis, JRC, Buckley came through the ranks during a previous regime. Mowbray gave them opportunities to make debuts or gain experience but cannot claim to have been meaningfully responsible for their earlier youth development. He might make that argument for players that he has talked up, such as Dan Pike, but, it's increasingly unlikely that this most recent U23 team will leave much mark on the firsts, as the likes of McBride, Burns, Butterworth, Magloire, Eastham and others head out the door. I don't think Mowbray's accurate in saying that there's "a bunch of lads ready to burst onto the scene", unless he means some U18s prospects and Jack Vale/Jake Garrett/Lennie Cirino, who, I believe, have 1 Rovers first team competitive appearance between them.

The three forwards formation, as modelled by Liverpool, is all about intense closing down and intercepting and, also counter attack, with the threat in behind. We lost that along the way. In some games, we simply stopped closing down and invariably got picked off. It was a very high risk approach, anyway, for us because Buckley is not a goalscorer, so far, and, unlike Liverpool, we played with two central midfielders who, as teams worked us out, could be outnumbered by clever movement. (See Keinan Davis for Forest). Once Poveda got injured, Dolan not played wide for some reason and Gallagher, who is fairly mobile but no winger, was brought in, we were weakened further and the high risk strategy was found out and has, it seems, completely fallen apart.

You could argue that Harvey Elliot and, even, John Buckley, are that type of player (in style and certainly not substance) but Mowbray played them mostly in the forward line. They had their moments but I think a deeper position suits both. It's notable that Klopp sees Elliot as a centre mid, rather than forward, probably, because he doesn't have the pace required to be in the front three. I would like to see the likes of Garrett, Cirino, Whitehall and Vale get a chance to contribute to the squad next season. I think it makes sense to start giving the sub appearances, given that we have almost nothing to play for. Cirino and Whitehall have had bad injuries and are still out but Garrett could be an option.

Excuse me for this attempt - but I can't help but try to escape reality. Outsider, Tony Mowbray was the surprise victor in the Liberal Democrat party leadership contest in the Spring of 2023. His first appointment was that of Sam Gallagher-Gaia, footballer and space explorer, as his deputy. The new look leadership lacked political experience but promised to bring the football fan into the fold and become the party of real people and the forgotten working class. Their first press conference was eagerly awaited. Sam Gallagher-Gaia, wearing a tracksuit and clearly playing up to his every man persona, read a statement revealing a dramatic rightwards shift for the party. His nervous smiles and charming gestures could not disguise the tension in the room. Amongst the headline policies he announced was the building of a wall along the Northern Ireland and Republic border to address the post-Brexit problem and safeguard, he said, the future of the Union. When a reporter asked if this did not endanger peace in Ireland and incite parts of the IRA, Gallagher-Gaia candidly admitted that he had not thought of this eventuality. Tony Mowbray intervened to say he didn't foresee any issues and if there were, he would, "get Bucko on it." It is not known who or what he was referring to. Further extremist policies announced including clamping down on religious freedoms and a surprise attack on judicial independence and human rights law. It was stated that Middlesbrough would be made the administrative capital. Whilst Gallagher-Gaia appeared uncomfortable under the spotlight, new hope of the LIb Dems, Tony Mowbray, seemed to revel in the attention. He said that his young running mate shouldn't be underestimated. "He might look like a nice lad from Devon who wouldn't hurt a fly - but, believe me, looks can be deceiving." The media furore didn't die down and the new look Lib Dem leadership faced numerous hurdles, not least of all, confusion as to their actual policies. Tony Mowbray, in a strange move, announced his opposition to the wall and stated that, in fact, the much talked about new manifesto was all the idea of Gallagher-Gaia, whose overwhelming charisma had captured the party and the nation. Events took another dramatic turn when audio was leaked from a fundraising dinner in which Sam Gallagher-Gaia was heard telling political advisor, Steve Bannon, that, actually, he supported funding the NHS, wasn't particularly political or interested in agricultural collectivism and wished that he could just go back and play football. In what seemed like an exercise in damage limitation in the run up to the General Election, Tony Mowbray confessed that Gallagher-Gaia was actually an apolitical sportsman and not the next Oswald Mosley or, for that matter Mao Zedong. However, he insisted that getting Gallagher-Gaia to read out rightwing screeds in public was the way to win votes from the disillusioned masses. He got Gallagher-Gaia to announce new policies of nationalising banks and taxing the super rich in what seemed like a gesture towards balance. The Lib Dems election campaign descended into farce but Mowbray refused to resign. He called on unity and opposing the modern curse of cancel culture, saying: "The Lib Dems are the big tent party. You need the extremist radicals, like Sam Gallagher-Gaia, as much as you need the moderates. Everyone needs to have a say to find the right recipe." Mowbray's ratings fell continuously and were predicted to pick up few votes let alone seats in Parliament. It was then that the former football manager sacked Gallagher-Gaia, stating that an internal coup had been attempted and that Gallagher-Gaia was behind it. He published a warning piece in national newspapers: "Sam Gallagher-Gaia is out of control. He represents a great threat to democracy and is plotting a putsch as I write. I urge the people of this country to oppose it will all their might. Imagine the moment when a cross comes in to the back post and the tall winger heads it in. Vote for Lib Dem to save us from military dictatorship." The putsch didn't materialise. Sam Gallagher-Gaia was found by reporters on the beach with an ice cream. He went back to space exploration and occasionally playing for Blackburn Rovers. Mowbray returned to Middlesbrough to spend more time with his chickens.

Davenport should really be on the bench at least. Not that he's really good enough but at his age, there's hope he'll improve. Though, with his contract expiring, we may have seen the last of him.

Giles was joint top of the assist charts with 9 in 21 appearances for Cardiff, before he was recalled, I believe. Looking at the clips, they were simple but effective crosses from the left or from corner kicks. Our tactics, with a dimunitive lone No.10 don't suit Giles at all - even when in his favoured role. One loan spell doesn't prove too much but he could surely contribute more. Mowbray's fantasy that Gallagher will arrive from the wing to head in at the far post just isn't happening.

I think that West Brom team reached the FA Cup semis or quarters, as well as winning the league for Mowbray, back in around 2008. It is some team with a mix of flair and strength, though, clearly lacking in a midfield enforcer and failed badly in the Prem. James Morrison not making it into the side says it all as, I recall, he went on to be a very useful Prem player and played for Scotland. But you make a very convincing point that, as well as a less tactically varied era, Mowbray had money to spend. Though, he made some smart loan moves in Bednar, Miller and Marc-Antoine Fortune too. He also, as you mention, overhauled the squad when big names like Koumas and Kamara were sold.

I stand corrected if Nyambe was injured or there was a good tactical reason that I'm overlooking for subbing him for Johnson after Edun's red card but to me it looks like another unfair and damaging decision against the player. With his pace, he can, when on form, be one of our most effective players. Whilst acknowledging he has limitations, none of the rest of the team has his speed and taking him off weakens the side. If Mowbray was intent on switching to a back four, he should have had the guts to take off one of the three CBs. Or, put Wharton LB. As mentioned here by others, Nyambe's refusal to renew his contract, thus far, is very understandable given the manager's clear scepticism of him.

I'm puzzled by the first sub of taking off Nyambe for Johnson, unless injured. The obvious and least disruptive thing to do, it seems to me, admittedly, not having seen the game, is go 5-3-1, drop Buckley into midfield and take Gallagher off for Johnson. Or, go 4-4-1, Giles left wing, Wharton left back or bring on Pickering and, again, taking off a forward. Nyambe, for all his weaknesses, is our fastest defender. That said, the way this team is sinking, I can't be confident of it making a definite difference.

Amari'i Bell key to Luton's promotion hopes and Barry Douglas back-up to Lech Poznan's title chasing campaign in Poland. Those two Rovers rejects are doing ok for themselves - at the moment. As deficient as they were for us, there's no doubt they were left exposed by our formation and tactics, with Brereton and others offering little defensive support on the flank.

Without knowing the details, surely, must be due to some disagreement rather than expectancy of being rescued by a new manager?

Watching the performances of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for Leicester is a reminder, in my opinion, of the lack of fair opportunity given to youth players. He's made his breakthrough season at the age of 23, this year, having been on the fringes and on loan. That's far too late for someone of his talent, even though Leicester have a very impressive squad. He's surely a far superior player to Ayoze Perez, who was signed for £30m from Newcastle and arguably already more than comparable to £16m Dennis Praet. Some will argue that he wasn't ready before and I can't argue, having not watched him play much before, but clearly there is a general bias to the 'ready-made' signing.

Nyambe and Lenihan would've earned the club some money, had Rovers been more pragmatic and sought to cash in on at least one of the wantaways, last summer - or even before then. But, prior, to Raya, I believe Grant Hanley was the last academy graduate sale, some five years ago. In the meantime, there has been the odd compensation payment for a youth player, like Mahoney and Callum Wright. Also, on very rare occasion the club has successfully earned a transfer fee for a young U23/reserve player, like Joe Nuttall. I find it interesting that during Mowbray's most successful years in his managerial career, at West Brom, he tended to go for a mix of both foreign and UK players. Thus, he bought them Chris Brunt and James Morrison, whilst also signing Robert Koren, Roman Bednar and Carl Hoefkens. Whilst many of his signings didn't make it - it seems to me that part of his success, at that time, was a blend of British and overseas players. Not to mention, that was back in the day when every club played the same formation, just about, so Mowbray didn't have to think too hard in that regard. Mowbray's 34 signings for WBA: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/tony-mowbray-west-brom-transfer-12793111

He formed a really strong midfield partnership with Lewis Hardcastle for the U23s - and with JRC, Travis and a few others, it looked a promising team that might provide several graduates for the first team. Sadly, it was not to be for them with Tomlinson being released and Hardcastle has had to retire, I believe, from a heart condition. Glad to hear that Tomlinson might be doing better now.

Not sure if mentioned before but just read that Tyler Magloire's Northampton loan spell was disrupted by a dislocated shoulder. It's sad news after him doing quite well over there and soon to be looking for a new club when his contract expires. I hope it heals fully as I have heard that it's the type of injury that can persist.

The Clarkson loan was an very odd one. We desperately needed someone to take the weight off Travis and who might offer more than Johnson and Davenport. Yet, as far as I recall, Clarkson was never played for any length of time as a CM, rather in the lone No.10 role. I could be mistaken in this. As it was, he got frozen out on the bench and on leaving, Mowbray described him as an outstanding talent: "You talk about Harvey Elliott, he’s got all those qualities, weight of pass, brilliant finishing, an amazing footballer who sees all the pictures, all the patterns. Yet he’s come at a time when our team is functioning and he understands."

Football management, arguably, is a lot tougher now. In the past, little thought often went into formation and tactics. Most players spent their entire careers as part of a 4-4-2 set-up and 3-5-2 was the exotic alternative. That's, apparently, all changed, at the elite level, any way. We've moved to what might be called the continental style of possession and a formation involving, often, three forwards and full backs becoming the creative outlet in teams. There is little scope for the direct play of a Beckham or a David Bentley in this formation. Even a Damien Duff might struggle to adapt, given that wingers are meant to double as strikers. The extreme version of the possession and press game even dispenses with the target striker. The game becomes all about pressing and counter-attack, with some managers preferring another nippy player up front rather than the traditional target man or the No.10, who might slow down the game. Perhaps, you might compare it to 5-a-side. These variations and changes have forced managers to think more about tactics. In my opinion, the game will evolve and we will see a return of 4-5-1 and more direct football, which can be very effective, as a counter-weight to the possession game. Nonetheless, the changes in the game have, I believe, left many behind, including fans, players and managers. I feel lost, at times, understanding tactics. I believe that Tony Mowbray is also somewhat confused and left behind. Mowbray is often playing a traditional No.10 type, in Buckley, and a traditional No.9, in Gallagher, in a three man forward line, which simply isn't working. To my mind, Mowbray is tactically stuck in traditional tactics whilst attempting to match the formation of newer styles. The result is a dysfunctional mash-up that just doesn't work. Despite having Adam Armstrong and Harvey Elliot performing well last year, as individuals, we finished 15th. This campaign saw a good run but it hasn't been maintained and increasingly looks like a purple patch. Incidentally, the run started with playing two wingers, in Poveda and Khadra. Now, Gallagher has been returned, usually, to his bizarre wing role. Khadra, Gallagher, Zeefuik, Buckley and Giles have all played the right wing forward role this season. They are all very different players, suggesting a lack of coherence in the choices and a tendency to experiment in the absence of principles or understanding. All this is a way of saying, Mowbray and many others, would do well to go back to what they know, rather than faddishly trying to match that which they or their players barely understand.

Reflections on a fairy tale year in which Blackburn Rovers led the Premier League in 2022/23. When Sam Gallagher found a golden ticket in his Rice Krispies to win a free flight into space with Jeff Bezos in the summer of 2022, few would have thought it would be the catalyst for newly promoted Blackburn Rovers' hurtling back into the football stratosphere - and to the top of the Premier League, where they have not been since the mid-1990s. After much negotiation between player and his English football club employers, Gallagher accompanied Amazon-billionaire Jeff Bezos and four paying billionaires to outer space on June 22st 2022. His manager had expressed concern that Gallagher should not sit too centrally in the space craft, whilst most Blackburn Rovers fans had hoped that he might be released permanently to enjoy a new career. As it was, Gallagher became the first professional footballer in space and even enjoyed a kick about with a football with Bezos, both famously wearing cow boy hats and gesturing the Amazon arrow trademark with wide smiles. Those who saw these events, which was less than anticipated, given the nuclear bomb alerts declared globally, were moved to tears as Gallagher controlled a floating ball with his instep, on the third attempt. Despite the grumbling of Rovers fans, Gallagher returned to the club. His space training appeared to have done him no harm, though the experience had left an indelible psychological mark. He soon changed his name to Sam Gallagher-Gaia. The Gaia, he said, coming from Greek mythology and being the female deity representing Earth. His newfound status earned him a place on a UN delegation to Ukraine and he was appointed a governmental advisor on culture. The incredible story of the obscurely average English football player's rise to global attention was only starting, as he began the 2022/23 Premier League football season in incredible form. The striker-cum-winger scored twenty-eight goals in his first eighteen games and was suddenly being courted by the world's biggest club . Gallagher-Gaia, however, remained loyal to the club that had stuck with him through his doldrum years. Delighted fans debated whether it was the aura of Jeff Bezos, participation in international diplomacy or manager, Tony Mowbray's training ground work which was the key reason behind the stunning transformation. There was no doubt that he had found new confidence and transformed beyond recognition - scoring all his goals from the right winger role, where he had previously looked ill at ease. Things changed, however, after the midway part of the season. In the January transfer window, Jeff Bezos organised another space flight and invited Gallagher-Gaia, who was now a close friend and business partner to the billionaire. Despite protestation from his club, who were leading the Premier League, Gallagher-Gaia insisted on going, stating that the new mission could inspire the world to step back from the brink of disaster. Manager, Tony Mowbray, snapped up Ian Poveda on loan, for the second time, but otherwise persisted with his revolutionary false attack tactic, involving non-wingers as wingers and a non-forward as the lone forward. The tactic had been mimicked across the league and had even been the subject of a major study by Stanford University. However, without Gallagher-Gaia, who was now floating in outer space with, incidentally, Roman Abramovich, Rovers began to lose game after game. They looked disjointed and could not score goals. The perennial Rovers death spiral seemed to be in effect. Other teams began to catch up with the league leaders. Some began to wonder aloud whether a full back should be playing on the wing. Pressure was mounting on manager, Tony Mowbray. Gallagher-Gaia returned from space an even bigger global hero but seemed distracted, perhaps, by talk of Hollywood film of his life - or perhaps, the real threats of nuclear war and climate change, putting in performances reminiscent of his old days. The manager criticised his players for being young and naive and letting the pressure get to them. With Rovers falling off top spot, Mowbray stepped up the false position tactics, throwing defenders up front. He called for a pack mentality. "When lions hunt the gnu," Mowbray said, "they work together. They don't bother about who stands on the rock and who runs around. They hunt together and get the job done." Rovers finished the season a respectable eighth place. Gallagher-Gaia was subject to a bidding war, won by Real Madrid. And Tony Mowbray retired, deciding to go out on a high and to spend more time with his chickens. Football makes you do bizarre things.

Mowbray is over complicating it. Stick a forward as a forward and wingers as wingers and we'll beat most teams in this league. I suspect that there's no other team in the football league that plays with false wingers and a false striker.