Gregg and JDT have performed pretty well in the transfer market, and done very well bringing through young players. I suspect Hirst is probably significantly better than he currently appears. He's got quite a few more games before I'll make up my mind one way or another.

I missed the game on Saturday and just watched it back last night on RoversTV. I had from reading on here expected that we would be camped out on the edge of our box most of the game like the second half against Boro, but actually thought we kept our backline higher much better, so take back my earlier uninformed comments. Birminham are a good side, but we defended well, superb keeping from Kaminski, and we always looked dangerous on the break. Brereton and Gallagher put in a tremendous shift. They look a really good pair as a two - nightmare for defenders due to their physicality and pace. It frees them up so much to decide when they want to go wide and when through the middle. Why why why have we stuck them out on the wings for years??? All that said we have - as we have all season - rode our luck a bit the last three games. Sunderland, Boro, Birmingham City all created a lot of chances quite a few of which they should have scored really. It seems JDT is a bit of a lucky manager tbh - some just are - but I would like us to get back to creating more chances than the opposition. However - we are in top 3 and look full of confidence. Long may it continue!

It's a total joke really. The entire world cup is being played in an area about as big as and with the rough population of Yorkshire, and the indentured labour practices are horrific. The international football community needs to figure out how travesties like this world cup or awarding Russia last time can be avoided. I've got no problem with new territories getting world cups providing they hit some base level of size - 30M people? And have respectable human rights records. This needs to be part of the selection criteria. If not democracies need to be willing to walk away from FIFA. I fear we are not far away from a world cup in China - obviously will qualify on the size aspect, but human rights are totally unacceptable. How does the west handle that? Ill do my best to get enthused by Qatar but its going to be tough going. I hope the players use the platform to protest.

What I don't get is now we've shifted to 352 he can be accommodated in midfield... We arent doing the 4231 or 343 high press stuff anymore. I think probably the issue is more A Wharton is getting the role now... But Adam gets tired, so why not being Dack on for the last 30 regularly? He's perfect..?

Yeah.... I really like the 352, but the big losers are players like Dolan, Vale, Markanday, Szmodics in terms of their wide striker roles being dropped. Szmodics has adapted really well to dropping into midfield, but I don't think the other three can do that. So it's hard to see where Dolan, Vale, Markanday feature... Could go for a "little and large" combo up front maybe in a two? Start BBD and Dolan, and then change them over for Gallagher and Vale/Markanday? But then.... why not just start the two players who score regularly and seem to play well in a two together (BDD and Gally). The issue is when BBD and Gally are knackered, and we end up bringing on Val and Dolan there is very little chance the ball sticks and it's all one way traffic. Hirst is supposed to b the target man backup for Gally and BBD, but he has really struggled so far. Tis a challenge. We probably need to shift one of Dolan, Vale, Markanday in Jan and get a proper central striker if Hirst doesnt come good.

If Brittain and Hedges out wouldn't the obvious choice be Szmodics? Played in midfield with tenacity, good pace, great workrate. A bit of an odd choice at Wing Back in terms of his experience , but then again no stranger than picking Hedges there. Think it could be him? So something like : Kaminski Carter Hyam. S Wharton Szmodics. Travis Morton. A Wharton Pickering Galllagher Brereton-Diaz

I tend to agree, but it has meant that the other side have created a lot of chances, and really the only way we are surviving is heroic last ditch defending and Kaminski turning into Brad... We can't do that week after week. We have to find a way to push up.

I think we are doing superbly. That said we still have one big issue to figure out - how do we push the back line up? We are way way way too deep. I know part of this is tactical, to allow us a lot of space to break into, but also I think having the backline across the 18 yard box for 75% of the game is not intentional... it suggests we are not confident enough in our ability to use pace to recover if the opposition break through a higher defensive line. System is good, personnel good, but we need to figure out how to get our starting point 20 yards further up the pitch. This is an area where the loss of the pace of Lenihan and Nyambe is an issue. Ayala is known to be very slow, but I think Hyam and Carter look okay pace wise, we shouldn't really need to be that deep? Looking forward to improving in this area over the next few games.

Just to play devil's advocate I think he has actually made a goal line clearance for us this season once, can't think which game though?

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.