Woohoo they've done 352! I hope it works or I'm going to look a right plum.

I want to see the following formation please. Three at the back, two wing backs, three in midfied, two up front. As soon as we do it I am sure we will see a big improvement. Such a simple change... Dack plays in midfield and number 10 areas, not as a "false 9" and Gally and BBD look to play through the middle mostly, not run the wings. Britain and Pickering are expected to provide the width. Ayala out due to injury. Kaminski Carter Hyam Wharton Brittain Travis Dack Morton Pickering Gallagher Brereton

Disagree personally... I think if we'd gone four at the back we would have had the keystone cops passing it around the back and being sliced open with ease as happened at Cardiff. What's funny about our current approach of 1) playing lots of forwards pushed up very high, 2) liking conversely to pass it out from the back, is when we do pass it round the back it's very hard to find someone in midfield to actually pass it to. Not such a problem when you have three CB as at least you can pass it along the line and we did that okay (except for Morton huge individual error). But when we have two CB like Cardiff it's absolute carnage.

Agreed though I'd go 352 - don't think a physical player is a requirement to be honest (though obviously would be better to have one) the most important thing is to have an extra body in the centre to able to create the options so you can pass through the middle.

Just to expand on the above us not really being interested in the midfield battle is a big part of the not being able to recover from a losing position. If you get ahead with the approach of bypassing the midfield it's great because the other side opens up a bit and you can go direct into the forwards and they have a lot of room and lots of opportunities can be made on the counter. But if we go behind and the opposition close up then knocking long to three forwards strung across the back line is just meat and drink to the defenders.

Yeah I agree with this... he doesn't seem to value winning a midfield battle, and that is really what the Championship is all about. It seems the idea is we can just bypass midfield by playing long into the channels, or breaking quickly and directly from defence. Part of it is the recruitment... we've brought in a lot of forwards but few midfielders, and that creates pressure for JDT to play 3 or 4 forwards every game as otherwise it makes the recruitment (which I am sure he was closely consulted on) look daft. But.... still he's the manager and we have Dack, Adam Wharton, Buckley on the bench or out of the squad. He could play one of them and leave out a forward no problem. It feels a bit ideological - like they've come in with the philosophy of playing loads of forwards will definitely be successful, and feel it's just a matter of time until it "clicks". I don;t think it will. Poor sides like Wigan were totally untroubled by us, and strong side like Norwich will eat us alive.

No he wasn't....

Thought defensively it was a much better performance than Cardiff. We were pretty unlucky to concede - there was a push and pull in the build up. One other big chance for Wigan in the first half. But apart from that kept them pretty quiet. Offensively though still a real mess. Balance remains all wrong... what team plays three forwards if you can only generate two shots on target in 70 mins? It's mad. We go into game after game making the same mistakes... There's just no point playing loads of forwards if you can't create opportunities. All the space was in the 10 role in front of the Wigan back three, but we didn't put anyone in there till the last 20 mins of the game.

I really really really don;t understand why we insist on having three forwards who we can barely get the ball to, so they end up dropping deep anyway. Why not just play a bloody extra midfielder so we can actually pass it through the middle and the wingbacks push up. We only need two up front.

Thanks for this comprehensive and thought out post. However - we played 4231 at Cardiff and were absolutely dreadful. Surely sticking with a back three, who would be good at heading out anyway if Wigan are mainly direct, and then having the option to change to a 4231 if needed would be the way to go? I just fear if we go 4231 we will have the same challenges - not able to get the ball out of defence, and out competed in midfield.

Don't think we can play 12 players?

After banging on about how average Szmodics looks and how he was about sixth or seventh choice on the forward roles, his excellent showing on Saturday has led me a complete 180 and can see how he could be a devastating partner for BBD. For this one Id go 352 - quel surprise - keep Hedges at RWB as he had a very good game on Saturday. As others have said let's give Ayala a rest. Team for me : . Kaminski Carter. Hyam. Wharton Hedges. Travis. Morton. Pickering . Dack . Szmodics. BBD

Agree with this. We had a good game today but a bit like when we beat Blackpool there is a feeling Rotherham maybe helped us out a bit by standing off. Will watch Wigan with interest.

First time I've been impressed with Szmodics. Nice range of passing and good pace. Is vaguely reminiscent of Bellamy as I think someone else mentioned. Morton also has been superb.

Decent half, pretty even game. Morton and Szmodic best 45 so far. We're handling Eaves - who absolutely took us apart when we played Hull last year - very well. Ogbene on the other hand is rincing Ayala for pace. I'd be tempted to take Gallagher off for Adam Wharton and stick Wharton or Dack at number 10, but we don't really have anyone who can come in for Ayala. Mola? Is he a defender? Seems a bit reckless with Ayala's injury record to not have Carter on the bench?

Three at the back = right call Hedges at wing back = hmm Two midfielders and three attackers = nope

That's the team if anyone's got any sense.

One one level I'm not against Dack not playing if we play one of Adam Wharton, Buckley or Dack in a midfield three. But then again if you do that why not pick the one who regularly scores goals?

Yeah - but they would know what system to play and that system will work? We don't know what our system is and if it will work... Being ultra flexible with the approach is premised with being solid in your base setup.

D'oh, sorry!

Thanks for this - great link. What's interesting is how heavy the ball looks, so I looked up when balls got lighter and was surised to read that they've always been the same weight except when it rained as the old balls soaked up the water. https://www.morethanmindgames.com/2010/06/26/an-enduring-football-myth-the-weight-of-the-ball/#:~:text=It is a myth that,something lighter – 13-15oz.

Absolutely agree with this team - with the midfield and forwards moved to the centre a bit more! Hedges looks like he will be playing a specialist right wing role rather than partnering Diaz. Will be really interesting to see if JDT does try and persist with the 4231, but we got absolutely demolished last night. Didn't do anything except last ditch defending well.

Everyone whose played in midfield has been rubbish because we are asking two of our mids to compete with three or four oppo mids so we can push all our other attacking players up against the opposition's back line. Its daft. I'd hesitate to judge any of our players in the current situation.

Tbh I think if the Rotherham manager looks back over the last few games he will have a tough job guessing how we will setup. I know Im not a football manager, and there's probably loads more to it than I think, but to sort us out seems pretty simple... -We should play three at the back so if we are trying to pass it around we have options, and so the wing backs can push right up, and so we are defensively solid. -We should stop passing the ball around our six yard box. It's incredibly dangerous and creates absolutely nothing for us. -We should play three in midfield so we don't get outmatched in the middle, can retain the ball, and can pick up positions in the number 10 role to slide it though to the fowrads. -We should play two up front as we don't get the ball enough into three anyway and need more bodies in midfield and defence. Two feeding off through balls from midfield and crosses from wing backs is enough. It seems pretty obvious to me and thought that was where we were headed until the team came out last night. -

Early days still and results not too bad but have to say his decisions do worry me.