I am on Now TV - can't see it...

I can't see this either on ifollow or red button? Has anyone got in?

Got a feeling it could be a misorder on the team sheet with Hill at CDM and JRC at RB.

I reckon we are well into "may as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb" territory now. If we were going to adjust our formation / tactics we would have done it for Leicester and we did not. Fully expect gung-ho to continue. We really could do with dropping one of our four forwards Markanday, Szmodics, Sigurdson, Moran (based on form obviously Dilan) and picking one of Garrett or Tronstad to play as a proper third midfielder. Straightforward change, wouldn't disrupt the system too much. We'd still let Garrett or Tronstad get forward to support the overloads in the channels and whatnot, but also expect them to not over commit and get back to help out. Plus as Sammie, Moran, Sigurdson are all scoring I don't see why we need to be so utterly kamikaze. It's not like when we were not scoring at all. But again if we were doing it we would have done it by now. We are through the looking glass I feel. Let's see what happens.

The way we play at the moment we are expecting the GK, Hyam, Carter and Wharton to be very good with minimal mistakes every week as those four are being asked to do defensively against counters what six players would do in a more conservative team. The amount of times Hyam or Carter are left one on one each game is ridiculous. On one hand I can see the argument that we will get better as the season wears on.... but then so will the opponents in terms of figuring out how to play against our system. For me Wharton, Hyam and Carter have proved they are decent players, but you can't play game after game with no support for them. It feels like things further deteriorating is as likely as us turning the corner. Coventry and QPR are really huge games now. Two poor results and will be in crisis mode.

If he leaves at the moment he will in one fell swoop lose millions in compensation and have seriously damaged his reputation weakening his hand to find a new role better or equivalent to here. There's a lot of managers out there and not that many jobs. He isn't going anywhere imo.

What is strange given the above is the way we play at the moment with throwing everyone forward at the slightest opportunity is really raising the chances we concede early. We should be prioritising defence and choosing our moments to commit.

I don't think JDT will be upgrading on Rovers on our current run of form. He needs to start getting results.

Yes... i really thought we would have put another defensive midfielder in today, and also have dropped pears. Both decisions to persevere seem really strange. Keeper change is now forced. Will be interesting if we stick with the tactics. We cant keep conceding at the clip we are and not change.

Apart from the lack of a proper number 9 for me its a very decent championship squad. Think finishing much below where we did last season would be poor. A decent manager should get more out of this team. Think JDT has misjudged things tactically but is struggling to accept it and change the approach.

Agree with this. Generally I can see that we can play good football and create chances. But given we can't finish and concede very easily setting up with the one man midfield thing against the best squad in the division just seems a strange thing to do. At some point something has to give. And as much as QPR or Coventry should be easier games I think both managers would really fancy playing us if we come into the game in the same way. In many ways its not just that we are open, poor and finishing, easy at conceding... but also we are becoming predictable.

Well if hes decided to do that he will also absolutely torpedo his chances of getting a decent next job. Cant see it myself.

Hmmm we are conceding so easily consistently I think the alarm bells need to start going. If JDTs ambitious being a manager who precides over so many goals against won't do him much good. People aren't going to blame Venkys for that.

Leicester have figured out if they sit back there isn't much we can do

I wonder of we had a Vardy wed be a bit more conservative in the way we play as he could nick one.

I think hes done okay, all the attacking players have.

I guess my issue with committing as many players forward as we are is teams who do it usually have some the best players in the division, not a good but flawed squad. Feels like there's a mis match between the relative quality of what we have versus the opposition and the way we play.

He ruptured his achilles in December 2020, but had his excellent season in 21/22. So unless it recurred in some way don't think its a factor. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-scott-wharton-interview-22356765.amp

It would be a real statement if we continue with the ultra attacking football on Sunday. Basically if we play this way against Leicester we are going to setup same way against everybody. I'm very interested to see what happens. For what its worth I think we will play a bit more conservative with an extra mid as @roversfan99 says. But I think more likely Garrett comes in as he has a left foot and scored a good goal mid-week. Also I think as Moran and Sigurdsson seem to like getting in the box (unlike say BBD, Hedges or Gallagher) not having a proper 9 on the pitch could be less of an issue than it was last season. We shall see.

Ah yeah you're right. He was great in that back three with Lenihan and JPVH. Still I can't really see why he isn't good in a back four. He's got good all round attributes.

I really dont get whats happened with Scott. He was superb season before last but seems so off it these days. I cant think of a young established player having such a drop off in form except Jansen and obviously he had a serious head injury. I dont think Scott had a major injury? Anyone know of anything that moved him from being superb prospect to fourth choice so quickly?

I would be tempted to go for the below if Leonard isn't fit. Extra body in midfield, look to out compete them. Fair enough no number 9 but the front three all scoring.... not carrying players who are not goal threats up top. Worth a go, can always bring a proper 9 on. Wahlstadt Brittain Carter Hyam Pickering Travis Wharton Garrett Sigurdson Szmodics Moran

We don't even really need to look as far into the past as BBDs early days... most recent example being Hirst who was absolutely abject for us last season. Now looks a decent if not particularly exceptional Championship striker. Also we don't really need to jump off the deep end with him. We have Ennis, Gallagher and Leonard who have all looked decent at times competing for a single number #9 spot. So we don't have all our chickens in the Telelovic basket.

We had a poor last two months of the season yes... but we had a good season overall. I think its a bit dramatic to talk about relegation.

Abbey returns!!