joey_big_nose

Early days to judge on Tronstad. My assumption is that he will be more aggressive and physical in the tackle. What I did like yesterday though is how stuck in Wharton gets. He isnt a creative focussed passenger in the midfield, he wins quite a few tackles. If we took Travis or Tronstad out of the midfield and played Wharton and JRC / Buckley I'm not sure we would actually lose that much in terms of robustness. Something I hope we give a shot to.

Not sure we can play 12 players?

I like our bench too. I cant really say Im looking at the eighteen and wishing BBD and Dack were in it. Maybe naive, but think we have a better balanced team without them.

Could be wrong, its only been two games, but think goal scoring may be less of an issue for us already. Compared to start of last season we get so many players forward now (6 to 8 into the final third every attack), and while Gallagher and BBD wanted to spend all their time fannying around near the touchlines Leonard and Ennis look keen to get in the box. We still need an established goal scoring striker, but I fancy us to score a couple on Saturday nonetheless.

Great game to see how we compare to last year. I imagine same side as against WBA,. with Ennis and Hedges coming on around the hour mark. One advantage we have this season is in Ennis and Leonard it looks like we have some strikers who we can play it up to centrally and they can make it work in a congested penalty box when the opposition is sitting deep. Against the Rotherham and Lutons of the world you really need that.

Great to hear about Gilsenan. Not even factored in my vaguest thinking. If he can really offer a breakthrough this year thats a massive bonus. Also reports on Ennis very encouraging. Sounds like the focal point we need. And Garett's strong performance gives us six strong contenders for three midfield slots (Garrett, Travis, Tronstad, Buckley, Szmodics, A Wharton). Our academy really is something else. Womder if we could break some records this year in terms of number of academy graduates on the pitch? Looking forward to Saturday!

Personally I would still play the same "spine" as we need to settle into a way of playing and everyone is fresh after the summer. Also as we have no world cup we have nothing like as many mid week game (only three mid week Championship games between now and end of November). Pears Brittain. Hyam. Wharton. Pickering Travis Buckley. Wharton Markanday Leonard. Szmodics

Leonard might be missing a couple of them but we went all of the last two seasons without anyone making those runs. He looks really good to me.

I know theres a lot of moaning about us but for me were a really good watch. The numbers we commit forward is ridiculous. Carter was up on the edge of the box with I think 8 of 11 in the final third. Said it a lot back end of last season but we are tactically the most attacking Rovers side ive seen in 30 years.

Weve gone into the last three seasons expecting to do worse but actually done better. Im hoping we keep that up. It boils down to the young lads doing better than expected, and as of half time first game of the season signs look good on that again. Ill say sixth if we keep JDT.

Not playing well but winning against the balance of play is something we did first half of last season, including doing WBA in August. I cant really figure out why but JDT seems good at the team clinically winning games.

Anyone getting ifollow to work okay? Im just getting a black screen

Reckon it will be this. The way things have been recent seasons we could be incredibly jammy again and Leonard and Markanday come in and look the part. Similar to Carter, JRC and Adam Wharton. Hopes not really a plan, but recent history suggests the young players could do a lot more than is reasonable to expect. If Leonard and Markanday do struggle we have Ennis and Dolan to come on. Realistically were not going to have that much of an idea on how they all work together until four or so games in.

Not bad for a £900k a year contract for each England player! I intermittently watch cricket, but got completely absorbed by this years ashes which was outrageous in terms of how much the games turned back and forth each day. Never seen anything like it. I am now looking forward to watching the India away series which compared to an Australia/NZ away series will be on at quite a watchable time (4pm to 12am UK time). Will also get tickets for Old Trafford for the Sri Lanka test next year. Think England going for the ultra aggressive batting approach makes sense. The more they play it the better they get, and it will pull the crowds in. On the whole I think a neutral would look across the Ashes series and say England's batting approach looked more competitive. After Australia India are the team to beat so will be interesting to see how Bazball works against a high class side on sub continent pitches.

Glad to hear hes done well. First genuinely exciting striker prospect from the academy since Derbyshire? Or Gallagher? Or I suppose Joe Garner but I dont think he was ever seriously in the first squad picture? Weve turned out a decent amount of gks, mids and defenders who have gone on to.have good careers in the last 20 years or so. But really struggled with strikers... Found this interesting while thinking about this topic. Tracker of Rovers graduates. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/blackburn-rovers/jugendarbeit/verein/164

Get that as a general strategy with older players who are receding. But someone who just won your player of the season? No way. Must be more going on we don't know about.

Still dont get it at all... Why does a club let their player of the season under contract leave for free?

We have to make top six this year. Just outside two years in a row, seemingly good manager who is demanding more quality goal scoring signings. I am assuming if the club had not assured the manager that we are bringing in a quality goal scorer (or two) JDT would have left by now. The squad is, imo, very good in every department except putting the ball in the net. If we get that sorted then we should be confident. That said Championship is an absolute bastard of a league - I am sure Norwich and West Brom etc went into last season similarly confident and it blew up in their face. That's what I like about it really, unlike the Prem everyone goes into the first fixture with no real idea on how things will pan out. But anything outside top six will be an unambiguous failure in my eyes. I do harbour hopes that we will be competitive for the top two.

I still can't see a sufficiently attractive club really wanting JDT yet. He just hasn't done enough. If we'd finished third or something then maybe. But we finished 7th with a huge winless run across the last two months of the season. I just can't see any big hitters (Leicester, Leeds, Eindhoven etc) looking at that and thinking "this is our guy". I am a big fan of JDT, and can see him getting a lot of interest end of next season, but as it stands he's not proven enough for any really to go for him.

Well he won an FA cup and finished 5th twice so think he will feel like he had a decent enough stint tbh.

Crikey.... This should be interesting.

I found myself for the first time ever wanting Man Utd to win a game... Its just so depressing how City have the best of everything by a mile - best striker, playmaker, defender, whole starting XI, manager and bench. Looking back to Chelsea 10-15 years ago I got frustrated that that they would sign the best players from mid table clubs and bench them. Its got to the point where this City side bench would all be guaranteed starters for other top four sides. Its daft. Its been getting worse and worse over the years, but where we are is the most ridiculous point of a single clubs dominance. That said - to be fair - City haven't actually spent that much more than Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd I think? Just that those clubs have wasted an unbelievable amount of cash. Anyway I'm bored of City and Pep and want this era to move on. And I suppose one thing utd fans will be able to say is that Fergie managed (somehow) to win things with absolute plodders like John O'Shea, Djemba-Djemba, Cleverly which always impressed me. Peps record is "manage the biggest club, sign all the absolute best players, be the tactical best" and hes brilliant at it. But very very dull.

Yeah Tugay vs Liverpool 2006 for me. Unreal world class quality.

Im in Sheffield for a lads weekend. I guess Ill get to see if the city is really two thirds blue as they say....!

Great player very unlucky with injuries. No way we could justify the wages to keep him though. Can see him having a good final few years in the right team with the right setup. A smart mid table Championship side will build their side around him. Do feel in Szmodics we have the right successor who, while not having the pure quality on the ball, can do the yards that Dack can no longer make. Hope we can replace him with a similarly inspirational player but one who is more of an out and out striker as that is what we need.