Is it me or are we watching Groundhog Day? Just like the last two seasons we go to Brentford with the top 6 in reach and momentum building. Here hoping that unlike the previous two seasons that momentum and confidence isnt crushed by the end of it by giving away leads.

Reminds me of when we signed Lee Makel. A good player who had great difficulty playing like the new Gazza

Or like in times gone by, the ref could of insisted that either we played in our 2nd kit or Millwall could of borrowed it. Both of these have happened at Ewood in the past. Wednsday's kit clash should never have been allowed but if it was then Mowbray could have Rovers change at halftime, just like Fergie did with Manc Scum at Southampton.

Johnson played against QPR

Ive said this for ages about Armstrong but I still cant see anybody from the top league paying top dollar for him. His other fault is that he can't read the line and gets offside far too often. The only sides I can see going for him are Bournemouth if King moves in Janurary and they are in the top 6 or Watford. They have the money and him leaving us weakens us and adds to there goal threat

He could live off his Coldplay royalities though. He should only play for beer drinking money

Disagree there. We should of been out of sight in the first half.

That does not mean a lot does it?

Worry is that dominance hasn't resulted in goals. We've seen it so many times they'll have one shot and it goes in. We need to be more clinical.

As much as you can question Mowbray as a manger, the choice of keeper the facts are simple. If you dont take your chances and allow players to have free headers in the front of goal you are going to get beat. We should have been in front before Swansea scored and we should have been level at least before the 2nd goal but Armstrong was misfiring. Thats the problem when you are over relient on one player to score the goals. No team can keep conceding goals like we have been doing this season without questions being asked about the personnel involved. We cant blame inexperience of players when you have such an experienced spine of the team as we've got even if it isn't the first choice. It is clear 4-3-3 isn't working so we need to go back to the drawing board. If two centre halves cannot cover the gaps in front of goal then we need to go three in there. Yesterday we had a man spare in the middle of the park but you could not tell so he needs to be moved further back to help fill that big hole in our box because the two international defenders we have at the back just cannot defend for 90 minutes.

But as others as said, it wasn't the only tackle Marker made like that he'll have to live with. He made several like that including the one which wrecked Ardiles' debut for Rovers.

I think when your lynch pin centre half is so badly out of form it is no wonder we are conceding goals. Its a similar situation which Manc Scum have faced with Maguire. The lack of pace across the defence and midfield on Tuesday night was clear to all to see. The 2nd goal for Reading proved both points. We could not cover the intial Lenihan's mistake. the lunge by Williams had nothing to do with it because the forward was clear. if he had made no attempt he'd have been accused of giving up and letting the player go. I think a 5-3-2 might be a solution if we had a target man forward who could hold the ball up but as we haven't Id go with 5-4-1 Rankin-Costello/Nyambe/Lenihan/Willaims/Douglas Elliott/Trybull/Holtby/Dolan Armstrong

If we go up and they come down we'll miss them

Still not seen any evidence that Buckley can start and play well. If you are playing the other two, I think you need a runner with the ball who can link defence into attack like Rothwell was doing. It is why Chapman was brought on against Forest to play and I know that didn't work but the idea was right in principle.

You're right but the difference is that Santa Cruz would win the ball lay the ball off to Bentley then bust a gut to get into the penalty box unlike Gallagher who flicks the ball aimlessly to none in particular then admires his work or just trots into the middle and usually hides behind the centre half

It was a slight change but that is essentially a less mobile version of the same due to a lack of the Rothwell that provided fluidity and hoped that Evans could provide.

Is he hell us like. He is ususlly half the width of the pitch away, om the wing

Its the games after Watford that are the concern. Nicely placed with 2 home games on the spin the other week, 4 points should have been the minimum and we end up with one. How many times in the last two seasons have we just on the edge of the playoffs with decent games to come and we've ended up going backwards

To be fair to Mowbray for once, Rothwell is supposed to be the one and it is why he played Chapman centrally when he came on on Saturday but when team play very deep it doesn't work even with the players you mentioned. It is then you need variation in the game which is where Mowbray falls down.

Exactly, it is like Bowyer who had a liking of signing a load of players for the same position and then could not fit them all in so you had the likes Cairney playing wide. The difference between Bowyer and Mowbray is that Mowbray has spent big on players which he does not know how to get a tune out of hence why Brereton and Gallagher out wide. Logic says you play the big guy down the middle but when your big guy actually gets bullied by centre halves then you are in trouble and try moving him out wide to try his luck with a smaller fullback. What Mowbray still hasn't worked out is that without anybody close to him the ball is lost anyway or at best goes backwards to where we started.

I agree with you in principle about 4-2-3-1 but I think 4-3-3 will be this season's formation. I agree that an additional midfielder should reduce the amount of defensive work that the wide attacker should need to do but the width will depend on the fitness of the fullbacks to get up the field and back when defending. The central midfielders do need to cover the full backs but if a team attacks with overlapping full backs then the wide attackers would need to get back.

I was actually thinking of Chapman as the wide man who played centrally when he came on on Saturday.

I still dont see the Armstrong wide left as an option. It never worked. How many goals did we concede when Armstrong did not backtrack leaving our full back exposed especially if the opposition plays an attacking right back. Armstrong looks better in the middle, as does Dack. If we had a good target man Id say play them inside left and right feeding off the No.9 but we don't have one

Its a shame we haven't got wingers who can get to the byline and cross to a tall centre forward attacking the ball in the box. We are nearly there with this manager except we have a tall forward who should attack the ball in the air but appears to be afraid of his own shadow and plays wide and on Saturday we had a wide man who used to take on full backs and cross but we play him down the middle. We have the basics there for a plan B but slightly wrong now lets see if our manager can work it out.

Playing a winger like Chapman in there is a case in point, he is a winger and should have been out wide. Instead we had him in the middle and SG playing as a wide forward. Formation should utilise player strengths not players be shoehorned in to fit a formation.