It maybe weighing heavy on Mowbray's mind though which might explain him being used out of position when there are wide players available

and blatently wrong

Totally agreed but I'm not talking about starting with one up front, Im talking as a sub.

You make it sound that Graham is 6 foot 5 and towers over everyone. Disagree about Dack too. When things are going against Rovers, Dack thinks he has to win the game himself. There are times he needs to get his head up. The winning of free kicks is why he gets put up top and is what he has learnt, to his credit, off Graham. I agree he is not a number 9. Graham is not the tallest around and is often small compared to defenders around him but does not get out muscled because of how he positions his body which gives him the advantage. Some refs don't like it and deem it a foul but he does it well and why we will struggle to replace him

lager has hit us all hard

Graham is clever in that he makes it difficult for defenders by using his strength rather than win the ball. It is something Dack has to learn if this role is to continue. A lot of people disagreed with me when I said Dack is not clever with the ball after the Sheff utd game but at time he is naive. Dack's missing one chance a game is only a problems when we don't create many chances in a game. Remember it was said that Andy Cole needed 5 chances to score 1.

The problem is that when we make the change we isolate the player who is up front. Agree Dack drops into midfield a lot because with Graham up front he can. But when we make the change we naturally seem to drop deeper and as a result the Dack role goes missing leaving the forward isolated with both Armstrong and Brereton wide. Pushing Bereton ot wide meant Reid moving inside alongside Evans and Smallwood but in very few cases did they get forward to support Dack. Surely if we are going to play this way then both Armstrong and Brereton need to be narrower to give Dack some help.

What...even better than Matt Dickens?

Agree we need another No.9 but there are not many players I've seen that can play that role. I agree with TM in the fact that Dack has the physical attributes to play the Graham role. He should be harder to knock off the ball than any other player at the club. What is lacking when Dack is there is someone in the Dack role which is abandoned when Graham goes off. The only time we've come close was the Leeds game when Brereton still went wide and Conway played the No.10 role to start with. Oh and who is our no.10.....Danny Graham....so maybe Brereton has been signed for the no.10 role..

Craig Hignett looks in better shape there than when he played. Jeff Kenna hasn't changed. Looks like life's been harder on the bcak row than the bottom one

No it does not neccessarily mean that...he could play his natural position as a number 10.

Out of all the players we have at our disposal then Dack should be the one who could play the Graham role. He should be hard to push off the ball. What is removed when Dack takes over the role is the fact that Dack is not close by so he has no outlet ball close by so he feels he has to do it all himself. Why does Brereton have to come on wide. Why can he not go into the number 10 role?

Bloody Hell Chaddy! Desperate measures are a bit much after losing one game. Picking yourself to start upfront might surprise the Baggies I grant you but it might lower the confidence of the other forwards when we resort to picking fans instead of them!!!

We need someone with a nuiscance value up there who is not easily bullied so maybe we might be better off sticking a centre half up there rather than any other forward as they all easily bullied off the ball. Allerdyce tried it with Samba in the past.

I'd be more worried about rodwell at centre half but all three goals came from runs from deep. Evans was struggling and needed to come off sooner. The 2nd goal he was running in glue. Smallwood was missing for it as well. The lack of pace in the whole team bar Armstrong is a major worry along with ball retention. Oddly I thought Brereton was one of the few players who did OK in that poor 2nd half performance. I can't understand why Mowbray is looking to see out a game then why both Brereton and Armstrong are on the park as neither are natural at chasing and harrassing the full back when the oppossition are attacking. This just gives the opponents an overlap and gives an easy ball to them.

The thing is Graham is the outlet ball. He holds the ball allowing others to play off. Wether that is Armstrong, Dack or Brereton the key is Graham. Without him the ball comes back onto our defence too quick. Its one of the reasons we are always struggling to clear our lines at the end of the game because usually Graham has been taken off or he is too knackered to move.

Sorry I missed your response and give the same answer.

And against Derby when we had to bring him after 30 minutes and against Sheff. Utd when they just marked him out the game. As I've said previously Graham is far more important to the style of play than if we miss Dack. There are very few of the type of player that Graham is. It is the main reason that Brereton will struggle. We could adapt the style to 2 up front but we'll still need a Graham type to help get the best of Brereton.

Graham getting injured is going to hurt but the same could be said for any side whose team is built around key players. Part of any teams push for glory is keeping their stars fit. If Graham does get injured then Mowbray needs a different style of play to get the best out of the remaining squad. The Sheffield Utd game gave a glimpse that Mowbray has no answer to that yet. Brereton is not suited to the role that Graham plays but thats not his fault. Nor is that we are we prepared to 7 million for him. Its Mowbray's job to find an answer to both getting the best of a squad without Graham and getting the best out of expensive outlay.

I'd wager that if Rovers have spent £7 million on a defender and spent next to nothing on forwards people would have been screaming we need to spend on the business end. If we had brought another forward as well who was contributing and were not over relient on Graham then the pressure wouldn't be as great. The fact we spent on potential is weighing heavy on everybody's shoulders, especially his, and until he starts scoring the pressure will build. Rovers are a selling club so we need a return on any investment. As you say centre halves are cheap so the returns are likely to be less. Mowbray needs to find a way to releave the pressure on Ben. Easing him in on the wing is obviously not the answer.

Odd because I sit on the Riverside and there were many who were far from impressed. To me he looks like a player low on confidence who is not sure what his role is when he comes on wide. It is also strange to hear Mowbray after the game praise him when he switched him and Armstrong over so he tell him what to do. Brereton needs a goal or two pretty quickly and I'll think [hope] you see his true ability. The longer he goes without a goal the more the pressure builds.

corrected for you.....that should be we'd be really unlucky to get Harper back.

Really? If he had the intelligence to go with his ability of his feet he wouldnt be at Rovers....he'd be in the premiership

And the game showed that if you nulify Graham, you nulify Dack. Without Graham holding the ball up there is nothing for Dack to feed off. He drops further and further back looking for the ball and when he gets it he either tries to do it all on his own or is too deep to hurt the opposition. Both are key but lets not forget the Derby game when Dack started and it was soon realised that Graham was needed hence the first half substitution. Wednesday night just showed that marking Graham out the game then Rovers plans A, B and C are no good. Wednesday showed that Dack has ability with his feet but is lacking at times with his brains.

Oh I'd forgot that but he played for Bournemouth earlier in his career.