One win in seven, no goals in five, and rumours swirling about when Ben Brereton-Diaz might be fit again, Blackburn's surprise promotion push is coming under heavy pressure. We caught up with Ian Herbert, host of the BRFCS podcast.
Hey, look at us. Look at us. Who would have thought? Not me.
Not many of us, let’s be honest here. The loss of out of contract players, the return of loanees to parent and the sale of Adam Armstrong in the summer of 2021 served notice that the upcoming 2021/22 campaign was going to be a season of concern, consolidation and perhaps contemplation.
*checks league tables* crikey..!
How has this happened?
How much is accident versus how much is design is hard to say, but what is clear is the following:-
- Possession on its own butters no parsnips
- If you play a formation that exploits your team’s inherent strengths, this is generally a good thing
- Transforming one of your forwards into a world-conquering super-hero is a handy trick to pull off
Blackburn league results thus far…
Blackburn 2-1 Swansea Gallagher 36, Brereton-Diaz pen 48 — Paterson 52
Millwall 1-1 Blackburn Wallace 64 — Brereton-Diaz 76
Forest 1-2 Blackburn Zinckernagel 69 — Ayala 47, Lenihan 86
Blackburn 1-2 West Brom Brereton-Diaz 51 — Mowatt 1, Phillips 45
Middlesbrough 1-1 Blackburn Howson 36 — Gallagher 17
Blackburn 2-2 Luton Dolan 27, Pickering 31 — Berry 73, 90
Blackburn 2-0 Hull Ayala 61, Brereton-Diaz 65
Barnsley 0-0 Blackburn
Blackburn 5-1 Cardiff Gallagher 24, Brereton-Diaz 32, 45, pen 90, Dolan 53 — Morrison 58
Huddersfield 3-2 Blackburn Vallejo 36, Ward 60, 84 — Brereton-Diaz 57, pen 64
Blackpool 2-1 Blackburn Lavery 4, Yates 24 — Brereton-Diaz 50
Blackburn 2-2 Coventry Rothwell 39, Gallagher 45 — Walker 62, Kaminski og 68
QPR 1-0 Blackburn Chair 83
Blackburn 2-0 Reading Gallagher 61, Dolan 64
Derby 1-2 Blackburn Davies 89 — Brereton 8, 20
Blackburn 0-7 Fulham Kebano 6, 79, Mitrovic 19, Wilson 54, 58, Muniz 81, 90
Blackburn 3-1 Sheff Utd Khadra 37, Brereton 59, Poveda 70 — Brewster 2
Bristol City 1-1 Blackburn O’Dowda 34 — Brereton 75
Blackburn 4-0 Peterborough Pickering 16, Brereton 35, 60, Lenihan 45
Stoke 0-1 Blackburn Khadra 52
Blackburn 1-0 Preston Brereton 53
Bournemouth 0-2 Blackburn Pearson og 21, van Hecke 65
Blackburn 4-0 Birmingham Buckley 6, Khadra 52, Brereton pen 60, 79
Blackburn 2-1 Barnsley Rothwell 24, Brereton 65 — Morris 45
Blackburn 0-0 Huddersfield
Cardiff 0-1 Blackburn Rothwell 14
Hull 2-0 Blackburn Honeyman 7, Eaves 47
Blackburn 1-0 Boro Gallagher 76
Luton 0-0 Blackburn
Swansea 1-0 Blackburn Obafemi 16
Blackburn 0-2 Forest Garner 22, Johnson pen 90
West Brom 0-0 Blackburn
Sheff Utd 1-0 Blackburn Davies 90
How’s Tony turned it around? He seemed on his last legs last time we spoke?
Yeah, about that; Mowbray has just celebrated five years in charge and is showing all the resilience and indefatigability of Status Quo. The obituaries are written repeatedly but the farewell tours continue apace and the audiences keep turning up; "Again And Again” you might say. (Nobody will get this reference - Ed). I’ve written him off now more times than sub-prime mortgage portfolios in the US in 2009. (Again, nobody will get this reference - Ed). He has re-fashioned the side to exploit pace and trickery of Khadra and Dolan together with the strength and newly-found cunning of BBD and it has worked. Tony Mowbray…more comebacks than Sinatra (I give up - Ed).
I’ve got to ask about the first game. Blackburn came for a 0-0, showed zero ambition, lost, and afterwards TM seemed incredulous that you’d try and do anything else. Then an explosion of form. Did he change? Was that some sort of turning point? I think about that game a lot, you would never have guessed what was coming next for Rovers on that evidence.
See answers above - bluntly, no. The alchemistic impact of *that* Fulham result seems to have transformed the side - at least for a dozen games - into a strong, brave, attacking unit capable of scything apart any opponent not doing sufficient pre-match homework on Rovers’ capabilities. Again, not sure how much is down to fate or design, but Mowbray appeared to take the Fulham defeat quite phlegmatically and superficially at least appeared to be supremely relaxed. Whether that was because he was expecting a response from the squad, or he was expecting a P45 from the board is a moot point, but whatever he did, it clearly worked. Confidence breeds confidence and momentum was now with us…extraordinarily.
What January business did you do? What did you need to do?
A reasonable amount but with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, almost certainly not enough.
Dilan Markanday joined from Spurs, amidst a fanfare from disgruntled Spurs fans, unhappy that a bright prospect had been allowed to depart. The excitement at Ewood soon dissipated however, as Markanday suffered what seems likely to be a season-ending injury during his debut.
Ryan Hedges, a soon-to-be out of contract Welsh international based in Scotland joined from Aberdeen, presumably to fill one of the "wide midfielder cum striker” roles that Mowbray seems to adore.
We also added loan signings. The talented and admired Ryan Giles further added to our "Ryan” quotient (Nyambe, Hedges) joining on loan from Wolves and Deyo Zeefuik (yes, commentators just LOVE that surname) arrived from Hertha Berlin, then got injured.
Many hoped for a striker to bolster the ranks to reduce the over-reliance on BBD but as long as Ben doesn’t pick up an injury that were to keep him out for 7/8 games, then we’ll be fine.
(*checks Twitter notifications* "Ah feck…”).
Summer Ins >>> Tayo Edun, 22, LB, Lincoln, £500k >>> Ian Poveda, 21, RW, Leeds, Loan >>> Leighton Clarkson, DM, 19, Liverpool, Loan >>> Jan Paul van Hecke, 21, CB, Brighton, Loan >>> Reda Khadra, 20, LW, Brighton, Loan
Summer Outs >>> Adam Armstrong, 24, CF, Southampton, £16m >>> Charlie Mulgrew, 35, CB, Dundee Utd, Free >>> Amari’i Bell, 27, LB, Luton, Free >>> Corry Evans, 30, CM, Sunderland, Free >>> Elliott Bennett, 32, RW, Shrewsbury, Free >>> Brad Lyons, 24, CM, Kilmarnock, Free >>> Stewart Downing, 35, LW, Released again >>> Lewis Holtby, 30, CM, Holstein, Free >>> Harry Chapman, 23, RW, Burton, Loan
Winter Ins >>> Dilan Markanday, 20, RW, Spurs, £540k >>> Ryan Hedges, 26, RW, Aberdeen, £160k >>> Deyovaisio Zeefuik, 23, RB, Hertha Berlin, Loan >>> Ryan Giles, 22, LWB, Wolves, Loan
Winter Outs >>> Harry Chapman, 24, Burton, RW, Loan >>> Tyler Magloire, 23, CB, Northampton, Loan >>> Hayden Carter, 22, CB, Pompey, Loan >>> Daniel Butterworth, 22, CF, Fleetwood, Loan
POTY candidates other than the next president of Chile?
Stand out candidates would probably come from the defence. The skipper, Darragh Lenihan (out of contract in the summer) has led from the front; Ryan Nyambe (out of contract in the summer) has had another solid season; Jan Paul van Hecke (on loan until the summer) has impressed for his whole-hearted endeavour and taekwondo schtick (see the highlights from *that* Fulham game); plus Joe Rothwell in midfield (out of contract in the summer) has also had some sublime moments. I’ve not been able to put my finger on what these guys have in common, but they all deserve plaudits for their ample efforts so far this season.
John Buckley also has stepped up a level this season despite not being imminently out of contract.
Ben could miss the remainder of the season now and still be POTY though. Technically, he too is out of contract in the summer but apparently we do have a further 12 month option which I suspect we will exercise…although knowing Rovers, it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if we somehow contrived to forget.
Weak links in the team?
The injuries are starting to accumulate and fatigue seems to be setting in which means players playing out of position and form is unsurprisingly, tailing off and becoming more brittle. It would be unfair to single out individuals in those circumstances, especially given the over-achievement so far. Not sure where the goals are coming from though between now and mid-April.
Recent form - bit of a wobble or more serious? (We’re asking ourselves the same question)
It is right on the cusp of moving from a concern to a crisis. I’m always reminded of the definition of a crisis as used at Ipswich Town in the heady days of the Cobbold ownership and Robson management as being "when the boardroom runs out of chilled white wine…”. Neither do I believe are we yet into "Blackadder” levels of crisis…it doesn’t have 12 storeys, nor "a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour porterage…” etc. But, Marks & Spencer presently has an offer on men’s underpants and WH Smith’s at the station has had a run on pencils, so who knows?
So, are you going to do it? How do you see the season panning out from here?
Until the recent BBD news I felt reasonably confident that Rovers could accumulate enough points to secure top six. The loss of our talisman striker is a body-blow. How it unfolds now depends upon whether we can design/stumble across another formation and complementary tactics to enable us to fashion some honest to goodness battling 1-0 wins (see, Middlesbrough at Ewood) sufficient to bring in another say, 24 points. That would need eight wins from 14 remaining games or perhaps, six wins and six draws… With the December team in the form of December, I’d back us to get the eight wins in the next 1tengames, but the world has changed. If pushed, I think we will still be in the hunt with a couple of games to go but fear it won’t be entirely in our hands. The final home game of the season is against Bournemouth. Winning that to secure top six would be an astonishing achievement.
I’m just off out now…I need to go to Marks & Spencer and WH Smith…again…
Links >>> Rovers official website >>> Official website >>> Lancashire Telegraph — Local Paper >>> BRFCS message board and podcast >>> Rovers Chat — Blog
The Twitter @ianherbert, @loftforwords
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