Verdict: Blackburn Rovers' safety first approach comes in to focus

While analysis has become an ever-increasingly important part of a side’s pre-match preparation, Rovers too must not move away from what they are good at.

Again faced with a side who operate with a back three, they matched them up, as they did against Coventry City to go alongside mid-game switches at Millwall, Middlesbrough and Huddersfield Town.

The jury is most definitely out on whether it is a system that best brings out the best of the Rovers attackers and at the other end of the pitch, it’s not really improved their defensive output.

Tony Mowbray’s comments after the game suggested the approach was based upon containing a QPR side who started the night a point better off than Rovers, though his post-match interview did at least tally with what we had just witnessed.

It has to be stated that Rovers can’t simply play one way and expect to always get results, and equally can’t name the same team for 46 Championship games given the schedule and the workload on the players.

Joe Rothwell and John Buckley were given a breather as Rovers switched up their midfield, yet from the moment the teamsheet landed, with a back three, wing-backs, as well as Tayo Edun, Lewis Travis and Leighton Clarkson infront of them, it all led to the feeling of an experimental, but safety first approach.

Having been seven minutes of normal time away from collecting a point from the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium, in the manager’s eyes it was very nearly job well done. But even with so many defensive-minded players on the pitch, there still wasn’t enough pressure on the ball as Ilias Chair took aim from 25 yards to curl home the winner.

As a tactical encounter became increasingly cagey as it wore on, a try to win at home, and try not lose away, formula was abundant. Results on the road at Millwall and Middlesbrough were a reward for resilience, but goals in those encounters came from their sole shots on target, while they created only one clear-cut opening in the stalemate at Barnsley. Their win at Nottingham Forest was courtesy of two set play goals, though for their workrate alone they were deserving of those three points.

By the hour mark on Tuesday night, Rovers were doing a decent job of keeping a QPR side who had scored in every match leading into the game, at arms’ length.

One goal always felt like it could win it, and bar Yoann Barbet almost putting through his own net, there were few suggestions it would go the visitors' way.

Yet another issue for this side has been responding to setbacks. As the home fans raised the volume, and their side responded by getting on the front foot, Rovers struggled to weather the impending storm.

There were some signs of their game management talks in the wake of the 2-2 draw with Coventry City being taken on board, Thomas Kaminski repeatedly warned for wasting time, but equally a failure to keep the ball, and only 35 per cent possession across the game, didn’t help stem the flow.

With the personnel on the pitch though, it was hard to land much of a blow back.

The possession-based approach of last season has been clearly abandoned, bottom of those particular standings after 13 games, and while Mowbray points to a plan of drawing on the opposition in a bid to hit them on the break with the mobility in attack, it does feel increasingly like Rovers are too willing to give up territory.

QPR managed 16 shots, Thomas Kaminski has made more saves than any keeper in the division, and they have managed only two clean sheets. At the same stage last season, they had six.

A more defensive-minded approach hasn’t been able to deliver an improvement on those statistics, despite looking much more secure with Daniel Ayala in the heart of the backline.

The early season results were borne out of a settled line-up. You would be hard pushed to get much difference to Kaminski, Nyambe, Lenihan, Ayala, Pickering, Travis, Rothwell, Buckley, Dolan and Brereton. Now, it's become a little harder to predict.

As injuries and unavailability have taken hold, plus the need to not burden too many players, opportunities have been handed elsewhere, though Mowbray dismissed the suggestion that those chances haven’t been taken.

Since the 5-1 win over Cardiff, it’s three defeats in four games, and only one point on the board. The pressure on the next game grows with each passing result, and the weekend visit of Reading takes on extra importance on the back of a midweek defeat and points thrown away at home seven days earlier.

Rovers are now back at the point of the same number of wins as defeats, a status they always tend to gravitate towards, no matter which end of the fortunes they are on. Being a mid-table side can be draining for supporters, every sign of progress followed by a setback, and vice versa.

But yet again, this is the position Rovers find themselves, and there are longer-term concerns about directions, as Mowbray himself was keen to get across when discussing the contractual situation of players ahead of the game.

From a players' point of view, they need to buy into that vision, and as things stand, there feels too much uncertainty. We await the next high, knowing a low could as easily be around the corner.