Blackburn Rovers: How John Eustace can get the best out of Aston Villa agreement: View | OneFootball

As Jon Dahl Tomasson characteristically chopped and changed formation in a despairing Hail Mary to save himself, the Dane eventually exited Ewood Park on a sour note.

A 2-1 home defeat by lowly Queens Park Rangers was the straw that broke the camel’s back after nine games without a win saw Blackburn Rovers sink to 18th in the Championship.

When Tomasson arrived in June 2022, it was the start of something fresh in Lancashire. Yes, Tony Mowbray’s departure was emotional, but there was a continental culture that it seemed the club were trying to instill after Mowbray’s five-year stint at the helm.

The Dane was a tinkerman, both in a tactical and personnel sense. He predominantly plumped for a 4-2-3-1 system, but experimented with a 4-3-3 and a 3-4-1-2 as he led Rovers to a seventh-placed finish in his first managerial crack at English football.

He picked up a couple of Mowbray’s traits - playing natural strikers Ben Brereton Diaz and Sam Gallagher out wide in favour of more of a diminutive false nine type like Tyrhys Dolan or Sammie Szmodics – and a sudden desire to play a back-three system, only to revert to a four-man defence after a couple of poor results.

After two years of gradual transition, Blackburn are in a position where they need some solidity and a clear strategy, with stalwarts of the Mowbray era Brereton Diaz, Bradley Dack, Lewis Travis, Daniel Ayala, and Ryan Nyambe all moving on.

Tomasson's tampering has been a primary factor in Blackburn's poor results this season. He played natural right-back Callum Brittain at left-back and left-wing at inopportune occasions, tried to start the season with 20-year-old Harry Leonard (who wasn't ready to lead a Championship line) as his main striker, and had his 4-1-3-2 experiment humbled 3-0 by relegation-threatened Huddersfield Town before an eventual 4-4-2 disaster against QPR.

Blackburn's final eight league games under Tomasson

But now, with John Eustace in the hot seat, things could be looking up for Rovers.

Blackburn Rovers' midfield problem, and 3-4-2-1 suiting the players best

Eustace’s 3-4-2-1 shape seems like it has serious promise when you consider the players the former Birmingham City manager has at his disposal.

Examining Blackburn’s squad, they are well stocked with technicians that want to get on the ball and play a controlled possession-based game.

But their midfield has been a problem, being sliced apart all too easily, as demonstrated in Tomasson’s final game at QPR, when Andrew Moran and Sondre Trondstad - the engine room duo in Rovers' 4-4-2 - were overrun and outworked by Jack Colback and Elijah Dixon-Bonner, with Lyndon Dykes dropping in as an auxiliary number 10, and Ilias Chair drifting infield off the left flank to affect the game in the half-spaces.

In that particular system, you expect the two attacking midfielders to be tucked in as two number tens, rather than the natural wingers you’d see in a 3-4-3. That then gives the two central midfielders more support, creating what’s known as “the box”, to outnumber most teams’ three or two-man midfields.

The back three allows for a supplementary man in attacking phases down both flanks, as well as a spare player to build out from the back with, and it can also facilitate one of the three centre-backs stepping into midfield to add an extra body either in or out of possession.

Ben Chrisene's value to the shape of Blackburn Rovers

This is where Ben Chrisene, the Aston Villa loanee, comes in.

He could well be one of the few positive things left from the end of the Tomasson tenure. Naturally a left-back, the 20-year-old is six-feet tall, confident on the ball, with an excellent turn of pace. He’s strong in the challenge, and doesn’t fare badly in the air either.

In a back three system, Chrisene is your ideal player, as he can cover both the left wing-back and wide centre-back berths. In his only game in interim charge, a 3-1 win over Stoke City, Damien Johnson realised as much, positioning Chrisene on the left of his defensive trio, with Ryan Hedges as the wing-back.

Hedges, a winger by trade, was inclined to stay forward and hold the width, which allowed Chrisene to support attacking build-up more cautiously as a backwards option, or more aggressively on the underlap, using his nous as a full-back to add an extra threat down the Rovers left.

It meant that Hedges could spread the width, Chrisene’s presence made passages of play down the left two-v-one match-ups against Junior Tchamadeu, the Stoke right-back, and the hosts could get at least three bodies into the box at every opportunity. Dolan and Szmodics, the two 10s that day, scored all three of the goals. Dolan, able to operate more centrally thanks to Hedges and Chrisene outside of him, scored twice.

In Dolan and Szmodics, Rovers have the perfect duo to position behind Sam Gallagher. The 6’5” striker can be the focal point of attacks, dropping deeper to link play and lure out opposing centre-halves, while Dolan and Szmodics can maraud freely, either picking up pockets of space between defensive lines, or alternatively, can stretch the opposition and run beyond the lone striker, either into the channels or as a true goal threat in behind.

Dolan’s second goal against Stoke was a clear example of how that attacking set-up can work so effectively, with Gallagher dropping deeper from the Blackburn goal kick to lure out both Stoke’s central defenders, and his flick-on was cottoned onto immediately by Dolan, who raced in behind to slam home his second, with Szmodics haring alongside him in support.

Brighton and Hove Albion loanees Yasin Ayari and Andrew Moran are similar technicians that fit the two 10s mould as well, although both would suit playing in the pockets more than making runs in behind, which would leave Gallagher needing to be the one looking to play on the shoulder.

Alternatively, Szmodics could play at the apex of the trio - as he has been recently - leading the press in terrier-like fashion, as well as being that threat in behind that Moran and Ayari can pick out with balls threaded through.

A freer role might also unlock the true talents of Arnor Sigurdsson, who has had his ups and downs since his initial loan arrival from CSKA Moscow, which has now been turned permanent. The two-footed Icelandic international is more of a direct goal threat than Dolan, Ayari, and Moran, and perhaps could be the alternative option for Szmodics.

Moving Harry Pickering inside could benefit Blackburn further

Should Eustace need to tighten things up and secure both the wide areas and the middle of the park, one tactic he could turn to is to play Chrisene at wing-back, and shift Harry Pickering into the back three.

Chrisene’s athleticism up and down the left flank would mean that in attacking phases, the width was still maintained, while Pickering’s calmness and intelligence on the ball could come in handy in picking up pockets on the underlap, or moving into midfield areas to create overloads and be a body to bounce off when zipping the ball around in tight areas.

It could, in fact, unlock the creative side of Pickering’s game that we haven’t seen the full extent of this term, with the former Crewe defender adding just a single assist in 27 Championship games.

Pickering, who came through the ranks at the Alex playing in midfield, spoke to Rovers Chat in December about his “enjoy[ment]” of a new inverted role.

The ability to move into centre-field and get on the ball more not only gives him and his team-mates more passing options, but also means that Pickering himself becomes a thorn in the opposition’s side, adding an air of the unknown as to whether they should follow him in or risk being outnumbered.

As for the remainder of the back three, Rovers are strong in their options. Scott Wharton has stepped in ably on the left side - ahead of Chrisene - but the young loanee just gives Rovers that edge going forward than the natural centre-back does.

Dominic Hyam and Kyle McFadzean offer cool and experienced heads for Chrisene (and Pickering, should he move into that back three) to lean on in sticky moments, while Callum Brittain has stamped his authority on the right wing-back position.

You’d assume, when a club brings in a 20-year-old loanee, that that player could not have a revolutionary impact on the side’s entire tactical system.

Blackburn could well find some light at the end of this season’s dark tunnel.