Blackburn Rovers Season Preview: Dack to deliver?

With the 2018-19 Championship season coming up, The Football Lab spoke to Blackburn Rovers fan Mikey Delap (@MikeyDelap).

Tony Mowbray seems to have become a cult hero at Blackburn after delivering League One promotion at the first time of asking. Dare we say it, is there now a semblance of stability at Ewood Park?

That depends on your definition of stability but in the crazy, always expect the worst at all times environment Venky’s and their ahem, advisors have created over the last 8 years this is absolutely about as stable as we’ve seen.

Mowbray is indeed a cult hero. Appointed to minimal fanfare and a series of groans, he’s been nothing short of a breath of fresh air since. A steady hand whose rebranded an entire squad into a likeable, hard working unit who work to a man towards the same common purpose, promotion was as joyous as it was thoroughly deserved last season.

He and the people he’s helped appoint around him to run the club on the ground on a day to day basis have reduced Venky’s to financial backers, which is fine by me. It’s about as it will get under the Indians’ rule.

Goalkeeper David Raya and left-back Derrick Williams started 45 league games each last season. Were they figures of consistency?

Absolutely. Both made fairly slow starts but grew into the season (much like the side as a whole).

Williams was a rare bright spot during the relegation season of 16/17, he’s nothing special but he’s a steady operator who knows his role and it’s a testament to how he played as the season went on that new signing Amari’i Bell – who featured in the League One team of his season during his stint at Fleetwood – was reduced to fleeting cameo appearances.

Raya on the other hand was dropping one too many clangers during the first ten games or so. So much so that a decent portion of fans were calling for him to be dropped and for someone else to be given a whirl instead.

But Mowbray kept the faith with the Spaniard and he rewarded that loyalty – from about October onwards he was really the leagues best goalkeeper. His kicking still leaves a lot to be desired but his shot stopping is cut from a cloth a lot more expensive than League One.

One stop in particular at Fleetwood had to be seen to be believed.

Few ‘defenders’ will start attacking moves and threaten from set pieces quite as well as Charlie Mulgrew does. Is he the most complete centre-back in the EFL?

I’m not sure about that, but he’s no ordinary centre back.

Charlie is a cool customer who plays a sensible ball out from the back and has an excellent set piece on him. Last season he was invaluable for his leadership and his ability to turn a game in a way others couldn’t.

Thank god we held on to him, as I wouldn’t have blamed him for feeling he was a little too good for the third tier (he is).

Paul Downing hasn’t been uniformly loved at League One clubs Walsall and MK Dons. Can he play every week in the Championship or would you be pleased to see another centre-back come in?

No I don’t think we’ll see much of him. He’s a dependable type who did a much, much better job than all of us expected last season but I don’t think he’ll see too much game time in the new campaign.

Darragh Lenihan and Mulgrew are nailed on for the starting spots at the back and rightly so. Still fair play to him, whatever he does from now on until he finishes at Rovers Downing owes us nothing, his arrival was mocked – but he’s proved us all wrong with his performances pre-Lenihan injury recovery.

One of the things that strikes me about academy graduate Ryan Nyambe – at least from the win over Charlton – is his defensive awareness, which is something full-backs typically develop later in their career. Are you excited by his progression?

I’m probably already starting to sound a bit stick in the mud and pedantic in the extreme but no…

Excited? Not really. Encouraged? Probably more the word I’d use.

I’ve never really been convinced by his defending – he’s a full back who looks much better going forward than he does going back.

Having said that’s he’s improved from the first few goes at being a first team player and who doesn’t love an academy kid come good?

Fingers crossed that improvement continues, I think it will.

The hassling work of Richie Smallwood and Corry Evans appeared to be one of your stronger points last season. Are you surprised you’ve added two more central midfielders in Jacob Davonport and Joe Rothwell, before addressing other areas?

The addition of Smallwood was a vital one – in about five minutes of his first game for the Rovers he’d put in more tackles than Jason Lowe did in his last five years here.

Evans on the other hand I wouldn’t say was worthy of the same praise. In certain games he adds a good balance to the side but he’s often either injured or frustrating.

I’d have said two further midfield additions is a smart move – Smallwood can’t do it all and the likes of Elliott Bennett are stop gaps and temporary measures rather a long term solution.

Having said that, keep an eye out for Lewis Travis – a real biter of a midfielder with a greater engine who should play a bigger part this season. Could be a breakthrough one for him if things pan out well.

Bradley Dack has been arguably the most creative player in League One in two of the last three seasons. You must feel he has earned a shot at the Championship?

He has yes.

He was head and shoulders above all and sundry last season in League One.

It’ll be interesting to see how he goes on given his lack of experience in the Championship, but I’ve every confidence he could do well and could benefit from being something of an unknown quantity at this level.

He’s a smashing player who deserves to do well, my fear is that he’ll grow at a rate that exceeds the platform we can offer him.

Craig Conway looks a bit more direct than Dack. Given that he featured regularly under Gary Bowyer, is he someone you trust will be at home in the Championship?

I hope I’m wrong here but Conway looked on the wane to me last season. His brain still knows the game but his legs were starting to fail him.

Having said that, he’s a very good club servant and well liked at the club. He can still be very useful off the bench and is a more defensive version of all the other wingers we have – there is still a role for him here. However reduced that may be.

Danny Graham only started 29 games last season; but you always had, as well as Dominic Samuel, a loanee in reserve like Marcus Antonsson or Adam Armstrong. Do you need another forward to give Mowbray that option to rotate?

Definitely. More attacking options and a bit of pace are an absolute must – not just one, more like two or three choices up there are vital.

I’d like to see Armstrong back, he was bleeding brilliant the back end of last season. But finances or lack thereof may produce the less desired result.

Rovers aside, what are your thoughts ahead of the Championship season as a whole? Any potential dark horses for you?

Not sure we can call them darkhorses but Forest should be a lot stronger than that shambles they produced last season.

The whole division looks super strong – expect all the relegated sides to be up there and Derby shouldn’t be too far away as usual.

Darkhorses? Might be worth keeping an eye on Sheffield United with £12 million or so to spend after selling David Brooks.

Where will you finish?

We’re not going up, but I don’t think we’re going down either. We’re in a lot better shape than we we were when we left.

Optimism is renewed around Blackburn Rovers, but only a few bad results from the usual small band of vitriolic, doom monger fan base members returning.

I’d say we’re going to end up somewhere round the middle.

I’ll say 12th, which I’d be very happy with.

Thanks to Mikey for his answers. The Football Lab’s verdict on Blackburn can be found on We Love Betting from late July.