Luke Turner talks through his preferred formation for the trip to Rotherham..
I have been thinking about this weekends upcoming match v Rotherham and thought about whether we should play a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation.
Gary Rowett has tended to move towards playing three in midfield in recent away matches to perhaps be a bit more cautious defensively.
This means playing David Davis in a midfield three and pushing Jon Toral out wide where he is a lot less effective.
In the last away game at Bristol City, we couldn’t quite get our attacking game going and I think this was partly down to the formation change.
Toral started out wide against Derby and did the best he could, but ultimately, he isn’t a winger.
Rowett then moved him back in field and he changed the game. On that day it also worked playing David Davis in a right midfield position where he could use his energy on both the attacking and defensive side.
I feel like we might be best suited to play Will Buckley on Saturday at the expense of Davis. We might lose a bit of solidity but I think we need to get at a Rotherham side lacking in confidence.
Not switching to a 4-3-3 also means that Jon Toral can continue to play behind Clayton Donaldson where he is at his very best.
Naturally, Davis would`ve played a lot more in field rather than out wide so we would lose a lot of width and might not be able to break as quickly.
I just think it will benefit us by being positive. It allows the likes of Toral, Maghoma and Buckley to use their attacking ability to exploit gaps that might not have been found if Davis were to play.