The Solutions to Blackburn's Struggle?

Last season, some would have argued that it had become quite a joke at the number of axe-wielding Boards of premiership clubs that never thought twice about sacking managers if the results failed to show signs of immediate improvement.

Blackburn Rovers however, they had Mark Hughes who couldn't have been more sure that his position as Manager was as safe as ever. This season however, we have lost Sparky to City and their millions and we turned to Paul Ince to steady the ship.

Unlike other graduates of the Ferguson School of management, Incey chose to start his management career in the lower divisions and work his way up based on merit as a manager rather than fame as a player.

14 games into the season however, Blackburn have found themselves in 19th position and with a long list of injuries and one of the tightest bank balances in the league. What then can be done to get Rovers out of this mess? i have a few ideas.

When Blackburn lost Friedel and Bentley in the summer, it was obvious they were going to have to change tactics and formation as they both played such enormous roles in the team's football. Are we to blame Ince's new signings or Ince's tactics? I believe it is not only a mixture of both but also that it isn't completely down to Ince.

Let's take a look through the first team and examine why the formation isn't working and how Blackburn can fix this.

Firstly, even though we've been failing to keep many clean sheets, i do believe the signing of Paul Robinson was great for Rovers and his performances at times have been outstanding. a lot of goals he has conceded haven't been down to faults of Robinson and he has at times even saved Blackburn's skin.

Keeping hold of Robinson is a must! Also having a consistent partnership of Ryan Nelsen and Chris Samba is also important a Samba's strength and Nelsen's leadership work extremely well together. the mistakes are made in the Full Back positions.

Keep Stephen Warnock at Left Back! On his day, Stephen Warnock is arguably one of the best left-sided defenders in the league yet due to his Flexibility and our lack of leadership in Midfield, he's been playing out of position.

A few decent performances in the midfield does not warrant a player of Warnock's ability to be continuously out of his strongest position and allowing our left side of defence become vulnerable, as we saw with Tottenham.

Fix the whole of the Right side! Blackburn's right flank has been one of their most inconsistent aspects of their football as of late. Last Season, Brett Emerton's pace and strength at Right Back and the influence it had on the performances of David Bentley was largely overlooked.

Moving him up to Right Wing to replace Bentley has left that right full back position extremely vulnerable as Ooijer (who is naturally a Centre Back) just hasn't got the pace to deal with many of the Premierships's faster wingers. Either Blackburn need to invest in a new Right Back or try to involve Danny Simpson a little more or they need to put Brett Emerton back in that position and invest in a creative Right Winger.

Fix The Centre of Midfield!! Even though it has to be remembered that Blackburn's most expensive summer signing, Vince Grella has hardly featured at all this season due to injuries, it is worth noting that towards the end of last season, there was another face in that position that seemed to improve with every performance until the end of the season.

That Player was Johann Vogel. I refuse to believe that a player can lose form so drastically from how he performed last year to someone who is below Aaron Mokoena in Blackburn's pecking order.

The reasons for why Vogel is so unpopular with Ince is unclear but hope can be rested in the fact that Emerton and Grella have a history of playing well together for Australia and once back from injury, Grella may be the answer to Blackburn's problems in that defensive midfield position.

Dunn however may not come back from injury so lucky and Steven Reid will probably never be the player he was so Blackburn are still left with a dilemma. who to play in front of Grella? i'd say Invest In January.

Consistency with Strikers! This season, Blackburn have failed to play the same two strikers for more than two games in a row, how can players develop in a specific formation together if this is the case? Blackburn need to stop putting so much emphasis and pressure on the health of Roque Santa Cruz and capitalise in their squad depth when it comes to strikers.

Matt Derbyshire has been way out of position on the Right Wing this season and it simply doesn't work. Santa Cruz as well as Benni McCarthy have proven in the past that they can both work well with Derbyshire. Playing Derbyshire behind the attack is a must for Blackburn and starting McCarthy when Roque isn't 100% is too.

When considering the club's unsuccesful run of games, it is easy to notice how the team have failed in every point above. Rather than start a Witch-Hunt against Ince, Blackburn fans need to take responsibility for the fact that the club chose Ince knowing full well that he had never managed in this league before and also wouldn't have the finances available to him as managers such as Roy Keane had.

Ince was always going to struggle at first because Sparky didn't have 10 or 12 billionaire owned clubs to compete with when he started at Ewood. It is up to Blackburn Fans to stick by Ince and continue the support they gave to an untested premiership manager by encouraging the club when that manager inevitably struggles at the beginning.

Consistency is what Blackburn need and a couple of additions to the squad. it is all well and good shuffling your team around to fill gaps but without cover for the gaps that shuffle creates, the task becomes pointless.