Blackburn Rovers’ transfer decision explained

Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has told the Lancashire Telegraph that the club turned down the opportunity to sign another striker during the January transfer window. 

As opposed to bringing in a number nine, Rovers instead looked to improve their squad in other areas, with the likes of Ryan Giles, Ryan Hedges, Dilan Markanday and Deyovaisio Zeefuik all joining from Wolves, Aberdeen, Tottenham Hotspur and Hertha Berlin respectively.

However, with Blackburn being keen to maintain their current system, which utilises Ben Brereton Diaz and Sam Gallagher as wide target men, they were understandably reluctant to bring in another recognised striker.

Explaining his decision to go down this path recently, Mowbray had this to say on the matter:

“We’re trying to fit players into the way we want to play.

“We had opportunities, there were No.9s out there and the really interesting thing is that clubs are phoning us and asking if we want to take this player, Premier League clubs.

“They have to fit into the way we play, why would we sign a Premier League centre forward if we don’t play with a centre forward at this moment.”

The decision to stick with their current system has certainly paid off this season and at present they are well in the race for automatic promotion despite being seen as shock contenders by many.

It will certainly be intriguing to see if Rovers continue to stick with their preferred style moving forwards.

The Verdict 

As the old saying goes, ‘if it isn’t broken, it doesn’t need fixing’ certainly springs to mind when thinking about how Rovers have been operating this term.

They have found some brilliant levels of success with the way they are playing at present and for that reason it is understandable that they