There was an exodus at Ewood Park over the summer with Dilan Markanday, Andreas Weimann, Danny Batth, Joe Rankin-Costello, Tyrhys Dolan, Callum Brittain, John Buckley and Lewis Travis all departing.

Manager Valerian Ismael has very much been in rebuilding mode and that has shown in the start to their season with just one win from the first five games, including a Carabao Cup defeat to Bradford. Last week they added a second win with a 1-0 victory over Watford and currently occupy 16th place, level on points with Town.

Goalkeepers

Balázs Tóth is the man with the gloves. The 27-year-old Hungarian joined from Videoton FC Fehervar in August 2024 and had to bide his time before playing a spell of games towards the back end of last season as Aynsley Pears was dropped. He has conceded five goals but has a goals prevented of 0.76 so far having made 12 saves. Pears will have to settle for a spot on the bench for now.

Defenders

Sean McLoughlin will miss this one as he serves the second of a three-game ban following a straight red against Norwich before the international break, marking a poor start to his Rovers career since joining from Hull City over the summer.

That opened the door for Hayden Carter or Scott Wharton to start with mainstay Dominic Hyam leaving for Wrexham on deadline day.

Wharton and Carter are both players who have come through the Rovers academy, whilst Hyam was signed from Reading in 2022 and has been an ever-present since then.

Between them they have 346 appearances for the club and all of them know the Championship well. Hyam is one of the top last-ditch defenders in the division with 36 blocks and interceptions combined but didn’t prove to be much of a loss last time out as the new look pairing kept a clean sheet at Watford.

At right-back is Ryan Alebiosu, a 23-year-old who signed in the summer from KV Kortrijk, having spent last season on loan at St Mirren where he was a very aggressive full-back averaging 3.52 progressive carries and 2.35 carries into the final third.

Twenty-eight-year-old Portuguese Yuri Riberio is likely to start on the other side, although it is also possible that he could fill in at centre-back. He joined on a free from Sporting Braga in February of this year and averaged 4.9 duels won per game last season.

He’s currently keeping another long-term Blackburn player, Harry Pickering, out of the team, whilst 25-year-old Australian Lewis Miller is the other option at right-back having signed from Hibernian.

Midfielders

Rovers have stuck with a double pivot of Sondre Tronstad and Sidney Tavares since captain Lewis Travis was clearly on his way out of the club. Tronstad leads the way in defensive midfield metrics four games in with 17 tackles and interceptions combined so far. The only other player to equal that is West Brom’s Callum Styles.

Alongside him Tavares is a new signing this summer from Porto. The 23-year-old has already had a well-travelled career, coming through the youth system at Leicester before the move to Portugal, whilst also spending time in the MLS with Colorado Rapids.

Across his career he hasn’t actually played much first-team football. His five games for Blackburn so far are his second most senior appearances for a club behind the 33 he played for Moreirense.

Kristi Montgomery and Axel Henriksen have been the back-ups at the start of the season. Montgomery, who spent time on loan last season at Chorley, has made sub appearances in the Carabao Cup and off the bench at Hull but is likely to have now fallen down the pecking order.

Henriksen is more likely to be involved in the squad having joined over the summer from Swedish side GAIS, although it’s looking like it is taking him time to get up to speed with the pace of the Championship.

With the more experienced Adam Forshaw and Jake Garrett current injury absences, Rovers turned to the loan market on deadline day to swoop for Taylor Gardner-Hickman, who had slipped down the pecking order at Birmingham and will bring energy and versatility with the ability to cover a number of areas on the pitch.

Ahead of them is likely to be new Rovers captain and former Canary Todd Cantwell, who has been their standout performer at the start of this season with goals against Birmingham and Hull.

Forwards

Ryan Hedges has started the season brightly and is one of the few to be in the top 10% of players for both carry threat and passing threat. In terms of more tangible metrics, he also has a goal and an assist both coming in the 3-0 victory over Hull.

Hedges has been operating on the left with versatile Sierra Leonean Augustus Kargbo on the right. He’s yet to score since joining the club.

The central striker has been Yuki Ohasi. Ohashi scored nine goals and assisted three last season and was another who got off the mark against Hull.

Belgian Dion De Neve, 24, and 28-year-old Ryoya Morishita both joined in the summer transfer window to provide more options off the bench. De Neve scored in Rovers’ Carabao Cup defeat to Bradford and Morishita got his first goal for the club against Watford in his first start of the season on the right wing.

Ohashi’s competition at the top of the pitch is likely to be Makhtar Gueye and another new addition, Icelander Andri Guðjohnsen, who joined from Belgian side Gent. He scored for Iceland in a 3-1 victory over Scotland in the summer internationals.

Gueye rotated with Ohashi last season and managed six goals and six assists in 42 appearances and is yet to start this season but has come off the bench in every game with little impact so far.

Igor Tyjon, 17, has been chosen on the bench in a couple of league games having made his first start for the club in the EFL Cup. He’s a player Rovers fans are keen to see more of.

The Teams

This bit is a fairly easy one to predict this week. It would be a big shock if Town were to make any changes following a 5-0 win.

Blackburn have also been very consistent with their team selection and having beaten Watford 1-0 are also likely to be unchanged.

Prediction

Away games are a whole different ball game to matches at Portman Road and I think this one will be much tighter than last week. However, Town seem to have found more balance to the side.

Darnell Furlong brought stability on the right of the defence, VChuba Akpom linked the play through the middle and Jaden Philogene finally produced some end product to go with the rest of his fine work.

I think the bench could be the decisive factor in this one as having more than £20 million of talent to come on when you need a winner is not something to be sniffed at. I’m going for a 1-0 away win.

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