Gerry Daly

We do have a tendency to over rate our players at times particularly young players. Its extremely early days to be drawing conclusions about Jake but he looks good. I enjoyed watching them last night, it was a training match for them. Fitness and team organisation is coming on all the time and at the same time we are still getting results. I think we have grounds to be very optimistic for this season, I see no reason at all why we cant get automatic promotion

Loving it. We are on a journey again just like we were when Arthur came. There is hope for the future and the expectation of progress is realistic. Don’t worry about it being years till we can have parity with Forest that doesn’t matter. It’s probably not true either things can change very quickly in football

Loving it. We are on a journey again just like we were when Arthur came. There is hope for the future and the expectation of progress is realistic. Don’t worry about it being years till we can have parity with Forest that doesn’t matter. It’s probably not true either things can change very quickly in football

Loving it. We are on a journey again just like we were when Arthur came. There is hope for the future and the expectation of progress is realistic. Don’t worry about it being years till we can have parity with Forest that doesn’t matter. It’s probably not true either things can change very quickly in football

Loving it. We are on a journey again just like we were when Arthur came. There is hope for the future and the expectation of progress is realistic. Don’t worry about it being years till we can have parity with Forest that doesn’t matter. It’s probably not true either things can change very quickly in football

Loving it. We are on a journey again just like we were when Arthur came. There is hope for the future and the expectation of progress is realistic. Don’t worry about it being years till we can have parity with Forest that doesn’t matter. It’s probably not true either things can change very quickly in football

We shouldn’t push him too much too soon. You can see by looking at him he has a bit of growing and filling out to do yet, he is only 18 after all. He should be playing in the U21s this season with the odd appearance as sub

We shouldn’t push him too much too soon. You can see by looking at him he has a bit of growing and filling out to do yet, he is only 18 after all. He should be playing in the U21s this season with the odd appearance as sub

We shouldn’t push him too much too soon. You can see by looking at him he has a bit of growing and filling out to do yet, he is only 18 after all. He should be playing in the U21s this season with the odd appearance as sub

Fantastic that is. Great for morale and belief

Are you his dad or something? Nobody is being 'bullied'. Football is a results business and believe me if he had performed well consistently he would be first on the teamsheet

Are you his dad or something? Nobody is being 'bullied'. Football is a results business and believe me if he had performed well consistently he would be first on the teamsheet

Are you his dad or something? Nobody is being 'bullied'. Football is a results business and believe me if he had performed well consistently he would be first on the teamsheet

Are you his dad or something? Nobody is being 'bullied'. Football is a results business and believe me if he had performed well consistently he would be first on the teamsheet

Are you his dad or something? Nobody is being 'bullied'. Football is a results business and believe me if he had performed well consistently he would be first on the teamsheet

Come on Derby. This will be a great confidence booster 

Come on Derby. This will be a great confidence booster 

God I hate how Dawes gets all excited as if we are going to score and then we don’t. Really leaves you stressed out

Your initial post was excellent Brady and follow my thoughts on this too. However I do think you acknowledged but then quickly moved on from the other main potential option playing exactly this system and that is to swop Knight and Smith. Knight would give us more value than Smith does in midfield I think, particularly goal scoring but also all round involvement in the play. But Smith, a decent midfielder who has also crucially played right back for some of his career could in my opinion slot in very effectively to the role Knight is currently playing. I don't think the 'coaching time' is a deal breaker with that 

So I'm putting this post together because since the start of the season there have been question marks on Knight starting at RB which have ranged from mildly questioning to outright ridiculing. 
But very frequently what gets missed is why Knight is starting there, why he's good at it and why it actually relies on his skillset. So I'm going to play devil's advocate and argue for Knight should start there.
Tactics
I think that Rosenior identified that a few things going into the season; we have talent in midfield, we likely have technical superiority and teams are likely going to sit back and try to counter or press and try to counter. And so he's built tactically from that point.You can see this in how our flanks are set up.
Wingers play high and wide and are both fast, phsyical and good 1v1. A compact opposition has to stretch or leave a man free. A team that presses always has to be wary of that threat in behind if they overcommit. Also it helps provide space in the centre for our midfield to take advantage of.
Meanwhile our fullbacks essentially play as midfielders when we have the ball. They tuck right into the middle operating from a much more central postion and given the responsibilities of a deep midfielder in getting the play going and supporting the play. This provides extra functional bodies in the build up play making it theoretically easier to pass through a press and it allows other midfielders to go take up dangerous positions further up field as they don't have to worry so much about the build up. Same applies to the wingers who can play high and wide because the fullbacks are functionally midfielders.
This isn't something revolutionary that Rosenior has done. In fact it's almost identical to what Guardiola has done in the past (who often would play midfielders like Delph at fullback).
Inverted fullback
The demands on this role are different that was is typically called for. They need to very comfortable on the ball in central areas, their passing needs to be good, they need to know what to do positionally when they are in midfield and they need that high energy to cover ground, support the attack and quickly get back into position. Functionally it operates a lot more like a wide midfield role on the ball.
Why Knight ? 
Simply put he excels at all of the above qualities is the primary reason whilst being sound defensively. There is a good reason why most our success in attacking has happened down the right. Playing him there essentially allows us to cheat and play another midfielder
The second reason is with a decent number of midfielders going into pre-season but no right back in sight with restricted dealings in the window. It made sense to coach someone into the role and Knight ticked the most boxes.
Why not X instead of Knight ? 
Odurah - Seems a decent prospect but looked a touch raw and shaky in pre-season. Likely isn't ready just yet.
Smith - This could work but Knight has more energy and crucially Smith hasn't had the same coaching time to coach him into the role.
Thompson - isn't as phsyical as Knight which could get exposed defensively and would need coaching into the role.
Stearman - This is a joke right ? He looks too awkward at CB on the ball never mind in midfield areas and would get exposed for pace.
Roberts - The role benefits from someone playing on their stronger side so they can open their body easier. Also needed at LB as Fozzy can't really play that role reliably.
New Right Back - Well yeah... but that's increasingly unlikely to happen but it won't be for a lack of trying.
Should he play midfield anyway ? 
Now that's a tricky question. Because we have a balance problem in midfield (at least some of the time) that you can point to Knight as a fix. And Id agree with that to a large degree that Knight as one of the three would help. The two counterarguments I might make are that problem might be better solved by playing either Sibley or a fit McGoldrick and by moving Knight from there you might be just shifting a problem rather than fixing it overall.
TLDR; The way we play calls for someone comfortable in midfield at right back. And Knight is likely the best at it we have.
(PS you may be able to tell I'm bored because I'm ill at home) 

Exactly

Stop bloody moaning

Stop bloody moaning

Stop bloody moaning

Stop bloody moaning