Eddie Howe loves his homework

Is it just me or are there others of you out there who would love to know what Eddie Howe writes down on that minuscule note pad during each game? In the last few weeks I swear that the note pad has gotten smaller, but the note writing seems just as lengthy as ever. If you have a copy of the Blackburn Rovers programme you will see just how small that note pad is these days on page 9.

Eddie's dedication to the job is amazing.

Eddie hardly needs to give our players a dossier at half time as they fully know what is expected of them. For all we know the scribblings could be for his evening shopping list, but I have been looking to see if I can spot anything that has been changing after half time in games. He certainly had AFCB driving at Millwall's goal more in the second half of their last game.

Most of the notes will surely be directed at the way AFCB are playing and how they can better manage situations when they do and don't have the ball against the current team they are playing against, but I do wonder how often the same points might go down in that little note pad. Arter on a yellow card again perhaps or Allsop distribution! I am sure you can make up your own ideas of what he could be scribbling down.

Eddie is not a great one for extolling the virtues of different systems, so I expect many of his notes are on individual players, and who is perhaps finding space, and who needs to be fed the ball more. In the current spell of matches I would say, "get Ryan Fraser on the ball as much as you can", but Grabban also pulls defences apart with his runs. Needless to say whatever Eddie writes down the team can always do better and I will only start to worry if he starts getting out an A3 pad!

If you click on to Rival Lines today you can also read up on the last part of our look at what the different blogs on Championship teams have to say on their teams this week. Part four looks at the top six teams.