[Archived] Liverpool 0 - 0 Rovers

[krislu]

Are we the most boring team in the Premiership? It is great that we can defend but can you remember when were involved in a good game of football?

Heard such rubbish?! Did you see our last games in the PL, Everton and the Norwich game?!

[bazza]

I have never seen a Blackburn team working this hard for each other, fantastic! Just a shame about MGP and his awful set pieces, but imo we got the strategy spot on today..

The reason Liverpool didn't create anything to trouble Friedel, wasn't because they just had an off night, it was all down to the hard work from every player in the blue and white, and I feelt proud sitting in pub watching!

Now that Hughes has sorted our defense out, we should start working on those counter attack situations. If our passing were a bit better and the wide men could have gotten in position a bit faster then we might have won it.

Mokoena along with Nelson and Todd was brilliant today, just BRILLIANT! Hope we use the same tactics for the Arsenal game trying to get force them ouf of playing that "flowing football" @#/?..

You've said it all.

What a superb team performance; terrific hard work; everyone running, chasing and helping each other.

Liverpool were a far more skilful side than Everton and pressed us for 80 of the 90 minutes.

But we were up to it.

My verdict on the effort........EXCELLENT.......Proud of the lads!

Sparky and his team are doing a great job. Moaners stop complaining.

[murray92]

Anyone see Phil Thomson on the telly with Savage?

Thomson was cryin out for a Penalty when Nelson challenged Morientes (I think). He said it was a definite penalty!!!!

Never have I heard so much tripe...and the look on Savage's face as Thomson went on was fantastic. Good to see him tell Thomson what it really was - a nudge ...never in a million years was it a penalty!

Get it right up Thomson! Well done Savage! Up in my estimation now!

[1864roverite]

I dont think ANY Rovers supporter can be annoyed about the result and the point gained. remember a few weeks ago we were looking at where we might pick up points and certainly Everton and Liverpool didnt figure much and now we have taken 4 points.

The performance can be excused although I was totally impressed with the defensive display. The point gained was a worthy point irrespective of what ANY media pundit says. We were organised, we fought for each other and the togetherness shown from each and every one of thos eplayers was clearly evident. You could see what it meant as the players walked off.

MGP is allowed to have an off day. He didnt pass well, his shooting was awful as was his crossing. Lets hope that come Saturday he is back on song.

I dont think the Arse will relish coming to Ewood for a kicking. I can see a few booking and sendings off come Saturday lunchtime especially if the frogs and other foreigners take a bad reaction to Rovers well drilled discipline.

I am looking forward to Saturday.

Well done Rovers - a point well and truly earned

[Brownie]

How anyone can complain about that level of peformance is beyond me.

Matt Dickens would have kept a clean sheet tonight !

Nelsen and Todd have quickly become arguably the best central defensive partnership in the Prem, Mokoena had his best game yet for me.

Savage for Flitcroft and we'll be sorted.

Onwards and upwards.

[colin]

If Barry can stop grinding his teeth tomorrow I'll try and do a post match commentary.

[92er]

Matt Dickens would have kept a clean sheet tonight !

They must have been bad then.

[ultrablue]

Good defensive performance and a job well done.

One thing is worrying me though- Had Baros not been flagged offside incorrectly early on, and gone on to score, would we have changed it? Would we are pressed for an equaliser.

My inckling is that Hughes would have just stayed the way we were, and hoped to nick one, effectively settling for a 1-0 loss.

Don't get me wrong, our tactcis tonight were spot on for what we needed. The problem is that I am starting to think that is the only way we can play. I mean, starting with a lone man upfront at home to a championship side is indicative of the way that Hughes wants us to play. It took him a while to realise that we had the superior attack against leicester and go 4 4 2.

In what scenario wouold Hughes actually look for a goal in the first half? Accy at home? No maybe not, local derby, gotta keep it tight!!

Happy with the display tonight, but luck may turn against us, do we have a way of chasing games Hughesy??

[allan]

Thompson out with swollen knee (again) suggests his playing days are over for this season and probably well beyond.

[Ossydave]

Well, a fiver on a 0-0 at 9-1 looked good odds and so it was, combined with the cheltenham winnings the drinks are on me on saturday

I'll admit that I couldn't be arsed to go tonight as I finish work too late and it was also on sky (shoot me). Fair play to those who went though, clearly audible on sky.

I doubt Anfield has seen a better defence all season, bearing in mind we had NEJ (complete with sh*t tash), Neill and Matteo on the pitch at times thats remarkable.

P.s anyone think Matteo looked pretty damn fast tonight for some reason?

[tashor]

Fantastic game

I've never been so relaxed at an away game this season.

Couldn't see us losing.

To those here who decried our attacking play - JUST HOW STUPID ARE YOU??

I have posted at least twice that we have the worst attack in the league.

JUST HOW STUPID ARE YOU??

We are playing to our strengths.

Isn't that a good idea

......An idea for a poll - and I cannot believe I am actually saying this -

The best partnership in the Premiership for Blackburn Rovers -

a - Shearer and Sutton

b - Todd and Nelsen

What the fleukler.......

We may not score fluently but it is again a great time to be a Rover

[Ajay]

Good defensive performance and a job well done.

One thing is worrying me though- Had Baros not been flagged offside incorrectly early on, and gone on to score, would we have changed it? Would we are pressed for an equaliser.

My inckling is that Hughes would have just stayed the way we were, and hoped to nick one, effectively settling for a 1-0 loss.

Don't get me wrong, our tactcis tonight were spot on for what we needed. The problem is that I am starting to think that is the only way we can play. I mean, starting with a lone man upfront at home to a championship side is indicative of the way that Hughes wants us to play. It took him a while to realise that we had the superior attack against leicester and go 4 4 2.

In what scenario wouold Hughes actually look for a goal in the first half? Accy at home? No maybe not, local derby, gotta keep it tight!!

Happy with the display tonight, but luck may turn against us, do we have a way of chasing games Hughesy??

The only reason why he went for that formation against Liecester and not an attacking 4-4-2 is, in my opinion trying to get the team used to the big games coming up during the week. I.e. Arsenal and Man United. It was important to keep the same team so that they build the required understanding.

On the note for tonite's game, SUPERB performance from the lads! Truely proud of each and every individual there!! Keep up the good work Hughesy!! Bring on the Gunners!!

[ultrablue]

But the problem is that when we play to our one strength we seem to hide the fact that we dont seem to have another way of playing. I guess what Im trying to get at, and Im sure we all agree, is that we have to make vast improvments upfront.

We cant get carried away, as I think it is pretty darn clear there are no points coming from the next two games unless we can score.

[RevidgeBlue]

I thought this was a superb performance, once again horses for courses, tonight the tactics were fully justified. It wasn't Leicester at home, it was a team who recently destroyed Leverkusen to reach the last 8 of the Champions League so to go through 93 minutes without them having even a sniff of a half chance shows how well we performed.

Yes we are limited up front but this will hopefully be addressed in summer.

In fact it now seems we have an extremely talented backroom staff, so much so that the summer will be an interesting test of the Board's ambition.

How far could we go with a quality striker to help bring on Stead and a quality replacement for ferguson alongside Savage?

An extremely long way if we continue to be as mean defensively.

[Nate]

Appalling game of football but a welcome point.

Hughes has set Rovers up 4-5-1, which has made us harder to beat but is excruciating to watch at times. Whether it is good enough to beat Arsenal in the Cup is doubtful.

We should survive easily now. The test for Hughes next season will be to inject more skill and creativity while keeping the team defensively sound. Should be interesting.

I love this new, improved jim. Much better than the old crabby one!

[MIROVER]

On the way to safety good solid all be it boring performance watched in comfort can't remember being troubled at all. Just listening to 606 sounds like Robbie Keane is unhappy at Spurs potential good signing ? This summer should be interesting will the board back our new manager ?? New Left back why did Fergie not let us have Spector haven't seen him playin for manure !! Replacement for Ferguson and 2 new strikers.

[tchocky]

I have never seen a Blackburn team working this hard for each other, fantastic! Just a shame about MGP and his awful set pieces, but imo we got the strategy spot on today..

The reason Liverpool didn't create anything to trouble Friedel, wasn't because they just had an off night, it was all down to the hard work from every player in the blue and white, and I feelt proud sitting in pub watching!

Now that Hughes has sorted our defense out, we should start working on those counter attack situations. If our passing were a bit better and the wide men could have gotten in position a bit faster then we might have won it.

Mokoena along with Nelson and Todd was brilliant today, just BRILLIANT! Hope we use the same tactics for the Arsenal game trying to get force them ouf of playing that "flowing football" @#/?..

Believe it or not, I think your comments are a fair reflection on what I thought of the game. MGP had a bad day, mostly on set pieces, but quiet othewise too. We did very well defensively and I will be happy to see us play like this for the rest of the season. I've got this strange dream/fantasy/wish that it is all a part of Sparkys grand masterplan: sort out the defense first, make us impossible (well, nearly) to beat, then next season lay down the hard work in getting the offesive part of our play working. If only that were the case, he'd be the ultimate genius!

Oh and has anyone started taking bets for the league next season? My money is on Manure and Chelski in a two horse race for the title with the scum winning it in the last game I shall refer to this post in may 2006...

[vindaloobob]

this wasn't much of a game of football but i thought it was a tighter and less scrappy performance than against leicester. we went to anfield hoping to contain them and possibly hit them with a lucky goal and we did it exceptionally. i haven't felt so calm watching a blackburn defense for a long time... normally it gives me heart tremours as soon as the opposition bring the ball into our half.

we're not going to win a lot playing like that but hughes is in a scrap now and i don't think anyone can take away from us the fact that we have had to go out and play well to take a point at anfield. before the match i would've been more than happy to settle for that!

[Radagast]

I've just finished watching the game (buggering video is back in working order, it seems) and despite the poor stuff on show, we've got to be happy with a point. Todd and Nelsen (for the most part) were excellent again, and Reid put on another encouraging show in the centre of the park.

I couldn't believe our luck when I saw Riise was only a sub, and he started like a house on fire second half. Neill was made to look a tit on more than one occasion, and his passing was as poor as Busted's set pieces. Nissa also caused some more sphincter clenching moments. A new pair of full backs in the summer anyone?

[Tim 1980]

Gee Neill comes in for a rubbishing a lot on this board - and granted I don't get to see many games down here in Australia but is he really going that ordinary ? I mean we have one of the best defensive records in the Premier League at the moment, he has, in recent weeks contained some of the PLs better players and whilst he has made some mistakes, I can also recall seeing a few timely interventions. In the games I have seen (again, not that many) I am always pretty confident with Lucas at RB because I know he wont go diving into tackles or playing stupid games in his own half. He does what is expected of a fullback, he doesn't let wingers cut inside him, he stays on his feet and he has no hesitation in hacking the ball clear if thats what the situation requires. Be nice to see him pick up his passing game a bit, but overall I can't complain about any of our backs at the moment! Signs are good for next year.

[Tango]

I was really, really impressed by Todd, Mokoena and Nelsen tonight. Gerrard, Morientes etc. were vitually anonymous down to them. Reid looked good going forward too, and stuck his boot in where it was needed.

Overall, a gritty performance and a deserved point, couldn't have asked for much more than that before the game.

[USABlue]

I thought Neill had a solid game. I thought he did very well. Johanson did well too, looked very composed though he seemd to slow up quickly as if he was injured. Really beleive Neill is just everyones favourite whipping boy. MGP took leave tonight and Emerton was a disgrace, Reid did OK but seems to not really commit himself in some situations, confidence perhaps.

Good solid performance, but god is it ever ugly to watch. If we can keep this up for the rest of the season I can be happy with that but next season we must have someone to create in midfield and someone who is a threat up front. I am also now convinced Emerton has to go he offers nothing anymore. I thought for a bit with his resurgence when Hughes first came in we had something good but god is he bunk right now.

Effective it may be but it is really hard on the eyes. The potential however is there for us to be something really good next season.

[Bobby G]

Brilliant defensive performance!

1 year ago we would have been caned in such a game, and we would have given away cheap goals. We lost 4-0 last season iirc.

We shouldnt be disappointed with 1 point even if we had sat and hoofed the ball upfield for 90 minutes, because no one really expected 1 point from this game.

Im delighted with the defensive performance BUT as someone else said earlier with the same mindset and formation I cant see us beating Arsenal and if we concede a goal against the top teams with this system, I cant see us coming back in it.

[vyeo]

great work by our centrebacks who kept last season's champion's league top scorer and euro 2004 top scorer in their pockets. we felt that this run of matches will show if nelsen is the real deal; well, he's passed the first of three tough tests. lets see how he handles the arse's attack on saturday.

attacking wise, what did we expect? we were never going to pile on the attack at anfield. mokoena again looked very good and comfortable playing the 'makelele' role, but i thought nissa was rather poor today. he was calm at times, yes, but also gave away quite a few balls. matteo however, surpassed even that; personally i thought he might have thought he's still wearing red. so he made a few clearances, and got lucky with one tackle at the end (which i felt he was just trying to bulldoze his man over but got lucky and took the ball instead); but his general standard of play simply isnt up to it. neill had his usual game, with his usual lapse of concentration (in the first half, gave the ball away needlessly and was caught out of position) etc, but we've got no one to take his place. lets hope sparky sorts out gresko for the left back spot next season, or we'd really need a pair of fullbacks.

finally, anyone worried about the arsenal game? after tonight's lung bursting non-stop running performance, i'm just a tad worried that we'd be knackered against arse. however, i said i will trade a defeat on saturday for a cup victory... so i'm not too bothered as yet

[philipl]

An excellent point.

I didn't see the game so I can only read that we were superbly organised defensively from front to back and a Liverpool side which has been getting into its stride recently were pulled up short at Anfield last night.

Let's get ready for the onslaught of criticism and hatred for our boring and negative style of play although the following reports are not too hard on us:

The Guardian

Snore draw

The Independent rightly recognises our achievement.

This seems a fair report by the Telegraph

Oliver Holt in The Times is also pretty fair to us

I am beginning to feel very excited about Aaron Mokoena. It's taken a bit longer than Nelsen, but it seems that he too could be a world class gem.

Sparky's big challenge is how can he play 4-4-2 with Mokoena in the side- a Savage and Mokoena midfield?

Or perhaps we go the whole Chelsea and opt for a lone striker of real power and class. In that case, Bellamy, who is saying he wants to stay at Celtic, is not the option.

A dumb thought, but perhaps this Rovers team with Shearer up front would be Premiership challengers although the Chelsea of 04/05 would easilly beat the Man U of 94/5 in terms of quality of title contenders.

I'll get my tin hat.

Edited March 17, 2005 by philipl