[Archived] Fulham 2-1 Rovers

[allan]

Although Bentley is talented with the ball at his feet and probably is a star turn in 5-a-sides he lacks both the physique and positional sense to cope on tyhe Prem. He wastes a large amount of possession and rarely plays a telling pass. He may have ambitions to follow Bergkamp but dream on. Kuqi provides far more problems for the opposition as he proves time afetr time coming on to rescue a result.

[andyrovers]

To be fair it was your own fault 

367577[/snapback]

Yeah.....................

[Exiled_Rover]

Bently made some good runs!!, is that what it takes to be a striker for Blackburn these days, how about setting up some chances or having a decent shot on goal. I'm not sure how he gets in the team to be honest, he's very wasteful. maybe he was as cold as me

You mean like the chance he laid to Emerton on a plate?

[jim mk2]

I tottered away from Craven Cottage (having had a barrel load of whisky trying to keep warm) thoroughly fed up after another abject performance that was a disgrace to the famous blue-and-white halved shirt.

I have had enough of half-hearted displays from Emerton and sincerely hopes he leaves the club in the transfer window and the sooner Delaney replaces the idiotic Neill the better. That they are both Australian is only a co-incidence.

Hughes needs to get back to basics and make Rovers the difficult team to beat that somehow managed to avoid relegation last season. If that means a packed midfield with Mokoena in the team to protect the defence then so be it.

After watching Rovers condede so many soft goals this season a few 0-0 draws would make me exceedingly happy.

[LeChuck]

Hughes needs to get back to basics and make Rovers the difficult team to beat that somehow managed to avoid relegation last season. If that means a packed midfield with Mokoena in the team to protect the defence then so be it.

367639[/snapback]

Why on earth would you want that?

We're 12th in the table, there's no way we'd be higher than that with a defensive 4-5-1 formation that we played in the past. The back four has been changed so often in recent weeks that it's no suprise we conceding goals.

Once we get the back four settled again we'll stop conceding as many, a return to a 4-5-1 with Mokoena in midfield would be a gigantic step backwards...thankfully, it's not one I think Sparky will choose to do. He knows we can play attractive football and be a solid defensive unit, I'd be utterly distraught if we went back to how we used to play.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Woops. I made a mistake in my earlier piece by posting that we had conceded 28 Premiership goals. We have in fact only conceded 24 Premiership goals.

Next time I'll make sure that I check the tables properly before posting.

[Eddie]

The thing I'm getting most tired of is being on here one week after a win and hearing us praised from all sources then the next weekend half of you suddenly saying we are lucky not to be in the relegation fight.

[roversWASmylife]

Should have done better, can't do much more about it now.

[USABlue]

I wonder why it is I questioned MGP's form a few weeks ago and was told off. Here we are a few weeks later and more and more are wondering why he has gone pants.

[Ozz]

The thing I'm getting most tired of is being on here one week after a win and hearing us praised from all sources then the next weekend half of you suddenly saying we are lucky not to be in the relegation fight.

367644[/snapback]

Agreed. This is, and has always been Rovers in a nutshell.

[des]

while the defence has not played well for the last few games, To be fair to them, it keeps on being changed. The one area which needs to be the same is the back four.

[chris]

Agreed. This is, and has always been Rovers in a nutshell.

367647[/snapback]

this is every fan from every cvlub in thwe whole world in a nutshell, i mean look at Man U, you will always gets fans complaining about something

its the same everywhere

[Yorick]

Why on earth would you want that? 

We're 12th in the table, there's no way we'd be higher than that with a defensive 4-5-1 formation that we played in the past.  The back four has been changed so often in recent weeks that it's no suprise we conceding goals.

Once we get the back four settled again we'll stop conceding as many, a return to a 4-5-1 with Mokoena in midfield would be a gigantic step backwards...thankfully, it's not one I think Sparky will choose to do.  He knows we can play attractive football and be a solid defensive unit, I'd be utterly distraught if we went back to how we used to play.

367640[/snapback]

Well it would be 4-5-1 away from home every time for me. Chelsea just made Arsenal look fairly ordinary playing that formation.

[Neil Weaver]

The thing I'm getting most tired of is being on here one week after a win and hearing us praised from all sources then the next weekend half of you suddenly saying we are lucky not to be in the relegation fight.

367644[/snapback]

Won't be long before you get used to it Eddie. White one week, black the next according to some posters (no I wasn't thinking of BP and drog). The truth lies somewhere in the grey. If Bert could head on target we'd have got at least a draw on Sat, and on balance a draw would have been about right. But it could have been a draw against West Ham - on balance, I'd take a win and a loss rather than two draws.

Jim's got a point (ho ho) though - it would help if we could stop the goals against so we didn't have to score one or two just to get a point.

[LeChuck]

Well it would be 4-5-1 away from home every time for me.  Chelsea just made Arsenal look fairly ordinary playing that formation.

367656[/snapback]

Chelsea make that formation work because they have attacking players like Robben/Cole/Duff/Lampard/Drogba who can win games on their own, we simply don't have the firepower to sacrifice an attacking player if we wish to be a half-entertaining side.

[John]

Kuqi has not been particularly impressive when he has started games but has a presence when he plays. Bentley showed a few nice touches but struggles to impose himself in the game. One of his best bits came when he dribbled from the right and beat a few people – at least he has the confidence to do so…

How much longer will Hughes persist with Emerton? Thompson is desperate to come on and he must be thinking ‘what more do I have to do’… I would understand it perhaps if he was being kept back from a fitness point of view. However, he has been back for a while now.

Mickey Gray does an adequate job but he seems to be playing too many pointless long balls to no one up front. Too many sloppy passes which go to the opposition invites pressure on us.

Hughes in his post match interview re-iterated that we like to get the ball down and play (which we do)… whether we have the players to do so is another matter.

[Yorick]

Chelsea make that formation work because they have attacking players like Robben/Cole/Duff/Lampard/Drogba who can win games on their own, we simply don't have the firepower to sacrifice an attacking player if we wish to be a half-entertaining side.

367663[/snapback]

That doesn't add up. By your reasoning Chelsea should be playing 4-3-3!

Sure Chelsea have better players than us but their players should not be faster or fitter than ours should they? It's quite reasonable to try and emulate Chelsea's tactics and performance against Arsenal yesteday against the teams around us isn't it?.

Anyway we dont want to be entertaining away from home. Its survival football in the English Prem we are talking about not the flippin X Factor. Pure speculation on my part but I'd wager that if we had played 4-5-1 away all season that we would have more away points in the bag than we have got so far. Our away form last year playing 4-5-1 was excellent for a relegation threatened team it was playing 4-5-1 at home that caused the problems with entertainment and dropped points. As I said earlier the key is Bellamy. He cannot play 4-5-1 but then again he can't play any system when he is out injured.

Edited December 19, 2005 by Yorick

[Crunching Tackler]

That doesn't add up.  By your reasoning Chelsea should be playing 4-3-3!

Sure Chelsea have better players than us but their players should not be faster or fitter than ours should they?  It's quite reasonable to try and emulate Chelsea's  tactics and performance against Arsenal yesteday against the teams around us isn't it?. 

Anyway we dont want to be entertaining away from home.  Its survival football in the English Prem we are talking about not the flippin X Factor.  Pure speculation on my part but I'd wager that if we had played 4-5-1 away all season that we would have more away points in the bag than we have got so far.

367708[/snapback]

What are you on about?!?!?

"emulate Chelsea's tactics and performance against Arsenal..."

I think i need to point out that rovers don't have the same kind of players, manager or coaches. what you are asking is absurd

[philipl]

Whilst we are talking about Chelsea and Bentley, this comment by Richard Williams in The Guardian this morning is aposite:

"Not for the first time it seemed appropriate to reflect on Wenger's apparent distaste for the home-bred products of his own academy. Whereas Jose Mourinho has taken three talented Englishmen and made them into even better players, Wenger has shown no similar inclination.

"It is instructive to contrast the unsteady progress of David Bentley, a 21-year-old playmaker now on a season's loan at Blackburn Rovers, with that of Cole, once a player of similarly precocious gifts. Yesterday the Chelsea man demonstrated Mourinho's success in persuading him to blend his exquisite technique with a ravenous appetite for hard work."

Hopefully, Mark Hughes and David Bentley both read that and accept the challenge.

[Yorick]

What are you on about?!?!?

"emulate Chelsea's tactics and performance against Arsenal..."

I think i need to point out that rovers don't have the same kind of players, manager or coaches. what you are asking is absurd

367709[/snapback]

If you quote me fully and read slower it might make more sense to you. I think I need to point out that the operative phrase that you failed to quote was 'against teams around us'. Sure we do not have the talent to dispose of Arsenal as esaily as Chelsea did but we should be able to do well against teams out of the top 6. (btw I know Arse ARE out of the top six but you know what I mean I hope) We did OK last season so whats different this year? Look at our promotion year, we played many games 3-5-2 because we could afford to when playing poorer opposition, but when we tried it in the Prem and got found out in quick time by teams with faster and more skillful forwards we had to abandon the system.

Edited December 19, 2005 by Yorick

[krislu]

Sure Chelsea have better players than us but their players should not be faster or fitter than ours should they?

367708[/snapback]

Haha, are you serious? We might well have the poorest team in the PL in terms of real pace, of course the likes of Robben, Duff, Drogba, Cole are way "faster" than MGP/Emerton/Bentley/Dickov.

Our team lacks pace, therfore its hard for us to play effective counter atticking football. Our wingers are just to slow, so is our defense.

[Crunching Tackler]

If you quote me fully and read slower it might make more sense to you.    I think I need to point out that the operative phrase that you failed to quote was 'against teams around us'.  Sure we do not have the talent to dispose of Arsenal as esaily as Chelsea did but we should be able to do well against teams out of the top 6.  (btw I know Arse ARE out of the top six but you know what I mean I hope) We did OK last season so whats different this year?  Look at our promotion year, we played many games 3-5-2 because we could afford to when playing poorer opposition, but when we tried it in the Prem and got found out in quick time by teams with faster and more skillful forwards we had to abandon the system.

367714[/snapback]

didn't we do that against everton and lost 2-0???

[Presty On Tour]

rubbish against fulham!!

was watching soccer saturday and i thought they looked well up for it when they showed the coverage of them coming from the cark park onto the pitch!!

wot happened??? we just didn't play at all!!!

hope we sort it out on wednesday, i really wants to go to cardiff again!!

[Exiled_Rover]

Haha, are you serious? We might well have the poorest team in the PL in terms of real pace, of course the likes of Robben, Duff, Drogba, Cole are way "faster" than MGP/Emerton/Bentley/Dickov.

Our team lacks pace, therfore its hard for us to play effective counter atticking football. Our wingers are just to slow, so is our defense.

367717[/snapback]

Emerton's pretty quick, but I see your point. We've lacked pace in the side for a while now - Bellamy has been a breath of fresh air in that department.

[BRFC4EVA]

Very frustrating on saturday, Dickov's shoot deserved to go in and reward the superb Rovers support that sang 'barmy army' for most of the last 20mins. It was a game where key points made the difference, Emerton not scoring the open goal, Peds hitting the bar, rather than going in the top corner, and Dickov being offside when perhaps on would have changed the result of the game.

We played reasonably well from start to finish, and im pretty sure that the free kick for their 1st goal was not a free kick. Savage was our best player for sure on saturday, whereas tugay was quiet. I have to admit, i dont like the bently behind Dickov lark that Hughes is doing at the moment would like to see a more out and out front 2. Dickov played well to be fair tho.

We need Bellamy back as soon as poss, i guess that goes without saying. Boro defense looked a little shaky against spurs so im still hopeful that we can get 2 favourable results against them this week. We're due some bloody luck after all!

Edited December 19, 2005 by BRFC4EVA