[Archived] Mypa-47 V Rovers

[Hypo-Luxa]

Rovers seem to be the mastaers at playing up/down to the level of their opponents. If it's a rubbish side, they play poorly and sometimes get bitten by this. If playing quality sides they tend to up the competition levels. This is why I think Rovers will be competitive on Sunday, regardless of how poor they looked today.

[Rover down South]

Very poor performance but great result in terms of an away goal etc.

Positives:

Santa Cruz - Not just his class goal, but his touches look good, looking forward to seeing up front with McCarthy, hopefully Benni can feed off him

Samba - Is improving & his tackling, although not pretty, saved us on a few occasions today & he is forming a solid partnership with Nelsen.

Derbyshire - Looks keen when he is on the pitch & gives 110%

Negatives:

Ooijer - Looked great as a centre back last year, unfortunately he doesn't know what to do when goes forward when at right back (compare him with what Warnock does, overlaps & gets a cross in, Ooijer overlaps & doesn't know what to do) He is a quality centre back though, great cover for Samba or Nelsen.

Savage - Is not the same player as last season, he pulls out of challenges & we can't afford him to do that in big games, i.e Arsenal on sunday.

Tugay - Great cameo appearance, his passing is sublime, but his legs cannot cope with 90 mins in possibly 3 games in 8 days (sat, thurs, sun)

Roberts - Not sure about him, inconsistent at times & he may soon slip to 4th choice behind McCarthy, Santa Cruz & Derbs. He may then become disgruntled.

This is just my opinion & after all we have achieved two wins in two. It is a long season & we are very strong all over the pitch except centre midfield & right back, most of us have noticed it. I just hope Mark Hughes has something up his sleeve before the window closes. That performance today just makes me a bit worried, we should of come home with a 3 or 4 goal advantage so Hughes could give some fringe players a run, but now we need to play pretty much full strength again.

[Roar of the Rover]

I think Sparky should've given a Rigters some minutes under his belt, i don't think he was even in the squad? The lad needs some games to settle in.

[Rover down South]

I think Sparky should've given a Rigters some minutes under his belt, i don't think he was even in the squad? The lad needs some games to settle in.

If we'd got a convincing win today he could have had 90 mins in the return leg. Think he still should play him then anyway.

[matt65]

I think Sparky should've given a Rigters some minutes under his belt, i don't think he was even in the squad? The lad needs some games to settle in.

im sure rigters was named as a sub,on jason roberts does anyone else find it frustrating that when he gets in a decent

shooting position he always seems to hit the keeper going for the near post,i was always taught to shoot across them.

[jrabrfc]

Let's all take a deep breath shall we? In previous European games before Mark Hughes we'd have lost today. As it is, we're 1-0 up against a poor side who we'll brush aside in the next leg. With regards to Arsenal tonight's match means nothing, the players will be up for the game and we'll see a far more commited response. Don't panic!

[kevinyip]

I think we need not be panic. We cannot relate the performance directly with this match with Arsenal. Mypa is not a strong team so we need not use up 100% effort to beat them. Of course it will be better if we can have 2-0 or 3-0 up. However, when we look at Liverpool, she can only beat their opposite team with 1-0 just like us. So this result is not bad actually. At least we win, isn't it? There are some time before that we play "beautiful" football and we lose. But this year we play "ugly" and we win. I would like to have a win by playing "ugly" football rather than we play with great performance but we lose.

[Jan]

As others have said, we are talking about a team who until last year had won, let me see how many was it, oh yes, precisely ONE game in Europe!!! (And that a dead game) We're being spoiled by having such a great manager who demands great things. This time last year- if we were in the same situation- we'd all be practically hyperventilating from the shock of having won 3 (count them) 3 games in Europe already!!

How quickly they forget!

And wasn't it nice that Hughes was clearly cross that we hadn't destroyed them in the first leg?

[thenodrog]

shooting position he always seems to hit the keeper going for the near post,i was always taught to shoot across them.

Me too...... I was self taught though. This is an issue that I had with MGP 2 years ago but he seems to have improved.

[thenodrog]

And wasn't it nice that Hughes was clearly cross that we hadn't destroyed them in the first leg?

imo Hughes looked like a bulldog licking p1ss off a nettle every time the camera was on him.

[roversmum]

True, theno. And doubtless most of the watching fans felt the same. Hopefully Mr H will lhave left the players in no doubt about those feelings and a few ears will be stinging this morning

[Flopsy]

I thought Cruz's goal was very well taken. Although two games and two goals a Shearer doesnt make. He appears at the moment to be proving me wrong.

Which is nice

[berkshireblue]

Let's all take a deep breath shall we? In previous European games before Mark Hughes we'd have lost today. As it is, we're 1-0 up against a poor side who we'll brush aside in the next leg. With regards to Arsenal tonight's match means nothing, the players will be up for the game and we'll see a far more commited response. Don't panic!

I didn't bother reading other pages as my sixth sense told me there would be doom and gloom on here but the first post I read had some sense thank f**k..

1-0 away against poor team without breaking sweat is job done, end of story 100% record bring on the gunners!

[LeftWinger]

Just be thankful we didn't lose - some people on here would be suicidal.

[Rovermatt]

By the time I got in from work, there was only ten minutes left of the game. Frankly I don't care that we struggled to ratchet up the score. They never threatened us and we got an away win in an inconvenient European qualifier. As David Brent would say: 'Next'.

Santa Cruz's goal was quality though.

[3rdpillar]

There has been some negative slants to some posts regarding our performace, but nothing to the "depressing" commentary from channel 5.

talkabout "talking a team down" ....

I enjoyed 3 point.END OF

[philipl]

Job done, no injuries and Santa again showing great promise in a Rovers jersey.

The next four games will tell us a huge amount about the coming season in the way none of the games played so far are any sort of indicator.

Who would have guessed that the fixture list of Arsenal H, Everton A, Chelsea A, Man City H would pitch us against the three early pace setters and that Arsenal aren't one of them...?

[3rdpillar]

A positive report.bbc

[Jordan]

Welcome from Helsinki the morning after the night before. Absolutely shattered.

Really good trip this one. I think we sold 93 tickets however that is minus the corporates. We found a Blanket in a bus station on Wednesday night and ended up carrying it around with us. We then took it into a night club placed it in the middle of a packed dance floor and have a bentley esq dance off. It then got taken to the game and we were chucking it about until John Newsham nicked it at the begginnging of the second half. Cracking atmpshpere...I dont think we stopped singing all game and at the end when the players game over to clap us we were all singing Livin of a Prayer.

Wont be back until tomorrow but I will get photos up as soon as possible.

Oh and by the way StuWilky.....you aint exactly thin!!!!!!!

See ya.

[DanLad]

talkabout "talking a team down" ....

I enjoyed 3 point.END OF

3 points? Eh?

[rover_groo]

As most people pointed out a poor enough performance, but we've kept a clean sheet and also scored an away goal. Will be a difficult enough task, but as long as we push in the 2nd leg, it should be enough to see us through! I don't really understand why Roberts gets a lot of critism. He doesn't set the world alight, but does his job upfront pushing himself around and creating changes for his strike partner. As for Samba a great defensive performance and is pretty decent on the ball as well. A great last ditch saving tackle in 2nd half.

Just saw Jordan on TV!!!

Eating

I think that he was also about to share the pie before the camera moved away!! Either that or I think the cameraman through someone tried to steal a bit of it from behind!!

[Ozz]

Emerton looked like he's put some weight on to me.

I thought Freidel, Bentley and MGP all looked like they had lost a lot of weight.

Crap match, the only time we looked any good was for about 10 minutes after Tugay and Emerton came on.

But as crap as we played, they were crapperer. Not expecting many on Ewood for the 2nd leg, esp as it is on CH5.

But as was mentioned earlier, 12 months ago the prospect of winning three Euro games in a row, scoring seven and not letting any in was a distant dream! Progress people, progress!

[Mike Graham]

just got back to the office in Liverpool after returning from MyPa.

Garbage game but what a brilliant craic for the fans.

Did you hear us??

ps. Jordan had a few pints!!

[DanLad]

I thought Freidel, Bentley and MGP all looked like they had lost a lot of weight.

My missus met MGP in a restaurant in Manchester a few months ago. She went up for a autograph for me!

She said he's surprisingly thin, although he was wearing a baggy tee shirt and jeans and that can make you look skinnier, apparently.

[SuperStella]

Is the goal online anywhere?