[Archived] Rovers Performers/underperformers This Season

[Rover down South]

From what I have seen of Blackburn this season, Friedel has been fantastic, Samba has been immense & Santa Cruz has been impressive. Dunn has played a lot better than last season.

Pedersen has been largely disappointing as has McCarthy at times. I feel that these two are nearing the exit at Ewood Park. Pedersen has seriously dipped in form & McCarthy just doesn't show the hunger he had last season.

Any other views on this.

[Lurid Coat]

Agreed, both MGP and McCarthy have been largely disappointing in my book. I also think Nelsen has been a slight disappointment. The same goes for Bentley, although I hope he's back on track now. Tugay is a legend, but he's not been particularly instrumental this season - this might be a season too far for him. Robbie Sav, one of my favourite Rovers players, have been weaker than I'd hoped for before the season started.

Friedel, Warnock, Samba, Dunn, Ooijer and Santa Cruz are the "performers of the season" thus far, IMO. Especially Santa Cruz has been excellent, and Friedel has been his usual fabulous self (save for that blunder).

My post might come off as pretty negative, but I think there are some issues that need to be adressed when it comes to our performances so far this season. Some of our players seem to be prone to concentration lapses (Nelsen, for instance), others just disappear for long periods of the game (Bentley), whereas MGP and McCarthy need to sort out their form or face a lengthy bench warming period.

[philipl]

You work for the Mirror don't you?

Well we know who is in your next snippets about leaving the Rovers.

And the wierd thing is that all these disappointing players have taken Rovers to the second best season start since we won the title.

[tchocky]

Yeah, he's crap that Benni Mac, only scored 8 goals in 16 starts this season. Ship him out!

Gamst has underperformed, but still has more goals/assists than any of our other midfielders bar Bentley. Talk of an exit is premature IMO.

[Eddie]

MGP has been the big one, but Nelsen has also been below par in most games, leading to our very poor defensive record. Benni started the season badly, but he has been great in every area since then. I know many don't agree, but for me Bentley hasn't been good enough in most games. Tugay has also had more bad games than good so far.

Our best performers have been Warnock, Santa Cruz, Benni (last few games), Friedel, Samba and Emerton.

Dunn is close to being in that list, but what that does show is the problem we have in central midfield. None of the players are doing horribly, but they aren't commanding the game like we will need them to if we want to keep progressing and win the majority of our games. Savage started the season quite well so I will be interested to see how he does when he is back in the team.

[frosty]

I don't think McCarthy has underperformed at all, but Pedersen definetely has. The bad thing is with Pedersen I don't know whether he will improve or whether his current performance standard is his average!

[roversmum]

I have noticed Peds getting us out of a couple of dodgy situations round the opposition box though. He knows as well as anyone he isn't doing as well as he can.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

MGP adds a lot more to the team than I think people give him credit for - Wilcox immediately springs to mind - why do we seem to have it in for left wingers ?

Lets not forget, that in all his time at Rovers, for whatever reason his season always seems to start poorly - and he kicks on in the second half of the season. Unless we get a decent fee for him - I think talk of any sale would be a little premature.

For me Nelsen has been a big disappointment - not that he has played badly, but is behind the high standards of previous seasons.

I struggle to think of a player that hasn't contributed in some way or other - probably only Samba has played well in most matches. Overall a great team effort to put us in a good position to kick on in the 2nd half of the season.

Actually, one major disappointment - don't know if it has been because of injury, bad form, or bad behaviour - but I had hoped that MGP's dip in form would have seen Peter grab his chance - and yet all I see is that he wants to go back to Germany. A shame for a player that looked so promising.

[joey_big_nose]

I would say all of our squad are performing well with the only exception being MGP. Nelsen has not played so well but is still a high quality Premiership defender. Tugay has lost his sparkle but still servicable.

Cruz, Ooijer, Warnock, Emerton, Samba, Dunn, Bentley, Roberts (in the few occasions he has come on) have all played above or well above my expectaions.

[stuwilky]

I wonder how we would all feel if MGP was not responsible for taking many set pieces and therefore didnt hit the first defender 6 times each week?

[Blackpool_Rover]

Who cares

Look at the season were enjoying. Look at the start weve had. It doesn't get much better than this for a club like ours. The most important thing is we are playing as a squad...everyone from santa cruz to fringe players like mokoenna have been doing their jobs well. Just because Pedersen isnt showing the scoring form of previous years doesn't mean hes not been important for us.

We should sit back, relax and enjoy this excellent season while we can.

[Eddie]

I sometimes wonder whether or not people are looking at the sam eleague position as I am. Don't get me wrong, we've had a good start and at this point in the season we're still in with a of getting into the top four and a good chance of making it into the top six, but that doesn't mean we've had an amazing year. My point is we still find ourselves in the same group of sides we would have expected. Any points we've gained (draws against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea) have then been lost against sides we would have expected to pick more points up against (Fulham, Portsmouth and Villa); not to mention the fact that we were the first English side to go out of Europe. As I said, this is still a good season and we could make it a great one, but sitting in 8th at this point of the year is hardly an amazingly good start, at least for me.

[Ozz]

My god Eddie-I agree!!

However, the overall quality of the play, barring a couple of aberrations, is providing much more optimism than is normally found before Christmas at Ewood. This is why it feels better than it may look on paper young man.

[LeftWinger]

As I said, this is still a good season and we could make it a great one, but sitting in 8th at this point of the year is hardly an amazingly good start, at least for me.

Considering the start we've had in previous years - I think it's an excellent start. Being out of Europe will help our league form - and we always finish strongly.

[Eddie]

However, the overall quality of the play, barring a couple of aberrations, is providing much more optimism than is normally found before Christmas at Ewood. This is why it feels better than it may look on paper young man.

I'd agree with that, although our defensive performances in the past few weaks really have me worried.

[Rover Down Under]

Performers of the season so far:

1. Samba's right leg

2. Samba's left leg

3. Samba's head

Mentioned in dispatches: Emerton for being so good at being consistently good no-one notices him

Underperformers:

1. The fudging drummers

2. Some of the fans (the boo boys, the overly-critical and the non-singers)

3. The new announcer

Mentioned in dispatches: The all too often appalling refs / linesmen

[Lathund]

I want to single out Andre Ooijer for praise here. Not necessarily because he's been our best player, but because he's really proven that the poor start to his Rovers career was a fluke and that he is indeed a quality defender, whether at right back or in the centre. A lot of people kept slagging him off even when he was playing well, because they still had his first couple of games on their mind which really affected their view of how he played later on (If you believe someone to be a poor player, his performances will seem worse than they are. And vice versa). He's proven a lot of those people wrong by now.

[gumboots]

Got to agree about the new announcer being the underperformer of the season so far. I feel i could do a better job and I'm no great shakes as a public speaker. Just a bit of a clue as to what he's on about might help like knowing it's away at Wigan on the 15th and not at home. If that were me in front of 20 000 plus people I'd make sure my script was right at the very least.

[Eddie]

Got to bring this back up. Our season now falls below expectations for me. We're outside of the European spots, we're out of Europe itself and we can't defend to save our lives. We have big problems at the back for whatever reason and this is a real test of Hughes.

[T4E]

Mentioned in dispatches: Emerton for being so good at being consistently good no-one notices him

Are you having a laugh?

[Eddie]

Emerton's big problem today was Dunn. Dunn offered him no defensive cover and also rarely stayed out wide, meaning the runs that Emerton made, which are usually overlapping ones, were simply the only runs out wide. This meant that he was always covered by one or two defenders and had no space to run into. He had a bad game, as did every player on that pitch, but it wasn't entirely down to his own poor play.

[Mr. E]

MGP, Dunn, Mokoena, Tugay, = not good enough. As substitute players they can be useful, but we need to add a hell of a lot more quality into the midfield. Bentley can't do it alone, and when he's not playing we can do nothing. I would hope that Savage and Reid can improve our state, but Hughes doesn't seem to trust them right now.

As for Santa...I think we should give him more time, but he's costing us right now. He needs to improve his finishing and start creating more chances on his own - just holding up the ball isn't good enough.

[bluebruce]

MGP, Dunn, Mokoena, Tugay, = not good enough. As substitute players they can be useful, but we need to add a hell of a lot more quality into the midfield. Bentley can't do it alone, and when he's not playing we can do nothing. I would hope that Savage and Reid can improve our state, but Hughes doesn't seem to trust them right now.

I agree, I feel our midfield needs some heavy surgery if we want to climb above the likes of Villa, Pompey, City, Everton. The players we have are good substitutes for that kind of level, but not good enough to give us the edge over, or in some cases even match, our rivals. One excellent centre mid would make all the difference...what I wouldn't give for a player like Arteta.