[Archived] Pre-season Friendlies

[brfcs5359]

I was at Wolves. The first half was all Rovers. Premiership against Championship and they looked poor. Whilst 95% of Rovers play was Hughes players playing like they did under Hughes, there were a few differences. The defence pushed up quicker. The ball was kept on the ground nearly all the time and players told to pass and move much more. A lot more into and back one touch at a quicker pace than Hughes.

Secopnd half Rovers contined in a stroll and Wolves came out fighting and to be fair they dominated a lacklustre blues, speckled with substitions, struggling to play against a competitive side.

Reid is surplus to requirements. Rubbish at RB. Mokeona is not good enough at all at anything. MGP had a good first half with no end product. Dunn was goodish (and captain). Judge looked neat, hard working, but bottled it at times in possesion choosing to pass safely back to Reid.

Cruz was Cruz. MattD is only effective with one or two touches around and in the box, apart from that the usual out of his depth, fluffing the one on one he had (well the keeper spread himself well).

Samba was good but defenders can look like they are having a shocker when they are having to cover the mistakes of their fellow defenders.

Warnock, Mr Jackyl and Hyde had his usual Jackyl game. So the next one will be a MOM Mr Hyde! (A sale to Newcastle for Nicky Shorey would be an excellent move IMHO as Shorey delivers some of the best crosses and set pieces in the PL and can defend.)

Robinson looks a english pudding keeper, got all the right moves but his teenage agility has deserted him long ago. Brad is a much better keeper but nearly over the hill.

Tugay, graceful 1st half against pedestrian championship, slow and lost against an athletic championship side second.

Of the subs. Fowler was shocking. A jog was the most he could manage. Come on, this is your last hurrah, a lifeline of chance for twilight memories. A jog???? He might just be fit enough to play as sub in the Masters Tournament. Credit though, his lay offs did nearly always find Rovers players.

Benni looked fat, not interested. Shame. A football 'car crash' at 29 for someone with mega talent in his boots, if not his brain. Next stop a desperate West Brom or Leeds before they boot him out, washed up at 33. And I have been a fan of his.

Roberts showed commitment and looked better, still clumsily though. Treacy seems to think the world owes his feet a paypacket and he need not try. Another Gallagher but without talent. Vogel looked average and unwanted, the last sub to get any time on the pitch.

Ince has had a disjointed pre-season. He needs to establish consistency and stability. Next weeks team being the team to play Everton.

Robinson ---- Simpson - Samba - Ooijar (capt) - Warnock ----

Emerton - Dunn - Carlos - MGP –––– Benni - Rocky

Subs Kinish, Brown, Roberts, Judge, Reid

[brfcshabba]

Subs Kinish, Brown, Roberts, Judge, Reid

and who else?

7 subs this season

[Veevs]

I dont get the Ince bashing.. nor the negative rubbish going on at the moment.. blimey even ManU have not had exactly what you would call a brilliant pre-season... and why because its about fitness and knowing your players..

e.g.

ManU v Orlando Pirates... 1-0

ManU v Kaiser cheifs... 1-1

ManU v Portsmouth 2-1

Should I go into other results.. like Everton loosing to Chicago!!!!

[1864roverite]

First the Thatcher thing (saying that she was a good PM)

I am sorry scotch BUT for once I can only agree with Gordon on this one. Mrs Thatcher WAS and IS the best ever thing to happen to Britain in the world of politics. There has never been anyone with BALLS to do what she did. Imagine Blair and his cronies now if they had the verve and nerve to do what she did and turn this country back on its feet. The truth of the matter is is that they DONT, WONT and never will have the bottle to stand up to the pc brigade, the morons and backbench wimps that have throttled the life out of this country.

If we don't finish above Hull and Stoke we may end up in League One in 2 years.

If we dont finish higher than Hull and Stoke then the clubs is ruined never mind being in league 1 we will have done a Man City and slipped down the leagues faster than the proverbial Swansea.

[Veevs]

First the Thatcher thing (saying that she was a good PM)

I am sorry scotch BUT for once I can only agree with Gordon on this one. Mrs Thatcher WAS and IS the best ever thing to happen to Britain in the world of politics. There has never been anyone with BALLS to do what she did. Imagine Blair and his cronies now if they had the verve and nerve to do what she did and turn this country back on its feet. The truth of the matter is is that they DONT, WONT and never will have the bottle to stand up to the pc brigade, the morons and backbench wimps that have throttled the life out of this country.

If we dont finish higher than Hull and Stoke then the clubs is ruined never mind being in league 1 we will have done a Man City and slipped down the leagues faster than the proverbial Swansea.

totally agree on the Iron Lady.. but politics and religion are things that maybe should be avioded here lol

[ultrablue]

Sorry, my post had no other intention but to create inappropiate inuendo.

Aha got it - bit slow nowadays me

[John]

How come some people forget to mention Nigel Winterburn - he is on our coaching staff as well remember! He must be having fun teaching the Axe new tricks.

Interesting seeing our present and past managers interviewed on SSN last night. One looked nervous as hell, the other had a clear sense of what he was trying to say. I get the feeling Ince is pressing the panic button and this could be reflected in a signing shortly...

Interesting (or scary) times ahead I think..........Ince was never my first choice, but I will back him all the way.

[Jan]

Good post Maji - apart from admitting you listen to rumours (joke!)

I'm not debating the merits of either 'team', just awaiting for evidence of qualification (no pun intended) to the comment about the Taffia being (paraphrasing here) one of the most highly qualified and rated young management teams in Europe....

I'm looking for proof of the taffia's qualifications that made them so highly qualified (in Europe no less). Also how do we KNOW they were so highly rated? Unless I'm proven wrong, I didn't see the countries we all hold up as bastions of good coaching, the top sides, the top names in the game casting envious glances at Ewood. I'm looking for cold, hard evidence of this claim - not opinions, not wikis, not fluff, not what their experience was. Seems to be the point the OP made is otherwise just opinion, as the argument does not work conversely. I certainly can't recall a mass swooning over them when they arrived for the same reasons? But now they've gone it's being used as a cheap shot at the Ince team methinks.

"Just the facts, ma'am" - otherwise it's another case of 'Modern Jackass'.........

OK- Hughes and Bowen got their qualifications in 2004, Eddie in 2006. Although Wikipedia is not the best source, I have no reason to doubt its accuracy in this case. Knox hadn't even done enough to get the "they've been doing it for years let them be qualified" version. Even Souness got that. And as for qualifications not being important- ######. Practical experience in any job only goes so far if you don't understand the theory behind it. It's the difference between being a mechanic and an engineer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_manag...EFA_Pro_Licence

[blue phil]

And as for qualifications not being important- ######. Practical experience in any job only goes so far if you don't understand the theory behind it. It's the difference between being a mechanic and an engineer.

You seem to have discounted the possibility that someone can understand the theory without having passed the exam ......

I liken all this nonsense talk about qualifications to a traffic cop pulling up Lewis Hamilton for speeding and telling him he knows nothing about driving .

I wonder how many Eufa licences and theory exams Cloughie and Taylor had between them .

[Hasta]

. And as for qualifications not being important- ######. Practical experience in any job only goes so far if you don't understand the theory behind it. It's the difference between being a mechanic and an engineer.]

Rubbish. It depends on the job and circumstance. I moved with no qualifications into my employment field at 17 and, over the last few years, have had numerous people working under me who have all got degrees but just basically aren't very good at the job.

[DingleBaiter]

Although Wikipedia is not the best source, I have no reason to doubt its accuracy in this case.

Okay Jan, two questions. Did you know/consult Wiki before you posted? Secondly, do you believe it's true simply cos it's on there?

As you correctly state, there is no reason to doubt it, but I'm sure you don't need telling how many times it's been spoofed to prove/disprove/undermine etc. (not that I'm in any way suggesting anybody altered it in this case to prove a point!)

So Eddie N, MH & Bowen all had the Pro licence? Well done to them, shows we recruited well! I guess we can include Glyn H too, although a diploma, he was still important at Ewood, or Brockhall to be pedantic.

Taking wiki as 'gospel' in this instance, it does seem the OP was at least half-right in the well qualified stakes; can't see many Prem sides having 4 out of the 5 positions holding Pro licences/diplomas. Therefore by comparison on that level at least, our present staff does look slightly underwhelming. Now can we establish exactly how they were rated as one of the best young management teams in Europe?

I do appreciate your answers though, I honestly didn't know for sure, and seemed to have been wrong about Mr Knox, and I bow to your greater knowledge & for enlightening me. Thanks - sincerely :-)

[DingleBaiter]

Rubbish. It depends on the job and circumstance. I moved with no qualifications into my employment field at 17 and, over the last few years, have had numerous people working under me who have all got degrees but just basically aren't very good at the job.

Question - Of the following two groups of people, who would the average man in the street look up to/respect more or aspire to be?

Alan Sugar/Richard Branson/Bill Gates/Warren Buffet/Duncan Bannatyne/Albert Einstein/JK Rowling

Richard Hawking/Noam Chomsky/James Watson/Stephen J Dubner/Malcolm Gladwell/Christopher Hitchens

i.e. thinkers - or achievers? The two lists aren't meant to be exhaustive, simply indicative. The first list has one common factor - all have experienced great success without, or after, educational/vocational failure. Second lists some of the greatest modern thinkers, or who are respected for their intelligence or educational/academic/scientific achievements.

Back to yesterday's game - looking at the posts here from attendees of yesterday's circus, it only proves one thing. Opinions can't be trusted.

[philipl]

Have to say I find it a bit scary that Archie Knox has no paperwork if its true. What's he been doing during his lengthy spells of leisure?

DB most of your top list dropped out of Uni having found something mote interesting to do. So not exactly untested by the prevailing academic system to have got there.

The worry about Ince and crew is they are simply too dense.

[John]

It is only fair for people to question our present coaching staff. It is very much a case of going into the unknown.

Fact is, our previous regime under MH were top quality and even though training was hard, the players really enjoyed coming into work each day (and had respect for them).

[berkshireblue]

Cant believe , actually I can , all this doom and gloom

Pre season is exactly that, it counts for nothing, its a chance to get ready for the season

Think last year or the year before villa lost all pre season games and were top after 3 games

Anyway give Ince and Team a chance if after 4 games we are looking poor then its a worry, but he's come into a dicey situation and needs time to assess the team

We need a RB and central midfield player he's got 2 weeks to find them and I am sure he will

[DingleBaiter]

For all the provisos about it only being a pre-season game, it was still worrying to watch for a lot of reasons.

Overall I just felt Rovers looked leggy, tired, dis-jointed, tactically unaware, naive, dis-interested and threadbare yesterday.

What worried me most yesterday was the second half. I always believe in seeing the upside of any situation, but I'm struggling to find one redeeming quality from that half.

First half was pretty good, accepting we couldn't pick Oojer or Emo (which could possibly have been in both RH positions) & in missing Nelsen with the Olympic thing going on.

Judge put in a good shift in first half and did all - and more - he could have been expected to do. Disagree that he always passed back to Reid, that poster must have missed the one-two only him & Derbs were tuned into early in the first half.

I worry about Samba's ability to marshall the defence; as good as he can be, I think he's t'ick and still feel Oojer & Zurab (based on last season) work well best together. Maybe they may not be a partnership for the season, but individually, I feel they are the two that can integrate better into that defence as a whole. I just feel big Chris will always be a secondary centre half, in that he needs someone alongside to cover/take charge more.

Robbo has always looked vulnerable to high balls into the box, and Friedel was exceptional at this - therefore I feel we're doubly vulnerable here. That first goal yesterday was shocking; for all Reid's commitment, he's never the most technical of players and as a defender I feel he stands-off too much. I'm sure they will look to address the defence under Winterburn, but yesterday I felt the first two goals were shockingly naive, and blame Warnock for the second as he lacked his usual commitment in the challenge at the start of that particular move.

I've always found it amusing when fans call footballers fat; given the stereotypical fan it is a bit of a kettle black pot calling exercise I think. However, an exception needs to made for Benedict. Don't ask how I know this, but the average body fat % is supposedly 25% for a male, and BM is currently 23%. *** just to clarify, by BM I mean Benni McCarthy, not Body Mass Index - we're talking about body fat percentage here***

Fine you may say, but on watching him yesterday it must make a lot of bloke Rovers fans think they should not give up on their dreams of one day playing for Rovers. Okay, it may be a build issue, he's no Rustie Lee yet, but there is certainly a distinct belly and backside issue to address, and they've been back four weeks. Maybe one for Lighter Life hey?

Treacy actually had our two best shots on goal in second half (maybe our only two) before he was dumped at left back.

Gamst has obviously peaked too soon is his early season form; whoever leaked them videos onto Youtube of the Benfica games hopefully isn't the guy that's done the Villanueva videos, or we're in the plop.

I know this is really fickle, but can't help feeling peeved Ince only responded to the Wolves fans singing his name. Even Robbo waved at the fans when they sung.

I felt we played some good possession in the first half but showed a tendency to want to hit a long, cross-field pass from wide without a reason why. At times our wingers caught this ball and moved on - namely Judge & Gamst once or twice, and feel in time this will be pivotal to our play in the season as I'm adamant we will go with five in midfield (or one in the hole behind Roque). Added to this recipe, once we get the right winger sorted I'm sure it will work, and hope we don't become a one-trick pony or over-reliant on Roque. Based on what I've seen so far - and it was apparent under Hughes too - I personally would rather we keep Derbs as a super-sub, offload Benni & Roberts (if needs be) and bring in an out-and-out pacy striker like Cisse/Mr Glass-legs, as upfront the one thing we don't have is pure pace - and it's always a fabulous option in the Premiership.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

''I know this is really fickle, but can't help feeling peeved Ince only responded to the Wolves fans singing his name. Even Robbo waved at the fans when they sung.''

Your not the only one who has mentioned this on both here and the official site,not good.....hope he doesn't do the same next Saturday!

How many Rovers fans travelled to Wolves btw and what was the feeling amongst them after the game and the above?

[DingleBaiter]

Your not the only one who has mentioned this on both here and the official site,not good.....hope he doesn't do the same next Saturday!

How many Rovers fans travelled to Wolves btw and what was the feeling amongst them after the game and the above?

Was hard to estimate amount of fans there, as sat right near front, but - and it's a complete guess - 500? Think there were 1000 tickets available, attendance was just over 10,000, tickets were available on the day but it was no more than 3/4 full of our allotment, so 750 at best??

As for feeling of the other fans, given Rovers fans have a default miserable tone generally, I felt it wise not to to engage anyone after that tripe. Felt it best to have a little Bagpuss nap all the way home, and still struggling for a positive comment 24 hours later.

Going by the maxim of 'if one can't say anything good, don't say anything', then we should all be mute by now.

[Jan]

''I know this is really fickle, but can't help feeling peeved Ince only responded to the Wolves fans singing his name. Even Robbo waved at the fans when they sung.''

Your not the only one who has mentioned this on both here and the official site,not good.....hope he doesn't do the same next Saturday!

How many Rovers fans travelled to Wolves btw and what was the feeling amongst them after the game and the above?

A few hundred. My friend said "at least the only way is up". I said "don't be too sure- we have Ince now". Someone behind me said, as they left just before the end "if that's the sort of fare we're getting this year, they're getting their season ticket back". There really was only the fact that it was a nice warm day as a positive.

[vintageadidas]

In PI's defence we only sang a half hearted - "Incey give us a wave" he probably didnt hear us and was sat in the stands for most of the first half.

The Wolves fans were considerbly louder than us and he was well liked there. We have no rivalry with them, so waving was not a problem to me.

It is always hard to judge how many are at a game but i would guesstimate - 350.

I did notice one thing, and has been mentioned previously. We did try and keep the ball on the floor - under MH we played alot of long balls.

I know a fair few on the coach back stated they are a little worried with what the season will bring. I think pre-season is nothing more than a fitness regime, so results dont matter. We could play 6 games against non-league teams and win them all - what does it show. Yes, it is good to get into the winning mentality but that should start on the 16th August.

[DingleBaiter]

Someone behind me said, as they left just before the end "if that's the sort of fare we're getting this year, they're getting their season ticket back".

Don't you just hate the goons that say such things? Kinda like the 27 muppets that handed their season tickets back the day Bellamy left.

If someone said that to me, I'd gladly offer to drive them to Ewood to be rid of the fools, or hand it back on their behalf.

If they want a sure thing, they can go watch United, work for the council or drive a Mercedes.

Ref tactics yesterday - and I suppose this is down to the definition of a long ball. After all, when Blackburn hit a 50 yarder, it's a long ball. Steven Gerrard hits one, it's a superb pass.

I've never, ever, ever understood our tendency to tippy-tap the ball along the back line, or backwards, only to result in a hoof - as you're always risking possession (100%) into a 50-50 ball. This was a function of the Harford coaching, and it stuck with us all through all the management teams. Kinda like our inbuilt tendency to play well against big sides and toss it off against the tiddlers, but that's a thread for another day.

I DO believe Ince fundamentally will try to play that much maligned phrase of 'good football', but it's all about having a system that the players can play primarily. If we keep hitting the long crossfield ball we tried to in the first 30 mins, we need to have two good wingers and good build-up play around the box. If we are going to play with strong possession from wide, we need two wingers and two good full backs.

It was a big loss not having the right side there yesterday, and Judge tried his lil cotton socks off, however Reid should have helped him more. Senior player, more experience, more encouragement. It was no coincidence he started playing more infield once he realised Reid wasn't overlapping right.

If Gamst is going to play as far inside as he did in the latter part of the second half, he should grow a right foot. Either that, or sing the Suzanne Vega song -

If you want me

You can find me

Left of center

Off of the strip

In the outskirts

In the fringes

In the corner

Out of the grip

[colin]

.............but it just shows the same thing that plagues Rovers season after season and that is a lack of CONSISTANCY!!!

The wind howls, a church bell tolls in the far distance, a tumbleweed rolls slowly across the screen..................

[dopper69]

If Gamst is going to play as far inside as he did in the latter part of the second half, he should grow a right foot. Either that, or sing the Suzanne Vega song -

Gamst is naturally right footed I believe

[Iceman]

Ince please play Vogel.i would even play, jason roberts at centre back,if the only other option is mokoena.

[DingleBaiter]

Gamst is naturally right footed I believe

In the Matrix?