[Archived] West Ham Versus Blackburn Rovers

[Saltysellars]

Here's my thoughts, and they've probably been echoed in some of the 400n + replies we've already had.

Robinson is a decent goalkeeper, but is evidently lacking confidence- BUT I don't think he's going to get much confidence playing behind that back four. For the life of me, and from the limited amount of Euro 2008 I saw, Andre Ooijer was top class at centre back for the Dutch-Why does it seem that Nelsen and Samba appear to be untouchable? Further to that, for what my opinion is worth, I'd give Zurab a run out as well. Nelsen and Samba obviously aren't working together.

Give Simpson a run out, if he's good enough for SAF at Old Trafford, then he'll do for me.

[American]

Give Simpson a run out, if he's good enough for SAF at Old Trafford, then he'll do for me.

The fact he's here on loan for the full season shows he might not be (at least, not yet)....

[Paulo]

Funny reading indeed, half the board are so blind to see we have serious problems, and the other half are well over the top. I'm in the middle but feel we have problems. We beat an Everton team who look awful, and got a last minute win, Everton are struggling as Nicko has suggested, then We draw at home to Hull, who got smashed by WIGAN, Then we lose away to West Ham, no big surprise. I watched the game yesterday and i honestly think Robinson is the no.1 problem, he looks so so bad, he's making our whole defence nervous when should be focusing on defending. Corners, Free kicks you name it, he's shoddy. Everyone on this board thought he was crap for Spurs and England so whats changed. I really think we'll lose so many goals down to him this season, 3 games in and he's been at fault for at least 3 goals, Tottenham couldn't get rid of him quick enough and we've been the mugs to sign him. My Mrs is Australian and speaking to her bro, Grella is a mistake, not making comment on yesterdays performance but we already have a better player for that position in Vogel. How many times have we heard Ince using excuses already, 'We came in late bla bla bla and are behind everyone else' is that going to be used all season. Everyone says teams like Villa Tottenham have overtaken us I'm not worried about them the real issue is WIGAN, SUNDERLAND, WEST HAM, are teams the have overtaken us. Rant over

Speaking of funny reading, your post is the winner. You must be having a bubble, bubble. Robbo aint the problem what so ever. Even king Friedel conceeded many many goals, he's a great keeper. The problem we have his midfielders who dont track back, hopefully Grella helps this. And we have 2 useless, over rated, clumsy, center backs in Nelsen and Samba. I know they both have some mistaken hero status at Ewood Park but the sooner someone see's the bigger picture the better concerning them two.

Wigan, Sunderland, West Ham over taken us?? Hmm, yeh after 3 games...aren't we screwed

[rogerjonesgloves]

2nd goal - Ashton is onside (just), should not have been allowed to be in that position in 1st place, defence at fault

Ashton is way onside--look in the left back position.

[blue phil]

I have now reached booing point with Pedersen. utterly ineffective yet again. Get him out of the team Ince.

Today may not have been his fault particularly but he does NOTHING, game after game.

Villanueve wil be 100 times the player in his position.

We need a proper right-back desparately. A lot of work to be done on the back four.

Andrews may not be Pele but he's better than Reid from what I saw today, another who shouldn't be playing.

I gave up on Pedersen ages ago - he is so much in the comfort zone he may as well take a sleeping bag onto the pitch .

Treacy did more in his time on the field yesterday than MGP has done in a full game for two seasons or so . Very encouraging .

Reid's position must also be under serious threat - he just doesn't provide enough imagination and I doubt his fitness levels .

Why Carlos wasn't introduced yesterday I just don't know . At 2-1 down he should have played behind the front two ( where he should have started anyway! ) .

As for the right back ; we've already got one - Emerton . A right winger is priority No 1 .

All in all I'm willing to forget this game - a defeat at West Ham mitigated by dodgy ref decisions and a missed penalty isn't the end of the world .

[Flopsy]

Sunday Telegraph report

Sounds fair, 4-1 is unfair on us, but our defence looks/ed dodgy.

Phil stop being so reasonable that I hvae to totally agree with you again

[blue phil]

You mean you're not going to censor it , Flopsy .....?

[Flopsy]

not this time, but dont let it happen again

[chocky]

3rd game of the season and some of you have relegated us already...In the end if the penalty had been scored and Derbs goal given we may have won 2-3..some times matches go this way..we have won matches we should not have and lost matches when we should have battered the opposition...We have the basis of a good team. It takes time to bed those players in especially when they are not used to the pace of the premiership. Give them a break and time to produce results. 4-1 flattered West Spam a lot. We have such a poor record there it is such a jinx.

[John]

My thoughts are quite similar to some of those posted already.

Another trip to West Ham and another defeat. I was not expecting to win before the match as our record there is woeful. However, we can only reflect on a very frustrating afternoon. Few comments below:

Robinson: He looks hesitant with certain things and this in my view leads to a lack of confidence at the back. I do think he can work on certain things and as a result improve.

Andre: thought he ducked out on a few 50/50 challenges yesterday.

Treacy: Talented player. I think Ince may give him a chance soon.

Grella: Too early to judge.

Reid: Hate to say it, but does not really add much to the team the way he is playing at the moment. His corners are pretty average as well. Much prefer it when a ball is whipped in rather than a nice floating cross!

Andrews: Really impressed with his performance. Added energy to the centre of the park. Ok distribution of the ball as well.

On subs generally, I like the way, in contrast to Hughes, Ince does not leave it until the last 2 minutes to bring someone on to try and change the course of the game.

Really got to learn to get the basics right when defending, or it could become a long hard season. Overall, we had some good chances to win the game, but bad refereeing & bad finishing did not help our cause.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

For me we had the same problem at West Ham that we had last season - Samba's inability to cope with centre forward with some pace & strength. He had the same problem at West Ham last season - and also looked iffy against Wigan (and Heskey).

For me Samba has yet to reach the heights he did in his early career at Rovers. He seems to have started off in the same way he ended last season - looking at best average, putting in the odd unbelievable challenge - but on the whole looking less than convincing.

I think it is time to take him out of the firing line - and get him back to basics. Our other centre-halfs may not be as quick, or as tall - but have better positional sense - and will play better as a unit IMO.

[tcj_jones]

Only just got a chance to get on the internet since Saturday.

What a shocking performance that was. West Ham didn't play well, we were just poor.

My blood boiled when I saw Jason Roberts being allowed to take the penalty. After that shocking penalty he took last season, what does he do? The EXACT same thing. I almost didn't wanna watch the kick because I knew he was gonna miss. I'm still angry about it. In football, you can lose a game on a poor refereeing decision, a moment of individual brilliance or a bad mistake. Therefore, it is SO important that you help yourself out on the simple things, like penalties. FFS just because he's a forward, doesn't mean he should automatically be taking penalties. I'd dock his wages for such a shocking effort! Otherwise, I thought he played really well and scored a quality goal.

It's official: Brett Emerton is THE worst right midfielder in the league. Every time he gets the ball he checks, stops, looks around, waits... cuts inside and loses the ball. If this is what we're going to be relying on until christmas then we have a long, long season ahead.

Likewise, Steven Reid is not Premier League quality. He was so, so, so terrible in the first half, I couldn't quite believe it.

Robinson had a good game, except he was at fault AGAIN on a ball into the box. Had he stayed on his line, that probably would have been saved. If Brad were in goal, it wouldn't have gone in.

Noble and Parker absolutely dominated our midfield first half. At least Keith Andrews had the right idea in the second trying to get the ball, carry it forward and bring it down and play. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have the quality to change the game. Also, why didn't Ince bring Carlos on? He was exactly the sort of spark we needed second half.

On the plus side, Treacy looks QUALITY. I was very impressed with him and I'd actually start him in our next league game. He looks a real prospect and I'm excited about having a winger who can beat a man and put a quality ball into the box again.

[CrazyIvan]

Robinson had a good game, except he was at fault AGAIN on a ball into the box. Had he stayed on his line, that probably would have been saved. If Brad were in goal, it wouldn't have gone in.

Brad did exactly what Robbo did in the Villa game yesterday, came halfway and got stuck in no-mans land. Fortunately for him, the defender hadn't lost his man.

[alexanders]

A decent game. Very entertaining, but very dissapointing at the end. Agree with everyone that Roberts should never take a pen anymore!

Happy with both of the newcomers and think they will both come handy during the season.

Vince Grella:

Clearly handicapped after the yellow card after just 6 minutes. He looks tough and he broke down at least 3 attacks from the opposition. He also had some nice passing and decent diagonal passes. I think most of the blame is rather Reid, who didn't do a squat together with him in midfield.

Andrews:

Looked very promising. Had some good runs towards the oppositions box and also helped us on the defence. I think Andrews also looked very promising offensively. He was always trying to create chances for himself and I actually think he will score some goals. Maybe 5-6.

[Saltysellars]

My blood boiled when I saw Jason Roberts being allowed to take the penalty. After that shocking penalty he took last season, what does he do?

On the plus side, Treacy looks QUALITY. I was very impressed with him and I'd actually start him in our next league game. He looks a real prospect and I'm excited about having a winger who can beat a man and put a quality ball into the box again.

Who did Roberts miss against last season from the spot please?

[CAPT KAYOS]

What the game should have done is raised some questions and put answers to some. - especially to Ince.

1. Been said a thousand times we never win at Wham.

2. Reid is no longer a Premiership player.

3. Pedersen needs dropping - we now have somebody else to give a chance to.

4. Roberts should never be allowed to take penalties as we have all seen before - he is not a great striker of a

ball as we all know.

5. Nelsen and Samba are not a good partnership.

6. We have conceded alot of goals and its only early season and yet again mostly easy goals for the opposition -

it may be early doors but what is our new defensive coach doing as the defence looks worse than ever?

7. No Internationals this week - so what's the excuse?

8. Emerton is ineffective as a right mid.

9. How can we not beat Hull yet Wigan put 5 past them.

10. Officials do not like Rovers.

11. It might not reflect the game but you don't get beat 4-1 if you are playing well - especially off a team that

has been tubbed the week before and has problems from within (unless of course you are the Rovers ..

mmm seem to remember a similar scenario last season

12. Without Dunn or a n other playmaker we are effectively null and proves that Bentley was very strong, as he

was the Water Carrier and Server and as somebody has already posted - also the carrier of a few players

as well.

13. We must beat Arsenal in the next game.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Samba is talented and has all the attributes to become a very good centre back, his peak should be some time away. But he needs to be dropped, he needs to know that if he underperforms there are players in the squad that will come in and he will have to fight for his place back. It could give him the kick up the backside he needs.

[tcj_jones]

Who did Roberts miss against last season from the spot please?

I can't actually remember SS. McCarthy took the first penalty, took it poorly and had it saved (he isn't the best penalty taker either), then Roberts took the second and shot even more poorly. It was basically the exact same penalty as he took on Saturday.

If you take a penalty and look to place it to the keepers left, it has to either be right into the corner or side netting or you have to have sent the keeper the wrong way. I could see Green, from the other end of the ground, I might add, move a massive stride to his left BEFORE Roberts took the kick. He knew where it was going and Roberts wasn't even watching his movement. Just an awful penalty taker. Is that three he's taken for Rovers and missed now?

Robin Van Persie, now he' a penalty taker. Same corner, placed with power and absolute precision.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

The Bolton penalty misses were the season before last.

Last season we did 'em 4-1.

[tcj_jones]

Ah OK, my mistake. Wow, doesn't seem that long ago.

[mattyboy6000]

probably already been said but..

-drop samba move oojier /khizi alongside reid

-emerton/brown to right back

-blood villaneuva

then things could be alright.

[sylar]

Who had the assist to Roberts goal? I thought it was Grella, but he has't got the assist points on Fantasy...

[Rover Down Under]

==I WATCHED THE GAME==

I've read a lot of the drivel and it was pretty simple, we were handicapped by:

- Dunn being out

- Rocky being injured

But most importantly an abysmal ref who seemed hellbent on making sure we lost so he wouldn't have to endure a pitch invasion by Whammers wanting to rip Ince's head off. I reckon even with Dunn, Rocky and Carlos we would have lost. There were so many poor and inconsistent decisions, the first being booking Grella - he basically nullified our defensive midfielder for 39 minutes. Then there was Roberts, booked for boiling over and Ooijer for I don't know what and Emo for a fine tackle. No cards for the handball or the last man foul. I'm used to crappy refereeing but that really took the entire biscuit tin.

We did not play badly. West Spam played way above their level, like a cup final for them and won with a very flattering scoreline. The irony is it will hurt them more than us cos if they'd lost, Curbishley would be job hunting...hopefully he will still be there when they visit Ewood and we crucify them.

I still have faith in Ince and the team, he does need to drop Reid though, he just hasn't got it anymore and offers next to nothing.

[waggy]

watched the game on some dodgy tv channel,thought we played well apart from two mistakes,one by samba and one by the officials.oojer needs to play centre back instead off samba, suprisingly how well the defeat went down after 10 pints

[tcj_jones]

It's not all bad - apparently I got shown on Match of the Day