[Archived] Arsenal Preview

[chris]

i wish i could complain, but we don't deserve to win games this season, lack of ambition and this is what we deserve, simple as that

hope we stay up though

[Iceman]

Like i said Reid is ######, and i must say that Ince is clueless at this point in time. Arsenal were passing the ball around as if it was a training or warm up session. It was absolutely a disgrace to see non of our players, even attempt to get the ball off them.

[FourLaneBlue]

I remember when we lost 4-0 under Hughes at the start of his time with us....but that was after taking over a squad in disarray that was heading for the drop.

Ince took over after we finished seventh. Although I have been trying to give him a chance it has been downhill since and he seems to be making one poor decision after another...

No Villanueva at all since his sterling display against Grimsby? 4-4-2 against Arsenal? Emerton on the right wing? Reid and Andrews as our central midfield pairing - two players have not showed they are Premiership quality (Reid last played well three seaons ago)?

Ince has done nothing so far to suggest he is not out of his depth. Eight goals conceded in two games...

Tomorrow we will be in the bottom three due to Everton playing Stoke...we could even be bottom of the league by Monday! It might be ´silly season´ and ´too early to judge´ but so far it has all been very unimpressive. That defence was shocking today.

[Karembeu]

It looked like the end of the souness era again, and at least we had some good times with old graeme. There looks something wrong with the team spirit (ie: through the players's general demeanour and body language). The team make up was also, strange to say the least. Whilst emerton's crossing has improved leaps and bounds, there was no creative outlet per se. We were very very workman like, and steven reid needs dropping pronto. And ince's substitutions are so, so predictable. Why villaneuva did not get a look in just baffles - especially when it was so blindingly obvious that we were lacking creativity. Keith Andrews - i don't know. Had some nice tackles/challenges, but betrayed his div2/3 roots at times too.

had to say that buy I agree with you.. Bad bad decision....

[wandel77]

What a poor performance! There's no fighting spirit in any of our players in the entire 2nd half! There's no urgency in our play at all. Arsenal could pass the ball for 30 times before any of our players make a challenge!

Robinson - One of our better performers today. Good to see his frustration when the penalty went in, at least he showed some fighting spirit compared to the rest of the team

Samba - several lapse in concentration again!! Ince need to start dropping him for Ooijer or Zurad!

Nelsen - A 5 out of 10 performance, a few good tackles but an equal number of poor positioning play.

Warnock - Can someone tell him that he is supposed to be DEFENDER! not a midfielder!

Simpson - Not a bad debut, not at fault for anything that i could tell.

Pedersen - One of his better performance in quite a while

Reid - Why does Ince, Hughes persist in playing him? I can't remember when was the last time i see him play well.

Andrews - Seems overwhelmed by the occasion and way out of his depth.

Emerton - By far our best player today

RSC - should have done better with some of his chances especially the shot in the first half

Roberts - Started brightly but did nothing at all in the 2nd half

Ince - Why sub pedersen when he was one of our better players. And why was villanueva not brought on instead??? It's not as if we had anything to lose by then. Bringing on a 3rd striker in derbyshire is a good move considering we need goals but why bring on a striker and ask him to play on the right??? Also, why was andrews/reid not sub? Our centre midfield was being overwhelmed from the 1st min!

12 goals conceded in 4 matches, this looks set to be a long hard season...

Spot on !! And Arsenal only gave them self 80 % today !

Warnock cost us 3 goals today, i must say i was impressed with Simpson. I totally agree with ypu why does he play with Reid ? We are 2-0 down and nothing is working, why not try Villanueva ??

We have to win the match against Fulham otherwise we are doomed with NUFC (A) & Man Utd. (H).

Its gonna be a very long season.

Only thing i want to say from now on is DEFENCE DEFENCE DEFENCE !!!!!

[BRFC1995]

i'm all for dropping robinson,nelsen and warcock for a couple of games............feckin awful. And drop reid off a cliff.

carlos just has to start now, confidence on the ball and accurate long shots , things that roberts will never have, all the hussle an bussle but feck all at the end of it. Its not saying a lot really but andrews looked 10 times the player reid is......and bin pederson off for a few months and give all set pieces to carlos.

[dr_awol]

my main problem is we had chances to make it 1-1.

once the 2nd goal went in we give up, we did nothing. the changes did nothing. almost like we where saving ourselfs for the Fulham game.

if it had finised 4-0 and we playied like we had in the first half, i would have been fine.

atm every fixture looks hard

Blackburn v Fulham is a MUST win game

:(

[LeChuck]

Warnock didn't cost us three goals, he never should have been left to challenge Adebayor in the air because there was only ever going to be one winner. Either Samba or Nelsen should have been with him.

[bazza]

No spirit in the side. No fight. We just rolled over.

Reid and Andrews in midfield have no skill and no vision.

Defence was poor again.

Robinson and Santa Cruz were the only two for decent marks.

It's going to be a long hard season.

[Rovermatt]

Ince is on thin ice. It's not so much the losses themselves (losing at home to Arsenal is neither shameful nor a change from the norm) but the nature of them that hurts. The team is a shambles and the fact is that we have all seen it coming. The signs have been obvious to everyone save those who make the decisions it would seem.

So there's another week of not watching MOTD. Completely and utterly humiliating.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Why is all the blame attached to Ince?

Yes he is out of his depth; but at the end of the day it was the boards’ decision to appoint him ahead of the likes of Big Sam & Laudrup. ( One cant help feel that Ince appointment now looks- like it was down to saving money rather than appointing the best man for the job).

They must have known his knowledge around players outside of the lower leagues was ‘sketchy’ at best yet still chose him ahead of more experiences/skilled managers.

Yes I blame Ince & his players, but for me the people who must shoulder the majority of what is currently going on at Ewood is the board and owners. Who truly are penny-pinching, un -ambitious half-wits.

[Plastic Head]

A more considered response later...but for now:

The following who played today are not good enough and shouldn't play for the club any more (in order of poorness):

Pedersen

Samba

The following who played today are not up to standard and need replacing: (in order of replacement order)

McCarthy

Andrews

Robinson

Nelsen

Reid

The following didn't play today but shouldn't be at the club:

Mokoena

Tugay

Fowler

Winterburn

As for the manager: If Andrews and Fowler are the answer what was the question?

[Drunx2002]

Why is all the blame attached to Ince?

Yes he is out of his depth; but at the end of the day it was the boards’ decision to appoint him ahead of the likes of Big Sam & Laudrup. ( One cant help feel that Ince appointment now looks- like it was down to saving money rather than appointing the best man for the job).

They must have known his knowledge around players outside of the lower leagues was ‘sketchy’ at best yet still chose him ahead of more experiences/skilled managers.

Yes I blame Ince & his players, but for me the people who must shoulder the majority of what is currently going on at Ewood is the board and owners. Who truly are penny-pinching, un -ambitious half-wits.

This doesn't make any sense. You question why everyone is blaming Ince and then you do it yourself. How have the board saved money by appointing him? The key is to appoint the best man for the job - there is absolutely no point in saving money on a manager as he will end up losing you millions by signing naff players!

[RibbleValleyRover]

For me the people who must shoulder the majority of what is currently going on at Ewood is the board and owners. Who truly are penny-pinching, un -ambitious half-wits.

I agree. You just have to look at the Bentley situation where we sold a player for an initial £15 million which made our team considerably weaker and we didn't replace him.

Why did we sell Bentley if we weren't prepared to bring someone in to replace him with the money from the sale?

Plus if you look at a number of targets we were looking at most of them were freebies and players available for loan. Looks to me like the owners nicked the Bentley cash for themselves.

[broadsword]

Yes he is out of his depth; but at the end of the day it was the boards’ decision to appoint him ahead of the likes of Big Sam & Laudrup. ( One cant help feel that Ince appointment now looks- like it was down to saving money rather than appointing the best man for the job).

Yep, just what I was thinking today

[brfc4ever]

Just imagine if we had not gotten the last gasp winner at Everton. Would have been 2 point and minus 7 goal difference. OMG!

But thankfully we did win it.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

This doesn't make any sense. You question why everyone is blaming Ince and then you do it yourself. How have the board saved money by appointing him? The key is to appoint the best man for the job - there is absolutely no point in saving money on a manager as he will end up losing you millions by signing naff players!

Try actually reading my post!

I said why is everyone pointing all there blame towards Ince. I never once said he as an individual was blameless. IMO The people who appointed him ahead of far stronger candidates should shoulder the majority of the blame.

[Faz_Rover]

Ooijer's goal was a crucial goal, without that we would have been on 2 points off 4 games and the media would have been on our backs.

To be honest though, out of the first 4 games I wouldn't have expected more than 4 points out of 4 games. With Fulham up next at Home, also with their dreadful away record, we should beat them, if not I think that is when we hit the panic button.

Everton - Draw

Hull - Win

West Hame - Draw/lose

Arsenal - Lose

4/5 points we would have expected realistically from our first 4 games. I wouldn't think anyone would care to differ?

I pointed out the fact our defence needs sorting after the Hull/Grimsby games. Many members were saying our midfield need sorting and we need a right winger, but the obvious fault was our defending. Too many individual errors. In the past Robinson had been blamed for them but it was clear for all to see today that it was the indecision between the defence that cost us. The right side of the defence looked good, however, Nelsen and Warnock need to get their act together quick!

We're in the relegation zone, however it is only a few games into the season, the next 2 games are winnable games, hopefully we could bag 6 points out of 6 and all will be good. Massive game next week for Rovers, I know it's early in the season but this is a vital game for Ince, Carlos will have to feature and there will be more than 3 points at stake next week at Ewood.

[Rovermatt]

Why is all the blame attached to Ince?

Yes he is out of his depth; but at the end of the day it was the boards’ decision to appoint him ahead of the likes of Big Sam & Laudrup. ( One cant help feel that Ince appointment now looks- like it was down to saving money rather than appointing the best man for the job).

They must have known his knowledge around players outside of the lower leagues was ‘sketchy’ at best yet still chose him ahead of more experiences/skilled managers.

Yes I blame Ince & his players, but for me the people who must shoulder the majority of what is currently going on at Ewood is the board and owners. Who truly are penny-pinching, un -ambitious half-wits.

Very good post. I agree 100%.

[The Prof.]

What a poor performance! There's no fighting spirit in any of our players in the entire 2nd half! There's no urgency in our play at all. Arsenal could pass the ball for 30 times before any of our players make a challenge!

Robinson - One of our better performers today. Good to see his frustration when the penalty went in, at least he showed some fighting spirit compared to the rest of the team

Samba - several lapse in concentration again!! Ince need to start dropping him for Ooijer or Zurad!

Nelsen - A 5 out of 10 performance, a few good tackles but an equal number of poor positioning play.

Warnock - Can someone tell him that he is supposed to be DEFENDER! not a midfielder!

Simpson - Not a bad debut, not at fault for anything that i could tell.

Pedersen - One of his better performance in quite a while

Reid - Why does Ince, Hughes persist in playing him? I can't remember when was the last time i see him play well.

Andrews - Seems overwhelmed by the occasion and way out of his depth.

Emerton - By far our best player today

RSC - should have done better with some of his chances especially the shot in the first half

Roberts - Started brightly but did nothing at all in the 2nd half

Ince - Why sub pedersen when he was one of our better players. And why was villanueva not brought on instead??? It's not as if we had anything to lose by then. Bringing on a 3rd striker in derbyshire is a good move considering we need goals but why bring on a striker and ask him to play on the right??? Also, why was andrews/reid not sub? Our centre midfield was being overwhelmed from the 1st min!

11 goals conceded in 4 matches, this looks set to be a long hard season...

Perfect summary!..just to add. I don't find Robinson gives anyone any confidence though - he can't catch. We don't look ft..we played an offside game against the fastest team in the league..We have had it unless something changes quickly..and I just can't see that happening.

The trustees will pay for there tightness by reducing the value of their key asset to nil id we go down. Aeroplanes are worth diddly squat now.

[Drunx2002]

Try actually reading my post!

I said why is everyone pointing all there blame towards Ince. I never once said he as an individual was blameless. IMO The people who appointed him ahead of far stronger candidates should shoulder the majority of the blame.

Jesus, put your toys back in your pram!

The defence is awful. The players are the same that have done well in recent seasons. Ince appointed Winterburn to improve the defence. I think Ince, his backroom staff (and the players) are entirely responsible. The board backed him with significant cash this summer, it is not their fault that the scouting system nor Ince/Mathias couldn't find a suitable replacement for Bentley. It is also not their fault that a previously fully functioning defence now can't tell their rear ends from their elbows.

[Martin]

Poor performance today. We never rattled them, we never got about them.

Andrews was out of his depth. But he's not the first central midfielder to look out of his depth against a good Arsenal team. But that was worrying.

Credit to Robinson. Played well.

Samba and Warnock we horrific.

If Ince or Winterburn think this offside business will work then we are in big, big trouble.

We had no central midfield. None whatsoever. Andrews and Reid did nothing, absolutely nothing.

Credit to Arsenal as they play wonderful, wonderful football.

[troybo1]

I thought Peds had a decent first half BUT, BUT ,BUT Treacy has to start against Fulham and where's the feckin 'Pinnaple FFS'

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Jesus, put your toys back in your pram!

The defence is awful. The players are the same that have done well in recent seasons. Ince appointed Winterburn to improve the defence. I think Ince, his backroom staff (and the players) are entirely responsible. The board backed him with significant cash this summer, it is not their fault that the scouting system nor Ince/Mathias couldn't find a suitable replacement for Bentley. It is also not their fault that a previously fully functioning defence now can't tell their rear ends from their elbows.

Your own with this opinion pal.

Ince has spent in the region of 8 million- hardly significant. The defence claerly needed looking under Hughes, but yet agin he had no money to actually improve the squad, thus all of MH dischanted comments for the last 6-9 months of his reign. Hughes had the knack of getting the best out of average players ( Samba, Nelsen, Roberts etc). Ince does not.

If you want to tow the party line and believe that the board and trustees are not the major players in Rovers current predicament – then that’s your prerogative. At the end of the day the Club had the choice of managers and they choice Ince.

A vast majority of fans were against his appointment in the first place citing his inexperience, persona, & temperament as reasons against his appointment. If JW and the board were unaware of his ineptness within the transfer market then he himself needs replacing.

We go on pretending that we have a brilliant board who back their managers- but at the end of the day who wants to be playing in the championship next season? because that's were we will end up with the current attitude of the board and owners.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

What has happened to the famous Rovers club who ALWAYS put up a good fight against these top sides?.No doubting the quality of Arsenal but to see so many of our players heads go down is unusual and worrying,we also seemed to be a yard of pace compared to their players.

Sad to see so many of our fans streaming out of the ground with 11 minutes to go but maybe that just says it all about this afternoon.

The Everton result seems a million miles away now and we need this team to play like they can...Eleven goals conceded now is not good enough!