[Archived] Rovers V Chelsea Match Preview

[tony gale's mic]

Sunderland is a big game for us now. Win and we could get some confidence and start a charge towards safe, mid table anonymity. Something we'd all settle for right now.

Lose or even draw and the next game is away to a resurgent Spurs, heads will drop and we could well be in the relegation zone after those two matches.

[frosty]

Thought we did okay, we competed more than the Arsenal and Utd games. It's just unfortunate that they got that freak goal in the first half, had we gone in 0-0 I would have fancied us for a point.

Zurab should keep his place for Sunderland in the CC midweek.

[Amo]

Anyone willing to start a relegation thread ?

Naah, you'll just ruffle too many feathers.

Apparently Ince was flippant about the game after the match. Can anyone confirm this??

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Very depressing, we wouldn't have scored if we'd have played until tomorrow.If there are 3 teams worse than us in this league can somebody name them for me as I'd love to know. I was in the 0-2 is not a bad result camp but a performance would be everything. What I saw was a disjointed ,shapeless mess, good teams have a shape , you can see that each player is playing in a certain position because he has the skills to cope with the demands of that position, we haven't got this in enough positions. Our marking at the back is awful, Anelka was playing up front on his own and managed to lose both our centre halves whenever he felt like it. We're second to too many 50/50 balls and we're over passing the ball along the backline and in midfield in our half. Our decision making and pass selection is really poor. We don't get around the side of teams enough, Malouda spent all the first half coming up our by line. Scores

Robinson-9 MOTM Freidelesque performance, should have played to the whistle on the first goal though.

Simpson-5 Not good enough, made Malouda look like Garrincha. The cross in the second half that went into the upper tier of the Darwen end summed him up.

Zurab-6 Thrown in at the deep end, not an improvement on Samba.

Nelsen-6 Tried hard but all our centre halves scare me. Lost Anelka most of the time

Ollsen-7 I thought he played well, the one player we've got who wouldn't look out of place in their team today.

Villaneava-6 Out of his depth in the first half,better in the second but has a tendency to over play when a simple ball is needed.

Andrews-4 Looked a Milton Keynes player today.

Grella-4 Never in it, looks like we,ve bought a crock to keep Dunn and Reid company in the treatment room.

Warnock-6 Works his socks off every game but he hasn't got the craft or ball skills to play regularly in midfield.

Pedersen-5 He tried harder than usual but his passing is awful , he found a Chelsea shirt as often as he found a Rovers shirt. Great ball to Roberts for our only 2nd half chance though.

Roberts-5 I know it was raining hard but why was he wearing divers boots. Like I said a signing for next season in the championship.

Subs Mokoena-6 We looked a bit steader when he was on, he gives a bit of cover to the centre halves.

Derbyshire-4 I didn't see him touch the ball for half an hour.

Fowler-3 He didn't touch the ball. I'd have brought Samba on up front, at least he'd run around a bit.

[Mc Love]

I just wish some rovers fans would take off their "rose" tinted glasses.

In no way was that a good performance, nor was in anyway the players deserved a 7. The only player that deserved that accolade was robinson.

I thought maybe the users on this board would be more intelligent than those on the official one, but it seems not.

Anyway here are my ratings for todays match:

Paul Robinson - 7.5 (tried his best to keep us in the game)

Danny Simpson - 6.5 (played well but still learning)

Ryan Nelsen - 6 (absent for parts of the game)

Zurab Kishinishvili - 6.5 (Looked solid at the back, prob the best at the back today)

Martin Olsson - 6.5 (improvement on previous performances)

Keith Andrews - 6 (didnt do much)

Vince Grella - 6 (as above)

Carlos Villaneuva - 6.5 (rushed decisions, although not entirely his fault, showed signs of what he is capable of again)

Stephen Warnock - 6 (please move him back to left back)

Morten Gamst Pedersen -5.5 (poor ball control, gave too much ball away, lost his edge, will probably leave in January)

Jason Roberts - 6 (typical performance from him, had one good chance to score, but alas its roberts. Inces fault playing him on his own)

Subs:

Matt Derbyshire - 6 (didn't do much)

Aaron Mokoena - 6 (deadwood but did an okay job)

Robbie Fowler - 6 (not enough time)

[mattyboy6000]

i thought we played some nice stuff at times. lack of a cutting edge was terrible though. we shouldn't be relying on roque to threaten the goal. a lot of the lads on today should have been able to lash it on target from some of the places they found themselves in, but didn't have the confidence.

i thought villaneuva was meant to be good? its great being able to do ten cartwheels but if you land on your head at the end what the point? (slightly abstract analogy, hopefully someone will get it). we need to be much much more clinical.

[Tom]

Very depressing, we wouldn't have scored if we'd have played until tomorrow.If there are 3 teams worse than us in this league can somebody name them for me as I'd love to know.

Wigan

West Brom

Stoke

Want more?

Fulham

boro

Hull

Bolton

Over a season I'd hope this will show just at the minute its not.

I wont say I'm not worried but i'll keep the faith that things will turn around for now.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

There is an old adige that you make your own luck. Rovers should have been four down at half time but were still in the game but could you tell?

Paul Robinson - 9/10 Superb

Simpson - 5/10 does something good but then follows it with something bad

Olsson - 6/10 - better game than I've seen him have

Zurab - 7/10 - Very steady game

Nelson - 6/10 - Better game than of late

Andrews - 6/10 - Not a pitch for a runner

Grella - 5/10 - Clearly not fit

Warnock - 6/10 - Steady

Pedersen - 6/10 - His best game of the season

Carlos - 5/10 - Right wing is not his position

Roberts - 3/10 - Terry won't have an easier game. Service was terrible but he was awful when he got the ball.

Subs

Mokena - 6/10 Steady

Derbyshire - 3/10 - Poor

Fowler - 3/10 - Sorry got it wrong. It did get easier for Terry when we made the substuition

As someone who pleaded for Ince to be given time, I'm now becoming more worried. It is alright to play nice football but it has got to hurt the opponents. Yet again today we played some nice stuff without hurting anybody. We are powderpuff up front without Santa Cruz.

[Plastic Head]

We need a settled side as much as possible and if there are injuries we need "like for like" replacements playing in their correct positions.

Too many changes every week at the moment.

Also 3 goals in 6 home homes. Not good at all. Two of those were in the last 5 minutes and I can't remember a glut of missed chances.

[Grabbi Graeme]

Couldn't make the game today but did manage to see most of the first half, I thought Robbo made some great saves, we soaked up the pressure but sometimes we dont do ourselves any favours and there are too many mistakes made at the back.

Bit of luck with their first goal and when you get a chance you have to take it sadly we couldn't do that today, I believe Roberts missed a sitter in 2nd half, my mate who's a Liverpool fan txtd me to say how jammy the first goal was and that Roberts had fluffed a chance.

[Roost]

Some people on here are clueless beyond words, how can anyone say Pedersen was useless today? He was easily one of our best outfield players.

Not too disheartened at the result we played well in patches and got beat by the team top of the league and only beaten in the champions leaguie final on pens last year.

A few notes:

Mokoena was solid when he came on

Derbyshire isbn't and never will be a right winger (i'm starting to think he sin't good enough in any role to be honest)

Zurab was solid

Ince made the right choice today re: formation

Sadly Roberts just isn't up to the job (i wonder what people would have to say about him if he was an Ince signing)

The ref was useless

Edit: Also Lampard is a tool

Pretty well summed up

[1864roverite]

Well well well......looks like today Rovers have firmly entrenched themselves into the bottom half of the table following this exepcted defeat and the results conspiring against us elsewhere.

Without sounding down or dejected, I decided today would be the day to see if Andrews could hack it with the finest midfielders on offer and put an end to the argument that he is or he isnt a Premier League midfielder.

A summary of his performance.....

1st minute misplaced pass to a chelsea player

2nd minute jumped out of a tackle

4th minute suicide backpass, ball nowhere near hard enough to reach the keeper, keeper flounders, anelka falls over and we get off NO Penalty and No sending off.

10th minute misplaced pass, several attempts at keeping the ball fail miserably.

14th minute plays a part in a lovely forward move that sees Cech save Carlos's shot.

16th minute gives ball away cheaply

25th minute fails to pass to a Rovers player loses ball and chelsea attack at will

45th minute substituted.

So, after a 45 minute cameo, it is my view that he is NOT a Premier League player in the making, he neither has the nouse or skill to progress being even a Championship player, but hey, if it continues, then next season we will see if he can cope !

The match was always going to be a difficult game against Chelsea and noone really never expected to win.

Positives from todays rain affected match

Zurab and Nelsen played well together

Simpson played well

Olsson played very well

Robinson was easily the MOTM - worldclass

MGP had a good game

Nice cameo from The Axe

there was a point when we played some nice neat passing footbal BUT yet again NO END PRODUCT.

Negatives

Roberts isolated

Warnocks needless booking

Grella

Seeing Samba benched

Roberts although ineffective being replaced by Fowler

bad tactical substitutions by Ince

the referee was awful, too biased towards Chelsea and gave them everything.

Rev if that was you in front of me then my comments about Andrews must be now fully understood by your good self. If they are not then you can wear my glasses or simply get yourself to specsavers for a new pair. Today he was simply useless at best, below average and not even at the standard required to be on that pitch today.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Andrews passed it about well when he was on, he has pretty quick feet too, I saw him completely sell Lampard a few times. The backpass was the only bad thing I saw from him, it was worrying.

Pedersen seems to be gaining some sort of momentum, he played well. Perhaps he's been told he can get forward and support the striker(s) more?

Robinson didn't deserve to let in 2 goals, he was simply brilliant. The first goal was a fluke and he was close to stopping the second, it could have easily been 5 in the first half but he pulled off a Friedel-esque performance.

Roberts can't play the lone man, he gets bullied and pushed about too easily.

Terry is a plank.

They "won" the first half, we deserved to win the second half but they scored against the run of play. I'm not too downhearted.

[Plastic Head]

Positives from todays rain affected match

Well we lost 2-0 but maybe we won on Duckworth Lewis Method.....

[Grabbi Graeme]

Well we lost 2-0 but maybe we won on Duckworth Lewis Method.....

[den]

1 point above the relegation zone and 2 points above the bottom of the league.

3 goals in 6 home games, still it's lovely watching this attractive, attacking football isn't it?

Today's game highlights the, to some of us, obvious. Tactically awful. Again Rovers playing one man up front, at home. Then the customary 40 yard gap between him and the rest of the team entrenched in their own penalty area, clearing the ball anywhere they could, - and that lasted 20 minutes. It's the way I would expect a fourth division outfit to play against Chelsea. Villanueva, a left sided mid, playing right wing, - oh how the silence from those wanting Bentley out is heard. Boy do we miss him. We could and should have been 4 four down in the first half an hour. Seems a long time since we scored four against a very good MU team and took Chelsea to the limit in the FA cup semi final.

The truth is that a lot of our players today wouldn't be shining in the Championship.

[1864roverite]

I think your actually stretching the word SOME there Den.

I have just listened and watched the tv interviews and PI clearly does not understand the significance of our position.

Its beyond belief now

[brfcs5359]

1 point above the relegation zone and 2 points above the bottom of the league.

3 goals in 6 home games, still it's lovely watching this attractive, attacking football isn't it?

Today's game highlights the, to some of us, obvious. Tactically awful. Again Rovers playing one man up front, at home. Then the customary 40 yard gap between him and the rest of the team entrenched in their own penalty area, clearing the ball anywhere they could, - and that lasted 20 minutes. It's the way I would expect a fourth division outfit to play against Chelsea. Villanueva, a left sided mid, playing right wing, - oh how the silence from those wanting Bentley out is heard. Boy do we miss him. We could and should have been 4 four down in the first half an hour. Seems a long time since we scored four against a very good MU team and took Chelsea to the limit in the FA cup semi final.

The truth is that a lot of our players today wouldn't be shining in the Championship.

Did you go.... where do you dream this up??? Was this last night?

[1864roverite]

I saw him at the game, he sat where he normally sits, in his seat

looked pretty much the same tho to me and I sit slightly nearer to the pitch than Den

[den]

Did you go.... where do you dream this up??? Was this last night?

Oh Jeez! Great points Graham.

OK, I'll try and find a common point that we could share, - Paul Robinson was excellent.

[bazza]

The result was expected. The Rovers performance was not expected by me; I forecast a thumping.

I was pleased with the overall performance today. Everyone played well and in particular Zurab,

MGP and Simpson. Robinson was heroic and the MOM was between him and MGP.

Pederson worked his socks off and won many headers until he tired in the last ten minutes.

Forget the league table at present. It changes so rapidly.

[Bobby G]

We are almost a third into the season...We have been sliding down whilst others have been creeping up...

We kept possession but the end product wasnt all that great compared to previous seasons against teams like Chelsea. Other than Roberts turning Terry to create that chance for himself, cant recall much thrust.

I hope the board arent as optimistic as some people and at least set aside a decent kitty for a winger and possibly a striker.

[patrickvalery]

Disappointing 1st half performance but not an unexpected result.

I think today highlighted a few points about our side.

1)Grella was exceptionally poor. The game passed him by until a spat with Lampard in which he immediately tried to shake hands apologetically. Where is the tough tackling, no nonsense Aussie i thought we had signed? He then had a perfect chance to nail Lampard a minute later, but bottled it which set up another attack for them. Then limped off with his tail between his legs. Mokoena looked far more effective when he came on. The headlock on Deco was undoubtedly a highlight!

2)Olsson looked good. Stuck to his task well. To a lesser degree so did Simpson. Neither had a torrid afternoon. Our main defensive worries resulted in our midfield not tracking the runners. I think the adage 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' may apply for the 1st half. Everyone seemed to think someone else had tracked back.

3)Villanueva is wasted out wide. Too slow and made few, if any, intelligent runs 1st half. This was one of our main problems. We had no outlet. Resulting in wave after wave of attack. We sadly miss Bentley's ability to put his foot on the ball and allow other players to come forward and make temselves available. Second half Villanueva was much better in the middle. However he failed to grasp the fact that the pitch didn't allow clever through balls too often. Is he worth spending £5m on? Jury is out for me.

4)Pedersen was poor. His work rate was good but as usual he wasted to many counter attacks. But to be fair he had little to aim crosses at.

5)We don't look comfortable on the ball. Maybe Villanueva aside. We labour forward and lack ideas and movement.

6)Robinson must be wondering why he moved. He is a class above us at the moment. He desperately needs someone to lead the troops in front of him. I have said before that our back four rely on making last ditch tackles too often. On a good day this looks great, but on a bad day it gives penalties and red cards. We seem to be inept at reading danger before it arrives. I'm not sure Winterburn or anyone else can coach this.

7)Roberts put in another good shift but lacks the quality to kill a game off.

On the whole we got what we deserved. 2nd half was much much better and i am not at the point where i am too concerned about relegation. However, i'm not sure all this talk of 'a few signings in January will sort us out' will come to fruition. I'm not sure the club will spend much and i think the areas we need to strengthen are going to require more than a Bosman or two. With some of our injuries and suspensions out of the way we still have enough quality to finish mid table. I urge people not to start booing or ranting about relegation yet. Half of the battle with football is confidence and this talk will do nothing to help. Lets give it until Christmas before we cast judgement.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Forget the league table at present. It changes so rapidly.

Dangerous talk Bazza as the table never lies!

[1864roverite]

A massive point to try and bring a little defence re MGP today.

there was no point in crossing when there is only Roberts in the middle in a Rovers shirt surrounded by 5 Chelsea defenders all of whom were 6ft plus.

midfield didnt exactly help in the box and when the end was nigh what did we do, we put little old robbie fowler upf ront alone when Samba was the man to creat havoc in the defence.

but who am I to complain