[Archived] Rovers V Chelsea Match Preview

[ABBEY]

Its time for us to decide the outcome of our season. Lose 2 of the next 3 league games and INCE should go.

The next 4 games are all massive.

Sunderland A - CUP

Sunderland H

Tottenham A

Pompey A

talk about a post to provoke reaction

if thats alls it is 10/10.

if its not all your earlier posts are how rosy the rovers garden is and now your talking about potting him.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Interesting 'outside' viewpoint here in work today - MU, Liverpool and Bolton fans all saying we looked poor with no shape - what is all that about, you are 'losing and just passing it about at the back without any nous or determination to go forward will not win you games.

[thenodrog]

Anybody saying Andrews isn't good enough for this league needs to have their eyes tested. I'll say no more.

Thats a joke right?

Andrews was completely out of his depth yesterday and thats that! He was largely to blame for the 1st goal by allowing bosingwa to advance 10 yards completely unchallenged and into striking distance before ducking out of the way of the shot that he could and should have headed clear. Chicken / soft arse call him what you want but we were 0-1 down!

At one point in the 1st half our entire midfield were wrong side of Chelseas midfield with them carrying it forward to

the edge of our box and toward our beleagerd defence. The worst aspect af this being that all 3 they were simply JOGGING back. I nearly burst a blood vessel whilst Ince looked on completely unconcerned!

[ROVERS]

Well Well Well , enough has been said...............

again! the entire play against chelsea is summarise with 1 word, MESSY.

just how many more times must we start with a 4-5-1 tactic?

look at the difference between hull and us!??????

Their play has got so much intent in it. they have a gameplan, they have an objective, they don't back down despite being 1 goal or 2 goal up.

Rovers used to be solid due to their discipline and although boring, but well organise gameplan cum objective.

Look at the Rovers right now..............

If anyone actually notice, chances created is Pathetically few to even talk about.

unless PI start making things happen --------- he will soon become one of the greatest failures by John williams, and the greatest joke of the season " Not knowing what hit him, how it hit him, when it hit him" he is a lost sheep, or just like the saying goes............ a Black Sheep. ( Zero Racism intention here )

[AggyBlue]

Andrews was completely out of his depth yesterday and thats that!

Most of our squad are out of their depth against teams such as Chelsea. We simply haven't got the players to match the top teams.

[LDRover]

At one point in the 1st half our entire midfield were wrong side of Chelseas midfield with them carrying it forward to

the edge of our box and toward our beleagerd defence. The worst aspect af this being that all 3 they were simply JOGGING back. I nearly burst a blood vessel whilst Ince looked on completely unconcerned!

I saw that, it was unforgiveable, plus we had 5 in there to their 4. Smacks of either a lack of fitness, lack of brain or both.

[thenodrog]

The only time I saw Terry end up on his backside was when Fowler came on!

And there's the rub! 0-2 down against a top team on a soggy waterlogged pitch and we chuck an ageing scouse midget on with the pace of an arthritic snail against John bloody Terry!

Truth is that Mokoena had come on and looked good! He had filled the hole in between the centre halves and our other midfielders, clattered Bridge and generally stood up to the millionaire stars. At 0-2 the time was right then to 'Wimbledon' em. For the last 15 or so Samba should have come on as centre forward (to replace either of the full backs) and then gone and stood between Terry and Alex. The defence should have had instructions to 'bomb' him with high balls with the wingers and attacking midfielders closing in to pick up the scraps. High priced speedy, ball playing superastars are useless when the ball is 50ft up and they are having to compete for it with a 6'6'' colossus on a waterlogged pitch!

It may have worked... it may not but we would have given it a right old go ....... and truthfully whose heart leapt with hope when Robbie bloody Fowler came on? We would certainly not have so disappointed Ray bloody square ball Wilkins would we?

[Paul]

And there's the rub! 0-2 down against a top team on a soggy waterlogged pitch and we chuck an ageing scouse midget on with the pace of an arthritic snail against John bloody Terry!

[AggyBlue]

And there's the rub! 0-2 down against a top team on a soggy waterlogged pitch and we chuck an ageing scouse midget on with the pace of an arthritic snail

Ideal substitution for the conditions. He couldn't over run the ball when it got stuck in a puddle.

[Amo]

Ince is tactically naive, that's for sure. It might be okay getting the ball down in League Two and inspiring the likes of Keith Andrews with your ego, but the Premiership is a whole different ball game. He showed prudence against Bolton by playing Ooijer to nullify Kevin Davies, then in the next game he keeps him there! The defence misses Warnock, and Villanueva must be played in the hole. He has neither the pace nor strength to play either out-wide or dead central.

Bringing Fowler on late on felt more like a favour to a buddy than a genuine attempt to snatch something out of the game. As Theno said, someone like Samba was needed to unsettle the Chelsea backline. Someone like Fowler could have fed off the scraps, but playing him by himself was just foolish.

[BuckyRover]

I thought Andrews was playing with a hamstring injury.

Have you all decided he is not good enough even though he scored in the last game because he didn't play brilliant against the Premiership and European runners up whilst carrying an injury?

Pathetic.

[Amo]

Have you all decided he is not good enough even though he scored in the last game because he didn't play brilliant against the Premiership and European runners up whilst carrying an injury?

And have you decided he is good enough based on one goal? He wasn't even that good against West Brom.

He might be able to string a couple of passes together and the odd crack at goal, but you need way more than that to be a solid Prem midfielder. Had this guy been seven years younger, I would be patient about him developing in the Premiership. But he's 28 years old! You have to ask yourself why no other Premiership team wanted him when MK Dons transfer listed him.

[vintageadidas]

The main point from yesterday’s game was the fact we were beaten by a team far superior in every department.

However, we played much better in the second half and both their goals were very lucky. Some people have talked about Carlos and his “miss”. That was a definite goal had Warnock pulled the ball back to one of the on running players in the box (simple tap in). The ball was not for Carlos in my opinion and he had a decent effort which was well saved.

Roberts just cannot finish, he did not even look up. Mr. Anelka showed exactly how you finish with his second goal of the game. Roberts will cost us points all season by missing what should be goals, Bolton away (header), penalty miss (west ham) and yesterdays are just three off the top of my head.

My scores are as follows:

Robinson – 9 (Superb performance)

Simpson – 5 (Distribution is shocking, he makes mistakes but is luck he has pace)

Olsson – 7 (Getting better with every game)

Nelsen – 7 (Decent game in my opinion)

Zurab -7 (Ditto)

Andrews 7 – (Quality ball to set up Warnock for the Carlos chance. Decent yet again)

Pedersen – 7 – (Best game for a while but he is still so frustrating)

Warnock – 8 ( I though he did very well and I give him an 8 for his off the ball running which was never spotted, his desire to get stuck in and he is the one organising the team. I never see Nelsen pointing and shouting)

Carlos – 6 (Is he worth £5m, not on performances so far. He didn’t look like he wanted to be playing either)

Grella – 5 (Got stuck in but offered nothing, why are we rushing him back so quick)

Roberts - 7 ( tried hard but is not good enough because he does not score enough goals and always gets good chances)

[Exiled_Rover]

One thing I'd like to add about Simpson - he never looks to overlap down the wing. Infact where were points in the game yesterday where he had twenty yards to run into and instead he tried to cross it from deep. Very puzzling.

[broadsword]

Robinson - Rubbish (why did he appeal for a handball, when he could've tried to save the bloody thing first, then appeal, he could've saved that.)

Simpson - Rubbish

Nelsen - Rubbish

Khiza - Rubbish

Olsson - Rubbish

Villanueva - Rubbish

Grella - Rubbish - stick to shearing sheep mate

Andrews - Rubbish

Pedersen - very rubbish

Warnock - rubbish

Roberts - total toilet

rubbish rubbish rubbish.

[JAL]

Interesting 'outside' viewpoint here in work today - MU, Liverpool and Bolton fans all saying we looked poor with no shape - what is all that about, you are 'losing and just passing it about at the back without any nous or determination to go forward will not win you games.

Got to agree with them, playing with just one plodder up front doesnt inspire or lead to many chances being created added to a lack of genuine pace in the team they seem to be seeing it as it is without the blue and white rose tinted glasses on.

[Athlete]

lets put it perspective we didnt expect to get anything from the game especially with our recent showings - 1st half Chelsea were denied a clear pen and by the letter of the law Robinson should have gone - but it wasnt given and Robbo played out his skin until beaten by a fluke really !

2nd half we improved but when you get a chance against that kind of opposition you have to take it Roberts didnt and Annelka caarbon copied him but showed him how to do it ! To be fair I sympathise slightly with Roberts as he was up front on his own ( 1 man up front at home again - Matty was brought on but played wide puzzling again and we did try to play football but everyone knew conditions wouldnt allow for both sides so the option was the old ale house long ball tactic and shove big men forward ( Ince coulnt see that - maybe he thought it was nice day ??? ) .

Cue the entrance of Robbie Fowler - ???????

We seriously have to beat Sunderland on Saturday

C'mon you blues

[AggyBlue]

playing with just one plodder up front doesnt inspire or lead to many chances being created added to a lack of genuine pace in the team they seem to be seeing it as it is without the blue and white rose tinted glasses on.

Who would you have played up front?

[gazsimm]

Robinson - Rubbish (why did he appeal for a handball, when he could've tried to save the bloody thing first, then appeal, he could've saved that.)

Simpson - Rubbish

Nelsen - Rubbish

Khiza - Rubbish

Olsson - Rubbish

Villanueva - Rubbish

Grella - Rubbish - stick to shearing sheep mate

Andrews - Rubbish

Pedersen - very rubbish

Warnock - rubbish

Roberts - total toilet

rubbish rubbish rubbish.

and u are a prat!

[Majiball]

Our record defeat is only 0-8 by the way.

I actually can't see us getting anything out of this match. I just hope it's not a battering. 2-1 to Chelsea...

3-0 to Chelsea.

My heart says 1-1, my head says 2-0 Chelsea, I am hopeful of a far better performance than the Arsenal and Man Utd one.

I think we'll have a go, but Chelsea will win 2-0 or 3-0.

Can't see it though. 2-0 Chelsea.

or goto wickes and get some nails and planks and board the frigging posts up.

4-0 chelsea

Rovers 1 Chelsea 9

And all the world will be watching.

I very rarely go to Ewood expecting to lose. On Sunday 3,4,5 - 0 wouldn't surprise me if we try to out play Chelsea. I'm very much hoping Ince has learnt from the Arsenal and Utd games and we roll up our sleeves, get in their faces and let Chelsea's billionaires know they've been to Lancashire for a game of football.

So no-one expected us to get anything from this game at all, except a beating. We played better than against Man Utd and Arsenal, which is what most asked for and got. The next game is the one that matters not this one which we were always going to struggle to get anything from.

Having seen us lose is it 6 on the bounce?, there is cause for concern but increasing that concern based on a game no-one on here predicted we would win is nonsensical.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

Who would you have played up front?

Unfortuately Roberts cannot play the lone frontman role. His touch, vision, pace and generally alround ability is not good enough.

What he is good out, but not yesterday, is causing confusion around him. We needed players close to him to feed off him. Rovers would have been better playing 4-4-1-1 with Villanueva playing behind Roberts but close enough to him to get on the end of his mis-controls etc.

[speeeeeeedie]

TBH though, this thread sums up why I don't come on here half as much as I used to. You have the Ince fans pretending everything is okay, and the anti-Ince brigade seeming to actively revel in the fact that we are struggling. If nothing else, it's more depressing than the result most of the time.Thing is, I have a sneaking suspicion we would have been in the same trouble if we'd have managed to hang onto the old management regime. The signs were certainly all there. Irrelevant? Probably, except to say that if you have a single polarised view then you see everything through that view, and there are two groups on here that need a sense of perspective

I agree with that. This board really has not been the same since we had "The Summer of Nicko". Too many got caught up with it and have carried on with the type of knee jerk reactions his info created. We've not won in 6, that is disconcerting, as is the lack of a cutting edge but we're in the same boat as 75% of the Premier League. A few wins and it's all rosy.

At 0-2 the time was right then to 'Wimbledon' em. For the last 15 or so Samba should have come on as centre forward (to replace either of the full backs) and then gone and stood between Terry and Alex. The defence should have had instructions to 'bomb' him with high balls with the wingers and attacking midfielders closing in to pick up the scraps. High priced speedy, ball playing superastars are useless when the ball is 50ft up and they are having to compete for it with a 6'6'' colossus on a waterlogged pitch!

You're showing your footballing "expertise" again. Terry and Alex would have thought it was Christmas.

[tchocky]

Having seen us lose is it 6 on the bounce?, there is cause for concern but increasing that concern based on a game no-one on here predicted we would win is nonsensical.

Are you saying that we have lost the last 6 games you have been to? Because Rovers last six were 3 draws and 3 losses. With 3 wins on the bounce before that.

Sunderland must be defeated. Twice preferably.. Unless Roque or Benni is back we will again struggle to score I'm afraid.

[AggyBlue]

Unfortuately Roberts cannot play the lone frontman role. His touch, vision, pace and generally alround ability is not good enough.

OK.

So to yourself, Jal or any bright spark, who should we have played up front?

[Majiball]

Are you saying that we have lost the last 6 games you have been to?

I tried too.

Agreed about the sunderland game, cup or not we cannot afford to lose. We need a boost and Ince verses Keane should be an interesting one. Cup victories are always a bit more special. I'm hoping RSC is fit and Benni is available, we need some goals.

OK.

So to yourself, Jal or any bright spark, who should we have played up front?

Is the answer Robbie????