[Archived] Spurs Preview

[DE.]

Blackburn manager Paul Ince:

"We played some good stuff against a very good Tottenham side at their ground and we silenced their crowd for most of the game.

"The effort put in was unbelievable - the performance was outstanding.

"I thought we were going to salvage something. Had the ball been in the right place we would have got a point."

from the bbc

Comical at best, if he really beleived it was an unbeleiveable performance then he is deluded

Words fail me. He's either blind or thinks he was managing Spurs.

[Rover4ever]

3 reasons for this debacle:

1) Ince being out of his depth in tactics and overall

2) The failure to replace Bentley or get a proper central midfielder after Savage

3) Our shoestring budget compared to clubs near us.....

[roverfanuk]

3 reasons for this debacle:

1) Ince being out of his depth in tactics and overall

2) The failure to replace Bentley or get a proper central midfielder after Savage

3) Our shoestring budget compared to clubs near us.....

4) The inability of Ince to play players in their favoured position. Ie. Leave Warnock at LB with Emerton at his better position of RB, play Ooijer in the center with either Nelsen or Samba alongside then play Vogel and Carlos in the center with Treacy at LM and Gamst at RM...

[modes98]

4) The inability of Ince to play players in their favoured position. Ie. Leave Warnock at LB with Emerton at his better position of RB, play Ooijer in the center with either Nelsen or Samba alongside then play Vogel and Carlos in the center with Treacy at LM and Gamst at RM...

Gamst is crap on the Left, what makes you think he's going to be better on the other side.

Warnock has been good in CM, granted its left a gap to fill at LB but he has certainly done a good job and been at the heart of some of our best attacking play in recent games.

However i agree that Ooijer is our best centre back and should be in there with Samba.

[Paul]

My only comment is going to be The Mount Pleasant on Manchester Road, Southport is quite a reasonable place to watch football if you happen to be in the area.......Italian feed.

[AlanK]

That second half midfield of Derbyshire, Mokoena, Andrews and Treacy says it all, scarey, scarey stuff .

Good lord that is scary!!!!!

[tcj_jones]

Blackburn manager Paul Ince:

"We played some good stuff against a very good Tottenham side at their ground and we silenced their crowd for most of the game.

"The effort put in was unbelievable - the performance was outstanding.

"I thought we were going to salvage something. Had the ball been in the right place we would have got a point."

from the bbc

Comical at best, if he really beleived it was an unbeleiveable performance then he is deluded

OK that is the last straw for me. I watched that game, I watched us perform disgustingly badly for 85 minutes. We were shocking before Olsson got sent off and we were even worse after. Even with ten men we should have been 500% better than we were. Spurs ripped us apart all game and could have won by seven. Ince's comments are embarrasing, utterly embarrasing. More than that, they're insulting to the fans. He should be apologising for yet anotehr shambolic performance. Is the guy blind, seriously?

I know that Ince cannot be blamed for YET ANOTHER individual defensive error, nor one of his players displaying utter stupidity in getting himself sent off, but we were still far worse than we should have been and it's another poor performance in a long list. Oh, and if I were Ince, I'd be so badly fuming, I'd demote that moron Olsson to the reserves for a month. I don't understand what he was thinking.

I commented a few weeks ago that we were too good to go down and that we would turn things round. I take those comments back. Our squad is full of poor, aging or bog standard players with no fight in them and precious little skill. We have 2/3 players for every position, except right wing - the position we just sold our best player. Why are we playing Andrews and Mokoena when Vogel is available? Why has he not even been given a chance?

I think we need to replace Ince before December, when we have some very important and winnable fixtures. I'd go for Curbishley, but I'd happily take Allardyce right now.

[thenodrog]

At last; some common sense.

I thought Spurs were superb today and we gave as good as them, almost. If silly Olsson hadn't been sent off, we may have got something from the game.

Spurs were poor. Any team that cannot finish off a game in 80 ins against a 10 man BRFC must have big problems. They have too many bricklayers and not enough hod carriers.

[thenodrog]

Ince has two games to rectify our league position, after that I am firmly in the camp of "we need a new manager".

League table is not lying and relegation could well be the end of Blackburn Rovers FC as we know it.

This is not a rash decision on my part but realism, I still hope Ince can turn this around but am very depressed and low at the moment.

It takes a big man to admit to being wrong. But imy you are still mistaken.... 2 games is too many.

Oh and next time just listen to me.

[des]

a poor show, and a game that we needed to get something from.

midfield is the most important part and we were poor vogel loked a good players last season, and is far better then the players who we had today.

Why does PI not play players where there are good at. Full back play as full backs, center halfs as center half etc etc.

well its going to be a hard season lets hope we end up fourth either fron the top or bottom

[thenodrog]

The real problem with our team is that we lack central midfielders; the backbone of any football formation. Thinking of it, this dates back to Savage and his decline in form last season... Maybe we should have focused on getting in a new central midfielder instead of running around for a right winger.

Huddleston? Koumas? Imo the board were not prepared to back Hughes's judgement last January even though DB was stalling on his contract.

[RevidgeBlue]

I didn't think we were great today, but it was certainly a big improvement on last week and given the commitment shown, there was no sign of any "unrest" or that Ince has lost the dressing room.

Unfortunately that's where the positives end. Three points out of twenty four and our League position say it all.

In some respects Ince has been very unlucky again today. You can plan all week but you simply can't legislate for someone making a completely unforced howler like Olsson did in the 6th minute. Nor is it Ince's fault that the same player compounded his afternoon of misery by flying in needlessly on Lennon whilst already on a yellow. Nor was it the manager's fault that Benni got sent off a few weeks back. The players have to start taking some responsibility as well.

Olsson's gaffe apart, I thought we played quite well until the sending off which effectively ended the game as a contest. Unfortunately it was ultimately the same old story that has been repeating itself over and over recently. Letting soft goals in at our end and failing to convert our chances at the other.

Sometimes a team can't do anything much right and then there is a change of manager and for no apparent reason the self same players start playing like worldbeaters and picking up results. For some managers things just don't work out in certain jobs and like modes I'm beginning to wonder if Ince is simply an "unlucky" manager with us and whether we need a new face to change our fortunes around.

I still hope Ince turns it round but personally I'd be thinking we might need a change if results don't improve in the next four games.

Ultimately though, a large part of me thinks that a change of manager would be simply glossing over the underlying problem of owners who have no commitment to the club going forward and who have failed to invest in the squad over the last few years - which seems to be well and truly catching up with us.

You'd have to be Merlin the Magician, not Paul Ince or Sam Allardyce, to get a passable performance out of a central midfield of Mokoena and Andrews.

[LeChuck]

The real problem with our team is that we lack central midfielders; the backbone of any football formation. Thinking of it, this dates back to Savage and his decline in form last season... Maybe we should have focused on getting in a new central midfielder instead of running around for a right winger.

Ince spent nearly £5 million on the central midfield area in the summer.

Even today we could have gone with Emerton and Vogel in the centre, a combination which would probably work very well.

Edit: In fact, I think they did play together last season at some point?

[LDRover]

In some respects Ince has been very unlucky again today. You can plan all week but you simply can't legislate for someone making a completely unforced howler like Olsson did in the 6th minute. Nor is it Ince's fault that the same player compounded his afternoon of misery by flying in needlessly on Lennon whilst already on a yellow. Nor was it the manager's fault that Benni got sent off a few weeks back. The players have to start taking some responsibility as well.

Sometimes a team can't do anything much right and then there is a change of manager and for no apparent reason the self same players start playing like worldbeaters and picking up results. For some managers things just don't work out in certain jobs and like modes I'm beginning to wonder if Ince is simply an "unlucky" manager with us and whether we need a new face to change our fortunes around.

I know I'm repeating myself here but how can Ince be classed as unlucky when 5 of our 13 points this season came about as the direct result of poor refereeing decisions in our favour.

He's not unlucky Simon, he's downright poor in all aspects of the job.

[John]

.Even today we could have gone with Emerton and Vogel in the centre, a combination which would probably work very well.

True. When I saw the line up I cringed and we need to have better quality players in the middle if we are going to survive. Saying that, Andrews was ok today I thought, but the word to describe him would be 'average'.

Dunn and Grella seem to be enjoying the treatment table so far this season, so we might have to get used to a combo of the Axe/Andrews.

[CrazyIvan]

Quite simply, there is a hell of a lot of negative stuff being posted on here. If it weren't for the mistakes of a young left back we would have got something out of that game. Yes we needs wins. As a manager, Ince cannot be held solely responsible for one players mistakes. I still think there are a couple more games before the eject button needs to be pressed but before we were down to ten we took the game to Spurs and played well. That's all I'm gonna say and I expect people will shout me down and say how poor it was etc etc... Whatever.

[thenodrog]

On a lighter note........ Just watched Sky interviews with Arry, Incey and Aaron Lennon and none of them can manage to pronounce the letters 'th' at the start of a word any other way than as an 'f'.

How ficks that?

[Sysagent]

On a lighter note........ Just watched Sky interviews with Arry, Incey and Aaron Lennon and none of them can manage to pronounce the letters 'th' at the start of a word any other way than as an 'f'.

How ficks that?

As fick as Eastenders!

[LeChuck]

That's all I'm gonna say and I expect people will shout me down

Not going to shout you down at all, but I would like to see if you can add some substance to that post.

What have you seen in Ince so far that makes you think he has the potential to be a good Premiership manager? Let's face it, if it wasn't for his playing career then he never would have got the job, and history shows that there is no correlation between someone's ability as player and manager. What did the current top four managers in the league ever achieve as players? Or Mourinho?

Everything about Ince seems be League Two/One standard, and has been that way since the day he walked through the door. If being a good manager was as simple as being an international player and captain at the highest level then Terry Butcher wouldn't have been the failure he has been. I'm pretty sure Ince will go the same way and find his level in the lower leagues, where tactics don't really matter as much and he can probably get away with motivating players simply by being 'the Guvnor'.

Edit: Apologies for the awful spelling, this hangover has turned my brain a bit mushy.

[philipl]

Fair point LeChuck.

We haven't seen a single rational argument pointing to Ince actually achieving anything.

It's all been "give him a chance".

[Mc Love]

theres been soo many 'should have' this season, im sure we're top of the 'should have' table and if the 'should have' actually did happen we would be somewhere in the top 6

Should have picked a better manager

Just got back from the game. Haven't read any comments since page 8. It was truly awful. In the stands it was obvious that the midfield pairing wasn't working- Andrews produced one tugay- like touch but spent most of the afternoon trailing round a few feet from Mokoena. this was typified when a ball came to head, and the two of them and MGP (don't get me started) were all within 3 feet of each other, and no-one knew what to do with the ball.

But did the dolt bring on Tugay? Did he hell, he brought on Derbyshire for Emerton. Sorry, but if Derbyshire is the answer, the question is wrong.

We won't win another game with him in charge. Ince HAS to go and it HAS to be now. We can't afford to wait. there was no tactical help- he just stood on the touchline mute.

GET RID AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.

Amen Jan, would agree with everything you have said there

Ince has two games to rectify our league position, after that I am firmly in the camp of "we need a new manager".

Two games??? you must be mad, 2 games was last week. This week as far as i can see, he has the next game, but even if we win, i can see him being sacked.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Fair point LeChuck.

We haven't seen a single rational argument pointing to Ince actually achieving anything.

It's all been "give him a chance".

Nothing wrong with that - it's better than 'Don't give him a chance' once he was here. In my book he's had a chance and the most worrying aspect is we are getting worse not better, so time to admit a mistake and rectify.

Anyway, it's not the fans on here who gave him that chance, it was your hero Mr Williams. If Ince's limitations were as apparent as many on here claim, Williams should fall on his sword rather than be trusted to finally get it right. His first choice, Shearer, had no experience whatsoever, so maybe Ince looked highly qualified to him after that fiasco fell through.

Will anyone be holding him accountable or will Williams be allowed to 'give his man time' and lead us to ruin?

[John Howarth]

Once again, Ince showing his novice PR qualities by publicly critising Olsson, calling him naive, then goes on trying to defend him getting sent off.

In my opinion, the problem was that Olsson should not have been on the field after 30 minutes. He had already given a goal away, had a yellow card, was playing pretty poorly and seemed to be diving in at any opponent who moved. Surely. Ince should have seen this, and taken him off

[grizfoot]

Spurs were poor today which makes it all the more disapointing we lost. A really poor performance from Olsson cost us the game not only did he give away the ball for the goal he also then got himself sent off after a string of reckless tackles on Lennon, no excuse he was awful today get Warnock back there ASAP.

When it was 11 Vs 11 I thought the game was relatively equal and we had a few good chances going forward. McCarthy flashed a shot just over form a cross I remember.

It was always going to be difficult with ten men but Spurs couldn't find that second goal thanks to some good defending from the back four in the second half. Saying that we created little going forward Pedersen was trash, Emerton had an off day and Andrews & Mokeona sounds more like Championship than Premiership quality to me. Although some of you make Vogel sound like Patrick Vieria the way some of you keep going on about him. He had one good game for us that was against United at home, for the majority of the games he played he looked nothing more than neat and tidy, which some of you have criticised Andrews for being. Had Vogel playing would the result really been any different, probably not would be my gues.

Despite the result without Olsson's mistake and sending off we could have easily got something out of this game. On a brighter note Betnley was absolute pants today so you can't bring the whole 'if we still had Bentley playing' comments.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Although some of you make Vogel sound like Patrick Vieria the way some of you keep going on about him. He had one good game for us that was against United at home, for the majority of the games he played he looked nothing more than neat and tidy, which some of you have criticised Andrews for being. Had Vogel playing would the result really been any different, probably not would be my gues.

Vogel would have retained possession far better than Mokoena going off previous evidence. Giving the ball away in stupid positions has cost us more than anything this season in my view.

Mokoena is and continues to be crap. I hope some club is stupid enough to buy him in January, or maybe we should just release him on a free.