[Archived] Spurs Preview

[The Prof.]

Very interesting how The Times has managed to turn Olsson's two trips on Lennon (both bookable offences, it must be said) into "a series of crude challenges"!

And I thought it was just us who got biased and unwarranted reporting from the media!

Just as an aside, why did your coaching staff leave Olsson so exposed? It was blindingly obvious that putting a man in to back him up would have nullified the only threat that Spuds possessed at that time?

I concur with the rising tide here concerning Incey's ability at this level. He's not surrounded himself with coaching quality either. I reckon if you don't act this month it'll be too late.

I wouldn't like to see Rovers go down. Not whilst there are deserving causes like Spurs, West Ham and Newcastle around anyway!

We what do you expect form a souferner.

[The Prof.]

I very rarely feel the need to post my frustrations on one single player. However, after attending the game yesterday and seeing Paul Robinson being more interested in playing up to the Tottenham fans rather than coming for crosses and commanding his area I find myself putting a share of the blame purely onto him.

He literally didnt seem to care yesterday. I don't have a problem with ex players going back to their old club and responding to their old fans. However, this was literally every single time he went to collect the ball. He even purposefully put the ball into the home end just to get more applause, bearing in mind at this stage we were 1-0 down and we needed to be pressuring Spurs. At the end of the game he was almost doing a lap of honour round white hart lane, of course he didnt respond to the small pocket of blackburn fans who had suffered another defeat.

Ryan and Samba dont seem to have any confidence in him and I find myself questionning his desire to play for us, and although I am singling him out I fear that under the current management that I will be questionning more the players desire to play for the club unless things change

There is still time to sort this out. However, With Roque potentially on the way out in January we need to stop the rot sooner rather than later

Robinson's inability to catch the ball has been a huge problem for me all season. Any centre back would have worries about him and stopping shots just doesn't make a goalkeeper. How many flaps will cost us goals before Christmas. One a game at least and we won't keep a clean sheet with him in the net. Jason Brown looks small but he does catch the ball far better than Robinson. First priority has to be a big sum on a class keeper but there are few around.

Robinson was one of very few players to come away with any credit yesterday.

He looked incredibly solid, kicked everything superbly (despite the Spurs fans trying to put him off) and just generally didn't put a foot wrong. I have a feeling he could be one of the most important members of the team in the coming weeks, so to criticise him for acknowleding the fans of his former club is bordering on insanity.

Edit: The fact that he was so relaxed yesterday is surely a good thing for us? That's probably why he made everything look so easy. When he's been nervous in the past that's when the mistakes have crept in. If he's happy and at ease with the game then it can only be good news for us.

His kicking is long but not accurate. How can you complain about a long ball game and then praise this guy for kicking down the Centre Halves throat 100% of the time?

Olsson: "I smashed up most of the dressing room after being sent off"

"The manager said that I'm young and that I'll improve with time. He also said that it's better to show some feelings and passion instead of doing nothing."

Olsson will probably be fined by the FA because of the incident.

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=544553

If this is so he's not fit to play for us again - god havn't standards slipped far enough already!

[waggy]

does no one realise we were down to ten men for the 2nd half,you lot are a right set off back biters,do what fans are supposed to do and back your team.i for one reliase we are struggling and the back biting from you so called fans makes me laugh,grow up or go back to supporting utd and liverpoo

[waggy]

paul ince will not be sacked till the end of the season,and only if we are relagated.if you cannot back him stay away from ewood you are not welcome

[The Prof.]

paul ince will not be sacked till the end of the season,and only if we are relagated.if you cannot back him stay away from ewood you are not welcome

Agreed - when will the penny drop?

(Hope he resigns soon though!)

[B.R.F.C]

I really am a glutton for punishment this year...another 30 odd quid to watch us play as follows according to 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."

What on earth is he smoking? I wish I had taken some of it because to be quite honest we were useless yesterday.

First half we did play well on occasions but overall Spurs caused us a lot of trouble and the goal came from a mistake by young Martin who didn't have the best of days really. As soon as we went down to ten men we looked downbeat and clueless as to what to do apart from hoofing it up to an injured Roque.

Second Half Spurs passed it about and created a couple of chances with us threatening very little. Whenever we did get the chance to attack from set piece Morten predictably wasted the opportunity hitting the first defender.

The board need to do something to sort this out. Last year and for the past few seasons we had been top 8 competitors and now we are languishing at 19th in the table with a third of the season played already. The board in the summer went for the cheaper option with Ince and his transfer dealings and we are now paying for it dearly which sadly I foreseen in pre-season.

Its time for the board to step up to the plate and give Ince the heave ho if things don't improve in the next couple of games. We need to bring in an experienced manager such as Curbishley and back him to the hilt with the money we have in the bank. Stay tight and we will go down its as simple as that

Another thing I noted yesterday was Roques body language at the end of the game. He had his head down then looked up at our support and walked off incredibly slowly. I will be very surprised if he is still with us come the end of January...very surprised.

[Jan]

paul ince will not be sacked till the end of the season,and only if we are relagated.if you cannot back him stay away from ewood you are not welcome

Many already are. Hence the tumbleweeds around the stands. And you're not being a good supporter of the club being a robot and going "Ince is good, Ince is good". The best thing FOR THE CLUB is to get rid of Ince now. If we were managerless we would probably do better than we would with him in charge. At least some of the players are intelligent, and Matty has done his coaching badges so can at least offer helpful suggestions. AND I bet they'd then play in their own position!!!

[Majiball]

I know that Tugay cannot play every game, but he has hardly started a game since his influential start to the season.

We had three games in 7 days coming up. Ince said that Tugay was too old to play 3 games and so would only probably play in 2 of those he played 0 out of 3.

I find it hard to believe that since we are playing a passing game the best passer of the ball is not on the pitch. We are struggling to create from open play lets leave the man with vision on the bench.

Sundays game called for old heads, experience and I was pleased to see Ooijer put up against Bentley, Ooijer always stood the best chance of shackling him.

What is wrong with RSC?

And finally one last moan (I'm lying, there's more moaning), Why on earth did we not go 432 when down to 10, everyone takes off the top man leaving 441. I honestly felt that Benni would score he was the only striker showing any sort of movement up-top.

I've read the reports now and I called far an improved performance, personally I did not see enough to convince me. I am not impressed by comments I have read about how well we played and what an improvement it was. At present we are no better than WBA, who play some good stuff at times and make silly mistakes, which you cannot make at this level.

At the start of the season I called for 10 games grace period as did others. Grace time is over, I do not see it happening everytime I watch the lads play at home now I'm being sent to another room such have my frustration levels exceeded the tolerances of others.

I'm afraid its time for plan B!

[RibbleValleyRover]

What is wrong with RSC?

No Service, No support...

[Claytons Left Boot]

paul ince will not be sacked till the end of the season,and only if we are relagated.if you cannot back him stay away from ewood you are not welcome

Most people, me included, have backed him - but you have to draw the line somewhere.

As always, the fans will decide. It will come from the chairman but the fans ultimately decide.

If enough anti Ince feeling is heard at Pompey he'll get the bullet, although I bet it'll be the Liverpool game.

To watch us get relegated but still back him would be absurd.

Relegation would be an absolute disaster - more reason to get rid of Ince now. He's had long enough and has to go.

[Majiball]

No Service, No support...

You see thats what I would have said a while back, unfortunatly I am beginning to get the feeling that he has second season syndrome. He does not look the same player, he does not look a happy player.

I'm worried his head has been turned ala Benni.

[RibbleValleyRover]

You see thats what I would have said a while back, unfortunatly I am beginning to get the feeling that he has second season syndrome. He does not look the same player, he does not look a happy player.

I'm worried his head has been turned ala Benni.

Hard to decide whether its second season syndrome or not. I think its more a case that he hasn't had the service, particularly from out wide. How many times last season did we see Bentley put in a cross into the box and Roque putting it away with some clever movement.

His body language doesn't look great, but that could be due to the lack of service.

[Eddie]

He was NEVER going to be as good as he was last season. All you have to do is look at his record and see that he will never go that long again without injury and he simply will not take such a high percentage of his chances again. He is a good player and we got him at such a low price because he was misused and underperformed at Bayern, but he isn't going to score that many goals for us again. If we want to start scoring goals then we have to figure out a role for Benni, he is the only true goalscorer that we have.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

The lack of discipline in our team is appalling..bottom of yet another table of yellow/red cards..I really really hope that John Williams shows some feeling and passion soon and " DOES SOMETHING!"

I'm as shocked by his behavior after the sending off as I was with the sending off itself. I thought this lad had an attitude problem before yesterdays game and now I'm sure he has, I hope the F.A. give him a longer suspension. Better players than him have been moved on because of their attitude.

[Amo]

No Service, No support...

Exactly. Yesterday he was just bringing down hopeful punts but there was no one (competent enough) to help him out. The guy is missing Bentley big time, and I'm afraid that's Ince's fault for not signing a replacement. People can harp on all day about Pennant, but that was a last-minute deal. You should always have a back-up plan, and that plan is not Emerton.

[Al]

paul ince will not be sacked till the end of the season,and only if we are relagated.if you cannot back him stay away from ewood you are not welcome

I hope nobody takes you up on that Waggy or you are going to be pretty lonely next home match.

[MCMC1875]

I hope nobody takes you up on that Waggy or you are going to be pretty lonely next home match.

Al

Next home game (Liverpool) could well be the day of reckoning.....

[mattyboy6000]

No need for such rudeness...... especially when Den's opinion is perfectly valid.

the rudeness was with Den, mistaking opinion for fact. So, in my opinion, a rebuttal was perfectly valid, albeit it could have been expressed less obejctionably, i'll admit. Happy now?

[tonygreenbank]

Just another perspective on the game yesterday. A football follower was talking today at work about yesterday`s match and he said he thought Rovers had played well and "were unlucky" not to get a point. He then watched the Sunderland West Ham game and thought that Rovers were better than either of those two. Perhaps sometimes other disinterested people see things that we dont as we get so wrapped up in a game. He is not a Rovers fan just a footie one.

[John]

Just another perspective on the game yesterday. A football follower was talking today at work about yesterday`s match and he said he thought Rovers had played well and "were unlucky" not to get a point. He then watched the Sunderland West Ham game and thought that Rovers were better than either of those two. Perhaps sometimes other disinterested people see things that we dont as we get so wrapped up in a game. He is not a Rovers fan just a footie one.

Same. Spurs fans at work thought we did ok and were a bit unlucky.

[CrazyIvan]

Same. Spurs fans at work thought we did ok and were a bit unlucky.

Funny, I had a conversation with a Belfast taxi driver this morning along these lines. He actually said that Ince should be allowed the entire season and, as long as we are not relegated, we'll be a lot better next season. I don't personally think Ince has anywhere near that long but as an independent 'watcher' it was interesting to hear his opinion.

[Eddie]

That's also the opinion I've been expressing. People are looking for the worst at the moment and are finding it (sometimes very easily).

[Amo]

Tottenham fans were probably too busy focusing on their own side to notice our inadequacies. Not to mention it sounds better for Spurs to beat an okay Blackburn rather than a complete shambles.

[No Nay Never]

Got to be honest and say I thought we were absolutely awful yesterday, and im getting a little bit sick of ince bemoaning our hard luck. In football you make your own luck, the more chances you make the more you should in theory stick in the onion bag and im afraid we just don't make enough chances. Anyone with an ounce of tactical knowledge yesterday would have switched the full backs across as soon as olsson got his first booking, Ok ooijer is far slower for olsson but he would have took a booking for the team and then we could have re grouped at half time.

Also is it just me who thinks Zurab is by far and away our most 'complete' centre half ?

[Roost]

I too spent the £37 quid to watch a game that we never looked like winning.

Andrews and Mokoena should be ashamed of their performances and MGP should be equally embarrassed.

I am just bobsmacked at how much of the ball we give away - most of our players dont actually need to be tackled, just let them run with the ball and eventually they will lose it by either putting the ball out of play for a throw in, tripping up mid run, putting a cross in without even thinking to look up first or just kicking the ball straight at the first man. I got sick of seeing it on sunday.

I havent (and dont really want to) seen an interview with PI, but I can imagine most of it.

Reality check everyone - we are in the @#/?.