[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[tony gale's mic]

Basically he isn't admitting any faults on his part.

When does a manager ever admit his faults straight after a game to the press?

[Stuart]

When does a manager ever admit his faults straight after a game to the press?

Brian Kidd did.

However, I agree it would be naive. For his faults, I don't think Sam is that.

[Mr. E]

When does a manager ever admit his faults straight after a game to the press?

When he has really screwed up.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Sam's Post Match interview on Sky Sports

[DE.]

First thing Sam says when the interviewer asks what needs changing: "Change the players."

Hopefully he means Grella, Andrews, Roberts and Nelsen.

[Gav]

Sam's comments to the Beeb:

"I think we were poor to be honest. We've got no resilience away from home.

"We let ourselves down on set pieces and gave Everton an easy victory. We could have stopped two goals from a corner and a free-kick.

"We're not getting the results we need to avoid struggling this season.

"It's a disappointing result and a disappointing performance but its one we need to get over."

At least he didn't blame injuries this time.

Not really got much more to add, other than if this was how our full strength squads going to cope this season, we're in real trouble even at this early stage

[booth]

I'd say that is realistic and honest. It also shows Sam is worried.

Mr E. he uses the words 'we' which says he takes as much blame as the players. There is no distancing himself from them so your assertion is incorrect.

Honesty would have been him saying 'me' as it was his fault we lost today. Players like Roberts and Andrews don't pick themselves. And playing 4-5-1 is like admitting that you're desperately hoping for a 0-0 result with Roberts up front alone. That's an immense amount of added pressure to put on the defense to expect them to get a clean sheet away from home with a dodgy midfield and no strikers to count on.

[LDRover]

Basically he isn't admitting any faults on his part.

That'll be the day Mr. E, he's just like the wife in that respect.

[T4E]

That'll be the day Mr. E, he's just like the wife in that respect.

Any clue where it is that Waggy drinks, Jason?

Think I might join him next week.

[LDRover]

Any clue where it is that Waggy drinks, Jason?

Think I might join him next week.

Think it's the Walmsley in Rishton, Neil.

Mind you, it's about 6 deep at the bar with Rovers fans on matchdays now.

[ABBEY]

thank god for the self proclaimed expert.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Worrying thing is that Allardyce has had a full pre season with this lot. How pundits can refer to us as a dangerous side at set pieces is beyond me. We're ****in awful at taking them and even worse at defending them.

[Tris]

Allardyce said: "No player deserves to keep their shirts for the midweek Carling Cup game (at Nottingham Forest), apart from Chris Samba and Paul Robinson, for his fine saves in the second-half. Steven Reid and Brett Emerton will both come into the team on Tuesday night for the cup tie. And I can promise that whoever plays well at Forest will keep the shirt for the next Premier League match."

It will be good to see Emerton and Reidy get the chance against Forest. Also I'm happy to see that Sam views the performance as unacceptable and is prepared to drop players. Not sure i agree with his comments about Samba, i am a big Samba fan but he has been very poor so far this season. Could just be that Samba is viewed as undroppable because he is the only defender with decent pace, plus the aerial/nuisance threat he offers.

He now needs to back his comments with actions.

This is the same Allardyce who told us that he played for a PL draw at home against West Ham because he didn't have the players to choose from? "Leave it to me - I'm the expert" !!!

What a great master plan this is. Put some reserves in for a cup game and promise them a PL start if they do well against a 2nd division side. For someone who is meant to be at the forefront of technical aids for monitoring players performance, this is a bloody joke.

As is his selection of Salgado and Kalinic today in front of Emerton and McCarthy. The evidence was so clear and so obvious at the reserve game on Monday. I challenge anyone who saw that reserve game to actually support Allardyce's promotion of the two poorest reserve team players into the 1st team squad today.

[John]

Said so at the time, but I thought Sam's transfer strategy during the summer was strange. As someone commented to me this evening, why do you think you will do better this season, as you have not bought anyone. Obviously we have bought players, but what they are saying is true in a sense. So far, none of our summer signings have made a postive, significant impact yet on the team (though Jacobsen and Steven Nzonzi have looked decent enough).

So far this season, some of the things personnel and tactics wise have left me slightly baffled.

Must give it time though, still early days in relation to the season - problem is that our fixtures until November are all going to be bloody tough. Therefore it could get much worse before it gets better.....

[beerwins]

Worrying thing is that Allardyce has had a full pre season with this lot. How pundits can refer to us as a dangerous side at set pieces is beyond me. We're ****in awful at taking them and even worse at defending them.

Thats just a nice way of putting that we cant score from open play because we are as creative as my dog with a pencil and a nice landscape.

[RibbleValleyRover]

This is the same Allardyce who told us that he played for a PL draw at home against West Ham because he didn't have the players to choose from? "Leave it to me - I'm the expert" !!!

What a great master plan this is. Put some reserves in for a cup game and promise them a PL start if they do well against a 2nd division side. For someone who is meant to be at the forefront of technical aids for monitoring players performance, this is a bloody joke.

As is his selection of Salgado and Kalinic today in front of Emerton and McCarthy. The evidence was so clear and so obvious at the reserve game on Monday. I challenge anyone who saw that reserve game to actually support Allardyce's promotion of the two poorest reserve team players into the 1st team squad today.

Not that happy myself with Sam at the moment, but he has gone on record that he is willing to drop players. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens and whether or not his comments are bs or he is prepared to take action.

I'd be more concerned if he came out after the match and said something like "It was just a bad one off performance, i won't make any changes and i expect to keep the same side going into the league cup and probably the next league game".

Personally i don't think we need to make massive changes, three players i would definitely look to drop for the Forest game and the Villa game:

Pedersen

Andrews

Roberts

+ switch back to a 4-4-2.

Roberts is pretty much useless at the moment and should be dropped. Andrews works hard but we have players fit who can play in midfield and offer more. Pedersen has been @#/? for 3 seasons, slight improvement maybe this season but still not good enough.

I think we can drop these three players without weakening ourselves that much and hopefully dropping these players will give them the kick up the backside they need. We have Grella, Emerton and Reid all three can play in central midfield and offer more than Andrews. Hoilett has looked like he wants to create something every time he plays, he did more in is cameo than Roberts did all game and he has played on either wing at Saint Pauli. Dioufy could play on the left, he has done that for Bolton in the past. Then there is Benni who may be fat but scores goals and would be more of a threat than Roberts. Jacobsen has been superb and should come back straight into the team, if not fit then play Emerton there.

Seems to me like we are at a critical point in the season, Sam needs to either make changes or stick with the system and hope it comes good.

[Tris]

"We played the way we did because of the players we had available - and we played it very well. All you punters and supporters out there, leave it to me. I'm the expert, not you."

This remark is going to haunt Allardyce for the rest of his time at Ewood Park, and like all his other mistakes, it's entirely his own work.

I posted in July that I would give him the time of day - 10 league games - to make me a convert. I think he's brought in some good players ... so what worries me now is that his day to day management and match tactics are losing us points.

I think 17 points by the end of October (a quarter of the season) was a realistic target - from a possible 30 - given the tough fixtures in October. We currently have 4 points, and to get to that 17 we will need to beat three of Villa, Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea and Man Utd.

Which isn't going to happen. When we play Portsmouth on November 7th it will be a proper 6 pointer, but it's all we've got to look forward to right now. We will go into the home derby as the underlings, against a Burnley team who can play football as it should be played, who have a real manager, and who will relish the chance to twist the knife and take the p!ss.

The "expert" will have to change his approach by then, otherwise Ewood Park will murder him, and there will be no going back.

[tony gale's mic]

This remark is going to haunt Allardyce for the rest of his time at Ewood Park, and like all his other mistakes, it's entirely his own work.

I posted in July that I would give him the time of day - 10 league games - to make me a convert. I think he's brought in some good players ... so what worries me now is that his day to day management and match tactics are losing us points.

I think 17 points by the end of October (a quarter of the season) was a realistic target - from a possible 30 - given the tough fixtures in October. We currently have 4 points, and to get to that 17 we will need to beat three of Villa, Arsenal, Burnley, Chelsea and Man Utd.

Which isn't going to happen. When we play Portsmouth on November 7th it will be a proper 6 pointer, but it's all we've got to look forward to right now. We will go into the home derby as the underlings, against a Burnley team who can play football as it should be played, who have a real manager, and who will relish the chance to twist the knife and take the p!ss.

The "expert" will have to change his approach by then, otherwise Ewood Park will murder him, and there will be no going back.

I think 17 points after 10 games - given the relatively tough fixtures - was a wholly unfair expectation anyway. 17 points over a quarter of a season translates to 68 points over 38 games - four points off Arsenal's points total in 4th last season. And your claims about some of the finances are utterly inaccurate too. Warnock WASN'T sold to fund Salgado's wages - what utter tripe. I doubt Salgado is making very much (if any) more than what Warnock was making, so to say that the £5m extra surplus we made after getting Chimbonda is going on Salgado's wages just doesn't add up.

And the £18m DIDN'T go towards wages. You really need to do your maths - a player earning 30k a week gets £1.5 million a year in wages. We haven't brought in 12 additional players on 30 grand a week over the summer.

I am not happy with Sam currently and think he's made some big errors this season regarding team selection. But you've had it in for him from the outset (although you said this 10 games thing, it was plainly obvious from your other posts you'd made your judgement already) and you setting out unrealistic aims for him and making up lies about the finances situation is further evidence of this.

[Eddie]

He's too full of himself. He's too stubborn. He has one game plan.

He will, eventually, take us down, I have no doubt about that. The day he leaves will be the best thing to have happened to this club in a long while.

I'd honestly take back Ince in a shot.

I'm happy for anyone to slate me for it, but it was my opinion from day one and he's done nothing to change it. I've always been taught that, in any walk of life or area, someone who lowers expectations is either an idiot or incapable. Allardyce has set his stall out to lower expectations from about April onwards. He's now lowering them very quickly.

[jim mk2]

Well, well, well ; one bad day at the office and the Allardyce haters are back with a vengeance.

Completely over the top and pathetic.

Instead of being blinded by prejudice and spewing bile, who not get behind one of the best managers in football and let's see where we stand towards the end of the season shall we ?

For it is my belief that by next spring the team will be in much healthier position than it is at present and the anti-Allardyce faction will be looking rather silly.

I will ask the manager to change his stance on one player however. Perhaps he will have realised after today's match at Goodison that Keith Andrews will never by "good enough for the Prem" as his agent / mum / dad / brother on here would have us believe and should be dropped forthwith.

[tony gale's mic]

I'd honestly take back Ince in a shot.

FFS.

[Tris]

And the £18m DIDN'T go towards wages.

No lies here doctor @#/?.

And nobody said 18 mill went to wages, but John Williams said we failed to lose 5 million off the wage bill. Then two days after BFS got his useless big name Spanish right back into the club, the perfectly good left back Warnock was shipped out to make up the difference. The two moves are inextricably linked ... but I wouldn't expect you to understand that - you are well and truly beyond help.

[jim mk2]

No lies here doctor @#/?.

Oh dear. Public bar talk.

[Tris]

Oh dear. Public bar talk.

Oh dear. The nappy soiling pensioner has nicked the keyboard again. Cue some autism jibes ...

[Tris]

Well, well, well ; one bad day at the office and the Allardyce haters are back with a vengeance.

Completely over the top and pathetic.

Instead of being blinded by prejudice and spewing bile, who not get behind one of the best managers in football and let's see where we stand towards the end of the season shall we ?

Must say I'm looking to the Wolves match and giving the lamentable Andrews (assuming he is playing) another good rollicking.

And for the record, criticising one of our own players does not make me any less of a Rovers fan and just because Andrews is in the team does not mean I also support the manager and think he is doing a good job.