[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[Amo]

The point is, at least Blackpool are trying to play football - if you remember, that was what Sparky had us playing - with players like Nelsen, Pedersen, Samba etc.

Haha! Nonsense. The majority of fans were losing patience with Hughes' depressing performances, even though he was still grinding out results.

[Miker]

Two seasons ago Arsenal had scored more goals from crosses than any other team in the league, which just shows that you need a good mix.

Allardyce has got us playing good football with a good mentality, football under Hughes was good, but the last half of the season he was still with us was pretty awful and unwatchable. I've been glued to the screen every game so far this season, so clearly Sam is doing something right.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Hughes didn't play ANY better football than Sam has had us playing!! If Hughes played better football, then I'm the real slim shady!

Yep. That Bellamy season was awful; I don't know how we stood for it.

[waggy]

Gotta say at this point that I much prefer listening to sense from Lardarse at Ewood rather than infantile nonsense from Mardarse in Rishton!

took you 10 months to come up with that

[Blue blood]

Have to say that I don't think the football this season has been all that good. West Ham was shocking, and I wasn't too convinced by the Villa performance until the sending off (when we became magnificent).

I do think we need to mix it up more, we haven't played masses of good stuff this season. I think we are overly-reliant on long punts into the box. There are times when it just doesn't work.

However, that's not to say there isn't a place for long ball football. Villa looked horribly susceptable to it on Saturday, and City were none too comfortable with it either. Given that's the case, and the fact we can lump it into the mixer in a threatening manner, it definately should be part of our attacking play.

At the moment I'm not convinced we've got the balance quite right - imo when it's not working the long ball stuff is more unpleasant to watch, which is where the dissatisfaction arises. But the idea we should never use it and jack in any long ball stuff, when it clearly can have an effect, is stupid. We saw that philosophy under Ince, and West Brom fans saw it last season, and the result is always disasterous. Even Arsenal with their one dimensional passing play have not been too successful (relatively speaking) the past couple of seasons. Teams HAVE to be able to mix it.

Personally I think we've got the long ball aspect sorted, especially when we don't have roberts/mccarthy up front on their tod. Hopefully a bit more variety will enter the team as Emo comes back to fitness and Kalinic and Holliett adjust to the league. We're not there yet, and at times that is really frustrating but hopefully Sam will realise we need that variety and add it as the team gels as the season goes on.

[joey_big_nose]

Have to say that I don't think the football this season has been all that good. West Ham was shocking, and I wasn't too convinced by the Villa performance until the sending off (when we became magnificent).

It's really strange how people see games differently. Personally I thought the 20 minutes up to the sending off was some of the best attacking possession football Rovers have played in the last three seasons.

Each to their own I suppose.

[T4E]

It's really strange how people see games differently. Personally I thought the 20 minutes up to the sending off was some of the best attacking possession football Rovers have played in the last three seasons.

Each to their own I suppose.

Totally agree, we were excellent in that period.

[philipl]

From what I have seen so far-

Man City entertaining performance let down by a bad defensive error straight from the start

Sunderland enterprising away effort let down by lapses of concentration well expoited by Sunderland

West Ham unbelievable inexplicably dire stuff against rubbish opponents

Wolves cracking performance mixing it up well.

Everton not that bad until horribly bad defensive mistakes for the goals and playing Roberts on his own up front.

Aston Villa much better balanced side picked now the players are available and not only neutralised a team on 6 wins running but comprehensively out played then for 20 minutes before Grella sent off AND had the guts to keep taking the game to Villa despite only having ten men.

Didn't see the cup games.

Now I doubt anyone will quibble with that assessment of the games or at least convince me otherwise!

What that does add up to is pretty decent football from a team that stuck itself into the bottom three twice.

HOWEVER, Sam's reputation precedes him and even a crackerjack like the Villa game has the odd poster whingeing about the entertainment level. AND Sam does get some games horribly wrong- Stoke last season, West Ham this. Bang in his "Sam knows best" and Sam is easily his own worst enemy on this.

I signed the Facebook protest last summer not for a nanosecond thinking Ince was any more likely to be appointed boss than I was. So I am no natural Sam fan but I think the football served up by Rovers so far this season has been better than OK and I consider myself a bit of a purist at times.

[CrazyIvan]

...I consider myself a bit of a purist at times.

That actually made me laugh out loud...

[Stuart]

I signed the Facebook protest last summer...

Shocked, I am. I thought you were a middle aged chap - didn't realise you were a teenager!

[Hughesy]

Totally agree, we were excellent in that period.

Use the + and - signs then ha ha!

I totally agree too. Saturday was good. We started badly, then played well, we lost a man and then had 10 mins of keeping it tight, before we went on the attack again and won.

[JAL]

For the football to improve for those complaining, Allardyce needs to get shut of Grella and Andrews, replace them with someone better and buy another quality forward then we'll begin to look a far more attractive football team.

Until then this is how it is.........

[gumboots]

For the football to improve for those complaining, Allardyce needs to get shut of Grella and Andrews, replace them with someone better and buy another quality forward then we'll begin to look a far more attractive football team.

Until then this is how it is.........

In other words one of us needs to win the euromillions jackpot and decide to give it all to allardyce to spend just out of the goodness of our hearts, expecting no return.

[joey_big_nose]

From what I have seen so far-

Man City entertaining performance let down by a bad defensive error straight from the start

Sunderland enterprising away effort let down by lapses of concentration well expoited by Sunderland

West Ham unbelievable inexplicably dire stuff against rubbish opponents

Wolves cracking performance mixing it up well.

Everton not that bad until horribly bad defensive mistakes for the goals and playing Roberts on his own up front.

Aston Villa much better balanced side picked now the players are available and not only neutralised a team on 6 wins running but comprehensively out played then for 20 minutes before Grella sent off AND had the guts to keep taking the game to Villa despite only having ten men.

Didn't see the cup games.

Now I doubt anyone will quibble with that assessment of the games or at least convince me otherwise!

What that does add up to is pretty decent football from a team that stuck itself into the bottom three twice.

HOWEVER, Sam's reputation precedes him and even a crackerjack like the Villa game has the odd poster whingeing about the entertainment level. AND Sam does get some games horribly wrong- Stoke last season, West Ham this. Bang in his "Sam knows best" and Sam is easily his own worst enemy on this.

I signed the Facebook protest last summer not for a nanosecond thinking Ince was any more likely to be appointed boss than I was. So I am no natural Sam fan but I think the football served up by Rovers so far this season has been better than OK and I consider myself a bit of a purist at times.

To be fair even the West Ham game we didn't actually play badly it was just we were completely unadventurous.

I personally am positive. My main worry is that we don't have good enough strikers to finish the decent amount of chances that we create. If we did have someone like that we would probably be four to six points to the good at the moment. Kalinic is the guy Sam brought in to do this but he does seem to have serious doubts about him as do I.

He has looked poor to average every time he has made a first team appearence for us.

Again you have to be looking to him making a major impact against Posh. He needs to be much much much stronger and a little more mobile. Could take a lot of pointers from Di Santo.

[JAL]

In other words one of us needs to win the euromillions jackpot and decide to give it all to allardyce to spend just out of the goodness of our hearts, expecting no return.

Theres young up and coming talent all over the world its up to the management to go out and find it gumboots.

[gumboots]

Theres young up and coming talent all over the world its up to the management to go out and find it gumboots.

Not denying that. Still costs and as we don't seen to have tuppence to spend I don't see us making too many changes to personnel and certainly not getting rid of Grella and andrews at this stage.(ie Jan window)

[Steve Moss]

I thought that Kalinic was injured at time of signing? Adding that and Sam's statements that he needed to build up some, indicates that he is coming along as well as can be expected. I hope he puts on the muscle, and gets some steadiness, by January, when we may well lose Di Santo.

[John]

I personally am positive. My main worry is that we don't have good enough strikers to finish the decent amount of chances that we create.

Good strikers who can finish usually cost a lot of money, that's the problem. Sam wanted Darren Bent in the summer, but sadly we could not afford him.

Generally, so many times I hear the words unlucky referred to when teams miss plenty of chances in a match, when it more like the quality of their finishing not being good enough (of course this does not just relate to the front men).

I think Sam naturally likes a direct game, but for those suggesting we should pass it more obviously have not seen many of our players try to pass the ball. We simply don't have the quality to play and pick up points that way, well not consistenly enough.

[thenodrog]

took you 10 months to come up with that

Worth the wait was it?

btw I'm sure that you have seen the many comments on here by people who assumed that you are a child and suprised to find that you are middle aged.

[ABBEY]

Worth the wait was it?

btw I'm sure that you have seen the many comments on here by people who assumed that you are a child and suprised to find that you are middle aged.

i get that too..hahaha must be a rishton thing hahaha.

[Blue blood]

It's really strange how people see games differently. Personally I thought the 20 minutes up to the sending off was some of the best attacking possession football Rovers have played in the last three seasons.

Each to their own I suppose.

Yeah guess that helps make football interesting.

Have to say I was thinking more of the first half then the second, but the way we caused Villa problems yet kept it tight and didn't really give them any chances when down to 10 men really stood out for me. As others have commented, you wouldn't have thought we were a man down.

As for the wham game I can't see how that could be called anything other than turgid, and I'm more dissatisfied with that type of performance than when we're totally outclassed.

[joey_big_nose]

As for the wham game I can't see how that could be called anything other than turgid, and I'm more dissatisfied with that type of performance than when we're totally outclassed.

I can see your point, but any manager is going to go for a point over a loss. I suppose Sam just wanted a bit of stability. You have to say that it probably has paid dividends on our home form with us utilising the same system but more effectively against Villa and Wolves. If we had lost on the break against West Ham as we did against City and Sunderland it could have caused us more problems going into the Wolves game.

[gumboots]

I can see your point, but any manager is going to go for a point over a loss. I suppose Sam just wanted a bit of stability. You have to say that it probably has paid dividends on our home form with us utilising the same system but more effectively against Villa and Wolves. If we had lost on the break against West Ham as we did against City and Sunderland it could have caused us more problems going into the Wolves game.

You're probably right about taking a draw rather than a loss in the west ham game but what was frustrating wasn't how we started but that we didn't change the tactics during the game when it became obvious that West Ham were there for the taking. Without going overboard we could have turned up the pressure just a notch as we did on Saturday and possibly got the win, without jeopardising our draw.

[philipl]

Jack Straw in the LT. Probably the very last comparison Sam needed...

[The Rover of Finland]

Sam is expecting to lose Di Santo in January. It´s obvious we need a striker to replace him. Wonder if there will be Warnock money available or would it be a loan move. Benjani will be linked to us that´s for sure. It´s actually the only name coming in mind.