[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[philipl]

Your moods swung around again I see philip. SA's now being viewed in a positive light by you it seems. However we can all rest assured that 3 defeats on the spin and you'll have him down as too bad to burn again.

Hardly worth the effort on someone as blinkered as your good self but I always made the point during the bad run that the best thing that could happen would be for Sam to sort it out. The way things were going at that time with a combination of dire de-motivated football, comic book defending and repeated defeats quite rightly raised many questions about Sam's position.

Thankfully, the defending has improved (but not perfect), the football has improved within the limitations of the squad and the results have come.

All credit to Sam for achieving this turn-around.

[Seggie]

I think its time for his doubters to accept he is the right man for the job, he may play @#/? football at times, he may insist on playing Keith Andrews and Jason Roberts. I personally would have not played Phil Jones today as any mistake leading to a goal could have killed him off as a prospect, and played Olsson at LB and Givet at CB but Sam did, hes the football manager, I am Not, and he again got his tactics spot on in an ugly game against an ugly team.

His biggest job has been to rebuild what Ince broke, he has more or less done that and his transfer dealings in the summer should see how ambitious he is for our club.

I think looking at the remaining fixtures the target should be to overtake Birmingham and hit 50pts, which is achievable and Im pretty confident most of us would have taken that many points at the start of the season if it is achieved.

[BRFC1995]

if we finish 9th, with the eight chequebook managers ahead of us(and yes moyes is 100% a chequebook manager). It has to go down as a brilliant season for sam 18months after the carnage that ince caused.

Getting ahead of Brum is our title race for 6 games.

[Hughesy]

if we finish 9th, with the eight chequebook managers ahead of us(and yes moyes is 100% a chequebook manager). It has to go down as a brilliant season for sam 18months after the carnage that ince caused.

Getting ahead of Brum is our title race for 6 games.

Id be delighted with 10th....9th would be great, but I cant see it to be honest!

As for Sam - Thanks for keeping the 31 years record going...big game today and his tactics/ team pulled it off and to be honest they were very much in our back pocket - despite taking risks in playing people like Jones & Olsson

[Ewood and I Would]

Now we have a new target this season - to stay top half. If we finish 10th this season then that would be brilliant. Remember Mark Hughes' achievements came without City being so rich and without Spurs being such a force.

Spurs finished 5th twice whilst Hughes was at Rovers and would have got a CL spot if it hadn't been for a dodgy Lasagne.

[Seedstral]

For all those doubters earlier in the season where are you now!!! I said all along that there is no better manager out there with the budget we have but most wanted the unrealistic prospect of Hughes back after his sacking at City!! Not only has he turned the season round he has done the double over our nearest rivals and brought in a hell of a lot of youth to the team and long may it continue!!

[AndyC]

and brought in a hell of a lot of youth to the team and long may it continue!!

that is one of the reasons why i think sam has done an amazing job with what he has got.

and for the record - hughes also played football that was 'effective' - hardly the free flowing stuff like some on here seem to have re-written history on.

[47er]

Hardly worth the effort on someone as blinkered as your good self but I always made the point during the bad run that the best thing that could happen would be for Sam to sort it out. The way things were going at that time with a combination of dire de-motivated football, comic book defending and repeated defeats quite rightly raised many questions about Sam's position.

Thankfully, the defending has improved (but not perfect), the football has improved within the limitations of the squad and the results have come.

All credit to Sam for achieving this turn-around.

Philip you always give yourself more wriggle room than Shakin Stevens

[LLOYDY]

Well done Sam and to the team. We have a good team spirit, get 6 points off Burnley, looks like we might finish half way up, a semi final place and a pile of youngsters that will be challenged in their second season.For me a good season. As for the football anyone agree that under Dalglish the tactics weren't too different , play it long into the channels but the quality of players and finance available were higher. We had the critics then over our style and have them now. Sam has time to look around and start to chat to the board about finance and look forward to take the team to higher things. He has come good with the big money he spent on Nicko.. under pressure to play him early but stuck out....Well done from me Sam job well done!

[Hughesy]

When you consider how high we are when we havent really had a striker who has been banging in lots of goals - then their is further room for improvement next season. What a difference a 15-20 goal striker would make!

[PAFELL]

For all those doubters earlier in the season where are you now!!! I said all along that there is no better manager out there with the budget we have but most wanted the unrealistic prospect of Hughes back after his sacking at City!! Not only has he turned the season round he has done the double over our nearest rivals and brought in a hell of a lot of youth to the team and long may it continue!!

I am happy to admit that during the bad run when it appeared Sam had lost the dressing room - right up to the man City away game - I wanted sam out. I also hoped that he could turn things around as well. It does appear that there was a meeting after the man city away game when things came to a head, cards on the table etc. For the sake of rovers I am glad Sam has turned things around. After all it is cheaper for a manager to turn the team around and get them playing and winnning, than sacking a manager. therefore credit should be given when it is due. Sam deserves the credit, as do the players. It does not matter to me who the manager is. What matters to me is the success of Rovers on the field.

[Ozz]

Locked Thread, but well worth a good read. Had a dream about this thread last night , sad but true .

[thenodrog]

Approx 1.3 points per match from Dec to the end of season last year, and results marginally up to a 1.32 return so far this season. Compared to a 0.76 points per match return from that clown Ince.

Combined with what must be everybodies personal yardstick a double over Burnley plus a SF appearence v Villa. All achieved with little to spend points to Allardyce being the best man for the BRFC job... as I suggested when Hughes left.

Not always like watching Brazil granted but it is getting better all the time, and as contracts run out and players more suited to the system are brought in that should improve too.

Credit where credit is due please. 'Fat slug' Allardyce might not be everyones cup of tea but it's now time for one or two to grudgingly admit that they were wrong about his ability to manage BRFC perhaps? Hopefully now the childish 'expert' comments will cease too. You should have known that you were always going to lose this one, I told you often enough rem, so it'd be a bit embarrassing and certainly self depreciating to continue any further wouldn't it folks?

[tcj_jones]

The guy's a bloody miracle worker! A win at Pompey and I can't see us finishing lower than 12th, which is a fantastic achievement, all things considered.

[thenodrog]

The guy's a bloody miracle worker! A win at Pompey and I can't see us finishing lower than 12th, which is a fantastic achievement, all things considered.

Steady on TCJ. Lets not get too carried away eh?

[Eddie]

The guy's a bloody miracle worker! A win at Pompey and I can't see us finishing lower than 12th, which is a fantastic achievement, all things considered.

You mean considering how bad we were in the first half of the season?

[47er]

You mean considering how bad we were in the first half of the season?

Well its only fair to judge him over a whole season isn't it? Under his managership 5 young players have emerged as genuine Premiership players------Kalinic, Jones, N'Zonzi, Ollsen and Hoilett and only one of them transferred in.. When was the last time that happened, if ever? And then there's the League position......

And by the way, anyone who can get 2.25M for Benni MacDonald is a genius. Weren't you one of those demanding we keep him? Lot of humble pie to eat Eddie, along with a few others!

[gumboots]

Well its only fair to judge him over a whole season isn't it? Under his managership 5 young players have emerged as genuine Premiership players------Kalinic, Jones, N'Zonzi, Ollsen and Hoilett and only one of them transferred in.. When was the last time that happened, if ever? And then there's the League position......

And by the way, anyone who can get 2.25M for Benni MacDonald is a genius. Weren't you one of those demanding we keep him? Lot of humble pie to eat Eddie, along with a few others!

Kalinic and Nzonzi this season?

[LeChuck]

And by the way, anyone who can get 2.25M for Benni MacDonald is a genius.

He looked outrageously out of shape at the weekend, I thought darker colours were meant to give a slimming effect!

Isn't it interesting the results and team spirit have improved considerably since he left?

[Exiled in Toronto]

Well its only fair to judge him over a whole season isn't it? Under his managership 5 young players have emerged as genuine Premiership players------Kalinic, Jones, N'Zonzi, Ollsen and Hoilett and only one of them transferred in.. When was the last time that happened, if ever? And then there's the League position......

And by the way, anyone who can get 2.25M for Benni MacDonald is a genius. Weren't you one of those demanding we keep him? Lot of humble pie to eat Eddie, along with a few others!

I don't like Allardyce the man - never have, never will, but what now looks like a solid mid-table finish a cup semi and the double over the returds is by any measure a decent outcome to a season. So why, I have been asking myself since the match finished yesterday, have I not been enjoying it more?

Firstly, league position is a rational, not an emotional benefit. I don't really care whether we finish 10th or 16th as the extra money always ends up fattening already obscene player wage packets, and also, 10th is not what it was ten years ago; we're still miles from a Euro place.

Secondly, thinking about it, I have got most of the pleasure watching Rovers for 42 years from emotional rushes, not rational satisfaction at points gained or final placing, and there have been fewer of them than I feel there should have been for what is, on paper, a very decent season. Great goals, great comebacks, games that ebb and flow, where we pile on the pressure making the anticipation of a goal almost unbearable, bits of skill I could never have done myself, hero players - these are the things I remember long after the final whistle.

Can't think of any great goals this season; Pompey at home 2nd half, Burnleh at home first half, Chelski in the cup and the first half at Villa Park were about it for me for exciting periods of games; we don't pile players forwards in periods of sustained pressure these days; we have no players who have that bit of magic except maybe Dunny very very occasionally; and our heroes are long gone.

Of course, not all this is the manager's fault, but some of it is the price we pay for his style.

Posters who equate the style under Allardyce with that of Hughes do Sam an injustice as I think he has figured out a couple of things about the game that are unique to him. Clearly he sees that set pieces level the playing field. We are as likely to score from a set piece against Arsenal as we are against Burnley or Pompey. Only United I feel are measurably superior at defending them.

This is common knowledge, but Sam takes it further by setting up his team to not win set-pieces as a by-product of trying to score goals, but to win set pieces as the primary means of then hopefully scoring a goal. Diouff hasn't got past his man since the day we signed him and he doesn't even try; but he is virtually guaranteed to win a free kick if he gets the ball to his feet in a bit of space.

Sam's next insight is to play for the second ball as his primary means of creating chances, not as a by-product of a chance-creating first ball. He recognises that 2nd balls can disrupt defenses, so players are stationed to get them. Defenders are out of position, goalie unsighted, shots can be deflected - all levellers. We rarely have a clear shot at goal and opposition keepers rarely have many saves to make; most of our shots hit someone and bounce away, but a few are deflected in or to someone to poke it in. Most of our goals are scrappy, still goals, but I've forgotten most of them already.

His stats and his experience show that you can accumulate enough points this way to do alright, but I for one find it dull to watch. Without enough emotional rushes, the passion gradually fades. There have been games this season where I have found myself doing emails or, when taped, that I didn't get round to watching for days. Unthinkable in the past.

On the plus side, I do enjoy seeing young players come through; Olsson and Jones are the most exciting for a decade. Sam deserves some credit for playing them but I was thinking just yesterday that perhaps the much-maligned Bobby Downes should be getting some posthumous credit for signing and developing them. I also think Sam is a pro-active subber, certainly better than our last few managers.

But the bottom line is I think I resent him, maybe unfairly, for taking away my passion. With his approach, the main thing to like is the points, and if he's not winning those, as in our dire 11 game run, then there is little patience or sympathy from many like me. Is it better than being relegated - of course - but then we have managed to avoid that fate in 39 of the 42 years I have been watching, so I don't think it's inevitable without him.

So let' see if things get more exciting next year. I'm dubious myself as I think his approach is designed to negate all that, but we'll see.

[den]

I don't like Allardyce the man - never have, never will,

This is always going to be a problem, because there are many like you EIT.

[CrazyIvan]

...stuff you wrote - edited to make it easier to see I'm replying to your post...

I also think your reduction in passion is as a result of being so far away. Being here, at the ground on match days makes a difference. I understand the idea that we've become the winners of scrappy goals and free-kicks and that is somewhat Sam's way there is also a massive issue when you think that we are lacking a decent finisher at the moment. We have no striker who can slot home 10 goals let alone 15-20. Given a striker who can score goals, we would have scored spectacular ones and, as Hughesy said, be in a much better position in the league. The best thing about this season is that we have become very hard to beat and have started to get results against 'bigger' teams. Certainly at home we are much stronger. Hopefully, we'll get that translated into away form as we finish this season. All in all, I can see reasons for things being relatively poor in terms of quality but also a lot of hope and reasons to be happy with where we are now and where we are going.

[waggy]

This is always going to be a problem, because there are many like you EIT.

i watched the match in the club yesterday and there were 3 lads in who i last saw in berlin on the way to the legia warsaw game in warsaw.one of them does not go for the same reason as me,problem is doing the double over our biggest rivals buts a silver lining to any season,the sun shines out of lardarses arse today

[Exiled in Toronto]

I also think your reduction in passion is as a result of being so far away.

Not so; I've been here 14 years and lived in Birmingham the 17 before that. This is a recent change for me. Until now it's more been the case that absence makes the heart grow fonder.

My Dad, who lives 2 miles from Ewood and has been a season ticket holder for decades, has missed more matches this year than ever before, for increasingly weak excuses (raining was the last one)

[Amo]

It'll never happen in a million years, but at this rate surely Sam should be a candidate for manager of the year? People have nominated David Moyes and Roy Hodgson (with good cause) but Sam has been working on a shoestring compared to them (esp. Everton). I know both our club and manager are too unfashionable to receive such plaudits, but it's worth thinking about.