[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[thenodrog]

Was speaking to former Rovers striker Kevin Gallagher on Monday night and asked him about Big Sam and he said he is not a fan of his tactics and it has stopped him attending some games as he has not enjoyed it when he has gone.

1. He's always doing radio commentory at other grounds.

2. Old pro's always behave like that anyway.

3. Nowadays everybody else plays with just one up top. A very valid formation but which is very heavily dependant on the quality in midfield. More people should accept that our finances rule that we can only build the squad up to suit this tactic slowly.

[Majiball]

I'd have reminded Gally that many of us work for successful businesses but don't always agree with the boss, don't always enjoy our time at work and are not always 100% happy with the way things are done but we get our heads down and graft 5 days a week.

And Gally would have said the world of football is nothing like the real world of work.

Just as we have fans who don't like the methods we see at times its logical that some of the players will feel the same as well. The results in the second half of the season have appeased most, but when/if they dry up???

Well even the most seasoned blue tinted people turned on Sam, last time that happened. Good results paper over many a crack.

Thanks for passing on Gally's comments, duffbear.

[thenodrog]

btw Daft as it sounds I'm missing waggy's usual bile spitting sessions.

The wagster has of course been proven very wrong and lacking in basic footballing knowledge as he was always goiing to be. My warnings to him to not painting himself into a corner over this went unheeded which he will surely regret by now.

I guess a post accepting that SA has actually (and against all waggy's hopes and wishes) done a decent job for the club in his time here is too much to expect?

[Kelbo]

btw Daft as it sounds I'm missing waggy's usual bile spitting sessions.

The wagster has of course been proven very wrong and lacking in basic footballing knowledge as he was always goiing to be. My warnings to him to not painting himself into a corner over this went unheeded which he will surely regret by now.

I guess a post accepting that SA has actually (and against all waggy's hopes and wishes) done a decent job for the club in his time here is too much to expect?

I just wondered if Waggy has fulfilled his promise to run around Rishton naked??

[Majiball]

I just wondered if Waggy has fulfilled his promise to run around Rishton naked??

You'd know if he had the front page of the let would read:

"Rishton enters Guiness Book of Records for highest number of heart attacks in a day"

[unluckymorton]

And Gally would have said the world of football is nothing like the real world of work.

Just as we have fans who don't like the methods we see at times its logical that some of the players will feel the same as well. The results in the second half of the season have appeased most, but when/if they dry up???

Well even the most seasoned blue tinted people turned on Sam, last time that happened. Good results paper over many a crack.

Thanks for passing on Gally's comments, duffbear.

Papering over cracks is something a club of our stature will be doing for some time to come.

The team will have good runs and bad runs with Sam getting plaudits for good runs and fans calling for his head during bad runs. None of us enjoy enduring the bad times, the wrong team selection, negative tactics or strange substitutions but this is all part of following a football club and has been since my dad first started to take me to Ewood 30yrs ago.

I am one of your blue tinted people , I love the club and can't stand anything bad being said about the club, it's manager or it's players but after the Man City game at the turn of the year I was fuming with Sam and was starting to wonder if he really was the man for us but our fortunes soon changed and we have improved immensely between then and the end of the season. If that improvement continues we will enjoy a prosperous season next season. Although there will always be a few of the doom and gloom brigade who will never see anything positive during their fortnightly visit to Ewood.

[Moppy]

I am one of your blue tinted people , I love the club and can't stand anything bad being said about the club, it's manager or it's players but after the Man City game at the turn of the year I was fuming with Sam and was starting to wonder if he really was the man for us but our fortunes soon changed and we have improved immensely between then and the end of the season. If that improvement continues we will enjoy a prosperous season next season. Although there will always be a few of the doom and gloom brigade who will never see anything positive during their fortnightly visit to Ewood.

Whats going on - did i just read a sensible good balanced post on this thread? Isnt it all meant to be "I love Sam...." against "I hate Sam...."

[unluckymorton]

Whats going on - did i just read a sensible good balanced post on this thread? Isnt it all meant to be "I love Sam...." against "I hate Sam...."

Apologies for breaking the trend...

Love him or hate him, we need to support him whilst he is our manager.

[duffbear]

Did you remind him that we finished 10th with those horrible tactics?!

Hey Hugesy from what I can gather from Kev's comment he did say he likes Sam as a person but does not agree with the way he goes about getting results.

I personally like Sam and yes I would like to see free flowing football but if we can get higher up in the league playing ugly football most of the time I am satisfied with that and at the momment it is getting results.

I asked Kev about getting Rovers on tv and see he has tried but it is hard to put a case forward when most of the time it is not very entertaining.

It frustrates me as I while I agree we should be sending the big boys up front from the set pieces and going direct I feel we would benfit from the ball being on the deck more often during the game. As we have seen before Sam has tried 2 up front so will hopefully see more of this next season. Kalnic is capable of getting the goals and do think he is a really good player and while not ideally suited to playing up front on his own has adapted and got stronger as the games have gone on. If it was not for a lick of paint and 2 wrongly disallowed goals he would have scored about 10 goals in the prem imagine how many more goals he would score if he has someone up front with him.

A question I would like to ask would you prefer us to play free flowing football and flirt with relegation or ugly football and finish mid table?

Ideally I would like free flowing football and finish 10th but is this possible with the current playing stuff maybe, maybe not.

[gumboots]

If it was not for a lick of paint and 2 wrongly disallowed goals he would have scored about 10 goals in the prem imagine how many more goals he would score if he has someone up front with him.

Since confidence is a big part of any striker's success, if he'd got the one at Old Trafford, who knows what might have happened?

[Majiball]

A question I would like to ask would you prefer us to play free flowing football and flirt with relegation or ugly football and finish mid table?

Ideally I would like free flowing football and finish 10th but is this possible with the current playing stuff maybe, maybe not.

I want a bit of both. I do feel that people on here deal in black and white and don't realise that there are colours in between IE shades of grey.

The Villa game highlights a few things for me and really told quite the tale of our season. In the first half we did in the main sit very deep and relied on hitting the ball into forwad area's with little or no support to the front man. Attacking wise we were awful that half with 0 shots on target. Second half we played a bit more, got forward and supported the front man kept the ball at their end more and created more chances, one evetually came off. I just don't understand why we can't take that approach for a whole game. I do feel that we ride our luck at times by sitting so deep and letting teams have so much of the ball, as without it we won't do anything. But the second half was a mixture of direct play and short passing, which resulted in us looking more potent. I'd like to see that approach more often and for a whole game, espcially away from home. Villa didn't create much more in either half but we did in one than the other and its the approach in the second half that I feel brings out the best in our players, a bit of both.

Its more than obvious to see that we look better when we mix it up. Its far less predictable and we seem more suited to a bit of both to me. Hopefully we can take this approach more often next year and move up a couple of places in the table, or at least maintain our present position.

[Hughesy]

Hey Hugesy from what I can gather from Kev's comment he did say he likes Sam as a person but does not agree with the way he goes about getting results.

A question I would like to ask would you prefer us to play free flowing football and flirt with relegation or ugly football and finish mid table?

Ideally I would like free flowing football and finish 10th but is this possible with the current playing stuff maybe, maybe not.

I think thats the problem....with the tools available Sam has done the best thing possible - whether its ugly or not, its effective.

Now if we had 2 ball playing midfielders im sure his tactics would be different - however we have a hole in the middle of our midfield. IF we can fill that hole, then im sure the quality will improve. I also think we will see more attacking, exciting play from the wings with Hoilett & Olsson as time goes on!

[gumboots]

I'm quite surprised by Gally's comments really.

In what way? Unless it's an official interview that's recorded either for tv or radio I tend to take them all with a pinch of salt anyway. Not saying he didn't say what he's supposed to have said, but unless you see the person it's hard to tell how he said it and exactly what was meant.

[LeChuck]

Not sure where to put this, seems as good a place as any. The Guardian have been debating how important possession is in football.

The Question: How important is possession?

[gumboots]

Not sure where to put this, seems as good a place as any. The Guardian have been debating how important possession is in football.

The Question: How important is possession?

Doesn't it all depend on where you have the possession and whether you have players who can exploit whatever possession you get, especially in the final third? You can't score unless at some point you have the ball or can make the other team make the vital mistake and score a goal for you. However, sides like Arsenal have shown in our own league that sometime possession is misleading if you don't get shots on target when you get the ball forward.

[Steve Moss]

. . . Kalnic is capable of getting the goals and do think he is a really good player and while not ideally suited to playing up front on his own has adapted and got stronger as the games have gone on. If it was not for a lick of paint and 2 wrongly disallowed goals he would have scored about 10 goals in the prem imagine how many more goals he would score if he has someone up front with him.

A question I would like to ask would you prefer us to play free flowing football and flirt with relegation or ugly football and finish mid table?

Confidence is everything to a striker (or any player for that matter). Too many wrongly disallowed goals, and a "why bother, they'll just disallow it" attitude may creep in. Or worse, the player could become extra cautious allow potential shots to pass him by in an effort to protect himself from the referee.

I think Kalinic will come good. I think video technology is a must, if the FA wants to protect the integrity of the game.

As to style vs. results, I'll take an ugly mid-table finish every time.

The Villa game highlights a few things for me and really told quite the tale of our season. In the first half we did in the main sit very deep and relied on hitting the ball into forwad area's with little or no support to the front man. Attacking wise we were awful that half with 0 shots on target. Second half we played a bit more, got forward and supported the front man kept the ball at their end more and created more chances, one evetually came off. I just don't understand why we can't take that approach for a whole game. I do feel that we ride our luck at times by sitting so deep and letting teams have so much of the ball, as without it we won't do anything. But the second half was a mixture of direct play and short passing, which resulted in us looking more potent. I'd like to see that approach more often and for a whole game, espcially away from home. Villa didn't create much more in either half but we did in one than the other and its the approach in the second half that I feel brings out the best in our players, a bit of both.

For awhile now, the Rovers have been a team of two halves. Part of me thinks this is intentional. Get the opposition used to one style of play the first half, send them to the locker room expecting more of the same, and then throw them off balance by changing the style.

Then again, maybe the Rovers are just a schizophrenic team.

[Hughesy]

Interesting that Capello is considering using 3-5-2 in the World Cup as most teams are expected to play with 1 main striker....

Has he been Watching Big Sams tactics aswell as Barca?!

[thenodrog]

Interesting that Capello is considering using 3-5-2 in the World Cup as most teams are expected to play with 1 main striker....

Has he been Watching Big Sams tactics aswell as Barca?!

Where is there the pace in our defence to leave just 3 back?

[Hughesy]

Where is there the pace in our defence to leave just 3 back?

Ledley King

[47er]

Doesn't it all depend on where you have the possession and whether you have players who can exploit whatever possession you get, especially in the final third? You can't score unless at some point you have the ball or can make the other team make the vital mistake and score a goal for you. However, sides like Arsenal have shown in our own league that sometime possession is misleading if you don't get shots on target when you get the ball forward.

Those comments from Salgado were interesting in thus respect. He states that in Spain, if you have more possession you win the game. Not so here!

[Steve Moss]

Those comments from Salgado were interesting in thus respect. He states that in Spain, if you have more possession you win the game. Not so here!

Jonathan Wilson has a very good recent article on the subject:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/may/12/the-question-important-possession

[47er]

Love these comments from a Newcastle site. Its quite clear who is deluded! Nice to see some Rovers getting their oar in!

http://www.nufcblog.org/2010/05/more-delusions-of-grandeur-from-allardyce/?

[Bing]

Sam Allardyce, Dave Jones, Ian Holloway and Avram Grant are the four managers on West Ham's manager shortlist.

[Hughesy]

Sam Allardyce, Dave Jones, Ian Holloway and Avram Grant are the four managers on West Ham's manager shortlist.

Sam wouldn't leave here - he is loving it!

Grant would be a good shout... Or Hughes

[Harry Balls]

Sam on West Ham shortlist