[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[Roost]

He's fighting a losing battle with our fans - we dont deserve a decent manager the way he has been hounded since day 1 - he should just quit and let us struggle with some average joe manager - then hopefully you would all be happy, playing pretty football in league 2

What a pathetic post - blind faith gone crazy.

[CrazyIvan]

It's absolutely amazing what people will post on a forum.

Let's list the facts: -

This is a team that has had very little investment compared to similar teams around us. Compare us to Stoke alone...

The best players have been sold or have retired over the last few years.

This team is limited in quality due to the fact we can't afford to go and buy top players or even some half decent ones.

We go away to Stoke and lose 1 - 0 due to one individual mistake by one of our best players. How is that Sam's fault?

We play the way we play because that's pretty much all we can do. I've seen a significant improvement this season though. There has been more football played by us and much more passing but some people won't acknowledge that at all and continue on with the same old 'hoof it all the time' comments that are frankly completely untrue.

We are a limited side with a very limited budget and Big Sam is getting the best out of what we have. Some of you truly have unrealistic expectations as to what this team and these players can actually achieve. Until there is money spent on players coming in, don't expect a passing game to rival Arsenal or even Man U, or frankly, even Everton (who do have some extremely talented and expensive players). Expect that the direct method, the percentage game, the free kick and long throw are some of the most direct and successful ways of scoring goals even for the 'big' teams and Big Sam will use them. Until such times as there is someone to invest money in this club, Big Sam has to wee with the willy he has and that means percentage football. I expect lots of people will disagree with me and point to Blackpool as an example. I'll just ask the question about where they're likely to be at the end of the season and comment that we went there and beat them, and we actually played football to do it.

Big Sam is far from perfect but give him some credit for getting this team where he has.

[gumboots]

It's absolutely amazing what people will post on a forum.

Let's list the facts: -

This is a team that has had very little investment compared to similar teams around us. Compare us to Stoke alone...

The best players have been sold or have retired over the last few years.

This team is limited in quality due to the fact we can't afford to go and buy top players or even some half decent ones.

We go away to Stoke and lose 1 - 0 due to one individual mistake by one of our best players. How is that Sam's fault?

We play the way we play because that's pretty much all we can do. I've seen a significant improvement this season though. There has been more football played by us and much more passing but some people won't acknowledge that at all and continue on with the same old 'hoof it all the time' comments that are frankly completely untrue.

We are a limited side with a very limited budget and Big Sam is getting the best out of what we have. Some of you truly have unrealistic expectations as to what this team and these players can actually achieve. Until there is money spent on players coming in, don't expect a passing game to rival Arsenal or even Man U, or frankly, even Everton (who do have some extremely talented and expensive players). Expect that the direct method, the percentage game, the free kick and long throw are some of the most direct and successful ways of scoring goals even for the 'big' teams and Big Sam will use them. Until such times as there is someone to invest money in this club, Big Sam has to wee with the willy he has and that means percentage football. I expect lots of people will disagree with me and point to Blackpool as an example. I'll just ask the question about where they're likely to be at the end of the season and comment that we went there and beat them, and we actually played football to do it.

Big Sam is far from perfect but give him some credit for getting this team where he has.

It's not a lack of willingness to give credit and I haven't seen much of our play but improved - where? We don't look as good as we did at the end of last season. Yes, teams have strengthened but they needed to - we finished above half the league. You can argue we over performed last season, but then why can't we get just a bit of that overperformance going again. It's not just that Blackpool seem to be doing better on less than we are - it's more to do with the fact that our manager never seems to take the shackles off and let the players go for it when we take a lead. It's all about not throwing a lead away and never about building on it. We have shown time and time again that we can't defend a one nil lead, so we might as well concede trying to get another goal (not stupid gung- ho style but keeping the pressure on) rather than dropping too deep and trying to defend, which seems to be the manager/team's preferred tactic (I don't know which to believe) You can't go all out attck all the time - of course not - but you can try to get a second goal without leaving your defence too exposed and it's that lack of drive to do so that really bugs me.

[Iceman]

Sam is not allowing the players to express themselves, and that is when we are at Ewood. ###### attack at home, and defend away.

[mhead]

Well done CrazyIvan. They must be on 'suicide watch' on the LiddyPool fan sites.

They would not listen to us about Woy would they?

Lets beat Sunderland and get to 20 points before we start firing the bullet.

[CrazyIvan]

It's not a lack of willingness to give credit and I haven't seen much of our play but improved - where? We don't look as good as we did at the end of last season. Yes, teams have strengthened but they needed to - we finished above half the league. You can argue we over performed last season, but then why can't we get just a bit of that overperformance going again. It's not just that Blackpool seem to be doing better on less than we are - it's more to do with the fact that our manager never seems to take the shackles off and let the players go for it when we take a lead. It's all about not throwing a lead away and never about building on it. We have shown time and time again that we can't defend a one nil lead, so we might as well concede trying to get another goal (not stupid gung- ho style but keeping the pressure on) rather than dropping too deep and trying to defend, which seems to be the manager/team's preferred tactic (I don't know which to believe) You can't go all out attck all the time - of course not - but you can try to get a second goal without leaving your defence too exposed and it's that lack of drive to do so that really bugs me.

I don't think we have the players who can take the shackles off and play gung ho. Maybe we have occasionally got players who can do that but this crop are not in the mould of the Souness team when we first came back up. I expect that where we'd finish is pretty much the same place as last season with this team if there is no investment. It's difficult to improve on something when there's nothing coming in to improve with. I'm not going to go into tactics or what seems to happen in games as that is very subjective and can be viewed any number of ways. My point is that there are a number on here who WILL NOT give any credit, continue to spout the same thing over and over again and seem to expect miracles. I'd love to see this team cut loose and win 5-0. I'd love to see some good players brought in to bring the best out of the others. I'd love to see a side with attacking flair and pace. We just haven't got that at the moment and most of these players wouldn't be able to play that way. For that you need a decent midfield. We have a couple of promising players but most are journey men.

[AHoyle90]

Somebody calling for Roy Hodgson, my word.

[T4E]

Somebody calling for Roy Hodgson, my word.

In the Summer most of us would have been all over that suggestion.

Football fans possess an unrivaled fickleness.

[John]

I agree with Big Eck's comments here: Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has blasted the 'fickle' fans who booed his side off after losing their first home game for 13 months.

"It’s football going crazy. It’s not only here, it’s a modern trend, the knee-jerk reaction. We get a bad result, even though you’ve gone a year without defeat at your home ground, and you get booed for that. There's no doubt there is more fickleness than ever before."

[47er]

I don't think we have the players who can take the shackles off and play gung ho. Maybe we have occasionally got players who can do that but this crop are not in the mould of the Souness team when we first came back up. I expect that where we'd finish is pretty much the same place as last season with this team if there is no investment. It's difficult to improve on something when there's nothing coming in to improve with. I'm not going to go into tactics or what seems to happen in games as that is very subjective and can be viewed any number of ways. My point is that there are a number on here who WILL NOT give any credit, continue to spout the same thing over and over again and seem to expect miracles. I'd love to see this team cut loose and win 5-0. I'd love to see some good players brought in to bring the best out of the others. I'd love to see a side with attacking flair and pace. We just haven't got that at the moment and most of these players wouldn't be able to play that way. For that you need a decent midfield. We have a couple of promising players but most are journey men.

Well said! We have ONE mid-fielder EH Diouf who is putting in a decent shift every game and he was the one critics said was a drain on the wage bill! We have 4 strikers none of whom are getting much service its true but none of whom are performing very well. We are totally reliant on our defence not to make a mistake.

Many clubs will suffer at the hands of Stoke this season. Furthermore we have just completed 2 away games on the trot and have 3 points from them. In fact its 4 points from the last 3 away games so not bad and certainly not deserving of all the angst. But without a transfer budget we are very limited in our options.

[Dan]

Well said! We have ONE mid-fielder EH Diouf who is putting in a decent shift every game and he was the one critics said was a drain on the wage bill! We have 4 strikers none of whom are getting much service its true but none of whom are performing very well. We are totally reliant on our defence not to make a mistake.

Many clubs will suffer at the hands of Stoke this season. Furthermore we have just completed 2 away games on the trot and have 3 points from them. In fact its 4 points from the last 3 away games so not bad and certainly not deserving of all the angst. But without a transfer budget we are very limited in our options.

Maybe the midfield are playing so bad because they are either being bypassed or asked to hoof it forward?

The result at Stoke wasn't the issue at all, it was the performance. In 90 minutes the only real chance we created was a tame shot by Emerton that was easily cleared. Stoke are pretty good at home, but not THAT good, they aren't Chelsea! We looked Championship class on Saturday. The highly paid players we have can play football, the messiah is stopping them, because 'chucking it int mixer' works so much better than actually playing football.

For the record, I was happy with Sam when he took over. He was my first choice after the Ince disaster. Last season before January, every match was so frustrating, most on here could see what was going wrong, Sam couldn't. He'd eventually change things in a match(usually too late) and we'd play better. Turned a corner? Nope, the next game it was back to square one. I remember questioning his Mental health at one point, he just couldnt't see the obvious. He was either losing the plot or trying to (Please don't use that word again) up on purpose(probably for an ego trip).

He eventually realised what we had for 6 months and turned it around and we finished 10th.

This season feels worse than last for some reason and one thing is for sure, we can't wait till January to start our season or we'll be down.

We have a good enough team to be comfortable until the January sales(hopefully some money will arrive). If Sam is such a great manager, he'll be able to get our players playng football. Such a highly rated manager by many wouldn't be so one dimensional would he? He'll realise soon enough that hoofing it isn't working and we look the worst team in the league.

[Steve Moss]

. . . And yes above all I do want a Premiership team in Blackburn, unfortunately with this geezer as manager I worry for the future.

You shouldn't. 8 points in 7 PL matches. 1.142 points per game, against not the worst of the PL teams. 38 games in a season. We are on track for 43.4 points. We will do better and we will play worse teams. Even some of our losses haven't been heavily distorted one way, unlike last year. I think we are solid for 50 plus points, even with no investment.

Yes, that means that Sam has to play not so pretty football. We need to get over that. We don't have the budget of ManC, ManU, Arsenal, etc. We play what we can afford and Sam will keep us up.

[hi-jaq]

I don't post too often these days due to the amount of stick I get when I do, so I'm going to say what I feel about Sam Allardyce, the current style of football & tactics he employs & then disappear again!!!

Due to personal reasons I didn't re-new my season ticket, but I went on the Fulham game, I've watched highlights, listened on the radio and talked to friends that go on, and I have got to say I'm very disappointed in the manner in which we go about doing things on the pitch. As someone alluded to earlier in this thread, in his first season in charge we had a back-up plan, Tugay. We could bring him on & then we would start to play, but only after we'd gone behind while doing the route one thing. Now that option has gone, we seem to just be buying 6'4" defensive midfielders who struggle to pass the ball sideways, not saying I dont like these types of players, but we dont need 3 or 4 of them.

Against Fulham, I left Ewood frustrated & pretty angry with the performance, purely due to the relentless one dimensional tactics Sam uses. He isn't doing the best with what he's got, he's doing all he knows, which I suppose did well for him at Bolton, but look how long its taking them to get out of the mentality of the Sam era there. I feel as though if things don't change that will happen to us.

People are going on about Sam not having the money, which is fair enough, but he paid £6m for Nikola Kalinic (not to mention £3/4m for Givet)... (Check out the zero's >>>) £6.000.000.00, that's a bloody fortune!!! Now it's all good paying this for a striker who will pretty much guarantee you goals, but Niko will never score a good amount of goals as long as he plays up top on his own, not big enough, strong enough or fast enough. He's a quality player, he'd look good at Arsenal, I'm proud to have Niko at Rovers but if we are going to carry on playing this way he'll never become the player that we are hoping for, and as such I think he was a poor signing, as we should have signed a proper target man such as Kenwyne Jones, Pavel Pogrebnyak or Frederic Piquionne, all of which we were looking at when we signed Niko.

Mark Hughes spent less money & brought more cash in with the players he sold, but we played better football at a higher intensity, some games we simply took teams to pieces & that is what I'd like to see again. The no money thing is tosh, if Sparky did it then so can Sam who has a good few years more experience in the management game!!!

Tactically, there's nothing I can say that hasn't been said, I think its a sad thing that we don't rely on our own players ability, because we play a system that doesn't allow them to express themselves. We rely on the other team making mistakes & Sam's unshakeable belief that even if we were 3-0 down against Accrington Stanley at home, the one big ball into the box will cause havoc in the opposition defence and we will get a lucky chance or they will score an own goal thus causing them to crumble & help us turn it around. We have a squad of proffesional "football" players who get paid a fortune every week, forcing the other team into a mistake & not being able to rely on our own abilities just doesn't cut it with me, it's simply not good enough!!!

Sam has had 2 years now, and all I can see is him & his tactics bleeding the football out of our team (maybe we should invent a new game & call it airball!!!). I also believe that if we got taken over & some cash was available to spend on players, he'd do what he did at Newcastle & sign a load of donkeys for over inflated prices.

Thanks for saving us from relegation Sam, but I think it's best if we stopped the rot before it really is too late!!!

[Darwen Rover]

As always guys if ur gonna moan about the manager (and we all have differing views) please offer suggested alternatives! Just saying get rid of Sam is a lazy post.. By the way I'd keep him at present purely because there's no better alternative

[hi-jaq]

As always guys if ur gonna moan about the manager (and we all have differing views) please offer suggested alternatives! Just saying get rid of Sam is a lazy post.. By the way I'd keep him at present purely because there's no better alternative

It's the board's job to do that, but I suppose it's also their job to decide if there is a problem with the current management.

But seeing as your asking, OK then... Martin O'Neil.

[Miker]

I agree with Big Eck's comments here: Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish has blasted the 'fickle' fans who booed his side off after losing their first home game for 13 months.

"It’s football going crazy. It’s not only here, it’s a modern trend, the knee-jerk reaction. We get a bad result, even though you’ve gone a year without defeat at your home ground, and you get booed for that. There's no doubt there is more fickleness than ever before."

Interestingly enough, someone's comment on that link criticises Birmingham's style of play and says McLeish has served up crap football for the majority of their games.

I don't know ... is it just me or is it apparent that people go to games expecting constant end to end action and a multitude of goal attempts every match? I try to watch as many Premier League games as I can every week and usually a team will put in a great performance one week, and a pretty disappointing one the week after. This includes us and Birmingham.

It has to be an expectation that occasionally a game will be incredibly boring and bland if the two teams are cancelling each other out.

[Presty On Tour]

We can do better than Sam and the ###### football he serves up!

I wish he would do the decent thing and resign but he won't because it would be very difficult for him to get another job in the top flight.

Name a Premier League club would would take Sam over their current manager? I rest my case.

[jw_]

I don't post too often these days due to the amount of stick I get when I do, so I'm going to say what I feel about Sam Allardyce, the current style of football & tactics he employs & then disappear again!!!

Due to personal reasons I didn't re-new my season ticket, but I went on the Fulham game, I've watched highlights, listened on the radio and talked to friends that go on, and I have got to say I'm very disappointed in the manner in which we go about doing things on the pitch. As someone alluded to earlier in this thread, in his first season in charge we had a back-up plan, Tugay. We could bring him on & then we would start to play, but only after we'd gone behind while doing the route one thing. Now that option has gone, we seem to just be buying 6'4" defensive midfielders who struggle to pass the ball sideways, not saying I dont like these types of players, but we dont need 3 or 4 of them.

Against Fulham, I left Ewood frustrated & pretty angry with the performance, purely due to the relentless one dimensional tactics Sam uses. He isn't doing the best with what he's got, he's doing all he knows, which I suppose did well for him at Bolton, but look how long its taking them to get out of the mentality of the Sam era there. I feel as though if things don't change that will happen to us.

People are going on about Sam not having the money, which is fair enough, but he paid £6m for Nikola Kalinic (not to mention £3/4m for Givet)... (Check out the zero's >>>) £6.000.000.00, that's a bloody fortune!!! Now it's all good paying this for a striker who will pretty much guarantee you goals, but Niko will never score a good amount of goals as long as he plays up top on his own, not big enough, strong enough or fast enough. He's a quality player, he'd look good at Arsenal, I'm proud to have Niko at Rovers but if we are going to carry on playing this way he'll never become the player that we are hoping for, and as such I think he was a poor signing, as we should have signed a proper target man such as Kenwyne Jones, Pavel Pogrebnyak or Frederic Piquionne, all of which we were looking at when we signed Niko.

Mark Hughes spent less money & brought more cash in with the players he sold, but we played better football at a higher intensity, some games we simply took teams to pieces & that is what I'd like to see again. The no money thing is tosh, if Sparky did it then so can Sam who has a good few years more experience in the management game!!!

Tactically, there's nothing I can say that hasn't been said, I think its a sad thing that we don't rely on our own players ability, because we play a system that doesn't allow them to express themselves. We rely on the other team making mistakes & Sam's unshakeable belief that even if we were 3-0 down against Accrington Stanley at home, the one big ball into the box will cause havoc in the opposition defence and we will get a lucky chance or they will score an own goal thus causing them to crumble & help us turn it around. We have a squad of proffesional "football" players who get paid a fortune every week, forcing the other team into a mistake & not being able to rely on our own abilities just doesn't cut it with me, it's simply not good enough!!!

Sam has had 2 years now, and all I can see is him & his tactics bleeding the football out of our team (maybe we should invent a new game & call it airball!!!). I also believe that if we got taken over & some cash was available to spend on players, he'd do what he did at Newcastle & sign a load of donkeys for over inflated prices.

Thanks for saving us from relegation Sam, but I think it's best if we stopped the rot before it really is too late!!!

You'll get no "stick" from me Hi_jaq because I agree 100% with your sentiments and am fed up with watching decent players being stifled to play the Allardyce way. As I've said in the past it's not long ball it's hoof ball and we all know the difference. The players are obviously doing exactly what Allardyce is telling them and actually seem scared to do otherwise for whatever reason. Personally I'd love to hear what the players truthfully think of his so called "tactics".The thing that gets me is that it is so repetetive and predictable as is Pedersons throws and Robinsons kicks,it must be a managers dream to play Rovers because he knows exactly what's going to happen.There is a time for hoofing the ball and thats when the goalmouth is under severe pressure and desperate measures are needed to get breathing space.The way Allardyce has got the team playing (if you can call it that )is stifling any talents they have and creating continous pressure for the defence because 90% of hoofed balls come straight back at them with attacking moves by the opposition.People say it's all about points and how Allardyce will keep us up etc but there's more to it than that, we can still get points by playing a bit of decent football it does'nt have to be ugly,at least mix it up a bit and don't be so predictable.There have been games where we could have wiped the floor with the opposition and he has refused to change his "scared to lose" tactics and its sickening.

Now people will say to me what do you know your in OZ,but I was,nt always here and anyone in Oz with Foxtel or Austar like I have will know just how many live games can be watched every week including Rovers plus if it's recorded it can be watched and analysed as much as required to be able to form an accurate opinion. I watch and enjoy several games each weekend and then on come Rovers and it's like watching schoolkids or pub football with the same old hoof it hoof it and it's total rubbish.There are the occasional glimpses of what they could do if they were only allowed but sadly with Allardyce in charge nothing will change.Over 50years I've follwed Rovers starting in Darwen and then from different parts of the world and will never stop but I wish I could enjoy it more instead of cringing at Mr so called experts tactics.

[jim mk2]

Name a Premier League club would would take Sam over their current manager? I rest my case.

Name a manager who would be willing to come to Rovers and is guaranteed to keep us in the top flight with no money to spend who is a) available cheap c ) experienced.

He doesn't exist.

I rest my case.

[Presty On Tour]

Name a manager who would be willing to come to Rovers and is guaranteed to keep us in the top flight with no money to spend who is a) available cheap c ) experienced.

He doesn't exist.

I rest my case.

So you don't answer my question, then respond with a question that you try and answer yourself.

"He doesn't exist" is clearly incorrect.

Not just you but people need to look at the bigger picture and I'm not talking about Allardyce.

Blackburn Rovers F.C is an amazing football club with tradition, passion, elite facilites and is a well run club thanks to Jack with a potential take over in the near future.

Sam has no ambition with BRFC, he just cares about himself and what's he got that guarantee's to keep us up anyway? He's Bolton through and through, his hoofball tactics is a disgrace and I believe he did have money in the summer but couldn't find the players he wanted.

There would be thousands of managers around the world who would be interested. Personally with the abc criteria you set out, I wouldn't mind Kevin Gallacher being on the shortlist.

Nothing is guaranteed in football but he is a) Available, Cheap and C) Has experience with BRFC in a number of capacities.

Just a suggestion.

[LeChuck]

I wouldn't mind Kevin Gallacher being on the shortlist.

And BOOM! There goes any credibility you were building up on the subject.

You might be willing to gamble the future of the club with such an outrageous risk, thankfully our owners are not.

[Amo]

We can't afford to lose Sam at this moment in time, but should the phantom takeover ever happen, we should be setting our sights higher. For what it's worth, I believe he's done a good job, under the circumstances. However, I don't think he's getting the best out of the players, and his style of football has sucked the soul out of our club. That might sound cut-throat, after he saved us from relegation, but it works both ways. The club salvaged his career when he couldn't get a job for love nor money, and he's been handsomely rewarded for his efforts. Besides, if he left here, he could finally apply for that top-job he so richly deserves...

Sam is a pragmatist of the highest order, with his tactics dealing in probability. If you punt the ball forward and win as many second balls/set-pieces/throw ins as possible, eventually something will come off. It's reasonably effective, but it's godawful to watch, especially when it doesn't pay off. For a self-proclaimed tactician, he was outwitted by Tony Pulis & Stoke last week. You can't play Stoke at their own game and expect to win anything. Sam's unwillingness to adapt his tactics and personnel to at least give the team a fighting chance was there for all to see.

I also concur with what someone said about Kalinic. I still think he was something of a panic buy from Sam, because he hasn't built the team around him and his strengths, he's instead tried to turn him into a player he isn't. Like I said, I hope the guy makes it here (probably under a new manager), but we've seen very little of our £6m investment, and you have to ask yourself why.

[Presty On Tour]

And BOOM! There goes any credibility you were building up on the subject.

You might be willing to gamble the future of the club with such an outrageous risk, thankfully our owners are not.

He was only a suggestion. I think he has potential, ambition, and is a Rover.

No risk, no glory. Anything would up the situation of our current stale state of affairs.

[LeChuck]

He was only a suggestion. I think he has potential, ambition, and is a Rover.

Being an ex-Rover is completely irrelevant. It doesn't give him more managerial skills.

Why do you think he has potential and ambition? He stopped playing eight years ago and hasn't made any attempts to have a career in management as far as I'm aware.

I'm struggling to think of a worse idea than Gallacher. If you had to go for the pointless 'ex-Rover' approach then you could have gone for someone like Craig Short, who could definitely be described as ambitious.

[67splitscreen]

As topman says now is not the time, it would be suicide.

If things change in the next month or so then it may be a consideration, personally if I had any say, I'd shore up the squad in January and wait for the summer.

More choice and more time to look at all the options without the pressure of relegation. Hopefully!.