[Archived] Sam Allardyce

[waggy]

The longer the BFS era goes on the more I am growing to dislike the bloke. In fact his constant banging on about prozone stats make even more dislikeable in my eyes. I really hope we don't go down but I am not looking forward to his smug self congratulation if we do stay up. The MGP dive sums him up for me, cheating get who plays 7 at the back and has no respect for the game at all.

Can't stand him much longer.

BFS OUT!

another convert to the cause

[John]

Going against the grain here, but having either been at recent matches live, or watched them on TV, I don't mind the way we are playing. It makes sense why we are playing this way.

I think considering the players we have, it has worked ok. Midfield is obviously a weak area for us, so it makes sense not to try and play pretty football through there. Of course, whilst it is all about results, we have dominated a lot of teams/matches and had good chances to win them. The frustrating factor should be the gilt edged chances we have failed to convert, and that's what I have found most annoying (as they have been sitters).

We have 8 matches to retain our Premiership status, so what we do people expect? Its got to be scrappy, quite ugly at times. We are playing more direct than we did under Sparky, but we have less talented players now. As someone else pointed out, it was hardly pretty under Hughes when we last faced relegation in the face.

[Billy Castell]

If we had a more talented and injury free midfield, then I'd be more annoyed with the results and style of play. However, our midfield is poop or crocked, and even Ferguson would struggle to get a great performance from this squad.

[Commondore]

Both John and Billy Castell has good points here, but do you really think Allardyce will change his style of play to next season? Or for that matter, if he got to replace Wenger at Arsenal?

[thenodrog]

another convert to the cause

Yes why don't you and Mclarky have a big banner made for the next home match saying 'Bring back Paul Ince'?

[Neil Weaver]

Yes why don't you and Mclarky have a big banner made for the next home match saying 'Bring back Paul Ince'?

Cos the pub they were in would get bricked.

[1864roverite]

Safety first chaps, safety first.

Once we rid the "Ince caused" relegation fears then we can move on.

Should we survive I think we can comfortably say Sam will not have us playing this type of football.

In the meantime back him and the club.

[McClarky]

I am fairly confident that we will stay up but I can't see much prospect of him changing tactics for next season if we do. Cheating and negativity are his style so why change now. He ain't no Mark Hughes after all. Some people seem to think that Ince or Allardyce are the only choices we have had. Looking back appointing PI was a disaster but if I think BFS is also a bad move that doesn't make me an Ince fan by any means.

As a football fan I do reserve the right to change my mind if we start playing like Brazil though.

[rovers_rob]

I am fairly confident that we will stay up but I can't see much prospect of him changing tactics for next season if we do. Cheating and negativity are his style so why change now. He ain't no Mark Hughes after all. Some people seem to think that Ince or Allardyce are the only choices we have had. Looking back appointing PI was a disaster but if I think BFS is also a bad move that doesn't make me an Ince fan by any means.

As a football fan I do reserve the right to change my mind if we start playing like Brazil though.

Negativity ? I didn't see any negativity against west ham.

What exactly do you want ? Ince tried to turn us into a pretty footballing team and it was bloody awful and embarrassing to watch. Under Hughes we were a very hard working team and the style of play wasn't that much different to how we are playing now.

Entertaining football for me is going to ewood and watching a team that will give everything and never give up and so far under Big Sam that is what I have seen.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Err, might just be me but I thought the West Ham game was the most entertaining for weeks. Never seemed to be off the edges of our seats.

[thenodrog]

Cheating and negativity are his style so why change now.

Many people would call that professionalism. You make it sound like SA is the only manager who employs such tactics when apart from perhaps Woy (to his credit) they all damned well do. Is your favourite night time reading 'Roy of the Rovers ' stories?

[RovertheHill]

I am fairly confident that we will stay up but I can't see much prospect of him changing tactics for next season if we do. Cheating and negativity are his style so why change now. He ain't no Mark Hughes after all. Some people seem to think that Ince or Allardyce are the only choices we have had. Looking back appointing PI was a disaster but if I think BFS is also a bad move that doesn't make me an Ince fan by any means.

As a football fan I do reserve the right to change my mind if we start playing like Brazil though.

I seem to remember that when Hughes took over we were in deep sh*t and he got us playing "industrial" football for the first season to get us out of the hole. To the point where we earned a reputation that stayed with us until he left.

[gumboots]

I seem to remember that when Hughes took over we were in deep sh*t and he got us playing "industrial" football for the first season to get us out of the hole. To the point where we earned a reputation that stayed with us until he left.

And beyond!

[thenodrog]

I seem to remember that when Hughes took over we were in deep sh*t and he got us playing "industrial" football for the first season to get us out of the hole. To the point where we earned a reputation that stayed with us until he left.

Rule 1.... Make the team difficult to beat not the divisions pushovers.

[Ninjathunder]

Both John and Billy Castell has good points here, but do you really think Allardyce will change his style of play to next season? Or for that matter, if he got to replace Wenger at Arsenal?

We're battling to stay up here, or have you forgotten that? Why are you even bothering voicing concerns over the style of play next season when we're focusing on trying to stay in this division this season? We can worry about next season next season. The less said about the irrelevance of the last sentence the better.

[Commondore]

We're battling to stay up here, or have you forgotten that? Why are you even bothering voicing concerns over the style of play next season when we're focusing on trying to stay in this division this season? We can worry about next season next season. The less said about the irrelevance of the last sentence the better.

*Ahem*, since I plan to follow Rovers next season as well. Regardless what division they might play in.

I do agree that the last sentence is a bit of a cheap shot, but it isn't exactly the first one in the history of this forum...

[tonyoz]

I like him.

For those interested, Sam was interviewed on BBC's Sportsweek. Mainly about the England performance but a bit at the end about the relegation battle. You can hear it here (or download as a podcast):

http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?uri=%2Fspor...mp;q=sportsweek

It's about quarter way into the show.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Rule 1.... Make the team difficult to beat not the divisions pushovers.

With the addition of trying to win should be added also I think Theno.

Shouldn't be the case of just trying not to lose.

If its a case of needs must then that is fair enough - but I don't like the way we are setting out for games at the moment in trying 'to nick' a goal/win and think its a dangerous game.

If we go down we go down - think I must be the only one not worried if we do, but surely we have more about us to at least make a decent go at staying up instead of desperation tacttics?

[T4E]

With the addition of trying to win should be added also I think Theno.

Shouldn't be the case of just trying not to lose.

Agreed in theory - but coming from a position where we were losing all the time, the first step was to stop that slide.

[Hughesy]

Id rather we pick up 1 point per game as a minimum, rather than risking a good hammering by playing some stupid one touch, flowing attacking football that we know we dont have the personnel to play.

We do try to win the games too - its just that our first priority in any game is to not concede early. You will always get chances in a match, its just about taking them when they come.

[thenodrog]

With the addition of trying to win should be added also I think Theno.

Shouldn't be the case of just trying not to lose.

If its a case of needs must then that is fair enough - but I don't like the way we are setting out for games at the moment in trying 'to nick' a goal/win and think its a dangerous game.

If we go down we go down - think I must be the only one not worried if we do, but surely we have more about us to at least make a decent go at staying up instead of desperation tacttics?

It's only what both Tony Parkes and Mark Hughes did when they found themselves in the same position.

[CAPT KAYOS]

It's only what both Tony Parkes and Mark Hughes did when they found themselves in the same position.

Did they though ?

My opinion they just made us harder to play against but still play with an attacking mentality - not the don't concede at all costs.

We are at present doing this yet still conceding ...first.

Hughesy Posted Today, 13:21

Id rather we pick up 1 point per game as a minimum, rather than risking a good hammering by playing some stupid one touch, flowing attacking football that we know we dont have the personnel to play.

We do try to win the games too - its just that our first priority in any game is to not concede early. You will always get chances in a match, its just about taking them when they come.

I wouldn't Hughesy rather a win/lose/win/lose - as for flowing attacking football when did we turn into the Arse?

No doubt we do try it just doesnt look like it, which is why I feel we are going about it totally the wrong way and thus we keep ending up with draws rather than wins - as mentioned above we are still conceeding first anyway - I would much rather concede early than late due to the very fact about what you have said re getting chances in a match - the more time available the more time to try and score.

[Eddie]

Agreed in theory - but coming from a position where we were losing all the time, the first step was to stop that slide.

We've done that though and did that early on. I just don't see why we are approaching very winnable games with such negative tactics, even when we always become the better side when we shift to a more open and attacking style of play. At the moment we are essentially conceding the first half to the opposition and saying "at best this will be 0-0 at the break" and we are then trying to outplay them in the second half and it just doesn't make any sense. Sometimes it will work, but in the long-run it is doomed to fail. If we are that confident that we can outplay sides in the second half then why don't we have the same confidence from the start? I actually think that our negative approach is sapping some of our players of confidence and leading to the defensive shambles that we so often see in the first few minutes.

[ihtd]

Correct me if i am wrong but wasn't there a point early in the season where we had conceded the most goals in the league in the last 15minutes. Surely now we must have conceded the most goals in the first 15minutes of games. I don't get why we seem to be a second half team, we were under Sparky, we used to play crap first half and then turn it on in the second half of games. I can remember plenty of games last season that we only turned up for the second half. I don't think this is a Sam Allardyce thing as to why we turn it on for the second half, i think its something that has been rooted deep in the squad since the middle/end of the Hughes era.

We need to go into games knowing we can beat the opposition, the players shouldn't be going out thinking that they don't want to concede an early goal, they should be going into games confident that they can shutout the opposition for 90mins regardless. Afterall, you cannot lose if you don't concede, worrying about conceding early goals is going to lead to early jitters leading to mistakes that will end up in a goal. Big Sam needs to get them playing at a high intensity for 90mins, not just 45mins, they should be fit enough to do this.

[cn_barlow]

Anyone who is criticising the way we are playing now claiming that Sparky never did it....cast you minds back to when we we're playing with Paul Dickov as lone striker. Was that exciting football to watch? no didnt think so...but it kept us up.