[Archived] Is It Time For Rovers To Revert Back To Ugly Football

[Welshrover1981]

So we are 14 games into the season and we are lying in 19th position. Is it time for Rovers to revert back to the days of tough football and direct style of play?

When Ince first took over from Hughes I was in two states of mind about him.

1. He will carry on the success of Hughes using the existing players (without Friedel and Bentley)

2. It will be too big a challenge for him and perhaps championship football experience should come first.

But hey I can see what the Board were thinking...He is young , has ambition, another Fergie prodigy and that they could get no one else into the hot seat.

Over the last 14 games Ince has stuck to the mentality that Rovers should be playing good, attractive football. Slick passing and a continental feel to Ewood Park. Thats great, but what about winning games? Isn't that what is important in the Premier league? For too long we have heard Stelling & Co stating that Teams are Too good to go down. But time and time again we have seen the likes of West ham, Charlton and Co be relegated and struggle to get into the prem again. If Rovers did go down, then we would struggle to get back up straight away.

This season has been an odd season. Hull and Stoke beating opposion and not in the position which we all thought they would be in...20th and 19th position. Fulham, Borough, Bolton all winning games here and there and picking up wins on the road. From 4th downwards it is treacherous ground. One win your up, one win your down. But one thing has struck me about these teams... They get the win first and then they start playing the attractive football. It is what all the experts say, Get the winning mentality and then you can build on playing attractive football.

However, since Ince has come into Rovers, he has wanted Rovers to play attractive football, and his comment against Tottenham on Sunday summed it up. he was pleased with the style of football but still could not get the result. It was if he had consigned himself to a defeat before the game. Any decent manager would tell you that it is getting a points on the board and not playing attractive football that keps you in the premership. Especially this season. I watched the Middlesborough game the other week and Rovers had at over 70% of the possession in midfield, but did not have that killer instinct to finish moves off, and also the players provide the edge over Borough. It could be seen from 30 minutes in that all Middlesborough had to do was grab a goal on the counter attack, which they did. We then manage to scrape the game with a last minute goal.

These are desperate times for Rovers, and we need to pick up points in the next 3 games prior to Crimbo. Questions will have to be asked as to whether Rovers need to revert to being direct, tough in midfield, and seeing games off with a fighting mentality. If Rovers do not show any fight, then our days as a Premiership team are numbered and we will be playing Championship football next season.

[tcj_jones]

Until we get Dunn back in January, this is the only way I feel that we will pick up points.

[Rover4ever]

Given that we dont have Dunn, a pacy player, and a Bentley replacement, going tough is the only way forward.......unless it means we end up with 9 players every other game...

[mattym]

Am I missing something here ??

We have been playing ugly football all season, or do you think we have been passing the ball round like Brasil ?

[Lurid Coat]

If "ugly football" means closing the opposition down with tough tackles, grinding out results in a gritty manner and actually showing some bloody commitment and guts, then YES.

[Mr Maureen]

Can it get any uglier ?

[RibbleValleyRover]

If "ugly football" means closing the opposition down with tough tackles, grinding out results in a gritty manner and actually showing some bloody commitment and guts, then YES.

Agreed.

[rover6]

Yes: Wheel out....drum roll-ll-ll-ll-ll.............Mark Hughes' 4-5-1 Catenaccio Special, starring Aaron "Chop 'Em down like Brazilian rainforests" Mokoena in lead role.

Or if 4-5-1 isn't too your liking, look no further than the ambrosial set-up of Souey Houdini:

Ingredients:

1 Norwegian David Beckham, loved by Norwegian housewives (on loan) (Martin Andresen)

1 Crustily hapless and out-of-place right midfielder called Garry Flitcroft

1 Exuberant Irish youngster who cannot believe his luck (sans talent) (Jon Douglas)

Add a Fresh-faced blonde with stilt-like legs, rapidly approaching first and last purple patch.

Put the ingredients together. Stir until resembles a mush of detritus rescued from a gutter and then hire an Italian cook of dramatic hair and credible paunch to bark orders from the back and occasionally get out-paced by your fridge and...hey presto...you have a relegation-busting first team to have you slavering for more.

[LeChuck]

We've been playing ugly football all season; plenty of long balls in to Santa Cruz, full-backs scared to cross the half-way line and virtually no-one running forward from midfield.

The only ugly thing we haven't been doing is closing down, tackling hard and generally letting the opposition know they've been in a game.

We're getting the worst of both worlds at the minute.

[Neil Weaver]

Yes: Wheel out....drum roll-ll-ll-ll-ll.............Mark Hughes' 4-5-1 Catenaccio Special, starring Aaron "Chop 'Em down like Brazilian rainforests" Mokoena in lead role.

Or if 4-5-1 isn't too your liking, look no further than the ambrosial set-up of Souey Houdini:

Ingredients:

1 Norwegian David Beckham, loved by Norwegian housewives (on loan) (Martin Andresen)

1 Crustily hapless and out-of-place right midfielder called Garry Flitcroft

1 Exuberant Irish youngster who cannot believe his luck (sans talent) (Jon Douglas)

Add a Fresh-faced blonde with stilt-like legs, rapidly approaching first and last purple patch.

Put the ingredients together. Stir until resembles a mush of detritus rescued from a gutter and then hire an Italian cook of dramatic hair and credible paunch to bark orders from the back and occasionally get out-paced by your fridge and...hey presto...you have a relegation-busting first team to have you slavering for more.

Very good Mr 6! Not sure whether you wanted us to come to this conclusion, but to my mind there's no doubt we have players MUCH better than those you mention, so if 'someone' can get em to adopt the Dogs of War style, then no problem playing like that for 10 - 15 games. With a following wind, we just might be heading towards safety by then and perhaps that's the time to revert to tippy-tappy mode.

[thenodrog]

I must be at odds with many cos I don't think we were playing ugly football last season. How can teams with the likes of Tugay, Bentley, Warnock, RSC and Benny play ugly football? Sure we played below our potential on occasions but imo that was through a thin squad leading to lack of 1st team competition for places. We tended to slip up v the bottom clubs and perform well v the top ones suggesting certain motivational issues. A solid midfielder to link the entire team like Huddleston would have made a world of difference imo.

[grizfoot]

If we want ugly football back we should get Flitcroft back and plonk him on the right-wing. That was Souness' tactic of playing four central midfielders and basically just breaking up the play. To be fair it did the trick and ensured we stayed up, along with a little help from Jon Stead.

But I really wouldn't want to go back to that playing style if at all avoidable. We've got some much better techincial players now than we did back then and should be able to play attractive passing football and get results.

[Drummer Boy]

Agreed.

Agreed

[neekoy]

Can it get any uglier ?

Agreed.

Ditto

[des]

we need to play hard football, that means when we have not got the ball, closing players down, putting your foot in, good marking etc

when we have the ball it means not giving it away cheaply or in bad postions, that puts the team under pressure.

hard football does not have to be ugly, it just means you have to earn the right to play first

[AllRoverAsia]

We've been playing ugly football all season; plenty of long balls in to Santa Cruz, full-backs scared to cross the half-way line and virtually no-one running forward from midfield.

The only ugly thing we haven't been doing is closing down, tackling hard and generally letting the opposition know they've been in a game.

We're getting the worst of both worlds at the minute.

Spot on exactly my view '

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Anything is better than the current surrender monkey football we are seeing!