[Archived] Rovers Vs Villa Preview 7th Feb K.o 3pm

[philipl]

Eddie, let's see where Villa end up shall we.

Their style is different from the Big 4 but they are set up to get wins like they did yesterday.

Their PL record is currently W15 D6 L4

That includes a 2-0 win at Arsenal and a 4-0 win at Wigan. Other than a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea when Chelsea were flying early season, Villa have drawn their games against Man U and Liverpool.

Man U will have to implode for any team to challenge for the Premiership but on current form, Villa could easily get the runners-up slot.

Back to yesterday and the BBC report says this about the first half:

"Rovers struggled to create a clear-cut chance and were denied two penalties when Gareth Barry held Benni McCarthy and Zat Knight tugged at Jason Roberts."

In the second half-

"When the home side did get a sight on goal, Barry appeared to hold McCarthy as the two challenged for a header, with the referee waving away Rovers' appeals for a penalty."

and

"Blackburn's efforts to work their way back into the game were being thwarted by some resolute Villa defending, which saw Knight appear to hold Roberts as another appeal for a Rovers spot-kick fell by the wayside."

Shame the BBC cannot tell the difference between Roberts and Santa Cruz!

My take is the Villa defence realised Bennett was going to give nothing against them all afternoon and they meated it out as a result.

Sky's statistics make interesting reading:

Blackburn Rovers

Team Statistics

Aston Villa

0

Goals

2

0

1st Half Goals

1

2

Shots on Target

4

7

Shots off Target

9

9

Blocked Shots

5

4

Corners

13

11

Fouls

9

0

Offsides

2

2

Yellow Cards

0

0

Red Cards

0

76.8

Passing Success

64.5

21

Tackles

31

81

Tackles Success

80.6

56.1

Possession

43.9

55.6

Territorial Advantage

44.4

[Majiball]

No shots on target and no chances created at home - Name a positive Dirk.

It was someone from Exeters Birthday!

Typical O'Neil team, quick to the ball, get the ball forward quickly, press the play. Boring as hell to watch. Villa are a million miles behind the 'top four' and didn't impress me at all today. And their idiot fans of course; what is it about the midlands?

Heskey from deep with Gabby in the channel.

I read on another forum that the Fernhurst got smashed up pretty bad, anyone else heard this?

I didn't see it smashed up, but it was quite the state everywhere.

How many teams have come to your place and created enough goalscoring opportunities to beat you by 4 or 5 especially since Sam took over?

We are seeing the same attitude off a lot of opposition fans and I do not understand why.

6 of our first team in the England squad today proves we are a lot more than long ball

This isn't an antagonistic post I am simply trying to understand why so many are knocking us?

Villa have done well, its nice to see another team push the top 4.

Other than that a very good summing up of Villa, although I wouldn't consider full-backs one of their strong points...just highlights what an excellent job O'Neill is doing with regards to getting the best out of what he has when Luke Young is playing left back.

I thought we would have tried to expose them more, I thought this was where we could win it. but we had no wingers to do it.

[Paul]

After an hour reading the thread I'm beginning to wonder if I went to the right ground. It's all about opinions though and there are some expressed on here that match what I saw. I won't pretend the following is going to be especially joined up, just so general observations about the afternoon.

On the Villa fans; I was, unusually, around Ewood from 12 - 1 and met four different Villa fans. We had a chat and those tarring all Villa support as idiots need to calm down a bit. Every club has it's idiots, Rovers included.

I felt we needed a point today (two draws and five wins is my target) and I'm very disappointed in the side. I had expected the team to be up for this game and give us a decent performance. Mind you as we played the first half with nine and the second with ten it's hardly surprising. Andrews and Grella has to be the worst central midfield partnership I've seen at Ewood. I haven't remarked about Andrews since he was signed but have to say he was awful, absolutely awful. Dunny pushing him off the ball summed it up for me - hopefully we will never see Andrews in the shirt again. Grella is nearly as bad, not quite but close. If this is the pairing for the rest of the season I give up now.

I'm not a McCarthy fan and for me he was back to his old self yesterday. Basically a lazy, idle performance in which he attempts to make us all believe he is very, very good but unlucky. Far too many of the "clever little flicks" which have always categorised his game and often appear at completely the wrong time. I can't help but feel he tries to make his team mates look at fault with some of his play, as if to say "I'm too good for this lot". Lost count of the number of times he raised his hands in disbelief when he hd lost the ball. Still he wasn't offside much yesterday so some improvement there. McCarthy thinks he's very good and I had to laugh when Diouf chucked in a couple of neat, clever crosses which completely bamboozled Benni. He doesn't change.

Nelsen and Samba were our standout players for the ninety minutes, Grella and Andrews aside the rest were average at best and didn't put in the efforts I'd anticipated. Once we introduced Tugay and Diouf we looked much better, Diouf being the only player to create any danger in the Villa area. Who are the idiots who booed him? I don't especially like the guy but the booing was pathetic, stay in the pub in future lads. For all that we improved in the second half we didn't create a single clear cut chance - this must have been the quietest afternoon Brad has had at Ewood. This of course has been the problem all season, we simply cannot create decent chances, if we go down the lack of creativity will be to blame.

Four penalty shouts? I saw nothing resembling a decent shout in the game, I haven't seen any TV replays. What I did see was players going to ground when they should have stayed on their feet. Villa's disallowed offside goal was a very good decision from the linesman, couldn't see why the other was disallowed. The ref was average, nothing like as bad as the majority seem to believe.

Will we stay up? The only real impact of this result is we have one less game in which to collect the 17 points which give us a chance. Five wins and two draws was my view last week and it still is today. As jim mk2 says, it's very difficult to see where those wins will come from. The players were not up for this game and they should have been. I accept Ince was an awful manager and takes a lrge proportion of the blame for our position. However the players have not performed to their best at all this season and I wonder how much comfort they are taking from the overwhelming view Ince is entirely to blame? I'd lay the blame 60-40 at Ince's feet and I'm beginning to feel it's closer as this squad fails to perform in important matches. They are supposed to be professionals and look far from it.

Like Eddie I'm thinking we missed our opportunities to get out of trouble against City, Bolton, Boro and Sunderland. The new manager honeymoon is over and we NEED the team to perform. Allardyce can only do so much. Come the summer we need to clear out 8-10 players and start again.

Will we stay up? A week ago I believed we could. Today I think we will be very lucky to survive. The players aren't good enough and are not performing as a team.

I spent two years in Birmingham - 80-82 - and was an ever present the year Villa won the league. One of my closest friends and his brother are Villains. Villa have always been a good club, Lerner and O'Neil are doing the right things (Lerner is the only foreign owner worthy of the game) and really hope they can sneak to the championship. United are going to win it, but if they can be caught lets hope it's Aston Villa.

[alexanders]

Five wins and two draws was my view last week and it still is today. As jim mk2 says, it's very difficult to see where those wins will come from. The players were not up for this game and they should have been.

I think these are the key fixtures;

- Pompey (H)

- West Brom (H)

- Hull City (A)

- Stoke (A)

- Spurs (H)

These 5 has to be wins.

I also think we can sneak a draw from either Chelsea or Liverpool.

[Jan]

I know you lot don't want to hear it- you'd rather wallow in misery, but today we were beaten by the team with the best currently operating manager in the whole, wide world. The best non-operating manager is, of course, the god that is Kenny Dalglish.

Which is why half of Glasgow is still in mourning for his loss, and they don't like the Ginger Whinger.

That's why I expected and hoped for nothing from this game.

[Paul]

I think these are the key fixtures;

- Pompey (H)

- West Brom (H)

- Hull City (A)

- Stoke (A)

- Spurs (H)

These 5 has to be wins.

I'd add Fulham and Wigan and say we must win five out of the seven.

I also think we can sneak a draw from either Chelsea or Liverpool.

We either have to beat Everton or sneak a point out of that game and one of those two you suggest.

[Mike Graham]

highlights from yesterday from a Rovers point of view:

none !

i'm dusting off my roadmap for Plymouth Argyle etc

[Paul]

the best currently operating manager in the whole, wide world.

I don't know, and couldn't even get into the discussion factually, regarding MON being the best in the world. He is most certainly the sort of man one would want to have managing your club. The combination of Lerner and MON is giving Villa great results on and off the field. A visit to Villa Park quickly demonstrates that, it feels like a football club when so many are now simply are places to turn up and watch a game.

[Blackpool_Rover]

Evening all.

Not that long back from my trip to Ewood and thought I come back on post game and see what was being said, there are some insightful posts, some utter nonesense posts about both Villa and Rovers and the odd amusing one.

I don't really want to talk about Villa as it will likely only end in a row with someone plus this is your message board so it should be about Rovers.

So here are my thoughts on Rovers today from an outside perspective.

Defence - I thought Samba did extremely well first with Heskey and then with Carew and was one of your best performers today while Nelsen was decent alongside him. However I thought your full backs were poor if I'm honest both in dealing with the danger from our wide players and also in failing to give you more of an outlet. Warnock is a better player than he showed today I'm sure.

Midfield - Couldn't really figure out your plan today or the logic in the line up Dunn was wasted and Andrews doesn't look good enough to me but hard to judge on one game.

Forwards - Roberts is a far better player than many give him credit for, I thought he worked hard for you today and deserved more support from some around him. McCarthy looks a pale immitation of his former self I'm glad he started ahead of RSC odd decision from Sam.

Diouf - Thought you improved with his introduction, he found more space than anyone else in the first 15mins of the second half and will I think prove to be a big player for you this season when you learn to use him more.

I get the feeling having read the whole thread many of you are pretty down after the defeat today but I wouldn't worry I'm certain you have more than enough to stay up. I also think if Sam is given time and support you will push on again as there is no way you should be in your current league position.

I enjoyed my trip to Ewood and not just because of the result, I had some good banter with some of your boys both before and after the game. Oh and I apologise for those idiots Villa 'fans' who caused damage to the pub, there a disgrace.

Best of luck for the rest of the season.

Probably the most realistic post so far. The reason the other posts don't make sense is because half the people on this board are clueless about football. The only thing i don't quite agree with about your post is the Benni/Roque bit. Benni has scored 4 in 5 home games and Roque hasn't got that many all season...so that's the reasoning behind starting him.

To the kids on the board...We didn't look bad. Andrews/Grella wasnt working but Sam rectified that at half time didn't he. Diouf and Tugay improved our threat greatly and we were looking good for an equaliser until their fortunate 2nd. Villa are a very good team, just look at Chelseas performances to put it into context. They will probably be in the champions league next season. Weve lost ONE GAME IN FFFING TEN.

Well played Villa and good luck for the top 4.

[Paul Mellelieu]

A quick note on Villa and O'Neil. I don't really care how well they do when we are heading into the Championship. Is it 'better for the game' that they finish above Arsenal or Liverpool playing that kind of kick and rush that Celtic played for many years under O'Neil? Pushing Chelsea out of the top four would be amusing I guess though. Give me a team that plays it on the deck, pass and move and entertains the crowd.

[American]

The thing is that most English fans want someone to break into the top 4, but they don't want it to be Spurs, Newcastle, City, Villa, West Ham, Everton, etc. etc. etc.....

Kind of like the only ones you hate more than the Romans are the Judean People's Front.

[thenodrog]

Before the match I rather hoped that we would have won yesterday. Emerton apart we had our strongest squad and consequently strongest bench since the start of the season. That being the case ........

1. I have absolutely no idea why Andrews figured at all. He was completely out of his depth.

2. I am mystified why SA chose to play Dunny out wide left and Ped wide right. Also why Tugay was brought on to replace Dunny. Dunny / Grella imo is our strongest central midfield combination by a mile and Ped is our best option at left mid and Diouff our best option at right mid.

3. RSC came off on Wed after appearing to suffer a toe injury so I must give Sam the benefit of the doubt for not starting him or bringing him on sooner. It was only when RSC was introduced that the Villa centre halves were tested.

A simple summary is that imo we did not play badly overall but we played as well as Villa's impressive pressing game allowed us to. Basically we were beaten by a better team on the day. Everytime a Rovers player got possession there were two villains zeroing in on him. Diouff made a very impressive debut but he was soon overwhelmed by numbers as soon as he became recognised as a threat. Even SA was quick to praise them afterwards. Truth is that we are now past flirting with relegation and now truly in a desperate relegation scrap. I just hope the players are fully aware of that and I trust SA to make em so.

So credit to Villa for effort and intensity. Their tails are up at present and it showed.

One gripe ....... that cheating little effin 'genius' on the left wing! How long will it be before referees spot that Young's primary objective is to push the ball past his marker and then run into him before dropping to the ground in a heap? The eeejit refs fall for it every time! His cheating and the free kicks (coupled obviously with the aireal ability of Carew / Knight etc ) are a real threat and they did for us last season! Oddly Young has still not been sussed by the men in the middle. Also unbelievable how so many of the know-all pundits spouting so much hot air from the TV studio have not seen fit to out him yet?

[RevidgeBlue]

Just as a side issue, is it just me but I don't think our players have looked particularly fit under Sam and the physical difference between us and Villa yesterday in terms of power, speed and stamina seemed quite frightening.

[thenodrog]

A quick note on Villa and O'Neil. I don't really care how well they do when we are heading into the Championship. Is it 'better for the game' that they finish above Arsenal or Liverpool playing that kind of kick and rush that Celtic played for many years under O'Neil? Pushing Chelsea out of the top four would be amusing I guess though. Give me a team that plays it on the deck, pass and move and entertains the crowd.

I've no problem with that at all. Anybody who makes the maximum of their qualities and punches above their weight is OK by me.

I guess you are in the "Man Utd were the best team in 94/95" camp? imo they were on paper ( a fantasy best team picked from both squads might only have seen 3 or 4 from BRFC imo) but thank flerk that our application, work rate and determination came out on top.

[Paul Mellelieu]

I've no problem with that at all. Anybody who makes the maximum of their qualities and punches above their weight is OK by me.

I guess you are in the "Man Utd were the best team in 94/95" camp? imo they were on paper ( a fantasy best team picked from both squads might only have seen 3 or 4 from BRFC imo) but thank flerk that our application, work rate and determination came out on top.

That was then, this is now.

Dalglish indeed got the best out of the 94/5 squad. The difference is that O'Neil has a style of play, irrespective of which club he manages, which I don't find as appealing to watch.

[Parsonblue]

Just as a side issue, is it just me but I don't think our players have looked particularly fit under Sam and the physical difference between us and Villa yesterday in terms of power, speed and stamina seemed quite frightening.

I would strongly disagree with that. At Middlesbrough last week we totally dominated the last 20 minutes after the home side ran out of steam and we were full of running - but sadly not full of goals. Again, against Sunderland away in the Cup I felt we ended the game the stronger of the two sides. Many of the folk I go with have remarked how much fitter we seem to be under Sam compared with Ince and co. I don't think fitness is the problem. I think the main problem is the signings Ince brought to the club and the fact that there appears to be no funds availabe with which to replace them. If Grella and Andrews continue in midfield we have no hope of avoiding relegation. We saw today that both were totally inadequate against a very good Villa side.

[allrovertheworld]

Just as a side issue, is it just me but I don't think our players have looked particularly fit under Sam and the physical difference between us and Villa yesterday in terms of power, speed and stamina seemed quite frightening.

We are in better shape than they were under Ince.

Agbonlahor, Young and milner are in very good shape, they are young, fit and can run all day. Young and Agbonlahor are two of the fastest players in the prem. Barry has an outstanding engine ( much like Emerton) and he is a real presence on the pitch.

I wouldn't read to much into the state of our fitness compared to Villas as they are on another level.

[The Prof.]

Hiya guys as mentioned by many, we were beaten by a very good Villa team today, in fairness could have been more, a culmination of Villas tactics and our ineptness concluded a real lack of goal threat from our lot.. anyway my thoughts on the players.

Robinson 6 - Average.

Oijer 7 - Better than expected against Young.

Samba 8 - Good

Nelson 8 - Good

Warnock 5 - Why does he stop running when a player goes past him??

Dunn 6 - Only player trying to make something happen whilst on.

Grella 3 - Awful passing awful judgement in terms of passing.

Andrews 5 - Average at best. Offers nothing to the team going forward.

Pederson 6 - Good endeavour, needs to grow some balls on occassions.

Roberts 6 - Average.

Benni 5 - Poor.

Subs

Tugay 6 - Below standard

Diouf 7 - Best chance of doing something when on.

Roque 6 - Average but good endeavour.

On the whole I dont think we actually 'believed' we could get anything out of this game once the first goal went in. Which is seriously dissapointing consdering we were pretty much neck and neck with Villa last year.

Villa kept their best players and spent a few quid. The manager stayed. We did the opposite- what do you expect. It's time the board have a genital check.

i'd agree with the villeneuva point, stick him out on the left. he can't be any slower than pedersen and what he'd offer in retaining possession and decent delivery would far outway what would be lost with morts defensive qualities.

if we'd lost to spuds or pompey i'd be quite morbid right now, in as much as you can accept defeat i'll accept the second part of our season starts after the man u game.

i'd argue the roberts point seeing as he is the only fella with pace and does put a shift in, benni on the other hand offers very,very little.

if we are in the premier league next season i'll be amazed if any ince signings are at the club, andrews and grella can be dominated so easily and offer squat. warnock in the middle was the only good idea ince had, warnock and dunn is 10x better than andrews grella.

Old Charlie wouldn't have had the ball and if he had he'd have lost it. Villa were to quick for him.

May as well play Warnock in the middle and Givet at left back. Even Mokoena is better than Grella and that is saying something!

He was there most of yesterday - especially when the goals went in.

Worst performance of the season for me and confirmed what I had feared that we have missed any chance that we had of getting clear from the relegation zone and are now in this for the long haul. Anyone who feels certain that there are three teams worse than us in this league is a massive optimist. This put our unbeaten run into perspective and the feeling that some of us had that the run actually represented dropped points rather than a massive improvement and the stepping stone to salvation looked to be right I'm afraid. United up next and things could look very bleak this time next week.

Still think we'll stay up, but I've yet to be convinced that Allardyce is any better at this than Ince.

I don't believe this, it's a wind up. We'd have been down now with a -100 goal difference.

[thenodrog]

Just as a side issue, is it just me but I don't think our players have looked particularly fit under Sam and the physical difference between us and Villa yesterday in terms of power, speed and stamina seemed quite frightening.

Or any other time in the last 12-18 months.

[The Prof.]

No point trying to defend the small minority of Villa fans so I won't

However I feel your comments on us being way off the top 4 are completely off the mark

One question

How many teams have come to your place and created enough goalscoring opportunities to beat you by 4 or 5 especially since Sam took over?

We are seeing the same attitude off a lot of opposition fans and I do not understand why.

6 of our first team in the England squad today proves we are a lot more than long ball

This isn't an antagonistic post I am simply trying to understand why so many are knocking us?

'Cos you've always had a quiet 2nd rate hooligan element who take a delight in smashing up anything you can get away with. I remember the roof going off the Darwen End Bar where I was working in '76. No one like you and we don't care.

[thenodrog]

That was then, this is now.

Dalglish indeed got the best out of the 94/5 squad. The difference is that O'Neil has a style of play, irrespective of which club he manages, which I don't find as appealing to watch.

Did you follow BRFC away much that season? Blood sweat and tears on many opposing grounds. Goodison in particular!

[Fife Rover]

No point trying to defend the small minority of Villa fans so I won't

However I feel your comments on us being way off the top 4 are completely off the mark

One question

How many teams have come to your place and created enough goalscoring opportunities to beat you by 4 or 5 especially since Sam took over?

We are seeing the same attitude off a lot of opposition fans and I do not understand why.

6 of our first team in the England squad today proves we are a lot more than long ball

This isn't an antagonistic post I am simply trying to understand why so many are knocking us?

Just ignore them Dan; it's either jealousy or ignorance or both. Good luck to Villa in their quest to unship the stranglehold of the "Big 4". The more teams that can get in amongst them and stop their smug assumptions the better.

[thenodrog]

Barry has an outstanding engine ( much like Emerton) .

A comparison that came to my mind yesterday. The obvious difference between the two being between the ears.

[Ricky]

That's why I expected and hoped for nothing from this game.

It's one thing saying you rate M'on but to say you hoped we would lose takes the ###### a bit Jan!!!!

It's not quite as far from London to Birmingham is it Jan?? might make more sense for you to stop off at Villa Park instead of carrying on up to Ewood!!!!

[thenodrog]

That's why I expected and hoped for nothing from this game.

It's one thing saying you rate M'on but to say you hoped we would lose takes the ###### a bit Jan!!!!

I'd missed that! I seriously hope that was an error Jan.