[Archived] Sell Out At The Emirates

[jim mk2]

We could, nay possibly should, have lost 9-0 yesterday; we have players committing the most awful premeditated fouls and dives but hey, that's OK because we might scrape enough points from elsewhere to stay up and the world will be rosy once more.

Well my world will certainly be a lot rosier if we do somehow manage to stay up. Perhaps yours would be rosier if we were relegated with a touch of style ?

The main disappointment yesterday was that we gave our worst performance of the season against Arsenal and gave the London media and the club's obnoxious supporters another excuse to have a go at us.

We need to put in a second-half Fulham style performance for 90 minutes against West Ham (another favourite team of the media luvvies) next weekend to show them the real Blackburn Rovers.

[Amo]

I know it's a bit of a moot point now, but where the hell has Vogel gone? We were so short in centre-mid that we played Zurab there, when we really could have just slotted him into the side. It's not like we would have been any worse. The guy must really have a bad attitude or something to be frozen out by Sam as well.

[AggyBlue]

and the club's obnoxious supporters another excuse to have a go at us.

Supporters?

Isn't it funny that these posters are usually the ones that never attend matches

[B.R.F.C]

A loss but a predictable one at that so not too disappointed. A few minor things that irritated me yesterday were:

1. Danny Simpson is simply not good enough and shouldn't feature for us until someone teaches him how to tackle. He keeps backing off and off and Arshavin literally just walked past him for their 2nd goal yesterday.

2. Pedersens dive...good god almighty that was embarrassing yet laughable at the same time

3. The guy beside me who used his video camera for a good half of the match yesterday and looked at me sideways for daring to sing or shout

Hopefully the injuries picked up by Givet and Warnock aren't too serious.

[1864roverite]

TBH that dive by Pederson is an absolute disgrace. In fact he should be embarassed by that attempt. I have to ask myself just what was he thinking of because he wasnt heading anywhere positive.

The game was over before it kicked off, Rovers defensive formation alone saw to that and Rovers were always going to be on the back foot.

Arsenal had pace to burn all over the park and we had NO player whatsoever that could cope with the likes of Nasri, Walcott and Bendtner.

What made it worse for me, is that the worst player EVER to grace an Arsenal shirt makes himself a hero with 2 goals.

Lets hope that the injury situation is nowehre near as bad as it seemed at 5pm yesterday.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Well my world will certainly be a lot rosier if we do somehow manage to stay up. Perhaps yours would be rosier if we were relegated with a touch of style ?

I'm not sure how playing a ridiculous formation, playing uselessly and being useless at cheating helps our battle for survival. I too would like to see another 2nd half Fulham performance but the fact is in this second half we saw an Ince-level performance but twice as ugly.

I was assured by the know-alls on this board that our defence was poor because of Winterburn and that we had a lot of injuries because of primitive training methods. We still seem to be getting a lot of injuries despite cyrogenic chambers and began the game playing offside against the best team at beating offside traps. In the last 2 games, our carefully crafted defensive strategies lasted a cumulative 3 minutes before being breached twice. If Fulham could finish we would have been 3 down after 10 minutes; if Bendtnar could finish we would have let in 8.

West Ham and Spurs are season-defining games and no, I would hypocritically not complain if Pedersen dived and got a winning pen and Diouff crocked Green, because we all want to stay up. But which Rovers will turn up and for how much of the 180 minutes? In the last 4 games we have put in two good 45 minute shifts.

[OhmiBRFC]

If it wasn't for The Axe we would have lost by 8/9.

[tony gale's mic]

I'm not sure how playing a ridiculous formation, playing uselessly and being useless at cheating helps our battle for survival. I too would like to see another 2nd half Fulham performance but the fact is in this second half we saw an Ince-level performance but twice as ugly.

I was assured by the know-alls on this board that our defence was poor because of Winterburn and that we had a lot of injuries because of primitive training methods. We still seem to be getting a lot of injuries despite cyrogenic chambers and began the game playing offside against the best team at beating offside traps. In the last 2 games, our carefully crafted defensive strategies lasted a cumulative 3 minutes before being breached twice. If Fulham could finish we would have been 3 down after 10 minutes; if Bendtnar could finish we would have let in 8.

Our defence WAS poor because of Winterburn/Ince. Look at our defensive record under the stewardship of those numpties.

Look at our overall defensive record after Sam came, even taking into account this game.

It's not about being a know-all, it's about simple common sense.

[brfcs5359]

Saw the whole game live on Canal+

Defensive team plan went out of the window after a minute.

Rovers played well first half but in the second class told.

Dunny looks to have lost a lot of match fitness with his injury.

Robinson 7 - Ok

Simpson 3 - Outclassed, lacks talent, to one footed to be a top light pro.

Givet - 7 Usual - went off injured

Samba - 8 - Great performance

Oiujar - 6 Steady

Khishinishvilli 4 - Midfield anchor turned pub player - awful in this new position.

Mokeona 5 - Contributed nothing at all. Ran around a lot

Warnock 7 - Led the Rovers in midfield. Move to defence helped Arsenal get totally on top of game.

Pedersen 6 - Anonymous mostly, some good touches, worked hard

Roberts 4 Poor, offered nothing, did nothing

Diouf 5 - worked hard, covered a lot of ground. Got involved in a lot but no end product. Lack of pace resulted in him turning back towards defence to often.

-----

Dunn - 4 Rubbish. So off the pace.

Ollson - 4 one for the future, having a rough time despite talent. Rovers equivalent of Bendtner

Goal.com gives a good analysis

BLACKBURN ROVERS

Robinson – 6.5: Made a number of brilliant saves to prevent an even heavier mauling. His poor positioning perhaps allowed Arshavin to score the second goal but there was little he could do about the other three.

Simpson – 4: Did well early in the game but once Arshavin got into the mood, he was completely run ragged. Easily beaten by the Russian one-on-one for the second goal, and left his side of the box completely unmarked, which led to the third goal.

Ooijer – 5: Struggled with a few mistimed headers. The ball came off him for the opening goal and may be credited with the own goal.

Samba – 6.5: Strong in the air and looked fairly confident on the ground. Didn’t look intimidated by Walcott’s speed or Nasri's and Bendtner’s trickery. Rarely allowed anything to get past him, despite his side shipping four goals.

Givet – N/A: Only stayed on the pitch for a dozen minutes. Started the match unfit and was cruelly exposed by Walcott’s speed. It was down his flank where Arsenal carved out the first goal.

Mokoena – 5: Charged from one end of the box to the other throughout the game. Full marks for his work rate but he just couldn’t stamp his authority in midfield. Allowed his counterparts too much time on the ball.

Khizanishvili – 4: Anchored a very tight defensive midfield line but could do nothing more than make up the numbers. Couldn’t keep pace with Arsenal’s quick-passing game.

Warnock – 5: Very heavily involved in midfield and battled hard for every ball that came his way. Like Givet, he too struggled to keep Walcott on a leash when he had to move to left-back.

Diouf – 4: Extremely lucky to stay on the pitch after a diabolical, late tackle on Almunia. Had to work hard to get a touch of the ball and did everything he could on his own to create chances.

Pedersen – 7: The only player to provide any attacking threat. Caused a few nervy moments for his opposing defenders with his set-pieces. Almost nicked in at the end of the first-half with an equaliser which could have turned the game on its head.

Roberts – 4: Clumsy display. Went up in the air for every set-piece and long ball but got to almost none of them.

Substitutes:

Dunn – 6: Brought more energy to the midfield and in attack when he replaced Givet.

Olsson – 4: Gave away the penalty with a clumsy challenge from behind on Vela.

McCarthy – N/A

[Eddie]

1) He did take over a sunken ship-------19th place and 5 points behind 17th.

2) You only have to go back 3 weeks for a great performance away to the World Champions

3) "despite our injuires"? Don't you mean "because of our injuries"? that team wouldn't beat many Championship sides.

4) Why are we so bad against top sides? Ummm........a puzzler that one. I think it might be because they have bigger and better squads because they have much more money that we have.

5)The fans who went and spent a lot of time and money deserve our sympathy but they will be forgiving if we stay up. You will just moan.

1) We weren't down. We were on a terrible run and the side looked a shambles, but this wasn't a team 10 points off of safety in February; he had the time and opportunity to turn things around.

2) No, it wasn't a great away performance. It was a very good second half, but a terrible opening 30ish minutes and we were lucky to still be in the game at that point. A great performance is over 90 minutes.

3) I still think we could have put a better looking 11 out there yesterday.

4) I'm not talking about our record against only the big 4, but our record against the top 10 and some of those sides are not spending all that much more than us.

5) I've been on the board for a long time and whilst I do often have views that many disagree with, I don't think I could ever be called a moaner.

[USABlue]

I thought we were a disgrace. I can live with playing poorly, particularly against a good good team but the clear lack of effort on display yesterday was not accepatable. Time and again I saw players pretty much strolling back watching Arsenal. Shameful, I hope that is the LAST one we mail in this season.

[Fife Rover]

attack minded team? like who?

for anyone who hasnt seen the shocking dive...

Pedersen dive

Well now.....thanks for showing that. Here I was in blissful ignorance (not having seen any of the match) and thinking that all the usual suspects were at it again lambasting poor MGP unfairly, as they frequently do, but now having seen that blatant dive which is actually far worse than the one El Hadji Diouf did against us at Ewood in his Bolton days, and which caused such a furore on here at the time (myself included), I have to say that MGP should be ashamed of himself for that and the club needs to take action against him for blatant cheating and dragging the good name of BRFC through the mire. I am absolutely disgusted at him and never would have believed it possible from any Rovers player, let alone MGP who I have always regarded as a thoroughly honest player and a nice person who is above and beyond such underhand tactics.

I don't care how stuck we are for players at the moment; the club must act and fine and drop him for a spell.

[Stuart]

Well now.....thanks for showing that. Here I was in blissful ignorance (not having seen any of the match) and thinking that all the usual suspects were at it again lambasting poor MGP unfairly, as they frequently do, but now having seen that blatant dive which is actually far worse than the one El Hadji Diouf did against us at Ewood in his Bolton days, and which caused such a furore on here at the time (myself included), I have to say that MGP should be ashamed of himself for that and the club needs to take action against him for blatant cheating and dragging the good name of BRFC through the mire. I am absolutely disgusted at him and never would have believed it possible from any Rovers player, let alone MGP who I have always regarded as a thoroughly honest player and a nice person who is above and beyond such underhand tactics.

I don't care how stuck we are for players at the moment; the club must act and fine and drop him for a spell.

Yes, we've plenty of other midfielders we can bring in.

Pedersen was caught out doing what players do every weekend in Beerwin's 'modern day football', let's not kid ourselves - and many are good at it. Unfortunately for him he got it completely wrong and ended up looking absolutely ridiculous. Particularly with the appeals immediately afterward. Yes, Sam should come out and make a statement about it not being in the spirit of Blackburn Rovers - if nothing else to avoid every other penalty appeal this season being waved away.

No doubting he's been a silly boy but we need our only fit players on the pitch, Fife. Moral high ground is something we do not have the luxury of. For most clubs the Championship could be a climb down and a dent to their pride. For BRFC it could be oblivion.

[MCMC1875]

Well now.....thanks for showing that. Here I was in blissful ignorance (not having seen any of the match) and thinking that all the usual suspects were at it again lambasting poor MGP unfairly, as they frequently do, but now having seen that blatant dive which is actually far worse than the one El Hadji Diouf did against us at Ewood in his Bolton days, and which caused such a furore on here at the time (myself included), I have to say that MGP should be ashamed of himself for that and the club needs to take action against him for blatant cheating and dragging the good name of BRFC through the mire. I am absolutely disgusted at him and never would have believed it possible from any Rovers player, let alone MGP who I have always regarded as a thoroughly honest player and a nice person who is above and beyond such underhand tactics.

I don't care how stuck we are for players at the moment; the club must act and fine and drop him for a spell.

Get a grip man - we're down to the bare bones as it is!

You may as well hand Newcastle a 'get out of jail free card'!

Try watching a club like Stanley or Dunfermline with all the other apologists.

[Eddie]

It's very sad to see a Rovers player do it, what makes it even more annoying is that he actually played well yesterday. We certainly can't afford to drop him.

[tony gale's mic]

Well now.....thanks for showing that. Here I was in blissful ignorance (not having seen any of the match) and thinking that all the usual suspects were at it again lambasting poor MGP unfairly, as they frequently do, but now having seen that blatant dive which is actually far worse than the one El Hadji Diouf did against us at Ewood in his Bolton days, and which caused such a furore on here at the time (myself included), I have to say that MGP should be ashamed of himself for that and the club needs to take action against him for blatant cheating and dragging the good name of BRFC through the mire. I am absolutely disgusted at him and never would have believed it possible from any Rovers player, let alone MGP who I have always regarded as a thoroughly honest player and a nice person who is above and beyond such underhand tactics.

I don't care how stuck we are for players at the moment; the club must act and fine and drop him for a spell.

I still don't understand this logic.

Condemn him for the dive if you wish, he deserves it. But to say one dive is worse than the other and he should be fined as opposed to other players who have dived is complete and utter nonsense. The reason why his dive looks the way it does is because it was so poorly executed. If another player produces a dive which doesn't look so bad, it doesn't make it morally any better. It's still fundamentally the SAME thing that the player is trying to do.

Pedersen deserves ridicule on top of the usual condemnation a dive deserves to get because he's basically made himself look like a right plank. But he doesn't deserve any more punishment or criticism than any other player diving in the box.

[roversmum]

I agree he should not have done it but MGP is the current scapegoat (as Bert is injured) and he can do no right. Do we HAVE to keep going on and on and on and on and on and on and on about it?????????????????????????????????

[RibbleValleyRover]

I agree he should not have done it but MGP is the current scapegoat (as Bert is injured) and he can do no right.

Bert a scapegoat? Most fans i have spoken to think Bert has been immense for some time.

[Paul Mellelieu]

1) We weren't down. We were on a terrible run and the side looked a shambles, but this wasn't a team 10 points off of safety in February; he had the time and opportunity to turn things around. YES, WE WERE DOWN; DEAD AND BURIED. ANYONE WHO WENT TO THE WIGAN GAME KNOWS THE MESS WE WE IN. TO SUGGEST ANYTHING ELSE IS PURE STUPIDITY

2) No, it wasn't a great away performance. It was a very good second half, but a terrible opening 30ish minutes and we were lucky to still be in the game at that point. A great performance is over 90 minutes. HOW MANY TEAMS DOMINATE AGAINST MU AT OT FOR 90 MINUTES. GET A GRIP

3) I still think we could have put a better looking 11 out there yesterday. MORE ALICE IN WONDERLAND STUFF

4) I'm not talking about our record against only the big 4, but our record against the top 10 and some of those sides are not spending all that much more than us. WHO ISN'T SPENDING 'MUCH MORE THAN US? NAMES PLEASE

5) I've been on the board for a long time and whilst I do often have views that many disagree with, I don't think I could ever be called a moaner. YOU NEVER STOP MOANING

[thenodrog]

Well now.....thanks for showing that. Here I was in blissful ignorance (not having seen any of the match) and thinking that all the usual suspects were at it again lambasting poor MGP unfairly, as they frequently do, but now having seen that blatant dive which is actually far worse than the one El Hadji Diouf did against us at Ewood in his Bolton days, and which caused such a furore on here at the time (myself included), I have to say that MGP should be ashamed of himself for that and the club needs to take action against him for blatant cheating and dragging the good name of BRFC through the mire. I am absolutely disgusted at him and never would have believed it possible from any Rovers player, let alone MGP who I have always regarded as a thoroughly honest player and a nice person who is above and beyond such underhand tactics.

I don't care how stuck we are for players at the moment; the club must act and fine and drop him for a spell.

Sad to say that everybody cheats nowadays Fife so get used to it. Even cricketers don't walk now until they see the umpires finger raised when they know they've 'nicked' the ball to slips.

Lets put a different slant on what constitutes cheating. We all know that Steve Gerrard has won more penalties than enough with his diving but how does one view Evra's actions when after obviously fouling Gerrard in the area yesterday his first reaction was to wave his hands about and pretend that he never made contact. Thats cheating too isn't it?

[Eddie]

1) Disagree. My response to that is that we have got out of "being down" fairly easily, so we can't have been that buggered and I think history backs that up. Edit: I'll clarify before you jump on that and get another run out of it as you manage to ignore the overall theme of a post, I think virtually any change of manager would have produced similar results.

2) Did I say we should have dominated them for 90 minutes? Nope. Simply said we didn't even play WELL for 90 minutes. We were terrible in the first 30 and it was only after poor defending/keeping from United allowed us to get a goal that we then went on to play very well. I was delighted with what I saw in the game, but to say refer to it as 90 minutes of great football is incorrect.

3)That's fine, you disagree with me obviously that a 4-4-2 would have looked better. That's your opinion and that's fine, but it certainly couldn't have looked worse than that.

4) Wigan? West Ham since their financial problems.

5) I'm flattered by your continued interest in me, but people may start talking soon.

[92er]

4) For the second season in a row our record against the top 10 is worrying. Last season we were terrible against our rivals for 6th and against the top 4 and this year we have lost virtually every game against the sides currently in the top 10 (Everton away being our only win? I haven't checked the top of the table after today). It's such a consistent problem that there is obviously something to it.

Didn't we get 4 draws against the top 4 last season?

[Eddie]

Not sure of the exact numbers, but that isn't particularly impressive for a side that finished 7th.

[92er]

Not sure of the exact numbers, but that isn't particularly impressive for a side that finished 7th.

Yes I agree that it isn't particularly impressive, but I do think it's respectable.

[robbo_rovers]

We did the double over Fulham, they're in the top 10.