[Archived] Stoke City Preview 18th April

[Eddie]

Benni can't play up front on his own. He has none of the attributes- work rate, strenght, pace etc

His work ethic today was top notch. Chased many a lost cause. Not his fault he isn't suited to long balls being hit at him. You have to play the cards you are dealt and not the ones you'd like to have. Sure it would be great to play 4-5-1 and have Drogba or Anelka to do it, but we don't so let's find a formation that works.

[BiggusLaddus]

We really need Roberts or Roque to play next week as it really is "do or die" against Wigan.

One has a broken foot and the other just had knee surgery. Can't see either of them playing again before the Portsmouth game.

[Guest Kamy100]

Those of you who want Ince back, remember that we are in this mess because of the 17 games that he was incharge, Sam took charge with us 5 points of safety, we are still 3 points clear tonight, Sam has performed a minor miracle to get us to this position. Yes today was disappointing but we still live to fight another day, if it goes to the last game so be it, we can still get out of this, I would much rather be in our position then that of Boro, Newcastle or Hull.

[bubblerrovers]

Sat in Stoke in traffic embarassed to support a premiership team with not one quality player, we all knew sooner I'd later we'd go down unable too compete due to finances, I thought that might be in a couple of years but after today I believe that time is now. How can people moan about Sam. Look at the squad we have, it's pathetic. What was with pederson smug face walking off? Disgraceful

[Bobby G]

I dont think anyone wants Ince back.

Also, lets not forget this is our first loss in the league to anyone outside the top 5.

[broadsword]

Oh dear.

Not so much Blackburn Rovers as Blackburn Rubber Dinghy-Men.

Yes, we need to beat Wigan next week. But if ye dinnae score, ye dinnae win. Our midfield is a stinking fetid pus-coated turd swimming in a Bombay sewer, and our forward line is ... hold on, we don't *have* a forward line.

it is plausible that we won't win another game this season and will go down without a whimper. I don't think anyone can argue that we are worse off without Derbyshire or Gallagher (no matter what their respective merits).

We were very lucky to beat Spurs, and we will need similar luck to get 3 points from Wigan.

I'd certainly give a penny for the thoughts of the Trust if we do sink into the Coca-Cola. I can't see them coming up with sufficient lucre to get us back out of it.

What an absolute disaster this season has been, whatever the outcome I can't wait to see the back of it.

[onlyoneDuff]

The blame can't be put on the play of our holding midfielder (Axe) today. He did his job in front of the back four and was breaking up plays and winning headers. He's been through these battles before and that's why he's playing in front of the not yet impressive and half-injured Grella. The lack of any creative play from our other midfielders was the problem today. Andrews was invisible until his stray pass. Warnock failed to create anything and Pederson dissapeared after he hurt his knee. There is just no attack in the side right now and that is where improvement is needed. Maybe Villunueva should get a chance to start next, he at least seems to want to go forward and could be useful on free kicks.

[Eddie]

Those of you who want Ince back, remember that we are in this mess because of the 17 games that he was incharge, Sam took charge with us 5 points of safety, we are still 3 points clear tonight, Sam has performed a minor miracle to get us to this position. Yes today was disappointing but we still live to fight another day, if it goes to the last game so be it, we can still get out of this, I would much rather be in our position then that of Boro, Newcastle or Hull.

NOBODY WANTS INCE BACK. This all stems from my comment, it's not a group of people and it wasn't an actual call for the return of Paul Ince.

Allardyce has not "performed a minor miracle to get us to this position". Point to the miracle please? He took charge and we beat some terrible teams and have had some luck. There have been no managerial masterstrokes. No return to form of underperforming players. Things were going very badly under Ince and a new manager took charge and got a decent side to defend better and that's it. Didn't take a rocket science. Didn't take the best manager in the league. That same manager has now completely overcompensated for our defensive weakness by completely removing any attacking instinct from our side and reduced them to a long-ball, backs-to-the-wall outfit. Sure, you have to fight hard when you're down at the bottom and you need to "win-ugly", but that doesn't mean you approach every other game like a massive underdog and don't think that you can possibly string a few passes together.

Essentially Allardyce did the clean-up job that we needed to be done. He got the side organised over Christmas and that's what we needed an experienced manager in. That honeymoon period and added organisation meant that we picked up 10 points from 6 games, since then we have picked up 11 points in 10 games. Now this will get some objections, but just take away that very fortunate three points we picked up against Spurs (West Ham has been the only game where we deserved more points than we actually got, whereas there have been a few occasions where we've scraped a result) and 8 points in 10 really doesn't look pretty. He's not working miracles. The quality of this league has allowed us enough easier fixtures and meant that a ton of sides aren't picking up many points. We will need to win games, we've needed to win more games all along and Allardyce's tactics have never allowed us to do that.

From the moment we missed chances to win against woeful Sunderland, Ctiy and Boro sides over the Christmas period we were always going to need to pick up a decent number of wins and since then we've gone into games looking for draws (and against Liverpool and Arsenal being totally resigned to defeat). It has made no sense.

[Guest Kamy100]

Just looking at the fixtures for our "rivals".

Boro face a really hard run in:

Arsenal (away)

Man Utd (home)

Newcastle (away)

Aston Villa (home)

West Ham (away)

Newcastle, could get out of it:

Tottenham v Newcastle, 13:30

Newcastle v Portsmouth, 20:00

Liverpool v Newcastle, 13:30

Newcastle v Middlesbrough, 20:00

Newcastle v Fulham, 15:00

Aston Villa v Newcastle, 16:00

Hull are in big trouble:

Hull v Liverpool, 15:00

Aston Villa v Hull, 20:00

Hull v Stoke, 15:00

Bolton v Hull, 15:00

Hull v Man Utd, 16:00

Sunderland, if they fail to beat West Brom next week then they are also in big trouble:

West Brom v Sunderland, 15:00

Sunderland v Everton, 16:00

Bolton v Sunderland, 15:00

Portsmouth v Sunderland, 20:00

Sunderland v Chelsea, 16:00

I think with the number of difficult games that Boro and Hull have 4 points maybe enough.

[Doogs]

We should not be supprised by our position. This team is far worse than the side that went down in 99. Then we had the likes of Duff, Janson, and Dunn. If we do go down, tell me who is worth keeping for a promotion push. No one will convice me that that Darbyshire and Gally are worse than most of the dros currently playing. Also a very well said rule in football, and it has applied to Rovers in the past is. If you sell your best players, (Brad and Bentley) sooner or later you get relegated.

[Eddie]

I dont think anyone wants Ince back.

Also, lets not forget this is our first loss in the league to anyone outside the top 5.

Such a misleading statistic. We played a Villa side and played terribly just before there total drop off. We were very lucky not to lose to Spurs. We posed no threat against a severely weakened Everton side. We had a terrible run of injuries, but we've also played a lot of sides when you would "want to play them", either because of injuries, suspensions or fixture congestion. You can come up with stats to support most of things. That was a crap performance. We've been terrible for a few weeks. No statistics will convince me otherwise.

[Guest Kamy100]

Allardyce has not "performed a minor miracle to get us to this position". Point to the miracle please?

Look at the league table tonight, he has turned a -5 deficit (in terms of safety) to a +3, has had to cope without his star striker for the vast majority of those games.

That in my book is a minor miracle.

[RoverRich]

Just been looking at the struggling clubs' run-ins in comparison to ours. We have must win home games against Pompey and West Brom but our run-in does look slightly easier on paper than others with only Chelsea being an impossible game. Sunderland have to face West Brom and Pompey as well whilst Boro and Hull have stinkers except for a couple of games. Boro play Newcastle which is gonna be massive and Hull have to play Stoke which is as easy as it comes for them. Pompey still have to play Arsenal and Man Utd and with the number of six-pointers they have could still get dragged in so it is not over by a long shot. I still believe we can survive and stay in this league but it is gonna require better performances than we saw today. At the moment I would take 17th. Anything but relegation...

I see Kamy has beaten me too it and put it in a much nicer way... darn!

[beerwins]

NOBODY WANTS INCE BACK. This all stems from my comment, it's not a group of people and it wasn't an actual call for the return of Paul Ince.

Allardyce has not "performed a minor miracle to get us to this position". Point to the miracle please? He took charge and we beat some terrible teams and have had some luck. There have been no managerial masterstrokes. No return to form of underperforming players. Things were going very badly under Ince and a new manager took charge and got a decent side to defend better and that's it. Didn't take a rocket science. Didn't take the best manager in the league. That same manager has now completely overcompensated for our defensive weakness by completely removing any attacking instinct from our side and reduced them to a long-ball, backs-to-the-wall outfit. Sure, you have to fight hard when you're down at the bottom and you need to "win-ugly", but that doesn't mean you approach every other game like a massive underdog and don't think that you can possibly string a few passes together.

Essentially Allardyce did the clean-up job that we needed to be done. He got the side organised over Christmas and that's what we needed an experienced manager in. That honeymoon period and added organisation meant that we picked up 10 points from 6 games, since then we have picked up 11 points in 10 games. Now this will get some objections, but just take away that very fortunate three points we picked up against Spurs (West Ham has been the only game where we deserved more points than we actually got, whereas there have been a few occasions where we've scraped a result) and 8 points in 10 really doesn't look pretty. He's not working miracles. The quality of this league has allowed us enough easier fixtures and meant that a ton of sides aren't picking up many points. We will need to win games, we've needed to win more games all along and Allardyce's tactics have never allowed us to do that.

From the moment we missed chances to win against woeful Sunderland, Ctiy and Boro sides over the Christmas period we were always going to need to pick up a decent number of wins and since then we've gone into games looking for draws (and against Liverpool and Arsenal being totally resigned to defeat). It has made no sense.

Makes perfect sense to me , i see the exact same thing while we have injuries and its does get scrappy why start matches with intent to defend when we must win , and furthermore what you said about rovers winning when we actually ignored sams game plan is true also, what makes it worse for me is that the players dont like this kind of football and my oh my it shows.

[Billy Castell]

Every senior player other than Bert and Samba should be put on the transfer list. And Sam had better change his tactics.

[G Somerset Rover]

The only reason why I too think we'll stay up is because of Boro/Hull and Newcastle's run ins. Saying that Boro and Hull have ruffled the big boys feathers more than once this season so we're far, far from safe so we cannot rely on other teams.

I couldnt give a flying monkeys if we get a whole new squad this summer as the current bunch have shown their true worth this season. It seems as if they have the mentality that we're too good to go down already. I can assure them that after this season's performances that we are certainly not.

[Guest Kamy100]

Sam: Disappointing Day

[McClarky]

Let's not look on the bright side eh. This performance was a disgrace and totally in keeping with recent performances. Unless we are lucky we are going to be n big trouble here because we are dire and on the performances over the season, under BFS and Ince, amongst the worst 3 teams in the league. Whatever happens ovr the next 5 games I want this clown out and will not rest until we have a manager who is deserving of he title of Manager of Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

[G Somerset Rover]

Sam: Disappointing Day

Dissapointing? Try useless and clueless.

To me that confirms my earlier thought that Sam has no plan B right now. It's just keep it tight and grab a set piece when possible. We went for a point and the second Stoke scored we were screwed.

[Billy Castell]

Who then McClarky? Who will save us as the next manager?

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

I couldnt give a flying monkeys if we get a whole new squad this summer as the current bunch have shown their true worth this season.

Your right of course but replace the squad with what, pennies?

I fear we're stuck with some of these imposters in our blue 'n' white as you know whats coming from the Ewood money men come seasons end......we're skint.

Depressing times.

[Iceman]

No pride, no passion, no heart, no spirit, no enthusiasm, no midfield, no attacking quality, no points, but brilliant support from the fans. Thats summing up todays performance.

[TimmyJimmy]

Don't know what to say about this. Just got in, can't believe Grella didn't play. As I posted yesterday, this game was made for him. I said if he played we'd win, he didn't and we didn't. Moko has been poor for several games now, if he's all we've got then fair enough stick him on, but if Grellas on the bench he must be fit mustn't he. Doesn't compute, I'm stunned. Andrews over Grella, doesn't compute either. I really felt we would get 3 points today with the right line up. Just feel sick and angry. What a wasted opportunity to rescue the season and we serve up that team and that performance.

[broadsword]

Depressing times.

Indeed ... I bet our season ticket sales for next season will be appalling.

It's all doom and gloom down at Ewood Park. As well as the football being utter @#/?, of course.

[G Somerset Rover]

Your right of course but replace the squad with what, pennies?

I fear we're stuck with some of these imposters in our blue 'n' white as you know whats coming from the Ewood money men come seasons end......we're skint.

Depressing times.

Granted that our board will provide mere pennies. However this season has shown me that the 'imposters' as you rightly call them have to be moved on. Get whatever we can for them and move them on. This summer there needs to be one massive clear out of the whole club - whatever league we're in. Because the way things are shaping up, even if we do survive this season then you can bet your money that next season we'll be certs for relegation with this bunch.