[Archived] Wigan Preview

[67splitscreen]

lets hope the phone call has been made then,samba should start in defence and if things go wrong he can be pushed forward,letting derbyshire go is more and more ludicrous by the day,if he wanted first team football as was let out on loan,why was rsc kept when it was plian to see he did not want to behere

Waggy, that's a tough read, have you tried.

[Tom]

I wish people would get over this Derbyshire facination. He's not here and the fact is we replaced him with a much better player and if Derbs was still here then Diouf wouldn't be, what is so hard to understand?

Will be a tough game on sunday, Valencia is the main threat, nullify him and we should be Ok, scoring goals on the other hand may still prove elusive for us.

0-0 or 0-1 sadly

[Ozz]

Shame about Roberts.

My turn-

Robinson

Andrews Nelsen Samba Givet

Diouff Dunn Mokoena Warnock

Benni MGP

[SamTheShrew]

i think itl be:

robinson

ooijer samba nelsen givet

dunn mokoena warnock MGP

diouf Benni

[LeftWinger]

I was just looking on the skysports website at pass completion. Amazingly there are 5 teams with less succesful passes than Rovers. They are Stoke, Bolton, Hull, Aston Villa and Wigan. This suggests to me that Wigan like to hoof it forward too - so look forward to a hoof fest.

[Ray-Von]

Shame about Roberts.

My turn-

Robinson

Andrews Nelsen Samba Givet

Diouff Dunn Mokoena Warnock

Benni MGP

I agree with Pedersen up front, let's face it he can't do any worse than the "shift" he put in at Stoke.

[Manchester Blue]

No Roberts = no chance to me, especially as the only way i can see us winning is if he plays to Villanueva and McCarthy strenghts, and i can't see him doing that in a million years. It goes against everything he believes in.

[den]

No Roberts = no chance to me, especially as the only way i can see us winning is if he plays to Villanueva and McCarthy strenghts, and i can't see him doing that in a million years. It goes against everything he believes in.

Should I take it that you don't rate Sam as a manager MB?

[waggy]

I don't think it was that plain to see at the time Waggles. I think RSC was making the right noises abut putting a shift in - besides if he wants his move to an "ambitious" club then surely he has to bang a few in instead of being injury prone / injury riggled / completely knackered.

As for Derbs - general consensus would appear to be that your mate Sam wanted to bring in Diouff and Givet - and it would appear that in order to do so he had to balance the books.

I would have kept Derbs - offers us something different - in that he runs about and scores goals.

However if we had RSC, Roberts and Benni fit there wouldn't be a worry. A difficult decision was made that clearly hasn't paid off - yet.

i suggest he should have balanced the books by getting rid off the waster ROCKY

[Hughesy]

Waggy - to be fair at the time, we dint know Rocky was going to become Crocky. If Roberts had stayed fit then we probably would of got abit more from some games, and better performances and then we wouldnt even be talking about Derbs.

Things have gone against us, injuries have mounted up - GET OVER IT!!

Rovers to win on Sunday...... Waggy has turned into Slaggy, all he does is Slag off his so called beloved rovers. Get behind them!!

[T4E]

No Roberts = no chance to me

Agreed, he was vital for this game.

[Sparky Marky]

No Roberts = no chance to me

This is a sad sad state of affairs for Blackburn Rovers.

[Manchester Blue]

Should I take it that you don't rate Sam as a manager MB?

I've never rated him as a manager but he's clearly been succesful and i've always been prepared to give him a chance, I still am to an extent. His first so many games I thought he was excellent, said all the rights things got the team organised and playing some good stuff.

Whilst admittedly hampered with injuries in recent weeks we've seen a change towards percentage football and judging by all the things Sam has said this seems to be his preferred style. More frustratingly he doesn't seem to be able to implement plan B if A isn't working.

Some of the football, and the tactical decisions in recent weeks have defied belief. I'm willing to accept an awful style of football if it keeps us up but it seems we're going to be relying on Newcastle and Boro being even worse which is not a situation I imagined 3 weeks ago.

I'd love to be wrong but if we see a similar line up to last week then I see little chance that we'll create the chances that will win us the game, don't forget we created nothing against Stoke. I do think he may put Samba up front again which will create havoc but even then if they lump every single set piece at him then it's all too predictable and Wigan will be able to make plans to deal with it.

You were at Stoke Den, are you confident for Sunday?

[den]

I've never rated him as a manager but he's clearly been succesful and i've always been prepared to give him a chance, I still am to an extent. His first so many games I thought he was excellent, said all the rights things got the team organised and playing some good stuff.

Whilst admittedly hampered with injuries in recent weeks we've seen a change towards percentage football and judging by all the things Sam has said this seems to be his preferred style. More frustratingly he doesn't seem to be able to implement plan B if A isn't working.

Some of the football, and the tactical decisions in recent weeks have defied belief. I'm willing to accept an awful style of football if it keeps us up but it seems we're going to be relying on Newcastle and Boro being even worse which is not a situation I imagined 3 weeks ago.

I'd love to be wrong but if we see a similar line up to last week then I see little chance that we'll create the chances that will win us the game, don't forget we created nothing against Stoke. I do think he may put Samba up front again which will create havoc but even then if they lump every single set piece at him then it's all too predictable and Wigan will be able to make plans to deal with it.

You were at Stoke Den, are you confident for Sunday?

I'm never confident MB.

I agree with virtually everything you have said. I was in favour of Allardyce during the summer. I was never convinced that Ince had what it takes. - but it's best to tell it as you see it, and so far I aint impressed. I also get the feeling that Allardyce isn't enjoying what he's doing at Ewood. Don't know exactly why that is, maybe he's seen more than he expected as regards lack of funds etc? I don't know, but he doesn't seem to have the "presence" that he had at Bolton.

Like you and most others think, if we stay up he's done the job - no argument there. As for next season, hopefully he will be allowed a bit of freedom in the transfer market come summer and can give us a better idea of what he is about. If there are no funds available, well it doesn't matter who's the manager.

[Manc Rover]

I was just looking on the skysports website at pass completion. Amazingly there are 5 teams with less succesful passes than Rovers. They are Stoke, Bolton, Hull, Aston Villa and Wigan. This suggests to me that Wigan like to hoof it forward too - so look forward to a hoof fest.

I'm glad my season ticket is in the Blackburn End Upper Tier these days. It means that I get to see the ball at eye level all the time!

[philipl]

Lawro:

This is a tasty north-west derby and I expect plenty of tackling. Blackburn are having their hiccup at just the worst time. They need one more win to be safe and I think they will get it here.

Wigan's sale of Wilson Palacios and Emile Heskey, along with injuries, has seen them tail off. It's not that they are paying the price for selling the players as they have had a really good season.

Verdict: 2-0

We're doomed I tell you, doomed.

[Guest Vinjay606]

According to Lawrenson no team will score more than 2 goals this week. His predictions are so boring at least put in a few 3-2 and 4-3's now and again.

Probably a good thing George Graham isn't doing them. Probably predict 1-0 for every fixture.

[TimmyJimmy]

Rovers lose their share of games like everyone else but we seem to have a particular talent for losing the really important ones eg Forest, Liverpool, Birmingham and the rest of a very long list. I predicted a while back on here that Hull was the game that would keep us up and we won that one but now faced with this truly must win game I'm not so sure I was right. At the beginning of the season this was a gimme. Anything but now. I don't have any suggestions as to how we can line up differently to what we have been doing, we've no bloody players left. My best stab is to agree with Samba upfront with Carlos and Benny running round him. Peds on the bench to make way. Ooijer at the back to fill in. Then all the usual suspects in all the usual places. Am too nervous to predict a fate tempting Rovers win as I think it will be a tough tough match. But I've got bottle so its Rovers 2-0. See you at Ewood.

[tashor]

I work in Wigan. I attended the last 2 horror shows at the Stadium that used to be called the JJB. I am desperate to see us win this one - but how the hell is it a must win game when we need between 4 - 6 points from the next 5 games ( 15 points up from grabs )

[Stuart]

I work in Wigan. I attended the last 2 horror shows at the Stadium that used to be called the JJB. I am desperate to see us win this one - but how the hell is it a must win game when we need between 4 - 6 points from the next 5 games ( 15 points up from grabs )

You are right in one sense but we don't hold out much hope of points in the away games at City and Chelsea. Our best chance is to win two of our home games.

It's going to be nerve-wracking being the last game of the weekend and having to watch as the other results come in...

[philipl]

Tashor is correct.

Furthermore, we have the bonus of playing after all except one game in this round. So we will have the luxury of knowing the Baggies, Boro and Hull results and the opportunity to put the wind up Newcastle and Pompey (or ourselves if we blow it).

[Guest Vinjay606]

I forsee this ending in a draw but as I'm very confident of wins over WBA and Portsmouth (no reason why the club can't win or draw at COMS) it wouldn't feel like an absolute disaster for me.

Williams has referred to this as a must win game though and BFS should do the same. I'm not saying a draw would be a good result it's just my prediction.

[Stuart]

Ladies Day on Sky Sports FanZone commentary - including the Rovers-Wigan game

[Pugg]

Ladies Day on Sky Sports FanZone commentary - including the Rovers-Wigan game

It shouldn't be allowed.

[Lathund]

It shouldn't be allowed.

It's embarassingly poor as it is, don't see how they could make it any worse.