[Archived] Man City Preview

[Jonnolad]

Just watched MOTD, the footage showed we had the majority of the game but guess what not even a single word on us or our seasons chances in the analysis.

Ridiculous.

Crazy isn't it - not even worthy of a word.

I spotted in the highlights a peach of a pass by Andrews to put Roberts through, which he then did......... nothing with. That was the problem today for us IMO - McCarthy and especially Roberts just aren't good at finding the back of the net for us. We created 19 chances with 9 on target. As a striker you really have to put some of those away. Off the ball they just look lazy as well. Watch Rooney or Tevez or even Berbatov in a match - even when they don't have the ball they are running and closing down and generally defending from the front - Roberts and McCarthy just seem to mope about instead.

I can't believe how much stick Andrews is getting incidentally - I thought he had a good first half, second half a couple of his passes went wayward. Is it a coincidence his play went downhill when it was in front of the Blackburn End though? Does he get more nervous in front of his home fans? Who knows.

I find it weird that those who say he is only been chosen out of injury driven deparation aren't then saying we should therefore be getting absolutely 110% behind the player. Since by their rationale he's only a back end squad player being called upon to play above his ability who therefore needs to know his fans are behind him. The truth of the matter is Allardyce actually rates Andrews though - it's why he wouldn't sell him to Fulham and why he gave him a new contract.

I notice Warnock was arguably to blame for both City's goals today - the first one where he slipped was unlucky, but the second one he just seemed to go to sleep marking the opposition, then he made some half hearted attempt to block the shot - I bet Ireland couldn't believe his luck. Some of Warnock's passes were a bit wayward in the first half as well. Does he get singled out for serious critisism? No chance. Imagine if Andrews had been to blame for both goals today like that - christ, we'd still be hearing about it months from now. Just like we were with Andrews being to blame for the Stoke goal last season - even though in fact he actually just gave the ball away in the opposition half and Stoke still had to get past the rest of our midfield and defence to score.

It seems to me that all our players aren't judged by the same yardstick.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Could be partly to do with the fact that when the second goal went in he went out of his way to run to the Riverside stand and throw his arms in the air like a tool? For the record, I'm not one for booing old players either, but going out of his way to wind up a portion of the crowd was a bit out of order.

The booing happened before the second goal.

Could stem back to the fact he scored for Liverpool against us soon after his transfer, remember him celebrating rather wildly then as well.

Quality player though - The Bellamy/Pongole season was the best football I've witnessed from Rovers since the erly 90's

[stuwilky]

Could be partly to do with the fact that when the second goal went in he went out of his way to run to the Riverside stand and throw his arms in the air like a tool? For the record, I'm not one for booing old players either, but going out of his way to wind up a portion of the crowd was a bit out of order.

How many people in the Blackburn End are psychic? To the tune of about 30 mins?

[Hughesy]

Loved some of the crunching challenges stevie Warnock put in during the 2nd half, shame he slipped for the 1st one.

[booth]

How many people in the Blackburn End are psychic? To the tune of about 30 mins?

Well it seems they are because he was a complete bell-end

Like I said, not that I agree with barracking ex-players but I also don't agree with ex-players going out of their way to incite the crowd. Fair enough if he'd just scored and those fans were right in front of him. But not to actually run in the other direction to get to the opposition fans, none of the other City players did it they were all celebrating in front of the Darwen End. Like I said above he was a...

Edit: I was in the Riverside and didn't notice any boo'ing from that section. Could be wrong as it was further down from where I sit. He did go overboard though and there was no need to pour salt in the wounds at that stage.

[stuwilky]

Well it seems they are because he was a complete bell-end

Cause and effect though isnt it.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Roberts and McCarthy just seem to mope about instead.

The new Cole & Yorke!

I notice Warnock was arguably to blame for both City's goals today - the first one where he slipped was unlucky, but the second one he just seemed to go to sleep marking the opposition, then he made some half hearted attempt to block the shot - I bet Ireland couldn't believe his luck. Some of Warnock's passes were a bit wayward in the first half as well. Does he get singled out for serious critisism? No chance. Imagine if Andrews had been to blame for both goals today like that - christ, we'd still be hearing about it months from now. Just like we were with Andrews being to blame for the Stoke goal last season - even though in fact he actually just gave the ball away in the opposition half and Stoke still had to get past the rest of our midfield and defence to score.

It seems to me that all our players aren't judged by the same yardstick.

Andrews is certainly being made a scapegoat. There are several explanations for this;

1) He is viewed as Ince's boy.

2) His pedigree/track record shows a very average, lower league journeyman who had one good season in League 2. Therefore clearly not a suitable signing for a Prem club.

3) He's crap.

To be fair Pedersen hads been possibly been given more stick over the last 2 seasons, prior to that however, were 2 good seasons - earning him some grace because we know he can do it.

Warnock has been a consistently good player since we signed him - yes he's made some mistakes but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

You have to earn supporters respect. Everyone is given a chance when they first come, it doesn't take long for poor players to stand out in the Prem.

Andrews has been consistently poor, bordering on embarassing at times. I do have some sympathy for the lad as he clearly wants to do well - he just doesn't have the ability to impose himself in the Prem.

[Scotty]

I wasn't hopeful when I heard the team news before the game. Our captain missing and a central midfield partnership of N'Zonzi and Andrews didn't inspire confidence, plus I was hoping we'd see Di Santo from the start. However, I have to say I left the ground feeling encouraged despite the result.

The first goal was always going to be a big one. If we'd gone in front the pressure would have really been on City and it would have been interesting to see how they'd have coped. They were also set up to play on the counter-attack, with pace from wide areas coming from Bellamy and Wright-Phillips, so it was a shame we were caught cold so early on. Especially as the goal originated from our attack.

We lost possession on the edge of the City area and a good long ball found SWP out wide on the right one-on-one against Warnock. Warnock tried to get back, but a clever turn left him on his arse, and SWP rolled a good ball to an unmarked Adebayor on the edge of the area who finished expertly.

I feared for us at that point and half expected City to take control and give us a bit of lesson. But no, we showed good character and resolve and started to claw our way back into the game. A sustained period of pressure around the mid-point of the first half saw us create a number of chances, but a mixture of poor finishing, good last-ditch defending, and excellent goalkeeping kept us out. City always looked a threat on the break but I don't remember them creating another worthwhile chance before half-time. Rovers, on the other hand, continued to press and were unlucky to go in at the break a goal down.

The second half was more even. City defended deep, counter-attacked quickly using Bellamy as an outlet, and we struggled to regain the dominance we had before the break. That said though, we still had chances with Roberts in particular forcing another decent save from Given. However, the game got more and more stretched as it went on, which suited City down to the ground, and sure enough they started to create chances and wrapped up the points in stoppage time with another counter-attack and a cool finish from Ireland.

Robinson made a couple of decent saves and was blameless for the goals - he really didn't have that much to do though. I didn't rate him for much of last season - I thought he only really played well in the last couple of months - but he was solid enough today.

I thought we defended quite well for the most part, which I guess is a strange thing to say when we've been beaten 2-0. But given the attacking talent City had at their disposal I thought we kept them pretty quiet for the most part. Givet and Samba played well, with the former in particular making a few outstanding tackles. Warnock was partly at fault for City's opening goal, but was excellent afterwards, and I was impressed by Jacobsen's debut. He looked solid defensively and was willing runner going forward. He gave the ball away a bit too much on occasions, but overall he looked a useful buy.

Despite my reservations before the game, I thought our midfield competed pretty well for the most part. N'Zonzi was good defensively. He mopped everything up in the air and made some excellent tackles on the ground as well. I didn't see too much from him going forward, he tends to keep things simple passing-wise, but he didn't give the ball away much either. Another good debut. And I thought Keith Andrews probably had his best game for us. I still don't think he's good enough, if we have genuine ambitions to finish in the top half of the table we will need better than him, but he did ok and certainly didn't look out of place like he did for much of last season.

Out wide Pedersen also had a good game and was heavily involved in most of our best work. Maybe, just maybe, he's realised that he's got to perform this season or he'll be replaced. I thought Diouf was a little disappointing on the other flank. He did some good things, but wasn't involved enough for me and needs to do more to justify his place. Gallagher came on midway into the second half for Andrews and played a decent little cameo in central midfield. He's all good touch and technique, and I wonder if that's a position he could be better suited to rather than as an out-and-out attacker.

Up front Roberts and McCarthy worked hard, linked well occasionally, but were let down by poor finishing when it really mattered. I'd have liked to have seen Di Santo earlier as, when he did eventually come on, he looked quick and lively.

All in all it was a good performance despite the scoreline. There was little evidence of the "hoofball" approach that many feared this season - in fact at times we played some good stuff on the ground - and overall we mixed up the long and short ball stuff pretty well. We looked a threat at set-pieces, as we should given the height we now have in the team, but I thought City defended them very well. I thought we showed enough to suggest that we'll beat many of the teams "in and around us" this season, and we may even surprise one or two of the big boys from time to time. We're still lacking a bit in certain areas - we'll need a better central midfield and forward line than we had today if we really want to achieve anything - but there were more positives than negatives today.

[modes98]

Andrews is certainly being made a scapegoat. There are several explanations for this

Nope there is 1 simple explanation for it. He was poor today.

I'm not saying he hasn't been better in the past but on todays performance he was awful.

Everything that went to him came out slower and badly placed. Countless times he gave away the ball and it ended up with him being replaced by Gally!!! N'Zonzi looked shattered by 65mins but Sam would rather leave him on than Andrews. Says it all. The sooner we have Dunn/Grella/Reid (or if we can sign someone) the better. Creativity is seriously lacking!

[Hughesy]

Nope there is 1 simple explanation for it. He was poor today.

I'm not saying he hasn't been better in the past but on todays performance he was awful.

Everything that went to him came out slower and badly placed. Countless times he gave away the ball and it ended up with him being replaced by Gally!!! N'Zonzi looked shattered by 65mins but Sam would rather leave him on than Andrews. Says it all. The sooner we have Dunn/Grella/Reid (or if we can sign someone) the better. Creativity is seriously lacking!

Pretty much the key point for me too! Grella made the bench today, so shouldnt be long - Reid isnt far off either.

Im happy with todays performance, suprised how well we stood up to them to be honest and very happy with NZonzi & Jacobsens debuts.

[thenodrog]

Please.

By going to the effort of trying to defend his spectacular failure at Newcastle I can only assume that you ARE in fact Sam Allardyce.

He might not have hit the top six but he didn't fail at NUFC you thick buggger. His points total is testament to that. Allardyce's undoing was the timing of his appointment. Shepherd appointed him and left very soon afterwards, from then on his card was marked by the clown Mike Ashley. Allardyce was on a hiding to nothing.

[Andy3809]

What else can you do but play long ball football when you have Andrews and N'Zonzi in midfield?

Some people don't have a clue.

Surely this is the point he's making. Why are we playing two championship standard midfielders? How long does it take to rectify a problem that has existed for the last few years? If we can't keep our midfielders fit or don't have the quality then sort it! Sell Warnock (who without blue and white specs on is average at best) and bring somebody in.

All this talk of 'it's ok that we got beat as man city have spent millions' is really cheesing me off.

Such a negative defeatist attitude. 'what else can you do when' should be 'why are we having to result to'.

I'd suggest that your the one who doesn't have a clue.

All in all a decent performance but our weaknesses are there for all to see. I'm happy the forwards we now have at the club will fire but my god we need a midfielder!

[thenodrog]

I had a quick look around the ground, hardly a City fan in the home areas from what I could see.

Mate of mine was livid at half time when I spoke to him in the concourse. Originally from Bury he's a long time Rovers fan and regular attendee. He got 3 tickets for himself his 61 year old lifelong pal and his son (both City fans from Bury) in the JW upper. City scored and though they didn't even get to their feet some @#/? complained about them and they were chucked out by the stewards. It's crap isn't it?

By way of comparison 4 of us went to Anfield last year but one on somebody elses bundle of tickets. We sat in a line about 10 rows behind the dug-outs, never hid the fact that we were BRFC fans but never made fools of ourselves either. Not a hint of bother and with a bit of friendly banter to boot. Thats how it should be.

Two years ago I went to the Bolton match at the Reebok on the invitation of an old school mate and sat with him in the Home end. Yet again not a hint of bother. And thats how it should be too.

[Miker]

For god's sake, spencey7, I hope someone smacks you right in the face or has done so in the past many, many times. They should make a rule on this board that if you are a complete tool and spend all your time slandering the team you should get banned or be exposed to a severe beating. What a ######.

Last night, we succumbed to the demons of last season in the first 3 minutes before regaining our concentration and dominating the game in the first half. The entire team was up for it and playing well, they weren't playing the 'ugly' football people were accusing them of doing, they shuffled it around and went along the ground and put in some crosses as well. There were some negatives and I'll go over these first.

Andrews was entirely anonymous this game and looked more inexperienced than N'zonzi in midfield. Gallagher who replaced him did a fantastic job, his passing was superb and he was doing very well in linking up play.

Diouf didn't do badly, but he was pretty much invisible for the whole game as well, although to be fair Hoilett didn't show much class when he replaced him.

Roberts and McCarthy were working very hard and creating chances, it's a shame they were unable to score, Roberts in particular, but I wouldn't tear up that partnership just yet. Give them another chance because they can work well together and they CAN score. No one was complaining last sesason after Sam took over and they were scoring 3 goals a game between the two of them...

Di Santo was nowhere to be seen, more invisible than Andrews.

Now the good stuff:

The back four was solid, the only faults you could really find in their play was in the first 3 minutes and towards the end when we were just pushing for an equaliser.

Givet - This guy can turn into a first class defender, I see him developing and getting the reputation of one of the best defenders in the league. Great tackles, great commitment, he was everywhere today doing his best to keep City away from the goal.

Samba - He wasn't so noticeable as Givet in defence, but he still put in the crucial challenges when it mattered and for once was truly a danger at set pieces each time. Should've scored that header in the first half...

Warnock - Despite the completely absurd critics of him on here when we conceded the first goal, Warnock was one of the best players on the pitch. He is without doubt in my mind, one of the best, if not THE best, slide tacklers in the league and he performed his defensive duties without many faults. He was also making some great runs down the left side and if people think we should sell him then you are just absolute fools and have no clue about the game.

Jacobsen - Very impressed on his debut, solid defensively, great crosses to our strikers and quick enough to be a great full back. He made a few mistakes towards the end, but nothing too major, I feel safe this season with these 4 as our back line. Not to mention that we have options in Nelsen and later Emerton as well.

Pedersen - Set pieces were shocking last night, but he was superb defensively and in his movement. In the first half his challenges in the air showed that he was hungry for a goal and driven to do well for the club. Good on him for getting the Man of the Match award, I will expect him to do well for us this season.

N'zonzi - He's 20, comes from the French 2nd division, and was winning balls off Robinho with relative ease. Definitely has potential, didn't do much wrong all game, whether he's ready for the first team yet remains to be seen. I'm sure he won't last long playing every game, but he's definitely a good option for us in midfield. I was a bit concerned with him because in pre-season everyone was talking about him heading it into random directions and not really knowing what he was doing, but all his passes were spot on last night and he didn't look lost whatsoever. Good on him!

Robinson - Was good as before, not much to say about him, he realistically didn't have that much to do. I think in the first half we had something like 6 shots on goal, whereas city only had 1.

Overall, I was very happy with the display. Not an easy game against City who are going to be challenging the top 4 this season. We held our own against a very strong team and although our performance in the second half was much poorer compared to the first half, we can be pleased with the shape of the team and the commitment of the team going into our next fixture.

[thenodrog]

City fans:

Warnock - Was mixed, some brilliant challenges but his slip for their first was poor.

A slip is not poor play. It's the result of his blades not gripping the turf well enough when he was trying to stop and turn. Poor play was Andrews weakly giving the ball away 10 seconds earlier. How the hell we spewed the option of getting 3m for him from Fulham 2 months ago beggars belief.

Just home now, i've defended Andrews in the past

? For what reason exactly?

[Gav]

Could be partly to do with the fact that when the second goal went in he went out of his way to run to the Riverside stand and throw his arms in the air like a tool?

It was 1-0 at the time.

[thenodrog]

Good player and left on good terms for me, didn’t deserve the booing.

He smiled at the crowd and got a nice ripple of applause from people who share your sentiments to make up for it in fairness.

[Miker]

Surely this is the point he's making. Why are we playing two championship standard midfielders? How long does it take to rectify a problem that has existed for the last few years? If we can't keep our midfielders fit or don't have the quality then sort it! Sell Warnock (who without blue and white specs on is average at best) and bring somebody in.

All this talk of 'it's ok that we got beat as man city have spent millions' is really cheesing me off.

Such a negative defeatist attitude. 'what else can you do when' should be 'why are we having to result to'.

I'd suggest that your the one who doesn't have a clue.

All in all a decent performance but our weaknesses are there for all to see. I'm happy the forwards we now have at the club will fire but my god we need a midfielder!

Easier said than done, I'm pretty sure Sam said that he'll only bring in players that are better than what's already at the club. I don't think we can find or afford midfielders any better than what we have. Our midfield didn't do poorly this game anyway, so I don't see what your point is? N'zonzi looked really good in there anyway, if he can challenge City's multi-million dollar players with confidence and ease then I'm quite happy with that. Grella, Reid and Emerton are on their way back as well.

It's not being negative if you say that the team tried their best, but weren't able to convert their chances to get back into the game. That's just being realistic. We looked in complete disarray in the first 3 minutes, but looked very good afterwards. I'm not going to yell 'sack the team' for a poor 3 minutes. It's only the first game of the season...

To compare: Burnley lost 2-0 to a poor Stoke team, Aston Villa lost 2-0 to a weak Wigan team and Everton were thumped 6-1 by Arsenal. I'm not saying that makes our loss ok, but it doesn't call for you, or anyone, to have a cry about the team.

[Brfcrule1]

I agree with the shape of the team looked good but for us to be a success we need Kalinic in there. I have to say I thought the number 9 was supposed to be our most prolific striker so why give it to JR?. I do feel he should have tested the keeper with that skied effort and wasted countless opportunities. I just feel it is time we sold. I hope I don't have the same nightmares after the game next week like last year when he missed that open goal against the black cats. Btw Andrews was shocking today will be surprised if he survives the season too many misplaced passes!. though there were positives thought Jacobsen's crossing was not bad NZonzi I thought did very well.

p.s. slightly off topic JW if you read these boards please push the boat out for Selgado and give us one final push for a good season.

[thenodrog]

and why he was applauded

Given shouldn't have been applauded! He screwed us over when he left for NUFC if my memory serves me correctly. He wouldn't re-sign a new contract, basically walked away from the club and was valued at a paltry 1m by some transfer tribunal or other.

Just watched MOTD, the footage showed we had the majority of the game but guess what not even a single word on us or our seasons chances in the analysis.

Ridiculous.

Predictable is a more accurate description.

[mattyc2422]

The negativity here is amazing. I think people are being a bit dramatic with some week 1 blues. Sure, the finishing wasn't the best, but I reckon we played a significantly more attractive and attacking brand of football that resulted in alot of opportunities that wouldn't have been there last year. Get Kalinic and Dunn in there and we will be much more dangerous.

Nelsen, Emerton, Dunn, Grella, Reid, Elrio, Kalinic are all options to come back into the team over the coming weeks. Makes it look much healthier.

[thenodrog]

Very odd to me the way we ran out of steam just as the downpour came. We'd matched City before that but lost our way as the rain fell. Roberts in particular looked heavy legged in the final 30 mins, his pace and power is in danger of becoming just power. I must say that fitness does seem a problem with more than one or two of the squad.

I'd felt that City were there to be bossed as the only player out of the back 4 able to tackle was Barry. There's no grittiness in the rest at all. I'm fairly confident that if we'd had any 2 of Dunny, Grella and Bert available that we'd have had something from the game.

[dazmaz]

Why am I "obviously a troll"?? I expect better from my team!

When this dross was on offer last season it was all about "giving Sam time" and "waiting until he got his players" - well he has. And it's still pitiful.

There was no difference to our approach to that game than to all the desperate scraps from the moment Allardyce was appointed.

I'm going to have to take issue with this too... In that game City had FAR more chances than we did - they moved the ball quickly and effectively, and took on players at the right times to carve out openings.

Our version of "creating chances" involves lumping the ball "into the mixer" and have it bumbling around in the hope that a body in blue and white gets their toe on it. At NO stage during that match did we create space for goalscoring opportunities, it was all about percentages. Head tennis until the ball drops to someone like...Jason Roberts.

This is Allardyce's Blackburn.

P.S. Not sure what Ste B is on about, I saw the game from start to finish today. Even the three minutes we were level.

what game where you watching?? if we had someone who could put the ball in the net we would of won 3 or even 4 -1... against a team thats cost nearly a quarter of a billion!! sorry but you really are a *insert insult of your choice here*

we played very well today, only problem is we cant put the chances we have in the back of the net unlike city. i dont agree with blaming a goal on a player, at the end of the day they are only human and everyone makes mistakes no matter how good you are (try taking yourself away from the seat and put yourself in the players boots, there is so much going on and so much you have to do in a split second)

now stop with all the doom and gloom, we still have another 37 games to play. no need to panic and forcast dooms day yet

[Dan]

Having come back from the game and having sat with a Citeh fan (my girlfriend couldn't make it, so I gave her ticket to a Citeh supporting mate). All my mate could say is how bad our long ball approach was. I tried to play it down saying we had injuries etc, but it really was bad. I've no idea how Pedersen got MOM. What did he or any of our midfielders actually do? Maybe playing in a totally @#/? midfield makes him look above average, but all I saw was his usual inability to cross,pass or shoot.

Roberts is useless. full stop. He can't score. if he were a horse, he'd have been sent to the glue factory before we even signed him. Benni, shows flashes of skill, but not much. Still seems to be offside every time the ball gets played to him

The midfield was a non entity. Andrews neither seemed to defend or attack for most the game, I reckon an under 15 would be more effective in midfield.

Diouf is past it, though he did a bit better than usual. I don't remeber seeing Nzonzi winning a header since he was jumping half an hour too early for EVERY single header. Maybe gravity is different in murder central south africa?

We'll stay up, but my £38 was well wasted today on seeing us become the new Bolton, except without the class upfront. I'll probably get slated for this post, but what the heck

. Not only are we ######, we are a long ball, boring boring ###### team.

The defence played well I though, though their long balls up to 'strikers' weren't so good.

Citeh didn't get out of second gear. It is very annoying to see Sam make out that we were unlucky. We could have played our aimless balls into the box all day and we'd have never have scored. It was ###### awful to watch, all we did was play hopefull(hopeless) balls into the 'mixer' in hope something would fall to our useless """"strike force"""". Poor old Franco, I can't see him getting much usefull experience with us, unless Chelsea are going to resort to hit and hope football. We made Wimbledon look like Sexy football today.

[spencey7]

My my, the insults just keep on coming! I've been called a "pillock", a "thick buggger", a good few "######"'s (whatever they may be) and even had someone hoping I've been physically assaulted! Anything to say moderators? (I doubt it.)

In my opinion - we were completely out of our depth yesterday, and didn't deserve anything from the game. In my opinion that's just realism. Watch the Match of the Day highlights again, and contrast how many actual "highlight-worthy" chances we had compared to City. They also had more possession of the ball, although granted retention has never been a priority with Allardyce teams. (And before anyone asks, I did see the whole game.)

Jason Roberts and Keith Andrews were laughable, and I only noticed Diouf because of his consistently horrific set pieces. But the defence looked reasonably solid despite lacking Nelsen's organisation, and Pedersen was our best player by a country mile.

My problem is not with the players - but the approach. Nothing has changed from last season. It's clear for all to see that we're in dire need of a central-midfield player (or two) but Allardyce has done nothing to address it in eight months. I agree that N'zonzi absolutely shows potential - but he simply can't be expected to compete at this level yet, he's at least a year away from that. The stall is set out the same way as it was in January - to scrap for points, "win ugly" and survive at all costs. When Allardyce was appointed and I (amongst many others) raised these concerns about the future of our club I was told to "give him time" and to "judge if we're playing hoofball at the start of the new season". Well lo and behold - Samba played up front yesterday.

I desperately hope to be proven wrong, and that our style has evolved for this season. On the evidence of yesterday however, it has not.