[Archived] Man City Preview

[Dan]

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.

For what is is worth I agree( see above post) I was embarrassed today. We are really awfull. If todays match was a sign of thibgs to come, then I think I'd rather not bother. Paying good money to watch hoofball, no thanks. I thought Our Ashley was the worst footballer ever to grace our beloved club in the Premiership years, but Andrews has trully taken his place in that, closely followed by Roberts. Yes he 'puts himself about a bit' but he is total @#/?. Jason Lee, was better than him........

[AggyBlue]

For what is is worth I agree( see above post) I was embarrassed today. We are really awfull.

Get a grip.

You must spend too much time watching ManU and le Arse on telly.

[Dan]

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

Did you go today? I think I watched a different game. We were embarrassing. Stoke play better football than we do. We are a very poor mans Bolton. It was ALL hopefull half chances created by belting the ball forward. If you think this is good football then good on you, but I've seen more skill in Sunday ###### up football. Our club is dying, no money and no skill. KI'm dreading playing the inbreds knuckle draggers, because on yesterdays showing they'll play us off the park.

[Dan]

Get a grip.

You must spend too much time watching ManU and le Arse on telly.

I have a grip. No need for the Elitist remarks, I most likely watch as much if not more Rovers than you do. I'm not expecting us to play Barcelona football. The football was bloody awful. Everytime we had the ball it was aimed to no one in particular in a long ball/ pass fashion. For 98% of the match we couldn't string more than 2 or 3 passes together. Andrews, to Pedersen, WACK, throw in. Givet to Warnnock WACK, Given claims. Nzonzi to Andrews, to Pedersen, to Warock, wow three passes, HOOF to Given/Dunne.

We can't do the basics and our midfield is Championship-ish quality. Seriously, which of our players would Newcastle want in their team other than our defence and Goalie?

[Dan]

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.

You really didn't see the match did you? There was nothing attractive about our football. It was ugly and awful.

[AggyBlue]

You really didn't see the match did you? There was nothing attractive about our football. It was ugly and awful.

You've posted your opinion once, why do you feel the need to keep posting it over and over?

In different threads too, I see.

[Dan]

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!

Andrews is as bad as the 'hype'. He is useless and a waste of wages, why we didn't snap Fulhams hand off I'll never know. There is a reason no Prem club or even Championship club ever had an interest in signing him. Can't fault his effort, but he is a billion miles away from even average at this level, he is as bad a player as Ince is a manager, Mark Atkins, seriously looked like Pele compared with him. Infact Atkins would be a better option even now, maybe he'd come out of retirement for us? hehe

You've posted your opinion once, why do you feel the need to keep posting it over and over?

In different threads too, I see.

Pardon? Only this thread, I think you'll find. I should have used the multi quote thingy, I'm not too sure how to do that though! I haven't posted much in my many years here so I'm sure you'll forgive my posting?!

If a mod could merge my posts, I'd be grateful

[Rover Down Under]

Well I pretty much agree with most people here, dissappointing result, not reflective of the game but optimistic about what I saw. N'Zonzi is a very exciting proposition, he really can head the ball and not aimlessly either, he broke up a lot of aerial threats. Jacobsen was pretty good too, very good diagonal crosser of the ball. Overall very happy with our new signings on show yesterday.

At some point in the 1st half the cameras showed some Citeh fans, one of whom was taking a swig of something from a bottle which he then slipped back to his mate then another bloke nearby just fell backwards and everyone just stared at him...classic

I don't know why everyone is on about getting a creative midfielder, honestly there are very few of them out there. We were blessed to have Tugay for so long but really how many teams outside the top 4 actually have one? Cahill is about the only one to spring to mind and he ain't THAT creative. All the "creative" midfielders all belong to the Big 4, we can't afford them let alone tempt them to come to Ewood. We are just very unlucky with injuries at the moment and if Salgado comes I reckon Emerton will play midfield where he absolutely excels and will be the creative person we need. When all are back we should be fine, Emo, Reid, Grella, Dunn, the impressive N'Zonzi, Andrews (who should only be a sub IMO - a please remember his goals last season people, he is not that bad, just not Prem starting quality) plus a few kids coming through - as I said we are just in a very bad injury situation for that position at the moment.

And finally - Spencey - I find your choice of avatar to be the height of artistic irony when you talk of "us" watching the game with blinkers on

[Alan75]

Please do, that way I can continue to discuss Blackburn Rovers with the fans on this site who identify our problems, appreciate passing football and expect better from the team, rather than just get constantly, personally insulted by people like you.

Enjoy this season with your blinkers on - maybe you'll see what we're on about come Christmas.

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.

I wouldnt normally comment, but I'm amazed that you were able to see the whole of the game, covered by tv cameras, whilst contributing to the message board during the game.

15.14 - Does Jason Roberts' constant grinning like an idiot annoy anyone else?

15.26 - Roberts again living up to the hype. Is there a worse striker in the Premier League? I can't think of one. Why is Diouf ever allowed to take a set piece?

16.22 - The gulf in technique between the two teams is huge. Even things as basic as first touches. We are playing ugly...

16.25 - For the attention of Mr J. Roberts - There's no point making being built like a human battering ram the focal point of your game if you're going to pussy out of every challenge.

16.46 - I thought the days of Samba the Striker were consigned to last season? Hideous.

16.51 - Absolutely brilliant from Ireland. Embarassing from us. Well and truly beaten by a far better team.

People may take more notice of your posts, if you at least attended the game or delayed your derogatory remarks until after the watershed.

[RovertheHill]

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.

You're like a red top newspaper spinning things to suit your agenda. You make it sound like Samba was our centre forward yesterday. He went up front near to the end of the game when we were chasing it. Something he did when Saint Mark was manager as well. But that doesn't suit your anti-Allardyce stance does it? As for your assertion about our style evolving you are wrong. It has evolved and is nowhere near as bad as you make out. However you simply will not see any positives whatsoever. You'll be complaining when we win too I'm willing to bet.

[47er]

Spency 7 writes his comments before the game I reckon. We had 51% of the play and pretty effective much of it was too. They had the class players which only real money can buy. If Adebayor was on our side and he'd been on the end of just some of the chances we created we would have won that game. So much to enthuse about-------terrific performance from Givet in his best position, encouraging performances from Jacobsen and N'Zonzi and ,at last, a return to form from Pedersen. We lost because we didn't take our chances, Given was on form and we didn't have a central mid-fielder who could do what Tugay used to.

But have Dunn in for Andrews, play our new strike force and we will give plenty of sides a run for their money. For all those who continue to moan at Allardyce----------he's our manager for the foreseeable future------------------get over it!

[Ricky]

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.

? For what reason exactly?

I always wanted to give him a chanc and felt he was treted harshly last season drog. I was at West Brom away when he scored the late goal and had a decent game in my opinion, even then he was slated by many.

Yesterday however, particularly in the second half I thought he was shocking. I didnt really notice him in the first half which isnt a bad thing, he went about his job quietly and didnt put a foot wrong, second half was a different story.

He broke up every attack, unfortunately I'm not talking about City's attacks, I'm talking about ours!!!!

[RovertheHill]

Mark Hughes endears himself to Everton fans

"David feels a little bit aggrieved with the situation. You always are when a big club comes and tries to acquire your better players. The situation is fluid but we respect the final decision is down to Everton. He is their player."

I sat there yesterday listening to the Rovers fans singing "There's only one Jack Walker" and I wondered if those City fans enjoying their new-found wealth would be chanting "There's only one Sheikh Al-Maktoud*" nearly 10 years after he's gone. I somehow doubt it.

*No idea if that's the right name?

[tcj_jones]

15.14 - Does Jason Roberts' constant grinning like an idiot annoy anyone else?

Sorry, Alan but I'm afraid I do have to agree with him here. It's even more annoying when he does it after, predictably, not getting a free kick for suddenly spasming and falling over EVERY SINGLE TIME the ball is in the air, despite being 6ft + and built like a mountain.

Just had to say that.

[Stuart]

Sorry, Alan but I'm afraid I do have to agree with him here. It's even more annoying when he does it after, predictably, not getting a free kick for suddenly spasming and falling over EVERY SINGLE TIME the ball is in the air, despite being 6ft + and built like a mountain.

Just had to say that.

I know what you mean but I have to wonder if he's under instructions to try to win free kicks. Sam sees set-pieces as a our best means to score goals.

However, firstly, he can't do it very convincingly (one in particularly yesterday was laughable bad - probably the one your referring to) and secondly we can't seem to take free kicks - either directly on goal or as an assist. I imagine Sam wants Pedersen and Diouf to send free kicks into the box for Samba or one of our other taller players to score or knock down. I think our best set play yesterday was when Benni had a shot on goal - at least he managed to clear the wall!

[brfcs5359]

Everyone I spoke too was pleased with today except the result of course. Great performances form Gamst, Givet & Robinson (well one world class save was all he had to do). Solid performances from Warnock, Samba, Diouf, Jackobsen. Average from Adrews and McCarthy was passable though he would have scored once or twice if he still had that extra yard he had when he first came. Roberts was Roberts. Awful. The difference between scoring and going on to win and not scoring and watching City punish us.

City were a team of wannabe Galaticos. Prima donna's not willing to put the work in. Robinho, the goal creator eventually being embarrassingly substituted. Adebayor laboured around the pitch but took his goal well. Bellamy didn't really seek the ball and Ireland was awful.

City tried to be good without the effort and spent virtually all the game defending, often desperately. Barry had a poor game in possession. I like him but on this performance not even good enough to get on the plane to South Africa next summer. What he did was track back relentlessly and single handily almost thwarted by blocks, tackles, headers our laboured and cumbersome attack.

With Emerton, Reid, Grella, Dunn all back in full training, Kalinic and Di Santos to come in from the start plus Nelsen, arguably 7 starters for Rovers, things look very positive in Kalinic can stick the ball in the back of the onion bag.

Robinson 9 . No chance with goals. Other than that 1 world class save and safe handling on a couple of crosses.

Jacobson 6 . Much improved. No risk player who plays more with his head than his feet.

Warnock 7 . Combative leader. Snuffed out Shaun Wright Philips easily (who is nowhere near good enough for England OTP0

Givet 9 . Had Adebayor in his pocket. Class. Showed leadership qualities organising the defence.

Samba 7 . Started slowly sloppily with those long legs and ambition to get the ball down and play. Got into the groove and snuffed City out after that.

Pederson 9 . What can you say? Ran more than any player on the pitch. Hardly gave the ball away. Got in good positions and made things happen. Like Barry was always there for the defence tracking back lost causes. Looked like a midfielder and not the useless winger we have seen over the last couple of years. This wasn't just a good game for Gamst, this was a totally renewed confident different player.

Andrews 5 . Worked hard. Sloppy at times. Easy ride against Ireland and a defensively too deep Barry. Was still ineffective. Didn't do much wrong or right.

N'zonzi 7 . Worked hard. Just think Patrick Viera aged 17 (N'zonzi is 19 tho). No further description required.

Diouf 6 . One of Diouf's better games. Worked exceptionally hard and linked up well with everyone. Even put in a coupe of crosses. No pace and little end product though. Good team player.

McCarthy 6 . Battled hard, good touch but he's lost not a yard but 5 yards on 3 seasons ago. Chances he would have buried then he is becoming too slow to take. Tried this best.

Roberts 2 . Roberts was Roberts. The guy who misses crucial opportunities and takes teams down. If Bellamy or Adebayor or Tevez had had the positions he found himself in City would have won comfortably.

Subs

Gallagher 7 . Had 15 minutes. Came on in CM. Got himself about including two great tackles (one a booking). Shouting organising tracking back. Impressive on the usual Gallagher. BFS with his magic? Never gave the ball away IIRC tight in possession, usual great touch. This boy could be a great player?? (and how many times have fans and managers said that!)

Di Santos 6 - Chased the ball down a lot faster unlike BM and JR. Never fell for him so hard to judge.

[Exiled_Rover]

Ha, MOTD was terrible as ever. Did City share the park with another team yesterday afternoon? If I were to go off the 'analysis' I'd struggle to argue that they had.

[philipl]

Had a chance to sleep on this one and reflect on what I was able to see of the game.

When I saw the line-ups, I thought we would get murdered- Hughes certainly went for pace with Adebayor, Bellamy, SWP and Robinho. But truth to tell, City didn't really play effectively and only occasionally stretched the game. Unfortunately, once was in the third minute and so they never really felt under pressure to get a result after that- they always had their noses in front.

Rovers of course were missing six players whom when fit and on form would be automatic picks- Nelsen, Dunn, Bert, Reid, Grella and Kalinic. Probably Kalinic was the killer absentee as from what I have seen, whilst he might not score every chance, a very high proportion of chances are on target. Which is something that would have been helpful when we were dominating in the first half.

Givet was immense and I thought Jacobsen handled himself very well given the raw pace he was facing. Warnock worried me- less for the first goal which looked like it could have been a genuine slip but ALL City's threats in the second half came through having a man over in our left back slot. Including Ireland who collected the ball unmarked inside our area.

Nzonzi is an exciting prospect. That was as good a debut as anyone could have asked for from the 20 year old and the kid has really come on even from the friendly at Leeds. My expectations of Andrews are rock bottom so I was not disappointed and it is true he slotted some good passes amongst all the usual dross. Good to see MGP doing better but Diouf was rather hit and miss but I do like the way he can control a ball.

Benni I think/hope just needs a convincing partner up front. Di Santo I think/hope just needs a Prem goal very quickly to get him going. At present that must be weighing on his mind.

I would be pretty worried if I were an Everton or Villa fan this morning. I am looking at our game at Sunderland with apprehension though- I guess West Ham at home is going to be one where we need to lay the West Ham jinx to rest emphatically.

[Stuart]

Ha, MOTD was terrible as ever. Did City share the park with another team yesterday afternoon? If I were to go off the 'analysis' I'd struggle to argue that they had.

Agreed - even the highlights showed us more than holding our own but the master analyists couldn't give us any credit. I doubt we'll ever get any as long as Shearer is still sat there.

[tcj_jones]

I know what you mean but I have to wonder if he's under instructions to try to win free kicks. Sam sees set-pieces as a our best means to score goals.

However, firstly, he can't do it very convincingly (one in particularly yesterday was laughable bad - probably the one your referring to) and secondly we can't seem to take free kicks - either directly on goal or as an assist. I imagine Sam wants Pedersen and Diouf to send free kicks into the box for Samba or one of our other taller players to score or knock down. I think our best set play yesterday was when Benni had a shot on goal - at least he managed to clear the wall!

I dunno, Jisty - Roberts has been doing this his whole career and certainly did it consistently under Hughes. It's so frustrating - if he actually tried to win the ball in the air, he probably would! I haven't watched the game yet - I will do later with my lunch - so I dunno about the one you're referring to just yet.

Funnily enough, as the goals were coming in on SSN, the pundit watching our game mentioned that our set pieces were actually proving very effective, but the City defence was just coping with them very well. I was surprised to hear that, I must admit, as we haven't been able to take set pieces or defend them for four seasons.

[S15]

Robinson 9 . No chance with goals. Other than that 1 world class save and safe handling on a couple of crosses.

Jacobson 6 . Much improved. No risk player who plays more with his head than his feet.

Warnock 7 . Combative leader. Snuffed out Shaun Wright Philips easily (who is nowhere near good enough for England OTP0

Givet 9 . Had Adebayor in his pocket. Class. Showed leadership qualities organising the defence.

Samba 7 . Started slowly sloppily with those long legs and ambition to get the ball down and play. Got into the groove and snuffed City out after that.

Pederson 9 . What can you say? Ran more than any player on the pitch. Hardly gave the ball away. Got in good positions and made things happen. Like Barry was always there for the defence tracking back lost causes. Looked like a midfielder and not the useless winger we have seen over the last couple of years. This wasn't just a good game for Gamst, this was a totally renewed confident different player.

Andrews 5 . Worked hard. Sloppy at times. Easy ride against Ireland and a defensively too deep Barry. Was still ineffective. Didn't do much wrong or right.

N'zonzi 7 . Worked hard. Just think Patrick Viera aged 17 (N'zonzi is 19 tho). No further description required.

Diouf 6 . One of Diouf's better games. Worked exceptionally hard and linked up well with everyone. Even put in a coupe of crosses. No pace and little end product though. Good team player.

McCarthy 6 . Battled hard, good touch but he's lost not a yard but 5 yards on 3 seasons ago. Chances he would have buried then he is becoming too slow to take. Tried this best.

Roberts 2 . Roberts was Roberts. The guy who misses crucial opportunities and takes teams down. If Bellamy or Adebayor or Tevez had had the positions he found himself in City would have won comfortably.

Subs

Gallagher 7 . Had 15 minutes. Came on in CM. Got himself about including two great tackles (one a booking). Shouting organising tracking back. Impressive on the usual Gallagher. BFS with his magic? Never gave the ball away IIRC tight in possession, usual great touch. This boy could be a great player?? (and how many times have fans and managers said that!)

Di Santos 6 - Chased the ball down a lot faster unlike BM and JR. Never fell for him so hard to judge.

Those ratings are hideous mate. If they we're true we wouldn't have lost 2-0.

Decent performance, we'll be safe throughout the season, but six's all around, with the exception of one or two.

[Mike Graham]

Very disappointed with the size of the crowd yesterday.

These sell outs do not do us any credit.

I was dammed angry at not being able to get my usual pie and a pint at half time due to all the Rovers glory hunter fans.

Let us get back to around the 22,000 mark so us "real fans" can get our half time pick-me-up

The JW was far to full, and the regulars will not stand for this overcrowding.

As for the game: get rid of Roberts, Benni and Andrews. Did Benni get a 1/2 time pie....I bet he did!

[tcj_jones]

It's Allardyce's fault we didn't see a good performance from Benni. Good man management would have been to motivate him with the promise of both a half time and a full time pie and pint if he put in the effort. Sam out!

[brfcs5359]

Those ratings are hideous mate. If they we're true we wouldn't have lost 2-0.

Decent performance, we'll be safe throughout the season, but six's all around, with the exception of one or two.

If Adebayor had played as well as MGP he would have got a 10. Don't put us down because we are a small club. Two of our players were absolutely top drawer. Peds/Givet.

And I think we deserved to win but like I said all last season, Jason Roberts costs us time and time again. We would have more points if we DID NOT play him. We were goodish today. However City were poor (so poor I cannot see them being anywhere near the top 4).

You cannot mark done good performances because we lost. We did not lose because of our midfield. We lost because our strikers failed to score the chances we made.

[Ricky]

Can someone clarify something for me. Around the 80-85 minue mark I'm sure Benni went down in the box. It looked like he was caught by a city defender and I commented at the time that I was looking forward to seeing a replay of it when i got home.

It wasnt shown on MOTD and it wasnt shown on the extended Sky highlights that I've just downloaded.

Did I imagine it or did it actually happen?