[Archived] Man City Preview

[thenodrog]

West Ham ???

Has no one read todays papers, Zola walking out as he has to sell all his top players, immediately!!!!!

Most will know that I rated Lucas Neill for his ability and also his integrity over the gentlemanly way he left the club. BUT any club that deemed him worth 70k pw deserves to go bust! The old saying about 'Fools and their money soon being parted' has never fit better than at WHU.

Bring it on. And bring it on at Pompey, Lpool, NUFC and MU too.

[RovertheHill]

I can certainly see why his views, and the manner in which they are presented, wind people up. I understand where we are, why and what we have to expect. I'm just concerned things may not be quite as rosy as some would hope.

I think the general consensus was one of being pleasantly surprised at how we played, and that there were some good signs. Is it rosy in the sense that we have a chance of winning anything - probably not. Would I swap the majority of our players for those on the City side - probably. Would I swap the majority of our players for those who punch in the same weight-bracket as us - probably not. So I'm cautiously optimistic for the season. I pay my money and I take my choice

[Exiled in Toronto]

I wish people would make up their minds. If football is all about winning and getting enough points on the board to stay up, yesterday was an abject failure. We didn't win or get any points; we conceded after 2 mins (a depressingly regular occurrence) and did not score, as we also failed to do against far weaker teams than City in the pre-season. Yes, City spent a lot, but I very much doubt they will win 16 away games this season.

However, yesterday is being defended by many on the grounds that, in their view, we played quite well. Who cares how we played? Maybe we didn't play ugly enough (I jest!) It seems to me we have had a very poor pre-season - no wins, few goals, players less fit than the opposition, too many injuries - and it carried forward into the first game - we didn't win, didn't score, tired at the end and had no creativity in the middle third of the pitch because they are all injured.

[Billy Castell]

I think its called searching for a silver lining EIT. Otherwise we'd all be our usual miserable selves, moan and declare that our season is over. I doubt many expected us to win either.

[Parsonblue]

Of course it's all about winning. But we are realistic enough to know that we aren't going to win every game. While we can be disappointed about not winning we can also be encouraged by the performance. On the evidence of Saturday we will get enough wins to remain a Premier League club by the end of this season. That is my main concern and why I am encouraged by Saturday's performance.

[Amo]

City are far superior to us on paper, and had the quality at the back and the front to punish us. Yet we still managed to put in an encouraging performance, and we'll be playing weaker teams than Man. City at Ewood Park this season.

Had City played us off the park and wasted a hatful of chances, perhaps I'd have some concerns. But right now, I'm confident we'll have a decent season. You're only as good as your last game and all that.

[jim mk2]

I never subscribe to the view that you can play well and lose. Goals are condeded usually because of poor play and goals are missed for the same reason.

Rovers weren't poor on Saturday but we weren't good enough to stop City winning. The Sunderland match should be interesting - if Rovers play badly and lose for some people on here the alarm bells will start ringing.

[G Somerset Rover]

I'm a little bit bemused at Big Sam's praise of Given.

He made a cracking save from Samba, but apart from that he would have been at fault if any of the other efforts had gone in.

Don't get me wrong, he was solid and did well. But the way Sam was praising him, saying how he was the duifference, you'd have expected a Flowers esque performance against Newcastle in 95!

Fully agree with Rev's comments that the way we play, we're never going to create chances on a plate for our strikers.

[tcj_jones]

No sweetie, football is about winning , nothing more.

I don't want to be "entertained", I want to see Rovers win. If the match is "entertaining" at the same time that is bonus as far as I am concerned.

Entertainment for me is walking away from Ewood with 3 points in the bag.

Very well said. Unless you're one of the big four, City or maybe Spurs, then I'd say it's probably the same for every other club in England.

[Big Fat Sam]

I'm a little bit bemused at Big Sam's praise of Given.

He made a cracking save from Samba, but apart from that he would have been at fault if any of the other efforts had gone in.

Don't get me wrong, he was solid and did well. But the way Sam was praising him, saying how he was the duifference, you'd have expected a Flowers esque performance against Newcastle in 95!

Fully agree with Rev's comments that the way we play, we're never going to create chances on a plate for our strikers.

Didn't Sam firstly say we needed to put away our chances better before going on to comment that Given had played a blinder, so he's publically told Benni and Jase to belt up, and then covered it over with the given part.

[Fife Rover]

I'd strongly argue that you see far more from live television coverage than you would actually seeing the game in the flesh. You see from more angles and you have the benefit of action replays on contentious issues.

Not really aimed at you Fife, but those in this thread saying that the opinions of someone who viewed the game on television/online as worthless or inferior to someone who went to the game are completely wrong.

I know what you mean RVR, and I have used the same logic myself on several occasions. But yesterday for the first time, and simply by being there, I was able to keep my focus on Andrews and watch how he appeared to be reading the game and his movements off the ball. And as a result I was able to see for the first time what a lot of critics of Andrews have seen. This kind of thing you are not able to do when watching on TV as you only get to look where the camera takes you. That is why I said I now understand what Den and others have been saying, whereas from my previous TV perspective he looked like he was an honest hard working tryer that was being given a rough ride by some of our fans.

I still do see him as an honest hard working tryer, but now I can see that his critics may have a point in saying he lacks the class and mindset for PL level of football. I have to keep an open mind on this in all fairness as judging on one live game is too soon for a firm conclusion.

[cruz]

Some people may have seen the City performance as hoof ball but I saw it as slightly more intricate than that. Hoof ball suggests aimless punts up front where what I saw were calculated long balls aimed in areas for Roberts to run on to, or McCarthy to flick on ( ) for Roberts and cause the City defence to panic. As Sam had quite rightly pinpointed Dunn as a total donkey (as always), Richards as an over-rated jacka** and Toure to be not even the 4th best defender in the Arsenal side.

Can nobody remember the similar approach adopted by King Kenny? When Shearer was in his pomp and still had pace in his arsenal he used to visibly request defenders to play long balls into the corners as he was fully confident of reaching the ball first using his pace and strength. Nobody called that hoofball. But then again we did invariably score 3 goals in every home game

[Blue blood]

The one thing that occurred to me after yesterday's game was that due to the way we play under Sam we rarely carve the opposition open and create gilt edged chances. The chances that come our way tend to be snap shot half chances and whoever plays up front will have to be a lot more clinical than yesterday.

Bang on - like Paul I was wondering what wasn't quite right and only realised it was this when you mentioned it.

To me we need to be creating more clear cut chances. This does not necessarily mean changing our style, but it needs to be worked on. Ways to improve it, that I can think of are:

1) a creative midfielder who can create chances through their vision and passing.

2) a power house of a centre forward, who is better in the air then roberts, and stronger. Someone who can hold his own more up front would get onto more chances/make the chances seem more clear cut.

3) Get in a really good winger of the ripley variety who can go to the byline, beat his man and whip in a cracking cross consistently.

[DeadlyDirk]

People are making way too much out of our tactics for this game, yes we hoofed it a lot but that doesn't mean we will in every game, if we had tried to play a passing game against Citeh it would have played right into their hands and we would probably have been on the receiving end of a thrashing.

I'm sure that against different opposition we'll have more of a balance to our play. Whether we like it or not Citeh look like they are going to challenge the top 4, we were never going to try and play them off the park.

[Amo]

People are making way too much out of our tactics for this game, yes we hoofed it a lot but that doesn't mean we will in every game, if we had tried to play a passing game against Citeh it would have played right into their hands and we would probably have been on the receiving end of a thrashing.

I'm sure that against different opposition we'll have more of a balance to our play. Whether we like it or not Citeh look like they are going to challenge the top 4, we were never going to try and play them off the park.

You have to wonder how much of an issue this would actually be if our manager didn't read: Sam Allardyce.

[jim mk2]

1) a creative midfielder who can create chances through their vision and passing.

2) a power house of a centre forward, who is better in the air then roberts, and stronger. Someone who can hold his own more up front would get onto more chances/make the chances seem more clear cut.

3) Get in a really good winger of the ripley variety who can go to the byline, beat his man and whip in a cracking cross consistently.

And how much do you think players with those qualities would cost ?

Top-class players command high transfer fees and high salaries, neither of which Rovers can afford.

Please be realistic.

[Sir Ranulf Westwood]

Good game, City showed their class to send Burnley level with Rovers.

[AggyBlue]

because Roberts and McCarthy will only score once in a blue moon.

That's just rubbing it in Paul, are you a closet City fan

[Blue blood]

And how much do you think players with those qualities would cost ?

Top-class players command high transfer fees and high salaries, neither of which Rovers can afford.

Please be realistic.

And here was me wondering why we didn't get Ronaldo, Barry and Tevez.

I didn't say top class players Jim what I did was identify the arguably key problem with the team and suggest the qualities that our signings needed to rectify this. No one thinks we're going to get the Ronaldo's or Alonso's, or even the Bent's of this world but Sam has scouted out/found players with the necessary qualities previously.

Added to which they don't have to be the complete footballer, just good at these skills. It's about getting a winning team playing in a certain way, not having the best overall footballers (although that can help). I'd hazard a guess that the way we are playing Kuqi might be more use up front then Roberts, due to his superior strength and ariel ability.

Also I was offering those three types of players as alternative solutions. Any one of those three types of player would make a massive difference to our chances, I doubt we'd be able to have the luxury of affording two let alone all three.

[spencey7]

The point of posting that link (and I did accidentally include a cross - apologies for that one) was simply to point out that we did create decent chances. Because Spencey uses 2 obvious tactics to get his point across - repeat the same thing over and over and over again until it becomes the de facto truth, and ignore or dismiss any kind of fact that fails to support his view.

I'm not dismissing any facts. I urge you to re-watch the highlights from Man City - or indeed the whole game if you can - and see if you can come up with two noteworthy Rovers chances that weren't included on Match of the Day. The ball being driven 6 yards wide by Chris Samba after bouncing around the box is not a chance. Simply getting the ball in the opposition box does not constitute a chance.

People seem to be missing the point of what I'm saying here - I don't expect us to play like Arsenal or Barcelona, but given our squad of international footballers from all over the world (who are being paid a fortune), there is NO REASON for us to be playing schoolyard football. All we're likely to have on offer under Allardyce is scrappy hit-and-hope, up-and-under, out-dated, ineffective, reductive, embarrassing crap.

Now there are some posters here who acknowledge that and accept it - some even claim to enjoy it - fair play to them. But then...

We didnt play hoofball at all - yes we took long throw-ins and yes we had lots of crosses into the box, but that isnt hoofball.

This poster is clearly completely deluded. It's this blinkered view, this (to quote Melchett in Blackadder IV) "total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face" that absolutely boggles my mind. What game was he watching?

We all love the club. We all want to see Blackburn Rovers do well. But let's not go bonkers and claim we'll be getting anything other than "classic" Allardyce-brand football during his managerial reign. It'll only hurt more in the long run.

[waggy]

if we start with benni and roberts on saturday we are waving the white flag all ready

apart from the above two i thought we played very well on saturday,silly mistake by samba and warnock for the 1st goal and citeh got there 2nd when we were chasing the game.citeh will finish in the top half,so lets hope we can show this form at sunderland.thought jacobsen and the basketball player had great debuts

[waggy]

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 belie

youll find it was samba,but don't let facts worry you

[47er]

This poster is clearly completely deluded. It's this blinkered view, this (to quote Melchett in Blackadder IV) "total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face" that absolutely boggles my mind. What game was he watching?

We all love the club. We all want to see Blackburn Rovers do well. But let's not go bonkers and claim we'll be getting anything other than "classic" Allardyce-brand football during his managerial reign. It'll only hurt more in the long run.

You loathe Allardyce with a passion and this is your starting point for every post you make. You simply look for anything wrong and ignore anything good. And there were plenty of good things for you to ignore on Saturday. At least Waggy has the good grace to admit it.

[Hughesy]

Good game, City showed their class to send Burnley level with Rovers.

Sorry but you are still below us - and you only played Stoke Long season ahead!

My ST is in the Riverside towards the Darwen End. Great atmosphere being near to the away fans, was good to give them a bit of stick. Only empty area seemed to be the upper corners of the family stand. Pleased with the attendance and here's to many more!

That last area closest to the Darwen End in both the JW and Riverside both seemed to have much more atmosphere than usual - lets hope it continues.

No, it's you who is deluded by the media's interpretation of a period of Sam's style at Bolton Wanderers. As far as I have seen Sam with Newcastle and Rovers, he's adapted play and tactics to the players at his disposal.

Get over yourself.

Top quality Spencey just get over yourself will ya!

[spencey7]

No, it's you who is deluded by the media's interpretation of a period of Sam's style at Bolton Wanderers. As far as I have seen Sam with Newcastle and Rovers, he's adapted play and tactics to the players at his disposal.

What are you talking about?? Somewhat ironic is it not that Allardyce seems to inherit terrible teams and have them play hideous football... "It's not his fault - just look at the players he has at his disposal!" Rubbish.

Here's a bit of a newsflash - we have good players. I would prefer to have our defenders over those of virtually any other team in the Premier League outside the top 10. Diouf and Pedersen have 92 international caps between them. The centre of midfield needs work, but Allardyce should have (and would have) addressed that by now had he any intention of passing the football. Benni McCarthy is a top-class striker, Di Santo and Kalinic obviously show great potential. We're not scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to talent - but we're playing like we are.

There are some horror shows in the squad (step forward Andrews and Roberts) but no-one is forcing Allardyce to play them or - god forbid - TURN DOWN OFFERS for them.

I'm not "deluded by the media's interpretation" of Allardyce football - unfortunately I've seen enough with my own eyes to know what we're in for. The reverence with which Allardyce is being treated makes no sense whatsoever.