[Archived] Rovers V West Ham

[BuckyRover]

And look where getting shut of him got them !!!!

Or did Sam's transfer policy take them down?

It's not black and white

[Al]

Al, with regards to KA, I was at the same match as you and on the Riverside too. I thought KA was no better and no worse than anyone else in the Rovers' side except for Givet, Chimbonda and Dunn who deserved one more point each.

Also, someone gave MOM to Nzonzi who, IMO, played OKish but disappeared for long spells quite often.

Strange how different people see players and the game differently!!

Reminds me of Tony Finnegan who most Rovers supporters thought was cr@p. Yet after playing first division Aston Villa in the cup, their supporters thought he was streets ahead of any other Rovers player.

Bazza, I've moved over to the JW must be a better view than your's because with all due respect to your opinion he was absolute crap.

[Hasta]

Or did Sam's transfer policy take them down?

It's not black and white

They got relegated and full season and a half after Allardyce had left them. In that time they brought in 8 players and spent over £17,000,00

It is black and white.

[AggyBlue]

It is black and white.

Hence the nickname 'The Magpies'

[BuckyRover]

Bazza, I've moved over to the JW must be a better view than your's because with all due respect to your opinion he was absolute crap.

"TOTAL CRAP, TOTAL CRAP, TOTAL CRAP".

Hmmmm.

Not the most articulate viewpoint.

If you keep saying "He is brilliant, He is brilliant, He is brilliant" you will start to believe the same.

[Al]

I would be the first to say that Sam is a good manager but in my opinion he made two errors on Saturday.

By all means bring on Junior H. He played well, but to take N'zonzi, who was playing well, and leave Andrews on was wrong. The only logic I could see was that Andrews was supposed to be an attacking midfielder and N'zonzi a defensive one but it was obvious that Andrews was not doing that job and should have been the one to come off.

Secondly he substituted one striker for another when it was obvious to everyone except Sam, and one persistant young lady, that we needed two out and out strikers and an attack minded right sided midfielder if we were going for a home win against very limited opposition.

That's my take on it anyway and most of the fans around me, and the Blackburn end, appeared to agree.

"TOTAL CRAP, TOTAL CRAP, TOTAL CRAP".

Hmmmm.

Not the most articulate viewpoint.

If you keep saying "He is brilliant, He is brilliant, He is brilliant" you will start to believe the same.

Seems to be decent English to me and the word I used was 'absolute'. Try to get it right Bucky!

If you want perfect prose buy yourself a book of blank verse, there's a good lad.

[ABBEY]

spot on al.

[BuckyRover]

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP

I didn't say anything about the quality of your English.

I said you were not being articulate.

Which isn't the same (as you must know). You think "absolute crap" is decent English. I don't think it would get you a GCSE pass if you described everything as "absolute crap"

[thenodrog]

ask t'geordies.

Bit difficult abbs. After they sacked SA they seem to have disappeared off our radar.

[broadsword]

Of course they were wrong whether it's my opinion or not, to say a manager like Sam Allardyce doesn't know what he's doing, is simply wrong. Of course Sam knows what he's doing, he's been in the game for many years. It wasn't long ago they considered him for England manager so it's obvious he does know what his doing which concludes they were wrong.

Holy Bejeebers, you could talk the hind legs off of a donkey.

It's taking being argumentative to a whole new level. I think at this point no-one actually cares what position Ju-neee-oar plays, whether or not Super Keith, the king of Stadium: MK is awesome, or anything. I think we all just want a bit of peace.

[LDRover]

Does anyone else think that the board got together before the start of the season and said 'well, we know the football's going to be dire so we'll have to sell the season tickets cheap'? Might only have been 200 quid this season but based on what I've seen so far I feel like I've been had.

Not surprised to hear reports of fans nodding off, I think I might take a book for the next game, truly depressing stuff.

[ABBEY]

IF SATURDAY WAS ANYHTING TO GO BY THE ST ARE OVERPRICED BY ABOUT 198 QUID.

[Al]

CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP

I didn't say anything about the quality of your English.

I said you were not being articulate.

Which isn't the same (as you must know). You think "absolute crap" is decent English. I don't think it would get you a GCSE pass if you described everything as "absolute crap"

I think you will find that both words are in the Greater Oxford English Dictionary my learned friend. I actually passed my English Language and English Literature GCEs when they were proper exams and not the watered down versions that now constitute the GCSEs.

[BuckyRover]

Well done.

How many did you do?

[blue phil]

N.B. This is a bit heavy but also very revealing........ I've referred to this sort of behaviour in the past as tribalism, but I've just discussed this with my daughter who graduated in pschology. She informs me that there are a lot of issues and on going studies connected to observations of football fans as individuals and the frequent descent to irrational collective behaviour as football fans. For anybody who wants to know more the subject is referred to as "deindividualisation" . Where individuals adopt behavioural characteristics of a collective. In fiction we should perhaps refer to William Gouldings 'Lord of the Flies' as an example of deindividualistaion but perhaps the most obvious example in history was the behaviour of Nazi Germany from 1932 to 1945.

Anybody needing to know more about this phenomenon can simply google deindividualisation or social influence for further explanation.

Not heavy at all , Theno .........just total boll*x

Your daughter doesn't post on here under the handle RIML by any chance .....?

[roversmum]

To be fair, Nzonzi made two bad mistakes right in front of Sam so it was no surprise to me when he was substituted.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

IF SATURDAY WAS ANYHTING TO GO BY THE ST ARE OVERPRICED BY ABOUT 198 QUID.

Aye - and that City match was boring as well

It wasn't the most exciting match - but I am sure true Rovers fans had plenty to talk about post match - including the display of a certain youngster.

Absolutely unbelievable - the board just can't win - we have the lowest priced ST's in the EPL, and people still aren't happy.

Unless you want to follow the sheep down to Old Trafford - you will always get the odd boring match each season - comes with the territory. Only difference this season - we are only paying approx £10 per match for the privelage.

[Montfort]

I'm afraid I have the growing belief that Grella is utterly lacking in both application and imagination . In fact he must qualify as one of the most limited footballers in the premiership .

To be the worst player in perhaps the worst midfield in the prem is not something to write home about .

I thought that Grella had his best game for us on Saturday. He has been in and out of the side injured so often that I still don't feel that I can properly judge how good he is. However I thought his tackling was better and his passing had a longer range. I agree he seems to lack urgency and speed when going forward leading to a build up that is far too slow. Perhaps this is still to come.

Thought the referee had a good game.

Thought Andrews put himself about as usual and had two good goal scoring chances. Not really a right winger though.

I forgot to say that I was shocked to find a Rovers team that had Dunn and Grella on at the start, having them both still on the pitch after 90 minutes. Wonder what odds I could get for Grella, Dunn and Reid all starting and finishing a match

( apologies if anyone has made the same point - A bit obvious really )

[brfcs5359]

Nzonzi was class. Class in his aproach. It didn't always come off and the ball watchers might mark him down for that. His all approach was head and shoulders above everyone except Givet, Dunn and of course Robinson. Grella is a journeyman pro at best. Lacking in any true international qualities. Nzonzi you could see has been primed for international football and head and shoulders above Andrews Grella Pederson. It's why he has improved rapidly with each game and the others struggle to improve in a season.

[Miker]

Nzonzi was class. Class in his aproach. It didn't always come off and the ball watchers might mark him down for that. His all approach was head and shoulders above everyone except Givet, Dunn and of course Robinson. Grella is a journeyman pro at best. Lacking in any true international qualities. Nzonzi you could see has been primed for international football and head and shoulders above Andrews Grella Pederson. It's why he has improved rapidly with each game and the others struggle to improve in a season.

So then I guess being in the FIFA World Cup Team of the Tournament doesn't highlight any of your "international qualities". Total rubbish ^

N'zonzi is a good player and I think he has heaps of potential, but he hasn't shown anything absolutely brilliant. He's playing in the first 11 while players are coming back from injury. I don't think you'll see him starting against Wolves.

Grella and Dunn in the midfield is class.

[Miker]

I thought that Grella had his best game for us on Saturday. He has been in and out of the side injured so often that I still don't feel that I can properly judge how good he is. However I thought his tackling was better and his passing had a longer range. I agree he seems to lack urgency and speed when going forward leading to a build up that is far too slow. Perhaps this is still to come.

That's right. Most defensive midfielders will be given instructions to stick to defensive duties and keep within a particular zone like all other players. Most likely Grella was told not to go forward and that's what he did. His job would've been to primarily defend and break up play, not link up play, although his distribution was still excellent. When he played for Australia in the world cup, he was at the heart of all of the team's moves because he was given a bit more freedom in his role.

You can't say Grella was "crap" because he didn't push forward. It wasn't part of his role that game, so he didn't do it. There was no real fault to his game. Someone said it's all about perspective and they're right because I didn't pay attention whether or not Grella passed it to someone 10m in front of him or not, I paid attention to the superb tackles he was putting in to keep West Ham from even having a half chance near the box.

And yes, I will continue to defend Grella until I see him really have a shocking display. He deserves that at least.

[grizfoot]

I'd have to agree with the comments about Grella having his best game in a Rovers shirt, I personally doubted him based on last season's performances. But he put in some good tackles and he seemed to find his radar with his passing although he does seem really slow at times. On one occassion in the second half he timed a slide tackle perfectly, came away with the ball then showed a turn of pace before playing a 30yard diagonal pass into the path of Roberts I think it was. Can't quite remember what happened next, highly likely he fell over and lost the ball. But the point is it was a great piece of play which can lift a team and set-up a counter-attack.

[thenodrog]

Grella is a good player. He is not a creative playmaker, he is not fast nor mobile enough to be box to box either. A deep midfield sitter whose ability is to break down the opposition moves and get the ball to the creative players asap. I've seen him have 2 bad games and unfortunately he is very susceptable to injuries. A good run of fitness would show the duller of thought on here his value to the team. It's not difficult I suppose but he is one of Ince's better signings. Anybody who thinks otherwise is ignorant about midfield play.

It's possible that he and N'Zonzi are too similar but I'll reserve judgemnent until I see that formation with a wide man on the right as the problems 1st half on sat were mainly down to Andrews playing far too narrow and clogging up and cramping Grella and N'Zonzi's room on the pitch.

[CAPT KAYOS]

The situation should never be hopeless, I really don't agree with this supposed approach of prioritising fixtures, (and presumably mentally writing off others)

Every game is a potential opportunity to pick up points.

Totally agree on this and is how it should be - was letting Sam get on with it to see if he could rectify the way that we approach games as its this side that I feel is all wrong... and as everybody has seen yet again it failed.

Saturday was a woeful game of football - no we didn't really play bad ... because we didn't really do anything ( and neither did Wet Spam)

Sam was waxing on last week about the dropped points at home thus far and saying that they needed to made up somewhere ie this game... so what's he do he set's out with 1 at home with an isolated forward who to a blindman is not good enough to operate on his own at this level .. back up with a player that is not a striker and again is coming back from a lengthy lay off, a midfield made up of defensive players one not considered ready by himself and another injury comeback where questions are still left unanswered as to whether he is any good. Another midfielder not good enough for the Premier and an ineffective underperforming so called left winger. Add this to a right back and left back (even though he played well) and is it anywonder we looked like we didn't know what we where doing and failed to score yet again at home.

When the hell does 1 up front work for the Rovers - the system works if you have the players something the fans know we do not.. yet the management & coaching staff think we do.

Yet again we where at home and go into the game looking for a point .. tells its own story really doesn't it!!

If people don't think we have a got a problem .... then they need to pull their head out of the sand as Saturday's game should have been a win and should have been set up to go for one.

Sam's word not mine - Kalinic is not ready yet ... - if he isn't then why the hell did he take Roberts off and play him up front on his own?

Bad bad management that cost us the game ... but many more games like that will drive people away permanently and personally if that is what being an expert is god help us ... I'm the expert ... yeah right Sam!!

I was confident after the Citeh game and still think things can be achieved even with our 'money ' issues - what I will not tolerate is gumbo and excuses about having to use a formation and performance like that on Saturday especially at home.

Wet Spam where there for the taking and he didn't have a clue - although I don't agree with it I nearly started joining in myself with those that where spot on.

Sort it out.

[waggy]

3 games in and we are 2 points down on last season,drew with city and blunderland.playing roberts up front was one very strange decision,but the manager knows best