[Archived] Chelsea V Rovers Preview

[broadsword]

The Rovers are actually a very good side.

Don't talk toss.

The only thing that will save us this year is that there are a few sides who are actually worse than us.

Much more of this sort of nonsense and the fans will be calling for Allardyce's head and rightly so.

I don't remember dreading a 5- or 6-goal doing when Souey or Hughes was in charge, but today was all too predictable. OK, so we were missing players today, and you could make excuses for the Arsenal game, but the bottom line is we basically gave the game up before we started today. We could've conceded within 30 seconds. Everyone knew what was coming. I feel sorry for the poor buggers who actually paid their hard-earned to watch that crap.

I wonder if the manager has the dressing room 100% behind him. There's no getting away from teh fact that this was another capitulation. Don't believe the nonsense that equates a fixture with a top-four team with a foregone conclusion of a mauling.

[Mr. E]

Come on guys. This is when the club needs supporters. We had half a team out. Our reserves are poor on todays showing but our season is not about today or next week.Nonzi was our brightest prospect from today and Robinson did well but the others had poor games.Things do appear black tonight but a win against Pompey will work wonders.

Today just showed how far the gulf is now between the Euro earners and the rest. Chelsea used to be a guaranteed win only a few years ago but not any more.

Actually this season a great deal of "poorer" teams have beaten, drawn or came very close to taking something out of the top 4. Most notably Burnley beating United. The gulf isn't that huge anymore. But it is for Rovers. We are one of the few remaining total pushovers and whipping boys of the premiership. We who are one of the only teams to have won the premiership. This is what we have become. It's sad but it's true.

[broadsword]

Our reserves are poor on todays showing but our season is not about today or next week.

a win against Pompey will work wonders.

How many of those players were reserves then?

I see you've already given up the Man Utd game

[booth]

Missing Chimbonda, Samba, Grella, Di Santo and Dunn, FIVE first 11 players out against a top two side.

Lets be clear the performance was DIRE but it simply highlights that the second string at Rovers are simply not good enough. Blaming Sam and asking for his head is ridiculous, which players are Sam signings?

I always thought that this would be a transitional year for us and results are highlighting this, I am not as optimistic as Phillip but reckon we'll draw at Old Trafford.

You just don't grasp why people are disappointed. It's not the defeat, most people expected it. It's the manner in which we were defeated. No fight at all, tactically poor, 4-5-1, etc.

Getting beat and putting up a decent challenge is forgivable, rolling over like that isn't and it's that that's getting most people's backs up.

If you think it'll be a draw at Old Trafford I want some of what you are drinking

[Hullrover]

What like "and you could do better"

Well lets be realistic; Andrews is not brilliant, and probably wouldn't have started had Dunn been available. But he would still gain a place in some premier league sides, albeit those who we expect to finish below us at the end of the season.

It would help if we could field a consistent defensive line up, as Fulham were able to do last season; but unfortunately that has not been the case.

We are no worse than many other sides, and will probably finish around 9th - 13th. Better than last season, and giving grounds for optimism next season

Have a look at some of these fixtures today, and be grateful that at least you are playing in the same division as Chelsea; and are able to hold your own against the vast majority of sides in that division.

Barnsley v Bristol City

Coventry v West Brom

Palace v Forest

Newcastle v Doncaster

Nob End v Boro

Millwall v Leeds

Norwich v Swindon

Soton v MK Dons

[Big Fat Sam]

Then don't go!!!

Watch it in the pub and spend < £10. What a whinger!!!

And you could do better?

Good to see your reading skills are working. You'll notice I said I feel sorry for the fans who had spent £100's going today, I got mine for free.

Missing Chimbonda, Samba, Grella, Di Santo and Dunn, FIVE first 11 players out against a top two side.

Lets be clear the performance was DIRE but it simply highlights that the second string at Rovers are simply not good enough. Blaming Sam and asking for his head is ridiculous, which players are Sam signings?

this would be a transitional year for us and results are highlighting this, I am not as optimistic as Phillip but reckon we'll draw at Old Trafford.

But he has been coaching them for almost a year.

[booth]

Well lets be realistic; Andrews is not brilliant, and probably wouldn't have started had Dunn been available.

He would have started, Sam is obviously an admirer of his as he plays him week in week out. If Dunn was available, Emerton would have been on the bench.

[Hullrover]

People will stay(sic) go, it is in their blood... loyal fans deserve better.

You don't have to go to be loyal! It's simple. At the moment we are poor against the big clubs away from home. Watch it in the pub. Save yourself the heartache and the cash. I'm fairly sure that a few hundred fans stuck in the top corner at an away ground (out of 40000+) don't make much difference to the players and maybe you flatter yourself if you think they do.

[G Somerset Rover]

Smoss please can I have some of what your smoking? 'Good side'? Don't make me laugh.

Great man managment second half by the expert by the way - he didn't shout one order or get off his chair once.

[imy9]

You just don't grasp why people are disappointed. It's not the defeat, most people expected it. It's the manner in which we were defeated. No fight at all, tactically poor, 4-5-1, etc.

Getting beat and putting up a decent challenge is forgivable, rolling over like that isn't and it's that that's getting most people's backs up.

If you think it'll be a draw at Old Trafford I want some of what you are drinking

I thought I'd said the performance was dire!

It is noticable that the two big beatings this season against Arsenal and Chelsea have both come when we were missing key personnel from our defensive positions.

Also if you look at Bolton under Sam, they struggled for two years before they began to climb up the league.

[benhben]

Under sam some games we just dont turn up. Whether its because he doenst expect points from these games, but there is a major flaw in the mentality against the top teams. You can be that teams level or worse than use in the league would compete against the top teams better than we do.

[beerwins]

I thought I'd said the performance was dire!

It is noticable that the two big beatings this season against Arsenal and Chelsea have both come when we were missing key personnel from our defensive positions.

Also if you look at Bolton under Sam, they struggled for two years before they began to climb up the league.

Not sure he will get that long, im not sure i wanna see long balls lumped up to 1 guy who has no other option IF he wins it for that long either, first game we played decent football and lost what changed ! the fact that dunny can score, well why not at least try and play dunny in midfield with 2 up front and get nzonzi to work his socks off to cover for dunn going forward.

We have to be more competitve with all teams not just ones we think we can beat, Sams carefree atitude against the top clubs is transfering to the players and that was plain to see, if he gave a rousing we can win this speach at the start of the match we would see players fired up not 8 men behind the ball inviting them to come at us standing off them like were scared.

[tcj_jones]

In terms of tactics, why couldn't we just have packed the midfield, closed them down, roughed 'em up a bit and made it difficult for them to play through the centre?

I wasn't expecting anything other than a defeat today, same as when we play United and the same as Arsenal. But why could we not at least put up a fight? Why do we roll over and then give up completely when we go a few goals down? Not only were our players massively out-classed today, but it seemed like none of them even cared.

With the amount of money invested in the defence and the players we have - Nelsen, Givet, Samba, Jacobsen, Chimbonda - we should not be conceding 13 goals in three games!

[Stuart]

Our first 0-5 for nearly 14 years.

That team was Flowers ,Berg ,Le Saux ,Marker ,Sutton ,Batty ,Bohinen (McKinlay,45) ,Sherwood ,Shearer ,Newell, Warhurst,33) ,Ripley.

I think I would just about prefer that team

Incidentally the attendance was 13376. Against?

Coventry wasn't it? I think we beat them 6-1 in the reverse fixture though. Can't quite see that with Chelsea!

[Silencio]

The role of a defensive midfielder is to support the defence but more importantly PRESS THE BALL. In Keith Andrews, he neither presses or defends, the game and players of the opposition simply pass him by. He follows the ball leaving bloody huge gaps in the front of the defence, a defence that today that was always going to be overstretched irrespective of injuries or illness. It was the most important position in Rovers line up today.

Sam Allardyce and his back room staff got it horribly wrong by playing with Andrews in that position, the team set up was awful and it was only a matter of time before we hit the buffers. Rovers got lucky losing just 5 goals.

back to Andrews, just how much space did he allow the opposition ?

Why does he not close the player down ?

Why cant he defend ?

What is it he brings to our first 11 ?

THE STOCK ANSWER IS HE BRINGS PROBLEMS TO OUR TEAM BECAUSE HE IS BLOODY SHYTE.

I just cannot work out why he plays Andrews. He was trying to flog him in the summer but he continues to play him. I know we don't have many options in midfield but Sam must find an alternative. Some posters may not like this but I'd be all for the fans turning on him and Roberts if it got them out of the team.

He runs around pointing an awful lot but never presses a player like Savage used to.

[LDRover]

Really embarrassing today folks and plenty of criticism about the usual suspects, but not much about Bert who, if there is anyone out there thinking he is the answer to our lack of ability in centre mid - forget it, he was our poorest performer today by a mile.

Amen to that brother. The same will be apparent once the hideously average Reid makes his long awaited comeback too.

[Guest Kamy100]

Shocking performance and lucky to get away with just losing 5-0, could have been alot more.

Sam has to take a big chunk of blame for this one. The big problem is playing this 4-5-1 formation away from home, what happens is that we are unable to keep possession, against good quality sides if you keep giving the ball away they will wear you down and eventually punish you. This is what happened today, we kept giving the ball away and Chelsea grew in confidence and punished us. The other thing that I have seen this year is that as a team we back off, it happened last week against the Dingles when Blake scored and it happened time again today. People think that playing 4-5-1 means that you will be hard to break down, that can happen but if you are set up wrong then teams will find it easy to play against you

If we play like this again next week against United they will beat us easily. Sam needs to be more positive against United, personally I would bring back Benni Mc, I know he can be a lazy git, but he is the one player that we have who time and again has proved that he can score regularly at this level, I think that him and Di Santo could make a good partnership. Sam needs to be more positive, I would revert to 4-4-2 as the current system is not working and by having 2 men up front it will at least give United something to think about.

If we are going to stay up this season then the away form is going to have to improve, we need to start picking up points up away from home, it is unacceptable that we have lost our last 9 games on the road.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Very poor outing. The worst part of tonight was that no-one can be surprised by the result.

Pity the Rovers' fans who went to the game.

[Italian Rover]

Notwithstanding the totally SHYTE individual performances today (3 players came out JUST about acceptable) - I really sensed a feeling of player despair at the tactics today - and that does not bode well for the dressing room. We tried to contain Chelsea at Stamford Bridge... with those players FFS.

We defended with 2 banks of 4 players and they still managed 30+ goal attempts. Just like the last 25 mins at Arsenal, they waltzed through totally unmarked and we carried ZERO attacking threat.

Sam Allardyce, you need YOUR wages docking for these pathetic top 4 performances - maybe refund the travelling fans??

For the record I think we'll do well enough against non-big 4 this year to see us comfortable but these tactics are not acceptable.

[DarrellH]

People will stay(sic) go, it is in their blood... loyal fans deserve better.

You don't have to go to be loyal! It's simple. At the moment we are poor against the big clubs away from home. Watch it in the pub. Save yourself the heartache and the cash. I'm fairly sure that a few hundred fans stuck in the top corner at an away ground (out of 40000+) don't make much difference to the players and maybe you flatter yourself if you think they do.

I think you're missing the point here Hullrover... regardless of if I am at the game or watching from my sofa - I hate to see my team roll over like we did today. Going back to the days of Branagan, Fazackerley, Garner, Miller, etc. etc. we challenged teams - FFS we got a draw against Liverpool at Ewood when they were dominating and we were in the old 2nd Division... I hate to see my team not even challenge. Of course I realise that Chelsea on paper are a better team than Blackburn, but still lets at least make them think they've been in a game.

[Plastic Head]

I am in a quandary.

Nelsen, Ollsen, Pedersen and Roberts were truly awful today. The others were below average at best. However the performance of Andrews was the worst I have ever seen from a Rovers player in 38 years, and so far below what is required of a Premier League player it was unbelievable.

If the manager keeps picking him he should be dismissed asap. Therefore I feel the best way to achieve this is perhaps not to go to games. The board will soon act if attendances plummet. I have missed 6 games at home since 1971-72 so don't know if I could just not go.

The alternative in my opinion is to stand and boo for the entire period Andrews is in the field.

Something has to be done to get this cretin out of the team, or the man who picks him out of the managers office.

We do not have a good team by any means, but would stay up at least if it were not for a player who would be laughed at if he turned out at Pleasington on Sunday mornings.

I urge all supporters who have the future of the club at heart to boo, howl and whistle at his every touch until he HAS to be removed from the field.

I know the "get behind 'em" brigade will shout me down, but if they held sway Jim Iley would still be manager and John Butcher would have broke Derek Fazackerly's record.

BOOOOOO Andrews BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Tom]

Ollson is taking a lot of stick but I didn't think he did a lot wrong today

[JAL]

Notwithstanding the totally SHYTE individual performances today (3 players came out JUST about acceptable) - I really sensed a feeling of player despair at the tactics today - and that does not bode well for the dressing room. We tried to contain Chelsea at Stamford Bridge... with those players FFS.

We defended with 2 banks of 4 players and they still managed 30+ goal attempts. Just like the last 25 mins at Arsenal, they waltzed through totally unmarked and we carried ZERO attacking threat.

Sam Allardyce, you need YOUR wages docking for these pathetic top 4 performances - maybe refund the travelling fans??

For the record I think we'll do well enough against non-big 4 this year to see us comfortable but these tactics are not acceptable.

Well said Italian Rover, interesting those last 25mins at Arsenal was a midfield of Diouf, Andrews, Nzonzi and Pedersen.

Today was the same bunch, can only think of NZonzi having a future due to his age with the rest looking like unaffordable luxury players.

[tomphil]

I am in a quandary.

Nelsen, Ollsen, Pedersen and Roberts were truly awful today. The others were below average at best. However the performance of Andrews was the worst I have ever seen from a Rovers player in 38 years, and so far below what is required of a Premier League player it was unbelievable.

If the manager keeps picking him he should be dismissed asap. Therefore I feel the best way to achieve this is perhaps not to go to games. The board will soon act if attendances plummet. I have missed 6 games at home since 1971-72 so don't know if I could just not go.

The alternative in my opinion is to stand and boo for the entire period Andrews is in the field.

Something has to be done to get this cretin out of the team, or the man who picks him out of the managers office.

We do not have a good team by any means, but would stay up at least if it were not for a player who would be laughed at if he turned out at Pleasington on Sunday mornings.

I urge all supporters who have the future of the club at heart to boo, howl and whistle at his every touch until he HAS to be removed from the field.

I know the "get behind 'em" brigade will shout me down, but if they held sway Jim Iley would still be manager and John Butcher would have broke Derek Fazackerly's record.

BOOOOOO Andrews BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I dont for 1 min believe you have only missed 6 games in all that time with your attitude. You are a Prat!

[Tris]

it simply highlights that the second string at Rovers are simply not good enough. Blaming Sam and asking for his head is ridiculous, which players are Sam signings?

4 out of the starting 11, and the key substitutes Kalinic and Salgado. Both of which smacked of getting "his" players on the park before the interests of the team and the result. McCarthy has clearly been marginalised, but would have been a better introduction into a 4-4-2. Salgado for Jacobsen was just a hopeless and meaningless gesture.