[Archived] Rovers V Stoke

[Gav]

I also thought nzonzi played really well.

He has the potential to be a very good player, could be our next big money transfer out of the club, that keeps the wolves from the door.

[Stuart]

Stoke fans were great today, outsung us easily.

Di Santo deserved to be booked, fai enough it wasn't a foul but no need to spit his dummy out and kick the ball away

Ah, didn't see the dissent, cheers. I was so angry at the free-kick being given when he won the ball!

[den]

Don’t understand the Andrews hate brigade, the guy saves a nailed on goal and gives 110% every game. Yes he’s not good enough,

It's not hate Gav, and you have just said it yourself. That's all it is.

[bazza]

I think we are a very, very poor team/squad.

Management are poor.I cannot see anything but grief for the rest of the season.

Whose fault it is I don't know but we'll be lucky to stay up.

Even if season tickets remain low price for next season, who is going to buy them to watch such rubbish?

[Gav]

It's not hate Gav, and you have just said it yourself. That's all it is.

The lad gives his all for the shirt, he's not good enough but the manager picks him, who should be hammered?

[Stuart]

I think we are a very, very poor team/squad.

Management are poor.I cannot see anything but grief for the rest of the season.

Whose fault it is I don't know but we'll be lucky to stay up.

Even if season tickets remain low price for next season, who is going to buy them to watch such rubbish?

I'll be there bazza.

[rovers_rob]

I think we are a very, very poor team/squad.

Management are poor.I cannot see anything but grief for the rest of the season.

Whose fault it is I don't know but we'll be lucky to stay up.

Even if season tickets remain low price for next season, who is going to buy them to watch such rubbish?

Oh come on it isn't that bad !!

[Iceman]

I think we are a very, very poor team/squad.

Management are poor.I cannot see anything but grief for the rest of the season.

Whose fault it is I don't know but we'll be lucky to stay up.

Even if season tickets remain low price for next season, who is going to buy them to watch such rubbish?

We not a poor squad, but there are certain individuals who are not up to it. We miss that creativity in midfield, and 2 quality strikers. We in 12th, and its not as bad as what people make it out to be. We will be okay, but next season Sam will have to sort it out, or get out.

[Saahil]

in all fairness i didnt think andrews did too bad today.. diouf on the other hand..

I think our team for liverpool needs a complete change it should be (we should just forget the chelsea game im sure sam has written it off already)

robinson

chimbonda samba nelson givet

Nzoni

Holiett Emerton

Dunn

Kalinic DiSanto

Its time these guys are allowed to play.. people saying kalinic is not good enough is harsh the lad hasnt been given a chance. I think considering we got back thursday morning we didnt do too badly on another day we should have got atleast 2 pens.

And just to add emerton was brilliant today, as was samba..

[Mr. E]

McDonald's post-match comments are scandalous. They would really like us to accept and believe that 17th place would be a miraculous achievement. No one is asking them to win the Premiership, but such an attitude is simply an insult to the integrity of the club.

[Waggy76]

I am not suggesting todays performance was good or even fair...

But there are a few things to take into consideration ..

David Dunn went off injured in the first half - he is the only creative player on the books .That needs to be addressed sooner rather than later ..

It was our 3 rd game in 6 days it does take its toll..Stoke are horrible to watch and presumably to play against !

We do not play 1 up front cos Dunn plays up front in this formation ..I heard Dunn was doubtful yesterday (so maybe he shouldn't have started ?

I have friends who support several other Premier teams and they all say the same about Stoke City (book your hols when you play them at home ), also have Stoke ever been involved in an exciting end to end match???

It wasn't good or pretty but for god sake put things in perspective !!!

[bazza]

Oh come on it isn't that bad !!

I'm afraid it is THAT BAD. All the Arte has gone out of our game and there isn't 100 per cent Labore either.

Week in and week out watching Rovers is cringeing. It's B awfull.

OK, I'll be renewing my season ticket but I hope it will not be to watch the rubbish I've been watching since Sparky left.

Time for Sam to turn things around. Not much hope of that. I'll believe it when I see it.

[Gav]

McDonald's post-match comments are scandalous. They would really like us to accept and believe that 17th place would be a miraculous achievement. No one is asking them to win the Premiership, but such an attitude is simply an insult to the integrity of the club.

Some Bolton fans believe Sam used to try and make a point through his team selection and tactics. A statement to the board via performances on the pitch, was the only language the Bolton board understood, and you can see some logic in his methods.

Now I’m not saying he’s playing the same game here, but with lack of funds you get the feeling the same route may be adopted here. Lets face it he has more front than Blackpool prom, so the idea isn’t completely absurd.

Just a thought.

[Stuart]

Some Bolton fans believe Sam used to try and make a point through his team selection and tactics. A statement to the board via performances on the pitch, was the only language the Bolton board understood, and you can see some logic in his methods.

Now I’m not saying he’s playing the same game here, but with lack of funds you get the feeling the same route may be adopted here. Lets face it he has more front than Blackpool prom, so the idea isn’t completely absurd.

Just a thought.

Equally absurd is my idea that Di Santo is playing down his abilities to engineer a cheap move to Rovers in January.

I can dream!

[Plastic Head]

Second half saw Grella come on for Andrews, who picked up some sort of strain I hear. We did look a little more threatening in the second half without every putting Stoke under any consistent presure. Some credit has got to go to Stoke who's back four was very good I thought, Huth and Shawcross were both top drawer. Stoke supporters' will probably say they deserved to win with the chances they had and it would be hard to disagree, a shocking miss in the second half immediatley springs to mind.

The problem remains in midfield for Rovers in my opinion. Nzonzi looks a class above all our other central midfield options, Grella when he came on gave the ball away on four occasisons which all resulted in Stoke counter-attacks. He has no pace whatsoever and isn't any better or worse than Andrews. Overall I'll take the point, Chimbonda and Emerton the standout players for us.

Come on, Grella was involved in the game all the time whereas Keef did his usual "standing in space so I won't have to tackle anybody" routine. He spent teh first half marking the referee.

Keef doesn't give the ball away much because he doesn't have it much....and he should be involved more than anybody in his position.

If your happy with Andrews every week then you'll have to be happy in the Championship.

Please WATCH THE GAME, NOT THE BALL. then you will see why he gets so much abuse.

As for 1 good pass in 90 minutes, that speaks for itself doesn't it.

I don't beleive he was injured, but if he is I hope it's serious/terminal.

[Tom]

I'm afraid it is THAT BAD. All the Arte has gone out of our game and there isn't 100 per cent Labore either.

Week in and week out watching Rovers is cringeing. It's B awfull.

OK, I'll be renewing my season ticket but I hope it will not be to watch the rubbish I've been watching since Sparky left.

Time for Sam to turn things around. Not much hope of that. I'll believe it when I see it.

For me the rot set in before he left. Once he didn't go to Newcastle he lost interest, we had a much better squad then though.

Come on, Grella was involved in the game all the time whereas Keef did his usual "standing in space so I won't have to tackle anybody" routine. He spent teh first half marking the referee.

Keef doesn't give the ball away much because he doesn't have it much....and he should be involved more than anybody in his position.

If your happy with Andrews every week then you'll have to be happy in the Championship.

Please WATCH THE GAME, NOT THE BALL. then you will see why he gets so much abuse.

As for 1 good pass in 90 minutes, that speaks for itself doesn't it.

I don't beleive he was injured, but if he is I hope it's serious/terminal.

Even as a joke thats a disgrace mate, no need for it. However bad you may think he is there's no need to hate on him on a personal level.

[Stuart]

Come on, Grella was involved in the game all the time whereas Keef did his usual "standing in space so I won't have to tackle anybody" routine. He spent teh first half marking the referee.

Keef doesn't give the ball away much because he doesn't have it much....and he should be involved more than anybody in his position.

If your happy with Andrews every week then you'll have to be happy in the Championship.

Please WATCH THE GAME, NOT THE BALL. then you will see why he gets so much abuse.

As for 1 good pass in 90 minutes, that speaks for itself doesn't it.

Ok but...

I don't beleive he was injured, but if he is I hope it's serious/terminal.

You went a bit too far there fella!

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

I don't beleive he was injured, but if he is I hope it's serious/terminal.

You're messed up in the head mate.

[RIML]

You went a bit too far there fella!

Ye way too far, I'm disgusted that anyone can say that about our own player, like him or not that was uncalled for.

[Gav]

Equally absurd is my idea that Di Santo is playing down his abilities to engineer a cheap move to Rovers in January.

I can dream!

Agreed.

Maybe he is a natural goal scorer after all

[LDRover]

Am I alone in thinking EHD didn't play badly? He might not have been dazzling but he worked the full back and sent over a steady stream of crosses that no one was able to profit from.

You might not be alone drog but you're in a very small group if you think that. Diouf is fecking abysmal - no threat going forward and no cover defensively. Slow and ponderous in possession with only histrionics when an intended recipient can't make the most of his misplaced passes. Mind you, his arm waving to get the BBE going at corners is great...isn't it?

I'm absolutely flabbergasted that I can come on here and read that it's a good point and that we did ok. This is the team widely condemned as the antithesis of football yet they outplayed us all over the park and we're supposed to accept it?

BTW - We lost over 6million last year, 4 million would be saved by binning Diouf and Salgado who are both allegedly on 2 million a year. A bloody easy decision if you ask me.

[Presty On Tour]

No surprise to see the same scapegoats named every week!

Robbo and Emerton were the best of a bad bunch today imo.

TBH, I'm looking forward to seeing the carling cup side play more than the 1st team. Hopefully some injection of pace with Junior and Ollson in the side.

Kalinic looked well up for it when he appeared against Fulham, maybe it's finally his time to shine.

[chaddyrovers]

I think we lack pace and creativity in midfield. We need a pacey winger like McGeady. A midfield player who is good at passing. A striker with pace.

[RIML]

I think we lack pace and creativity in midfield. We need a pacey winger like McGeady. A midfield player who is good at passing. A striker with pace.

It was so obvious what we lacked today but like I said previously Tottenham have pace in their team and still failed to score against Stoke.

[Rovers_4_life]

All those slating the tactics need to bear in mind we played for about an hour with 2 up top in a 4-4-2 and still lacked creativity whilst at the same time looking more vulnerable at the back. We have a serious problem of lacking quality in the middle of the pitch so i don't think 4-5-1 is as 'scandalous' as people are making out. Provided you have the right men playing in the two wide positions then this can be a really effective formation, especially with Dunn playing from an advanced midfield role.

I think an awful lot of fans need to stop being so stubborn as to believe 4-4-2 is the only way an English side can play football. As i posted earlier in this thread this same formation worked well in the home games against Wolves, Burnley and Villa in which we scored 8 goals and collected 9 points. Whether we have played 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 we have shown we struggle to create goals in open play at times.

Simply switching back to 4-4-2 won't solve our problems.

P.s. all those slaughtering Andrews get a grip and view his performances from a balanced perspective. Many Rovers fans haven't given the lad a chance from day one. He's nowhere near as bad as some on here make out. Fair enough if Ince brought him in and then he couldn't get a look in once he left but both Allardyce and Trappatoni seem to think he's a decent player as well.