[Archived] Birmingham City Away

[Ozz]

We just don't keep possession of the ball because of hopeless and poor quality of passing.

I've never seen so many misplaced passes from Rovers, just awful really.

[RoverRich]

The stream I was watching kinda broke down in the 2nd half so I didn't get to see how Hoilett and McCarthy did when they came on so could someone please update me on what I missed??

Also, we REALLY need a passing midfielder in january or we are going to have to put up with a lot more performances like this one!

[Amo]

Sam must take the responsibility for this defeat. The first half was one of the most abject, suicidal performances I've witnessed from Rovers. His team selection was inexcusable in the extreme. Why on earth did we start with Diouf, Pedersen and Roberts? Three of our biggest passengers who have done nothing to justify a starting place? Why is Benni always in and out of the side, despite the fact he's the only inspirational player we have without Dunny? These are serious questions Sam needs to address.

There's no consistency to our team or our gameplan. And it's gonna cost us a few league places this season if it doesn't buck up.

[martmitch]

almost felt unlucky not to have nicked something from this... then you consider the first half performance and a few miss of the seasons for birmingham thrown in, agree with others that hoilett and mccarthy should definitely be starting. what the **** was diouf doing for 1st goal!!!!

Birmingham were top of the league on form going into this game lets not forget

Praying we can get something on spurs @ weekend that 3rd relegation spot is only 3 points away now

[Tom]

We played badly but what's this "explain yourself" nonsense?

Kalinic must be the unluckiest striker in the league, he would have got us a point if it wasn't for Larsson's face.

Bad choice of words maybe but he has to come out and take the blame. Why can everyone in the World see that Roberts and diouf shouldn't be starting yet he starts them.

no doubt he'll come out and say we deserved a point and were unlucky.

[47er]

For the first hour of this match, it was dire. We couldn't have played much worse if we'd tried.

When we scored, Birmingham panicked. They became extremely defensive and became very nervous. We, however, simply did not have the class or the desire to outdo them. We had more possession but our performance did not really improve. We were still wasteful in possession and devoid of any attacking ideas. We were nearly caught out on the break twice and were unlucky not to score at the end. Still, the first 60 minutes of this match were unforgivable. If we play like that for the rest of the season we can forget top half of the table, we're gonna be scrapping right at the bottom.

Hoilett should have started. Benni should have started. Roberts, Pedersen and Diouf should be nowhere near the first team. We all know this, why doesn't Sam?

Very, very worried about our future.

Yep--said it all for me there. You can't win a Premier League match with 4 of your team absolutely not good enough. Including Andrews there. I know he had to replace an injured Emerton but that just shows how weak our options are in midfield.Why no Di Santo?

[DE.]

Probably the most worrying thing to come out of this game is the evidence our team cannot pass the ball properly. It's strange, because we have seen them do it before, but tonight we looked to hoof it up the pitch before passing it to a team-mate. Every single time.

Also, why do we persist with MGP's long throw? can anybody explain this? We've never scored from one and they never seem to beat the first man... it's shocking that we allow it to continue.

[mjs]

MGP did pretty well.

I think something must have happened to the transmission between here and France!! He was awful.

[Blue n White Rover]

One last thing, Sky chose to show the game where we truly did play sh*te long ball and our only outlet was set pieces. Not exactly helping our reputation tonight.

Majority of the times it's how we play when we go a goal down. We done the same VS Fulham when we went a goal down and done the same again today.

Roberts is so frustrating, he wasn't to be seen all through out the game, and beggars belief as to why Sam started with him. Surely would have made more sense with Di Santo or Benni up top. Kalinic was poor today, had a few decent passes but Birmingham's centre halves were both brilliant today.

The only time we troubled them was when Hoillet arrived on the pitch and chose to run at the full back. Still suprised that Chimbonda did not overlap to allow Hoillet another option when he was out wide.

Poor performance today and this just adds unwanted pressure upon us to get a result VS a very good Spurs side. I honestly don't see us scoring from open play with Diouf and Pedersen in the team. Both of them were poor today from open play, and just hope Dunn is fit on Saturday or else it looks like being a long Christmas for the Rovers.

I bet that Stockholm trip has paid off now eh lads?

[ebenrocks]

There is absolutly no talent in this squad.

Watching us play today, it was like watching a championship or League 1 team... no actually, the way we played today was like watching my grandma play fifa.

Worst players on the pitch:

Pedersen... absolutly dreadful (besides the one decent ball in for our goal), i hope the Celtic rumors are true and we have the sense to bite their hands off.

Nzonzi.... fouling fouling fouling. Ball to noone ball to noone... back to fouling

Kalinic... What a bloody waste of money. wasted away so many opportunities for us by fouling or straying offside.

I have nothing good to say about that performance. Terrible.

[Tom]

I think something must have happened to the transmission between here and France!! He was awful.

MGP was poor overall but his free kick was sublime, the difference with him to Diouf is he can be useless for 89 minutes then chip in with something.

[trawdenblue]

Absolutely clueless for 70 minutes.

It was heartbreaking (and embarrasing) to watch. McCarthy & Hoilett did make a difference but it was too late.

This is just not good enough.

[Inta Beaver]

Diouf should never put a Rovers shirt on again, he didn't look interested, still wearing his coat until we kicked off the 2nd half! Hoilett did well when he came on, he is as quick as benitez in that race towards the end.

Roberts was also not interested!

Andrews gave the ball away more that any player I have ever seen!

We need to pass the ball more and not just smash it forward!

A big shake up is needed, we need to get rid of the dead wood at our club!

[Eddie]

I think something must have happened to the transmission between here and France!! He was awful.

Set up our only two chances of the match and also did a fair amount of good tracking back. In a team that played terribly he was one of only a few players who looked decent.

Special criticism should be reserved for Roberts and Diouf who contributed absolutely nothing.

[des]

well where do start, for me if the other teams midfieled is stonger then ours then its going to be hard game and tonight there midfield was beter them ours.

Playing the type of footbal;l that big sam does work ok, but you need good service from your wide midfield/wingers and tonight there was none it fact it was aweful. playing long balls intothe ball only work if you can turn the back four anf tonight we did not not.

Three of there back four are very good in the air, and we played into there hands.

I have heard big sam on radio lancashire that the squard is big and good enough for what he wants this season, well not for me.

Andrews, roberts, pederson, benni ( for the right money) can all go in jan

to relay on dunn all the time for a the right pass can not be right and that needs to be addressed and soon

[mjs]

MGP was poor overall but his free kick was sublime, the difference with him to Diouf is he can be useless for 89 minutes then chip in with something.

But we can't afford to carry passengers for 89 mins.

[Blue n White Rover]

almost felt unlucky not to have nicked something from this... then you consider the first half performance and a few miss of the seasons for birmingham thrown in, agree with others that hoilett and mccarthy should definitely be starting. what the **** was diouf doing for 1st goal!!!!

Birmingham were top of the league on form going into this game lets not forget

Praying we can get something on spurs @ weekend that 3rd relegation spot is only 3 points away now

You can't blame Diouf for it, he was in a 2 on 1 position and couldn't do anything about it. Someone should have come supported him so he could have challenged Larrson, but seen as nobody came, he had to mark 2 men on his own. Another basic error we made today. Simply not good enough!

[47er]

There is absolutly no talent in this squad.

Watching us play today, it was like watching a championship or League 1 team... no actually, the way we played today was like watching my grandma play fifa.

Worst players on the pitch:

Pedersen... absolutly dreadful (besides the one decent ball in for our goal), i hope the Celtic rumors are true and we have the sense to bite their hands off.

Nzonzi.... fouling fouling fouling. Ball to noone ball to noone... back to fouling

Kalinic... What a bloody waste of money. wasted away so many opportunities for us by fouling or straying offside.

I have nothing good to say about that performance. Terrible.

Worst players on the pitch has to include Doeuf and Roberts surely. Roberts played exactly like he does when he is a lone striker. I'll swear there was not one connected piece of football between him and Kalinic all night.

[Bobby G]

Disappointing.

Only positives were Chimbonda being magnificent all game and Hoilett making an impact again. I didnt know he was THAT fast but in the sprint against Benitez, he was head to head with him.

Another game which we should have done better in. We woke up after about 70 minutes and even then we were largely lumping it up.

[Eddie]

We played badly but what's this "explain yourself" nonsense?

Kalinic must be the unluckiest striker in the league, he would have got us a point if it wasn't for Larsson's face.

I think it's because we can all see the aftermatch comments coming:

"We weren't good enough...but had more corners...Kalinic is unlucky...blah, blah, blah".

Was sitting watch the pre-match build-up and someone else was listening to his interview and said "This man is an idiot" as he started going on about how many shots we had, had against Hull.

[ada2020]

Fat chance of that. He made lot of changes to the team and formation tonight and not one of them paid off. Totally his fault. Hoilett and Benni were several classes above the players he put in in their place. We lived down to every stereotype of his style tonight.

He has constantly made changes to the team and the formation, and most of the time it doesnt work. I am so frustrated with this now, we were embarrasing to watch. Not one player seemed to want to bring the ball down, everytime, no matter how much space they had if it was in the air we just headed it forwards or simply punted it. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Enough is enough, this needs to change and change quickly. And those Andrews defenders out there, he's a disgrace to our team and a constant embarrasing reminder of how we cannot compete either financially, or more importantly on the pitch where it really counts.

EIT, Hoillet and McCarthy are not head and shoulders above any of the players, they are s*** too, ones a bloated has been the other thinks he is something better already.

Hate to say it but we do not stand a chance of staying up on this performance!!!!!

[DE.]

There is absolutly no talent in this squad.

Watching us play today, it was like watching a championship or League 1 team... no actually, the way we played today was like watching my grandma play fifa.

Worst players on the pitch:

Pedersen... absolutly dreadful (besides the one decent ball in for our goal), i hope the Celtic rumors are true and we have the sense to bite their hands off.

Nzonzi.... fouling fouling fouling. Ball to noone ball to noone... back to fouling

Kalinic... What a bloody waste of money. wasted away so many opportunities for us by fouling or straying offside.

I have nothing good to say about that performance. Terrible.

Very harsh on N'Zonzi, who has been forced to shoulder far more of the burden than he should because our senior players have been shambolic or injured this season. Also extremely harsh on Kalinic, who was our best player tonight by a mile and was the ONLY player in the squad to show genuine quality and attacking intent (barring when Junior came on, though Junior didn't actually do much except run at people).

[Amo]

Hate to say it but we do not stand a chance of staying up on this performance!!!!!

Gah, it was a terrible performance but I hate these knee-jerk reactions. We beat Chelsea and it's full steam ahead, we lose to Birmingham and we're down and out. It's always like this...

Based on our solid home form, I think we'll settle for mid-table obscurity.

[Guest Kamy100]

Feel so down after that performance. We did well in the last 15 minutes and Niko was so unlucky at the end there but a draw would just have masked Rovers failings.

The defending for both goals was shocking. We consistently gave the ball away and to compound things we lumped the ball forward which just played to the strengths of Birmingham, when we got the ball into the feet of our strikers we caused them problems. Credit to Birmingham, they played superbly, and Ferguson was immense for them, he broke up play and his passing was sublime.

Diouf was a disgrace tonight, he looked uninterested and was liability until he was taken off. Roberts tried but he just looks woefully short at the moment. We need to start with Hoillett and either Benni or Franco on Saturday. I thought that Niko did relatively well tonight, he showed glimpses and was desperately unlucky at the end with the header.

Saturday now becomes a big game for us, win and we stay comfortable into midtable, lose or even draw and we will be looking over our shoulder again. I fear the worst because Tottenham are the type of side that we struggle against, they have pace out wide and also upfront and that is what we have struggled against all season. I said at the weekend that we needed to get 5 points from these three games, that is now not going to happen, lets hope we can get 4 points.

[sam_rovers]

I wasn't too disappointed by Kalanic.. His hold up play is good, can turn.. just can't seem to finish.. it may be down to confidence or bad luck I hope, but I'll leave it up to the coaches. I just can't understand why Roberts and Pedersen started.