[Archived] Villa Semi Final Match Preview

[beerwins]

One other point I don't know if any blame can be aimed at the council but the pavements around the streets up near the infirmary were a disgrace people were falling everywhere, they've had a long time to prepare as well

Yeh and I bet they have more grit than us

[grizfoot]

The first half was the usual rubbish we seem to be have been churning out at home of late. Sunderland, Tottenham, Liverpool, Stoke and Portsmouth have been our last five home league game and we've scored a grand total of zero during the first half in thoose games.

Tonight's game was the same story, we only started playing second half. Second half there was a llittle bit more work-rate and pressing as well as actual (shock horror) passing the ball along the ground. Altohught I must admit I absolutley hate the way our players try and hold a position and defend area rather than going to close down the man with the ball, large reason why we've conceded so many long-range shots.

Firstly the bad:

- Salgado he's just too slow to be a winger in my opinion and didn't offer anything going forward.

- Pedersen, just when you thought he couldn't get any worse...

The good:

- Kalinic, could have easily had two goals if it wasn't for a couple of centrimetres the other way. His general play was very good and did a brilliant job in the lone striker role. It's mystery why he hasn't started more games in my opinion.

- James Milner, fantastic performance from him probably the best in-form midfield in England at the moment he surely must be in Capello's starting line-up for the World Cup if he continues performing at that standard.

Just to conclude, both teams had a number of chances but on the balance of things I'd say Villa did deserve their 1-0 victory. It's now going to need a minor miracle in the second leg considering our away form if we want to make it to Wembley.

[Blue n White Rover]

Because they looked disillusioned with the system they were playing. Do you know how to spell WHITE non-smartass?

They've looked like that for many games this season. Majority of our away games we've looked disillusioned, so has he lost the players since then?

[Miker]

Get your facts straight, I slagged off fans who did go AND didn't go. Sorry I didn't go, I live in Australia for (Please don't use that word again)'s sake. Sorry for living in another country, maybe we should start banning people that don't live in England from supporting the club. Stop trying to make yourselves feel less guilty for not going.

Our team is awful, we have a lot of decent players who aren't working well together. We are about the worst team in the league in terms of keeping a regular 11 going and actually having players who have been here for more than 2 years in the lineup.

I simply disagree that Sam's tactics or formation is solely to blame and him out of the picture would solve anything. The tactics in the first half and the second half were exactly the same, so why did we do so much better in the second half? The players actually managed to get some sort of cohesion and started stringing passes together. We do look good when that happens, but a lot of the time, like in the first half, it seems the players are too nervous as to how to best go about creating that cohesion.

I'll reiterate: we didn't play 4-5-1 and we didn't concede because we were "too defensive". We conceded because we were exposed on the counter. I am sure Sam, or any other manager would love to have the pacey attacking force of Milner, Young and Agbonlahor to work with who can tear apart defences with ease, unfortunately we don't have that. Instead, we have slow players with average skills. How do we get the best out of players like that?

Friedel, Warnock, Bentley, Santa Cruz, Tugay, Savage - all lost within the last 2 years. We were given a pittance to replace these players. A pittance to replace half a team. Sacking Sam is a disaster waiting to happen because it's not a solution to our problem. He's not our future Sir Alex Ferguson, but he's not the direct cause of our failures this season either. We definitely need our team to have the sort of cohesion Fulham or Birmingham have, but I would have no idea how we would go about doing that.

[OJRovers]

Very predictable really:

- Sam picks a defensive team no-one would agree with

- We play badly

- They score

- Halftime he changes it round

- We play better but still can't score

- Sam says we were unlucky

Repeat until fans stop going.

[dazmaz]

to anyone who lives within 20 mins for blackburn and didnt go to the game is a ###### w@nker in my eyes, at a 8pm kick off and a finish no later than 10pm there is no excuse for anyone within a 20 mile radius to go to the game. the whole game was a shower of ######, villa looked more likely to score than we did... even in the 2nd half. its all fan ###### tastic watching it on sky BUT that (Please don't use that word again) knows what it costs per month for it could have got you a ticket to watch the game!!! so think about that before you part time supporters say anything about the crowd (refering to the people who live close enough to ewood to catch a bus, not the fans who live at the other end of the country)

we should of gone all out for the win tonight, yet big fat @#/? sam and his ###### bullshit negative tactics ###### us over good style. if we had gone a legit 442 (dunny is NOT, i repeat NOT a striker) and played the god damn ball on the deck we may of won. but no, sam thought it was best to go for the god damn draw. its ###### pathetic. i would of had more fun watching a unibond league team play. Sam has to go NOW! no 2 ways about it. if he stays we are going down regardless if certain teams are worse than us, we are ###### in the shitter! and if any bellend who didnt go to the game (who lives within a reasonable distance) wants to dispute that, well you can get on your hands and knees and suck my balls, dick and lick my asshole because you dont deserve to support blackburn rovers!!

£15 a ticket and no ###### turns up is pathetic!!!! personally im on jobseekers yet i manage to find the cash to go, as have many people who are in the same situation as myself!!! im actually ashamed to be a rovers supporter right now...

[broadsword]

Get your facts straight, I slagged off fans who did go AND didn't go. Sorry I didn't go, I live in Australia for (Please don't use that word again)'s sake. Sorry for living in another country, maybe we should start banning people that don't live in England from supporting the club. Stop trying to make yourselves feel less guilty for not going.

I didn't say that you didn't slag fans who did go, get your facts straight.

Regardless of where you live, you can't slate people for not going when you didn't go. It's pretty simple.

No need to be a baby about it.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

What a moron.

[Tom]

Don't be a tit Dazmaz there's plenty people with much more important things on than a semi final like the chap whose wife just gave birth is he a w@nker as well?

[Miker]

How do you know that smartass?

He doesn't, he just assumes whatever he wants to assume without any logical thought.

[OJRovers]

Get your facts straight, I slagged off fans who did go AND didn't go. Sorry I didn't go, I live in Australia for (Please don't use that word again)'s sake. Sorry for living in another country, maybe we should start banning people that don't live in England from supporting the club. Stop trying to make yourselves feel less guilty for not going.

You're not going to find many people who feel guilt about not going. Lots of people have spent hard earned money following Rovers and are not getting their money's worth of effort, commitment or entertainment on the pitch. (I watched on TV tonight, but was one of the '500' at City, so don't feel any guilt at all)

[stuwilky]

to anyone who lives within 20 mins for blackburn and didnt go to the game is a ###### w@nker in my eyes, at a 8pm kick off and a finish no later than 10pm there is no excuse for anyone within a 20 mile radius to go to the game. the whole game was a shower of ######, villa looked more likely to score than we did... even in the 2nd half. its all fan ###### tastic watching it on sky BUT that (Please don't use that word again) knows what it costs per month for it could have got you a ticket to watch the game!!! so think about that before you part time supporters say anything about the crowd (refering to the people who live close enough to ewood to catch a bus, not the fans who live at the other end of the country)

we should of gone all out for the win tonight, yet big fat @#/? sam and his ###### bullshit negative tactics ###### us over good style. if we had gone a legit 442 (dunny is NOT, i repeat NOT a striker) and played the god damn ball on the deck we may of won. but no, sam thought it was best to go for the god damn draw. its ###### pathetic. i would of had more fun watching a unibond league team play. Sam has to go NOW! no 2 ways about it. if he stays we are going down regardless if certain teams are worse than us, we are ###### in the shitter! and if any bellend who didnt go to the game (who lives within a reasonable distance) wants to dispute that, well you can get on your hands and knees and suck my balls, dick and lick my asshole because you dont deserve to support blackburn rovers!!

£15 a ticket and no ###### turns up is pathetic!!!! personally im on jobseekers yet i manage to find the cash to go, as have many people who are in the same situation as myself!!! im actually ashamed to be a rovers supporter right now...

I was feeling quite miserable.

Ive just read this. Its brilliant. Thanks daz.

[joey_big_nose]

Get your facts straight, I slagged off fans who did go AND didn't go. Sorry I didn't go, I live in Australia for (Please don't use that word again)'s sake. Sorry for living in another country, maybe we should start banning people that don't live in England from supporting the club. Stop trying to make yourselves feel less guilty for not going.

You can have an opinion about the team and the game etc, but you cannot slag people off for not going when you're in Australia. That's just f-ing ridiculous.

What are you on?!?

[Miker]

The only difference between the two sides was Villa's counter attack? Tell me another one. A "sucker punch" ? He makes it sound like we were all over them and got unlucky

He's saying that they identified Villa's main threat as their counter attack and worked on defending against it in training, but clearly it still didn't work. He's saying the difference in the two teams was Villa's ability to counter attack effectively, as that's where the majority of their chances came from. It's not hard to work out

[dazmaz]

I was feeling quite miserable.

Ive just read this. Its brilliant. Thanks daz.

cheersw stu. just had to get it off my chest

[Guest Kamy100]

I don't know what happened tonight, it's a bit of a blur at the moment. The first half was woeful, we improved in the second half but could not score. The team selection and tactics were wrong. All credit to Villa they were well organised and constantly hurt, the could have scored 2 or 3 in the first half, and looked dangerous everytime they went forward during the second half. Still at 1-0 we still have a little bit of hope.

What does this mean for Sam, who knows, but it was VERY SIGNIFICANT that David Brown from the trust was at the game tonight.

[PAFELL]

to anyone who lives within 20 mins for blackburn and didnt go to the game is a ###### w@nker in my eyes, at a 8pm kick off and a finish no later than 10pm there is no excuse for anyone within a 20 mile radius to go to the game. the whole game was a shower of ######, villa looked more likely to score than we did... even in the 2nd half. its all fan ###### tastic watching it on sky BUT that (Please don't use that word again) knows what it costs per month for it could have got you a ticket to watch the game!!! so think about that before you part time supporters say anything about the crowd (refering to the people who live close enough to ewood to catch a bus, not the fans who live at the other end of the country)

we should of gone all out for the win tonight, yet big fat @#/? sam and his ###### bullshit negative tactics ###### us over good style. if we had gone a legit 442 (dunny is NOT, i repeat NOT a striker) and played the god damn ball on the deck we may of won. but no, sam thought it was best to go for the god damn draw. its ###### pathetic. i would of had more fun watching a unibond league team play. Sam has to go NOW! no 2 ways about it. if he stays we are going down regardless if certain teams are worse than us, we are ###### in the shitter! and if any bellend who didnt go to the game (who lives within a reasonable distance) wants to dispute that, well you can get on your hands and knees and suck my balls, dick and lick my asshole because you dont deserve to support blackburn rovers!!

£15 a ticket and no ###### turns up is pathetic!!!! personally im on jobseekers yet i manage to find the cash to go, as have many people who are in the same situation as myself!!! im actually ashamed to be a rovers supporter right now...

It is a thursday, some people may have gone to City away, some may be working, catching up after the bad weather. Children are back at school, so childminders / babysitters etc may be needed, nightshift workers. There are many many reasons why somebody within 20 minutes of Ewood cannot get to the game. Come on it is unfair to have ago at people because they were not there - especially if you do not know the reason.

Sorry but family commitments - including money family needs, especially just after christmas, come before any football club.

It is your attitude and the wording of your post that is a disgrace.

[beerwins]

Get your facts straight, I slagged off fans who did go AND didn't go. Sorry I didn't go, I live in Australia for (Please don't use that word again)'s sake. Sorry for living in another country, maybe we should start banning people that don't live in England from supporting the club. Stop trying to make yourselves feel less guilty for not going.

Our team is awful, we have a lot of decent players who aren't working well together. We are about the worst team in the league in terms of keeping a regular 11 going and actually having players who have been here for more than 2 years in the lineup.

I simply disagree that Sam's tactics or formation is solely to blame and him out of the picture would solve anything. The tactics in the first half and the second half were exactly the same, so why did we do so much better in the second half? The players actually managed to get some sort of cohesion and started stringing passes together. We do look good when that happens, but a lot of the time, like in the first half, it seems the players are too nervous as to how to best go about creating that cohesion.

I'll reiterate: we didn't play 4-5-1 and we didn't concede because we were "too defensive". We conceded because we were exposed on the counter. I am sure Sam, or any other manager would love to have the pacey attacking force of Milner, Young and Agbonlahor to work with who can tear apart defences with ease, unfortunately we don't have that. Instead, we have slow players with average skills. How do we get the best out of players like that?

Friedel, Warnock, Bentley, Santa Cruz, Tugay, Savage - all lost within the last 2 years. We were given a pittance to replace these players. A pittance to replace half a team. Sacking Sam is a disaster waiting to happen because it's not a solution to our problem. He's not our future Sir Alex Ferguson, but he's not the direct cause of our failures this season either. We definitely need our team to have the sort of cohesion Fulham or Birmingham have, but I would have no idea how we would go about doing that.

So your saying our players lack cohesion and its not the managers fault? so who's is it? Dont get me wrong im not jumping on the sack Sam bandwagon but the blame must lie with him, its his job to motivate the team, pick the tactics, gel the players and get results and he isnt doing that, I wish there was someone else to blame but there isnt becuase all the important decisions are made by him.

As for the tactics being the same in the first half as the second they werent plain and simple, the first half we stood off and played longball with dunny playing off kalinic, second half we held the ball and worked it to the wings if your saying we played the same tactics for both halves then I havent got a clue what tactic he is playing then, maybe he is saying go out there and do what you want.

[dazmaz]

Don't be a tit Dazmaz there's plenty people with much more important things on than a semi final like the chap whose wife just gave birth is he a w@nker as well?

thats a completly different scenario.. and completly against the point i was making, please to tell, did you go tonight? if so you would know exactly what i was getting at

[OJRovers]

What does this mean for Sam, who knows, but it was VERY SIGNIFICANT that David Brown from the trust was at the game tonight.

I think he lives locally so you'd think he'd go to the semi final of the club he's on the board of?

Unless you know something else...

[johnradfordsubbuteo]

And a great big thank you for rounding a cheerless night off nicely to - yes Lancashire Constabulary for making Riversiders who wanted to go up Bolton Road/Craven Brow walk all the way round three sides of the ground.

Because we didn't have to walk past a load of tosser cocky Villa morons anyway all the way up the main road to the bottom of the hill did we?

What a load of toss. Let's inconvenience the home fans shall we?

It was more likely to cuase a public order problem because there were plenty of fed up Rovers fans who just wanted to get home as quickly as possible.

What is the bloody purpose of that for God's sake? No attempt to explain the decision.Morons.Why were there so many of them anyway with their big fat overtime payments?

It makes me sick.

Get me a straight jacket.Now.

I'll retire to bedlam.

[sambo]

WHAT a joke.

Miker you have some ***** cheek, there was a bit of noise today, especially second half. Villa fans were always going to be going mental, 1-0 up and dominating in a semi final. It's easy watching on a tele in ###### Australia, but putting up with that shower of sh1te is horrible. And for the record, the Villa away game will be my 10th away game this season and never miss a home game.

If Kalinic doesn't play vs Fulham, then Big Sam has lost it (if he hasn't already).

Big Sam out.

[Tom]

I was there yes with my Dad, my mates didn't go though and that's their perogative in the current situation.

One thing that's striking is that from the start we were majorly outsung by fewer Villa fans.

[dazmaz]

It is a thursday, some people may have gone to City away, some may be working, catching up after the bad weather. Children are back at school, so childminders / babysitters etc may be needed, nightshift workers. There are many many reasons why somebody within 20 minutes of Ewood cannot get to the game. Come on it is unfair to have ago at people because they were not there - especially if you do not know the reason.

Sorry but family commitments - including money family needs, especially just after christmas, come before any football club.

It is your attitude and the wording of your post that is a disgrace.

again someone not grasping the point i was trying to make!!!! what do such people do on a saturday? the game finished not later than 10pm.

tbh im that ###### off im not going into it anymore, iv made my point and im sure several people will agree with what iv said!

[Gogger]

Firstly the bad:

- Salgado he's just too slow to be a winger in my opinion and didn't offer anything going forward.

- Pedersen, just when you thought he couldn't get any worse...

Oh come on. How can you complain about Pedersen after today? Quality crosses and and corners, look at the pass when Kalinic hit the post with his header.

When Olsson came in Pedersen actually got some support on the left side and i liked what i saw. There a big difference playing an acutall left back on left back instead of using Givet who is totaly useless going forward..