[Archived] Stoke Vs Rovers

[philipl]

It means we don't know what we are doing judging by today's effort.

[FourLaneBlue]

Losing 3-0 today means that we have now lost 9 out 13 away from home and have a goal difference in those games of -18.

That simply has to improve.

[beerwins]

Whatever the formation is you can score goals if you are instucted to attack, when we play this formation the team seem to adopt a defensive attitude and in all fairness they dont seem to have got any better at playing this way all season.

When we played Bumley we actually played this formation quite well because dunny was well up for it, the linking role behind the striker is a really important posistion this player can determine how defensive or attacking a team is and at the moment we really miss some flair and brains in this position.

I dont rate the players we have for this formation, Kalinic is stranded on his own with balls lumped to him and he has no-one to link play with, every fan, commentator has noted this I cant understand why this problem hasnt been adressed yet.

[PAFELL]

Did anyone else notice Mr. Graeme James Souness sitting next to Gordon Brown in the front row of the directors area, two seats from JW and 3 seats from Sam at the start of the match. At first glance I thought it was Finn, but upon closer inspection.............What the hell was he doing there?!?

Did anybody else notice sourness at the stoke game? Doctorryan, Rovers would not even consider bringing Sourness back to the club. He was on the verge of being sacked last time until the newcastle came for him.

[1864roverite]

Well well well, after 67 minutes Roverite and his mate walked out of the Britannia (along with many others). It is the very first time ever that with over 20 minutes left I deserted my team, I had simply had enough.

I have been out since 0900 this morning, out on the lash through Mankchester to Stoke, through Bolton to Chorley and never ever have I witnessed such an inept effort by overpaid idiots.

If that was a game of football then under the trade descriptions act each and every one of us deserve a full refund.

Sam Allardyce, you should hang your head in shame. Sending out a team like that with not an ounce of make up, not a shred of fight, no creativity and absolutely no bottle for a fight. Tony Pulis, your a shokcing disgrace, your team is nothing short of a bunch of moronic fools.

The teams on show were shocking at nest. I dont know why Rovers lined up with a midfield because the ball simply passed them by. Rovers could have lined up 8-0-2 such was their inadequacy.

I will be brief.

Robinson - 8 - good saves but needs to command his area.

Chimbonda - 2 - worst game ever. To blame for the first goal, followed his man, stopped and left him unmarked.

Givet- 2 - to blame for goal 2. simply shocking.

Nelsen - 6 - only one of the back 4 to try.

Samba - 2 - muppet for getting sent off for something so petty.

Mgp - 1 - distruibution awful.

Emerton - 2 - did he play ?

NZonzi - 3 - shocking.

Olsson - 7 - at least he tried.

Di Santos - 3 - missed a sitter and did nothing else

kalinic - 5 - no help whatsoever from the team or the referee.

Andrews - 0 - simply fooking shocking

cant comment on the other subs.

tactics - non existant

referee - shocking

In 38 yrs I have seen some shockers, todays game was amongst my worst 5. Rovers didnt compete, made mistake after mistake and let the club, the shirt and the fans down badly.

I am writing a letter to both clubs demanding my £25 back. It wasnt football it was a shocker, simple as that.

Never again will I ever regard Stoke as a football team, they are simply a netball team who are truly the worst ever team to grace the league and they beat us 3-0 !

[AggyBlue]

through Bolton to Chorley

Should've stopped off for a couple in Aggy.

[Plastic Head]

I see everyone's happy to blame Allardyce for the whole thing, and it's true that we do play some poor football, but how about giving a bit of blame to the players as well?

The manager is always responsible for performances and results.

What do my directors do if I fail performance targets? Does he blame my staff and sack some of them? I wish...

[sambo]

I still can't believe we got turned over 3-0 by that shower. We got the basics wrong today. The marking for the first goal was appalling, and Di Santo missed a golden opportunity. If he wants to make it as the top level footballer Nicko (and others) expect of him, he HAS to be more clinical. One goal all season and I don't think it could have been more giftwrapped.

The Hull game is massive. Lose that and we're back in the mire. I think Diouf was a bit drunk when talking about Europe, our away form doesn't allow it.

[broadsword]

Did anybody else notice sourness at the stoke game? Doctorryan, Rovers would not even consider bringing Sourness back to the club. He was on the verge of being sacked last time until the newcastle came for him.

I thought they offered him the job before Allardyce but he said no?

[RIML]

Never again will I ever regard Stoke as a football team, they are simply a netball team who are truly the worst ever team to grace the league and they beat us 3-0 !

According to Lee Dixon they can pass it about and mix it up. I've heard it all now.

[Helmshore blue]

MOTD: 'handful of rovers fans'. So out support is slated even when we sell out.

[USABlue]

I just don't know what to say anymore, today was disgraceful, we looked like a bunch of playersthat had never layed together before and couldn't be bothered. I was ugly it was lacklustre and it is about as much as I can stand. I feel so sorry for you faithful blues that are sending your hard earned money watching this shower. I have witnessed our darkest days but I can't remember ever feeling as disillusioned about my team as I do now. I've close to had enough. It really screwed up my day. How these overpaid "professionals" can put in such an inept erformance is beyond me. Even a hint of caring and giving an effort would help. Alas I feel we are still caable of ulling off relegation from what yesteerday seemed a reasonably safe spot. Sam has to be relaced in the summer, it seems clear to me that he has lost these players I really think they have no faith in what he is wanting to do. A defeat to Hull and we are in dee ######. I'll reserve judgement on how I spend the rest of my Saturdays until after that.

apologies for the missing p's. I can't be arsed to fix it, but like our layers

[martmitch]

I watch pretty much every game even if most are on tv/internet but today was worst I've seen us play for a few years, even by our standards, we got it so wrong I felt relieved it was only 3 on another day it could have been much worse, every one of those awful long throws we all wish stoke had never invented they looked likely to score, we looked totally lost in their half no threat whatsoever, nobody seemed to want to attack samba being sent off was nothing to do with it. Hoping the players get a right hiding for that monstrosity and we can turn it around for the hull + bolton games then at least we should be safe

[Brfcrule1]

I have to say I agree after watching footy first. I heard it was bad but I did not know it was that bad totally inept toothless performance from these bunch of overpaid prima donnas. I have to say I am ashamed to be a rovers fan and things need to change very quickly and more alarming is our away performances. I can't even remember the last time we won on the road! and something has to change very quickly. I was watching all the goals and the first one why does nobody close down Higginbottom it is absolutely shocking marking from a set piece and we know they are dangerous from set plays but still no-one closes him down. For the 2nd goal I would really like to know what is going through Givet's head he should be marking Sidibe much better and the 3rd one why was Etherington allowed go run all that way and place that ball wherever he wanted our defending has to be 10 times better otherwise we will be in deep trouble. To conclude DiSanto has to be driven back to West London asap that headed chance could not have been better gift wrapped and why oh why does he not head that chance down instead of upwards you are more likely to score heading it downwards from so close in,Kalinic was the only one of the strikers to try and was given no help and I felt sorry for him and I know if it was kalinic with that headed chance the keeper would be picking the ball out of the net. I was also surprised to not see Jase Roberts given some game time as this was his sort of game someone strong enough able to stand up to the hull defence and hold the ball up ok in my opinion that is bad management,also another thing badly lacking was pace on the wings Hoilett would have provided better pace to cause them problems, judging from this performance if no-one was lined up for when McCarthy was sold we should never have sold him in the first place also have to ask what happened to Grella thought he was fit for this one and we should have at least had Rigters on the bench would have given us another option and anyone would have been better than Julie sat on our bench!.

[Sysagent]

I should have stuck with the boxing that was on the stream...

;-)

Be interesting to know if so far in this season Sam has played the same starting eleven for even two matches concurrently?

How the team can ever be expected to play as a team is beyond me, when every week the personnel are changing, it's no wonder they look clueless week in week out.

I think Sam should be sticking to a solid eleven (barring injuries) and stopping this bloody revolving door.

[Majiball]

We do have a sports psychologist and have had for some time under Sam.

His name is Jamil Qureshi and he works with the Ryder Cup team at golf.

Just glad we are playing at home this year cos if we were playing away from home in the USA... then we would get a right spanking!

He was taken on part-time last year.

Is he still with us? Last year we went away a couple of times for team building and the such but this year no more?

Anyway a part-time Shrink is not the way forward, get on the blower to Nesti asap Sam before he goes to Chelsea!!!!!

No I'm not, how am I implying that? The fans wanted two strikers, Kalinic is a striker, Di Santo a striker which = two strikers. All I'm saying is we had two strikers on, I'm not implying anything else.

How many strikers were playing today?

I have stopped commenting on tactics because of silly posts like this, sorry RIML. Vinnie Jones once played in goal, so was he a midfielder at that time??? No he was a fricking goalkeeper, as that was his role at that time.

Hiding behind two strikers on the pitch, even when one was clearly playing in midfield doesn't mean there are two strikers playing. One is a striker, the other a midfielder, regardless of their preferred playing position.

You keep saying the fans got what they wanted two strikers on the pitch, they didn't get that at all. They got one striker and a make-shift midfielder.

If I was to play Nelsen up front would he be a center back at that moment in time??

Was Samba a striker or a center back last season??

[deryck guyler's spoon]

Saw the game "as live" Down Under. Watched The Dingles live v West Ham and against Chelsea last week. I fear we are going to get absolutely mullured at T'Turd.

[benmaiden]

Although we've all been moaning about our 4-5-1, I thought if ever a game cried out for 4-5-1 and trying to boss the midfield with our o so famous 'physical' approach, it was today!

N'zonzi needs to be rested, he looks burnt out, lightweight, and is immensely slow at closing people down.

[RIML]

I have stopped commenting on tactics because of silly posts like this, sorry RIML. Vinnie Jones once played in goal, so was he a midfielder at that time??? No he was a fricking goalkeeper, as that was his role at that time.

Hiding behind two strikers on the pitch, even when one was clearly playing in midfield doesn't mean there are two strikers playing. One is a striker, the other a midfielder, regardless of their preferred playing position.

You keep saying the fans got what they wanted two strikers on the pitch, they didn't get that at all. They got one striker and a make-shift midfielder.

If I was to play Nelsen up front would he be a center back at that moment in time??

Was Samba a striker or a center back last season??

If you'd read my previous posts you wouldn't need to write all that because it's been mentioned before.

[Majiball]

If you'd read my previous posts you wouldn't need to write all that because it's been mentioned before.

I did and you were still saying that we were playing with two strikers on the pitch, which sadly was wrong.

[Roost]

Sam, please explain the following:

1/ Di Santo for Andrews

2/ Chimbonda for salgado

I already had serious doubts about your ability to provide any entertainment in the teams you pick, but do you not realise just how damaging your selections are becoming?

You are even beginning to admit that we are playing some horrendous football at the moment and yet still make substitutions like those above.

Allardyce, pay me back my £25 for the shyte I had to sit through yesterday and go and find yourself another Bolton or Newcastle to make a total mess of - DO NOT spend one more minute trying to destroy my club.

You are a disgrace.

[RIML]

I did and you were still saying that we were playing with two strikers on the pitch, which sadly was wrong.

Well what were we playing with? Diouf is a winger but I noticed against Wigan he drifted up front to play as a two, just before he was subbed. I think that's what we intended to do yesterday with Di Santo but it didn't work.

Like I said,

"Whether they played up front together is another matter but that's not what I said, two strikers were on the field of play"

Someone has already pointed out - No formation is static.

[Majiball]

Well what were we playing with? Diouf is a winger but I noticed against Wigan he drifted up front to play as a two, just before he was subbed. I think that's what we intended to do yesterday with Di Santo but it didn't work.

Like I said,

"Whether they played up front together is another matter but that's not what I said, two strikers were on the field of play"

Someone has already pointed out - No formation is static.

you just don't get it.

If he's not playing in the role of a striker, he's not a striker at that moment in time.

If I gave you a mop and bucket at work that day and said clean the toliets and you normally answer the phones are you still a seceraty?? No, on that day at that moment your a cleaner.

Context is lost on most these days.

You claimed Sam gave the fans the two strikers, he could have fielded a whole team of strikers but they wouldn't all then be strikers, would they????

I work as a sports scientist, but when I coach football I become a football coach, roles???? do you get it yet??

The fans aren't asking for two strikers just to be on the pitch they want two strikers playing as strikers in a partnership.

[John]

The fans aren't asking for two strikers just to be on the pitch they want two strikers playing as strikers in a partnership.

With a woeful midfield it would make a minor difference.

Coaching can only get you so far, end of the day, you need quality too.

The fans can ask for what they want, most fans are fickle anyway.

[RIML]

you just don't get it.

If he's not playing in the role of a striker, he's not a striker at that moment in time.

You claimed Sam gave the fans the two strikers, he could have fielded a whole team of strikers but they wouldn't all then be strikers, would they????

The fans aren't asking for two strikers just to be on the pitch they want two strikers playing as strikers in a partnership.

Of course I understand.

The formation was something like this

Robinson

Chimbonda Nelsen Samba Givet

Emerton Nzonzi Pedersen Olsson

Di Santo

-----------------------Kalinic

Diouf - "The gaffer has changed the way we play" "We now play 4-3-3 and when we don't have the ball we play 4-5-1. I think this means,

4-3-3 when we have the ball - Di Santo Pedersen and Kalinic

4-5-1 when we don't have the ball - Kalinic up front and Di Santo and Pedersen dropping deep.

The thing is it didn't work.

- Forwards, also known as attackers and strikers. Di Santo played as an attacker, out wide, that doesn't necessarily mean he played as an attacking midfielder, more like a second striker.

- They play nearest to the opposing team's goal. Di Santo did that he was just out wide and nowhere near Kalinic.

Modern team formations usually include one to three forwards; two is most common. Coaches typically field one striker who plays in an advanced position (the centre forward), and another attacking forward who plays somewhat deeper and assists in making goals as well as scoring (the second striker).