[Archived] Tottenham Vs Rovers

[Miker]

If I had to point fingers, I'd point mine at Brown. Not only was he at fault during the goals, but his lack of organisation and command of the box didn't help us defensively. I'm not sure how much coincidence there was in us playing our best stuff in the 25 minutes before Robinson came off.

[1864roverite]

Brown, Salgado and Chimbonda were atrocious.

All are to blame for the defeat EQUALLY.

When you have 8 players trying to get a point you would expect the more "seasoned" players to come to the fore, Salgado and Chimbonda didnt and cost us dearly. Add that to the belly flop that Brown offered for the second goal and you have a 3 goal against explanation.

Once again Sams tactics and subs didnt work, he got it wrong from the off.

Big positive with Niko, NZonzi and Olsson all playing well. Emerton and Dunny drifted, MGP is coming on leaps and bounds (wonder why), Samba and Givet were solid and were let down by the full backs. Brown was awful and its a pity we will see him keeping versus Chelsa and Brum and maybe even the dingles.

Rovers now have two hard games at home before the biggest away game of the season. They have to put it together and where better than turd moor. Something has to give with our away form and the way to do it ?

A 2-0 away in at t'urd.

[Miker]

I really would like to see more of Di Santo playing alongside Kalinic- we showed some sharpness and much more threat when he came on.

Di Santo looked a lot better today.

[Blackpool_Rover]

Salgado wasn't antrocious...that was down to the manager and emerton. Theres no way anyone could have thought before that game that salgado could match bale for pace. Chimbonda and Brown were terrible and the sloppy play from nzonzi and dunn at times was frustrating.

[1864roverite]

Sorry BP, IT should have been considered, Bale has been on fire these past 4 or 5 weeks and if Rovers had been watching Spurs they should really have noticed it. Salgado was so far out of the game in the first 45 it was untrue. He was to blame for the 3rd goal, he stood and watched the ball come in and was stranded like a muppet on desert island as Bale launched the ball across the area for the other inept full back chimbonda to stand and stare as the ball went into our goal.

[thenodrog]

The defending for the 3rd goal was beyond a joke. Two Spurs players in the box, and Pavlyuchenko finds himself unmarked twice.

I think that is giving no credit for one of the best crosses I have seen this season. Right up there with Valencias (or Nani's) for Rooneys header last week.

Nice to see Fat Rafa's lot drop further out of the picture for 4th I suppose...

Every cloud has a silver lining I suppose.

[Amo]

I didn't expect much from this game (who would with our away record!?) but there would be no quarrel if Spurs had clearly outclassed us. Instead, we shot ourselves in the foot yet again with lax defending and lack of ideas with the ball. Our away form is a major concern and there is something fundamentally wrong with Sam's approach on the road. Detractors can argue that our home record is good enough, but more points on the road = more £££ and less scrimping around to keep our heads above water.

I also agree with whoever said that Bunn's on-loan experience is more valuable than playing second fiddle to Robinson. I'm hoping he will come back next season with that experience and confidence under his belt to dislodge Brown and seriously challenge our current number one.

[cesus]

I really don't think we gave a bad account of ourselves today. I think the score was a tad harsh but the defending for the goals was truly truly terrible!

I don't think Sam did anything wrong today, we played some decent stuff but some of the players need to have a look at themselves after today the 2nd and 3rd goals were sunday league standard.

[MarkBRFC71]

You don't need to be the great sage of all things Rovers to see that you know f**k all about football from your posts.

I would say that your posts prove your total lack of any football nous too, but hey, it's an opinions game. Ours differ, I can accept that without getting personal - it seems you can't take it when people don't agree with you. Perhaps that's because when it comes to football it happens rather a lot?

Granted we've done well to be 13th, but it's largely in spite of BFS, not because of him.

Oh, and I'm STILL waiting for the list of BFS 'inspired' decisions. Something tells me you're struggling, either because there are so few or you're too busy cracking one off over a life-size pic of Allardyce.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Not a good day for the manager. Grandad left on his own against Bale; Dunn and Emerton did nothing to justify their recall; nonsensical subbing; awful defending from set-pieces for goals 1 and 3. No doubt it'll all be the ref's fault though.

[ewoodpo]

I really don't think we gave a bad account of ourselves today. I think the score was a tad harsh but the defending for the goals was truly truly terrible!

I don't think Sam did anything wrong today, we played some decent stuff but some of the players need to have a look at themselves after today the 2nd and 3rd goals were sunday league standard.

Sam didn't do anything wrong !!!!! It was pretty obvious that Salgado was struggling he should have switched fullbacks after the first 20 minutes. Again 2-0 down and he brings Andrews on

brilliant tactics once again. As soon as he brought another forward on we started playing .

[DanLad]

Not a good day for the manager. Grandad left on his own against Bale; Dunn and Emerton did nothing to justify their recall; nonsensical subbing; awful defending from set-pieces for goals 1 and 3. No doubt it'll all be the ref's fault though.

Wholeheartedly agree with most of this.

Dunn had one run and should have had a pen, though.

Emerton covered some ground, as usual, but has no guile.

Subs - poor.

Couldn't believe that Salgado came out for the second half. Can't believe Andrews came on - game over as soon as that happened.

[Rover Down Under]

That wasn't as bad as some are making out. We played well in patches, lost Robbo and then the game and had a wonderful goal by Niko ruled out - AGAIN! But what was with the Andrews sub? Baffling yet again. Too many long balls as well, we played nicer stuff on the floor, why not keep doing that?

I HATE, HATE, HATE Spurs and their fans and would love them and all the other cheating, run / managed by crooks teams to go the way of Pompey.

[Harry Balls]

Really poor performance. Awful tactics, bizzare substitutions and a pillock called Pascal Chimbonda meant that not only did we lose, but we played the most pathetic football I have seen from us since the moron Ince was in charge.

Apart from our goal, we didn't trouble their keeper once. We didn't even try to make a game of it. Kalinic, bless him, had nothing but excrement to work with.

Dunn and Pedersen were awful. N'Zonzi does nothing but pass sideways or backwards (new Viera my arse). And even Stevie Wonder could see that Salgado didn't stand a chance against Bale so only god knows why the self proclaimed expert didn't change things around.

A couple of lessons should be taken away from todays game. Firstly, we have too much crap in our squad that needs to be let go in the summer (Brown and Chimbonda being prime examples). Secondly, our manager has to realize that setting us up to play like this today is never going to work. At Liverpool we still played a direct system but we were pressing high up the pitch which caused the opposition problems. Today, we let them play at us and didn't even attempt to make a tackle until they reached our third. It seemed like an entirely different set of instructions were given out between these two games.

My final gripe; against Liverpool I really thought the more physical side of our game was coming back. Where the hell was that today? I don't expect us to win games like these but what I do expect is for us to go down fighting. Unfortunately, our manager seems to write certain games off and that is inevitably reflected in our performances...

[DP]

A poor refereeing display and some individual errors will allow Allardyce to dodge the blame for another lacklustre away performance.

Chimbonda needs his contract ripping up. He's a journeyman and his like of effort to close players down completely offsets the talent he has.

It's our ambition in away games that worries me. We have good players and yet their confidence just isn't there. This has to come from the manager.

[Mr. E]

So what now, we have to wait until August to play another competitive game?

[des]

well that just about sums up our seasons todate.

Good first half,poor marking at corner one down.

second half takes off center half bring on andrews and puts him at center half, why.

play one front to keep it tight and not to get out numbered on the break, second goal want happens we are caught two on two, with five in middle that should never happen.

No bite up front. We do need to play twp up front, yes that two up front, not one playing deep and all that, the midfeild today did not get in front or go beyond the lone forward. If that happens then no wonder we do not score many goals.

If we want to play five in the middle them play three at the back.

well lets roll on the next home game.

[Eddie]

Terrible defending by Chimbonda for the third goal, really poor stuff. Saw the man was in front of him and put no effort in to get there. Full-back positions were our weak-spots today...does that mean we will sign 15 more in the summer?

[Sysagent]

Thought we were good for the game in the first twenty minutes and if we had the penalty decision awarded I think we would have come away with a a draw which would have been a fair reflection of the game.

In my opinion Chimbonda lost us the game, he was woeful and I still have to work out why Sam put Andrews in for Givet...

As Toyah said:-

"It's a Mystery!"

No matter Brum next.

[DanLad]

We do need to play twp up front, yes that two up front, not one playing deep and all that, the midfeild today did not get in front or go beyond the lone forward. If that happens then no wonder we do not score many goals.

If we want to play five in the middle them play three at the back.

The one 'in the hole' seems to not do enough to help the striker and not do enough to help midfield. I know Dunny played that position very well earlier in the season, but it now seems like we're playing with 10 men.

And then we bring Andrews on and we're effectively playing with 9...

I've got to agree with some on the N'Zonzi knockers, now, as well. When does he actually do anything to really influence or boss the game?

[Blue n White Rover]

No matter Brum next.

It's Chelsea then Birmingham.

Decent in the 1st half, unlucky to concede just before half time. Chimbonda really does need to be dropped, and Salgado had a torrid time against Bale. They were our weakest players in the team and that has cost us a point from todays performance.

Not a clue what Brown was doing with the second goal, routine stop for a GK and somehow he let it past. The sooner Robbo is back the better.

Don't think we'll get anything against Chelsea, however, the next 2 games after that are crucial!!

[Exiled in Toronto]

Just listened to the expert and apparently we had the lion's share of the game. But for being let down by defenders and the ref, he was happy.

[cesus]

Bizarre subs, in my opinion putting Di Santo on with 30 mins to go would have been suicide it would have played well into spurs hands and we would have been steamrollered due to all the gaps in midfield! We were well in the game until Brown had his howler so 4-5-1 was ugly but was working. Maybe Sam thought nick a goal back then go 442 abit later, Di Santo has not set the world alight with goals and for me that sub was pretty logical. Andrews was brought on as Emerton was pish, so again pretty logical.

[Blue n White Rover]

Just listened to the expert and apparently we had the lion's share of the game. But for being let down by defenders and the ref, he was happy.

You can't really disagree with that. We could have prevented all 3 goals today, it was our poor defending that cost us, rather than Spurs' quality.

Chimbonda went AWOL for the 1st and last goal. He lost Defoe and Pavelyuchenko who both went on to score. The second goal was an error from Brown.

We should have had a penalty at 0-0 and that would have changed the whole complexity of the game. It wasn't given and we were made to pay for it. Kalinic had a cracking goal disallowed too, for an apparent handball, when he was clearly pushed from behind.

Poor performance from Howard Webb, and it's not many times I say that about him.

[Harry Balls]

Just listened to the expert and apparently we had the lion's share of the game. But for being let down by defenders and the ref, he was happy.

This is what really pi$$es me off about Allardyce. We were awful and I can't believe that anyone would try to argue otherwise.

Yes, the goals we conceded were poor and should have been prevented. But that does not mean we deserved anything from this game. On the contrary, it would have been an injustice to the sport if we did steal a point.

If he was happy with that pathetic display then I would be very worried...