[Archived] Tottenham Vs Rovers

[Exiled in Toronto]

The manager was right, and those who were at the game today would agree with him.

But then you are the expert and you know better.

44% possession and 1 effort on target is the lion's share?

[47er]

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.

On the basis of that game we'd have been better with Emerton at right-back and Ollson at left-back. I would have taken Salgado off at half-time and Chimbonda and brought on Di Santo and Diouf. I know Diouf isn't exactly popular in some quarters but at least he can retain possession. However, so many players were struggling (particularly Dunn) that I doubt anything would have changed the result.

[jim mk2]

44% possession and 1 effort on target is the lion's share?

Didn't have my calculator with me in the ground but Rovers dominated much of the play in the first half, silenced the crowd and generally gave a good account of themselves over the 90 mins.

We lost the match because of individual errors the type of which better quality and more expensive players we cannot afford do not make.

[JAL]

Just hope big Sam has a stern one to one with dizzy Pascal, and, if dizzy Pascal puts up an argument, then I fully hope big Sam gives him a good hiding Souness style. For far to long now hes played with his head up his arse.

Thought MGP again was again our most creative source and even though I criticise Keef in a Rovers shirt hes certainly does more than Dizzy Pascal and Emmerton combined.

Good to see Di Santo on with Kalinic.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

Didn't have my calculator with me in the ground

You body swerved the point there like Bale skipping past Salgado.

[JAL]

You cant allow a player to touch the ball with his hand and then allow him to control the next movement and get away with it. Thats called gaining an unfair advantage.

[47er]

But games are played at high speed in teh Premiership.

What is teh point at getting a 35 year from real Madrid whose legs have gone and who has never really had to defend? And paying them £40k a week? Mad.

I generally support Allardyce on the basis that we couldn't guarantee we'd find anyone better but this is spot on.

[Tris]

We lost the match because of individual errors the type of which better quality and more expensive players we cannot afford do not make.

We lost the match because losing away from home is par for the course under this manager. Only Burnley have lost more away fixtures this season. The same players manage to get results at Ewood Park but the manager is incapable of setting them up to perform correctly away from home.

Customary drivel from the trolling cheerleader of the anti-Allardyce brigade.

That recent 2 month ban (is that 5 bans now??) seems to have messed you up. When you have developed a modicum of self control and learned some manners, then we can decide who is the troll around here.

[47er]

It's no surprise to discover you can't even count, but with Sunderland on 30 points and us on 34 we haven't been 5 points clear of 13th at any stage today. With Bolton moving to 32 it's one of the more stupid observations made on this thread.

But with all your football genius knowledge, you can perhaps explain how Rovers boast a better home record than Aston Villa but a worse away record than Portsmouth.

The players are good enough to get results in this league, the home form proves that. It's the same players who travel away, the pitches are still green and the goals are the same size.

So the preparation, tactics, approach and attitude must be at fault for away games - a fact which is blindingly obvious to anyone who has been to even a handful of away games since December 2008. That is entirely down to the management on the football side. Nothing else.

I see your mates have rewarded you for that post of incredible illogicality. If the manager's "preparation, tactics...etc" are responsible for the poor away results, then the manager's "preparation,tactics...etc" must equally be responsible for the outstanding home form. True? Its the same players who play at home, the pitches are still green and the goals are the same size. Also its the same manager! What you appear to want to do is to credit the players for the home results and blame the manager for the away results.

No logic at all there, just plain prejudice a fact which is blindingly obvious to anyone who reads your posts.

[Tris]

I see your mates have rewarded you for that post of incredible illogicality. If the manager's "preparation, tactics...etc" are responsible for the poor away results, then the manager's "preparation,tactics...etc" must equally be responsible for the outstanding home form. True? Its the same players who play at home, the pitches are still green and the goals are the same size. Also its the same manager! What you appear to want to do is to credit the players for the home results and blame the manager for the away results.

No logic at all there, just plain prejudice a fact which is blindingly obvious to anyone who reads your tripe.

League football is about winning. If this team can win at home then the same players can also win away, if they are used correctly.

They are not being used correctly. You need to open your eyes.

[graddomi88]

You cant allow a player to touch the ball with his hand and then allow him to control the next movement and get away with it. Thats called gaining an unfair advantage.

But you can allow Dawson to jump all over him?

[JAL]

But you can allow Dawson to jump all over him?

Yes, providing he doesnt clearly foul him.

[broadsword]

But Nicko didn't intentionally control the ball, it was the defender all over him that caused him to do that. There was nothing wrong with that goal, and it was a cracker.

I was questioning what Kalinic was all about earlier in the season, getting dribs and drabs of games here and there, but I have to come out now and say he's the real deal.

[Brfcrule1]

looking at the game today with all thats gone one have come to a few conclusions Brown needs to be sold that 2nd Pav goal even an average keeper would have saved thatwe need to desperately recall Mark Bunn the last I saw he seems pretty solid and as many have said Chimbonda needs to be sold at fault for 2 of the goals reminds me a bit like Gray ok going forward but gets caught out far too much and a better team would have punished us although Salgado gets the nod recently the sooner Jacobsen comes back the better we will be I think we should have swapped salgado to the other side as it was glaringly obvious to everyone whenever Bale got the ball Salgado would never cope with Bale as they said a bit of a mismatch there however looking at it again Dunn should have been given the penalty it was a clear penalty and when he said Kalinic deliberately handled the ball he has never watched football as clearly dawson jumps right into Kalinic so should have been a foul to us and have to say it was one of his poor games as for world cup referee my a*** but other than the mistakes thought we did ok also have to say the goal conceded on half time Chimbonda should have marked better but was speechless for that corner NZonzi,Samba,Chimbonda were ball watchingand why did Salgado not stay on the post if he stays on the post as most good defenders do he would have headed out that half time goal and it might have finished differently but have to say if we fail to get into 7th & Europe this season has been a big disapointment but lets hope now we are on home soil lets hope we can carry on our good home form.

[rover_groo]

Overall in relation to this game, we did play some good footbal at times. However, although we were let down by some bad decisions from the referee there were players who have to take fault for the way we played at times and also some tactical decisions. Main points: -

1. Wrong formation against a side missing 6 key players, with their 2 main central defenders out (4-4-2 instead of 4-5-1)

2. Passing was terrible at times and don't know how we ended up with 66% pass rate. N'zonzi, Dunn, Salgado's distribution was horrific at times. (Distribution needs to be addressed and rule out school boy errors)

3. Salgado to start against Bale? Mistake, as Bale is in the form of his life and it wasn't fair on Salgado. What about the foul throw?

4. Diouf benched. That I was happy with and if he started or came on as sub he wouldn't have offered us much else.

5. Kalinic's performance. Certainly another eye-catching effort. Hoddle also agreed.

For the next games, a 4-5-1 will suit against Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal, but we need to close down their midfield. The rest we should be adopting a 4-4-2 formation as we can win these games and realistically we can only win with 2 strikers, as we will cause opposition problems and one striker alone isn't enough to feed off from scraps.

Chimbonda has just shown why Spurs sold him.

Chimbonda was at fault for the 1st and I think Andrews should be partly culpable for the 3rd goal. At the end of the day he wanders back into the centre, leaving his man and then Chimbonda gets slated for not making up the short run. Yes he could have made the run, but if Andrews had covered his man, then Chimbonda wouldn't have been in as close.

We were well in the game until Brown had his howler so 4-5-1 was ugly but was working.

Couldn't disagree more. Spurs had around 6 1st team players out injured and both their centre-halves were injured, so we stick one up front.

Terrible formation and it brings back memories of the 3-1 victory over Pompey at home. Why be so negative, when the game is actually there for the taking. When we switched to 4-4-2, Spurs were under huge pressure, especially in the last 15 minutes as it took us time to adopt. Same against Pompey 1-0 down and came back to win 3-1.

I think Warnock was sold to cover a £5m hole in the budget, presumably part of that is / was wages. I think you're correct Warnock wasn't sold just to cover Salgado but I'm pretty sure he was sold simply to balance the books.

Warnock sold to balance books. He also knew he had to get away to attempt to resurrect his International career.

[John]

No doubt, I could not fully understand what Sam was upto today with some decisions. Weird subs, Salgado too slow etc etc..

But then again, those who think we have quality attacking players, we simply don't - reality check needed. Spurs were not even pressing us at times, and we still had difficulty making their goalkeeper work.

Nothing to do with 'hoofball', just a complete lack of quality - change of manager would not change that sadly...

[John]

Dunn flattered to deceive. My impression was too many of his passes failed to complete. And at other times he looked out of the game at times.

With our infamous 4-5-1 we should be able to get away with it, but we are carrying Dunn at points, he really struggles with the energy levels required.

Not having a go at him, but to think he is our best creative/attacking player.....yet people are demanding we keep it more on the floor. With some of the miss placed passes yesterday, in dangerous areas, we are asking for trouble.

[JAL]

But Nicko didn't intentionally control the ball, it was the defender all over him that caused him to do that. There was nothing wrong with that goal, and it was a cracker.

Obviously the pushing wasnt enough for the referee to warrant a free kick against Dawson unfortunately for Kalinic.

[Sysagent]

It's Chelsea then Birmingham.

Nowt like a few pints in the afternoon to mess yer head up is there!

To be honest I think it was more of a subconscious thing to erase the oncoming fixture from my mind as I am dreading it...

;-)

Oh and good to see the MOTD coverage of the match being as attentive to Rover's match play as ever, why they bother even showing any of our matches is beyond me and no way in a million years should that goal of Kalinic's been disallowed.

[thenodrog]

The players are good enough to get results in this league, the home form proves that. It's the same players who travel away, the pitches are still green and the goals are the same size.

So the preparation, tactics, approach and attitude must be at fault for away games - a fact which is blindingly obvious to anyone who has been to even a handful of away games since December 2008. That is entirely down to the management on the football side. Nothing else.

Dec 2008!!!! Tris are you suggesting that the away form was good before that?

You are attemting to change history here. Lest we forget you have obviously chosen to overlook the 'preparation, tactics, approach and attitude 'under your Chosen One Ince had just seen us

1. glean 13 points out of 17 matches!

2. lose 6 straight matches in awful manner.

3. go a record 11 matches without a win.

4. and the manager publically lose the dressing room.

The results under SA are far from perfect as he attempts to salvage the car crash that he inherited from the disastrous John Williams and Paul Ince double act before him but we are in a much stronger position overall.

After that Ince shambles SA almost represented the second coming that December! Only a fool would deny that and you are not a fool. Your attacks on Allardyce are not based on the Prem table so imo they are personal. Basic logic is simply not applying to your argument so what really is at the back of it all? What has 'Fat slug' Allardyce done to you other than save BRFC from 99.9% certain relegation?

Tell me are you speaking for yourself or are you just being the frontman for somebody whose nose has been put out of joint by Allardyce but who holds a senior position within the club? You have evaded my questions on this matter a number of times before, I may have an inkling as to why but I'd like to hear the real reasons from you. I'd hate to see further damage caused to our club by some rotten apple in our barrell who has as yet gone unnoticed.

[Amo]

Even though Tris is outspoken about his personal dislike of our manager, what he says is true. Sam is NOT getting the best out of the players away from home. There's no reason why our away form should be so shockingly disparate to our home form. If anyone thinks we can hope for no better than 1 win in 14 away games then they need their head testing. I don't know why we don't simply approach the away games as we did in the cup and just go for it. Are we likely to do any worse?

Our solid home form is keeping us afloat, but the dilapidated away form is costing us prize money at the end of the season. Money Sam will really feel the pinch of next season when he's scrambling around for new signings.

[thenodrog]

You realize that you're doing an Allardyce by quoting statistics to argue that we were ever in the game?

We were crap. There's nothing good to take from that performance. Seven shots on goal you say. Apart from our goal, how many of them troubled their keeper? In fact, I don't even care. Statistics like these are meaningless.

If you're talking about the foul on Dunn, I think you'll find that Palacios got the ball before Corluka bundled him down. Anyway, if you really want to play that game then Tottenham had at least two stone wall penalties for fouls by Salgado on Bale.

And now you're using Andy Gray as evidence that we played well. I give up...

Good. TFFT!

I wish he'd used Andy Gary as evidence much sooner.

btw just as an aside have you ever considered that our best player of two years ago can get nowhere near Spurs 1st team? Don't bother to reply btw.

Great result at t'turf today though. Takes the edge off the loss.

Am I alone in thinking a draw would actually have been better?

[tony gale's mic]

Even though Tris is outspoken about his personal dislike of our manager, what he says is true. Sam is NOT getting the best out of the players away from home. There's no reason why our away form should be so shockingly disparate to our home form. If anyone thinks we can hope for no better than 1 win in 14 away games then they need their head testing. I don't know why we don't simply approach the away games as we did in the cup and just go for it. Are we likely to do any worse?

Our solid home form is keeping us afloat, but the dilapidated away form is costing us prize money at the end of the season. Money Sam will really feel the pinch of next season when he's scrambling around for new signings.

People can say that our excellent home form could be gaining us prize money, it's swings and roundabouts. We all acknowledge the away form is very poor but most of us don't want to see Big Sam sacked. The likes of Tris do.

[thenodrog]

Eh? Salgado wasn't atrocious because it should've been realised before the game that Salgado would be atrocious, so it's the manager's fault for playing him?

He was absolute bobbins, hardly got nywhere near Bale. Now, Bale might be one of the better left wing men in the division, I don't know, I don't keep tabs. But even so, Salgado looked like what he is - out of his depth. He should've retired already. Why didn't Allardyce take him off for God's sakes, he was a glaring weak point.

These top players and their agents seem to think that going for a trial at a new club is beneath them. I've never understood that concept and I'm sure that Salgado should be the last that we take on on the basis of past exploits alone.

[Amo]

People can say that our excellent home form could be gaining us prize money, it's swings and roundabouts. We all acknowledge the away form is very poor but most of us don't want to see Big Sam sacked. The likes of Tris do.

That's the thing, Sam has done a great job with our home form that it only begs the question why the away form is so unbalanced. By comparison, there is no reason why 1 win in 14 should be acceptable away from home. Tris does have a point, even if it he is sporting a certain agenda.