[Archived] Portsmouth Vs Blackburn Rovers

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Rovers warm up seemed almost to have a mini party atmosphere, players signing autographs for the kids (in some cases eg grella the pompey kids rather than the rovers ones

I just hope we are not too relaxed,with Utd,Arsenal and Everton still to come at Ewood we could be in for some real hammerings if that's the case!!!

A points better than nowt but It should have been all three yesterday,Sam it appears 'shat out'....the wastefulness of our side riles me at times!

[No Nay Never]

Got to say I travelled down to Portsmouth and was happy with the lads performance, everything but a winner but then again I'm a Rovers supporter not a critic!

[robborover]

To right he is. When they went down to 10 men he should have seized the opportunity and put Kalinic on and had 2 up top but instead he changes Nzonzi for Grella. What a waste of a sub, its like swapping your keepers.

First half I thought we were very good but the real danger was always from either Samba or Jones. Both looked like getting on the score sheet from MGPs for once accurate crosses.

The weather didn't help but we should have killed it off in that first half.

To be honest I'd have gone with a 343. Kanu didn't trouble anyone and we could man-mark Piqiuonne when he came on.

Move Givet to CB with Samba and Jones and push Olsson and Salgado up a bit. Then have something along these lines-

Robbo

Samba Jones Givet

Salgado Grella/Nzonzi Dunn/Emerton Diouf/Hoilet

MGP Roberts/Kalinic Olsson

The point that we all have a problem with is that we didn't use our extra man to move the ball about and put them on the back foot. But we did get a point, it's ust a shame we didn't make it three!

[MarkBRFC71]

Lumping long balls in does not serve to provide an advantage against 10 men. I'm suprised given your obvious level of knowledge that you need to ask.

It does if the pitch is virtually a farmer's field because the weather conditions. Pitches like that are not conducive to playing a passing game - my post was in response to someone who suggested that BFS had brought on Grella for N'Zonzi to get the ball down and play. If that was the case, given the conditions it didn't make sense.

@ Mark: I never saw any evidence of us trying to play the ball on the floor. All I saw was consistenly inaccurate long balls (usually directed in the vague direction of Olsson) and noone following up to challenge the second ball whether a Rovers player won the first one or not. What match were you watching???

I didn't watch the game - merely listened to Radio Lancs which was enough, and as above my comment was in response to another poster. And 'consistently inaccurate long balls' and 'no-one following up the second ball' pretty much sum up 80% of Rovers play this season.

[Amo]

The local Portsmouth rag said Olsson was our MOM but they'd be in no hurry to sign Diouf who was anonymous throughout. Quite right, too. He was pants. Although, the Sunday People match report actually said he was our MOM! I think some newspapers just draw ratings out of a hat.

[thenodrog]

It does if the pitch is virtually a farmer's field because the weather conditions. Pitches like that are not conducive to playing a passing game - my post was in response to someone who suggested that BFS had brought on Grella for N'Zonzi to get the ball down and play. If that was the case, given the conditions it didn't make sense.

The key when playing 10 men (and especially so on a bad pitch btw) is to stretch the opposition by using the full width of the pitch and also utilising the spare man who is nearly always a full back to raid forward. Getting around the back to the by line and pulling crosses back or across is far more dangerous than lumping a long ball up to a waiting pair of centre halves.

[Miker]

It's all well and good to call for a gung ho approach where we throw all our strikers onto the field and attack, but I really don't see how much difference it would've made, given the fact that following the red card we had wave after wave of attacks on the Portsmouth goal with no avail.

Grella was brought on because he would be considered one of our better passing midfielders, I can only assume he was brought on to try and put through some penetrating passes through the Portsmouth back line, which he did attempt to do several times. N'zonzi on the other hand wasn't really playing that role at all. Hoilett and Kalinic were then brougt on to attack, which is what everyone seems to want to have happened. I can't believe there's actually people complaining we didn't bring players on 5 or 10 minutes earlier than we did. That's a bit of a stretch to me to suggest that playing someone 10 minutes earlier would have got us 3 points.

Those of you who didn't see the match, the pitch was absolutely horrid. Playing on a pitch like that is not easy and the game was always going to turn scrappy under those circumstances.

That said, the result was incredibly disappointing. Portsmouth were there for the taking and we couldn't finish the job. We were unlucky with some of our efforts and poor with our finishing in other situations. Someone mentioned earlier that complacency would be our worst enemy and I think that proved to be the case.

[CrazyIvan]

Someone mentioned earlier that complacency would be our worst enemy and I think that proved to be the case.

That was me. Having seen the highlights, we should have won. There were some poor finishes. Roberts, Samba, Dunn... One of those days.

[alexanders]

Dont know if this have been posted

[Balwer]

It's all well and good to call for a gung ho approach where we throw all our strikers onto the field and attack, but I really don't see how much difference it would've made, given the fact that following the red card we had wave after wave of attacks on the Portsmouth goal with no avail.

Grella was brought on because he would be considered one of our better passing midfielders, I can only assume he was brought on to try and put through some penetrating passes through the Portsmouth back line, which he did attempt to do several times. N'zonzi on the other hand wasn't really playing that role at all. Hoilett and Kalinic were then brougt on to attack, which is what everyone seems to want to have happened. I can't believe there's actually people complaining we didn't bring players on 5 or 10 minutes earlier than we did. That's a bit of a stretch to me to suggest that playing someone 10 minutes earlier would have got us 3 points.

Those of you who didn't see the match, the pitch was absolutely horrid. Playing on a pitch like that is not easy and the game was always going to turn scrappy under those circumstances.

That said, the result was incredibly disappointing. Portsmouth were there for the taking and we couldn't finish the job. We were unlucky with some of our efforts and poor with our finishing in other situations. Someone mentioned earlier that complacency would be our worst enemy and I think that proved to be the case.

Spot on assessment Miker. Sums up my own sentiments exactly.

[Mr. E]

anyone read Roberts' comments on the official website? How "it was a lost opportunity" and we didn't convert our chances?

Well yes, Jason, but who exactly do you think is responsible for scoring the goals, besides the central striker? Do you expect Jones to score? Nzonzi? You are the lone striker, it is your personal responsibility ensure we score in a game. You were the biggest reason for our failure on Saturday.

[Balwer]

anyone read Roberts' comments on the official website? How "it was a lost opportunity" and we didn't convert our chances?

Well yes, Jason, but who exactly do you think is responsible for scoring the goals, besides the central striker? Do you expect Jones to score? Nzonzi? You are the lone striker, it is your personal responsibility ensure we score in a game. You were the biggest reason for our failure on Saturday.

Thought it was his poorest game of the year. Kanu really showed him how to hold the ball up too, Jason was very sloppy.

[John]

Thought it was his poorest game of the year. Kanu really showed him how to hold the ball up too, Jason was very sloppy.

That's what Jase is like though. He is not a regular starter at the moment, but it seems he is having more bad days than good ones when he plays.

[bellamy11]

Thought it was his poorest game of the year. Kanu really showed him how to hold the ball up too, Jason was very sloppy.

To be fair to him, he was busting for a p*ss.