[Archived] Poll Time - Rovers Under Big Sam Part 2

[Miker]

I think a good point to make is that the teams who have built more solid foundations for their team, and less fancy football, such as us, Stoke, Fulham and Birmingham are doing a lot better than those that haven't. Portsmouth, Hull, Burnley/Bolton(under Coyle), Wigan, West Ham and Wolves are all the strugglers at the bottom. I would say they play some good football and try to be more attacking in their games, rather than stick to keeping a solid defence like we have throughout the season. Results speak for themselves.

[Kelbo]

When dicussing the Man U game and their missing star player, it is important to pay attention to Mike Phelans comments on MOD !!

Not word for word but something on these lines.

'Yes, we missed Rooney, But the players bought by Man U were bought because they were capable of doing the job for which they were brought in'

And lets just analise those players, current England captain, Vidic a top Centre back and would get into most European sides, Van Der Sar one of the most capped keepers in Europe, Valencia, a top player who destryed Munich prior to the sending off of Rafael, Nani, good player and Portuguese international, Neville, getting older but still half decent with lots of international caps, Giggs and Scholes still decent, Berbatov, despite his misses has an incredible first touch etc etc.

And we nullified their threat and had a couple of chances to win the game, was it they were bad or was it we got our tactics right and were disciplined and comitted?

Stephen Warnock said after Villa came here in the league ' Blackburn are a very difficult side to play against' now if we can keep such a discipline and add a bit of firepower, we could surprise one or two next year!!

[Mr. E]

We are operating on bare minimum full stop. The 'heights' of Souness and Hughes are not guaranteed to return under any manager and with any amount of funding. The issue is running the club in an orderly manner and not turning into a Pompey, West Ham, Newcastle, Charlton, Southampton or Leeds.

We have been operating on a bare minimum for a long time now, that's not the question. Obviously nothing is "guaranteed", and we overachieved greatly under Souness and Hughes - but what that proved is that yes, it is possible for a club like ours to compete near the top still.

Once Sam has strengthened all areas over a period of time he will no doubt have to start rebuilding again as players move on to pastures new. It's the nature of the beast for a club like ours, we all need to realise that we are not a big club and as long as we are in the top flight we are punching above our weight.

Yeah, sorry, but I will never accept that type of thing. No one ever achieved anything by accepting "the way things are". Realistically speaking, many clubs in the Championship have more resources than us, so should we just "accept" that and give them our place in the Premiership? Obviously no. We need to keep fighting no matter what the odds are. "Rebuilding periods" are extremely dangerous for our survival, as we saw last season, they knock us to the back of the line, and destroy all the progress we had made. Sooner or later they're gonna cost us our Premiership place. Obviously every club has to undergo them once in a while, but for us it seems like its every season or every other season. We have to start doing our damndest to keep our players, at least for longer periods of time, or else we will never move forward. Things like Bellamy or Santa Cruz can't keep happening.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I watch Rovers and look for results, goals, performances and squad development in that order.

Much as I dislike Sam, I would score him B, D, C and B.

B for results because, although our league position is good, we still have lost more than we have won. Mid-table used to be an evens win loss but in this crap league you can be top half with a losing record. Good at the back though, apart from when we give up and concede loads. Not sure I can remember another season when we let in 6 goals twice and a five.

D for goals. We are on track for our 2nd lowest ever goals total in our Premier League history. We need another 4 to match what we did when we went down. And more than half of our goals have come from set plays, so that's I think 15 goals so far from open play, which is dreadful.

C for performances. A few good ones, a few terrible ones and a lot of forgettable ones

B for squad development. Would have been an A if he had signed a goalscorer.

[John]

On the style of football comments.

Whilst Sam obviously likes a direct style of play, as he knows it can get results, I really don't think we have the players to play a more passing game.

Plus I am not sure we have 2 good enough strikers to play 4-4-2 (or two strikers).

[47er]

In your face football?

Think it was more a case of 'Lucky that Rooney was injured and Berbatov is ****' football?

Ever thought of changing your name to Broken Record?

[S15]

We have been operating on a bare minimum for a long time now, that's not the question. Obviously nothing is "guaranteed", and we overachieved greatly under Souness and Hughes - but what that proved is that yes, it is possible for a club like ours to compete near the top still.

Souness spent large sums of money, so your argument is void.

Hughes finished 15th, 6th, 10th and 7th. Allardyce is more than capable of getting close to those positions, as proved in the past working with a lower budget than what Hughes had here. He is also proving it right now, we could finish as high as 9th, and no lower than 12th.

[unluckymorton]

We have been operating on a bare minimum for a long time now, that's not the question. Obviously nothing is "guaranteed", and we overachieved greatly under Souness and Hughes - but what that proved is that yes, it is possible for a club like ours to compete near the top still.

Yeah, sorry, but I will never accept that type of thing. No one ever achieved anything by accepting "the way things are". Realistically speaking, many clubs in the Championship have more resources than us, so should we just "accept" that and give them our place in the Premiership? Obviously no. We need to keep fighting no matter what the odds are. "Rebuilding periods" are extremely dangerous for our survival, as we saw last season, they knock us to the back of the line, and destroy all the progress we had made. Sooner or later they're gonna cost us our Premiership place. Obviously every club has to undergo them once in a while, but for us it seems like its every season or every other season. We have to start doing our damndest to keep our players, at least for longer periods of time, or else we will never move forward. Things like Bellamy or Santa Cruz can't keep happening.

1. Both Souness and Hughes had more funds available than Sam ever will have. Rovers Signing Bellamy was an old pals act, Bellamy wasn't happy and his mate gave him a way out. As soon as somebody came sniffing he was off like a shot. RSC used us as a stepping stone for a bigger move, once he was ready to move on he had no interest in playing for us. Signing players like that is more damaging for the club in the long term unless we can get a return like we did for RSC, but that still makes us a selling club and will result in rebuilding season after season.

2. It's not a matter of accepting defeat but actually embracing the fact that we are in the top flight of English football and punching above our weight when bigger clubs with considerably larger resources and fan bases are languishing below us in the Premier League and in the lower leagues. As for players wanting to leave, there is nothing we can do about that. If they want to go they must be sold as it is pointless playing them if they have no interest in our club. Look at RSC when his move to Man City didn't go through in the winter transfer window, what did he do to help our club get out of trouble? Nothing, he sat out the rest of the season.

Like it or not, What Ince did to this club will take a long time to put right with the resources available and we are doing a fantastic job of rebuilding the club into a force to be reckoned with. From day one Sam had to rebuild. We are one of the few clubs that do not demand the impossible by expecting the manager to turn us into one of the top sides in the country in one season. Newcastle paid the ultimate price before realising that success can not be achieved overnight. With the turnover of management staff that Newcastle have had in recent years and the money they have thrown at players they have become a laughing stock, that is the last thing that I want to happen to our beloved club.

Sam is doing a great job, I would have done certain things a little different and so would others but would we be mid table now in a position to build for next season?

[BPF]

Ever thought of changing your name to Broken Record?

Haha. Who said wit was dead?

[Hughesy]

300 votes so far

260 happy – 86.67%

14 not happy – 4.67%

26 not sure – 8.67%

Compared to the previous one

445 votes

128 happy – 28.83%

165 not happy – 37.16%

151 not sure – 34.01%

That’s some turn around by Sam & his team……just shows why JW makes the decisions and not the fans – form was awful but JW stuck by Sam & he now seems to be earning a lot more respect amongst our fans!

As for those 14 not happy – Who are you & Why is the question? (Style of football? Don’t like the man & refuse to? Your waggy?) - I know your entitled to your opinion - thats why im asking those 14, what more do you want from him??

[BPF]

I'm happy with us overall. You cannot fail to be happy when you are in our situation, yet being 11th in the league. I'm in risk of being a broken record again here but I'm not pleased with paying to watch some of the drivel we've played this season. However, Sam knows a lot more than I or anyone here could hope to know and 'his plan' has us sat in 11th. I think his first few seasons were always going to be geared around recovering from the Ince disaster. I think next season could be interesting, I just don't to watch Kalinic playing on his own against the best defenders in the country, expected to create magic out of a forty yard clearence. But I'm hopeful. I think this Summer will be an interesting one (Hopefully a hot one too.)

[Hughesy]

Suggestions in the LT that one of Brown/ Bunn will leave this summer, along with Reid & Zurab to make room on the wage bill for new recruits!

[Majiball]

OK I didn't vote No, but I did unsure.

Its great that we are in 11th now after a good second part of the season, but the first part was absolute rubbish.

Home form is great, but like Broken Picture Frame, I find watching us play very frustrating. Away form is a disgrace and I'm fed-up taking the same approach almost everytime.

Transfer wise, I don't think we've done that well. Salgado has only had 4-5 good games out of about 50, at 30K a week I don't consider that a good signing. Chimbonda, well I never thought he would work out as a left back, he hasn't. Givet, Mr fantastic great signing, Kalinic whilst I think he's got something he just wasn't what we needed we needed a 1st 11 striker, we still don't have one. Di Santo, just wages, but I don't believe we used him correctly, bit like Kali. Diouf, hot, cold makes the papers all the time for the wrong reasons, but helped us out when we needed him. N'zonzi, good signing. Jacobsen, waste of money especially with Salgado and Chimbonda coming in.

Playing the kids has also helped my opinion of him as its something we have in the main been reluctant to do, but whilst I like that, it most definitely doesn't mean the academy is sorted provided they keep coming over the next few years then and only then will it be a success.

The comments to the fans as well were stupid, but he's changed his tune and has praised them recently so thats a step in the right direction.

Semi-final of the league cup as well was a great positive and hopefully added to our meager funds for this summer. If we can show more consistency over the course of a season and avoid 12-13 game runs without winning then I might move over to the dark-side. But being a purist and working in that manner, I will always have issues with the way we play, I just hope we can evolve next season. I saw some great forward play in the first two games and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that with another window and hopefully a couple of new players we can get some of that flair back in our play.

But as I said 11th is a good turn around so I'm sitting on the fence, for now.

[CrazyIvan]

OK I didn't vote No, but I did unsure.

Its great that we are in 11th now after a good second part of the season, but the first part was absolute rubbish.

Home form is great, but like Broken Picture Frame, I find watching us play very frustrating. Away form is a disgrace and I'm fed-up taking the same approach almost everytime.

Transfer wise, I don't think we've done that well. Salgado has only had 4-5 good games out of about 50, at 30K a week I don't consider that a good signing. Chimbonda, well I never thought he would work out as a left back, he hasn't. Givet, Mr fantastic great signing, Kalinic whilst I think he's got something he just wasn't what we needed we needed a 1st 11 striker, we still don't have one. Di Santo, just wages, but I don't believe we used him correctly, bit like Kali. Diouf, hot, cold makes the papers all the time for the wrong reasons, but helped us out when we needed him. N'zonzi, good signing. Jacobsen, waste of money especially with Salgado and Chimbonda coming in.

Playing the kids has also helped my opinion of him as its something we have in the main been reluctant to do, but whilst I like that, it most definitely doesn't mean the academy is sorted provided they keep coming over the next few years then and only then will it be a success.

The comments to the fans as well were stupid, but he's changed his tune and has praised them recently so thats a step in the right direction.

Semi-final of the league cup as well was a great positive and hopefully added to our meager funds for this summer. If we can show more consistency over the course of a season and avoid 12-13 game runs without winning then I might move over to the dark-side. But being a purist and working in that manner, I will always have issues with the way we play, I just hope we can evolve next season. I saw some great forward play in the first two games and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that with another window and hopefully a couple of new players we can get some of that flair back in our play.

But as I said 11th is a good turn around so I'm sitting on the fence, for now.

I have to take issue with the Salgado comment. He's played (up to now) 12 games as a starter and another 5 as a sub. He's been fantastic for at least the last 6 games he's started. He brings more to the club than just that, he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge which he can pass on to the youngsters. For me, he is now a key signing and one that is doing impressively well.

[Majiball]

I have to take issue with the Salgado comment. He's played (up to now) 12 games as a starter and another 5 as a sub. He's been fantastic for at least the last 6 games he's started. He brings more to the club than just that, he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge which he can pass on to the youngsters. For me, he is now a key signing and one that is doing impressively well.

Yes of course he does he's been there done that and bought the t-shirt. He was down right awful to start with and the his legs are gone comments looked like being true. But we already had two right backs, three with Bert and for me we didn't need him. It was over 6 months before he started playing and I have to consider what that cost us financially, especially since we must count every penny. If he can keep it up next season in the main then he at that moment in time, will be a good signing. But 6 games is just over 10% of the total we have played and at this moment in time, the complete overview is not that great for me.

Don't get me wrong I agree recently he's been great, but 6 good games and a key signing is like hailing Phil Jones the next John Terry, pre-mature.

[waggy]

the football has improved 100% now we are safe,the long ball tactic is still used but not as much,next seasons early fixtures will bring the same old hoof ball football from SUPER Sam Allardyce,win a few and we will play a bit,have a mediocre start and it will be the same as this season,his football is crap,but succesfull.most posters on here will accept crap football over results,i'm not one never will be,LARD@RSE OUT

[Gav]

Waggy makes some very valid points I feel.

The football has certainly improved since survival was all but secured, by like Waggy I feel this will again deteriorate into the cr@p that was served up before come next season.

The away form is still a disgrace, Allardyce is robbing the fans that go away with his approach to these games, that’s unforgivable to me.

All this said he beat Burnley twice and we have his picture above our bed for doing so

His achievements this season in terms of league position are nothing short of outstanding and I give him full credit for that, but the grumblings of discontent can still be heard loud and clear from where I’m sitting, due to his continued arrogance, style of football and away form.

[unluckymorton]

Waggy makes some very valid points I feel.

The football has certainly improved since survival was all but secured, by like Waggy I feel this will again deteriorate into the cr@p that was served up before come next season.

The away form is still a disgrace, Allardyce is robbing the fans that go away with his approach to these games, that’s unforgivable to me.

All this said he beat Burnley twice and we have his picture above our bed for doing so

His achievements this season in terms of league position are nothing short of outstanding and I give him full credit for that, but the grumblings of discontent can still be heard loud and clear from where I’m sitting, due to his continued arrogance, style of football and away form.

I don't think the football has improved so much all of a sudden, it's more of a case that we are now in a more comfortable position and can relax and enjoy the remaining games rather than look over our shoulder and rely on teams slipping up whilst pointing the finger at certain players, whining about long balls (long balls that every team in the Prem play from time to time) and kicking off at team selection. The improvement has been gradual over the season but many have been blind to any slight improvement.

The away form has been a disgrace but I'm fairly confident that this will improve next season. Well, it's got to improve next season or we'll end up with an away support like Bolton and Wigan. We've got to go into the away games next season with the same mentality as we have recently done in our home games, if we do that it will be a very successful season.

[Pedderz0912]

I voted yes and here are my reasons why:

(Ok our football isn't barca standard however has improved dramatically)

1) We are 11th in the table and have an excellent chance of finishing in the top 10

2) Youth - When was the last time we had the likes of Jones, Bunn, Olsson, Nzonzi, Junior and Niko all coming through the ranks

3) We have lost 3 out of 28 home games Sam been in charge

4) We are certainly giving the big 4 a game now

5) Salgado has come on leaps and bounds.

6) Defense - VERY solid 2 goals conceded in 5 now is it?

7) double over Notlob and Dingles

8) Starting to take shape the way he wants e.g. Givet, Nzonzi, Kalinic and the youth he brought through

The future is promising and I really don't know what more this man can do to get you on side. Lets get behind them all give our support, finish in the top 10 and then next year really kick on and improve this away form.

Thanks..

[Paul]

Now this is the highlighting bit……In the 19 games where have conceded less than 2 goals – we have not lost any games, winning 10, drawing 9.

Well knock me down with a feather I'm astonished. In a football match if you concede one (less than two) or no goals you either win or draw provided of course you score at least one goal. I'm gobsmacked. Have you told Sam?

[Hasta]

In less than 18 months we have gone from relegation certainties to a team that is very difficult to beat at home and pushing for the top half. If we improve by half as much again then next season will be quite promising. The signings over this period have generally been good with hopefully more to come over the summer. If we were managed by Sami Allardicio people would be loving it.

[LeChuck]

Well knock me down with a feather I'm astonished. In a football match if you concede one (less than two) or no goals you either win or draw provided of course you score at least one goal. I'm gobsmacked. Have you told Sam?

I suppose it is fairly interesting that we haven't lost a game 1-0 all season, but what significance that has to anything I have no idea.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

The positives outweight the negatives,our club was on its arse following the I**E tenure nighmare.

I do agree with others about Rovers on the road...where would we have been in the league if our away form had been half decent?

[Hughesy]

Well knock me down with a feather I'm astonished. In a football match if you concede one (less than two) or no goals you either win or draw provided of course you score at least one goal. I'm gobsmacked. Have you told Sam?

It says we havent lost a single game 1-0..... Strange man!

Didnt mention scoring in those games....

[philipl]

The question is:

Are you happy with the direction that the club is heading in Under Big Sam?

Yes we are now heading in the right direction.

At Christmas, we were playing dire football, defending like clowns, not winning and suffering some hugely embarassing defeats. The defending has been sorted, the results are now coming, Olsson and Jones have been huge unexpected bonuses, Kalinic is not the flop many thought he was, Junior has signed, and we are comfortably mid table with a shout at a top half finish so the answer cannot be other than yes.