[Archived] Birmingham Preview

[Tango]

When you defend like we did for their goals, you deserve what you get.

Also, 'away hoodoo' suggests some kind of bad luck. We're simply not good enough on the road.

Which is why I said "based upon our chances and performance", had I said "based upon our defending we deserved to win" then you might have had a point.

I'd also call striking the woodwork twice, fairly bad luck.

[philipl]

Jones took two big hits early in the second half which lead to hi being subbed.

The first was in the process of making what looked a good tackle and got penalised leading indirectly to their equaliser and the second was a double bashing from Jerome which got the Brum player a booking.

[John]

We look a solid unit and a lot more efficient than this time last year.

It's going to be interesting to see how we progress as a team, particularly with the young lads coming through and theres loads of reason for optimism.

We've only had two games so far, so we cannot base our opinions on anything else!

However, think its far too early to saying we have improved on last year, are more efficient etc, or to make comments like that - Birmingham looked very average yesterday and are incorporating a new striker therefore looked out of sync with each other.

[1864roverite]

I have now had trhe benefit of watching football first and find myself at a loss with 2 issues.

Firstly, how the hell did we not take at least a point ?

Secondly, those fans claiming Rovers didnt play any sort of football, where are you coming from ?

Today, SA must be wondering what his team has to do to win a game against a team that we will find ourselves battling for a top 10 spot this season. All that is required is a ball playing CENTRAL MIDFIELDER and we have a winning combination away from home.

Yes, two awful defensive slip ups cost us but in reality if you make 5 good chances away from home you have to be taking 2 of them at least.

The penalty ? How anyone can have a go at MGP is incredible. He hit it well it just got the touch from the keeper and went onto the bar.

This week is shaping up to be an important week for the club as a whole.

Takeover talks continue - will there be a conclusion ?

Norwich home in the League Cup - will we see another run for the team in a cup that has been good to us ?

Its the last week of the transfer window - will we see incomings and outgoings that will benefit us ?

It ends with a lively Arsenal outfit who are back at full strength - can we repeat our feat from last season on prime time tv ?

Its going to be a long week in the life of a Rover

[JAL]

Keep seeing Brums winning goal and it doesnt get any better for Paul Robinson. Robbo has to hold his hands up and admit that he could have done a lot better with that shot but hey such is life onwards and upwards bring on The gooners.

What about the young referee, he seemed to get all the major decisions right on MOTD1 - well done to the lad !

Thirdly all those empty seats at Birmingham, whats going on down there for the big club.

[Ricky]

Their fans were very quite JAL. Wonder if there's some concern about the owners promise of money not being forthcoming.

[RoverInWigan]

to dominate a game so much and come away with nothing is so frustrating and surely means we are lacking something from somewhere. for me it is a lack of attack minded players, the majority of our team is defence orientated even in centre mid with phil jones who is a centre back and Nzonzi who covers the back four. We were given a blessing in that first half with brum playing so badly and we failed to take advantage of it we should have killed them off. Kalinic is proving to be a great forward, he is brilliant at fighting to win possession and holding up the ball but its useless if his nearest attacking player is 20yards away from him he needs another striker to play along side of him, M Diouf is speedy and would have relished the free flowing attacking football in that first half, as for pedersen taking that pen surely an out of confidence centre forward like kalinic should be banging them in for a boost

[Amo]

as for pedersen taking that pen surely an out of confidence centre forward like kalinic should be banging them in for a boost

I doubt he's 'out of confidence' when he scored last week and Sam's been bigging him up. That said, I agree, he should have taken it.

[imy9]

Blues fans were quiet throughout, bar the two goals, rovers out sung them.

Separate issue I thought robbo handled himself exceptionally well from the torrent of abuse he was receiving from certain Blues fans, some of it went as far as digs at his family, this was directly behind him, makes me wonder how grown adults can use the moist vile, disgusting language in front of their kids and yet are the first to say there is something wrong with society today...sorry rant over!

[thenodrog]

the only good thing is that we have a game coming up on Tuesday and a chance to set things right pretty quickly.

According to Lawro there wasn't much wrong with our display to put right....but that we threw away the 3 points.

[thenodrog]

Trouble is the type of central player we need is basically the complete midfielder. Passer, creator, attack minded as well as defence, a leader & an organiser. Not cheap.

Never mind not cheap.... such a player has not existed since Patrick Vierra was at Arsenal.

We haven't got a Tugay in the team to control the game and Dunn was missing also, do people expect Jones and N'zonzi to turn in to Gerrard and co?

sam couldn't wait to get rid of Basturk (and I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt cos we hardly saw Basturk play and don't know what he was costing) but if his demands were not exhorbitant then he'd have been useful to deputise for Dunn.

[John]

The fact Sam brought Basturk in meant he obviously thought we lacked creativity without Dunn in the team.

Early days, but as mentioned previously by someone else, would like us to try and involve Olsson (and his pace) more.

[thenodrog]

The penalty ? How anyone can have a go at MGP is incredible. He hit it well it just got the touch from the keeper and went onto the bar.

I have no problems with him taking the next one thats for sure.

[joey_big_nose]

We haven't got a Tugay in the team to control the game and Dunn was missing also, do people expect Jones and N'zonzi to turn in to Gerrard and co?

To be honest, and I am biased, but I would say Tugay is one of the top ten midfielders to grace the Premiership in the last ten years, so ludicrously good that you have to say that we are unlikely to see his like again, even if we had 20m to spend. He would raise the quality game immeasurably on his own which is something even Europe's best would struggle to do. So hugely influential.

I thought we played well yesterday but clearly these is a bit of an issue here. Pedersen is our only player who picks a pass, and while he is good he is hardly first rate. Nzonzi when he has a lot of time can be neat, but largely is a destructive and set piece player. Even Dunn is at his best running at players. Same for Diouf.

We do need probably two players at a minimum who have a bit of guile. Popov could be one. We also need someone who can sit a bit deeper and pass through the middle and spread the play. We can't ignore it as our standard method of attack is effective and forces the other side deep, but we can't pick the pass to undo them. If we can add that string to our bow then we can probably start to think about 6th as a target.

[thenodrog]

Their fans were very quite JAL. Wonder if there's some concern about the owners promise of money not being forthcoming.

Might be us in that position soon.

But 21000 for t'big club from Englands second city isn't very positive is it?.

[JAL]

I have no problems with him taking the next one thats for sure.

Left footers and penaltys Thenodrog.... never the best combination to get the best result from a spot kick. I'd have Morten practising them with his right foot instead.

Matt Jansen was never very good at spot kicks.

[thenodrog]

I doubt he's 'out of confidence' when he scored last week and Sam's been bigging him up. That said, I agree, he should have taken it.

Why? Have you ever seen Kalinic take one? You need to see him do that before you can comment with any accuracy.

I've seen Ped take 3 and thay have all been hit well. In the press and media I've not noticed anyone laying blame on Ped but all have praised Foster's save.

..... I'd have Morten practising them with his right foot instead.

[Amo]

Why? Have you ever seen Kalinic take one? You need to see him do that before you can comment with any accuracy.

I've seen Ped take 3 and thay have all been hit well. In the press and media I've not noticed anyone laying blame on Ped but all have praised Foster's save.

Kalinic had a pretty good record back home, so yeah.

[thenodrog]

Left footers and penaltys Thenodrog.... never the best combination to get the best result from a spot kick.

It's not rocket science is it?

[Blue blood]

I see where you're coming from. How often is Kalinic put through 1 vs. 1 with the keeper? I seriously can't think of an occasion. He manages to shoot with his back to goal, or scramble efforts from set-pieces, but no clear-cut opportunities.

To be fair Peds set one up for Kalinic but Foster just got there a bit before Niko did. He played a few dangerous passes, but as others have said he's not top drawer at it and cannot do it on a consistent enough a basis.

To be honest although Jones and N'Zonzi give us a heck of a lot of protection, it does lack enough offensively. Although we would be a bit weaker with only one of them in the centre, I feel the extra attacking impetus and goals we would get would more than compensate for this. Peds works hard defensively, as does Olsson, and Diouf can stick the boot in too, so it's hardly as if the midfield doesn't offer decent protection.

The other alternative is to replace any of Kalinic, Peds, Diouf or Olsson with players with better attacking quality - not sure we can afford to do that, plus in Olsson and Kalinic there is a heck of a lot of potential.

[John]

After around 1:30 mins on the video, Sam does not take it kindly when the reporter said there was not enough support for Kalinic.

Sam post match interview

[mhead]

At last seen the highlights.

Thought Penalty was struck ok but placement poor. Where did our defence go for the equalizer and where did a midfielder disappear to for the Gardner winner(and sorry Robbo did really miss getting part of a hand to the ball).Promising but Brum have to be on the target list of Away wins.

[cn174]

Might be us in that position soon.

But 21000 for t'big club from Englands second city isn't very positive is it?.

We were saying this at the game. In previous years, the corner next to the away fans is usually full (with complete idiots normally), however people were a bit sparce yesterday. And very quiet, even when they were winning.

[JAL]

It's not rocket science is it?

Spot kicks are all to do with whats running through your head at the time. I just hope that this miss doesnt affect MGP's head as he seemed to be just coming round from that far post miss at Old Trafford several years ago.

[RoverInWigan]

I doubt he's 'out of confidence' when he scored last week and Sam's been bigging him up. That said, I agree, he should have taken it.

yeah sorry didn't mean it like that, but you certainly want your strikers to score as many goals as possible and this penalty was the perfect opportunity. MGP missed and we cant dwell on that. After listening to the interview by BS he seems to be saying the same thing we slipped up and should have killed the game off however I agree with the commentator on that interview and Kalinic was just too isolated and Allardyce shot him down quickly relying on his stats.