[Archived] Manchester City V Rovers Preview

[bboy]

a good game??? don't really think so.

i used to be neutral about Big Sam as manager, but i m having doubts now...............

The spirit is gone...... the spirit to win, the hunger to win, its all gone!!!!!........ you don't play football like robots, you play the game with passion!

what the hell were we trying to do during the last 3 mins???? we were awarded a free kick, and what happen? it was deliberatly sent out of play.

second free kick..... diouf came to collect the ball. its really....... WTH!?

its a draw on record, but in my eyes, rovers have lost, and had lost badly.

my friend was asking me after the match...... would you prefer dying as a soldier or staying alive like a coward?

Seriously Go back to Burnley.

As for spirit are you serious, on paper we had no chance today to even sneak a draw. For all Sam's faults, He gets the team to play with spirit to get points for the team. A passion that Man city will never have. It's the reason why I enjoy watching Blackburn at the moment because I believe there is a passion to defy the odds.

Just because we were logical and decided it would be better to hold on for a point then stretch ourselves and end up with 0 does not mean we have no spirit

Or would you rather support a soulless club like we were up against today

[Steve Moss]

I've come over all postive and am going for a 1-1 draw. Must be cos I'm going on my hols tomorrow ....

You must be psychic.

FT 1-1, a very respectable point.

Absolutely. And could have been a win. The Rovers have put in 4 very respectable performance over the last 4 games. And more, those 4 points were against 4 of last seasons top half clubs. We have yet to match our improved/gelled squad against the recently promoted teams or last year's bottom half.

4 points from 4 tough games. We only took 3 points from the same fixtures last season so it has to go down as a good start despite the points dropped away at bitmingham. The three points there would had had us 4th..... So following hughesy logic we're 4th in the league.... Get in!!

I like Hughsey logic. A lot.

. . . would you prefer dying as a soldier or staying alive like a coward?

Living as a coward, everytime. And to impart some knowledge, as a former Marine I can attest the mission objective is never about "dying as a soldier", it's about victory, destroying the enemy's will to resist, however it can be achieved. Heroics are not part of the equation, are to be avoided if possible and is a sign of desperate circumstances and limited options. And more to the point, most heroes don't go out looking to become a hero, are involuntary participants in their heroism and/or would much rather be at the pub pounding down the pints.

[deryck guyler's spoon]

My response would be - Id prefer to stay alive, and without a weapon in the middle of a fierce war where your enemy has the biggest guns...id do whatever necessary to survive.

Are you Gareth Keenan?

Point taken Hughesy, I should have more faith.

In my defence, I made that comment when we were really under pressure, I didn't say that we were not capable of performing miracles (Robinson did, several times.)

I often feel the same way in similar circumstances BPF. Having some some art@rse be wise after the event can be particularly annoying.

[rebelmswar]

No @#/? ever won a war by dying for his country, he won it by making the other dumb @#/? die for his.

[Hughesy]

Are you Gareth Keenan?

I often feel the same way in similar circumstances BPF. Having some some art@rse be wise after the event can be particularly annoying.

Who's he?

My point was - have some TRUST in YOUR club.

Givet caught napping for the goal & also nearly caught napping from Tevez too - however did block the 1st on the line at the end before SUPER Samba blocked at the end.

[cn174]

Can tell Mancini is in charge of Man City with his exaggerations - "we had 25 chances to score" hmm whatever

Terrible defending for the goal - noone tracked his run, and Givet just stood there like a lemon.

[67splitscreen]

I hope a few have noticed that it was Grella who stopped tracking Viera.

[Tom]

Who's he?

My point was - have some TRUST in YOUR club.

Givet caught napping for the goal & also nearly caught napping from Tevez too - however did block the 1st on the line at the end before SUPER Samba blocked at the end.

[Parsonblue]

City have spent a fortune on this team and our outlay this summer was a loan signing and a free transfer - yet we more than matched them for long periods of the game. I thought it was an outstanding team performance today. The tactics were spot on and the players gave one hundred per cent in terms of effort.

I have been critical of Robinson in the past but today he was outstanding. Samba was as solid as a rock in the heart of defence, while El-Hadji Diouf worked tirelessly up and down the wing.

We thoroughly deserved our point today for our spirited performance.

[Tom]

What the hell was Hart doing out there? Did he act injured after messing up as well? Probably hoping for a whistle

[beerwins]

A good solid performance but our defence struggled at times, Olsson better at going forward and our midfield is absolutely horrible.

I dont care about 300 million invested in the club over 15 years just give me a midfielder than can hold the ball, pick a pass and can dictate play, we rush so much in this area of the park and just give it away constantly because of the lack of a player with confidence to hold the ball for more than 3 seconds.

If we manage to sign a quality player in this area we are going to be fine. Kalinic looks to be able to play with his back to goal now, M Diouf cuts in nicely from the wings, E Diouf holds the ball well now and im sure that the goals will come and the pressure on the defence will cease if we manage to get a player with talent and ability in the middle.

I miss Tugay, we miss Tugay, give me a player with his ability because we need it.

[bigbrandjohn]

Is this one of those ironic/sarcastic posts?

We played well today against a good City side and not only neutralised most of their threat, but could quite easily have come away with all three points.

Every one of us would have taken a point before the game, but the way we deserved it adds more credability to the draw.

And as for the last comment - staying alive as a coward is always preferable to dying as a soldier...or anything else for that matter.

I think I have spotted the problem. Isn't Singapore 7 days ahead of us.. Maybe he watched the Fulham game !!

[Rovermatt]

You can't look a gift-horse in the mouth but I note that our goal yesterday had nothing to do with our own efforts. Even the brief highlights on MOTD showed that we have absolutely no interest in retaining possession.

[cesus]

I thought Samba and Robbo were immense, we look solid at the back. Niko has proved that his can live on scraps, due to the standard of quality in our midfield I feel that's all he will get. Niko looks like he has an eye for goal as does M. Diouf, the defence looks solid enough just makes you think what we could do with a 'footballer' as opposed to work horses in midfield!

[Ricky]

Way back at the start of this thread I questioned hart's concentration and mindset. After looking immense for the first few games he lost the plot completely for England midway through the second half on Wednesday. He had a similar shaky spell yesterday resulting in a goal for us.

Great result and from the highlights in footy first it looked like a great battling performance. 1 point better off than the same fixtures last season, really need to get the 3 points against fulham next week. Zamora will be a big loss for them but dembele looks the real deal. It's a winnable game that's for sure.

[ROVERS]

delluded with the results i would say....

wait till we start losing with the way we are playing, no passion, negative football, no points, no excitement......

in the long run...... we'll lose more then what we gain.

By the way, its because i care, thats y i comment.

Big Sam's gameplan is always about destroying other manager's game plan without a plan in mind. And thats neagtive strategy to me.........

[gumboots]

Way back at the start of this thread I questioned hart's concentration and mindset. After looking immense for the first few games he lost the plot completely for England midway through the second half on Wednesday. He had a similar shaky spell yesterday resulting in a goal for us.

Great result and from the highlights in footy first it looked like a great battling performance. 1 point better off than the same fixtures last season, really need to get the 3 points against fulham next week. Zamora will be a big loss for them but dembele looks the real deal. It's a winnable game that's for sure.

But football first didn't show the Diouf chance either. considering everyone's saying it could have won th game for us why did neither they nor MOTD show it?

[47er]

delluded with the results i would say....

wait till we start losing with the way we are playing, no passion, negative football, no points, no excitement......

in the long run...... we'll lose more then what we gain.

By the way, its because i care, thats y i comment.

Big Sam's gameplan is always about destroying other manager's game plan without a plan in mind. And thats neagtive strategy to me.........

I'll satisfy myself with 1 point---"no passion"-------are you ****ing kidding? Did you see Samba after he saved a certain goal?

[DE.]

delluded with the results i would say....

wait till we start losing with the way we are playing, no passion, negative football, no points, no excitement......

in the long run...... we'll lose more then what we gain.

By the way, its because i care, thats y i comment.

Big Sam's gameplan is always about destroying other manager's game plan without a plan in mind. And thats neagtive strategy to me.........

Brilliant.

[Montfort]

Great point. Delighted.

Still think that Robinson is a better goal keeper than Hart and I am sure that Robinson thinks so too.

[nicko]

I hear the highlights on Sky are interesting today.

Didn't think it was a penalty when Johnson went down but the TV pix may suggest otherwise.

[47er]

I hear the highlights on Sky are interesting today.

Didn't think it was a penalty when Johnson went down but the TV pix may suggest otherwise.

Seen em--he dived!

[Commondore]

I hear the highlights on Sky are interesting today.

Didn't think it was a penalty when Johnson went down but the TV pix may suggest otherwise.

A stone cold penalty if I ever saw one. If it had happened to us this place would be livid.

You need luck and individual performances to survive at COMS these days, but this was quite extreme. The penalty not given for City, the misses from Tevez and Johnson, the Samba/Givet block, the repeated heroics from Robinson, our goal from out of nowhere... I'm not taking anything away from the performance, just pointing out that we are very unlikely to get away with anything from a game looking like this for the rest of the season.

[Balwer]

I do feel the luck we may have missed out on against Birmingham has evened itself out again after yesterday.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I hope a few have noticed that it was Grella who stopped tracking Viera.

I'll view this again later but my first impression was that Pedersen was jogging back with Viera until he got about 12 yards from goal at which point he decided he'd run far enough and just stopped leaving Viera to amble into a gaping hole in our defence.