[Archived] Rovers Vs Fulham

[thenodrog]

I don't have a problem with the usual long ball tactics

Me neither gumboots. That is not as long as they are of good quality or valid to relieve pressure at the back. The problem I have with them is when they are lumped up onto a strikers head when his marker is 7'6" and has been winning everything all afternoon. Too many of our punts forward simply handed back possession to Fulham on a plate. Long balls to Kalinic yesterday should have been either over the top of the defenders toward the corner flags or aimed flatter toward his chest or feet to give him a definite chance to control the ball. No one in the world can trap a ball with his head.

[John]

With a zero tranfer budget, I honestly expect much better, much better.........should be playing it on the deck a lot more especially when we have so many players who can pass the ball so well.

[47er]

Just heared the brainless ones interview again after the match..yet again when we win its him who is the expert and someone else is to blame this time the ref and the players for sitting back. Well I'm sorry but surly zzzzzam if you don't want them to do this its YOUR resposibity to bolluck them and tell them to change! WTF has the player of the year done to be made to sit on the bench whilst a young def is played out of position ? He's worse than ince!

Agree with you about N'zonzi but is Sam really worse than Ince or are you truly off your ******* brain?

[American]

Nonsense! Comparison to Ince is very very valid. In fact comparison to them both is. Why are you trying to re-write history by forgetting the Ince debacle ever happened? Are you in denial of the holocaust and a member of the flat earth society to boot LD?

Ince made all the sorts of noises some less knowledgeable people on here like yourself love to hear about playing football on the ground and proper footballing principles etc. The result was that we ended up on our arses. Allardyce said 18 months ago that if anyone thinks we can take bigger spenders on by footballing them off the park is an idiot, and that our job is to negate their obvious stengths and try to play to ours. Last season we confounded all the experts by finishing 10th.

Nobody rates Mark Hughes as a manager more than I do but it is without question that Hughes enjoyed much more financial support in the early days than Allardyce is getting. Why are you conveniently forgetting that? All the same Hughes wanted away to the Mags and six months later Mark Hughes went first chance he got after the purse strings were pulled together and he was not allowed the funds for a. Diarra, b. Huddleston and c. Koumas.

Hughes also built the backbone of the defense by buying Samba for 400k and getting Nelsen on a free.

[thenodrog]

Don't recall Allardyce wanting to sign a midfielder in summer, he just kept banging on about a striker and he chose Benjani.

Lazy post WWWM. Do you expect him to ring and personally inform you every time he makes a move in the market?

As for midfielders he re-signed MGP remember and rumour has it that he wanted Rio Coker and Popov. Whoever else he enquired about you and I will never know

He chose Benjani (and Diouff) cos thats all the board would allow. I don't believe SA is allowed to sign the BRFC cheques yet do you?

[John]

Sam should of signed Darren Bent / Peter Crouch.

For midfield, Kevin-Prince Boateng perhaps?

Whoops, forget we had no money there for a minute....

[thenodrog]

Obvious there is a huge difference between being at the match and watching on a screen.

But I was greatly impressed by the pace and energy we had particularly in the first 30 minutes when we really pressurised them and felt we came back strongly towards the end.

We were playing a club that undoubtedly has strengthened through this summer's signings which has four or five players who can really hurt opponents if you let them. I thought Rovers neutralised much of the Fulham threat really well.

Then chuck in Hughes going against Allardyce and an unbeaten record to protect and last season's Europa Cup finalists were very challenging opponents.

Far too many Rovers supporters are living in a fool's paradise when it comes to our opponents in the PL. It is not "only Fulham" or "only Stoke" to pick on two of the more derided clubs; every game is going to be very tough just as the big 4 and the wannabe big 4 clubs cannot think it is "only Blackburn" when they play us as City experienced last week.

Stop trying to talk any sense on here Philip.... it's just not welcome.

Truth is the that apart from the top 6 there are no really stand out relegation candidates this year with the likely exception of Blackpool. It'll be a tough track imo.

Poor for the majority of the game... the atmosphere made up for it though, had a good old sing song in the Darwen End.

Good effort too. Could hear you lot all the match. Fact is the Blackburn End's like a library now.

[thenodrog]

Having seen Match of the Day, what a terrible performance by the ref!

They never mentioned the penalty claim for a foul on Diouff which happened just before we scored. I had a good but distant view from the JW upper so I may be wrong but it looked nailed on to me (and the bloke next to me too). Diouff played the ball albeit away from goal and then had his legs taken. Anybody see it replayed on the telly?

[philipl]

They never mentioned the penalty claim for a foul on Diouff which happened just before we scored. I had a good but distant view from the JW upper so I may be wrong but it looked nailed on to me (and the bloke next to me too). Diouff played the ball albeit away from goal and then had his legs taken. Anybody see it replayed on the telly?

The live stream actually replayed that unlike the handball incident which concentrated on the perfectly timed leap by Hangeland to head the ball off the goal line and missed the ball being stroked by Schwarzer's hands.

I yelled penalty when it happened but the slo mo showed a sensationally well-timed tackle with Diouf's momentum taking him over the leg that had cleared the ball.

[thenodrog]

The problems are in midfield--------strikers run all day to make position but the ball either fails to reach them or comes at such a height and pace it is impossible to control and usually reaches them when they have no support. At the moment I'm failing to see Pedersen justifying his new contract and when/if Dunn and Olssen are fit he'd be out for me. A four of Dunn, N'Zonzi, Olssen and Diouf or a 5 with Grella/Jones is the best we could do right now (sadly).

Me too until I remember that every time he plays he gets about £40,000 whereas every time Dunny plays he picks up about £150,000. Renewing Dunn's contract last year might turn out to be the worst deal by miles.

[John]

Me too until I remember that every time he plays he gets about £40,000 whereas every time Dunny plays he picks up about £150,000. Renewing Dunn's contract last year might turn out to be the worst deal by miles.

And we could have replaced Dunn with whom? What choice did we really have? Agree, question marks over a new contract and we know he cannot play a full season - clearly Sam is aware that he breaks down and cannot stay fit but it would not be too clever to wave goodbye to your most talented player? His goals last season?

[Exiled_Rover]

They never mentioned the penalty claim for a foul on Diouff which happened just before we scored. I had a good but distant view from the JW upper so I may be wrong but it looked nailed on to me (and the bloke next to me too). Diouff played the ball albeit away from goal and then had his legs taken. Anybody see it replayed on the telly?

Utd's Diouf? Not a penalty in my book - though I've yet to see the game on tv (and I'm not in a hurry to do so). Sat in the Darwen End it looked like a clean tackle. Kalinic however should have been given a penalty for when he was wrestled to the ground on the other side of the penalty box.

Speaking of which, Stuart Hall (that's the numpty's name, right? The commentator that always talks tosh, but tries to make out like he's Shakespeare) opened his interview with Hughes with the line: "count the bruises, Mark". I take offence at that. Unless Kalinic being Judo thrown to the ground in the second half is legal these days.

[thenodrog]

I yelled penalty when it happened but the slo mo showed a sensationally well-timed tackle with Diouf's momentum taking him over the leg that had cleared the ball.

In that case it was an excellent decision and should have been shown on MoTD to counteract their criticisms..... although I seriously doubt that is how journalism works.

[RIML]

You knew it was a blatant foul on the keeper because the Rovers TV guys never showed a replay of the goal (as far as I'm aware). That said, their keeper was looking for the foul every time the ball came into the box. Football has gone really soft when any sort of contact on the keeper results in a foul. Edit: having seen it again, never a foul. He's gone down like a sack of potatoes.

And yes he should have been off earlier for handling the ball outside the box - and we should have had a penalty in the first half for when Niko was mugged in the penalty area. You win some you lose some.

I thought that too, no man should fall to ground like that......soft southern b*stard. The Diouf nudge would just knock him off balance but he went down like he'd been shot. If it was the other way around, would it have been a penalty? Nah, therefore it wasn't a foul

[thenodrog]

I thought that too, no man should fall to ground like that......soft southern b*stard.

Good spot..... I'm taking it that you meant southern hemisphere?

[92er]

Nelsen slices the ball so many times into touch and misplaces simple passes its untrue.

I only watched the first of New Zealand's games in the World Cup, but I was impressed by the way Nelsen played the ball forward.

Quite a contrast with the way he plays for the Rovers.

[92er]

Positives: We didn't lose. Grella didn't get injured (disputable positive but i'm wracking my brains...)

.

Does anybody know why Grella went off?

I saw him signalling to the bench area a couple of minutes before he went off-I just thought he wanted to get a drink, MGP style.

But then he went off. Was it an injury or a pull?

[Steve Moss]

There is something in that based on what has happened thus far this season.

Sam was totally out thought in the Half Time dressing room by both Wenger and Hughes, that's for sure.

Our first half record reads W4 D1 L0

Second half reads W0 D1 L4

Well then, we're getting it half right. Someone ring Sam and give him these stats.

[est990]

wrong thread.

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Lazy post WWWM. Do you expect him to ring and personally inform you every time he makes a move in the market?

As for midfielders he re-signed MGP remember and rumour has it that he wanted Rio Coker and Popov. Whoever else he enquired about you and I will never know

He chose Benjani (and Diouff) cos thats all the board would allow. I don't believe SA is allowed to sign the BRFC cheques yet do you?

Lazy post? You stated that Allardyce wasn't given the funds to buy the midfielders he wanted. So by your logic above he must have informed you personally that he wanted a couple of midfielders and was denied the cash??

He consistently stated that a forward was priority. He may well have privately had a midfield wish list but I don't recall him ever publicly stating it. All we apparently need is a goal scorer to convert all the chances we create. Member's spent most of the transfer thread constantly bemused by his lack of acknowledgement of our inadequate midfield.

I think Allardyce has done a good job and I can live with going direct on occasions but yesterday was constant hoof and head tennis. We did it under Dalglish where the game plan used to be get the ball in the oppositions half - then play football. Back then however the forwards could retain position and the midfield wasn't 25 yards away.

The nitty gritty is at present Sam is probably the only manager who will keep us in the premiership, so its a case of having to 'lump it' rather than 'like it'

Question is, if we have plenty of money next year, would you give it Allardyce or a.n. other?

[Fife Rover]

GO NOW ZZZzZaam that's the worst game and negative crap I've ever seen..10 quid a ticket ? Overcharged it wasn't worth 10p ...PATHETIC

Yeh we know Abbey! It's your opinion and you're entitled to it ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz z z z z z snore!!

[RevidgeBlue]

We were so poor yesterday a draw was actually quite a decent result, Fulham seemed to respond massively to whatever Hughes said at half time and we went exactly the opposite way.

For the first time this season we looked exactly what we are yesterday, a team full of square pegs in round holes - Givet is never a natural left back and frequently goes completely AWOL. Pedersen and Jones aren't central midfielders, Diouf mark 1 was back to his bad old worst on the left wing, we had no width whatsoever on the right flank and Kalinic looked extremely poor up front for the second home game in succession.

We fluked it a bit last season imo but I feel it's going to be a desperately long hard slog to 40 points this season given our complete lack of any creativity. I'll be delighted if we can get this season out of the way with Premiership status intact and new owners onboard so we can rebuild.

[Steve Moss]

We fluked it a bit last season imo but I feel it's going to be a desperately long hard slog to 40 points this season given our complete lack of any creativity. I'll be delighted if we can get this season out of the way with Premiership status intact and new owners onboard so we can rebuild.

I can't agree with this. We have 5 points in 5 matches against what I believe have all been top half teams. We should really wait to see how well we do against the bottom half of last year's table and the newly promoted clubs before we pull the fire alarm. IMO, we will perform at 50+ points this season, same or better than last. And that's without any billionaire sugar daddy.

Don't get me wrong. I would love a true billionaire to buy the club and lavish cash for the sake of ego and without expectancy of financial return (the part of Syed's "plan" that concerns me, even if long term). But I don't think its vital for our survival this season, or even next.

[Ricky]

Can anyone explain how diouf got mom yesterday.... I'm baffled by that decision.

[XLM]

Does anybody know why Grella went off?

I saw him signalling to the bench area a couple of minutes before he went off-I just thought he wanted to get a drink, MGP style.

But then he went off. Was it an injury or a pull?

He was holding his hamstring, then he signalled to be taken off. Same old Grella story.