[Archived] Sunderland Preview - 20:00 Monday 18th October

[DE.]

Thought Niko looked handy 1st half, 2nd half he looked drunk and couldn't keep his footing.

[Tom]

Sorry triple post phone messed up

Out of interest did the ref want to give a penalty for sambas foul he seemed to point to the spot

[Dan]

What a farce.

The red card was already ridiculous, but what Sunderland were allowed to get away with after that made it truly out of this world. Kicking, punching, shoving, pulling, elbowing, their keeper jumping with two closed fists for our players' heads, the fact that no one had to go to the hospital was a miracle. Yet the referee gave them no cards, no fouls, nothing...it's like they were perfect little angels that could never do the things they were clearly doing. If Samba's "challenge" was a red, Sunderland should have had 5 red cards and we should have had at least 2 clear penalties. The worst officiated game I've seen in quite some time, and not surprisingly it's Rovers that are once again the victims.

Nonetheless, we battled hard as we always do, but our tactics have become so obvious and uninspired that every team knows exactly where each pass is going to go. We have no chance whatsoever of scoring a goal unless we get some header in or the defense makes a mistake. It's not working, and BFS has failed to address the problem all season. The fact that Mame Diouf is behind Kalinic and Benjani is also crazy. He is out most lively striker by far.

Desperately needed the 3 points today...now looks like we'll be in the bottom half of the table for the foreseeable future.

Once Samba was stupid enough to lay a hand on him he was always going to go down. He only has his self to blame and shouldn't be paid for the time he misses. He should know better by now.

The Sunderland players were going down like flies though and the ref didn't give much in our favour at all.

[hollowsr]

Just looking at the 1 on 1 again, great positioning by Robbo

[bennyboyt11]

Diouf should of got man of the match, he was superb today.

[BuckyRover]

Ref was one-sided and I cant recall a single decision which was 50-50 and went our way.

In the second half when Bent was bursting into the box, Jones made a tackle but missed it, Bent through on goal. Ref blew, free kick to us

[Miker]

Had a bit of an emotional reaction to Samba's red, but in retrospect, probably the right decision and deserved after his clumsy mistake to let Welbeck in in the first place.

The Sunderland players were going down way too easily though. There seemed to be a lot of clumsy challenges from our side, I'm not sure if it was to do with the slippery pitch or not though. Decent result, but a bit of a worry because I don't see us getting points against Liverpool, as they're due a win soon.

[1864roverite]

Not too sure what to make of it all.

For some of the second half we saw some real football for once, porobably the best we have seen in two years.

Got to be happy with a point after a 45 minute half with 10 men.

Have to say that with Sunderland having spent millions they certainly dont look that good a side and couldnt open a Rovers defence that was at times stretched wide open.

I think sam got his squad and tactics wrong from the off.

4-3-3 at home for me and he should have had Diouf 2 on from the off.

I think I got the prediction right

[Wild Irish Rover]

In the second half when Bent was bursting into the box, Jones made a tackle but missed it, Bent through on goal. Ref blew, free kick to us

Bent clearly pushed Jonesey to get to the ball - foul - hence the referee (correctly) blew the whistle.

[BuckyRover]

It was a 50/50

[Amo]

Nah, Bucky's got it. Jones tried to cut across Bent and fell on his arse.

[Tom]

I thought he was very lucky there myself, as was Givet when Robbo bailed him out.

Hope Benjani is OK sounds like he took a bad knock to the head had to be helped by 2 paramedics according to sky, looked good when he was on.

Kevin Philips is up there for worlds worst commentator, apparently their guy shouldn't have been booked for a bad tackle because Givet shook his hand.

[DE.]

Philips couldn't even get Jack Walker's name right, tw@t.

[47er]

Good attendance---21894, given the conditions, Monday night and live on tele.

[MarkBRFC71]

Just looking at the 1 on 1 again, great positioning by Robbo

Terrible finish by Bent though - he looked like a slightly quicker Jason Roberts tonight.

[Tom]

Jones MOTM on Sky? Thought he was poor in midfield but did well in defence. Robbo, Olsson and Diouf were more deserved IMO.

Glad Jones will be back in defence on Sunday, wonder if it will be Dunny or someone else to come into midfield, maybe even Goulon if he signs.

[Miker]

4-3-3 at home for me and he should have had Diouf 2 on from the off.

The pre-match lineup on TV showed that we were lined up as 4-3-3

[RevidgeBlue]

Sam will hide behind the fact we played the second half with ten men but for me it was another appalling display in terms of lack of creativity in which we again created only two efforts of note over 90 minutes, A weak header from Kalinic after 25 mins and a ballooned effort from Benjani in the second.

We are never going to win any games like that.

Pedersen, complete waste of space, why oh why was he given a new contract? Kalinic, what on earth has happened to him? He was half way down to the deck every time or making a back even before the ball reached him.

As someone else said above the United Diouf looks our liveliest striker, god knbows why he didn't get on the pitch before the laughable Benjani.

Waddling about for ten minutes, taking a ride on the back of a defender and then staggering off the pitch. What was that all about?

Performance money earned?

[super_arran]

Sam will hide behind the fact we played the second half with ten men but for me it was another appalling display in terms of lack of creativity in which we again created only two efforts of note over 90 minutes, A weak header from Kalinic after 25 mins and a ballooned effort from Benjani in the second.

We are never going to win any games like that.

Pedersen, complete waste of space, why oh why was he given a new contract? Kalinic, what on earth has happened to him? He was half way down to the deck every time or making a back even before the ball reached him.

As someone else said above the United Diouf looks our liveliest striker, god knbows why he didn't get on the pitch before the laughable Benjani.

Waddling about for ten minutes, taking a ride on the back of a defender and then staggering off the pitch. What was that all about?

Performance money earned?

Did you watch the game?

2 of Pedersens freekicks needed to be tipped over by their keeper (that''s another 2 chances to note btw)

Kalinic's hold up play was a lot better than usual.

Peds played some decent balls through the middle and out to the wings to start attacks.

Jesus Christ man, hiding behind the fact we had 10 men for 45 mins? What do you want? All out attack for the second half? Centre backs running through the middle of the field, robbo standin on the half way line just to get involved?

Get real mate, we were playin 4-4-1 in the second half with the emphasis on defending. we were never goin to create that many chances with 10 men.

Head. Arse. Out of.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Interesting to see some of the views on here.

For me Diouf was MOM - best I think I have ever seen him play for Rovers.

Robinson - a couple of excellent stops - but in reality they must be really disappointed he didn't have more to do.

Nzonzi - held the midfield well in second half

Ollson - infuriating at times, brilliant at others - but isn't it nice to have an attacking left back with pace ?

Jones - lost his man a couple of times - but still looks the real deal (better centre half than centre-mid imo)

Pedersen - unlike many posters on here - thought he had a reasonable match - delivery was hit and miss - but battled hard and kept ball well.

Kalanic - first half ok - second half poor. Can't make my mind up whether he doesn't get protection from refs - or just isn't strong enough at times (or clever enough to go down at the right times - e.g. Davies).

Dunn - looked slow and off the pace - but when he had the ball at his feet you could see what we have been missing.

I actually saw reasons to be optimistic in this match. The reason Samba got caught in possession - and the reason why we seemed to gave the ball away in dangerous areas in the first half - was that we were trying to play the ball out of defence rather than the big hoof. Throw ins were mixed up in the first half - and we actually tried to play football.

[RevidgeBlue]

Head. Arse. Out of.

Suit yourself.

The second half was at least spirited and a lot better than the abysmal display with eleven men in the first.

However in the last 180 minutes of football we've mustered three (feeble) efforts on goal. Not going to stay up like that.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Suit yourself.

The second half was at least spirited and a lot better than the abysmal display with eleven men in the first.

However in the last 180 minutes of football we've mustered three (feeble) efforts on goal. Not going to stay up like that.

According to Beeb - 3 on target - and 6 off target tonight. I actually thought there was more than that - with a number of efforts blocked - including one from Kalnic that was going into bottom corner.

I agree we lack creativity - but you need to take off your Anti-Sam glasses

[super_arran]

Suit yourself.

The second half was at least spirited and a lot better than the abysmal display with eleven men in the first.

However in the last 180 minutes of football we've mustered three (feeble) efforts on goal. Not going to stay up like that.

You don't have a cardboard sign outside your house saying "the end is nigh" on it do you?

Imagine if you supported Liverpool....

[The Harwood Yankee]

Can't decide if it's a good or bad thing that we looked like we had more passion to our play when we went down to ten men. Aside from allowing Sunderland to run at our defence a lot more, esp early second half, I saw a good number of our outfield players getting genuinely stuck in for the first time in a while - Bert, Pedersen, EH Diouf, Jones, Givet, all looking like they wanted a result. Robbo was my shout for MOTM - a couple of his saves tonight reminded me of Friedel at his best (even though Sunderland's finishing resembled a Jason Roberts tribute act at times...). Had we played with this passion for the full 90 mins and kept 11 men on the pitch I feel sure we would have comed away with 3 points. Let's hope Sam can get them equally impassioned for the next 2 games, which will be tough ones.

[Rovermatt]

Stupid, stupid, stupid mistake from Samba. We're lucky we were up against such a ######-poor team and managed to come away with a point. We hadn't a hope of getting a goal before Samba was dismissed anyway. We play the ugliest, most pointless football I've ever seen in the Premier League. The aimless, inexplicable punting that goes on (when team mates are free and open nearby) is what really gets up my nose. Not once did our players have the ball fully under control in and around Sunderland's box. Brutal stuff.

And Kevin Phillips, dear oh dear. 'Sir Jack Hayward.'

Sam will hide behind the fact we played the second half with ten men but for me it was another appalling display in terms of lack of creativity in which we again created only two efforts of note over 90 minutes, A weak header from Kalinic after 25 mins and a ballooned effort from Benjani in the second.

We are never going to win any games like that.

Pedersen, complete waste of space, why oh why was he given a new contract? Kalinic, what on earth has happened to him? He was half way down to the deck every time or making a back even before the ball reached him.

As someone else said above the United Diouf looks our liveliest striker, god knbows why he didn't get on the pitch before the laughable Benjani.

Waddling about for ten minutes, taking a ride on the back of a defender and then staggering off the pitch. What was that all about?

Performance money earned?

I should have just echoed this.