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

[RoyRover]

I would have been disappointed with a 0-0 draw before the game last night, but you have to be grateful for a point after playing the entire second half with 10 men. I thought that the first 15 minutes was awful, but then we actually started trying to pass the ball around instead of just lumping it up the field. I actually thought that Kalinic did ok last night, he was up against two bulls in Turner and Bramble and managed to hold the ball up on a few occasions and bought others into play. He would be far better IMO if he had a strike partner or at least someone who played a lot closer to him. He's got a good touch and a good brain, but he isn't big enough or strong enough to play up front by himself. I actually feel sorry for the lad as I think that he could do well. I don't know what he would be like playing off a striker like Diouf or Benjani? It was a good point in the end, but it could have been more had Samba just hoofed the ball out of the stadium.

[mick]

I watched the game and felt that Rovers did very well. Yes, they were more direct than Sunderland but for the most part picked a greater percentage of the secondary balls; consequently they had much possession in the opponent's half. The team showed much variation in their play, Diouf with clever hold up play and Gamst with some deft chips over the defenders were particularly pleasing. Our set pieces always troubled the Sunderland defense. Even the commentators passed comment about how good some of the passages of football were by Blackburn. To be fair, Samba had to go off for his miscue. The team was solid and worked well. Givet was shaky in the first half but better when he was needed in the second. A good point. Three would have been better but considering the circumstances, a good night's work.

[joey_big_nose]

I was fairly impressed yesterday that after going to 10 men we chased the game. Olsson and Emerton at full back gave us real options on the overlap.

That said we could have conceded three on the counter. We commit too many forward for set pieces imo. We need at least one extrea body back.

Striking is a continual massive problem for us. 3 strikers had a go, none looked convincing. Benjani probably looked the most effective but it was marginal. We need to set up more offensively at home when playing against mediocre prem teams. Out of current players something like:-

-----------------Benjani------Kalinic

EH Diouf-----Pedersen-----Jones-----Dunn

----Olsson------Givet-------Samba----Sagado

-----------------------Robinson

Time has come for 442 at home against teams outside the top six. We need to score goals. We need to sacrifice a midfielder for a striker, and with Jones' work rate we are relatively covered in the middle and Nzonzi - although he played okay yesterday - should be dropped.

ps. People havng a go at Jones in the middle - what is your problem? He even passed the ball well against Sunderland. Looks better than anyone else who has played there this season by a country mile. He will go back to CM once Samba serves his suspension.

[Rover Down Under]

Well that was worth flying 13,000 miles for

Actually it was nice to be back at Ewood for a very long time and I think the club shop takings tripled after I finished in there.

We didn't look great even with Samba but it was good we held out for a point, although Sunderland were absolutely awful. If Rovers had spent that amount and been that bad I'd be embarassed.

I don't think the players understand each other sometimes, I wonder if they actually play together at training or just do exercises because there were a few occassions last night when it looked like the players had known each other for 5 minutes. Few cases;

- Salgado played a ball to Emerton, ran on expecting a one-two and Bert just dithered on the ball and barely even noticed the run his teammate made, the ball ended up going backwards

- MGP takes a short throw in (for once), everyone is completely unaware and it goes straight to a Sunderland player - haven't they got a signal for these things?!

- Niko gets the ball to feet and practically has to stand on it until someone decides to move, by which time he's lost possession

I think half the reason we create so little is that some players are just not tuned in or switched on, Sam really needs to work on that aspect cos we would create a lot more chances if most of the team didn't faff around and could maybe think 2 and 3 passes ahead rather than one.

I hope next time I drop by Ewood we are still a Premier League team

[thenodrog]

I think in an attacking sense (midfield/strikers), we have very average players.

Apart from Dunn, we have no one with enough quality to make a positve impact (in an attacking sense).

Short, sweet and unfortunately very accurate John.

[thenodrog]

I sit in the BBE hughesy, second half especially Niko threw himself to ground every chance he could, often first backing in first.

You could hear people grumble everytime he did it

Any grumblers are obviously know nowts! Bloody obvious to a blind man on a galloping horse why he did that TCO. Orders from the manager of course. When a side is down to 10 men the best tactic is to get free kicks in the opponents half and fire balls into the box. When that happens numbers don't matter.

It's not just Allardyce's tactic either. Once Hughes sussed that John Stead was not a Premier League player and consigned him to the bench he had Paul Dickov up front playing for free kicks all the rest of the season.

btw good solid noise from the Darwen End mob all second half.

[Gav]

Blatant or clumsy? Cant say iv seen it again on the TV but it looked unlucky & most people who had seen it in the concourse said it wasnt even a foul, more a tangle between two players...!?

It was a clear cut sending off, he grabbed the bloke when he was clean through, you just can't do that.

The people on the concourse must have been there all match, beer goggles and all that if they didn’t think it was a foul!

Still a good point in the circumstances, but why do we play 1 up front at home against Sunderland? Surely this is a game he classes as winnable

[Plastic Head]

Well it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Then again neither was my last trip to the dentist.

Pedersen out.

[Gav]

Well it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Then again neither was my last trip to the dentist.

[92er]

Quite an amusing moment near the end when Steve Bruce feigned to take a quick throw-in to one of his players.

Well, I laughed.

Yes, that was good.

[trueblue]

Well it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Then again neither was my last trip to the dentist.

Pedersen out.

Me either... I usually dread Slumberland rolling up to Ewood!

[Tom]

Any grumblers are obviously know nowts! Bloody obvious to a blind man on a galloping horse why he did that TCO. Orders from the manager of course. When a side is down to 10 men the best tactic is to get free kicks in the opponents half and fire balls into the box. When that happens numbers don't matter.

It's not just Allardyce's tactic either. Once Hughes sussed that John Stead was not a Premier League player and consigned him to the bench he had Paul Dickov up front playing for free kicks all the rest of the season.

btw good solid noise from the Darwen End mob all second half.

Funnily enough I mentioned earlier in the thread I think it may have been managers orders as it was far more prevelent in the second half.

[Blueboy Downunder]

4-5-1 at home one a whoops I missed off the "g" gain!!

how defensive do we want to be infront of our home fans...nzonzi is defensive, jones is a centre half, emerton does not have a play making bone in his body....so in my book, 7 out of the 11 we had on the park last night to start the game are defensive minded.

when is common sense gonna prevail in sam's mind with nikola. far canal the kid is running his spuds off and getting nothing for his efforts. i feel so bad for him, because i fear that we are gonna lose him to a club/manager who will give him support and allow him to score goals. i am so angry bout last nights display and apparent tactics...i can't think anymore.

[old darwen blue]

Well I enjoyed the match (tin hat on) and dont forget that this is all about entertainment I suppose. If we had millions to spend then we would possibly enjoy Arsenal style footy which unfortunately we dont. I remember worse times anyway, "Saxton Out", what about the sit down demo on Nuttall Street?

Robbo gave his gloves to a kid at the front of the Darwen End, the bloke appears to have an affinity with the fans over here.

[LDRover]

Well I enjoyed the match (tin hat on) and dont forget that this is all about entertainment I suppose. If we had millions to spend then we would possibly enjoy Arsenal style footy which unfortunately we dont. I remember worse times anyway, "Saxton Out", what about the sit down demo on Nuttall Street?

Robbo gave his gloves to a kid at the front of the Darwen End, the bloke appears to have an affinity with the fans over here.

Yeah, I like Robinson - seems like a right good egg and his 'keeping is improving too.

Good to see the personal touch in a sport filled mainly with overpaid gobshites.

[grizfoot]

Well it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Then again neither was my last trip to the dentist.

Pedersen out.

Go on then clever cloggs we take Pedersen out and replace him with who?

Grella? ermm he's injured again isn't he

Andrews? he happens to be injured too and given your nature you'd rather have any other living being in our central midfield before Andrews anyway.

We don't have any other options at all unless we are going to change formation (not going to happen). It's all good and well shouting about this player out that player out but with nobody better to replace him at present it's a pointless exercise. Dare I say it I miss the sight of Jason Roberts missing chances, at least he could muscle the defenders about a little.

[dj54nna]

For me, bad decision making, he needed to put his foot through the ball in that particular instance, you have to be switched on, especially just before the break,

just get rid of the ball and see through to the break.

Incidentally, a statistic which is quite interesting, look at the number of goals scored between the following times,

1-5mins 40- 45mins and 85 - 90 (plus injury time) there are quite a number, the reason is that concentration is low as you start and get into the game, at 40 minutes it drops as you approach the break and again as we near the end of the game, concentration dips as fatigue kicks in!

Speaking of interesting statistics and Samba's sending off. Is it just me, or does the letter of the law only apply to last man when a Blackburn Rovers player is committing the foul?

Are Samba and Nelsen just prone to making this same mistake? Or, as biased Roverites, does anyone else feel like most other clubs get away with it all the time?

I can't remember the last time a player not in a Rovers shirt got sent off in the Premier League for being the last man.

[Tom]

Blackpool player at arsenal?

No bias but when you give the ref no option there can only be one outcome, it's not like it was even borderline.

[LDRover]

Never mind all the bitching about whether it was a sending off or not, if the referee had played advantage Sunderland would have scored (as they did while play went on with players oblivious to the stoppage).

So rather than us bemoaning bad luck (over a correct decision btw) maybe we should be grateful.

[darwenblueswearehere]

Blatant or clumsy? Cant say iv seen it again on the TV but it looked unlucky & most people who had seen it in the concourse said it wasnt even a foul, more a tangle between two players...!?

It was the most obvious red card I've seen in a long, long time. He pulled the lad back when clean through on goal. Thankfully the linesman was up with play and saw that it was outside the box, and thankfully also the ref didn't play advantage, as Sunderland actually put the ball in the back of the net ultimately.....

All in all a decent point under the circumstances. We are definitely in a relegation scrap though, lets not kid ourselves. Fortunately team spirit seems to be excellent, which should see us safe.

[RIML]

He tried to be clever in playing the ball, messed it up and then put his hand on Welbeck's shoulder, giving him every excuse to go down - his mistake, he messed up. I just wonder what you would be saying if Nelsen had been playing and had done that?

And he didn't say "once again Givet gets beaten in the air by a shorter player" He would have done if it was Nelsen who'd allowed Darren Bent through on goal.

[Exiled_Rover]

It was the most obvious red card I've seen in a long, long time. He pulled the lad back when clean through on goal. Thankfully the linesman was up with play and saw that it was outside the box, and thankfully also the ref didn't play advantage, as Sunderland actually put the ball in the back of the net ultimately.....

All in all a decent point under the circumstances. We are definitely in a relegation scrap though, lets not kid ourselves. Fortunately team spirit seems to be excellent, which should see us safe.

It's also a horrible, horrible rule.

[92er]

I spoke on Tuesday to someone who had never previously been to a Premiership match and he thought the whole experience was wonderful.

Personally, my wife and I thought that overall the match was appalling.

The first half saw aimless balls kicked as far as possible up front, almost always some way away from Kalinic who therefore had little chance of getting near them. When they did come near him, he could do very little with the ball, so it just went back to Sunderland.There seemed to be no plan to get it anywhere near our players even when it seemed possible.

Diouf, who has really played much better this season-and I haven't been a fan of him or his antics so far-appeared to be very lucky not to be sent off.

The improvement seemed to start after the substitutions, when we appeared to pass it to team members on occassions, if not all the time.

A point might have seemed like a win after Samba was so stupid as to get himself sent off, but the overall quality of the match was a real turn off.

How many goals have we scored at home so far this season?

[den]

How many goals have we scored at home so far this season?

3 in the league.

I thought Sunderland had far more idea how to play, when it was 11 v 11. Once they had the man advantage they couldn't seem to put a plan B together. They didn't know whether to stick or twist.

[darwenblueswearehere]

It's also a horrible, horrible rule.

Funnily enough I think the red card was fair on this occasion. The 'professional' foul is where it should be used, it was a cynical foul. Where I think its unfair is in situations like the Samba red card at Villa in the semi last season. Yes it was a penalty, but that was punishment enough, to give a red card as well was disproportionate.