[Archived] Rovers v Chelsea

[John]

Sam on injuries, says Benjani felt his hamstring slightly so that's why he came off

[Wing Wizard Windy Miller]

Pedersen played in the middle. Most of his successful passes were around 5 yards accross the middle or back. Several of which played the defence into trouble. Diouf played further up and was more isolated. He had to win/retain the ball then play it. What was the accuracy/completiion ratio of Pedersen's throws/corners/free kicks?

RIML - Ridiculous argument comparing the 2 on yesterdays performance!

...and it was Nelsen's fault for the goal

[Blue blood]

Fantastic performance yesterday. So proud of the lads, honestly, they couldn't have done much more. We played excellent football and a perfect mix of long and short balls. Play like that all season we'll be fine. My worry is how we'll respond to getting nothing from such an excellent performance and standards will drop.

The difference was about £200 miliion + in quality. They had players who took their chances, we didn't. Am fairly confident with a bit of investment to get that bit of extra quality we'd have mullered them and taken at least one of our chances.

The other difference was Pedersen. I don't like singling out players but his free kicks and even some of his throws were shocking. Against Chelsea you need to make the most of all your chances, and by wasting most of our set pieces, we weren't able to do that. I honestly believe that had the majority of them been decent we'd have got another goal from them, such was the quality of our performance.

Loosing Givet early was a blow. Thought Olsson did ok, but he's not as comfortable as Givet at defending, and seemed to have a difficult time. He did get forward well though and if Givet hadn't come off I'd have liked to see what Olsson at left mid running at them would have done as a substitute, rather than brining on Dunn for Diouf (he'd have come on for the woeful Pedersen instead.)

Another couple of players who deserve a mention are Emerton and Diouf 2. Emo continues to show that he is a fantastic worker with an excellent engine but doesn't really have a footballing brain. The chance he had when he tried passing the ball rather than shooting when bearing down on goal highlighted this perfectly. However as one of the two defensive midfielders in the 5 I like him there, because he adds pace to the team and has the energy to get forward and support the lone striker, as well as working hard defensively. Would much prefer to see Emo and either N'Zonzi or Jones as our two defensive mids, as I think it gives us a lot more going forwards.

I also was very impressed with Diouf 2. My previous criticism of him as a winger is he doesn't get stuck in enough. However today he really got stuck in, was fighting for the ball, as well as creating some chances going forward. Much improved.

Overall, a great performance. Sam and the team have set the bar. If we keep those standards it'll be a good season. If we don't things could be very tough indeed.

[RIML]

Pedersen played in the middle. Most of his successful passes were around 5 yards accross the middle or back. Several of which played the defence into trouble. Diouf played further up and was more isolated. He had to win/retain the ball then play it. What was the accuracy/completiion ratio of Pedersen's throws/corners/free kicks?

RIML - Ridiculous argument comparing the 2 on yesterdays performance!

...and it was Nelsen's fault for the goal

How is it? You've obviously not looked at the chalkboard because most of Diouf's successful passes were 5 yard passes.

[AggyBlue]

The difference was about £200 miliion + in quality. They had players who took their chances, we didn't. Am fairly confident with a bit of investment to get that bit of extra quality we'd have mullered them and taken at least one of our chances.

Aye but with 5M we'll be getting like for like

[RIML]

WWWM, I've uploaded the pictures for you

As you can see Diouf's passes were short too.

And I think the chalkboards show the completion ratio of throws, corners & free kicks.

EDIT: I love these stats, Samba didn't make (or have to make) one tackle in the game

[47er]

0-0 until the half-time Big Sam 'pep-talk'. 0-2 final score. Just can't see us getting anything out of this without a change in tactics and formation. Which we all know won't happen.

Wrong!

Old Blackburn - Put up a decent fight maybe scab a result.

Big Sam's Blackburn - Kalinic up front on his own and totally out of his depth. 4-0 Chelski

Wrong!

[Majiball]

Wrong!

Wrong!

[Amo]

WWWM, I've uploaded the pictures for you

As you can see Diouf's passes were short too.

And I think the chalkboards show the completion ratio of throws, corners & free kicks.

EDIT: I love these stats, Samba didn't make (or have to make) one tackle in the game

It doesn't matter how blindly you defend Pedersen, you're still Nelsen's bunny boiler!

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

RIML how on earth can you defend gamsts performance yesterday. He took every set piece so odds were on that he might have put one good one in. I'd bet on me to at least put one decent ball in when under no pressure at all.... And I'm not paid £50k a week.

His delivery. In the first half was awful, one one occasion he took the corner ad hit the first man, the ball came back out wide and he crossed it clean out of play behind the goal.

Every time he tried to make a tackle he just hung a leg out and the players walked past him.

I actually like gamst but that was not good enough at all. He's so hot and cold it's unbelievable.

I actually agree with RIML - I don't think Pedersens overall performance was that bad. True - his set piece delivery was hit and miss (to say the least) - but when you try to put balls in with pace - you only need to get it slightly wrong to end up looking a fool. I would much prefer to see him trying to put it in with pace - rather than just drift in set pieces (which you can't do against a team like Chelsea that have height throughout their team). His work rate was first class (as was all the team) - and he contributed to a good overall team performance.

For all the stick Sam gets - he got his tactics spot on today (though I didn't agree with Dunn coming on to play left wing - which showed when their right back scores the winning goal).

Overall an excellent performance - which they need to keep up against Wigan.

[booth]

Maybe not ..... But Nelsen would have been in a position to block Anelka.

That's immediately what i thought after seeing it again on MOTD. Looking at it I can't understand how he was drawn to the ball when he had a man behind him and Anelka was belting through towards goal.

[john.leigh]

Only watched it on TV, but for what it's worth...

Olsson will never make left back - I can put him at fault for both the goals we conceded.

Jason Roberts - only has the keeper to beat - misses!

Overall great display from us & we played some very nice football - which was acknowledged by the commentators.

Think we deserved a point - we desparately need a point - but lets look for silver linings & take heart from the performance.

[47er]

Thanks for your photo. Could you autograph it for me?

[MarkBRFC71]

Wrong!

Wrong!

Well done for singling mine and BPF's posts out, after all we were the only two people to predict we'd lose.

Didn't we lose after being level at half-time? I'm sure that despite an improved performance that's what I saw.

Kudos to Sam for finally caving in and changing the previous totally ineffective tactics, which of course you were fully behind because you blindly follow everything the manager says or does, but I said needed to be changed to stop us going down.

So other than making yourself look daft, what exactly was the point of your post apart from trying to score cheap points?

[Majiball]

Thanks for your photo. Could you autograph it for me?

How troll.

[BuckyRover]

It doesn't matter how blindly you defend Pedersen, you're still Nelsen's bunny boiler!

You can't use facts to defend him! Even though it shows him making loads of successful passes.

[Blue blood]

Aye but with 5M we'll be getting like for like

Not saying that at all, but having funds to improve the squad and add a bit more quality would most definately have helped us. In fact given how tight it was, even a small upgrade in quality - which 5 million would give us - would probably have been the difference today. One 4/5 million player, that bit of extra quality and maybe we wouldn't have missed all of our chances, or we'd have had a few better set pieces, or better left back cover. Certainly think today showed what a little investment could do.

[AHoyle90]

Dont care about stats, Diouf was miles better than Pedersen and has been all season. Fact, whatever the stats say.

[Amo]

Dont care about stats, Diouf was miles better than Pedersen and has been all season. Fact, whatever the stats say.

It stands to reason he'd see more of the ball than Diouf, since he plays centre. Most of his successful passes were simple, backwards passes, anyway. It's hardly like he was pinging the ball around with great vision. And it doesn't cover up a dreadful performance, from our so-called set-piece expert.

[thenodrog]

Not saying that at all, but having funds to improve the squad and add a bit more quality would most definately have helped us. In fact given how tight it was, even a small upgrade in quality - which 5 million would give us - would probably have been the difference today. One 4/5 million player, that bit of extra quality and maybe we wouldn't have missed all of our chances, or we'd have had a few better set pieces, or better left back cover. Certainly think today showed what a little investment could do.

It certainly showed what a massive investment can do. Hardly any difference all over the pitch but 0 points became 1 and 1 point became 3.

[JAL]

Dont care about stats, Diouf was miles better than Pedersen and has been all season. Fact, whatever the stats say.

At least Pedersen isnt as bad as Dunny is currently looking

A big criticism of the referee yesterday was his inability to keep the game moving by his slowing down of play from dead ball situations, as a home fan this was particularly unacceptable. As he'd made a bit of a rick from the free kick he'd awarded Chelsea that led to their winner, he knew what he'd done as he slowly sauntered back to the half way line out of his normal position for the restart.

Fully hope he learns to speed things up a little bit in future when ever a game is coming to a close.

[92er]

I just like to defend players who are being unfairly criticised. That is all.

It's unfair to say Nelsen clattered into Olsson. Would Olsson have beaten Drogba if Nelsen wasn't there? No, because he's just simply not got the height, the ball would have gone into the box regardless (and I'm sure if that was the case you'd be saying 'Nelsen should have been marking Drogba') So to stop Drogba from having a header on goal or heading across goal was for Nelsen to go for the ball, surely? Olsson is one of the smallest players in our team, did you expect him to win a header against Drogba?

Having watched it again-with the help of your linked video and motd this morning-I agree Ollson would have been very unlikely to have beaten Drogba in the air.

However, if Nelsen had been between Drogba and Anelka-ie he had not been drawn out more to the wing- he might well have got to the knock down before Anelka.

[G Somerset Rover]

Bottom 3 following Liverpool's late win. Wigan at home is a MUST WIN given our fixtures coming up.

[super_arran]

It doesn't matter how blindly you defend Pedersen, you're still Nelsen's bunny boiler!

You ever seen the film "Misery"?

[grizfoot]

Having watched it again-with the help of your linked video and motd this morning-I agree Ollson would have been very unlikely to have beaten Drogba in the air.

However, if Nelsen had been between Drogba and Anelka-ie he had not been drawn out more to the wing- he might well have got to the knock down before Anelka.

...or Drogba would have brought it down himself and scored. It was a massive punt upfield from Cech that caught us out with Salgado out of position it forced Samba to go and close down Malouda out in a right-back position. That left a massive gap in the centre of the defense after Nelsen went to try and win the header and clear the danger. You could argue Jones should have been tracking Anelka's run better but it's difficult to stop a goal like that when the header is perfectly into the path of the incoming striker.

Overall no points from the game but I felt more positive about the team than I had been before watching the game. We seemed to have the 4-5-1 defensive shape turning into a 4-3-3 shape much more quickly than we have in past games and general looked a much more fluid offensive unit. We also showed we can play effective direct, counter-attacking football without the usual hoof it anywhere method, our long-range passing and general control was much better in yesterday's game I thought. Benjani was superb for the 45 minutes on the pitch (bit of a worry that he looked shattered after just 45 minutes thought). Thought Diouf-Mk2 was superb, used his pace to great effect and supported the attack very well and got into some good positions. Diouf-mk1 put in yet another good performance, player of the season so far without question. I was also impressed with Emerton, if just for his tremendous work-rate and willingness to carry the ball forward from central midfield (something we usually lack). We paid the price for the two glorious chances in the second half that we failed to convert, Chelsea were avergae by their high standards but they took their chances when they arrived.