[Archived] Wigan Vs Blackburn Rovers

[AHoyle90]

Shocking, just shocking. That was the worse defensive display in ages, since Utd away. That 3rd goal was a joke. It was nearly worse than when we surrendered under Ince.

Jermaine Jones gets stuck in, but how many freekicks does he give away, how many times does he dive in, how many times does he needlessly give the ball away? Too much.

Mame Diouf came on, Hoilett sliped him clean through and he produced a first touch usually associated with a sunday league striker. Benjani and Jason Roberts offered nothing apart from Jason's goal.

Today was a game if we have progressed as much as we thought, we'd have won this game at a canter today. They were utterly ###### first 20 mins, but once we go 1-0 up we dont then kill it off, typical.

Could go on forever, Salgado, Samba, Nelsen... another poor day at the office. Shipping 4 goals just aint good enough.

[Tom]

I won't write Kean off yet, far from it but there is no denying that a loss against Newcastle would leave us looking seriously in danger.

He has to somehow stop the rot.

The players have to take the blame as well though Kean can't be held responsible for Samba and co's mistakes.

Huge week ahead now.

[Iceman]

You can't go from playing hoof ball to the beautiful game overnight. we have players happy to play the aerial game who look out of depth playing it on the ground.

so why with half a season left, do we change from hoofball to expansive football? this we should have looked at in the summer, when we are still a PL team. get players in, who are comfortable in playing exciting football, who are use to entertaining. we are taking unecassary risks, with half the season completed

[RovertheHill]

Sounds like a bad game - certainly a bad result. However I suspect that a sense of perspective is needed. For example, one day Salgado single-handedly kept Lennon quiet, today he is a liability? I suspect not somehow. And people that seem to think we were this tight defensive unit under Sam and believe Kean has "opened us up" should go and look at some of the scores we lost by last season, and earlier this season. Terrible result, move on.

[steo]

Relegation scrap? Get a grip. Even though they have games in hand, we are still 7 points clear of the relegation zone.

Think you need to get a grip,defeat at home against a buzzing newcastle and other results going against us and we will be nervously looking over our shoulder.

[True Blue & White]

What have Steve Kean as a Premiership manager and Communism as an economic system got in common?

Both are good in theory, neither work in practice.

[Dan]

I would not of played Salgado and i certainly would not of given him a new contract.he is past it.

Well done raping the English language! What do they actually teach kids at school these days?!?

[Bobby G]

The result had nothing to do with tactics, formation or even team selection really. We defended comically at times and their isn't much that a manager can do about that. 99% of Rovers fans would have started Robinson, Samba and Salgado, but two idiotic mistakes from them resulted in two goals and sloppy defending from the entire back four accounted for the other two.

It had a lot to do with the tactics in fact, and obviously the HT teamtalk didnt seem to do its trick.

Our central area is wide open and has been for a few games, esp with this diamond. Too many players get easy runs towards our central defenders. Other than JJ, others seem a bit hesitant to press or push onto their opponent for some reason. Pressing has been poor defensively.

6 defeats in 11 games is a poor return. We are starting to lose the kind of games we wouldnt be and I dont mean the kind of fixtures but the kind of matches on the pitch.

[dazmaz]

How did Wigan get something with a pitch like that?

Wigan are much more renowned for playing attractive, short passing football than we are, just in case our Barcelona style didn't hit top gear tonight.

Wigan hit high long balls alot more than we did, wigan reverted alot more to hitting it long when they realised the pitch was in such a sate, where as we continued trying to play it on the deck.

[Rainmaker]

A crap game on a crap pitch that might have gone both ways.

A few negatives

- Samba has lapses of concentration, one which cost us their second goal

- no prolific goalscorer, good goal from Robets but the strikers really wasn't there

- Jones may be a liability if he persist with his lunges

- The defense looks to "stand off"ish, especially for McCartys second

- Salgado i normally great, but i think his age is catching up to him, looks slow

A few positives

- Robinson keeps making crucial saves, he's in great form

- Good game and crucial involvements from Hoilett

- Good delivery on the corners and crosses from MGP

- Good involvements from Olsson going forward

The penalty given to Wigan was a penalty but it being given was purely down to Deans positioning. Could easily not have been given. No intent from Salgado i think, but his trailing food did clip the Wigan player.

[ptholt]

I would not of played Salgado and i certainly would not of given him a new contract.he is past it.

The conditions and his age did for Salgado today, Keane should have realised this and planned accordingly, either start him there and swop for bert later or only play him for half the game. You cant really blame salgado for putting on the shirt and trying his best when age and conditions were so against him, that has to be a managerial cross to bear imo.

Secondly i really do think he is there to help bed the new young guys in who probably speak v little or no english at all, but with steve kean talking portuguese/spanish off pitch and salgado and RSC talking Spanish on it, it will hopefully help those guys bed in hence the new contract, or maybe im just over reading that scenario lol.

[trs]

Cant wait for the Blackpool game, should imagine there will be 8 or 9 goals with some 50 attempts on goal

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Honestly the issue with the pitch is rubbish. Both sides had to play on it and Wigan did not hoof the ball all the time. N'Zogbia was ripping us apart at times when running with the ball.

Wigan play on that pathetic excuse of a pitch every other week. Of course they had a better idea of how to play on it. It was a leveller. Nobody could play through the middle. Im not saying we would have beaten them otherwise, but you cannot say it didnt have an effect.

Bottom line. We lost the game. No excuses.

[G Somerset Rover]

6 defeats in 11 games is a poor return. We are starting to lose the kind of games we wouldnt be and I dont mean the kind of fixtures but the kind of matches on the pitch.

Exactly, Kean's start is now looking decidedly average. Yes we're playing better football, but at what price?

[Commondore]

Wigan are completely unpredictable and get these kinds of results from time to time, but it's still a horrible defeat to suffer. However, in my opinion Keane pretty much has a carte blanche until the end of the season. He's more or less transforming an entire team and I'll reserve my judgment until next season.

I do feel we face a problem with Olsson playing left back. He's to poor in his defensive work, and we lack his pace at the left wing. Givet may not be an optimal left sided defender, but at least we would look better defensively and be able to play Olsson in his natural position.

[PAFELL]

The team selection did seem slightly odd - I've said this before, will Kean play 2 strikers regardless of who is available?

Benjani missed a sitter, so did diouf. penalty given away, sloppy defending. None of which can be placed at Keans door. Selection was not that strange, after playing in mid week. Kean mixed the forwards up, what else could he do after the chnaces missed on Wednesday.

[FourLaneBlue]

some of the knee jerk reactions on here are ridiculous. How anyone expected us to get anything with a pitch like that is way past me.

That's got to be in the running for Quote of the Year.

[PAFELL]

Wigan play on that pathetic excuse of a pitch every other week. Of course they had a better idea of how to play on it. It was a leveller. Nobody could play through the middle. Im not saying we would have beaten them otherwise, but you cannot say it didnt have an effect.

Bottom line. We lost the game. No excuses.

Agreed, it is just one of those bad 'derby game' results. Still too early to judge Kean. Same old story, Rovers had chnaces and didn't take them and then sloopy in defence.

[Look4Me]

The result had nothing to do with tactics, formation or even team selection really. We defended comically at times and their isn't much that a manager can do about that. 99% of Rovers fans would have started Robinson, Samba and Salgado, but two idiotic mistakes from them resulted in two goals and sloppy defending from the entire back four accounted for the other two.

This is excactly how it is. How is the manager going to stop the defenders from having really awful games? Salgado couldn't cope at all at his side, and Olsson isn't really a good defensive fullback. When Samba and Nelsen also have pretty dodgy games, it's always going to be a poor result.

We were battering them for a good part in the first half. Was the team selection wrong then? The defence went in melt-down mode for a few minutes in the start of the second, giving them two waay too easy goals, and going back from that would always be difficult.

This has been the story for a long time, even under Sam..The best game plans do fall apart when the players make awful mistakes..

[steo]

We have gone from playing awful football but grinding out results to playing good football and getting nothing out of games,hopefully Roque will be back,he has that bit of class that Roberts clearly lacks.

[Balwer]

Birmingham have 3 games to get 2 points which would get them out of the drop zone. If that happens then we're only 5 points above 18th, Wigan, and that's assuming neither Wolves or West Ham get out of the drop zone with their games in hand. Having lost six of our eleven games in all forms (six of ten against premier league opposition) we're hardly a form team, and with only three players missing from the squad (four if Kalinic is injured) it's not like we're struggling with a massive amount of injuries. To say we're not in any sort of relegation problems when we're on 31 points with poor goal difference is naive at best.

One concern in particular, highlighted in today's game, is that we've not had a clean sheet since Mr Kean took charge. Not had one since Sam's second last game in charge in fact. What was once a strength has quickly become a weakness. Not blaming anyone for that, just stating the fact.

[John]

I just think we need to be more compact as a team in order to pick up points. You can still be attacking without 2 strikers on the pitch.

[brian_gallagher85]

Like we where today you mean John

[PAFELL]

That's got to be in the running for Quote of the Year.

The pitch and the conditions played a role today. Maybe only a minor role. That is what people are saying. But not the whole reason.

Missed chances and bad defending was the reason Rovers lost today and the fact Wigan took their chnaces given to them.

[Kelbo]

Wigan play on that pathetic excuse of a pitch every other week. Of course they had a better idea of how to play on it. It was a leveller. Nobody could play through the middle. Im not saying we would have beaten them otherwise, but you cannot say it didnt have an effect.

Bottom line. We lost the game. No excuses.

I PM a member early am and told him that we must have a plan to keep Nzogbia quiet, we didnt, I also said we could well get done here, we did, we are too inexperienced in management, he is sitting here with a three year contract because he puts a lot of hours in!!!!

What the hell has that got to do with it, we needed an experienced man in when they sacked Sam, now they lose JW, despite their comments to the contrary, the owners have been exposed as untrustworthy and very stupid people, who, like Steve Kean are totally out of their depth.