[Archived] Spurs Preview 2-2-2011

[RoverMad86]

Thought we played ok tonight. Should of got a point at least, but hey ho thats football.

Cant believe people were booing Keith. He is a limited player but as long as he pulls on the Blue and White of Blackburn Rovers FC i will support him. K**bs.

[92er]

Maybe he'll do what most modern players seem to do, sulk and want out.

Maybe.

But he came on and played well.

There was more balance with him on and he covered Olsson's runs down the wing.

The problem tonight was not the substituions but the original line up.

The team looked more balanced with Hoillet at the tip of the diamond and Pedersen on the left. Especially when Andrews appeared to be more often at right back with Salgado further up on the right.

[DaveyB]

There was an incident in the second half on our right wing which summed up fans' attitude to Andrews. He won the ball on the half way line, slipped it into Hoilett and went for the one-two. Hoilett underhit the pass which meant that Andrews lost possession and of course thousands booed Andrews.

There was a point in the first half when Diouf gave the ball away near the Spurs area. Their leftback then came away with the ball, with Diouf not bothering to make any effort to chase back, and went around Salgado like he wasn't there. The lad next to me immediately shouts "Ffs Andrews!" - sums it up for me. I'm not particularly a fan of his, I personally wouldn't pick him, but equally I don't think he is even half as bad as he is made out to be by some. It's probably best for all parties if he does leave, as he'll never get a fair crack here - probably due to where he came from and who bought him.

On the game - interesting to see that people are complaining about the subs. Not sure what was wrong with them myself - Jones was injured, straight swap with Nzonzi, Dunn was knackered, Pederson was the only real option to replace him and, imo, Diouf was having a shocker - toss up really whether you replace him with Benjani or Kalinic, whichever the manager chose some wouldn't be happy. Tbh the only real change I would have made is to have subbed Diouf earlier, but then you risk having used all your 3 subs quite early on.

On the performance, obviously disappointed we lost, but overall very pleased with how we playec and I think there's real cause for optimism going forward if we keep playing like that

[RovertheHill]

The simple fact is, that for all the knee jerk criticisms, he was far from the worst player on the pitch tonight.

Whilst I agree with you about the booing being unacceptable I completely disagree with you about this. He was by a country mile the worst player on the pitch. Unless his job was to simply follow Spurs players around and not attempt to close them down or tackle them. If it was, then I apologise to him - he was fantastic at that.

[grizfoot]

Overall I was pleased with the way we played, we stuck with the 4-1-2-1-2 formation and we created hatfuls of chances but just buy a goal tonight. Thought Dunn was back to somewhere near his magical best from last season, Holiett was a constant danger and our best player by a distance. Bit of a disappointment to see Crouch score basically the exact same goal as last season , think Samba got stuck under the ball and there was nothing he could do from that point, with Crouch leaning all over him. Big difference in today's game was indeed Crouch, he was top quality I thought and Spurs best player on the night. Whilst we had Robers & Mame upfront who didn't look like a natural pairing in my opinion, they worked hard but for me are two players who have good physical qualities but lack the little extra bit of skill on the ball.

My main annoyance of the night was the booing from our fans. what's that all about? okay Andrews might not be the world's greatest, but he wasn't by any means the worst player on the pitch, that award goes to Roberts in my opinion. Poor Keith didn't deserve the constant abuse, I agree I'd prefer someone a bit more combative in midfield but as long as he's wearing the blue and white halves I'll support him. People should hang their heads in shame, it's only damaging both the team and the player. The subs also got booed for some reason, Jones was clearly injured hence why he was subbed, Dunny's knackered after about a hour and needed replacing. Mame Diouf also tired hence why he was taken off, I'd argue the only mistake in the subs was that Benjani wasn't put on a little earlier, he looked quite lively when he came on I thought.

Pretty confident if we continue to play in that fashion that we'll win more games than we'll lose. Then again I think Tottenham are a little over-rated but can't deny their defence and goalkeeper put in good performances to earn them a probably undeserved three points on the balance of things.

Comedy moment of the night, Katie2 at half-time, blue tickeeeeeeeeeet! white tickeeeeeeet! blue tickeeeeeeeeet!

[JMillZz]

The starting 11 was so lacking that I felt we needed more than 3 subs to be made.

Andrews just poor. Dunny just chunky and obviously wouldn't last 90 mins.

My thoughts pre-match was that those were 2 players I thought we would HAVE to take off at some point.

Then there is the factors of performances and injuries and needing to just impact the game.

With the starting 11 it left too many weaknesses that would have to be changed during the game and unfortunately we can only make 3 subs and hence left ourselves with Andrews left on the pitch. Kalinic should have started or at least come on.

Dunny was blowing out his arse after 20 mins. He blew hot and cold with me and was one minute good but then again very lazy and couldn't get back and quite often lost possession easily. He gets paid 30k a year to be a professional footballer and thus a good athlete so how can he not get himself in shape? It baffles me.

Andrews is clearly poor and he got jeered as everyone jeers mistakes that players make but unfortunately for Andrews he isn't great and makes more mistakes than others and consequently gets jeered more. It frustrated me with his lack of urgency in the last few minutes. He didn't merit booing but I gathered fans were getting frustrated with the costly errors.

I felt that we also didn't seem to switch too attacking. For large parts of the game Kean seemed comfortable being in a position losing 1-0 and there wasn't much drive to get goals. I felt Tottenham didn't have a great game and it wasn't because we stopped them, I think had they been on form our midfield and defence would have been ripped to shreds. An attacking switch was needed to take advantage of their lax defending however that could have left us vulnerable.

Crouch isn't great in the air but Nellie and Samba made him look great as Crouch won nearly every ball. Was surprised at this and disappointed, especially when Samba lost out for the goal.

Bit of a critical post but I am literally just highlighting the errors. We did play some good football at times but lacked some clinical finishing as too many shots were straight at Gomes, more urgency and we could have got a result I think.

[Steve Moss]

Perhaps dropping MGP for Andrews was a way of motivating Pedersen.

"You just got dropped and replaced by Keith Andrews. Think about that."

Benching MGP was necessary. He had to learn he is not an automatic starter. But Keith Andrews, though a hard worker and loyal player, is not a starter either. Were there no other choices?

Part of the argument about Diouf going to Rangers was that he slows the team down when it is trying to mah=ke a quick break.

In my opinion, Keith is not a player for a fast paced team.

The problem tonight was not the substituions but the original line up.

I think this is more likely correct, and I retract my earlier comment.

On the performance, obviously disappointed we lost, but overall very pleased with how we playec and I think there's real cause for optimism going forward if we keep playing like that

I think this sums it up. We should have got something. A win would have really solidified our position. But we didn't and the fans (including me) want an explanation. So far its boiling down to team selection and Keith Andrews. I don't know whether that is the true root causes, but it makes sense to me.

[bringdunnback]

Am I the only one who thought Andrews was decent tonight? He did his job well, got plays going, hardly lost the ball. Stop your pathetic, boring complaining, we outplayed an excellent side tonight IMO and we just didnt get the rub of the green with our shots. Move on, wigan up next, lets smash a few past them and keep ourselves in that top ten.

[Steve Moss]

Goal.com's match rankings, which I largely agree with: http://www.goal.com/en-us/match/48979/blackburn-vs-tottenham/player-ratings

[Blueboy Downunder]

can we all please club together and get keef a ###### taxi back to milton keynes....PLEASE!!

whilst i was slightly embarassed that a minority where booing him, this geezer truely is awful at this level....truely awful. when he gets his foot on the ball he takes an eternity to make a decision, which although sometimes is not the wrong decision, his ball skills and distribution are truely shocking. when we are going forward from our own box, he kills all forward momentum that we may have had. i have said to my pals before, that keef watches the game pass him by for long long periods. i could go on all night bout him, but i will name just two instances where i was perplexed and thinking "what the (Please don't use that word again) is he doing"....

1) 2nd half and assou-ekotto is taking the ball down the left flank, with andrews standing off, watching him advance....JJ comes from the center of the park to close him down, because keef is not!!

2) 2nd half and we are going foward. we have players in the box and then keef gets the ball 25 yards out....trys to chip (looked that way to me) two spurs defenders that look like they are standing all but 5 yards away. they break up our attacking momentum and clear with considerable ease!!

we were too slow getting the ball forward and come the summer time i hope our "marquee" signing is a right winger...with some serious pace.

[garnersfags]

The team Kean selected on Saturday (Villa), in my opinion showed naivety. As soon as I saw the team I thought we may well struggle to win. Again, tonight, as soon as I saw the team my optimism disappeared as I thought this was a team that would not give Spurs the game I was hoping. I think Kean is still experimenting, or just finding his feet.

I know Andrews has taken a lot of stick tonight, both at the game and in here but I really cannot see the logic in starting him ahead of either Pedersen or N'zonzi. I have been impressed by Kean over the last few weeks but I really question his judgement on this one which I am sure cost us a point tonight. Poor Keith is reduced to nit losing posession at any cost for fear of the crowd reaction. This makes him over cautious, low on confidence and very unlikely to drive us to victory.

[Grabbi Graeme]

there wasn't much drive to get goals.

Rovers had 17 shots at goal, 9 on 8 off, yeah your right not really trying were they.

A frustrating night in all, a bad goal to concead but Rovers recovered quickly and went on the offensive straight away and were unlucky to still be a goal down come half time, second half we kept going I think Gomes made some good saves in second half, also not forgetting two great save from Robinson to keep us in it.

I don't like to hear booing of players as it doesn't help the team, the booing of Andrews and the subs wasn't needed I imagine the booing of the subs was because Andrews didn't come off, but those booing probably failed to notice that Jones was struggling with an injury and Dunn had run his course.

I went to the post match press conference, Steve Kean was dissapointed with the result but happy with the performance, he also said both new signings wont be featuring for 2-3 weeks, Formica has had a 5 week break before joining us.

Also had a brief chat with Brad Friedal at half time, nice bloke.

[garnersfags]

....sorry, that ended prematurely and should have continued......'I know that, you know that, Keith knows that and Kean should know that. I agree that vexatious not be booed as I thought the minimal booing of Morten last Sunday was also out of order.

I hope tonights selection was a one off and that Kean isn't stubborn enough to persevere with Keith. If the new signings gel quickly and we can get Jones and Roque fit I am still optimistic for a positive end to the season.

[garnersfags]

Apologies for the strange words and spellings ('vexatious'??). Phone has life of it's own and the'Fast Reply' option prevents previewing, which prob makes for more entertaining reading......

[steo]

Give Andrews a break it's a disgrace for any so called fan to boo their own players.

as for the game the jury is still out on SK why the hell did Kalinic not play? we need the new boys integrated asap,we may play better football but that's pointless if we keep losing and conceding preventable goals.

[garnersfags]

Most of us agree on the sickening booing of any player.

I must though ask if any contributor on here would have had Andrews in their starting eleven for the Spurs or Wigan game?

This is more important than discussing whether or not he had a good game.

As I said earlier when I saw him on the teamsheet both on Saturday and Wednesday I immediately lowered my expectations of achieving a win. I think this contributed to the atmosphere tonight and was one factor which led to our inability to reply to the early goal.

[steo]

The problem we have to stop conceding early goals it's so frustrating and straight away the game plan is out the window,no andrews should not of started but Kean must see something in him if we lose against wigan we will be back in the relegation scrap.

[Miker]

I only saw the last 30 minutes, but thought we were doing quite well and deserved a goal on the run of play.

Subs were good N'zonzi and Pedersen were solid when they came on, but I thought Roberts was the one that needed to go rather than Diouf.

I don't understand people booing Andrews from the get go or castigating Kean for his selections. Clearly he has players coming back from injury and he wants to give them all a chance to see what they can do.

People claiming that fans only booing him coz he makes mistakes is ridiculous because a lot of our players made mistakes, I didn't hear much booing for them every time.

[Guest linganzi]

Miker he wasn't great but got blamed for everything. It's tedious how clueless some people are. There is a bloke jw upper row 16 seat approx 203 he just screams abuse at Andrews all game, the guy is 40/50 , show some shame.

Those spurs defender ratings are a,little generous

[JMillZz]

Rovers had 17 shots at goal, 9 on 8 off, yeah your right not really trying were they.

A frustrating night in all, a bad goal to concead but Rovers recovered quickly and went on the offensive straight away and were unlucky to still be a goal down come half time, second half we kept going I think Gomes made some good saves in second half, also not forgetting two great save from Robinson to keep us in it.

I don't like to hear booing of players as it doesn't help the team, the booing of Andrews and the subs wasn't needed I imagine the booing of the subs was because Andrews didn't come off, but those booing probably failed to notice that Jones was struggling with an injury and Dunn had run his course.

I went to the post match press conference, Steve Kean was dissapointed with the result but happy with the performance, he also said both new signings wont be featuring for 2-3 weeks, Formica has had a 5 week break before joining us.

Also had a brief chat with Brad Friedal at half time, nice bloke.

We had these shots as we were playing better than Tottenham were. Quite often though there was a lack of urgency and lots of sideways football. I just felt sometimes we would have the opportunity for a good break but the play just slowed down. I didn't think we were creating many clear cut chances and needed an attacking change but it was never made. I'm disappointed with the starting line up and consequent loss I guess and being very cynical.

[the gilstar]

what anybody thinks of keith andrews its a sad affair when fans are booeing him when we were trying to get an equalizer shame on you dont bother goin to wigan your not needed ,how unlucky were the lads not too get a goal r even go on and get three points they kept plugging away till the end ,what next are fans goin start booeing roberts get behind your team and support the lads in the blue and white halfs -time out

[Lurid Coat]

Was left feeling extremely gutted after seeing us come away from this encounter with no points - we deserved at least a draw, I think.

Hoilett and Olsson are amazing talents, and they've added an entirely new dimension to our team. I can't believe we've finally got some fast, technically gifted players who aren't afraid to take on a man (or three!).

We were brilliant at times, and there are a lot of positives to bring from this match into the next. Roll on Wigan!

[Wild Irish Rover]

For me it seems pretty simple - against a top side with a an experienced management tactition like old fish face you have to start with your strongest players on the pitch. Otherwise you risk having to chase the game...

So we started last night with less than our strongest players and included two who are clearly not able to deliver at the highest level, and we pay the price. Oh we huffed and we puffed alright, but to no avail - Spurs players simply did their jobs, calmly, consistently and collectively well. OK Gomes played a blinder, but it simply comes back to one thing - we got our tactics wrong. Full Stop.

[John]

As someone said to me last night, naive management - have to agree, lucky we are playing a Spurs team on the downer. Did we get points against Chelsea for supposedly playing well?

[wandel77]

We where playing sideways and to slow !

And Samba must be more awake, it was painfull to se the goal go in !

Andrews i do not understand that either