[Archived] Preview (Not) Asia Trophy

[tonyoz]

I was disappointed overall - but then I remembered the pre-season stuff in Oz last year and it didn't seem so bad. The same old failings are there and too many of the starters should only be bit players this season. Pedersen and Dunn aren't good enough any more I'm sad to say. Emerton and Roberts should be on the fringes too but after their efforts at the tail end of last season maybe they deserve a chance to show that they can still do a job.

A quality striker and a JJ replacement are needed desperately or we are in for another frustrating season.

[Kremmin]

Was actually mildly encouraged by what I saw. Formica was plucky. Thought N'Zonzi looked much more involved and demanded the ball a lot more than he has in the past. Thought we created quite a bit and obviously lacked a killer finish but hopefully that will come in the next couple of weeks. Certainly played a lot better than the same games in Sydney last year. And if Villa played some of those balls they gave up in their own half against a top four side, they would have been punished every time.

As long as we keep Samba and sign a decent midfielder and striker, we might be ok ...

[waggy]

thought the pitch was very poor,good runout and the big plus is we don,t play chelski on sat

[Miker]

Hum. I guess one of our problems is we might end up with quite a few players who prefer to play 'in the hole' - Hoilett, Dunn, Formica, Rochina - but we are only really going to be able to stick one in there....

I think that's fantastic. Hoilett, Rochina and Formica can all play in the centre or on the wings. If we go with a 4-2-3-1 formation, we can have 3 young, exciting, attacking players in free roles up top. A big striker like Roberts can then hold the ball up and bring them into play, while a central midfield pairing of N'zonzi and Petrovic could potentially be very solid. At the back we have a great set of defenders as well in Robinson, Nelsen, Givet, Samba and Salgado.

Our main problem at the moment though is depth. We have Bunn, Pedersen, Olsson, Emerton and Dunn in addition to those already mentioned, but if any of those players get injured, we don't have anywhere near good enough players to come in and replace them. Players like Blackman, Lowe, Hanley, Anderson will likely be given a chance, but we still need more players in there for competition.

[Rover Down Under]

The Rovers fans are by far the largest travelling contingent, Chelsea have about 10 actual (as in Western) fans. There's a fair few Villa fans, all decent and I reckon over 50 of us, probably more. However, at the game Chelsea had staff in the ground handing out flags and goodies to the HK Chelsea plastics hence why it looked like there were a load of Chelski fans - such is the joke of our 2 tier league.

Rochina is playing Saturday - I have it on good authority

[alexanders]

Hope we get to see Rochina in action tomorrow!

[Sverre]

does anyone know when the game tomorrow starts?

[Mark Atkins' Bald Patch]

Hope we get to see Rochina in action tomorrow!

Hopefully so, I'd like to see how Kean fits both him and Formica in the same side.

Can someone confirm kick off (UK time) time and what Sky channel this is being shown on?

Apologies if stated earlier on this thread - I'm tired after trawling through another 20 pages of transfer 'news'.

[Blue n White Rover]

Hopefully so, I'd like to see how Kean fits both him and Formica in the same side.

Can someone confirm kick off (UK time) time and what Sky channel this is being shown on?

Apologies if stated earlier on this thread - I'm tired after trawling through another 20 pages of transfer 'news'.

Preview starts at 10:55am with kick off most likely at 11:00am. It is being shown live on Sky Sports 2 I think, because the cricket will be on Sky Sports 1.

[JWUpper]

does anyone know when the game tomorrow starts?

Down at the bottom of this article on the official site it says 11am Uk time??

http://www.rovers.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10303~2403731,00.html

[Tom]

I'm looking forward to tomorrow more than the opening day!

Especially if Hoilett, Formica and Rochina all play but I imagine Rochina will come in for Formica.

I bet young Henley had a nervous day today, not only did he have his initiation song to do for the team but he had to do it in front of the owners as well!

[Sverre]

Down at the bottom of this article on the official site it says 11am Uk time??

http://www.rovers.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10303~2403731,00.html

cheers!

[philipl]

Bunn Salgado Givet Hanley Olsson Dunn Nzonzi Emerton Formica Pedersen Roberts

[alexanders]

No Hoildtt, no Rochina.

[Tom]

I await the Conspiracy theories about samba now!

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Why? Samba said yesterday the squad is being rotated and young players are getting a chance.

Why are people looking for conspiracies that aren't there?

[philipl]

SUBS: Ruben Rochina, Zac Aley, Myles Anderson, Adam Henley, Jake Kean, Nick Blackman.

That looks odd not to have Samba even on the bench.

[budha]

And Robinson isn't on the bench either, he must be off too.

[scunnyrover]

Glad to see formicas playing again, hopefully he'll rip there defence apart.

Strange not to have samba even on the bench even if he hasn't got any intentions on playing him just to keep the conspiracy theory away

[scunnyrover]

Just heard by commentators that sambas got a minor injury

[Tooogs]

Why no Rochina or Hoillet. I'm not reading too much into the Samba injury.

[Stevo]

Samba has a minor injury apparently.

[Tom]

Why? Samba said yesterday the squad is being rotated and young players are getting a chance.

Why are people looking for conspiracies that aren't there?

Because that's how some people are.

Come on Rovers!

I like the red goalie kit

Awful start by Rovers, Hanley just made a poor decision in defence and they nearly scored from it.

[scunnyrover]

Why no Rochina or Hoillet. I'm not reading too much into the Samba injury.

Rochinas on bench and hoillet still getting back to full fitness

[Tooogs]

We're getting raped here...