[Archived] MATCH PREVIEW: Rovers vs Wolves

[Mattyblue]

Which says alot about the supporters, wouldn't get that at other clubs. The negativity on this forum is just too funny and if other clubs fans would see this we would be a laughing stock. If I remember rightly, at one point about 90% of people on here were certain Blackburn would go down. Seems were at that stage again, one game in. Thank god none of you are involved in football.

Every forum is like this.

[bringdunnback]

The vast majority of neutral predictions I've seen have us getting relegated.

Get a clue.

And thats based on their poor knowledge and I'm guessing it was those same pundits who said that Blackburn would get relegated last season with 10 games to go. There's a reason these so called football experts can't get jobs in the game or have failed in football.

[sharpysharps]

Really disappointing start. I actually expected a draw as I really rate wolves and felt that after 2 seasons in the big league that they would grow in confidence. rovers however had no structure to the team today. salgado had a rare stinker, hanley and nzonzi as a defensive pairing was pretty horrible to watch but what can you do if 3 key defenders are injured...not a lot unfortunately.

however, it is clear to me that goodwillie is superior to roberts and should've started the game. roberts despite assisting in the goal went missing for the remainder of the game and he really should be nothing more than back up to the strongest starting 11. i can see rovers ending august with 1 point or maybe none...if they get stuffed next week at villa i would not be surprised if kean got the bullet. unfortunately while i would like to sit tight and see who they bring in before 1st september i cant see this club going in any particular direction other than downhill while kean is in charge. we looked a championship side out there today, but i can accept that we were missing 3 major players in the defence. shows how thing the squad is though when only 1 substitute has premier league experience, and that was rochina!

[chris]

First time for a good decade I can say we are all skill and no steel. Plenty of exciting attacking talent but they need structure and organisation behind them.

we would have steel if Samba, Nelsen, Givet, Petrovic and Nzonzi we playing and in their correct positions.

Spine of the team was missing today.

Kean should have purchased cover, but imprtant players.

[Plastic Head]

Comments prefaced by two things.

The entirely predictable centre-back shortage.

The awful opposition.

We knew Samba and Nelsen were not fit. That gave us Hanley and Givet at best. Why have we not moved to strengthen?

Humbled at home by a team who may well not win again on the road this season.

Robinson did well enough.

The full backs were awful. We have massive problems in that position. If anyone tells me Anderson and Bruno are the solution I shall belt them. The centre backs got the run around from a dingle donkey.

Dunn is legless. The mind is willing but the body is weak. Emerton useless. Hoillet had a shocker, never beat a man or delivered a good cross all game. Pedersen at least delivered some quality balls from open play if not from set pieces. Tracking back from our midfield was slower than Chris Price.

Formica did OK but is a bit of a Tony Diamond. Roberts bundled the ball through for the goal but was predictably useless subsequently.

As for the subs, as usual with Kean they made things if anything worse not better. Rochina looked pedestrian. Goodwillie did OK but didn't get enough time and Blackman was irrelevant.

As fot the tactics, I couldn't detect any apart from the long throws aimed at Formica.

We need good new players, a good new manager and new owners. I can't see us getting any of these so I can't see where we go apart from down.

[Tom]

Jim - enough of the Sam stuff in this thread, it's not relevent at all to the topic at hand today!

[tony gale's mic]

And thats based on their poor knowledge and I'm guessing it was those same pundits who said that Blackburn would get relegated last season with 10 games to go. There's a reason these so called football experts can't get jobs in the game or have failed in football.

As opposed to your superior football knowledge?! How is life at Chelsea going, Mr Vilas-Boas?

The relegation battle last season could have gone either way.

The point is that the feeling Rovers will get relegated this season is hardly limited to this forum like you claim it is.

You need to wake up and smell the coffee.

[PAFELL]

Att: 21,996

Last years attendence:-

Att: 22314‎

Bear in mind this was in Winter Early December and not a nice sunny August day, So that say's to me that they are quite a bit down on last year's fixture...

Is this a sign of people voting with their feet or just a case of the economic climate biting further still?

It is also a time when Kids are off school and holiday season. Could be a number of reasons, including the financial climate, why the attendence was lower today than last season. Look at the numbers there was only 318 people difference.

[bringdunnback]

As opposed to your superior football knowledge?! How is life at Chelsea going, Mr Vilas-Boas?

The relegation battle last season could have gone either way.

The point is that the feeling Rovers will get relegated this season is hardly limited to this forum like you claim it is.

You need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Never claimed to be an expert, but having performance analysis knowledge and having worked at a professional football club in their sports science department I would like to think I have some knowledge in football. Then again doesn't make me an expert, and yes alot of people believe that Rovers will go down. I just think it's sad that even most of our own fans can't back the club up and fight our cause.

[Mattyblue]

It is also a time when Kids are off school and holiday season. Could be a number of reasons, including the financial climate, why the attendence was lower today than last season. Look at the numbers there was only 318 people difference.

No the issue is there were 3000 less home fans on than the first game last season.

[Mike Graham]

It is also a time when Kids are off school and holiday season. Could be a number of reasons, including the financial climate, why the attendence was lower today than last season. Look at the numbers there was only 318 people difference.

And 4K of today's attendance was from Wolves, a very poor attendance today whatever your excuses.

[beastlove]

Not going to say much new. Missing three good defenders was the major problem today. We looked ok going forward in spells but always looked like we could let one in. Midfield balance was bad with no defence minded players. Main worry is that the squad looks like very thin. It is hard to say but we actually missed Andrews today (we did ok at cb last year). Anyone know what happened to grella?

[tony gale's mic]

Never claimed to be an expert, but having performance analysis knowledge and having worked at a professional football club in their sports science department I would like to think I have some knowledge in football. Then again doesn't make me an expert, and yes alot of people believe that Rovers will go down. I just think it's sad that even most of our own fans can't back the club up and fight our cause.

Working in the sports science department will get you knowledge in a lot of areas. I don't think it will make you more likely to tell whether this Rovers side will go down or not though.

And the last bit is utter tosh. Should those Rovers fans who think we'll go down on current form lie? Should we in fact pretend we'll stay up comfortable and maybe push for Europe?!

To my mind, lying down and letting Venky's ruin our club isn't fighting our cause.

[grizfoot]

The doom and gloom merchants I admit it you were right, you have amazing knowledge and can see the future as clear as day. We are relegation bound, there’s no hope for us, and it is pointless turning up to any games if the future has already been written. You were right, are you satisfied now? Are you?

In all seriousness the major obstacle in today’s performance was the fact we had three centre backs missing. Although this problem should have been addressed during the lengthy summer break, instead it wasn’t and we were left with a makeshift centre back pairing that never looked secure at any point. The decision to play Nzonzi centre back was an interesting one, he is our best holding midfielder and by playing him at centre back you not only took away our best holding midfielder but also had a very shaky centre back partner for the inexperienced. To be fair to him he did a decent job on the whole but there were a few scary moments and he never looked in that position. This begs the question why he was playing their when we had a centre back in the form of Myles Anderson on the bench. If he wasn’t brought in to be 4^th choice centre back, why was he brought in at all? Third-choice left-back?

I felt the team was always slightly mis-jointed with no traditional holding midfield, Dunn, Emerton, Pedersen and eventually Rochina all filled in the central midfield area but none had good defensive positional sense which meant Wolves where first to the second ball time and time again. On a brighter note we did start the game well Pedersen put in three or four cracking deliveries which we really should have scored form, and then subsequently disappeared for the rest of the game. Formica was by a distance the man of the match for me, looked the mostly likely to score or create something.

Get the defence sorted and I’m confident we’ve got enough good players in midfield to create chance it’s just whether we’ll be able to convert chances created. Definitely need to add another couple of strikers to our squad and another centre back. A lot will depend upon these signings, without them I think we may struggle but a couple of quality signings and I’ll feel a lot more confident about or chances this season.

[Veevs]

Interesting hearing Blackburn was the big game over in India today.. oh dear that has got to of gone down well

Funny hearing some people who slated us lot for being negative now starting to change tune (too late chaps).. never in my life have I turned round and said I told you so but in this case I will say WE told you so.. look throught the transfer thread.. "Nelson, Salgado, Emerton (who got injured) etc are getting on a bit", "No one to put the ball in the back of the net", "Limited EPL experience", "no central defensive cover", "We need more cover at right back", "We have to sign a CB, CM, ST at least by the season start"... etc etc etc..

If myles is the next smalling why didn't he play.. Nzonzi is often positionally suspect in midfield never mind in central defence.

Furious atm Wolves had their own injury issues but boy we looked poor against them.

Someone needs to point out to Kean that Ruud, Keagan, Zola et al failed in the end fancy pants football does not win you championships.

On a side note.. anyone else noticed Samba and Givet get injured an awful lot when the chips are down or they are unhappy, both last season gained injuries after rumours of being unhappy.

[tony gale's mic]

First game of last season - 25869.

First game of this season - 21,996

Wolves brought a lot of fans but even allowing for Everton maybe bringing a few more because they're nearer, that's still probably 2,500-3,000 Rovers fans down on first game of last season.

Not even taking into account the effect on the team of fewer fans, that adds up to around £1 million lost over the course of the season at this rate.

[Mattyblue]

The doom and gloom merchants I admit it you were right, you have amazing knowledge and can see the future as clear as day. We are relegation bound, there’s no hope for us, and it is pointless turning up to any games if the future has already been written. You were right, are you satisfied now? Are you?

not in the slightest.

[bringdunnback]

Working in the sports science department will get you knowledge in a lot of areas. I don't think it will make you more likely to tell whether this Rovers side will go down or not though.

And the last bit is utter tosh. Should those Rovers fans who think we'll go down on current form lie? Should we in fact pretend we'll stay up comfortable and maybe push for Europe?!

To my mind, lying down and letting Venky's ruin our club isn't fighting our cause.

My point is that Rovers fan should get behind the club, I for one was extremely worried that we would go down at one point last season but I was still positive, we have to be to give ourselves belief. Negativity, one game into the season, is just not needed now, and I certainly don't believe that Venkys are ruining the club.

[PAFELL]

No the issue is there were 3000 less home fans on than the first game last season.

OK point taken - just saw the two numbers and thought people were considering the difference.

[tony gale's mic]

The doom and gloom merchants I admit it you were right, you have amazing knowledge and can see the future as clear as day. We are relegation bound, there’s no hope for us, and it is pointless turning up to any games if the future has already been written. You were right, are you satisfied now? Are you?

Yep. Because we're all willing Rovers to fail.

[imy9]

This is the first game of the season.

Certain posters predicted relegation last year under Kean, we are still here.

Still time to purchase new players and we will, 37 games- long way to go.

[jim mk2]

Jim - enough of the Sam stuff in this thread, it's not relevent at all to the topic at hand today!

On the contrary, it's very relevant so I'll ask the question again.

Rovers beat Wolves 3-0 in this fixture last season - but I've forgotten who the manager was at the time. Can anyone remind me ?

[Plastic Head]

Anyone know what happened to grella?

He dislocated his head yawning.

[PAFELL]

The doom and gloom merchants I admit it you were right, you have amazing knowledge and can see the future as clear as day. We are relegation bound, there’s no hope for us, and it is pointless turning up to any games if the future has already been written. You were right, are you satisfied now? Are you?

In all seriousness the major obstacle in today’s performance was the fact we had three centre backs missing. Although this problem should have been addressed during the lengthy summer break, instead it wasn’t and we were left with a makeshift centre back pairing that never looked secure at any point. The decision to play Nzonzi centre back was an interesting one, he is our best holding midfielder and by playing him at centre back you not only took away our best holding midfielder but also had a very shaky centre back partner for the inexperienced. To be fair to him he did a decent job on the whole but there were a few scary moments and he never looked in that position. This begs the question why he was playing their when we had a centre back in the form of Myles Anderson on the bench. If he wasn’t brought in to be 4^th choice centre back, why was he brought in at all? Third-choice left-back?

I felt the team was always slightly mis-jointed with no traditional holding midfield, Dunn, Emerton, Pedersen and eventually Rochina all filled in the central midfield area but none had good defensive positional sense which meant Wolves where first to the second ball time and time again. On a brighter note we did start the game well Pedersen put in three or four cracking deliveries which we really should have scored form, and then subsequently disappeared for the rest of the game. Formica was by a distance the man of the match for me, looked the mostly likely to score or create something.

Get the defence sorted and I’m confident we’ve got enough good players in midfield to create chance it’s just whether we’ll be able to convert chances created. Definitely need to add another couple of strikers to our squad and another centre back. A lot will depend upon these signings, without them I think we may struggle but a couple of quality signings and I’ll feel a lot more confident about or chances this season.

I'd rather hoped we were wrong. Sadly the club is in a mess and will continue to be whilst Kean is the manager.

[imy9]

Someone wise said that we'd be relegated under Sam last season after the Chelsea game, who would that be?