[Archived] MATCH PREVIEW: Rovers vs Wolves

[RibbleValleyRover]

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?

I don't want to see the club that I love and will support until my last breath fail. What I do want to see is the club sorting this whole mess out, first the manager and then the squad.

[grizfoot]

not in the slightest.

...that's three four five six people who don't grasp the concept of sarcasm.

[EWOODACE1]

very bad performance today. couldnt really see any tactics and nobody showed for the ball at all. long aimless balls to roberts constantly who as usual didnt get his head to 1 of them.

cant get at the centre halves too much as 1 was inexperienced and the other was a midfielder.

the space they had from our 18 yd box to about 30 yds out was ridiculas.

robbo - saved penalty. couldnt do much with goals

ollson - great when playing in midfield. isnt a lb

hanley - won the high balls well.

nzonzi - not a cb

salgado - awful game for me. kept letting the ball bounce. looked like a stupid tackle for the pen.

morten - started the game well. put in a few great crosses. all downhill after that

hoillet - didnt look fit to me

emerton - same old emerton

formica - good on the ball but with a lot of long balls to deal with didnt get in the game

dunn - doesnt have the legs to play in the prem. mom. who picked it today. his mum

roberts - did well for our goal but the rest of the match was spent moaning at the ref or looking for a foul instead of challanging for the ball

rochina - hit 1 good shot that just missed. offered very little else

goodwillie - some decent runs and touches. unlucky with a shot that just went wide. didnt get long enough

blackman - not on long but gave the ball away every time he got it

could be a long long season. i think we would have drawn today had samba been playing but i doubt we will see him in a rovers shirt again unfortunatly. wolves deserved the 3 points today

[Majiball]

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

No idea, but it was Kean after the United game who uttered those words. Funnily enough he was almost right, trouble is it was him who almost achieved it.

[tony gale's mic]

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.

Venky's are not Blackburn Rovers.

Those of us who think we'll go down this season will get behind the club just as much as anyone else.

I have positive thoughts. Those positive thoughts are that maybe, just maybe, between now and the end of the window, we might sign a few decent players and the situation might change. And maybe if we do badly early on, the owners will finally see sense and bring a proper manager in.

But right now, as things are, we are going down with this current setup.

[Plastic Head]

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?

Anderson is not a professional footballer, he was a practical joke played on Mrs Venky by SEM.

[Mattyblue]

...that's three four five six people who don't grasp the concept of sarcasm.

Well thing is grizy, I read that many posts saying 'you lot want us to go down', that I struggle to spot the sarcastic ones.

[tony gale's mic]

...that's three four five six people who don't grasp the concept of sarcasm.

Except that wasn't sarcasm, was it?

Sarcasm would be if you were saying that, but actually agreed with the "doom merchants" as you call them.

[Veevs]

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.

Just look at last season.. how many games did we have Givet out, Samba out or Nelson out.. they actually got injured a fair few times.

Cimbonda, Andrews etc all had to cover central defense at some point.. never mind PJ. Sorry chuck but to me Givet is a better left back than Olsson so that leaves 3 central defenders(and Myles) IMO and one of those is well into his 30s, one wants out and the other is a kid. So personally we need one plus a highly versitile player to back them up. One key thing for me that we have lost is players who rarely get injured.. we might hate some of them but Andrews, The AXE, Atkins, Diouf, Peders and co rarely got injured and had some flexibility in where the played.. and yes I could not stand Andrews and the Axe but they had their squad roles for days just like these.

[Emge]

I would rather use money to sack Kean and pay the still unemployed Sparky to save us!

[Mercer]

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.

Several people around me for a number of seasons don't seem to have renewed and if that's replicated generally then I would think our season ticket sales are down by about 4 to 5 thousand. Additionally, heard a lot of complaints today from people not able to buy a programme even at 2.30 as they'd all been sold - we seem to like throwing income opportunities away!

[Veevs]

Anderson is not a professional footballer, he was a practical joke played on Mrs Venky by SEM.

Yeah what I don't get is why the muppet is still here? We sacked Kentaro/SEM right or was all that guff as well.. or does kean not want to be seen to of messed up backing it.

[bringdunnback]

Venky's are not Blackburn Rovers.

Those of us who think we'll go down this season will get behind the club just as much as anyone else.

I have positive thoughts. Those positive thoughts are that maybe, just maybe, between now and the end of the window, we might sign a few decent players and the situation might change. And maybe if we do badly early on, the owners will finally see sense and bring a proper manager in.

But right now, as things are, we are going down with this current setup.

Bit of positivity, Keans favourite word. I think someone might be coming around?....

Don't agree with the bold bit unless we have this injury crisis (and yes it is a crisis) all season, I think we would have won today had we had our first choice centre back partnership.

[broadsword]

I'm sure if some people onthis messageboard had been on the Titanic, they would've been going round telling people to take their life-jackets off because it was causing unnecessary alarm. "What's wrong with you, do you think the sky is falling or something?"

[Tony Diamond Inc]

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 ?

Yes I remember that game very well, a freak of a game. Wolves dominated and somehow we won.

I recall walking away from that match furious with Allardyce and his limits, and how they had infected my team.

I shudder when I think of that game. GOOD, GOOD RIDDANCE!

[grizfoot]

Except that wasn't sarcasm, was it?

Sarcasm would be if you were saying that, but actually agreed with the "doom merchants" as you call them.

Maybe more satirical than sarcastic then. But the point was the first part of my post wasn't meant to be serious just tongue-in cheek really, sorry if it confused anybody.

I do take the point we where unfortunate to have our first three choice centre backs out but we already knew Nelsen was injured and Samba was injured/potential to leave. I wonder at what point Nzonzi was told he would be playing centre back, I'd have much rather have seen a player who's a centre back by trade play there rather than weakening our midfield by playing Nzonzi there.

[Mattyblue]

Yes I remember that game very well, a freak of a game. Wolves dominated and somehow we won.

I recall walking away from that match furious with Allardyce and his limits, and how they had infected my team.

I shudder when I think of that game. GOOD, GOOD RIDDANCE!

[Neal]

Utterly deflated. Have been optimistic but that performance has really taken the wind....

[tony gale's mic]

Yes I remember that game very well, a freak of a game. Wolves dominated and somehow we won.

I recall walking away from that match furious with Allardyce and his limits, and how they had infected my team.

I shudder when I think of that game. GOOD, GOOD RIDDANCE!

Christ.

I don't like reopening the Allardyce debate anymore - now the biggest issue is Venky's failures in both failing to replace Kean over summer and poor summer of transfer dealings. However as everyone knows by now I can't resist pointing out to some people how utterly ignorant they are.

That match, as I recall it, involved Wolves giving us a couple of scares early on, us dominating them after that and getting three goals in, then taking our foot off the pedal allowing Wolves to come at us. Robbo made some decent saves though.

Let's see what the BBC thought shall we?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/9247341.stm

Blackburn Rovers increased the agony for Wolverhampton Wanderers and boss Mick McCarthy with a convincing victory at Ewood Park.

But Blackburn soon showed why the visitors have not kept a clean sheet since April and ran out comfortable winners.

The Mirror?

The Blackburn boss forced them to watch a video nasty of the Old Trafford debacle and training was cancelled for two days due to heavy snow - giving the team plenty of time to mull over their shortcomings.

And they exorcised those demons in style.

Eurosport?

Rovers bounced back from their 7-1 defeat at Manchester United with a comfortable victory

Not just biased against the last manager, but enough that you'd downplay what was an excellent victory by your own club.

Absolutely mental you can say that about a 3-0 win after a day like today.

Not fit to be a Rovers fan.

[Eddie]

Hm. No point really arguing it, but there are some serious knee-jerk reactions going on here.

Things are not half as bad as some are making out and we are only a signing or two away from what could be a very good team. Now making those signings will be key, but until the window shuts we have to wait and see. Give that team a proper centreback pairing and a goalscorer and it looks top half to me. Tons of creativity. Lots of pace.

I'd put it as far to say that had Salgado not had an absolute nightmare we would have won today.

[tony gale's mic]

Hm. No point really arguing it, but there are some serious knee-jerk reactions going on here.

Things are not half as bad as some are making out and we are only a signing or two away from what could be a very good team. Now making those signings will be key, but until the window shuts we have to wait and see. Give that team a proper centreback pairing and a goalscorer and it looks top half to me. Tons of creativity. Lots of pace.

I'd put it as far to say that had Salgado not had an absolute nightmare we would have won today.

We were playing one of the relegation contenders.

At home.

[EWOODACE1]

Hm. No point really arguing it, but there are some serious knee-jerk reactions going on here.

Things are not half as bad as some are making out and we are only a signing or two away from what could be a very good team. Now making those signings will be key, but until the window shuts we have to wait and see. Give that team a proper centreback pairing and a goalscorer and it looks top half to me. Tons of creativity. Lots of pace.

I'd put it as far to say that had Salgado not had an absolute nightmare we would have won today.

that is one of the most over optimistic posts ive ever read

i saw no positives today

[RovertheHill]

I'm sure if some people onthis messageboard had been on the Titanic, they would've been going round telling people to take their life-jackets off because it was causing unnecessary alarm. "What's wrong with you, do you think the sky is falling or something?"

Yes but to be fair there's plenty on here who would be on every ship claiming it was heading for an iceberg...

Fact is the close-season rumour and doom-mongering is over and done with and the hard facts start here. Hard fact number 1 is we lost at home to one of the poorer teams. It doesn't bode well but maybe, just maybe, someone might see sense and spend some of the money we've taken in on sales. If they don't I think we're going down

[tony gale's mic]

Also, while I was initially impressed by Rocinha, his main fault doesn't seem to have been ironed out at all over summer, ie being good at beating his man but absolutely useless at doing anything with the ball after that. You might as well just pass the ball to the opposition without bothering running rings round them if you're going to do that.

[Mc Love]

I wish some fans would take off their rose tinted blue and white halved glasses and see where the club is headed under this idiot abroad we have as manager!!