[Archived] Fulham Preview

[Roost]

I would like to mention the support yesterday - I thought that given the amount of fans we had at the game, they were brilliant.

I was sat behind the goal in the neutral end and so the rovers fans were to my left, and they hardly stopped singing.

Don't know where to start with the game itself - the second half was as disjointed a team performance as I can remember - worse than Wigan away under Ince, and I have no idea what is going to change whilst that clown is manager.

Thoroughly miserable today. We are in big big trouble.

[beerwins]

Great post Veevs and Miker, both are underlining are problems and I could'nt agree more about the total lack of discipline, It's all good and well saying all the players love Kean but when we are playing like that they really should'nt.

[philipl]

Two poor sides and one dismally bad manager (our's).

Positives for Rovers:

Dann really looks the business. The outstanding player on the park.

Lowe getting a run albeit together with the rest of midfield didn't know what the formation was by the time he came on.

Hoilett again looked good but had lost hope and direction before Schwartzer's attempted decapitation.

Robinson made two superb saves.

Dunn did well in his 50 minutes.

Nzonzi needs a tackling midfield partner but did well on his own- looked like the Nzonzi who won Player of the Year at times.

Formica and Rochina could be brilliant but need to be in a better organised side than Rovers. They desperately need Kean to be sacked ASAP.

Negatives for Rovers:

Selection and substitutions - WTF?

Full back positions. Zamora's goal was embarassing.

Vukcivic effectively being told he is 3rd choice or worse. And Yakubu???

Petrovich cannot tackle and cannot play his intelligent chips if there is no intelligence in the team set-up and certainly not if there is nobody running into channels. Again played a loose pass that could easily have cost a goal.

Goodwillie too weak, too slow, too unfit for the PL but will be a popular trier with the fans.

37% posession in the second half- Kean at his dismal worse.

[Andy]

A good point on the fitness side of things - I made a similar suggestion after 3 hamstring injuries in one game (Everton), but was shot down.

Under Ince it was well known that we had a two-bob coaching unit who were clearly nowhere near Premiership standard - and it showed.

If I'm honest, I don't even know (or care to look) who Kean's coaches are, but it seems to be apparent that they're not doing the right things.

We don't look fit, we tire in the second half and are constantly picking up niggly injuries.

No coincidence and didn't happen under Hughes or Big Sam.

[BuckyRover]

The fitness issue is the one that concerns me the most

[DE.]

You don't have to berate and demean players for poor performances, but you can't just tell them "we did well boys, better luck next time" after every game. I don't know how he could possibly "have the dressing room" or "the support of the owners" because his charisma is close to zero and he talks utter rubbish. I can't see how he could possibly have the ability to motivate, inspire or persuade players to do anything. There's a limit to "positivity", at some point he needs to stand in front of the players and say "that was God awful, you have a responsibility to this club, to its fans, to its colours and to its history to go out there and win that game. Now stop running around like a bunch of limp dick spastics and earn the wage you're paid." Problem is Kean will never say that because he knows his tactics are ######, he's ###### and anything he says is grade A bullshit. So all he can do is pander to the players' laziness and egos with his positivity garbage. The only solution is to GET RID.

Spot on, that. Can you imagine Kean trying to berate someone like Samba, Dunn, Givet, Robbo? They'd laugh in his face. The younger players will pick up on Kean's lack of authority as well and as a result he's effectively meaningless in terms of being a motivator. Probably half the reason the players look lazy and unmotivated at the moment - coupled with the fact their fitness is atrocious, which is also the fault of the "management".

[arbitro]

The fitness issue is the one that concerns me the most

Totally agree with the lack of fitness aspect. From what I understand there wasn't enough intensity to the whole pre season's training.

When Mark Hughes came in the first thing he did was get the players in for double sessions because their fitness levels were too low. Having seen the opening four games I suspect it will be one of the first issues to be addressed by (hopefully) a new management team.

[Mike Graham]

The fitness issue is the one that concerns me the most

Bucky, I was with a Rovers staff member last week and she confirmed what another staff member told me 2 months ago that Kean has them in for training 1 (yes 1 !!!) hour per day. If the players turn up late they are still allowed in without reprimand, BFS would have closed the gates and fined them.

Kean Out

[47er]

Bucky, I was with a Rovers staff member last week and she confirmed what another staff member told me 2 months ago that Kean has them in for training 1 (yes 1 !!!) hour per day. If the players turn up late they are still allowed in without reprimand, BFS would have closed the gates and fined them.

Kean Out

Explains why he's apparently popular with the players. Bit short-sighted of them though.

[Paul]

One hour a day? I do more than that!!

A question would be thus. Surely a professional footballer understands the input needed to retain fitness and could be expected to make private effort? If only to protect himself and his career?

[cesus]

A few things that majorly caught my eye yesterday ... well it was all quite bad but my biggest concerns are.

FITNESS- Hoilett and Goodwillie were dying on their feet in about the 40th minute, Hoilett looks to be actually carrying quite abit of timber. Dann making his first performance in about 8 months looked our fittest player! Dunny really needs to question whether to call it a day, he is struggling to make an hour a game and its not like he is in has late 30's which would be understandable. All the fitness looked worrying though!

SAMBA- He has only played 135 minutes for us this season in the league, he has all these "niggles" and looks really unhappy on the pitch. He is obviously sulking about not getting his move but to be fair nobody actually offered for him. For me he really doesn't want to be here and I see all the "niggles" continuing right through to January.

FORMICA & ROCHINA- Two exciting players but can we afford them both in the team together, they are not too keen on passing and look rather like kids on a school yard trying to take everybody on. More experience may drive the showboating out of them. Very exciting but maybe alittle too soon to play them together.

LEFT BACK- Givet got shown up their yesterday but for me with the absense of Samba he looked quite positive at centre half. Olsson is not the best left back but maybe Givet's lack of pass has been when and truly found out. It has to be said Hoilett did Givet no favours what so ever though and for the goal although Givets attempted clearance was frightening, Hoilett didn't even appear to acknowledge Zamora and he was the closest to the thrower so he should have tracked him.

Kean- What can I say, clueless! The press have finally got on board and more and more people are smelling the rat that is Steve Kean. He is so smug and confident though, which has me very worried as it seems he knows he is bomb proof!

[Mike Graham]

God help us for the Arsenal game, I just hope that we have enough on crowd wise to make a protest.

Live on telly at 12.45, with a dreadful start to the season we will be lucky to have 18,000.

[joey_big_nose]

Fitness is a major concern although to be fair it is a bit puzzling as it only really seemed a big issue today - past three games we have looked alright on that front?

Also we do look light in midfield. Good attacking creative players but whose doing the donkey work and keeping the shape? We really really need a Jermaine Jones type. It would make all the difference in work rate and leadership. We just don't have this.

[thenodrog]

The only thing that has changed is the players in the team, call it naive or you could call it an attacking move but playing Hoilett & Rochina on the wings was a brave move, especially away from home. Difference being in days gone by we'd play with what I would call more defensive minded wide midfielders likes Pedersen, Diouf, Emerton, ect.

50% would have used the term 'foolhardy and naive', 49% including myself might have employed the term 'bloody stupid' whilst imy would have called it 'visionary'.

Slightly off topic, but just watched the highlights on MOTD2 and isn't Brad Friedel a true gent.

Without a doubt. No wonder he left as soon as Ince was appointed.

btw did you notice the size of his hands?

[Kelbo]

Fitness is a major concern although to be fair it is a bit puzzling as it only really seemed a big issue today - past three games we have looked alright on that front?Also we do look light in midfield. Good attacking creative players but whose doing the donkey work and keeping the shape? We really really need a Jermaine Jones type. It would make all the difference in work rate and leadership. We just don't have this.

I think you are wrong there Joey, even against Sheff Wed reserves in the Carling Cup, my son who is a PE teacher was amazed at the teams lack of fitness and pace!!

[LeChuck]

whose doing the donkey work and keeping the shape? We really really need a Jermaine Jones type. It would make all the difference in work rate and leadership. We just don't have this.

The lack of that type of player was so evident in the second half yesterday.

This will continue to happen away from home. When a team starts to get on top of us like Fulham did (we had 37% possession) we don't have anyone who can grab the game by the scruff of the neck and keep things steady. To be fair to Dunn, he did a fair job at this role until he got injured.

I'd try and rotate Dunn and Grella in that role until January. Obviously neither are capable of staying fit long enough to do it by themselves, but maybe by sharing the burden we can get by. Where was Grella yesterday anyway?

Petrovic certainly isn't the immediate answer and I don't think he complements N'Zonzi's style at all.

[thenodrog]

Hoilett made it first and then Schwarzer took him out. It's a foul everyday of the week. You can't take someone out just because you have a chance of getting the ball. Players get booked for being half a second late of people thesedays.

An unfortunate clash of heads. If Schwarzer had meant to take him out he wouldn't have used his head to do it would he?

[LeChuck]

An unfortunate clash of heads. If Schwarzer had meant to take him out he wouldn't have used his head to do it would he?

There is a good replay shot that showing Schwarzer was only ever looking at the ball as well. He actually looked favourite for the ball but jumped half a second later than he should have done.

It possibly could have been a red card but given that we chose to let Olsson take the free kick then it wouldn't have made any difference to the result.

[RoyRover]

The fitness issue is the one that concerns me the most

My Gaelic Football coach said to us a few years ago that when our team got promoted to a very strong division, that we weren't going to be best team in the league, nor would we have the best players, but the one thing that we could be was the fittest. That was something that we could control and as such he proceeded to run us around the pitch, through parks and up hills until we were literally vomitting. It wasn't fun and I dreaded doing it, but it was affective and we went onto finish 6th in a very strong division against teams that were far superior to ourselves.

I apply the same principles to Rovers. We might have a manager who is out of his depth, we might have clueless owners and we might have some players who aren't as good as other teams, but the one thing that they should be as professional athletes is fit. Under Hughes we were supremely fit and this could be seen by how strongly we finished games. Yesterday we had players who were out on their feet by the 70th minute. This contributed to us having to hold for dear life yesterday. You can makes excuses for some things, but there is no excuse for players being unfit.

[dubdubdub]

Point away at Fulham. Decent performance. No pleasing some people.

[den]

Kean stripped Samba of the captaincy yesterday.

His absence after half time wasn't all down to an injury. So more problems.

.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

An unfortunate clash of heads. If Schwarzer had meant to take him out he wouldn't have used his head to do it would he?

Yeah but what is a foul in basic terms? Usually a player going for the ball, being late, and catching the player instead. Should there be a difference because Schwarzer was late with his head rather than his foot? Not in my opinion. Hoilett got the ball, Schwarzer got Hoilett, intent shouldn't play a part in judging whether or not its a foul. As Kean said, the crux of the matter is whether Hoilett would have beaten the defender to it had he not been taken out. Probably, so I'd say probably should have been a red.

[thenodrog]

Duff put in lots of crosses today, most straight to Robbo. I'm just grateful he wasn't playing on the left where his crosses would have been much better.

The formation we played today exposes both fullbacks which isn't good considering they are our weakest positions.

Opposing teams used to put two on Damien Duff, most notably MU when Neville and Beckham were both sacrificed from normal duties to ensure that he didn't get behind them. Kean didn't appear to see any danger in leaving Givet one on one with him until after Fulham equalised despite duff giving him the run around. Incidentally Dann could and should have got between the ball and our goal when Zamora scored. It's a basic. Watch it again and it's baffling why he visibly eased back.

Givet is simply useless

Nodded off at HT did you?

[graddomi88]

Kean stripped Samba of the captaincy yesterday.

His absence after half time wasn't all down to an injury. So more problems.

.

Unless I've missed it, there is nothing that says the reason for taking him off was anything other than back problems. It says that the back problem was part of the decision to not make him captain for yesterday as well as all the talk about his future. If that's what you read as a reason for the substitution?

[thenodrog]

We were absolutely butchered in midfield in the second half. Hopefully, it's just because Petrovic is finding his feet because if this is the best he's got, we're in trouble.

No it's because we have too many violinists and not enough hod carriers. Rochina, Formica, Dunn and Hoilett are all good players but none of em have a tackle in them and should never all play in the same team, and certainly not away from home. Basic stuff really.