[Archived] Preview of Newcastle United, 24th September.

[JAL]

Match of the day is never the best guide to a game, but Newcastle missed several chances, the marking and defending was pathetic, terrible, poor.

SACK HIM PLEASE VENKYS BEFORE ITS TO LATE

Is this Gav or an imposter posing as Gav ?

[Tom]

Just watching MOTD:

First goal far too easy poor by Dann IMO

Second goal allround poor defending especially Lowe was it with the header

Stunning goal by Hoilett

Third goal clearly a foul on Dann

No excuses though not good enough by far.

[Veevs]

Still don't get why people are concentrating on the fullbacks.. it's our utter lack of support/control/organisation from midfield thats the issue, they walked through us AGAIN.. every team bar Everton has walked through that midfield of ours (yes Arsenal did as well) because we lack any form of leadership/authority/passion/guile/experience in there the opposition has the time to lay the ball of to the wings, strikers or advance on goal themselves.

I still find it impossible to understand how people thought our summer signings where great.. we lost JJ, PJ and Emerton and the only replacement for defensive/center mid we got is a kid who was not a nailed on starter for his own club from a much weaker league who was bound to need plenty of time to settle in.

[JAL]

I still find it impossible to understand how people thought our summer signings where great.. we lost JJ, PJ and Emerton and the only replacement for defensive/center mid we got is a kid who was not a nailed on starter for his own club from a much weaker league who was bound to need plenty of time to settle in.

The top and bottom of it is, Rovers have employed someone whose standards are far lower than that, what we've come to expect since the Don Mackay era.

The players Kean has brought in, reflect him as a character, second best for the premier league.

[Magpie]

Alright lads- mag here (not to gloat!)

Thought you lot were pretty damn poor this afternoon, it's a shame because you have a good collection of players on paper. I do feel for Kean but it boils down to him not being good enough.

[Mercer]

Just watching MOTD:

First goal far too easy poor by Dann IMO

Second goal allround poor defending especially Lowe was it with the header

Stunning goal by Hoilett

Third goal clearly a foul on Dann

No excuses though not good enough by far.

Would disagree - at worse, a hand touching Dann's head, momentum of both sent them down. Just another Kean excuse to try and deflect the reality of what was a p1ss poor performance.

[chaddyrovers]

the reason why I said we are weak in the full back positions because we are for sure. Salgado is past it sadly and slow. Plus Givet and Olsson are not a specialist left back. Olsson is better playing left wing with his attacking style and pace. Givet is a centre back by trade. He can play left back if we have protection in front of him BUT against pace Givet is very weak against it and this causes us MAJOR problems.

We do need a experience midfielder in for sure in January. Kean wants us to play more attacking football but we lack defensive cover to cope when we get it on the counter attack. The team is NOT CORRECTLY organise as Kamy has said in the podcast on regular bases.

[Roversi]

Going Into games under kean gives me the exact same feeling I had going into games under ince, having no confidence in us keeping clean sheets. Under Hughes and allardyce I had so much confidence in us going to teams and coming away with a clean sheet. We have some very very big/must not lose away games coming up and I really am fearful. The only way I see kean being sacked is if after 16-19 games we are in the bottom 3 and we are becoming dislodged from the pack above us.

[sentient]

ffs foul on dann and ollson red card are not an issue. Newcaste didn't break a sweat today. If you have watched the whole match you would be ashamed. That was a totally abject performance - poor/weal organisation and players that obviously couldn't give a toss. We would be better off without a manager at the moment, just let the players play wherever they fancy.

Going Into games under kean gives me the exact same feeling I had going into games under ince, having no confidence in us keeping clean sheets. Under Hughes and allardyce I had so much confidence in us going to teams and coming away with a clean sheet. We have some very very big/must not lose away games coming up and I really am fearful. The only way I see kean being sacked is if after 16-19 games we are in the bottom 3 and we are becoming dislodged from the pack above us.

what if we are 4-5 points adrift ater 10 games? that scenario seems pretty likley to me.

[47er]

Well--those of us who didn't get carried away on the back of one result have an easier come-down than those who were thinking a revival was on. 27 games and 26 points is the measure and it = relegation. Nothing special about Newcastle but if we can't get the basics right and they can we can't expect a result.

Anyone still "waxing lyrical" about Formica? Lack of bite in mid-field will haunt us every game.

[Oklahoma]

Would disagree - at worse, a hand touching Dann's head, momentum of both sent them down. Just another Kean excuse to try and deflect the reality of what was a p1ss poor performance.

I would disagree. Leon Best charged from behind, always a foul. It was not the momentum that sent Dann to the ground, it was Leon Best.

That being said, KEAN HAS TO LEAVE!!!!!! If he doesn't, we might as well prepare ourselves for relegation.

[modes98]

Would disagree - at worse, a hand touching Dann's head, momentum of both sent them down. Just another Kean excuse to try and deflect the reality of what was a p1ss poor performance.

Dann's under the ball and going to clear it until best runs/jumps straight through him. Definate foul, you aren't allowed to push players never mind barge through them.

[Mercer]

Hysterical Kean response about Ba's 3rd goal.

What about Robbo's last minute challenge against Arsenal which was a stonewall penalty.

FFS Kean - luck goes around and you had it in bucketfulls against Fulham & Arsenal.

[Myles Anderson]

Not lookng forward to the city game.

0-5 my prediction.

The Kean post match interview will take some doublespeak.

I sincerely hope the chicken corrupters are attending the game.

[cravenblue]

Simples

[BPF]

The only way to win under Kean is to score more than three because you can be pretty damn sure we'll concede them.

Also, all respect to you Salgado but your legs have gone. You are destroying the legacy of your career with every passing game.

[Ricky]

BPF, we've played 8 games this season and conceded 3 on two occasions so it's not really a fact is it!!

We are too easy to play against, we have no bite in the midfield. Playing Formica, Hoilett and Rochina in the same team is suicide. You can afford to have one player of that ilk but not 3. Formica seems like a luxury we can't afford. Rochina needs to cut out the tricks and play a sensible game and hoilett just needs to be given a free role behind the striker.

Whack Petrovic and Grella in the midfield with the clear instruction to break up play and basically 'do a savage' on them.

Kean needs to go. This group of players is arguably better than Hughes had at the start of his tenure. The issue is that they look unorganised, unmotivated, uninterested, and unfit!!!!!

[arbitro]

BPF, we've played 8 games this season and conceded 3 on two occasions so it's not really a fact is it!!

We are too easy to play against, we have no bite in the midfield. Playing Formica, Hoilett and Rochina in the same team is suicide. You can afford to have one player of that ilk but not 3. Formica seems like a luxury we can't afford. Rochina needs to cut out the tricks and play a sensible game and hoilett just needs to be given a free role behind the striker.

Whack Petrovic and Grella in the midfield with the clear instruction to break up play and basically 'do a savage' on them.

Kean needs to go. This group of players is arguably better than Hughes had at the start of his tenure. The issue is that they look unorganised, unmotivated, uninterested, and unfit!!!!!

Agree with all of that. We need a base to build on in every game and playing two defensive midfielders would hopefully give us that. We have to go back to basics and try to keep clean sheets.

We have too many players making the wrong decisions and Junior is arguably the biggest culprit in this. Good managers would see this and do something about it.

[roversfan99]

As we seem to be far too open, I think we need to change the formation away from home, otherwise we will continue to get the run around.

Something like:

Robinson

Salgado(Lowe) Samba Dann Olsson

Vukcevic Petrovic Grella(Dunn/Lowe) Nzonzi Hoilett

Goodwillie

With a team like that, you would hope that the extra central midfielder could help compensate the full backs vulnerability.

Also I think Goodwillie should be used away from home, as he has the pace on the counter attack and the work rate to run the channels, something which Yakubu doesn't do.

Formica and Rochina seem to be luxuries we cannot currently afford away from home.

I've picked a midfield central trio that would hopefully add a bit more steel.

However under Kean I think it's going to be a case of needing to score 3 or 4 to win matches, something even the best teams would struggle to do.

[Ricky]

Looks a bad decision to let Emerton go now. At least he could actually tackle!!

[Paul Mellelieu]

Looks a bad decision to let Emerton go now. At least he could actually tackle!!

Correct. And EHD.

[47er]

Hysterical Kean response about Ba's 3rd goal.

What about Robbo's last minute challenge against Arsenal which was a stonewall penalty.

FFS Kean - luck goes around and you had it in bucketfulls against Fulham & Arsenal.

Pure spin from Kean, hoping to deflect some of the attention from a dreadful performance.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

As we seem to be far too open, I think we need to change the formation away from home, otherwise we will continue to get the run around.

Something like:

Robinson

Salgado(Lowe) Samba Dann Olsson

Vukcevic Petrovic Grella(Dunn/Lowe) Nzonzi Hoilett

Goodwillie

With a team like that, you would hope that the extra central midfielder could help compensate the full backs vulnerability.

Also I think Goodwillie should be used away from home, as he has the pace on the counter attack and the work rate to run the channels, something which Yakubu doesn't do.

Formica and Rochina seem to be luxuries we cannot currently afford away from home.

I've picked a midfield central trio that would hopefully add a bit more steel.

However under Kean I think it's going to be a case of needing to score 3 or 4 to win matches, something even the best teams would struggle to do.

You're just moving the deck chairs on the " Titanic " matey. On current form how many of those players are Premier league standard ?

Being kind I'd say four- Robbo, Samba, probabably Dann, Hoilett. Ollson would make it five if played in midfield but not at left back. That's it in my opinion. The rest probably wouldn't get into say Bolton's team and they're bottom of the league. When more than half of the team is below the standard required you're in big trouble. Add to that a managment team that would be struggling at a club like Rochdale and you can see where we're heading.

Don't like admitting it but it's a fact.

[Guest Wen Y Hu]

Parsonblue's match report is now published to the front page here.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Parsonblue's match report is now published to the front page here.

His usual concise report. It doesn't make pleasant reading if you're a Rovers fan.