[Archived] 29th October - Norwich Preview

[rovermagic]

In context of last four games, I am much less pessimistic. Especially when you look at the poor quality of so many other prem teams this year. There are six teams surely as poor or worse than us. Wolves, Norwich, Wigan, Bolton, Swansea, QPR. West Brom no great shakes either. Don't think any of them have talent of Olsson, Hoilett, Richina. The newly promoted teams will get found out.

[Andy]

What's scary is that we're already a bit adrift of safety - ie we need a couple of wins back-to-back, and we're still only in October.

Don't buy 'unlucky'.

If anything we were extremely lucky not to concede a penalty earlier in the game and if we're talking lucky deflections and dodgy penalty decisions - I think we had our season-load (in our favour) against Arsenal

You have to accept that over the course of a season, these will both go in your favour and against you.

Don't use them as excuses for the managers' inability to see out a game when in the lead.

[bestierover]

Not a Kean fan at all.

However, the two late goals were unlucky. The pen should not have been. Can't blame him for today.

[Makey11]

Let me get this straight... I know for a FACT that the players arnt anywhere near the fitness levels they were like under big sam and especially fitness freak Hughes! They are the east fit team in the prem. Thats not just from me watching them... That's also from a number of well known ex rovers players who have all told me exactly the same thing.

Secondly, if a team is playing well you do not start changing things around. That is the first rule successful managers always say! Hence Newcastle, hence today.

Yes Norwich got lucky, and yes rovers played well at times, but the simple fact is, luck shouldn't have come into it... That game should have been over with by then! You do not bring on a player who's legs are going and has been

Out injured for months...against a side with pace. You do not bring on a weak 5 ft 9 striker to play on his own upfront.

I know for a fact that not all the players are behind kean but they're going to have to speak out too if we want this idiot gone.

[bestierover]

The game was over, but for a nightmare deflection and a very soft pen. Kean does not seem the man and perhaps fitness is a factor, yet the stats today tell of a good away performance, the ref needs a bit of a slap.

[beerwins]

I think there differing opinions based on blame, here's one for ya......I dont want to lay the blame at Keans door, he has enough problems to worry about without adding to them by crediting this 2 points dropped to him but you know whats coming now? Another person blaming him.

So the main arguement is that his subs did'nt cost us the game, you know what they did cost us the game and that is something that you wont see in the highlights, we were playing very well at that stage and we were going to be the only team that were going to score again, Rochina held up the ball all day very well and retained possesion and his vision was a constant threat, Yakubu had just scored and his confidence would have been flowing and then all of a sudden both of them were off, they both could have played another 10 mins at least and even then I would'nt have changed them both at the same time.

Dont get me wrong I did'nt want Kean to cop the blame for this, the last thing Kean needs is another reason for the crowd to get on his back but he does himself no favours, if we had finished the match at 1-3 playing like we did the protest would have had less followers next week and the players could have took some confidence into the Chelsea match but now we are back to square one.

I have seen many posts saying Yakubu was Knackered and Rochina may have been injured, I have heard nothing of this and saw nothing either we were on the up and causing them threat, the subs came way too soon and it's no coincedence that the 2 goals came after they were made, I agree both the goals were lucky and on another day they may not have gone in or been awarded but they did and the fact that we cant score 3 goals away from home and take 3 points is worrying to say the least.

Stop conceding goals and we will win some matches.

[colin]

Let me get this straight... I know for a FACT that the players arnt anywhere near the fitness levels they were like under big sam and especially fitness freak Hughes! They are the east fit team in the prem. Thats not just from me watching them... That's also from a number of well known ex rovers players who have all told me exactly the same thing.

Makey, Would you care to expand on that "FACT?" I'm sure the rest of us would like to share your knowledge.

Thanks

[joey_big_nose]

Going forward we need some solidity in centre midfield - Lowe and N'Zonzi has to be the first choice, I'd even put Dann at right back just to free up Lowe. Pedersen has done OK there but he should never be first choice and Lowe is already a better player.

Think it's immaterial though to be honest - I've already mentally prepared myself for Championship football next season. Venky's won't sack Kean, and Kean is taking us down. It's that simple.

Your;re crazy if you want to drop Pedersen. He was very good today (again). Three decent games in a row - long time since Pedersen did that! If you asked me eight days ago whether he could hack it in defensive midfield I would have said no way but some of his distribution today was outstanding.

Frankly the side looks very decent the way it is setup at the moment. Only position we need to desperately change is striker. All our forwards have big weaknesses -Yak - lazy and slow, Roberts - can't shoot or head the ball, Goodwillie - weak and slow. The lack of quality up front is an enormous problem.

ps. If we moved Lowe to midfield then we have to bring in Salgado back to right back. I'd only do that if midfield seemed critically weak. At the moment it doesn't so leave as is. Lowe has given us so much more security down that right hand side.

pps. We have Chelsea next weekend where in all likelihood we are going to get battered, then six winnable games. If we play like we are at the moment we should get some good points. However you do have to ask whether kean can sustain the troops through the congested Christams period. If we carry on at an average of 0.8 points a game we are totally screwed.

I still think Kean should be sacked - mainly because we are running out of time to turn things around. But I can't see it happening while the team are backing him and playing well. If that's the case we just have to hope we can turn good performances into results.

[sentient]

Hey lets have some fun ...

[Give 'Em the Axe]

Gutted. I was following this on the BBC.co.uk 'Premier League Live' news feed. 'FT' was showing up beside all the three o'clock fixtures,then 2-3 became 3-3 on ours. I felt ill. Hard to explain my mood change to the missus.

We're not getting out of this,are we?

[Robbo]

Just watched the match and it's the best I've seen N'Zonzi play in a long time. However, why the f&$@ was he waving his arms around in the box when the ball has just been lofted into the area. He should have been 100% focused on the next challenge for the ball never mind claiming for a foul. Idiot.

Some great passing from Rovers but if your going to play Hoillett, Rochina and Formica in the same side then your going to leave huge holes all over the place. How many crosses did Norwich deliver from the left wing in the first half. Their winger and midfielder had acres if space. Needs sorting or someone is really going to give us a thrashing.

[AggyBlue]

Just watched the match and it's the best I've seen N'Zonzi play in a long time. However, why the f&$@ was he waving his arms around in the box when the ball has just been lofted into the area. He should have been 100% focused on the next challenge for the ball never mind claiming for a foul. Idiot.

Kean explained after the match that he was claiming for a free kick after being 'sandwiched'.

Shearer agreed that he'd been fouled on MOTD and it should never have been a pen.

I don't think anyone could agree with the refs decision.

I don't think the ref even saw the incident, he was gesturing that Nzonzi palmed the ball away, which he clearly didn't.

[walk down bolton road]

Unlucky yes but you cannot ship goals in at the rate we do and stay in the premiership.

Kean in 12 months in charge still has no idea how to set the team defensively,how many clean sheets have we had with him in charge not many,this failing alone will see us relegated.

[Paul]

I haven't really seen this game yet - fell asleep at 1-1 on MOTD and woke up to find I was watching a different game. I'm basing my view on the BBC report and the match statistics I was following while the game was on.

Weeks back I predicted draws at QPR, Fulham and Norwich so these games have panned out exactly as I hoped. The surprise since making those predictions was the Arsenal win. Points collected is better than I expected back in September.

Yesterday's match stats for someone who wasn't there tell a very different story to that reported by those who went or watched TV. Early on we enjoyed 64% possession to Norwich's 36% and while this eased back to the high 50s by half time we still appeared dominant. By the end of the match the position has reversed with Rovers on 44% and Norwich 56%.

It looks to me as though we started brightly but actually gave the initiative to Norwich moving from dominating the match at half time to yielding that dominance by the end. With the effort Norwich must have put in to reverse the position it's hardly surprising we conceded two at the death, lucky or not.

We don't have the midfielders available in the squad to allow us to play out this type of game so it's always likely we will get over-run towards the end. Newcastle for example

Still got the point expected so can't complain at that. We needed the win though.

[cletus]

Gutted for the boys yesterday

When you`re at the bottom, nothing goes for you.

A big opportunity wasted, seeing as wigan & notlob both lost. 3pts would`ve closed it all up a bit in the bottom half

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Still absolutely miserable - but being a Rovers fan it is something I have grown used to over the years.

Do I blame Kean ? not sure. Our defence has yet again leaked goals from a winning position - but everybody must agree we were very unlucky with the way Norwich got back into the game.

So onto Chelsea - IMO Kean has to get a point or go. We have seen a gradual improvement over the season - and we are seeing at times the type of attacking football we would all like - but still the defensive frailties exist. If he (or his coaches) can sort out this side - maybe we can get out of the mess we are in. History would say that he won't sort this out - as it seems to be a constant flaw in how he sets his teams to play.

As for the subs - we were coasting at 3-1 - he decided to rest players - I can't criticise him for that. Personally I would have put on Roberts rather than Goodwillie - but Goodwillie is hard working and possibly he thought he would nick us the fourth goal (he is after all more likely to do that than Roberts).

[Arcturus]

I don't buy the unlucky card. We stopped playing football the moment our third goal went in.

It was nobodys fault but our own. If you stop playing you get punished for it.

I don't know how many times it has to happen before our team learns the lesson.

[The Dart]

Weeks back I predicted draws at QPR, Fulham and Norwich so these games have panned out exactly as I hoped. The surprise since making those predictions was the Arsenal win. Points collected is better than I expected back in September.

So do you predict relegation with 25 points at the end of the season as looks likely?

[Tom]

It is true that of Nzonzi played to the whistle he clears the ball and the referee blows for full time

[rigger]

Kean explained after the match that he was claiming for a free kick after being 'sandwiched'.

Shearer agreed that he'd been fouled on MOTD and it should never have been a pen.

I don't think anyone could agree with the refs decision.

I don't think the ref even saw the incident, he was gesturing that Nzonzi palmed the ball away, which he clearly didn't.

I agree it was a bad decision by the ref. But at any stage of a game, as a player defending, your full concentration should be on clearing the ball, not claiming for freekicks. This lack of defensive focus may be a reason that we haven't kept a clean sheet this season.

A goal doesn't guarantee anything, a clean sheet guarantees a point.

[AllRoverAsia]

I saw it and yes he's claiming for a feee kick when the ball is still in the air. Throwing his arms around cost us the game. If he hadn't done that then no decision for the Ref to balls up.

[Stuart]

It is true that of Nzonzi played to the whistle he clears the ball and the referee blows for full time

This is no longer about individual mistakes though, nor "bad luck". It's about a consistent decline brought about by the current regime.

Topman quoted stats about his record. Says it all. If Venkys don't react soon we may as well forget about the PL. For a long time.

He seems to have conviced some that his position can be likened to Fergie's low point at United many moons ago. Trouble is we don't seem to have reached our "Nottingham Forest match" yet. If Kean even has a make or break match.

[tomphil]

Let me get this straight... I know for a FACT that the players arnt anywhere near the fitness levels they were like under big sam and especially fitness freak Hughes! They are the east fit team in the prem. Thats not just from me watching them... That's also from a number of well known ex rovers players who have all told me exactly the same thing.

Secondly, if a team is playing well you do not start changing things around. That is the first rule successful managers always say! Hence Newcastle, hence today.

Yes Norwich got lucky, and yes rovers played well at times, but the simple fact is, luck shouldn't have come into it... That game should have been over with by then! You do not bring on a player who's legs are going and has been

Out injured for months...against a side with pace. You do not bring on a weak 5 ft 9 striker to play on his own upfront.

I know for a fact that not all the players are behind kean but they're going to have to speak out too if we want this idiot gone.

Notice how recentley he dropped into his interview "its now up to our sports science dept to get them ready" for the next game after the Newcastle match. He's aware of the fitness questioning because it was put to him in the interview with Kammy. Another example of slighly passing the buck ?

[Miker]

Watching a replay of the game now, first half just finished. To be honest, I thought we weren't on top of the game in the first half. Norwich were keeping constant pressure on us, it took a moment of inspiration from Hoilett in injury time to give us the lead.

Credit to Kean for playing the exact team I said we should play though.

Edit: Morrison's goal was terrible defending. He was alone with so much time and space. Why was no one on him? Team shape and marking hopeless once again.

Yakubu's goal, I won't say lucky... but their keeper is bloody awful, an actual decent keeper would have stopped it.

Samba's goal was a beautiful one from the set piece. Brilliant delivery from Pedersen who has been very much on form these past 3 games.

We haven't really played that well though at all. We were far, far better against Spurs.

[adsfortheblues]

Has anyone else heard about hoillett possibly being selected for England v Spain. He's now Eligible to play apparently?