[Archived] Wigan Athletic v Blackburn Rovers-Match Preview

[beerwins]

By that reckoning though 9 or 10 of our players shouldn't have been playing today.

He had an off day but is a genuine talent and creates chances and scores goals.

Well in certain matches you dont use certain players, it was as such a derby match and a relegation battle, in matches like that do you use luxury players or players that have heart and want to battle and win, our midfield was totally overun today by players that wanted it more.

I am not saying the lad does'nt have talent but today was'nt the day for him, if you disagree fair enough but check the stats and even the half time stats and then tell me that Kean picked the right team.

In all fairness it was a match crying out for the likes of JJ but seeing as Petrovic was overlooked my guess is that we wasted 3 mill on him and then add the 4 mill we wasted on Grella and we may as well as bought Witsel who can actually challenge.

[Pedro]

As much as I dislike Kean , I don't agree with people giving out his address. He has kids and a wife. It is like the threats to Glenn, bang out of order. I want the guy out of a job but not to fear for the safety of his kids. on another note the very comment sounds like a load of ###### to me

Is it his address in Read? If so he no longer lives there.

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Well it's certainly not the fans fault. It's the fault of those who choose to put the players in that position in the first place and.... NOT LISTENING TO THE FANS.

The players like Kean. When they hear several thousand away fans chanting for his dismissal you can't really blame them for being annoyed. Im not saying that the chants are wrong at all, but I dont think you can have it both ways and you cannot be totally surprised when the players dont respond to the chants/banners etc..

[Tom]

Well in certain matches you dont use certain players, it was as such a derby match and a relegation battle, in matches like that do you use luxury players or players that have heart and want to battle and win, our midfield was totally overun today by players that wanted it more.

I am not saying the lad does'nt have talent but today was'nt the day for him, if you disagree fair enough but check the stats and even the half time stats and then tell me that Kean picked the right team.

In all fairness it was a match crying out for the likes of JJ but seeing as Petrovic was overlooked my guess is that we wasted 3 mill on him and then add the 4 mill we wasted on Grella and we may as well as bought Witsel who can actually challenge.

He got the team wrong, any team that has David Dunn starting in it is the wrong team, Andrews would have been far better today.

Witsel is a superb player, gutted we didn't go for him.

[Mercer]

A bitter sweet day today.

This week's bookies' winnings have gone on an excellent dinner out tonight with the missus and back to the bookies as I foolishly listened to Kean's hype and expected us to rollover Wigan and therefore gave them a stack back !

Never mind, there's always next week!

[47er]

He's our most skilful player, and him and Hoilett are the only 2 we've got with the ability to make things happen.

Centre midfield is the problem - N'Zonzi looks average at best, and if we're talking about players without the balls for a relegation battle then Pedersen is top of the list. Just watched MOTD and as well as being at fault for Wigan's first goal by failing to close Gomez down he did the same on several occasions resulting in an obvious and prolonged bollocking from Robbo.

Dunny is finished, Grella is .... where is Grella?? .... Andrews is Andrews and Petrovic at best doesn't look ready for the Prem.

By January I predict that we will have lost Samba and Hoilett. Add those two to P Jones, J Jones and there isn't enough left to stay up.

Particularly when you consider the replacements Kean/Anderson will dump on us.

[philipl]

Back in London.

Top post from 1864 and great to meet a lot of people from the website as I ventured around Wigan.

Glen, hope you are OK mate.

Kean settled one thing irrevocably today- he completely ripped the carpet from under the feet of that tiny dwindling band of supporters who think we play good football under Kean.

That was the ugliest most inept performance yet under the imposter.

Put simply it was all too clear what the instructions were- players had been told to hold their positions.

So the defence was static and horribly bad.

Midfield was simply static.

Hoilett was getting no return playing on the left but was basically told to hug that touchline.

Time and again players looked for an out ball to the right but nobody was there.

I lost count of the times Nzonzi had the ball, looked up and saw statues all around him in yellow.

Yak took two goals well and fluffed another simply through being horribly wanting for pace. The Wigan defence in truth had it easy. OK we scored 3 but this was Wigan and goals two and three were freaks courtesy of indulgant officials.

I come back to the fact we were playing freefalling 8 defeats on the trot Wigan. In the last 15 minutes, they had Rovers on the rocks or as much on the rocks as you can when every third pass by them was going out of play. Seriously Wigan were abysmal and Kean's set-up still couldn't handle it.

The game was summed up by the simple truth that we couldn't handle Conor Samman who obviously thought all his birthdays had come at once playing against us.

The stats reflect the true state of the game today and how utterly dire we were:

Posession 55 - 45 (yes we conceded the majority of posession to a pie eaters' side whose passing was for the most part wayward yet we gave them time to rescue lost causes turn and come at us)

Shots on 11-2 (yes our only attempts on target went in and Al Habsy didn't make a single save all afternoon. By way of contrast, Robbo pulled off a couple of absolutely outstanding saves)

Shots off 10-4 (yes that is how little we managed to get anywhere near their goal. Three of the Wigan misses were truly horrible misses at that and a more confident side would have notched)

Oh, and I felt that at times, it looked like the players had given up playing for Kean, massive captain's passion from Robbo being the notable exception.

So 3-3 and both clubs even deeper in the mire at the foot of the table, but in truth losing 1-5 would not have been an unfair result to Rovers.

[beerwins]

He's our most skilful player, and him and Hoilett are the only 2 we've got with the ability to make things happen.

Centre midfield is the problem - N'Zonzi looks average at best, and if we're talking about players without the balls for a relegation battle then Pedersen is top of the list. Just watched MOTD and as well as being at fault for Wigan's first goal by failing to close Gomez down he did the same on several occasions resulting in an obvious and prolonged bollocking from Robbo.

Dunny is finished, Grella is .... where is Grella?? .... Andrews is Andrews and Petrovic at best doesn't look ready for the Prem.

You know what i'm ###### sick of people making scapegoats of the players we had before Kean took over lets take a look of how our new signings have performed.

Rochina. Yes he is capable of brilliance but it's all too few and far between.

Formica. Pretty much the same as above, both used constantly in sub rotations, does that make them good players?

Petrovich. he looks absolutely useless and has'nt proved otherwise.

Simon. Cant even get on bench.

Dann. the more I see of him the more I see why Birmingham went down.

Slew. ?

Anderson. ?

Ribeiro.?

Yakubu. The only worthwile player we have signed.

Lowe, Henley and Hanley were all previous rovers players and are kids and are still getting games before Keans signings, all Keans signings are luxury players or useless, without our regular players Keans signings would be absolutely pointless.

In my opinion none of Keans signings have made impact apart for Yakubu who was only signed because of Zhavi being taken on board, if I am miles from the truth why do none of them get a full game or even start the match and even when they do you would'nt know, look at our league position if we had bought quality players would we be where we are?

[roverandout]

kean said there were some outstanding performances, who?? when??

[glen9mullan]

Tbh I waited for Kean after the match at the players entrance, He did not get on the coach and it left without him, However Rochina, N'Zonzi, Roberts, Dunn, Givet, and Hoillett all spent a good 5 minutes each signing autographs and talking with the supporters before they got on the coach, Each of these signed my shirt too.

I said to Hoillett "Keep ur chin up" He said we was awful today.

I said to N'Zonzi "Thought you had a good game in midfield today and you can't win games on your own" His face said it all that he seemed in agreement,

I talked to Dunny, who recalled playing footie with me in Faliraki a few years back.

The others were quiet but still had plenty of time for the supporters,

Robinson went through another exit and went home in a car

Robbo was excellent at full-time and came over through his gloves into crowd, was slightly disappointed the rest didnt but they made up for it when they was getting on the coach

[roverandout]

glen, what would u have said to kean, if he had come out?

[glen9mullan]

glen, what would u have said to kean, if he had come out?

Honesty is the best policy, I would of treated him far better than he has treated supporters, but I would of asked him to speak with some supporters this week, like men around a table

[cravenblue]

Just come in and watched football first and cocos interview at end. One of the excuses was robbos stitches. Tell me if im wrong but he got those in 95th minute. How can that be an excuse? @#/?

[beerwins]

I have to say Glen that I am impressed with you on a massive level, I thought initially that the protest against Arsenal was spot on but the others were timed a bit wrong, It's very hard to get sympathy from public sectors when they see the team playing well and in all honesty a protest needs public and media sympathy before it gets a true following.

You have intensity on a huge lvl and your drive and passion is something to be admired at the highest lvl, the fact that you were set upon today by a thug and have chose not to make a big deal about it and still carry on as strong as before is admirable, I for one would have either quit the cause or got retribution.

You are a true ambassador of the club and hopefully when this sad episode of the club dies down I hope you are given a role which matches your desire within the club because you will have earned it.

I for one salute you and encourage you not to give up because you will make the difference.

[jim mk2]

Honesty is the best policy, I would of treated him far better than he has treated supporters, but I would of asked him to speak with some supporters this week, like men around a table

Glen, you're a good lad but please, it's "would have".

Wasn't able to attend today's match but reading the reports and comments it was all very predictable. The team can score goals but unless Kean can stop Rovers shipping 2 or 3 goals every game we will be relegated. Supporters can see the problems but the owners are ducking the manager issue and the manager does not have the decency to resign. I'm past the angry stage; it's all so very, very sad.

[Fife Rover]

So enlighten us, what did he bring today?

He was totally useless today, I will give you that the lad has talent but for a relegation battle you need winners not luxury players, so how was he of use today?

I have not yet had the chance to view any part of the game today, and therefore cannot comment on how anybody played. I was replying to Bluefudge who had asked if he was the only one that believes "Rochina brings nothing to the game". The part of his question that I quoted is a general statement that means exactly what it says i.e. Rochina brings nothing to the game, which I disagree with as the boy has loads of talent and has on other occasions brought plenty to the game.

If he had meant to ask what Rochina had brought to the game today, then that is exactly how he should have asked the question and thus avoided any mis-understanding. The question should have been phrased "Am I the only one who believes that Rochina brought nothing to the game today?" See the difference?

I was not being deliberately awkward or pedantic, but because of the way he phrased his question, then that was the way I understood his meaning.

[Seggie]

Just come in and watched football first and cocos interview at end. One of the excuses was robbos stitches. Tell me if im wrong but he got those in 95th minute. How can that be an excuse? @#/?

Says it all when you are relying on your goalkeeper to win you a penalty

[Roverall]

(Please don't use that word again) STEVE KEAN AND (Please don't use that word again) VENKY'S. NEVER THOUGHT I'D BE APATHETIC ABOUT A RESULT BUT THESE illegitimateS HAVE DONE IT.

[beerwins]

I have not yet had the chance to view any part of the game today, and therefore cannot comment on how anybody played. I was replying to Bluefudge who had asked if he was the only that believes "Rochina brings nothing to the game". That part of his question that I quoted is a general statement that means exactly what it says i.e. Rochina brings nothing to the game, which I disagree with as the boy has loads of talent and has on other occasions brought plenty to the game.

If he had meant to ask what Rochina had brought to the game today, then that is exactly how he should have asked the question and thus avoided any mis-understanding. The question should have been phrased "Am I the only one who believes that Rochina brought nothing to the game today?" See the difference?

I was not being deliberately awkward or pedantic, but because of the way he phrased his question, then that was the way I understood his meaning.

I understand your meaning and in respect of the game overall you are right, he has bucketloads of talent, it does however have to be used sparingly and at the right times.

Did'nt mean to cause arguement between us I just thought at the time you posted you had found some positives in his performance today.

[MarkBRFC71]

You know what i'm ###### sick of people making scapegoats of the players we had before Kean took over lets take a look of how our new signings have performed.

Rochina. Yes he is capable of brilliance but it's all too few and far between.

Formica. Pretty much the same as above, both used constantly in sub rotations, does that make them good players?

Petrovich. he looks absolutely useless and has'nt proved otherwise.

Simon. Cant even get on bench.

Dann. the more I see of him the more I see why Birmingham went down.

Slew. ?

Anderson. ?

Ribeiro.?

Yakubu. The only worthwile player we have signed.

Lowe, Henley and Hanley were all previous rovers players and are kids and are still getting games before Keans signings, all Keans signings are luxury players or useless, without our regular players Keans signings would be absolutely pointless.

In my opinion none of Keans signings have made impact apart for Yakubu who was only signed because of Zhavi being taken on board, if I am miles from the truth why do none of them get a full game or even start the match and even when they do you would'nt know, look at our league position if we had bought quality players would we be where we are?

I couldn't care less who signed them. All I'm bothered about is if they give 100% every time they pull on the shirt. From what I've seen of him you cannot fault Rochina's ability and commitment - you can't always say that about MGP though. Ditto Formica. Dann is a good player but because of our crap central midfield our defence gets no protection. Not seen enough of Simon and the jury's out on Petrovic. They may well turn out to be bad signings but every manager makes those (Kalinic, Van Heerden, Goulon, Rigters, Grabbi etc etc).

It might be being too simplistic but Kean's under severe pressure; perhaps he's only picking the senior players (MGP, Dunn, Roberts etc) to keep them happy as he knows if they were to turn against him the younger players might swiftly follow suit? It surely can't be because of what they bring to the team as that amounts to very little.

[Torgeir]

There are professional fouls and there are unprofessional fouls - Dunny's second yellow was too silly to grasp. Didn't catch anything other than the highlights but I still want Venky's and Kean out ASAP.

[OJRovers]

What did people make of Kean's gestures to the away end at the end of the game? Looked like he had won the league the way he was celebrating in thew direction of the directors box. Was met with a lot of boo-ing.

If Hoilett thinks he can walk into a top 6 side playing like that he's wrong, he looked overweight,slow, he didn't take his man on once. I usually tell people he's our best player, but he didn't turn up today.

Dunn is finished in the premier league, as much as I like him, he is a liability now.

Felt like NZonzi and MGP played well in the middle.

Poor that only Robbo came over to the fans at the end, he is a legend and I think shares the fans beliefs.

Kean OUT

[USABlue]

Glen, you're a good lad but please, it's "would have".

Wasn't able to attend today's match but reading the reports and comments it was all very predictable. The team can score goals but unless Kean can stop Rovers shipping 2 or 3 goals every game we will be relegated. Supporters can see the problems but the owners are ducking the manager issue and the manager does not have the decency to resign. I'm past the angry stage; it's all so very, very sad.

Give it up Jim, it's also lose not loose but it seems to be spelled as wobbly instead of correct all the time. Narks me no end.

[DanielMB]

The thing is we still have to score 4 goals to even get close to 3 points.

Today we were horrible. All respect to Yakubu getting 2 goals but our defence is absolutely horrific. And that wont change under Kean. Even with Vidic and Ferdinand in the back 4.

KEAN OUT

[Gogger]

Paul Robinson you are an hero!! True bblue!! Go on Rvvers! kean out