[Archived] Booing

[Kelbo]

To a certain extent I'm playing a bit of devil's advocate and wishing that people would be, as you say, reasonable. The initial protests were fine and perfectly reasonable but celebrating a win rather than protesting wouldn't be fickle but rather keeping ones powder dry. Still, I've probably said enough on that for now.

Regarding the defensive problems. I don't think people are taking into account the injury problems we've had this year. I don't want this to come across as an excuse because I think it is a reason why our defence hasn't been as good as I expected. I'll now list our back fours for the league games this year:

L. Wolves. Salgado, Hanley, N'Zonzi, Olsson.

L. Villa. Salgado, Hanley, Nelsen, Olsson.

L. Everton. Salgado, Samba, Givet, Olsson.

D. Fulham. Salgado, Samba, Dann, Givet. Samba injured at half time and replaced by Olsson.

W. Arsenal. Salgado, Samba, Dann, Givet.

L. Newcastle. Salgado, Samba, Dann, Givet.

L. Man City. Lowe, Samba, Dann, Givet.

D. QPR. Salgado, Samba, Dann, Givet.

L. Spurs. Lowe, Samba, Givet, Olsson.

D. Norwich. Lowe, Samba, Givet, Olsson.

L. Chelsea. Lowe, Samba, Givet, Olsson. Samba injured at half time and replaced by Hanley.

D. Wigan. Salgado, Hanley, Dann, Givet. Salgado injured at half time and replaced by Henley.

L. Stoke. Lowe, Hanley, Dann, Givet.

W. Swansea. Lowe, Samba, Dann, Givet.

Now I glance at this and think that we've been a bit unlucky with the enforced changes, particularly at centre back. The Wolves and Wigan games stand out in particular as ones were would may well have picked up more points had we had more fit first 11 type defenders. I'm not saying we'd be top 6 but I think a better run of luck with injuries might have seen us in the group on around 14 points...

The Wolves Game stood out for me too, just befoore the season commenced, we had lost Jones, Samba was muted to be leaving, Nelsen was injured and here was Kean Buggering about in Pune arse licking when he needed to do something regarding a centre back, so yes, the Wolves game stood out as we deserved it for not being prepared for the new season!!

[McClarky]

The Wolves Game stood out for me too, just befoore the season commenced, we had lost Jones, Samba was muted to be leaving, Nelsen was injured and here was Kean Buggering about in Pune arse licking when he needed to do something regarding a centre back, so yes, the Wolves game stood out as we deserved it for not being prepared for the new season!!

All very well but I don't think the problem is in the back 4. It's the cover they get from our weak midfield. Kean had a full transfer window to bring in central midfielders which was a yawning gap without the Joness and chose to just get that useless Serbian. So we are left with someone like Pedersen playing out of position in the most important place on the pitch. If you play 5 non-tacklers in midfield you are going to get ripped apart when the other team has the ball and that is what's happening week in week out. Saturday could have gone the same away if it wasn't foir their sending off. Failure to plug gaps in the squad is Kean's big mistake.

And by the way, I think we should continue to boo Kean whatever the results. he should know that if he ventures away from his bench or appears on the big screen he is going to get abuse.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Pretty much agree with Parsonblue, you make some good points malk but defending Kean is virtually impossible in my opinion. As daft as it sounds, our defensive problems aren't down to our defence. How can they be when its virtually the same defence that looked pretty solid under Allardyce? Ok Jones is missing but he didn't play all the time under Sam anyway.

The problem is the way we're set up. Hoilett and Rochina are wingers/strikers, they provide no cover for our full-backs whatsoever. And whereas Allardyce often preferred 2 defensive midfielders in the middle (say N'Zonzi and Andrews), Kean has tended to play 1 defensive and 1 attacking most games this season (N'Zonzi and Pedersen/Dunn). Under Allardyce we'd committ 2/3 players to attacks, under Kean we regularly committ 4/5. Produces more goals sure and its more attractive, but to other teams cutting through Rovers is like a knife through butter.

Obviously it also doesn't help that he's signed a defender for £8m who is little better than average. I heard Kean say in an interview the other day that things will improve when Nelsen returns. Along with his comments that he expected to lose against a Championship team 4 of his new signings in the side, says all you need to know about the quality of his summer activity. And now we're faced with the prospect of him wasting whatever bank loan Venkys recklessly take out for January. Great.

[Kelbo]

All very well but I don't think the problem is in the back 4. It's the cover they get from our weak midfield. Kean had a full transfer window to bring in central midfielders which was a yawning gap without the Joness and chose to just get that useless Serbian. So we are left with someone like Pedersen playing out of position in the most important place on the pitch. If you play 5 non-tacklers in midfield you are going to get ripped apart when the other team has the ball and that is what's happening week in week out. Saturday could have gone the same away if it wasn't foir their sending off. Failure to plug gaps in the squad is Kean's big mistake.

And by the way, I think we should continue to boo Kean whatever the results. he should know that if he ventures away from his bench or appears on the big screen he is going to get abuse.

I wont argue with that at all, I have said for months our midfield offers no or little protection to our back four, my point being though, we had lost Jones, Nelsen injured and a strong possibility at the time of Samba leaving, that was three centre backs out, we had no cover at all.

Midfield could be the same if we count both Jones and then the clown allowed Emerton to leave without any further cover,So yes I agree. I was however replying to the post with references to our back four but agree entirely on the midfield siituation!!

[John]

As for the way forward it needs the ownership, management, players and fans to be united and at the moment there is no sign of that happening. The lead needs to come from the owners but as they have appeared to retreated back to the bunker in Pune what can the supporters do other than protest?

After they first took over, we heard from the owners fairly regularly (as painful as it was hearing them speak about football, something they clearly have no idea about).

Now we only see the very odd interview on Sky when they are opening a new outlet in India.

I still can't believe they have come in and shown the club such a complete lack of respect - as I've always said, this was the "dream" to them sold by Kentaro and they did not know what they were getting into hence the mess the club has been on/off the field

[LeChuck]

I stole this from the Kean topic as it is likely to get lost in a sea of hysteria the next time he conducts an interview.

You Only Boo When You're Winning

There is a really good post by someone immediately under the article:

This absolute rule that you must always 'support your team' and not ever complain is what has allowed the premier league businesses - most of them are not 'clubs' in anything but name - to abuse the loyalty of fans to an astonishing degree in the interest of profit. Let's not kid ourselves - the majority of premiership clubs would happily stage their games in empty grounds if they thought it would make them more money

[Mattyblue]

I keep reading comments like 'Rovers fans are spoilt, they expect another Jack Walker',

Consideing we existed on a relative pittance for nearly a decade it couldn't be further from the truth- but that's the ignorance you are dealing with, as until recently BRFC was a club that had been under the radar pretty much since Jack was alive.