[Archived] Blackburn Rovers v Stoke City Preview

[grizfoot]

I might be in the minority but given the team we put out and the way we set-up I thought we played okay. It is fairly obvious that quite a few of the players on show are clearly not upto Premier League standards as off yet, thoose being Petrovic, Lowe & Henley. May say it's a bit harsh blaming the young players but the lack of quality players in these areas was evident throughout the game. Etherington & Shotton on the wings where danegrous throughout and Petrovic takes about five seconds too long to pass the ball. I say we played well with the given team and formation because we where effectively playing one upfront, in the past it was two upfront then it went to one with one supporting and yesterday it was just The Yak up top on his own to start off with. This is okay with decent support from midfield but we very rarely showed that Formica & Dunn showed some neat build-up play at times but neither player is blessed with any sort of pace to get them into dangerous positions. Once again our set-pieces where excellent one of the few good things about Pedersen's performance to be honest. Playing Pedersen left midfield is so 2004, he looks much more comfortable in central midfield these day. Nzonzi continued to be inconsistent with the usual reluctance to pass forward. In open play we where left with Dunn & Formica trying to support Yakubu, who was great once again but the lack of support was clear for all to see.

Had we got ahead in the game, which we probably should have done (a baffling disallowed goal and Samba hitting the bar), it may have been a totally different game. But poor defending costs us once again, unfornate slip for Samba on the first and caught on the counter from our own throw-in for the second. That being said on overall balance we deserved something out of the game in my view, but if you can't clean sheets and continue to defend poorily you give yourself an uphill challenge every game and at the moment that's exactly what we are doing. I'd like to say our defensive issues are due to injuries, but they are not we've defended poorily regardless of the personnel and even with a very defensive 4-1-4-1 formation yesterday we still conceded two goals. Even with the Yak isolated upfront we still manage to create a number of chances, a little better defending and we would have won that game comfortably. Desperately need to strength in the fullback areas, if we do that in the transfer window and put Samba & Givet as our centreback pairing we might have a better chance of keeping that all elusive clean sheet.

[Neil Weaver]

Who knows what is in their minds and waht will happen should the Prem money diappear BUT I've heard from good sources that their primary intention for BRFC was as a cheap advertising tool in order to market their chicken products.

....... with a 'Plan B' that if things go wrong (relegation) they get their money back by selling off assets. It's been apparent for months.

[thenodrog]

Any body with even a single solitary brain cell would have waited until the summer for a mutually agreed parting of the ways.

But surely even someone with that solitary brain cell would see it as stupidity to part company with someone who had (prob) again finished mid / upper mid table whilst being in the relegation zone in spending terms and fought tooth and nail to keep him?

[1864roverite]

Rovers wont get relegated

we are only a young team

We are a cohesive unit

the team are behind me

ooops we lost at home AGAIN !!

Kean, you are a muppet.

Leave NOW

[david_daft]

The truth can never be repeated often enough imy.

Yes it can....

[daveoftherovers]

Rovers wont get relegated

we are only a young team

We are a cohesive unit

the team are behind me

ooops we lost at home AGAIN !!

Kean, you are a muppet.

Leave NOW

Lol, he does remind me of one of those black adder goes 4th generals, "Come on lads, over the top.... Lads, lads?"

[JAL]

'When it comes to losing Steve Kean is THE master' parsonblue

[A cup of beans]

Allardyce was sacked 12 months ago so at least you got what you wished for Zacc, how do you think I feel? Lets not have any complaints eh? I don't think the more knowledgeable WHU fans will have too much to complain about at the moment.

last month, many west ham fans were hammering radio phone-ins blasting the style.

my opinions on 'budweiser sam' have been well documented and i dont want to go over old ground again.

I hold my hands up.. and i honestly didnt envisige the mess we would be in - with venkys hiring and persisting with the incompetant kean.

[thenodrog]

I hold my hands up.. and i honestly didnt envisige the mess we would be in - with venkys hiring and persisting with the incompetant kean.

Your honesty is admirable. There are many more who should make similar admissions. Dick Dastardly obviously used that silly fan disquiet to get the Venkeymob to replace Allardyce with Muttley but the problem as I see it is that even if the supporters had stood solidly behind Allardyce he would still have found a way to knife him in the ribs in order to carry out his raid on the finances of the Venkeymob.