[Archived] GAME THREAD - Barnsley home 12/13

[iBL4cKBuRn]

He mis places so many passes though, doesn't look like he's cut out for football any more.

[braddock]

I'll take that!

[Clitherover]

Didn't see the game but listened to it on the radio. I'm very happy with the three points but it was just as I imagined, the strikers made all the difference and the defence sounded awful yet again. Hanley and Dann at the back together is always a disaster waiting to happen and I heard they made one of their trademark passes in dangerous play, I thought 'here we go again' but it's lucky the quality in this league is so poor. Barnsley only letting us have 39% possession in a game at Ewood Park when we have better players in all eleven position should not be happening. I seriously hope someone at the club is looking at the stats and realizes that keeping Kean on is not the answer.

Very happy with our forwards and can't wait to see them on the telly this Friday.

"Learning" ? WUM.

Don't even bother responding bob, just stick him on ignore and he'll troll off back to the Burnley boards soon enough.

[bradeagle]

He mis places so many passes though, doesn't look like he's cut out for football any more.

Fair dos

[thenodrog]

just had a look on a barnsley board.....they are fuming that they lost 69% posession apparently the manager has fumed in post match that the league is rigged because of parachute payments says £8m won that match

6

He has a point of sorts but we have just been relegated from a league that is rigged seriously more by the Champions league and numerous foreign billionaires with death wishes.

What's wrong with Dunn ? He can't be injured again he hasn't played yet ! He could give Murphy a break.

Should never have signed Murphy, should have binned Dunn 12 months ago and should have kept N'Zonzi. We'd be so much stronger in midfield.

[iBL4cKBuRn]

Murphy is complete ######, if only we still had N Zonzi, he's 5 x the player of him

[EWOODACE1]

One incident annoyed me tonight, when Murphy hit the ball against the Barnsley player off the free kick.

Yes he wasn't ten yards and the referee could have booked him but what was Murphy trying to achieve, he deliberately hit it against him to try and get him booked and it backfired and I don't fully blame the ref for playing on.

I disagree. The player had been stood in front of murphy for a while and he made no attempt to move. Murphy played it to the side of him and the player had to stick his leg out to stop it. Also it's the refs job to move the player back and he made no attempt.

[thenodrog]

... Maybe the Championship really is that bad, I am shocked at just how many chances Barnsley squandered.

On the other side of the coin I was similarly shocken in 92/93 at how few chances Premier League strikers needed to score a goal.

[EWOODACE1]

Come on guys. One of you must have a programme handy from the 91/92 promotion season (mine are in my mothers loft).

Get one out and check when we had less than 12,700 on for a league game in that season. I bet it was pre-dalglish (ie before October 91)

I think it was when the ground was being rebuilt but I may be wrong. 93 ish

[rovers11]

It's no fluke we are top of the league. We have class players. The quality we have on the subs bench is key - in particular, Gomes, Rochina and Nunes to a lesser extent have come on in the opening games and completely changed the game.

Murphy has struggled so far but he is a quality player and will come good. I cringe when I see Formica and Pedersen starting on the wings - they are too pedestrian and therefore there is no outball, instead a long ball goes up to Rhodes who then has an impossible task.

When we have Kazim and Nunes/Olsson playing on the wings, thats when I believe we will start seeing better performances and Murphy can start sliding clever balls through to them.

[iBL4cKBuRn]

So many of our team are playing awful, 2-3 have carried us so far.

[thenodrog]

I don't think that's the primary objective of parachute payments at all. They're trying to minimise the risk of Clubs who are tied into paying players humongous Premiership wages on lengthy 4 or 5 year deals going to the wall.

Most clubs that are properly run surely include relegation clauses these days? We did until the Fat Controller and Billy Liar trapped up didn't we?

I think Blackpool set the standard for small clubs 3 years ago ... or rather Karl Oyston did.

btw.... Did the manager not reveal why Barnsley didn't use their parachute payments to get promoted in 99?

I know this won't go down well - but I will stick up for Pedersen, Yes he had a poor match - but he was one of the few midfield players who always made himself available and was always moving. He also covered Olsson's runs up field.

At the moment I would play him in centre midfield rather than Murphy - to be honest he couldn't be any worse - and at least he shows some movement off the ball.

Suprised Kean hasn't thought of that after Shebby Singh stated that MGP couldn't play centre mid.

[bradeagle]

theno they only came in in 2006ish

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Asked Dannys wife on twitter if something is up with him, because tbh he loomed like he didn't give a ###### last night when we scored/

She just said i'm in the minority most are happy with his performances etc. Murphy has been dreadful, needs dropping, useless captain that does f all.

I had pondered twittering her - as you say Murphy was very poor last night.

I did think his performance in the second half was slightly better - and especially the last ten minutes. I think we will see a lot of that this season - as teams put in so much effort to close us down, most will run out of steam. Unfortunately, unless we improve, the likes of Blackpool etc won't run out of steam and we will be beaten.

[thenodrog]

As for the Pedersen stick, arguably deserved tonight but depressingly quick to be singled out as usual. Murphy's been poor almost all season but rarely see him getting stick.

I've never ever rated Murphy even early doors in his career when he was at Lpool.

As for MGP you need to rem that Ewood faithful cannot function without a scapegoat. Bloody good players who would be fantastic for us now i.e. Wilcox, Carsley, Neal have all copped for it and most ludicrously Captain Fantastic who lifted the Prem trophy at Anfield was detested by a large number of Ewoods football luminaries too.

Personally I quite like forecasting who will be the next fall guy to be picked on after they have destroyed the current one.

[iBL4cKBuRn]

Just his attitude as well. Others celebrated he just walked off.

[cesus]

Well that was terrible last night, I respect we are probably a huge scalp at Ewood in the minds of other teams/managers and that gives them an extra spring in their step and close down abit more but the pedestrian pace we played at was cringeworthy. When we signed Murphy I thought he would play a Tugayesqe role coming deep and spraying the balls around, having a hundred little touches and bringing others into the game I was probably most excited about him of all our signings. I certainly think Murphy could be helped to be fair to him, he doesn't have any wide outlets as in reality at many times we were actually playing 5 central midfielders so a well lofted ball to the wings would have relieved all sorts of pressure but was never on.

Defensively we were extremely poor too, we literally played Barnsley clean through on TWO seperate occasions, Hanley and Dann in different halves just to keep us interested. The two centre halves a terrible with the ball at feet but they probably had the ball more then any of our others players it was crying out for somebody to put them out of there misery and get the ball off them, it never arrived.

Jordan Rhodes looks a class act, his link up play with Gomes is a pleasure to watch and his closing down of players and efforts when playing as a lone striker have not been seen for many a season at Ewood. I can't bring myself to say "A Young Shearer" but I smile to myself at just the thought.

I don't agree when people say Barnsley were robbed, they DIDN'T take their chances and we DID. They had alot of the ball without making Robbo pull off any amazing saves. The talk of parachute payments giving an unfair advantage is flawed it is simply there to help with Premiership contracts, our parachute payment will be very short of our wage outgoings in my opinion. Many ex premiership teams would have folded now without that cash.

[thenodrog]

Hanley was on his way to utd according to some on here....utter crap

Did they say which utd?

[adsfortheblues]

Murphy is only here because we offered him a bigger and most importantly longer contract than anyone else was willing to give him.

He's uninterested and couldnt care less whether we win, lose or draw.

His wife has blocked me for questioning his performance. So I don't hold her in much regard either.

[thenodrog]

6 poor tactical performances and tonight the worst of the lot, yet top of league.

The quality in this division is really poor and Stevie wonder could take us up with this squad.

.... Gomes and Rhodes will take this team up

Defensively shocking, Dann is quickly becoming a big money flop, turns like a bus, his awareness of strikers poor, and to be struggling in this division says it all.

A major flaw in your opinion Glen. Teams that cannot defend win nothing.

Still, it's a results business and at the moment they are going our way - so let's enjoy it while it lasts. I don't know why some people think Kean will be gone before Christmas. To jettison him now with the team in winning mode would make no sense even by Venky's standards.

I've been informed that his tenure is shakier now than ever before as the lunes in Pune are at last, finally becoming aware of the financial realities of relegation and the supporters, sponsors and advertisers obvious hatred of him. If correct then it seems the stay aways are having most effect.

[The Gull]

Just his attitude as well. Others celebrated he just walked off.

Do you not think he may have been unhappy with his performance and not want to take the plaudits for the team winning?

He was terrible first half, but i thought second he put himself about and gave the ball away rarely, very much a game of two halves for him IMO.

I personally don't think Murphy and Pedersen should have started after playing on Saturday, their legs looked heavy and surely they could have been rested at home to Barnsley, especially Murphy at his age. Poor tactics from Kean playing tired players and it nearly cost us until Rhodes' oportunism right on half time and Barnsley's innability to create and take chances despite their dominance.

It's a long season and we surely have to improve but we will also play teams that are more clinical, Blackpool and Notts Forest spring to mind.

We currently start games with ridiculous tactics such as the short goal kicks that nearly got us in to trouble on several occasions last night, the long ball up to Rhodes against two centre halfs and on his own. The plans they are sent out with are floored and it seems at half time they change them, the team and management need to be more felxible, realise when something isn't working and make different choices/plans much more quicker.

We are top of the league and we seem to have a couple of goalscorers which others would dearly love to have which might mean we stay up there, but we will surely need to improve.

[Tom]

What do people expect to gain by bothering a players wife on twitter after a bad game?

[adsfortheblues]

What do people expect to gain by bothering a players wife on twitter after a bad game?

Mine was last night -this was weeks ago, just asking if he was injured cause he had a bad game. The result being a block.

I've give up bothering anymore and couldn't really care less if they are top of the league. I won't have an interest in going to a single game until he's gone.

[RoyRover]

I'm convinced that Steve Kean has stood at the crossroads at midnight and sold his soul to the devil and in return we won't be beaten, no matter how badly we play!

[thenodrog]

\If anybody wants to put a bet on Kean going. I'll happily put 5000 he's not gone by xmas.

5k? Isn't the going rate for a smack head with a gun approx 10% of that....... I'm tempted to take you on.