[Archived] Blackburn Rovers v Cardiff City 7th December 2012

[jim mk2]

Attendances are sinking to 1970-80s levels even quicker than I expected. Fortunately Jack Walker left a physical legacy in the shape of a rebuilt Ewood and super training faclities at Brockhall otherwise the club is reverting to its state of 25 years ago and it's almost as if the past two decades at football's top table never happened.

[booth]

Changed slightly.

No I'm sticking to what I said Somerset. That's why it's so painful every time we have to endure yet another false dawn. It's the hope that kills you.

[Brfcrule1]

Well well well. I watched the game on tv last night and what I witnessed left me astounded.

Henning Berg when will you begin to learn to send a team out witht he right mentality, a formation to work within, a team with a plan, a team that can defend as one and a team that can take the game forward to the opposition rather than always play on the back foot ? The selection you sent out last night was lacking in everything epitomised by the lack of forethought and by the way, a team seriously lob sided and with no pride or passion for the shirt they wore.

Let me begin with my view on certain players.

Robinson - seriously overweight. His problem is that his weight stops him from getting off the ground and he drops like a sandbag to the shot on the floor. He is the root of Rovers defensive problems.

Hanley/Dann - woefully inept. Neither put in a shift and neither deserved their wages. Dann has 1 good game then reverts to type. For him to benefit he needs Givet alongside him.

Ethuhu - just what did he bring to the game last ight apart from chaos ? Shocking lack of effort from a journeyman.

Lowe - I am not having that he just a young lad, this player brings nothing to the team. Mistakes lead to goals. He cant head he cant jump he cant tackle and he CANNOT drive the team forward which is what is required from a central midfielder. His inability to pass forward is wreaking havoc on the defence talking of which his inabilities show that there is no outball from the back 4 and a lack of through ball to the forwards.

Formica - a plus side is that his work ethic is unquestionable. His finishing is erratic.

King - I like the look of this lad but he is not a centre forward.

Marcus ollson - what exactly did he do last night or in training to deserve to start ? truly a shocking player and out of his depth.

Rhodes - I feel sorry for the lad, yet again no service and no support. Playing up front alone with the hoof ball of Robinson, Dann and Hanley he was easily shunted aside by the Cardiff defence.

I am not sure what CKR has to do in order to start games, the same with Simon. There is no doubt his introduction improved output going forward however lets not forget there were other players who simply negated the efforts this lad put in.

Tactics - first half there was nothing in place, better in the second however at that point we had CKR playing.

Plan B or C ? Nothing evident.

Defensive tactics - non existant.

Control, passing, effort, pride, organisation - non existant.

Crossing - absolutely atrocious.

HB has a basic lesson to learn, he must know by now that certain players cannot be relied on. He must realise that we are now out of the promotion race and he must now recognise that he needs to have a clear out. There are some seriously good players available in the Premiership as loanee players and we need a central midfielder or 2. We need to offload Robinson and to bring in Jake Kean in order to develop him. Hanley needs replacing by Givet. Rhodes needs help up front and assistance.

Hendry needs releiving of his duties, Brunskill needs replacing whilst HB himself needs to look at his own performance.

I am not convinced that Rovers are equipped to reach the top 10 this season and I am reiterating my stance of keeping away from Ewood on a match by match basis until there is radical changes. In fact I think the next time I might venture to Ewood is for the Leeds game followed by the Burnley/Blackpool games.

Shabby, you live and die by results, these set of result are truly shocking and you must realise that HB may well be seriously out of his depth with these players.

Its time to change or ship out.

Someone should send this post to Shebby to pin on his office wall it totally sums up this match I have been saying one thing for weeks now Robbo needs to lose weight drastically any good young keeper would have dived down and made a better fist of that equaliser vs the dingles.

Totally agree Dann has one good game then reverts to type we must surely be looking at bringing in at least 1 new central defender.

As stated before Etuhu his tackling is not good and passing is woeful at 30 he should still have 2-3 years still left in him & should be doing much better.

as you quite rightly state being young is no excuse Lowe should be doing a lot better than what he is.

quite rightly Formica needs to work on his finishing King looks good as you state he is not a CF agree I feel very sorry for Rhodes he is in no way able to play the lone striker role I can't wait to see Best back but surely playing CKR in behind Rhodes is the best front 2 with CKR as the foil for Rhodes & completely agree Simon should be starting more his crossing ability must be one of the best at this level so how he does not get more starts I just can't fathom.

I don't care what happened after the tackle but the tackle itself was idiotic and pointless and ultimately played a huge part in handing them the lead

I still haven't seen anything to suggest Jason Lowe can contribute anything to the team that anyone who can run around couldn't

Tom you have totally summed up everything that describes Lowe's performance in that 2nd point agree the tackle was pointless and was a daft yellow to pick up but the 2nd point is very telling.

All we hear is Lowe has energy runs around a lot having energy and running around a lot does in no way make someone a good player and for me both Etuhu & Lowe are too similar.

They are more players who break up play whereas Murphy/Dunn are the playmakers and to play Etuhu & Lowe makes no sense and for me Etuhu IMO is just not good enough in the tackle for me.

Does not win enough tackles for me and although Murphy you can understand with him being 35 you can understand but Etuhu at 30 should be performing a hell of a lot better than he is and should still have 2-3 years in him yet and at 6'2" should have been able to do a similar job to what N'Zonzi did for us.

I have yet to comment fully on what I believe the problems are but looking at that Cardiff game there are some glaring problems that need addressing having a side full of energy does in no way mean you are a good team having players who run around is not enough having the quality in esp in the final third is vital and that was the massive difference between us and Cardiff and for me to get anywhere near the play offs the bare minimum I would suggest we need 1GK/ 1CB/ 1LB/ 1 Strong Tackling CM/ I would then shift Mn Olsson to the left wing for his pace & King on the right for the same with CKR/Best behind Rhodes as the foil for Rhodes but the main problems are too much running around not enough quality and the only way to do that is buy in Jan and try offloading some might be hard though trying to shift Etuhu/Murphy with the wages.