[Archived] Michael Appleton - New Rovers Manager

[Lancs Rover]

Roy Hodgson wasn't up to much either, was he?

[bypass06]

Sounds familiar,......From Burnley Mad.

what do i want from dyche?

i want him to not be cotterill mkII which all the signs are pointing to him being at the moment.

i want him to set us up to attack teams.

i want him to make the best use of our prize asset.

i want him to stop putting square pegs in round holes in the forward positions and play our our most creative players in the positions where they are most effective.

i want him to play to our strengths, admit he is getting it wrong and change it.

i want him to make me want to get a season ticket last year which, despite my seat being cheaper than this year, i'm very much now thinking against.

the team, the support and the club are being stifled. there has been literally nothing to get excited about for weeks (some might say months) now and if we aren't careful, its going to become terminal.

my biggest concern when dyche was appointed was his approach and the style of football. so far i've been proved right to have those concerns.

you can't keep changing managers, but there are almost no encouraging signs at the moment.

[Gav]

*****OVER-REACTION ALERT OVER-REACTION ALERT*****

Get a grip FFS, he's been in charge for a matter of weeks and again we find the usual suspects moaning and bloody groaning....

You're like a bunch of teenage girls thats just realised Justin Beiber won't be on at King George’s Hall tonight due to stubbed toe.

You'd have been no good with Jim, Den and Preston Blue in the trenches......

Its all about next season, as philipl says lets beat Millwall and burnley and see the season out in style.

[thenodrog]

He was a total disaster and completely out of his depth, I don't dispute that.

Just taking that statement on it's own you could be talking about every manager we've had over the past 2 years.

[Mike Graham]

*****OVER-REACTION ALERT OVER-REACTION ALERT*****Get a grip FFS, he's been in charge for a matter of weeks and again we find the usual suspects moaning and bloody groaning....You're like a bunch of teenage girls thats just realised Justin Beiber won't be on at King George’s Hall tonight due to stubbed toe.You'd have been no good with Jim, Den and Preston Blue in the trenches......Its all about next season, as philipl says lets beat Millwall and burnley and see the season out in style.

At least I would be able to see over the bloody trenches. You would never get your head blown off.;-)

Anyhow I would be a deserter, having a nice pint with a bag of Lancs Sauce flavour crisps.

[Rover_Shaun]

Why is beating Millwall and Burnley but getting bummed in every other game seeing out the season in style??

Beggars Belief

[rovers11]

So, Appleton has now been in charge for 10 games. After 10 games, you should start to see some of the managers ideas and have some impact. My analysis of his time in charge so far:

Won 4, lost 3, drawn 3.

5 clean clean sheets. 7 games without conceding from open play. Tough fixtures in Arsenal, Hull, Leicester, Brighton (twice). Defensively very good. Compare that to the 2 goals a game average we conceded under Berg and the one game a goal conceded under Kean.

10 goals scored. Failed to score (or create anything) in 3 games. Also scored 10 goals under Berg (with 4 coming in one game) and failed to score in 4 games.

Shipped out quite a number of poor players. Brought in players like Bentley, Campbell and hopefully Thomas.

To sum up, excellent defensively; no real improved offensively; brought in some decent players. Overall, I have been impressed but lacking in real quality in midfield.

A manager can coach a team to be organised and defensively solid but if the players aren't up to much then you won't have much quality going forward and that's the problem we have. Peds, Murphy and Etuthu have all had their day. Olsson and Lowe are decent squad players but nothing more. King and Bentley are the only quality players we have in midfield.

[jim mk2]

*****OVER-REACTION ALERT OVER-REACTION ALERT*****

Get a grip FFS, he's been in charge for a matter of weeks and again we find the usual suspects moaning and bloody groaning....

You're like a bunch of teenage girls thats just realised Justin Beiber won't be on at King George’s Hall tonight due to stubbed toe.

You'd have been no good with Jim, Den and Preston Blue in the trenches......

Its all about next season, as philipl says lets beat Millwall and burnley and see the season out in style.

Brilliant post from a fan who vowed never to go to Ewood while Sam was in charge.

Good call GAV.

[USABlue]

*****OVER-REACTION ALERT OVER-REACTION ALERT*****

Get a grip FFS, he's been in charge for a matter of weeks and again we find the usual suspects moaning and bloody groaning....

You're like a bunch of teenage girls thats just realised Justin Beiber won't be on at King George’s Hall tonight due to stubbed toe.

You'd have been no good with Jim, Den and Preston Blue in the trenches......

Its all about next season, as philipl says lets beat Millwall and burnley and see the season out in style.

And if we don't Gav? Sorry I've seen nowt to suggest this man has what it takes. A great defensive performance at the Arse, sadly that may turn out to be the worst thing that has happened to us in terms of league form. We have the best pure finisher in the division and his goals have dried up no he doesn't even get chances. Some one have a word with appleton and tell him there are two goals on a footy pitch. Grrrrrrrrr.

[Rover_Shaun]

To sum up, excellent defensively;

3 clean sheets in the league. The bread and butter that matters and two of those were against bottom 20 teams at home

W2 D3 L3 F6 A9 GD-3 Pts 9 from 24 on offer

[G Somerset Rover]

Delving slightly further into Appleton's comments last night, what's this "fantastic response" that we've always had following poor games? Is he talking about Leeds where we were lucky to get a draw and didn't test their keeper once?

[Rover_Shaun]

Maybe it's because we always beat the teams at the bottom? And who's next I wonder?

[arbitro]

*****OVER-REACTION ALERT OVER-REACTION ALERT*****

Get a grip FFS, he's been in charge for a matter of weeks and again we find the usual suspects moaning and bloody groaning....

You're like a bunch of teenage girls thats just realised Justin Beiber won't be on at King George’s Hall tonight due to stubbed toe.

You'd have been no good with Jim, Den and Preston Blue in the trenches......

Its all about next season, as philipl says lets beat Millwall and burnley and see the season out in style.

And even worse with heartless players like Murphy, Pedersen et al in the trenches. In last nights debacle I can't remeber a good solid challenge from a Rovers player being made. At one point one of the Leicester players did a host of fancy step-overs and not one Rovers player reacted to this. Past players who cared and were hurt by getting beat would have given this bloke a severe case of gravel rash and taken the ensuing card happily.

[LeChuck]

Look at the players Leicester had last night that caused us the most trouble....

Knockaert, Drinkwater, Marshall, Wood, Kane

All young and hungry to prove themselves in this league. I don't think any of them are over 21. Who would have picked those out as dangerous players before the game yesterday? Who would have picked the likes of Schneiderlin from Southampton last season?

It's less about big budgets and big names in this division than it is in the Premier League. There was an interview on the radio at half time yesterday with Malkay Mackay talking about getting out of this division. Spoke a lot of home truths. Until we get the right sort of players into this club we have absolutely no chance.

[broadsword]

Henning Berg was in charge for a matter of weeks and he was a great big @#/? bag of @#/? an' all!

Thenodrog had it right when Appleton turned up, he'd be better off as a binman. "Don't get beat by 5 or 6" "Don't lose the second half" "a positive to take into saturday".

Different bald head, same @#/?.

[T.J.Newton]

Let's see if he can beat Millwall in the Cup and Burnley in the league.

Achieve those results and I will be happy.

I totally agree with you for once,

I'll put Appletons comments down to managerial naivety(this time!), i think the problem is after nearly 2 years of putting up with keans bs comments week in week out we now have a tendancy to jump on every error the manager makes, forgetting that all managers(even the great ones) balls things up sometimes and say daft things from time to time.

P.s. And it seems i was right about the small handfull of hate filled gobsoNso's on here putting the boot in, their fingers must be worn to stumps with all the trash theyve typed since last night.

[rovers11]

3 clean sheets in the league. The bread and butter that matters and two of those were against bottom 20 teams at home

W2 D3 L3 F6 A9 GD-3 Pts 9 from 24 on offer

I don't think it can be argued that Appleton has tightened up the defence.

The tactics at the moment are keep it tight and nick a goal. With our pathetic midfield, we can't keep possession and therefore can't dominate games. When you aren't good enough to keep possession then the tactic has to be keep it tight and nick a goal.

Berg tried to play passing football which worked to a certain extent against teams like Peterborough but we couldn't do it against the better teams which resulted in hoofball. 5 different managers and you could count on one hand how many games we've dominated this season. The midield is a massive problem.

[bypass06]

Looks like we'll miss out on Thomas.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/blackburn_rovers/news/10254294.Blackburn_Rovers_target_still_part_of_West_Brom_plan/

[DE.]

I don't think it can be argued that Appleton has tightened up the defence.

The tactics at the moment are keep it tight and nick a goal. With our pathetic midfield, we can't keep possession and therefore can't dominate games. When you aren't good enough to keep possession then the tactic has to be keep it tight and nick a goal.

Berg tried to play passing football which worked to a certain extent against teams like Peterborough but we couldn't do it against the better teams which resulted in hoofball. 5 different managers and you could count on one hand how many games we've dominated this season. The midield is a massive problem.

The problem is, this kind of tactic relies on having a few pacy/decent players to make use of a swift counter attack. With a central midfield duo of Lowe/Murphy we can forget that, even with pacy wingers like Olsson I/II, Josh King or CKR (scraping the barrel a bit but he's faster than most of the others, anyway) they still need support from at least one central mid player to make this effective.

What's been happening lately is we just get pummelled repeatedly and never have any chances because we can't counter attack.

[OJRovers]

Look at the players Leicester had last night that caused us the most trouble....

Knockaert, Drinkwater, Marshall, Wood, Kane

All young and hungry to prove themselves in this league. I don't think any of them are over 21. Who would have picked those out as dangerous players before the game yesterday? Who would have picked the likes of Schneiderlin from Southampton last season?

It's less about big budgets and big names in this division than it is in the Premier League. There was an interview on the radio at half time yesterday with Malkay Mackay talking about getting out of this division. Spoke a lot of home truths. Until we get the right sort of players into this club we have absolutely no chance.

Spot on

Our current set of ex Premier League and International players are unsuited to the Championship.

We need to sign a set of 'unknowns' with desire to prove themselves, this won't go down well with fans who want players with names they know, but its the best way of getting out this league. Speaking to a Southampton fan, they had hardly any PL experience in their squad, whereas West Ham only just scraped into the play-offs with an expensive PL squad.

[JAL]

And even worse with heartless players like Murphy, Pedersen et al in the trenches. In last nights debacle I can't remeber a good solid challenge from a Rovers player being made. At one point one of the Leicester players did a host of fancy step-overs and not one Rovers player reacted to this. Past players who cared and were hurt by getting beat would have given this bloke a severe case of gravel rash and taken the ensuing card happily.

Maybe the players know something that we, the fans, dont know yet, but are about to find out.

[yoda]

Maybe the players know something that we, the fans, dont know yet, but are about to find out.

You sound like Philipl

[Gav]

Brilliant post from a fan who vowed never to go to Ewood while Sam was in charge.

Good call GAV.

It's not what I said and you know it, but I'll let you run with it.

And if we don't Gav? Sorry I've seen nowt to suggest this man has what it takes. A great defensive performance at the Arse, sadly that may turn out to be the worst thing that has happened to us in terms of league form. We have the best pure finisher in the division and his goals have dried up no he doesn't even get chances. Some one have a word with appleton and tell him there are two goals on a footy pitch. Grrrrrrrrr.

The man needs a pre-season USA, the side needs overhauling, lets hope he's given the chance to act further in the summer.

[onlyonejackwalker]

It's not what I said and you know it, but I'll let you run with it.

The man needs a pre-season USA, the side needs overhauling, lets hope he's given the chance to act further in the summer.

In normal circumstances I would agree, but only if MA is the correct choice in the first place. Otherwise more time and money will be wasted that we simply cannot afford. Team selections this last three matches have worried me, as have his latest comments. Playing 4-4-2 in my opinion is absolutely foolhardy with the players available.

Who would have thought we could mess this season up so spectacularly? Well done to the Venky's. Congrats.

[John]

Even though the squad is limited, slightly worrying signs appearing and concerning leaving midfield so exposed - really needs to pack it as we dont have the legs especially if Murphy is going to play.

Also, couple of odd comments starting to come out, may be worth catching up with his PR company.