[Archived] Leicester City vs Blackburn Rovers: Tuesday 17th September 2013

[bazza]

I know it not a very exciting prospect, but, how about Paul Gallagher for the number 10 role on loan(or free, im not sure what his situation is) as I say not the most exciting prospect, but a very adequate one in the short term.

A good suggestion. And maybe we can agree with Leicester to pay half his wages.

I still think we are making the playoffs

So do I.

[Rover_Shaun]

Sign Gally back and it will be a statement of intent

[thenodrog]

I still think we have 'the potential' to make the playoffs,

it is still very early in the season and this is a very unpredictable league, it can almost turn on its head in a handful of games.

Definitely. We just need to stop letting goals in at one end and score more at the other.

[yoda's brother]

Really? You must be browsing the web with your eyes shut if you haven't seen all the people on Facebook, Twitter and the various Rovers forums out there who believe we can get promoted.

says a lot about people who use faceache and tw@ter

[T.J.Newton]

Definitely. We just need to stop letting goals in at one end and score more at the other.

or JUST score more at the other.

[bazza]

That Leicester game from 1988 was an absolute epic. Shows how much the game as evolved, there would be nobody left on the pitch if todays refs had been running the game.

I'd love to see the modern day prima donnas play footie on that sort of pitch and with the same referee as the 1988 match.

Think our little unbeaten run might end here. Tough fixture this for us at anytime, we never seem to get anything down there so i'll go

Foxes 3 Rovers 1

19,360 ( 450 rovers)

Very close on guessing the gate, Tomphil. 19,153

[Sparky Marky]

I still think we have 'the potential' to make the playoffs,

Do we feck as like ........my god man.

[tomphil]

I'd love to see the modern day prima donnas play footie on that sort of pitch and with the same referee as the 1988 match.

Very close on guessing the gate, Tomphil. 19,153

Aye we should have a competition for that, it's about the 3rd time ive been close already this season. Only thing im good at though

[tonyoz]

Leicester Match

imo
O Instance of very good play
O Instance of decent play
O Disappointing or poor play
O Terrible play
h hoof upfield
( ) set pieces

Kean OOOOOOO
Kane OOOOOOOOOOOOhh
Dann OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hanley OOOOOOOOOOOOOhh
Spurr OOOOOOOOOO(O)OOOOhhhh
Lowe OOOOO
Evans OOOOOOh
Cairney OOOOOO(OOOOOOOO)OOO
Marshall OOOOOOOO
King OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh
Rhodes OOOO

Taylor OOOOOOh
Olsson OOO


Highlights and Lowlights

14 Goal! Marshall loses ball cheaply in City half, Kane caught out of position, weak headed clearance from Spurr is returned splitting the defence and poor goal conceded. Kane left scorer unmarked....again!
23 Kean pass puts Hanley under pressure but he takes a stupid risk and nearly ends in disaster.
26 Great challenge from Dann as Nugent appears to be clean through.
26 Second time in 2 minutes Cairney balloons an embarrassing shot well over.
42 Terrible play from Lowe who sets up a dangerous City attack……….leading to dubious penalty. Spurr seemed to hesitate and could, I think, have cleaned it out safely.
47 Vardy clean through on goal. Lowe seems to hold back to avoid risky challenge. Great save by Kean’s legs.
48 Short City corner. No defender anywhere! Kean saves shot.
52 Late low save from Kean.
69 Penalty after good work on the wing by Spurr. Rhodes converts – that’s 34 from 50 league games!

[roversR4ever]

I'd say the need for the team to gel - combined with the undeniable fact that the two players we really need to make our system work properly are crocked fairly regularly - means we'll almost certainly be mid-table at best this year. I'd be shocked if we got anywhere near the playoffs. Our team isn't awful, but neither is it good enough to put together a credible promotion or playoff attempt (imo).

Don't get me wrong, I'd love for us to be up there challenging for the higher positions in the league... I just don't see it happening. If I'm proven wrong, great!

Im not saying we will be challenging in the play off spots. Im simply saying its too early to predict where we will be. At the moment we are playing like a mid table team.

The point I am making is at the moment theres just too many unknowns as its such a new team/squad, age of team added to the fact that quite a number of players are injured or have been injured and just come back to fitness but really lacking match fitness.

It pretty much makes it almost impossible to make predictions, the only thing that the team seems to indicate is that even with the high number of injuries etc we are still playing like a midtable team. That could change and improve as players return to fitness and gain match sharpness, play more games together. Of course it might not.

At the moment we are obviously suffering not having Dunn/Rochina available in that number 10/attacking mid role. Who is to say that Judge might play that position well, or Marshall start to recover his confidence as he plays games and Bowyer works on him (having a lot of experience developing young players) or King grows into the role using his pace or Dunn returns after his op and plays a good number of games before Rochina comes back. If any of those happen we could realistically move up the table. Especially if Williamson returns to the team or if Evans as he plays games gets back to the level of performance he had last season for Hull.

Until we have those answers we don't know. I do think we should at the minimum retain mid table safety.

Of course we could have further injuries to key players and struggle even more.

Im not having a go at you, Id say exactly the same to someone who says we are definitely going to around the play offs. There are just too many uncertainties. In times past I would have said we will know better come Christmas but now its really January.

Id take where we are compared to the state we were in under Kean without doubt. Of course comparing us to where we were under Sam and its pretty devastating.

[Lancs Rover]

If you don't believe we can get promoted, what's the point?

What happened to blind faith?

Chee eck. Back in my day, the more delusional a supporter you were, the greater the respect.

At least, erm, that's how I remember it...

[roversR4ever]

Im not sure Id quite describe the team like that. In fairness yes some were freebies but theres a big difference in freebies these days and many years ago. Increasingly we are seeing players deliberately running down contracts.

I think we should have some expectations. Evans may have been deemed surplus to requirements at Prem level, but he sure wasn't at championship level. He was ever present in a promotion winning team. Millwall didn't want to lose Taylor - one of their better players. Judge was deemed to be one of the best players in the league below so should in theory good enough to the championship. Chelsea must see something in Kane or he would have been sold this summer.

Spurr was well rated by his previous club.

Evans started 23 games out of 46 for Hull last season and came on as sub in 9 - hardly "ever-present"

He started in 5 of the last 15 games, which barely indicates he was an integral component

I

I will happily stand corrected, I thought he played a few more games than that. Have a friend from uni days who is a Hull fan and season ticket holder who also implied he played well. I did see him play well for them. I could be wrong but I thought towards the end of the season he was carrying a injury (might have been the groin one that he has just come back from) but they wanted him involved. I could be completely wrong!

[T.J.Newton]

Do we feck as like ........my god man.

well thought out opinion....MAN!

So if your not supporting rovers anymore, why are you here?

[Parsonblue]

well thought out opinion....MAN!

So if your not supporting rovers anymore, why are you here?

You can support the Rovers and still be realistic. I'm at every game and still don't believe we will finish anywhere above mid-table at best. In fact I would go so far as to say that mid-table would be an excellent finish.

[T.J.Newton]

that's just it, I never said I believe we will be in the play-offs I said we have the potential to be up there(as do most teams in this league!)

if your going to completely give up hope that we could have any kind of success(finishing round abouts the play-offs would be a success, considering ...), then you may as well not support any team.

[DE.]

Depends on your definition of success doesn't it? Just because you view anything other than reaching the playoffs as failure doesn't mean everybody does.

I'd consider mid-table an acceptable achievement considering the damage Venky's have wreaked on the club and the turnaround of players and staff in the last 12 months.

[Parsonblue]

that's just it, I never said I believe we will be in the play-offs I said we have the potential to be up there(as do most teams in this league!)

if your going to completely give up hope that we could have any kind of success(finishing round abouts the play-offs would be a success, considering ...), then you may as well not support any team.

I've supported the club for over 50 years and for many of those seasons you knew mid-table of whatever division you were in was the best you could hope for. Being realistic is not giving up it's assessing the squad you have, the division you are in and coming to the view that mid-table will be a decent finish. After last season I view mid-table as success.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

if your going to completely give up hope that we could have any kind of success(finishing round abouts the play-offs would be a success, considering ...), then you may as well not support any team.

Its funny how times have changed. Under Allardyce a lot of fans didn't seem at all interested in success and didn't support the team half the time, too busy chanting for different formations, booing substitutions and moaning about Allardyce's interviews.. Back then attractive football was the be all and end all, now its gone back to success and making the play-offs.

I suppose my point is there's no set thing you have to do or think or you're not a supporter of the team.

[T.J.Newton]

Its funny how times have changed. Under Allardyce a lot of fans didn't seem at all interested in success and didn't support the team half the time, too busy chanting for different formations, booing substitutions and moaning about Allardyce's interviews.. Back then attractive football was the be all and end all, now its gone back to success and making the play-offs.

I suppose my point is there's no set thing you have to do or think or you're not a supporter of the team.

its all relative I suppose.

p.s, to the others above, my initial post was directly aimed at sparky mark, as most on here know his outlook is way beyond(or below) 'just being realistic' hes a total pessimistic, depressive cynic as far as all things rovers go, from what ive read from him lately.

[Rover_Shaun]

Bilaji's popping out photo reminded me of a line from a Smiths song

[Stuart]

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now?

[Blue Cabbage]

Sheila Take A Bow?

This Charming Man?

[Stuart]

Handsome Devil?

Unloveable?

At least we know it's not "I Keep Mine Hidden"

[bob fleming]

Some girls are bigger than others?

Frankly Mr Balaji?

Rovers in a coma?

[Ozz]

He said a line from a song, not necessarily a song title.