[Archived] Bolton at Ewood

[chris_h]

Not just you Rev but a number of posters seem to have decided that Brown is now the fans' whipping boy.

I thought he had a decent game last night, doing a lot of donkey work up front and linking up the play well.

This time last week I was composing a post about the game at Hillsborough when the site went down. My point then was to say how well Brown had played in that game. Killgallon probably pipped him to man of the match but he was excellent in creating the goal for Rhodes and battering their centre halves all night. On a real mud heap of a pitch he was a throwback to an old 70s centre forward, just what was needed on the night. In contrast, apart from taking a chance well, Rhodes was dreadful. Last night Rhodes was much better, although guilty of putting a great chance straight at the keeper, until changing the game in the 94th minute with another opportunistic goal.

Before the game against Wednesday a number of posters were saying what a good manager Stuart Gray was. This is what he said after the game - "We didn't play at the intensity that we did last Saturday and we couldn't handle the big boy (Chris Brown) up front. He was too physically strong for us." ​He had worked out one of the key differences. Last night there were often two defenders on Brown - I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't a result of a scouting report. He's not a hugely gifted footballer but he does a lot of the hard work and often that's as important in getting results in this league.

My last visit to Ewood was for the Rotherham game which was bloody awful. For me though Brown was one of the better Rovers players on the night ( not saying much I suppose). He does look a powerful lad but I reckon he looked a half decent footballer with ability to get the ball in with his back to goal and retain possession. The proverbial 'decent touch for a big fella' type.

[Speedie Dived]

Bowyer plays two wingers as wingers, Cairney centrally, doesn't play Hanley and plays an actual right back at right back and as if by magic, we played quite well.

Who would have thought?

Cairney nearly lost the game for us when he lost possession and Davies was through on goal within 5 seconds. Good player but that is the risk you take with playing him in the middle.

I like Henley as a defender but he is poor on the ball, struggles to kick it. He could do with a Mitre Delta size 4.

I too enjoyed last night. Bolton in 18th time wasting for a point was hilarious, Lennon must have tremendous ambition.

Side note, of the teams that came down with us, i would not swap managers/performances/league positions with any of them.

No agenda, genuine question - how did the lad Doniel Henry play at centre back? looks like he had an assist for the goal, and that he's not let anyone down.

Big Sam has found a player here for me. I like him a lot, still raw in some areas but that will come.

[only2garners]

The wonderful irony of the time wasting was that if they hadn't there wouldn't have been a 94th minutes in the game for us to score.

[Swanson]

I really hope that Bowyer now sees that Hanley have to fight to get back in the team, not automatically because he is the "club captain".
Kilgallon is more worthy and should be captain.

Hanley: Played 31/41. Conceded 42 goals, 10 W - 10 D - 11 L

Without Hanley: 10 games : Conceded 5 goals, 6 W - 3 D - 1 L

[cesus]

Not just you Rev but a number of posters seem to have decided that Brown is now the fans' whipping boy.

I thought he had a decent game last night, doing a lot of donkey work up front and linking up the play well.

This time last week I was composing a post about the game at Hillsborough when the site went down. My point then was to say how well Brown had played in that game. Killgallon probably pipped him to man of the match but he was excellent in creating the goal for Rhodes and battering their centre halves all night. On a real mud heap of a pitch he was a throwback to an old 70s centre forward, just what was needed on the night. In contrast, apart from taking a chance well, Rhodes was dreadful. Last night Rhodes was much better, although guilty of putting a great chance straight at the keeper, until changing the game in the 94th minute with another opportunistic goal.

Before the game against Wednesday a number of posters were saying what a good manager Stuart Gray was. This is what he said after the game - "We didn't play at the intensity that we did last Saturday and we couldn't handle the big boy (Chris Brown) up front. He was too physically strong for us." ​He had worked out one of the key differences. Last night there were often two defenders on Brown - I wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't a result of a scouting report. He's not a hugely gifted footballer but he does a lot of the hard work and often that's as important in getting results in this league.

You've saved me a whole lot of typing there and I completely agree with all you say. Brown plays a role that can not be glamourised but it's a very important role. The role that he is given he performs well, I thought he played well last night but Rhodes scored the goal so we can forget the rest of his 93 mins and 50 seconds and bash Brown.

[tomphil]

Brown has a job to do and he did it last night, that's why he's here. Get through the graft, hold the ball, flick ons etc and be foil for Rhodes letting him lurk about and get into goalscoring positions. Rhodes had a couple of others saved last night and was fouled, miscontrolled a couple of others whilst going in on goal. So to an extent the partenership worked.

No goals in Brown and we don't want to end up with just him but he does a job but he'll have to keep up the graft as that's all there is to him.

[cesus]

I really hope that Bowyer now sees that Hanley have to fight to get back in the team, not automatically because he is the "club captain".

Kilgallon is more worthy and should be captain.

Hanley: Played 31/41. Conceded 42 goals, 10 W - 10 D - 11 L

Without Hanley: 10 games : Conceded 5 goals, 6 W - 3 D - 1 L

I knew he'd had a poor season but those stats are frightening!

[OJRovers]

I knew he'd had a poor season but those stats are frightening!

Especially as half the games have been against premiership teams.

Didn't our run at the end of last season coincide with Lowey getting injured?

[Tom]

Yes Brown is there to do a job but Rudy does the same job a lot better in my opinion and also provides a goal threat.

Last night Brown had two chances, a header that he looped in the air and into the keepers arms then a chance to get a shot away which he cut back nearly fell over then hit straight at the keeper.

The job he did do was run around a bit and jump for headers in the middle, reminded me of when we used to play Samba up top.

He'll do as fourth choice and should put a few in over a season but shouldnt even be considered before Rudy, Rhodes or King if they are fit for me:

[tomphil]

I agree we need Rudy and Rhodes but he has to come up with a system that suits them. Rudy just standing in the middle and expecting Rhodes to do the donkey work for him like Brown does for JR rarely works. We also become a bit one dimensional just aiming it in his direction.

Thought we looked better on the break last night with the wingers being on their more comfortable sides. We stretched play a bit more than usual by getting down the right.

[Dortmund Rover 32]

Good win last night. Only need 10 more to reach play offs.

Fully agree with tom m. Brown does a job and links play well but offers little to no threat. Rudy and Rhodes till end of season please bowyer

[Husky]

Can't imagine which players increased their standing last night, the overall standard was average at best.

Why would this be positive?

Yeah and supposedly "all the scouts left 10 minutes early".

[gumboots]

Gestede was exhausted at the end of the Liverpool game so no surprise that bowyer didn't start him if he didn't have to. Would have come on earlier I suspect if not for the injuries in the first half. Bowyer held his sub as late as possible.

On the subject of Henry, he is in some ways reminiscent of samba. Very raw and lacking in positional sense often but has those long legs that seem to stretch further than you'd think they could. With someone alongside him to talk him through games, as he has with kill gallon, he could be very useful to us

[ABBEY]

Come on gum if a professional athlete can't play less than 4 hours a week there's something sadly wrong

[Andyblue2]

Yeah and supposedly "all the scouts left 10 minutes early".

That is normal

[Madon]

Just watched the highlights back... Jordan Rhodes looked absolutely livid at somebody after that goal.

[Husky]

Come on gum if a professional athlete can't play less than 4 hours a week there's something sadly wrong

We keep coming back to this don't we. YES it certainly is pathetic.

I know someone (a rank amateur non-runner) that is currently training for a marathon and has been doing for several months.

They are currently running 3-4 times (from what I've been told around 40-50k) a week. This guy is also holding down a 40 hour a week job (not including commute time) has children, is over 40, doesn't have access to state of the art equipment, no physio, nutritionist, trainer, coach etc. etc. etc. And yet he’s not saying crap like “oh I’ve ran 10k this week I’m too tired to do any more”.

As I said before it would be bad enough for even an amateur athlete to say they are tired after one sports game or run a week never mind a professional athlete that is paid thousands of pounds a week and has pretty much everything done for them.

I have a feeling that there is a lackadaisical approach running (no pun intended) throughout the club and if players are being told they “need to be rested” then that’s also more than likely having a negative psychological effect on them regardless of fitness levels.

[Jock]

Just watched the highlights back... Jordan Rhodes looked absolutely livid at somebody after that goal.

Who was up there? There can't be to many suspects. Dunlop Derek, Two(teams)Bob. or Work shy Scouse?

[only2garners]

I think what you need to bear in mind is that of course it's perfectly possible for a professional athlete to play 90 minutes of football every day. What you really need to consider is how much the player's performance declines if playing two games in a few days. Even if it's only 5%, at the margin that could make the difference between an excellent and an ordinary performance.

[gumboots]

Come on gum if a professional athlete can't play less than 4 hours a week there's something sadly wrong

I didn't say he couldn't, abs. Just why make him if you don't have to and you have any concerns about a knock he took or whatever. It's not just our club that does it. Everyone does. He was probably fit enough to do it but is it coincidence that those that ran hard all match on Sunday were our 2 injuries first half last night? Why risk injury if you don't need to? Why risk making a slight knock something worse if you don't have to? Professional athletes are prone to injury. It's the nature of pushing your body further than we do. They don't perform as well if they are carrying even minor injuries. If affects physical and mental performance. So why, if you want a battering ram for a while, use gestede if you don't have to?

[ABBEY]

Not having that. If they are fit enough it doesn't make any difference. They have ample time to recover .They don't do anything else. Last night spoke volumes I thought at how unfit palyers are in this so called "scientific" era. The Bolton lad cramping on 72 mins is quite pathetic .

I didn't say he couldn't, abs. Just why make him if you don't have to and you have any concerns about a knock he took or whatever. It's not just our club that does it. Everyone does. He was probably fit enough to do it but is it coincidence that those that ran hard all match on Sunday were our 2 injuries first half last night? Why risk injury if you don't need to? Why risk making a slight knock something worse if you don't have to? Professional athletes are prone to injury. It's the nature of pushing your body further than we do. They don't perform as well if they are carrying even minor injuries. If affects physical and mental performance. So why, if you want a battering ram for a while, use gestede if you don't have to?

not being funny gum but have you experience in top level sport?

I represented GB and won British ,English and competed at high level. I did this whilst working full time and training after work. Some times I ran or cycled to gym which was 12 miles away and trained for 4 hours and did it back and got up for work the day after. I never moaned about training and if it was competition weekend we could have 10 fights over a weekend .The modern day players are soft arse pampered wusses.

[J*B]

Can someone find another way for ABBEY to let everyone know he is hard please?

[gumboots]

No and I know you have. It's just how it is now. I remember when footballers played 60+ games per season and expected to play them all. I remember when only one sub was allowed - I'm not old enough to remember none. But like everything, football and sport in general has changed. A lot of it is mental. It's down to the pressure of what they expect you to achieve. It's down to knowing that every error you make can potentially be shown over and over, analysed and taken apart and it's down to what's expected. We didn't have central heating. It never bothered me. Now if it breaks down, I'm lost. Expectations change. Whether it's right is not the question. Whether it's how it is, is. Performance levels have to be consistent. Tiredness, mentally or physically means they can drop. Respect for what you achieved, but could you do it now as others move on and do things differently? Perhaps you could, but most athletes couldn't

[yoda]

Can someone find another way for ABBEY to let everyone know he is hard please?

He has a point though

[McClarky]

Clubs over here are always banging on about player rotation and not being able to play 2 games a week, how ironic really. Do you ever see Lionel Messi being rotated? He plays every league game and even plays in dead rubber CL matches. He ain't too shabby to be fair. It's a load of nonsence which they keep spouting out, probably instigated by agents who want to generate more player moves to the bigger clubs so they earn more.