[Archived] Worst Rovers Captain

[1864roverite]

I have to say that Jason Lowe is easily the worst captain in a Rovers short that I care to remember since setting foot in Ewood 46 years ago.

He shows no leadership on the pitch.

He has no positional abilities other than to cause problems for our own defence.

He leaks goals.

He cannot head nor cannot read the game at all.

He breeds ineptness in a poor defensive set up.

I have never seen such a calamitous captaincy appointment.

[yoda]

You can only blame the person/persons who appointed him

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Yeah, it says it all that there's no other stand out candidates. When Mark Hughes got us out of the mire we had a least 3 national captains on the books. " The Admiral " , The Axe " , and at least one other player whose name escapes me at the moment.

No wonder we beat the drop relatively easily.

[Mike E]

Yeah, it says it all that there's no other stand out candidates. When Mark Hughes got us out of the mire we had a least 3 national captains on the books. " The Admiral " , The Axe " , and at least one other player whose name escapes me at the moment.

No wonder we beat the drop relatively easily.

Neill, I think.

We had 'captains' all over! Emerton, Reid, Samba, Bellamy, Warnock, Tugay...

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

Personally feel as though the importance of a captain has decreased significantly in the last 20-30 years.

When you've got guys earning hundreds of thousands/millions of pounds a year by their mid-20s, are they going to have developed the mindset of listening to what others tell them? I seriously doubt it. You get people on that sort of money in other walks of life, say M.D.s of large companies or leading specialists in industries, and the one trait they all seem to have is an arrogant self-assurance, they don't generally give a damn what literally anyone else says. So these days I think its a hard enough job for a manager getting through to a player, and at least he has the ability to affect that wage they're on. A fellow team-mate who just wears an armband and is given the title captain? Well put it this way, if the modern player had a captain giving him the hair-dryer treatment the way the likes of Keane, Jones, Adams used to, they'd probably just give it them straight back. Read a bit of Gerrard's book and he talks about Adams screaming in his face whether he was ready for it before his first England start. Nowadays the prima-donnas wouldn't even bother taking their headphones out and would just flash a bored sneer at him.

Then there's the other aspect of how football has changed massively as a sport in terms of how its refereed. At times even 20 years ago, games could still be real blood and thunder, dirty as hell pitched battles. I remember us beating Sheff United 2-1 back in 1994, them getting 2 sent off and a few of our players, Shearer in particular, being lucky not to end up on a stretcher. Tim Sherwood as our captain, decided the appropriate response was to start a mass brawl, and to be honest it probably was! You don't get games providing that sort of physical test anymore so you don't need a "robust" captain to lead from the front in dealing with it. Hanley used to like giving it a bit of that but in the modern game all that happens is you get carded.

So to be honest I don't really think it matters. Give the captaincy to someone else and naff all will change performance-wise, and that applies to any team. The only time it does change a performance is when you give it to one of the prima-donnas in question and it gives them a sense of responsibility so they concentrate more.

[MCMC1875]

#VenkysOut

[gumboots]

It's one of the reasons I prefer watching rugby nowadays. There's always something happening and the captain has an important role to play. Refs are generally very good and, although the use of the tmo can slow the game down and the scrums are very slow indeed, the atmosphere in the crowd, the fact you can have a drink on the terrace and even sometimes get a free one after the match, makes it a great experience

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

It's one of the reasons I prefer watching rugby nowadays. There's always something happening and the captain has an important role to play. Refs are generally very good and, although the use of the tmo can slow the game down and the scrums are very slow indeed, the atmosphere in the crowd, the fact you can have a drink on the terrace and even sometimes get a free one after the match, makes it a great experience

You need to start watching real rugby, get over to Wigan, Warrington or St Helens. In fact I think Australia are playing England at Anfield on Sunday. You could watch the most successful Rugby team ever.

[gumboots]

Can't stand rugby league.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Can't stand rugby league.

Union's improved a lot since they pinched a few League ideas but it's still " Kick and Clap ".

[Rover_Shaun]

Whilst league rugby involves blindly running into the nearest opposition player 5 times.

Both codes are coma inducing

[Iceman]

Worse Rovers captain is Jason Lowe, followed by Jason Lowe and then Jason Lowe

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[rickard]

Danny Murphy?

[tomphil]

I assume being captain earns a wage bonus, wonder who the real beneficiaries are for that.

[AllRoverAsia]

Danny Murphy?

Murphy gets my vote.

Lowe is just a below average footballer who probably got the armband as he's been at the Club so long and not a loanee.

Murphy however was a thieving @u&t.

[Waggy76]

I cannot remember, who the captain was when last we were relegated to Div 3 back in 1979 but I suspect, he was a far better player and captain then Jason Lowe will ever be !

It could have been Faz !

[Doaksie]

Yeah, it says it all that there's no other stand out candidates. When Mark Hughes got us out of the mire we had a least 3 national captains on the books. " The Admiral " , The Axe " , and at least one other player whose name escapes me at the moment.

No wonder we beat the drop relatively easily.

I believe you're thinking of Andre Ooijer Tyrone

[Mike E]

I believe you're thinking of Andre Ooijer Tyrone

Which makes 4!

Mokoena, Nelsen, Neill, Ooijer.

Was Sav ever Wales captain? Tugay for Turkey?

[oldjamfan1]

Which makes 4!

Mokoena, Nelsen, Neill, Ooijer.

Was Sav ever Wales captain? Tugay for Turkey?

I'm pretty sure we fielded a team under Hughes that contained 8 or 9 players who had at some point or other captained their country (including those that had done it for part of a game) and I think it was flagged up as some sort of record at the time. Apart from those named here, Brett Emerton definitely also captained Australia and I'm sure the likes of Friedel and Pederson have taken their country's armband when the regular captain has gone off injured. I'd struggle to definitively name them all though.

[Mike E]

Zurab for Georgia?

[LDRover]

Fair play to the new guy in the LT - he's ripped Lowe a new one in the match report from Saturday stating that he must be under pressure for his place despite being captain following his recent poor form.

Not that it'll happen but it's good to see a decent critique of the hapless full back for a change instead of following the molly coddling of him because he's a product of the academy.

[AggyBlue]

Fair play to the new guy in the LT - he's ripped Lowe a new one in the match report from Saturday stating that he must be under pressure for his place despite being captain following his recent poor form.

Not that it'll happen but it's good to see a decent critique of the hapless full back for a change instead of following the molly coddling of him because he's a product of the academy.

Let's see if Coyle means what he says. Lowe must be top of his list.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/rovers/news/14846997.Owen_Coyle_ready_to_axe_under_performing_Blackburn_Rovers_players/?ref=mac

[tomphil]

He'll probably drop Guthrie for Akpan and that'll be it unless he starts his pet Feeney as well.

[LDRover]

Interesting. He even explicitly names the individual error of Lowe at Bristol City.

Let's see how this one pans out - I'll put money on it being more Coyle bullsh1t.

[JHRover]

In his blind panic to try and keep the supporters off his back and keep hold of his job for another few weeks Coyle is making himself look silly and is making a rod for his own back.

Like threatening to make changes to the team. We all know this isn't going to happen. We all know that the personnel recruited by and large aren't good enough for the Championship and those that are aren't fit enough to play for 90 minutes every week.

Coyle simply can't make mass changes. Central defence is a patch up job with Ward and Hoban out for lengthy spells so much so he's had to play Greer much more than he should and has had to play Lenihan at the back. Full back positions have been a problem area for months and months and nothing has ever been done about it. With Williams out he has to play Mulgew at LB because his other signing, Hendrie, is nowhere near good enough to play.

The only other option at RB is to drop Lowe and play Marshall there, but for some reason he clearly won't be doing that as Lowe appears to be guaranteed a starting position when fit.

What changes can he make in midfield? Guthrie has had a good season (lets remember Coyle told him he was free to find another club in the summer), Evans is our best CM at the club IMO. Coyle has shown little/no appetite to put his faith in any of the academy products or even any of his young loan signings recently. Samuelsen, Byrne and Hendrie left to sit on the bench every week.

He could give Emnes a break and play Graham or Stokes but that depends on keeping them two fit. He can't drop Gallagher with the form he's in.

Why threaten to make changes when everyone knows that aside from the wide areas (possibly bringing Feeney or Bennett in to replace Marshall/Conway) Coyle has next to no room for manoeuvre or to make changes. The squad isn't big enough and the team we've ended up fielding in the last couple of months has usually been more to do with who's fit and available rather than who the manager wants to play.