[Archived] Rovers L1 Game 24 - Ewood Park (30th December 2017)

[Garage Flower]

On another day Bennett clears that ball and Dack scores instead of post and out. Yeah two soft goals but no need to overanalyse this game. We go again at Rotherham. Still looking good for automatic.

[bazza]

What a great game of football for this division! Scunthorpe are a very good side and it was very much even stevens. I thought Rovers passing was a lot better than of late.

I cannot fault any of the Rovers players today. Whittingham complements Smallwood admirably; Antonsson is tracking back more and  improving; Bennett and Nyambe combined well; even Hart has improved by miles.

I'm happy with the point. We've taken 4 off them. Long way to go. Let's see if we can take 4 off Wigan and the Shrews.

[Hasta]

37 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

You should never get beaten on your near post, that's your territory as a goalkeeper. If the ball comes across you rely on your defenders to clear it.

True but as the original poster says, he will learn from it. Next time he'll probably cover the post more.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

2 minutes ago, bazza said:

What a great game of football for this division! Scunthorpe are a very good side and it was very much even stevens. I thought Rovers passing was a lot better than of late.

I cannot fault any of the Rovers players today. Whittingham complements Smallwood admirably; Antonsson is tracking back more and  improving; Bennett and Nyambe combined well; even Hart has improved by miles.

I'm happy with the point. We've taken 4 off them. Long way to go. Let's see if we can take 4 off Wigan and the Shrews.

Interesting you saw it as even stevens - personally after the first 15 minutes or so, I thought Rovers bossed the game - and on another day would have won easily. To be honest not too down hearted, as that was the best we have played for a while - and give the virus going around the club it has been a decent christmas so far. 

[RevidgeBlue]

8 minutes ago, Tom said:

Once again Bennett's contribution on the ball can be questioned but his workrate is phenomenal, bet he won more tackles today than anyone else on the pitch. Just a shame he lost it often after winning it 

Without wanting to sound rude or pick on you in particular I think that's nonsense. You could probably get any professional player from any of the four divisions to do what Bennett does, on the relatively rare occasions when he makes himself available to receive the ball, just pass it two or three yards to bis nearest team mate and never try to make anything happen. In that respect he's one of the laziest players I've ever seen.

The other main problem apart from a lack of threat down either flank is as another poster quite rightly  pointed out tbat we are horrendously over reliant on Dack. We desperately need him to stay fit for the remainder of the season.

[Hasta]

7 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Without wanting to sound rude or pick on you in particular I think that's nonsense. You could probably get any professional player from any of the four divisions to do what Bennett does, on the relatively rare occasions when he makes himself available to receive the ball, just pass it two or three yards to bis nearest team mate and never try to make anything happen. In that respect he's one of the laziest players I've ever seen.

The other main problem apart from a lack of threat down either flank is as another poster quite rightly  pointed out tbat we are horrendously over reliant on Dack. We desperately need him to stay fit for the remainder of the season.

I think it's you that talks nonsense on this Rev. He's not great on the ball but he's nowhere near as bad as Lowe who more fits into your description. At least he does try and go forward and his work rate and tackling adds a hell of a lot to the team. He reminds me of Steven Reid (albeit at this level). The two major mistakes aside, I though he was good today. 

[JHRover]

Thought that was our best performance in quite some time in terms of possession, passing and chance creation. 

How much of that was down to the way we set up and how much of it was down to how Scunthorpe set up isn't clear. They came to defend and hit us on the counter and it worked in so far as they got what they came for. Possession was never on the agenda for them and they were content to let Rovers have the ball. 

Extremely disappointing that we've contrived to relinquish the lead twice against them at home. We talk about teams coming to stop and frustrate us yet that didn't cost us today. So many times this season where we take the lead in games and then take our foot off the gas and make silly mistakes as we get deeper and deeper. We never look comfortable leading in games and whilst we played some good stuff at 1-1 and 2-2 i wonder how we would have performed had we been at 2-1 for longer in the second half. I suspect we'd have reverted back to our sitting deep allowing them to come at us routine. We really need to do some work on finishing teams off and managing games better when leading.

Could have been worse as I was thinking it was going to be 'one of those' in the 2nd half expecting them to rag a winner late on given the number of opportunities we'd had.

On to Rotherham now - need a win from that - 8 points from 12 over Xmas is an ok return considering the fixtures and illness, but 5 or 6 from 12 is poor.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Nope, just a realistic view of the situation based on our overall performances. Appreciate that doesn't suit your agenda but it is what it is. If you look back at my post history you'll see I've been saying this for a while. Easier to just make a snide remark though I guess. 

The pleasing thing today was that (barring a couple of individual errors) this was a far better performance than of late - that deserved all three points. 

[Hasta]

On the game, I thought that was some of the best stuff we have played at home going forward. Dack was superb. I do worry what would happen if a decent sized bid came in. Hopefully Bling Bling will be in one of his stubborn moods.

The only thing I would say is that I thought Scunthorpe were relatively poor for all their recent good form. There's only Charlton who I would say have looked a decent outfit at Ewood.

[blueboy3333]

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11190229/blackburn-2-2-scunthorpe

Highlights.

We threw it away.

[DE.]

6 minutes ago, DavidMailsTightPerm said:

The pleasing thing today was that (barring a couple of individual errors) this was a far better performance than of late - that deserved all three points. 

I won't argue that, but in the stats post I made on the last page it's pretty common for Scunthorpe to have less shots and less possession than their opponents so we should have expected to have the better of the game. We just weren't strong enough defensively, and that needs to be addressed either within the squad or in the January window.

[Oldgregg86]

Well I must of seen a different game to everyone else. I thought whittingham was appalling. One of the worst performances this season by anyone. Nyambe was his usual poor self , slowing up play, passing backwards, doesn't know how to cross a ball and if that was a good performance then we are in serious trouble. I will say it again hart isn't a footballer full stop. He should not be getting paid to play football. 

To many poor individual performances and that team is being carried by a few individuals.

Take dack and mulgrew out that team and its a mid table side... At best.

 

[Exiled in Toronto]

17 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

The other main problem apart from a lack of threat down either flank is as another poster quite rightly  pointed out tbat we are horrendously over reliant on Dack. We desperately need him to stay fit for the remainder of the season.

Equally worrying is that Dack is over-reliant on Dack, he seems to create most of his chances himself 

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Hasta said:

I think it's you that talks nonsense on this Rev. He's not great on the ball but he's nowhere near as bad as Lowe who more fits into your description. At least he does try and go forward and his work rate and tackling adds a hell of a lot to the team. He reminds me of Steven Reid (albeit at this level). The two major mistakes aside, I though he was good today. 

He's not fit to lace Steven Reid's boots, or Ian Miller's or any other vaguely competent player we may have had in a similar position over the years.

The reason his crossing is so poor is because he is so lazy as well. When he gets the ball, instead of trying to work his way into a position from which a cross would be dangerous, he just dinks in a useless ball from far too deep which is meat and drink for the opposituon centre halves to head out.

[Tom]

12 minutes ago, blueboy3333 said:

http://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/11190229/blackburn-2-2-scunthorpe

Highlights.

We threw it away.

Diabolical from Raya there for the first and Bennett on the second (which I also think Raya may have kept out another day)

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Tom said:

Diabolical from Raya there for the first and Bennett on the second (which I also think Raya may have kept out another day)

It was extremely poor defending by Whittingham and Williams down our left for our first I think and Raya anticipated a cross and left his near post unguarded.

[Tom]

Just now, RevidgeBlue said:

It was extremely poor defending by Whittingham and Williams down our left for our first I think and Raya anticipated a cross and left his near post unguarded.

We seem to get undone by that reverse ball too many times, never thought Williams was too much of a concern but an upgrade wouldn't be a a bad thing.

Whittinghams defence capabilities simply don't exist.

Shouldn't be scoring from there though Raya made it too easy for him 

[RevidgeBlue]

Just now, Oldgregg86 said:

 

To many poor individual performances and that team is being carried by a few individuals.

Take dack and mulgrew out that team and its a mid table side... At best.

 

Pretty much how I saw it. A few seasons ago Rhodes and Gestede carried a largely underperforming set of players and now everyone almost seems willing to stand back and let Dack try and win the game single handedly every week. Funnily enough this League is so poor it might just be enough.

The one thing I will take issue on is Nyambe who I thought had a good day today.

[DE.]

What's concerning for me is how much work is going to need to be done if (and it's a big if) we get promoted. How many of these players are going to be good enough for the Championship? Mulgrew, Dack (maybe, don't think he's ever played above L1), Lenihan (maybe, still a lot to prove), Smallwood (another maybe, got relegated with Rotherham) and....? 

Obviously no point looking too far into the future, but if we are signing players in January we had better have one eye on the Championship, because the current squad is going to need an almost total overhaul in the summer if we do go up.

[blueboy3333]

4 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

It was extremely poor defending by Whittingham and Williams down our left for our first I think and Raya anticipated a cross and left his near post unguarded.

It was Mulgrew who let the bloke run off him for the 1st goal.

[JHRover]

13 minutes ago, DE. said:

What's concerning for me is how much work is going to need to be done if (and it's a big if) we get promoted. How many of these players are going to be good enough for the Championship? Mulgrew, Dack (maybe, don't think he's ever played above L1), Lenihan (maybe, still a lot to prove), Smallwood (another maybe, got relegated with Rotherham) and....? 

Obviously no point looking too far into the future, but if we are signing players in January we had better have one eye on the Championship, because the current squad is going to need an almost total overhaul in the summer if we do go up.

I wouldn't worry too much about that.

IF we get up, then we'll be going into a poor league. If PNE can be knocking on the door of the play-offs I'm sure we can find a way to cope.

Remember that we nearly survived last season despite no investment and enduring 7 months of Coyle's appalling management. 

[Cherry Blue]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

..........................

As far as teams having shots against us, we're third behind Wigan and Shrewsbury. Scunthorpe are some way ahead of everybody else, on average over the last ten games giving teams 16 shots against them! It's a similar story in terms of teams getting shots on target against us, we're behind Wigan and Shrewsbury but pretty far ahead of Scunthorpe. Wigan in particular are very impressive on this stat, only allowing a team on average over the past ten games of a single shot on target against them. In comparison we allow them roughly 4.

.......it seems like defence is where we should focus our energies in January.

Good post DE. Today could easily have been our 11th clean sheet. We're scoring the goals but sloppy errors are costing points. I known that sounds bad when we're 3rd in league and 5 points off the the top but more quality defending is needed if we are to break into top 2.

[DE.]

Just now, Cherry Blue said:

Good post DE. Today could easily have been our 11th clean sheet. We're scoring the goals but sloppy errors are costing points. I known that sounds bad when we're 3rd in league and 5 points off the the top but more quality defending is needed if we are to break into top 2.

Completely reasonable point and I totally agree. Realistically we are not going to get much higher than 2.5 goals per game on average, even Wigan are only on 2.3 in the last ten games and that includes their 7-0 and 4-0 wins. In all likelihood we will see a decrease in average goals per game, so we are going to need to improve the defensive side of our game to keep this run of form going. Whether that's our formation/shape, our defenders or our defensive midfielders, we need to identify why we're allowing so many shots on target in comparison to Wigan (4 to 1) because it's clear that our players will make mistakes, and the best way to reduce the chance of making defensive mistakes is to not allow the opposition to have multiple chances. If Wigan can do that then there is no reason we can't. 

[bazza]

4 hours ago, Tom said:

2-2 Nymabe who had been great puts one on a plate for them 

 

Edit sorry Bennett it was 

I'll bet you had JAL leaping in delight around his computer. To be fair, I was cursing Nyambe for bringing the ball out of defence and then giving a poor pass to their player in midfield. Then I saw it was Samuel.

42 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

He's not fit to lace Steven Reid's boots, or Ian Miller's or any other vaguely competent player we may have had in a similar position over the years.

The reason his crossing is so poor is because he is so lazy as well. When he gets the ball, instead of trying to work his way into a position from which a cross would be dangerous, he just dinks in a useless ball from far too deep which is meat and drink for the opposituon centre halves to head out.

Rev, does Bennett owe you a lot of money or has he run off with your wife? He had a fair game today as he does in most matches.

[Oldgregg86]

40 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Pretty much how I saw it. A few seasons ago Rhodes and Gestede carried a largely underperforming set of players and now everyone almost seems willing to stand back and let Dack try and win the game single handedly every week. Funnily enough this League is so poor it might just be enough.

The one thing I will take issue on is Nyambe who I thought had a good day today.

To be honest I thought nyambe cocked up for the second and I thought Bennett got the assist for the first. I've calmed down now . Agree on the dack comment.