Let Down

[steven]

Liverpool looks even bleaker in the rain you know.

Tell me about it!!

[Hasta]

Neill was one of the worst on the pitch last night,

Bit harsh

[dave birch]

And that, my friends, sums up one of the downwers that the average Rovers supporter has to endure.

The rollercoaster starts again this coming sunday.

Coming along for the ride are you?

And who had the shot at Spenny? Perhaps our Spen knows the Rovers......

[stegraham]

Neill was one of the worst on the pitch last night,

Bit harsh

no, I don't think so.  I just don't know why Souness keeps picking him.  Funny enough when I saw him play on the left wing I thought he looked half decent.  He's a defender, he should defend.  He should and could  have stopped the first goal, where was he?

ste

[Ricky]

Neill was one of the worst on the pitch last night,

Bit harsh

Not at all harsh. He was at fault for the first goal where he forgot that Larsson sometimes likes to put the little round thing between the big white sticks. Then he let sutton get in front of him for the headed second goal. He even looked the other bloody way when sutton  headed it. It wouldn't have been so bad but he had a warning earlier when sutton did exactly the same but put it wide.

One of Lucas' worst games in recent times.

[tchocky]

I thought Curtis was good last night. As good as can be expected. Agree that Neill was at fault for both goals.

The worst performer was no doubt Keith Gillespie! Offload him and use Neill in midfield where he belongs.

[damo gally]

Here he is the hero....

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/021115/59/deqsx.html

[Hasta]

Here he is the hero....

http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/021115/59/deqsx.html

Or the pillock, depending on your viewpoint.

[stegraham]

I thought Curtis was good last night. As good as can be expected. Agree that Neill was at fault for both goals.

The worst performer was no doubt Keith Gillespie! Offload him and use Neill in midfield where he belongs.

Gillespie is not a wing back though.  Souness should not have brought him on if he intended to play 3-5-2.  He needs to play out wide and clealy Souness doesn't like the idea of traditional wingers, and so when we do play 4-4-2 KG is always coming in deep.  He must be being told that's what he is to do, I'm sure his instinct is to go wide?

ste :-)

[waggy]

definatley a hero in my mind,made my night.

[78]

The two UEFA home matches proved it to me, that despite the players we have, we can't break down a team that comes to Ewood Park to defend. We have failed to break down teams like Sunderland, Villa, CSKA, Spurs etc whereas we've had done well against Newcastle, Liverpool even Leeds - teams that come to Ewood looking for more than a point.

I thought Souness should have left Curtis on a for a bit longer because bringing Gillespie did no good as players like Dunn, Tugay and even at times Thompson were more interested in taking a player on and moving through the middle rather than utilise Duff and Gillespie. What';s happened to the team that was used to getting it wide and crossing it in? We lost last night because we didn't have a battler in midfield. I know I've mentioned him a millions time by now but have a close look at Everton this weekend and have a look at their key figure in central midfield, Gravesen. The guy is known for his hard tackling but have a look at the assist league and you'll find him up there aswell.

[tchocky]

Gillespie is not a wing back though.  Souness should not have brought him on if he intended to play 3-5-2.  He needs to play out wide and clealy Souness doesn't like the idea of traditional wingers, and so when we do play 4-4-2 KG is always coming in deep.  He must be being told that's what he is to do, I'm sure his instinct is to go wide?

ste :-)

He did go wide, but he had acres of space on several occasions and chose to cross when he could have continued and take on a man when he should have crossed. I though most of his disicions were poor, and the final ball awful. Did you see one good cross from Gillespie? The quality of his crossing is not dependant on whether he plays wingback or out and out winger.

[Guest grahamhowarth]

Floopsy.your 'add' kicking in again?What disallowed goal was this then?There definately wasn't any goals disallowed last night.

[des]

having had time to think,  I still stand by my early points, but bear in mind that duff and cole have not played often enough, and are therefore not match sharp.

The biggest area is the back four, we need to spend money on fullback/wing backs, and get a new center half.

Midfield great going forward, but holding up the play when we do not have the ball is very very weak.

Its back to the old question how much money is there for GS to spend and how much does he need to rise.

In jan we will find out.  If its not a lot then we are a middle of the road team,  play well some times and play badly sometimes, all in all a top 10 team, however thsat could all change if we buy right, but will we

[Hasta]

If I was a coach then as blatantly simple as it sound I would make Gillespie spend 30 minutes a day running down the wing and practicing crossing. Do they actually do this with him?

On a similar note I'd have Dunny & Flitty shooting from 25 yards for 30 minutes.

Instead they probably play 7 a side and dribble round cones. Apart from April fools day, I've never seen cones on a football pitch.  

[broadsword]

And who had the shot at Spenny? Perhaps our Spen knows the Rovers......

That was me.

How stupid do I feel now?

[CAPT KAYOS]

I've never seen cones on a football pitch.  

Hasta I like it.

Waggy - it was the highlight for me as well.

Think somebody should have given the steward a thump as they certainly seem to be giving the fan some and he didn't resist arrest.

[damo gally]

definatley a hero in my mind,made my night.

He is a hero, because he put a smile on most peoples faces, on a very very bad night!

[broadsword]

If I was a coach then as blatantly simple as it sound I would make Gillespie spend 30 minutes a day running down the wing and practicing crossing. Do they actually do this with him?

On a similar note I'd have Dunny & Flitty shooting from 25 yards for 30 minutes

Almost Hasta, but not quite.

I'd have Gillespie doing 30 mins running down the wing practising crossing accurately.

I'd have Dunn and Flitcroft practising scoring from 25 yards.

additionally, I'd have Dunn practising saying: "Just an orange juice for me - I'm meant to be an athlete."

[deftangel]

Ok now I've calmed down I can post my comments. Firstly well done to Celtic, they deserved to go through.

That was the biggest non - performance by a Rovers team I can remember. I'm only 22 and there probably has been worse but at the minute I can't think of one. We aren't that bad so there is no point over reacting but there are three main areas for concern.

1. Our defence. This is well documented so I won't go into it.

2. David Dunn. He is becoming nothing short of an embarrassment on recent performances. This has to change. The signing of Thommo is showing him up for what he is and his obvious response to it is put weight on and be a celebrity. He needs to sort himself out or he'll end up like the other circus act Joey Cole.

3. Scoring goals.

I believe our league position is masking the most worrying deficiency. Our frontline, WHOEVER is in it has not been scoring goals this season. This is clearly illustrated by the gap between home and away form.

Playing away, we keep it tight and attack on the break. With a high degree of luck we've got some results. We've had luck to some degree at Southampton, Arsenal, Birmingham and West Brom.

At home or in away games we've dominated (Man City, Middlesborough) we just haven't been scoring goals. (Perhaps rule out the Liverpool and City games) The team flatters to decieve, we do not turn our pretty passing play into the goals we need to win the games.

Look at the games we have won, Leeds, Newcastle. All the goals came from midfield or Tiny!

To make any progress we need a 20 goals a season striker. Andy Cole could still be that one but this season he's a pale shadow of last. The partnership with him and Yorke, isn't working. Maybe things will improve with Jansen back but if we want to get into Europe next season, can we afford to wait that long?

I'm not going to have a go at Yorke in paticular because he has scored three times this season but the whole thing is summed up by the Celtic tie. Our great play in the first leg did not get us one single goal. All three problems highlighted by the second leg. Take away that lucky and undeserved equaliser at Southampton and we might not have scored in four whole matches!

Something needs to be done because teams that don't score slip down the table as we all know last season.

[broadsword]

Maybe things will improve with Jansen back

I don't know whether Jansen will be the same player ever again.

[adopted scouser]

Floopsy.your 'add' kicking in again?What disallowed goal was this then?There definately wasn't any goals disallowed last night.

Would somebody upstairs please remove this Burnley fan from this normally civilised board.

Absurd, the one who accuses others of talking sh1t, whilst alone so talented already.

[Paul]

Maybe things will improve with Jansen back

I don't know whether Jansen will be the same player ever again.

A very sad comment Bryan and one which I'm afraid has been in my mind for a while. Simply for Matt I hope he can regain the talent he "appears" to have "forgotten" as a result of his accident

[steven]

Maybe things will improve with Jansen back

I don't know whether Jansen will be the same player ever again.

A very sad comment Bryan and one which I'm afraid has been in my mind for a while. Simply for Matt I hope he can regain the talent he "appears" to have "forgotten" as a result of his accident

This thought has occupied my mind over the last few weeks.

It is great to see Matty back, but until he scores his confidence will continue to be frail.

I think that rather than rush him into the side only for him to "...do a Grabbi..." he should be allowed to come back slowly with some reserve games to reestablish his touch and confidence.

I only hope he can get back to how he was last season.  Rovers deserve it, but more importantly Matty does.

[Dr Rich]

Matty's gone lads, time to face it, he still has the physical ability but his footballing intelligence is no more. Very sad and I wish the lad all the best in the rest of his career but I can't see him deserving a place at Ewood for the forseeable future.

Another thing, the first goal was not Lucas Neill's fault. Why on earth would the right-back be covering over onto the oppositions main striker, especially when he is on the left side of the box? It was the fault of the centre backs, both being drawn out towards Sutton was bad, neither getting close to stopping him was criminal.