[Archived] Rovers v Bournemouth

[tashor]

Just watched the highlights on Granada and our defending was abysmal for all three goals. 

For Bournemouth's first both Amoruso and Nissa just waved a leg lazily at the ball before it got through to their striker.  For the second Gresko was hopelessly out-muscled by their player.  And for the third no-one was marking anyone - this with less than five minutes to go when we're a goal up.

Hughes has got lots of work to do this season.

So you've stopped slagging souness off have you

[modes98]

I have to say i am dissappointed to be out, but equally it means we can give 100% on the league!

Just been to the villa vs qpr game and i almost exploded when mgp scored in 93rd min, Good points is attack...although not scoring is bad with al the posession & chances. Defense is not looking good but with gray and matteo in it is looking better! A stronger midfield and i think we'll be ok.

All very well in hind sight but we should have played our first team 11

[tashor]

Ooops!! one minute post...

Thought not....lol....

[Scotty]

So you've stopped slagging souness off have you

Not quite sure of the point you're making. I'm certainly not slagging Hughes off. I'm simply saying that he's got a lot of work to do to turn this team around.

[tashor]

"Souness" ....."Hughes".....

.......sounds the same doesn't it

[Paul Mellelieu]

What I learnt from tonight's performance is:

Boothroyd looks poor

Jansen is a million miles from being in the team

As is Gresko

Stead's confidence must be rock bottom

Shouldn't have sold Yorke and Cole

Nisse was very poor

Pederson looked Ok at this level

Amo needs a Short or Matteo to play alongside him

Must disagree about Douglas though who I thought did a very good job

Oh and I missed two of the Rvoers goals.

Time for an ice bath

[Kiwiwannabe]

Very dissapointed, especially as we created so much going forward, just couldn't finish. Was not impressed by Bothroyd. Gresko still spends more time trying to pull at forwards over rather than jumping for the ball. Tugay........just played himself out of the team as far as i'm concerned. Wouldn't be too bothered if we don't see him much this season.

There were a few positives to be taken:

1. Emerton looks confident and will run at defenders. He has some nice little tricks too.

2. Gally put in some good crosses and took his goal well.

3. Pedersen looked to have some nice touches and made some good passes. Took his goal very well too.

4. Value for money - £10 to see Rovers have 8 penalties!! Imagine how many matches you'd have to pay for to see us get that many pens in the league!

Overall though - VERY UNHAPPY

[Scotty]

"Souness" ....."Hughes".....

.......sounds the same doesn't it

No idea what you're on about. i suspect you haven't either. Been on the red again?

[Ste B]

All this does is show us how much Brad Friedel means to the club.

######.. Enkleman was blameless for the goals..

Other than that cant argue with Paul McGarrys or Kiwiwannabees posts above. It was Douglas's finishing that was poor, he still got into those goalscoring positions.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Oh and we had enough chances to win a host of games.

[Shaddy]

BUT maybe people on this board will stop mis-representing our cup record over the last few seasons and finally move on from slagging Souness on twisted perceptions which have no grounding in fact.

Everyone is using the 'Souness screwed us' as a crutch at the moment, aren't they Tris? In my view, based on his achievements, he was our second best manager, not far behind King Kenny himself, in the modern era of the game.

FFS, we retained our position in the Premiership last year. To mine, Premiership status is all that matters for Rovers. So, he avoided failure, yet people are still carrying on so negatively over his reign. So what we had a close shave. It's not how you get there, it's getting there that counts. Souness got us going at the absolute final moment, but he got us going.

As you can tell, I am quite annoyed by the constant criticism... Souness was a success at Rovers... I wish people would stop suggesting otherwise.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Because our team had no idea what was going on in that last bit    Oh come on, it's really not that bad.

I don't like losing any game and I'm angry and embarrassed by tonight's result.

I think Hughes has made his first significant error.

Have to agree with that Tris.

When I saw the team sheet tonight, my immediate thought was that Sparky had made too many changes and that we weren't treating this game with enough seriousness or respect.

A couple of changes to the team would have been fair enough, no problem.

But to change nine players from Saturday was simply too much of a gamble.

Teams in Division Two (I refuse to refer to that League by it's ridiculous new name) - are more than capable of knocking Rovers out of cup tournaments if we treat such games lightly.

You're right Tris. Like yourself I had no complaints with Sparky being appointed, but I'm afraid he got it wrong tonight.

Edited September 22, 2004 by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

[Manchester Blue]

I'll post more tomorow but I just have to say that the team Hughes put out was more than good enough to win by a mile. Certain players were poor, others were not that even that good but they still should have won. We lost partly through crap defending but mainly because when we did get on top we played the old game of pass the buck. No you shoot, no you, no seriously it's your turn.

[Hasta]

I thought Bothroyd did OK but comes across as a very greedy player. I thought Douglas struggled to make any real impact in the midfield.

One thing I did notice is that when we felt we ahd to score such as at 2-1 down and after they made it 3-3 we showed a bit more 'direct' urgency which seemed to pay off better.

[Grabbi Graeme]

My opion

Enckemen

Cant be blamed for the goals, but was only gonna be lucky with pen save.

Neill

coming forward was good, but as a unit in back four looked uneasy at times.

Gresko

Nowhere near the player we signed on loan.

Johassenn

Just give up. never looked comfy all night

Amo

The better of a unsure back four, took pen well.

Douglas/Tugay

As a central midfield combo it was bad , Douglas was average and Tugay wasnt much better and what was Tugay doing with the penalty.

Boythoryd

A season in Italy has taught him how to go to ground well.

Jansen

Set up 1st goal nicely and just couldnt get on the end of any chances.

Emerton

Whaterver he's on keep giving it to him, a great display and a goal but had a injury in extra time

De Pedro

Looked a long way of pace

Stead

Low on confidence and a pen miss will not help his cause

Pedersen

Good runs and a well taken goal.

Gallagher

Good performance on his return and a great goal as well.

Overall we had chances to kill the game off and we didn't take them, some performances did disapoint and hope we can get back together and sought it out for the Charlton match.

[Tris]

Most predictable post of the evening. You take no pleasure in it - ha! You couldn't bloody wait to post that.

For what it's worth, I never had any objection with Souness's team selections for the cup competitions. I did, however, have a massive objection to the teams' attitude that I think stemmed from Souness's apparent attitude to most of the cup games - especially last season.

Tonight Hughes took the opportunity to look at the rest of his squad, a perfectly understandable thing to do in the current circumstances. They should still have been good enough to beat Bournemouth. Hopefully he's learnt a few things and we'll be able to stay up this season, because it's going to be tight I suspect.

and you call me predictable

Which attitude of Souness' cup teams - the one which made him the most successful manager in English cup competitions bar Fergie Wenger and Houllier in his time at Ewood ??!

All I'm saying is that Hughes - in the circumstances - should have taken more time to learn about fringe players in training and in reserve games, rather than spending 5 days with them and dropping them into a cup game he claimed he was treating as important

it's not bloody rocket science, and it's not like we have a game on Saturday to worry about. The team which beat Portsmouth would have had an extra 2 days to rest before Charlton

and as for "you couldn't bloody wait to post that" comment, well Scott you're clearly an abysmal judge of people as well as football.

[den]

Tris, they were Souness's players out there tonight.

[Tris]

Den, they were Souness' players on Saturday as well. Minus 9 changes.

[Bobby G]

OK we are out of the CC but at least Hughes can learn from these players and their mistakes in the second cup rather than Premier League.Then again,when our players play this way against the 19th team in the 1st division,it makes you wonder.

Anyways,we DIDNT LOSE.We drew and went out on penalties,and i think theres a big difference.Three counters,three goals,while we as usual missed tons of chances.Whats for sure here is that Friedel,Ferguson,Flitcroft and Dickov are virtually starters in Hughes eyes and Emerton has probably guaranteed it too,other than that we have to wait and see.

Im gutted that we are out,but im happy Pederson scored and Gally is back and Emerton is beginning to shine.

[den]

I said to the missus during the second half, they're fitter than us. Lo and behold, Hughes comments after the game were about them being "physically stronger than us-and that isn't acceptable."

How many times did we concede last minute goals during the last couple of seasons?

[samtheozzy]

Ok I'm going to take a contreversial stance on tonights result: I couldn't care less. I wasn't upset when we were knocked out of the league cup early last season and i'm not upset know. Frankly i am relieved that we have one less competition to worry about and can focus on staying (and performing) in the premiership.

Yes I realise that the league cup is our best hope for silverware each season and it certainly holds many happy recent memories for Roversesupporters but let's face facts; we can play in the league cup no matter what division we're in but if we get knocked out of the premiership we're in serious trouble. Our long run in the league cup two seasons back led to a dramatic downturn in form in the premiership and we simply cannot allow that to happen at the moment due to our precarious position near the relegation zone.

It would have been nice to go further but it's better to get knocked out early rather than later.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Most predictable post of the evening.  You take no pleasure in it - ha!  You couldn't bloody wait to post that.

For what it's worth, I never had any objection with Souness's team selections for the cup competitions.  I did, however, have a massive objection to the teams' attitude that I think stemmed from Souness's apparent attitude to most of the cup games - especially last season.

Tonight Hughes took the opportunity to look at the rest of his squad, a perfectly understandable thing to do in the current circumstances.  They should still have been good enough to beat Bournemouth.  Hopefully he's learnt a few things and we'll be able to stay up this season, because it's going to be tight I suspect.

and you call me predictable

Which attitude of Souness' cup teams - the one which made him the most successful manager in English cup competitions bar Fergie Wenger and Houllier in his time at Ewood ??!

All I'm saying is that Hughes - in the circumstances - should have taken more time to learn about fringe players in training and in reserve games, rather than spending 5 days with them and dropping them into a cup game he claimed he was treating as important

it's not bloody rocket science, and it's not like we have a game on Saturday to worry about. The team which beat Portsmouth would have had an extra 2 days to rest before Charlton

and as for "you couldn't bloody wait to post that" comment, well Scott you're clearly an abysmal judge of people as well as football.

For once I agree with you Tris - a very reasonable post.

My only slight quibble is that the players who played tonight were not callow youths; they all had Prem experience, and are no doubt telling the new regime that they ought to be in the team. So it's not unreasonable for Hughes to think that on an individual basis they should be up to beating Bournmouth. But 9 changes is too many.

Also agree with you on Souness's record in this competition - I used to dream of seeing Rovers do well in a cup, so to win one and push Manure in a semi should be good enough for anyone.

[tchocky]

So, based on tonights game (and previous impressions), the following are not fit to wear the shirt, in some way or another:

Johansson (patience is up)

Gresko (he's just never going to regain the form he had the first time around)

Douglas (had enough chances yet?)

De Pedro (will he ever adjust to the Prem?)

And just about scraping by are:

Amoruso (despite his obvious qualities we cant afford to have him in defense)

Bothroyd (selfish, but showing positive signs)

Jansen (judges are definitely still out, and will be for a long time)

Neill (must learn to compensate for lack of defensive skills, or something)

Tugay (too old? maybe he just needs to find form)

I'm prepared to be patient with Bothroyd, Jansen and Neill (why Neill I wonder?), but we should replace the rest. That is the task at hand for the new management IMO. And get a fitness coach in who knows what is required at top level football.

OK its a very drastic post, but I was seriously disappointed by tonights result.

[salothsar]

I'm with samtheozzy. I would prefered us to have won but really don't care much that we're out of the cup. Premier League survival is the priority and really the only thing that matters. Last nights game gave Hughes a chance to see fringe players in a competetive match. He will now have a much clearer picture of who is who and how they stand and where to go from here. League cup (and FA cup forthat matter) are distractions and a chance to give the reserves a game, the first team a rest and ensure they don't pcik up uneccesary injuries.

All that said, it still sounds like we should have won quite comfortabley

[Florida Rover]

We are all down in the dumps but it's not as bad as trelleborg(sp?) now is it?