I have not done a blog for almost a year now, what has changed since then?
In came Shebby Singh with the promises of the world, after all he is our Global Advisor, whatever that entails. One of his first priorities was to bring the fans back on board with his infamous meeting with the fans. He told us what we wanted to hear that Kean, should he lose 3 straight games would be sacked, if he failed to reach a certain tally of points from a number of games he would be sacked. Not to mention calling MGP a pensioner.
Then only a day later Singh had to retract most of what he said, sending signals that he didn't hold the key to the removal of Kean and infact the meeting was in my opinion a farce as he was just telling us what we wanted to hear. The day of the retraction was the beginning of another Venky's foul up, Singh was and still is not the man for Rovers. Full of hot air and stupid remarks, once again for Blackburn we became a joke for the footballing world to see.
Looking back now, when Kean didn't hit the points target set he at last departed. Lets be honest, the points that we had we were lucky to have especially after some really poor displays. We all thought with the arrival of Murphy, Etuhu, Rhodes, CKR, some Portuguese players that we had a team that should be in the hunt for automatic promotion.
Up stepped Singh, on the search for a new manager.
Names in the media and betting sites were being thrown around like confetti. Names like Holloway, Redknapp, Hughes, OGS, Hitzfeld,Schuster, McCarthy plus Ex Rovers players such as Shearer, Sherwood, Hill, BMK and even Flitcroft.
Obviously due to Singh n Co keeping tight lipped for most part of the managerial appointment most of the names above were just tossed into the hat, but the fans mostly agreed that we needed someone with experience to give the team a lift and a complete change of atmosphere. So when Singh looked to ask Fulham to speak to Billy McKinlay, Singh was blasted by the fans as this was a definate no go.
Singh recognised this and pulled out of any talks. We all thought this was a good sign and we would go on and appoint a manager of decent experience, a manager who would turn the fortune around and bring back the fans to a less than half full Ewood.
The selection for the manager started dragging on and time was ebbing away, we thought we would lose momentum with Black in charge on a temporary basis. Fans started calling for the manager to be put into place and quickly. At this time Coyle had gone from Bolton, Howe had gone from Burnley and Jewell's time at Ipswich was almost over. This meant more clubs were out trying to secure the "best" manager for their team.
Out of nowhere or should I say Norway a story broke the Henning Berg was the favourite for the job and Norway TV announced that Berg was coming over to Blackburn to sign the dotted line. I for one was left bemused, no chance that this could happen, surely it was just another media made up story, or I hoped so. Surely Singh wouldn't go for Berg, would he? The selection committee were all wanting different people to take charge. Holloway for me was the better choice, his football is good to watch, he has experience of bringing a team from the Championship to the Premiership, so for me ticked two of the must have boxes.
Oh dear Singh had got his way, in came Berg with limited managerial experience in Norway. Don't get me wrong I am not having a go at Henning, I thought he was a fantastic steady player for us, a rock in the defence.
After witnessing most of his matches in charge I am at a complete loss. We are playing worse now than we were under Kean, we seem to have one plan only and if that doesn't work then stick to it as it may come good. Granted, Berg hasn't had much time in charge but his team selections are strange, his tactics are strange, he is bald ..... you can see where this is going.
Against Cardiff was the low point so far this season, yes we lost to Bolton, drew against Burnley (which we were lucky to survive) but the performance apart from ten minutes in the second half was simply clueless, spineless and devoid of any ideas. We have a fantastic striker in Rhodes, but we play him upfront on his own, usually isolated. He is not a target man, he is a poacher who needs service to get the goals. We have two Centre Half's Hanley and Dann who apart from two maybe three games have been awful as a partnership, Givet must be wondering what he has to do to get a sniff. Vukcevic, Rochina and CKR to name a few players are sitting on the bench while the likes of Etuhu, Ms Olsson, Lowe and Formica all start games. Some would say Formica is playing well, which to be fair he has his patches but I have never thought much of him as a player. He is not a wide man, which is where we play him. Lowe unfortunately lookes devoid of confidence, we know he is a better player than what he is showing us.
Will we get promoted this season?
Not a chance on the showing so far into the season, we will be lucky not to keep slipping down the table and finish lower mid table.
January, bring in new players?
We need to sell before we buy, if I was the manager I would look to offload: Dann, Formica, Robinson, MGP even the ever missing Bruno. Problem is how much do you think we would raise? Answer is not a lot.
Change of manager?
Can't see this happening, after all this is not Henning Berg's fault, he applied for the job, he got it. You have to look at the person who selected him. Shebby Singh, surely his job should be under scrutiny. He wants the fans to like him, well if results like this carry on the fans would love him to go!!
In summary in my opinion we should have gone for Holloway and give him what he wanted. He generates excitement both on and off the pitch. The fans would have come back to Ewood to watch his brand of football. The feel around Ewood is one of "has anything really changed?" it feels like the days of Kean already. We can't all start shouting for Berg to go, he is a man of his word. Automatic promotion or anything else is a failure. So if results carry on like this, I hope he will realise he is not the man from the job and walk away. Berg doesn't inspire me as a manager and you can see that he doesn't inspire the players either. To many players just simply wandering around a field then collecting a substantial pay cheque every month.
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Sunday, 15 January 2012
The Turning Point?
Amongst all the rumours surrounding our beloved Rovers, the past few weeks have been nothing short of a roller coaster.
Defeats at home against WBA & Bolton left us on the bottom of the table. Many thought the Bolton loss would have brought Kean's managerial appointment to an end. This was not the case, Rovers fans voiced their disapproval during the Bolton game going two down in the game, the dissent continued throughout the match, even though Rovers managed to pull one back.
Kean remained defiant and to the Blackburn squad short of confidence into what looked like two tricky ties at Anfield and Old Trafford. To be honest I thought we wouldn't pick up a single point from these two games. How wrong was I and about 99.9% of the Rovers fans. A fantastic defencive display at Anfield and heroics by Bunn and Henley saw Rovers pick up a point. What happened at Old Trafford proved that Rovers still have a place in the Premiership. Much of the press put the Rovers win down to a weakened United side and not to the sterling effort of a United Rovers team. A fantastic game resulted in three points in a brilliant 3-2 victory and may I add that we probably had more "injuries" than United did.
The following game was at home against a tough you know what you get with Stoke team. Everybody were excited about this fixture after the two previous games, but what happened next was a disappointment, getting beat 2-1, with that Crouch guy again.
A FA cup tie at Newcastle was a distraction in our league commitments and too be honest is anyone bothered that we are out of this competition? We lost after leading at half time, a familiar story this season.
Saturday 14 January - The Turning Point?
Me and my son turned up at the Brown Cow ready to go on a protest march against Venky's. The mood was good, the weather cold but sunny. The march started to Ewood and only until you see the film footage did I realise that there were hundreds of people, especially when joined by the Havelock pub. I asked a policeman and he stated that there were well over 800 people on the demonstration march. As per normal the protest was vocal and went off without a glitch after fantastic organisation from the organisers.
The Fulham game started with news Samba was missing from the squad after his absence from Friday's training. Apparently ill.
Looking at the starting line up, it was very good to see Olsson back at left back, Givet back at Centre Half (his best position by far) Hoilett up front somewhere. Again Kean went for a 4-5-1 formation with both Nzonzi and Petrovic in Centre Midfield along with Dunn in front providing the spear head.
With a scruffy looking match in progress a Hulk Hogan styled high boot from the Yak saw him receive his first red card in 9 seasons in English football. Although his foot was raised, did he go for Murphy or was he merely just late? I thought the latter but rules are rules and had to go, although after watching quite a lot of football matches lately and there have been a lot worse tackles out there and not even being given as free kicks.
With Yakubu off the field everyone wondered what Kean would do and what happened next just may save Steve Kean and his career at Rovers. To be fair his more recent substitutions in previous games have been nothing short of baffling. This time he called it absolutely perfect, off came Petrovic on came Goodwillie. Before I continue, I've not been a fan of Petrovic until now, I thought his 25 minute spell was his best spell so far in a Rovers shirt.
As soon as this substitution was made the noise level inside Ewood raised, the players responded to this and put in the performance of the season so far. I would actually say better than the Arsenal game and even better than the win at Old Trafford. The crowd were as one, the team were as one, Blackburn Rovers how we used to know it were at one. Every player on the pitch earned their pay with their hard work and endeavour. Yes and the manager Steve Kean earned his pay packet also, he recognised when Dunn was out on his feet and brought on Formica, the latter scoring Rovers third after starting and finishing the move after sublime pass from the faultless Nzonzi. Fulham pressed but with Hoilett now in a holding position in front of Olsson and Pederson the same in front of Lowe restricted the wide play of Fulham who at times over ran the lines with great success.
After the final whistle another thing happened from Steve Kean, he recognised for once the supporters efforts to get behind the team and mentioned this a number of times in all his interviews. Has Kean changed his tune to a more open crowd pleasing one?
Ok this is only one game, but everything about it felt right, it felt like the Rovers of old, giving everything on and off the pitch as I said before as one.
Is the pressure still on Kean? Absolutely, he needs to build on the new found spirit in the team and especially on the terraces, give the fans and yes we will support him.
QPRDann to a Premiership team in January and maybe bring in a player or two whether permanent or on loan with the money. I don't think we would miss Dann that much to be fair has he has never had a run in the team due to injuries. On top of this the emergence of Grant Hanley at Centre Half (after a dodgy start to the season) he has been nothing short of a fairy tale story. He almost is an automatic pick at Centre Half now.
Salgado and Roberts by the look of it have played their last games for Rovers and will leave the club shortly, this has been a messy affair with so called injuries being mentioned from Kean, although we know this isn't the case. Has Kean been told by Venky's to say this? I can't answer that. Only Kean can.
I get the feeling that Kean is starting to come to terms with the fans and is giving us a little bit of what we want to hear, I feel even he is becoming tired of Venky's antics. I now think he is learning from his mistakes he has made previously but at the same time being careful what he says so not to upset the so called owners.
I'm not a Kean fan, I have never claimed to be. I think with our support he can improve though. He still needs more than that, another new Assistant Manager on the horizon, please let whoever it is have experience and is a general great help to Steve and to Rovers.
At the moment our fight is against Venky's we need answers and we need answers fast.
Defeats at home against WBA & Bolton left us on the bottom of the table. Many thought the Bolton loss would have brought Kean's managerial appointment to an end. This was not the case, Rovers fans voiced their disapproval during the Bolton game going two down in the game, the dissent continued throughout the match, even though Rovers managed to pull one back.
Kean remained defiant and to the Blackburn squad short of confidence into what looked like two tricky ties at Anfield and Old Trafford. To be honest I thought we wouldn't pick up a single point from these two games. How wrong was I and about 99.9% of the Rovers fans. A fantastic defencive display at Anfield and heroics by Bunn and Henley saw Rovers pick up a point. What happened at Old Trafford proved that Rovers still have a place in the Premiership. Much of the press put the Rovers win down to a weakened United side and not to the sterling effort of a United Rovers team. A fantastic game resulted in three points in a brilliant 3-2 victory and may I add that we probably had more "injuries" than United did.
The following game was at home against a tough you know what you get with Stoke team. Everybody were excited about this fixture after the two previous games, but what happened next was a disappointment, getting beat 2-1, with that Crouch guy again.
A FA cup tie at Newcastle was a distraction in our league commitments and too be honest is anyone bothered that we are out of this competition? We lost after leading at half time, a familiar story this season.
Saturday 14 January - The Turning Point?
Me and my son turned up at the Brown Cow ready to go on a protest march against Venky's. The mood was good, the weather cold but sunny. The march started to Ewood and only until you see the film footage did I realise that there were hundreds of people, especially when joined by the Havelock pub. I asked a policeman and he stated that there were well over 800 people on the demonstration march. As per normal the protest was vocal and went off without a glitch after fantastic organisation from the organisers.
The Fulham game started with news Samba was missing from the squad after his absence from Friday's training. Apparently ill.
Looking at the starting line up, it was very good to see Olsson back at left back, Givet back at Centre Half (his best position by far) Hoilett up front somewhere. Again Kean went for a 4-5-1 formation with both Nzonzi and Petrovic in Centre Midfield along with Dunn in front providing the spear head.
With a scruffy looking match in progress a Hulk Hogan styled high boot from the Yak saw him receive his first red card in 9 seasons in English football. Although his foot was raised, did he go for Murphy or was he merely just late? I thought the latter but rules are rules and had to go, although after watching quite a lot of football matches lately and there have been a lot worse tackles out there and not even being given as free kicks.
With Yakubu off the field everyone wondered what Kean would do and what happened next just may save Steve Kean and his career at Rovers. To be fair his more recent substitutions in previous games have been nothing short of baffling. This time he called it absolutely perfect, off came Petrovic on came Goodwillie. Before I continue, I've not been a fan of Petrovic until now, I thought his 25 minute spell was his best spell so far in a Rovers shirt.
As soon as this substitution was made the noise level inside Ewood raised, the players responded to this and put in the performance of the season so far. I would actually say better than the Arsenal game and even better than the win at Old Trafford. The crowd were as one, the team were as one, Blackburn Rovers how we used to know it were at one. Every player on the pitch earned their pay with their hard work and endeavour. Yes and the manager Steve Kean earned his pay packet also, he recognised when Dunn was out on his feet and brought on Formica, the latter scoring Rovers third after starting and finishing the move after sublime pass from the faultless Nzonzi. Fulham pressed but with Hoilett now in a holding position in front of Olsson and Pederson the same in front of Lowe restricted the wide play of Fulham who at times over ran the lines with great success.
After the final whistle another thing happened from Steve Kean, he recognised for once the supporters efforts to get behind the team and mentioned this a number of times in all his interviews. Has Kean changed his tune to a more open crowd pleasing one?
Ok this is only one game, but everything about it felt right, it felt like the Rovers of old, giving everything on and off the pitch as I said before as one.
Is the pressure still on Kean? Absolutely, he needs to build on the new found spirit in the team and especially on the terraces, give the fans and yes we will support him.
QPRDann to a Premiership team in January and maybe bring in a player or two whether permanent or on loan with the money. I don't think we would miss Dann that much to be fair has he has never had a run in the team due to injuries. On top of this the emergence of Grant Hanley at Centre Half (after a dodgy start to the season) he has been nothing short of a fairy tale story. He almost is an automatic pick at Centre Half now.
Salgado and Roberts by the look of it have played their last games for Rovers and will leave the club shortly, this has been a messy affair with so called injuries being mentioned from Kean, although we know this isn't the case. Has Kean been told by Venky's to say this? I can't answer that. Only Kean can.
I get the feeling that Kean is starting to come to terms with the fans and is giving us a little bit of what we want to hear, I feel even he is becoming tired of Venky's antics. I now think he is learning from his mistakes he has made previously but at the same time being careful what he says so not to upset the so called owners.
I'm not a Kean fan, I have never claimed to be. I think with our support he can improve though. He still needs more than that, another new Assistant Manager on the horizon, please let whoever it is have experience and is a general great help to Steve and to Rovers.
At the moment our fight is against Venky's we need answers and we need answers fast.
Saturday, 3 December 2011
So What Happens Now?
First thing to say is that was a massive 3 points gained against Swansea today.
The performance at times during the match was quite simple but very effective.
Swansea came into the game without an away win and without a goal in their past 3 games.
Rovers came into this game winning just 1, losing 5, scoring 6 goals and conceding 13.
With the only win that was back in September against a poor team at the time in Arsenal. (We needed 2 OG's and Arsenal to miss a hatful of chances late on.)
This game was either going to be a dour 1-1 game with Swansea owning the possession and Rovers scoring from a set piece, or has it turned out to be a high scoring game.
90 mins later we had won the game 4-2. Swansea were reduced to 10 men, with Allen receiving 2 yellow cards in very similar fashion as Dunn got his 2 yellows against Wigan.
Rochina limped off the field holding what looked like his hamstring, at this time very little mentioned. 1 thing i've noticed with Rochina he puts himself about but boy his tacking his awful, but at least he gives everything. I think Rochina has at times looked fantastic, 1 brilliant bit of skill today took the ball up around and over his man in 1 move.
This gave Simon a good run out and to be blunt he did everything I have seen him do for Montenegro and looked pretty decent. Probably ready to step in when Hoilett leaves in January.
David Dunn once again in my eyes proved once again why he should not be considered to start games for Rovers, slow, gave the ball away to much and conceded silly fouls in dangerous places. With Nzonzi out suspended in his 2nd game of 3, Dunn had a chance to prove he could come in and stake a place, but showed that this his time has come and long gone.
Robbo today was bak to his shot stopping best, with some point blank saves, great to see his reactions are still top notch, because the past few games he had started to look shaky. Only 1 downside is, what's happened to his kicks? A lot of kicks to Swansea players.
I love Givet, but as a Centre Half, he is definately not a Left Back. I think he gives Rovers spirit like a haggered warrior. Dann and Samba at times looked pretty assured, but we have to remember that this was a poor Swansea team that could pass the ball well around their own box but the further up the field they got the less of an idea they had. The Lita headed goal showed the reason why we need to be better in defence as he rose alone to head in their 1st goal even though there were 3 Rovers players in and around Lita.
At 3-1 we sat back and invited Swansea onto us and we gave them to much space, we stopped closing down and stopped marking their players. It was always going to happen, Swansea got their 2nd goal with nobody closing the ball down and just too many Rovers players stood watching instead of doing.
During the game the supporters gave full backing to the team with noisy renditions of RTID, Going down the Bolton Road etc, but the loudest chant of the game was reserved for the Rovers manager with what I could see at least 3/4's of the Blackburn End, The Darwen End and The Riverside with "Stand up if you want Kean out" this went on for about 2 minutes and was indeed very loud.
I will say this though as much as i'm not a fan of Kean's he brought the Yak off so he could soak up the applause of the fans, that was a nice touch. It's a shame that we need to score 4 goals to have any chance of any points at the moment, but while the Yak is on the field there's always a chance of a goal or 4.
After the final whistle protesters once again gathered in the Blackburn End to sing for Kean and Venky's to go. Some fans chanted "Mark Hughes's Blue and White Army"
Things of note from today for me was the overkill of Stewards drafted in from Bolton and a constant Police present. When Simon was brought down in the box, stewards and police rushed to line up in front of the Blackburn End, so much so that you could hardly see Yak scoring as the Stewards and Police tried blocking everyones view by standing up infront of everyone. I was told the extra security was brought in because they were fearing a pitch invasion.
On a brighter note how good was it to see a specila celebrity guest in David Gest wearing a Rovers shirt staying on til the end. No idea why he was there but always welcome at Rovers.
So finally, as in my title "What Happens Now?" we beat Swansea we move within a point of getting out of the bottom 3, other results depending of course. On the way home from Ewood I listened to Radio Lancashire to hear that it was embarrasing the Rovers supporters (A) Boo'd Kean when his face came on the big screen when Yak scored and (B) People protesting at the end of the game, when Rovers had won. Obviously this radio presenter hasn't watched Rovers much this season and therefore his opinions on whether it was embarrasing or not are not valid, these people need to see the whole picture and not just 90 minutes against a team that will struggle to survive in the Premiership. I say Swansea will struggle because they don't have hardened players that will dig in when the game turns into a battle. Also in the same radio interview, Kean mentioned it's about results not performances after 14 league games played glad he has found this out.
Kean remains in charge, he doesn't understand the fans who protest. How long has he got left at Rovers? If he goes who wants the job?
The performance at times during the match was quite simple but very effective.
Swansea came into the game without an away win and without a goal in their past 3 games.
Rovers came into this game winning just 1, losing 5, scoring 6 goals and conceding 13.
With the only win that was back in September against a poor team at the time in Arsenal. (We needed 2 OG's and Arsenal to miss a hatful of chances late on.)
This game was either going to be a dour 1-1 game with Swansea owning the possession and Rovers scoring from a set piece, or has it turned out to be a high scoring game.
90 mins later we had won the game 4-2. Swansea were reduced to 10 men, with Allen receiving 2 yellow cards in very similar fashion as Dunn got his 2 yellows against Wigan.
Rochina limped off the field holding what looked like his hamstring, at this time very little mentioned. 1 thing i've noticed with Rochina he puts himself about but boy his tacking his awful, but at least he gives everything. I think Rochina has at times looked fantastic, 1 brilliant bit of skill today took the ball up around and over his man in 1 move.
This gave Simon a good run out and to be blunt he did everything I have seen him do for Montenegro and looked pretty decent. Probably ready to step in when Hoilett leaves in January.
David Dunn once again in my eyes proved once again why he should not be considered to start games for Rovers, slow, gave the ball away to much and conceded silly fouls in dangerous places. With Nzonzi out suspended in his 2nd game of 3, Dunn had a chance to prove he could come in and stake a place, but showed that this his time has come and long gone.
Robbo today was bak to his shot stopping best, with some point blank saves, great to see his reactions are still top notch, because the past few games he had started to look shaky. Only 1 downside is, what's happened to his kicks? A lot of kicks to Swansea players.
I love Givet, but as a Centre Half, he is definately not a Left Back. I think he gives Rovers spirit like a haggered warrior. Dann and Samba at times looked pretty assured, but we have to remember that this was a poor Swansea team that could pass the ball well around their own box but the further up the field they got the less of an idea they had. The Lita headed goal showed the reason why we need to be better in defence as he rose alone to head in their 1st goal even though there were 3 Rovers players in and around Lita.
At 3-1 we sat back and invited Swansea onto us and we gave them to much space, we stopped closing down and stopped marking their players. It was always going to happen, Swansea got their 2nd goal with nobody closing the ball down and just too many Rovers players stood watching instead of doing.
During the game the supporters gave full backing to the team with noisy renditions of RTID, Going down the Bolton Road etc, but the loudest chant of the game was reserved for the Rovers manager with what I could see at least 3/4's of the Blackburn End, The Darwen End and The Riverside with "Stand up if you want Kean out" this went on for about 2 minutes and was indeed very loud.
I will say this though as much as i'm not a fan of Kean's he brought the Yak off so he could soak up the applause of the fans, that was a nice touch. It's a shame that we need to score 4 goals to have any chance of any points at the moment, but while the Yak is on the field there's always a chance of a goal or 4.
After the final whistle protesters once again gathered in the Blackburn End to sing for Kean and Venky's to go. Some fans chanted "Mark Hughes's Blue and White Army"
Things of note from today for me was the overkill of Stewards drafted in from Bolton and a constant Police present. When Simon was brought down in the box, stewards and police rushed to line up in front of the Blackburn End, so much so that you could hardly see Yak scoring as the Stewards and Police tried blocking everyones view by standing up infront of everyone. I was told the extra security was brought in because they were fearing a pitch invasion.
On a brighter note how good was it to see a specila celebrity guest in David Gest wearing a Rovers shirt staying on til the end. No idea why he was there but always welcome at Rovers.
So finally, as in my title "What Happens Now?" we beat Swansea we move within a point of getting out of the bottom 3, other results depending of course. On the way home from Ewood I listened to Radio Lancashire to hear that it was embarrasing the Rovers supporters (A) Boo'd Kean when his face came on the big screen when Yak scored and (B) People protesting at the end of the game, when Rovers had won. Obviously this radio presenter hasn't watched Rovers much this season and therefore his opinions on whether it was embarrasing or not are not valid, these people need to see the whole picture and not just 90 minutes against a team that will struggle to survive in the Premiership. I say Swansea will struggle because they don't have hardened players that will dig in when the game turns into a battle. Also in the same radio interview, Kean mentioned it's about results not performances after 14 league games played glad he has found this out.
Kean remains in charge, he doesn't understand the fans who protest. How long has he got left at Rovers? If he goes who wants the job?
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Time passed to reflect after Everton
It is now 23.15 a good while since I have come away from Ewood totally dejected. How the hell did we lose that game? Easy, Everton came, the saw and they stole it.
David Moyes and so many other footballing people go on about how good our record is at Ewood. How hard it is to come away with anything. How teams would settle for a point up here. All that has changed, after being beat with Wolves (a team who will be near the bottom at the end of the season) we now get beat with an Everton side who was terrible to say the least.
Can anyone remember Robbo having to make a save? It was good to see Samba back today although did anyone else see that there's an annoying habit that has come into his game, and that everytime he is going into a tackle he actually shoves people. I counted 4 times today he did that. Samba and Givet gave Everton nothing all day long. A defence that looked solid.
There's been a lot of talk about Kean's line up for the Everton game and nothing good was said. Dunn hits the post early doors after a good passage of play. After that we kinda backed off and let the game get sloppy.
We had on the bench Goodwillie, Formica and Rochina, while MGP, Dunn and Roberts were on the pitch. Both Dunn and MGP went off with hamstring injuries and although I don't wish any injury on any player, this should give a chance for Rochina and Formica to get starts under their belts. Roberts must hold his hands up and just acknowledge that today he was poor. The fans got on his back for the lack of effort he puts in. Funny part was when he got subbed he had the nerve to limp off pretending he was injured.
Ok it's 3 games played and 3 games lost, 2 of which were at home against poor teams, but now with the more creative players in the team we should at least keep creating chances and eventually will find the net.
Simon Vukcevic will add good quality down the flank, he is an exciting player, we still need a GOOD striker to support Goodwillie and I would definately say a right back. I don't think to much of our cover at right back should Salgado get injured. Anyone else see Salgado out jump the big wigged Everton player in our 6 yard box today? Fantastic looks like he's got his spring back.
On one really serious note, since when did Ewood allow the fecking horns into the ground? Bloody annoying to say the least, I was sat behind 3 of them today in the Blackburn End. Soon stopped blowing them when fans threatened to put them where the sun don't shine.
We have now dropped 6 points at home, points that I and many others would have had banked when the fixtures came out. Can we recover from this? Damn right we can, but i'm afraid it has to be without Kean and his sidekick Mr Jenson. No one can understand why Kean is still there, especially when there are reputable, experienced ones unemployed waiting for the phone call. The transfer deadline fast approaching, should we be lucky enough to get a new manager, he won't have time to dip into the market.
I don't think it's the players we need, but direction from a manager who knows what he's doing, knows how to set up a team and get the best out of them. Sorry but it is definately not Steve Kean, I have no confidence in his approach or his strange team selections, weird post match interviews and with an appoitmen of an experienced manager should show the rest of the footballing world that we now mean business.
I'd like to wish Brett Emerton all the best in Sydney, he has been a loyal servant to Rovers over the years.
David Moyes and so many other footballing people go on about how good our record is at Ewood. How hard it is to come away with anything. How teams would settle for a point up here. All that has changed, after being beat with Wolves (a team who will be near the bottom at the end of the season) we now get beat with an Everton side who was terrible to say the least.
Can anyone remember Robbo having to make a save? It was good to see Samba back today although did anyone else see that there's an annoying habit that has come into his game, and that everytime he is going into a tackle he actually shoves people. I counted 4 times today he did that. Samba and Givet gave Everton nothing all day long. A defence that looked solid.
There's been a lot of talk about Kean's line up for the Everton game and nothing good was said. Dunn hits the post early doors after a good passage of play. After that we kinda backed off and let the game get sloppy.
We had on the bench Goodwillie, Formica and Rochina, while MGP, Dunn and Roberts were on the pitch. Both Dunn and MGP went off with hamstring injuries and although I don't wish any injury on any player, this should give a chance for Rochina and Formica to get starts under their belts. Roberts must hold his hands up and just acknowledge that today he was poor. The fans got on his back for the lack of effort he puts in. Funny part was when he got subbed he had the nerve to limp off pretending he was injured.
Ok it's 3 games played and 3 games lost, 2 of which were at home against poor teams, but now with the more creative players in the team we should at least keep creating chances and eventually will find the net.
Simon Vukcevic will add good quality down the flank, he is an exciting player, we still need a GOOD striker to support Goodwillie and I would definately say a right back. I don't think to much of our cover at right back should Salgado get injured. Anyone else see Salgado out jump the big wigged Everton player in our 6 yard box today? Fantastic looks like he's got his spring back.
On one really serious note, since when did Ewood allow the fecking horns into the ground? Bloody annoying to say the least, I was sat behind 3 of them today in the Blackburn End. Soon stopped blowing them when fans threatened to put them where the sun don't shine.
We have now dropped 6 points at home, points that I and many others would have had banked when the fixtures came out. Can we recover from this? Damn right we can, but i'm afraid it has to be without Kean and his sidekick Mr Jenson. No one can understand why Kean is still there, especially when there are reputable, experienced ones unemployed waiting for the phone call. The transfer deadline fast approaching, should we be lucky enough to get a new manager, he won't have time to dip into the market.
I don't think it's the players we need, but direction from a manager who knows what he's doing, knows how to set up a team and get the best out of them. Sorry but it is definately not Steve Kean, I have no confidence in his approach or his strange team selections, weird post match interviews and with an appoitmen of an experienced manager should show the rest of the footballing world that we now mean business.
I'd like to wish Brett Emerton all the best in Sydney, he has been a loyal servant to Rovers over the years.
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Goodwillies Pipe Line: 1st game in the bag
Goodwillies Pipe Line: 1st game in the bag: "All the waiting, the anticipation is now over the 1st game has come and gone. No points in the bag. Ok we lost, played pretty poorly and n..."
1st game in the bag
All the waiting, the anticipation is now over the 1st game has come and gone. No points in the bag.
Ok we lost, played pretty poorly and no one really stood out, add to that the very disappointing refereeing performance by Mr 'close' Friend (of Wolverhampton)
No matter of the sound bytes coming out of Ewood saying Rovers will be a top ten side, this seems a long long way away. The once Fortress Ewood saw Rovers put in an abject perfomance allowing Wolves an easy victory. No disrespect to Wolves, but these are the teams we need to be getting full points off at home and a loss is in my opinion a bitter blow. We have the bookies stating Rovers are very low odds to be relegated, with Kean 1 of the favourites to be the 1st manager to get the axe.
Yes there were no Samba, Nelson or Givet today and Nzonzi played alongside Hanley in the middle. You could tell as soon as the squads were announced that we were going to struggle, especially at the back. At times Nzonzi looked comfortable on the ball, passed the ball well and won a few good headers. Although saying that at times his awareness of players around him was poor. Grant Hanley no doubt will be a good player in the future, but was poor today, not closing down Jarvis for the 1st goal proved costly.
Hoilett apart from last 20 minutes looked out of ideas, Dunn and Emerton in centre midfield has got to be 1 of the worse centre midfield pairings in the Premiership. Both booked in the 1st half because they were so far behind play and time after time giave free kicks away needlesly. David Dunn, again in my opinion is not fit enough to be a starter for Rovers, he looks like he's bigger than last season. Emerton, i'm sorry is not good enough, i've no idea what he adds to the team, he huffs and puffs and fails to blow anyone away.
Anyone surprised to see Morten starting today? I was. A lot of people don't like him, but to be honest how many headers did he win to flick on from Robbo's goalkicks for Roberts to stand still and watch the ball go past him? Yes he took a terrible free kick which he blasted way over the bar, but I wouln't have taken him off, that should have been Dunn.
Formica's goals will be very important for us this season, I say this because Roberts spent most of his time arguing with the referee, he is so frustrating to watch. Although he did set up the goal for Formica but I can't remember him doing anything else.
Goodwillie came on and showed his battling qualities and i'm looking forward to him starting very soon. Rochina looks like hes on the David Dunn diet. Roch added some nice touches but struggled to get into a game that passed him by.
We missed Nzonzi in the midfield as we failed to win anything all day. Petrovic who was introduced to Ewood at half time needs to hit the floor running, we need bite in midfield and hopefully he's the 1 to do it.
To sum it all up, our hopes are with the new signings, we need to score goals to stay up and Goodwillie has been bought not as a prospect but a player who can do the business now. He cost us 2.8m compare that to the Wolves strikers Fletcher and Doyle both costing around 6.5m each, just shows how far we are behind teams like Wolves in the striking department and Wolves are a bottom 5 team.
We need structure installed into the side, at times it was like watching schoolkids. We need 2-3 more signings. Where is this big striker? When did Givet become a key player for us? as discussed on the radio coming home. To be fair i'd be happy with loan signings coming in, as long as they are decent. Look at the bench today, ouch............ we are very thin on the ground. This should never have happened, we should have had a settled squad way before this game.
But enough said, i'm still excited for this season and 1 game doesn't send a team down. We need to play smarter and to our strengths. Roll on to the next game, THE START OF OUR SEASON.
Ok we lost, played pretty poorly and no one really stood out, add to that the very disappointing refereeing performance by Mr 'close' Friend (of Wolverhampton)
No matter of the sound bytes coming out of Ewood saying Rovers will be a top ten side, this seems a long long way away. The once Fortress Ewood saw Rovers put in an abject perfomance allowing Wolves an easy victory. No disrespect to Wolves, but these are the teams we need to be getting full points off at home and a loss is in my opinion a bitter blow. We have the bookies stating Rovers are very low odds to be relegated, with Kean 1 of the favourites to be the 1st manager to get the axe.
Yes there were no Samba, Nelson or Givet today and Nzonzi played alongside Hanley in the middle. You could tell as soon as the squads were announced that we were going to struggle, especially at the back. At times Nzonzi looked comfortable on the ball, passed the ball well and won a few good headers. Although saying that at times his awareness of players around him was poor. Grant Hanley no doubt will be a good player in the future, but was poor today, not closing down Jarvis for the 1st goal proved costly.
Hoilett apart from last 20 minutes looked out of ideas, Dunn and Emerton in centre midfield has got to be 1 of the worse centre midfield pairings in the Premiership. Both booked in the 1st half because they were so far behind play and time after time giave free kicks away needlesly. David Dunn, again in my opinion is not fit enough to be a starter for Rovers, he looks like he's bigger than last season. Emerton, i'm sorry is not good enough, i've no idea what he adds to the team, he huffs and puffs and fails to blow anyone away.
Anyone surprised to see Morten starting today? I was. A lot of people don't like him, but to be honest how many headers did he win to flick on from Robbo's goalkicks for Roberts to stand still and watch the ball go past him? Yes he took a terrible free kick which he blasted way over the bar, but I wouln't have taken him off, that should have been Dunn.
Formica's goals will be very important for us this season, I say this because Roberts spent most of his time arguing with the referee, he is so frustrating to watch. Although he did set up the goal for Formica but I can't remember him doing anything else.
Goodwillie came on and showed his battling qualities and i'm looking forward to him starting very soon. Rochina looks like hes on the David Dunn diet. Roch added some nice touches but struggled to get into a game that passed him by.
We missed Nzonzi in the midfield as we failed to win anything all day. Petrovic who was introduced to Ewood at half time needs to hit the floor running, we need bite in midfield and hopefully he's the 1 to do it.
To sum it all up, our hopes are with the new signings, we need to score goals to stay up and Goodwillie has been bought not as a prospect but a player who can do the business now. He cost us 2.8m compare that to the Wolves strikers Fletcher and Doyle both costing around 6.5m each, just shows how far we are behind teams like Wolves in the striking department and Wolves are a bottom 5 team.
We need structure installed into the side, at times it was like watching schoolkids. We need 2-3 more signings. Where is this big striker? When did Givet become a key player for us? as discussed on the radio coming home. To be fair i'd be happy with loan signings coming in, as long as they are decent. Look at the bench today, ouch............ we are very thin on the ground. This should never have happened, we should have had a settled squad way before this game.
But enough said, i'm still excited for this season and 1 game doesn't send a team down. We need to play smarter and to our strengths. Roll on to the next game, THE START OF OUR SEASON.
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Preseason almost finished
So as the title says pre season is almost done, we have signed so far 2 players. 1 we had no choice about in Anderson and we signed the fabulously named Mr Goodwillie.
What next in the strange transfer coming and goings? Without repeating the obvious we have still allowed more players to leave than players coming in. Good news is, well we hope it's good news just because we can no longer rely on "reliable" sources that we are bringing in more players. I think we have done the right thing with Goodwillie bringing in what Dundee Utd fans say he is a pure 100% tryer, he's quick, young and loads of potential, some boffins in Scotland rate him as the next big thing out of Scotland since the Deep fried Mars bar. Radosav Petrovic is almost a done deal as we wait for work permit clearance. We are still linked with a few more players before the start of the season also, hopefully a big named striker and I don't mean Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
The big problem with the late arrivals of the players coming in for me would be just how quick will they blend into the squad and just how fit will these players be. Wasn't it the words of Steve Kean the only reason why Benjani, RSC didn't work last season is because they didn't have a preseaon behind them and therefore not fit enough? Ok RSC was probably injured. I'm happy that he isn't coming back just because we need players who can give a real effort.
If by a massive miracle Samba stays and is commited to Rovers our starting 11 is a good 11. Robbo probably in top 3 keepers last season. Salgado probably his last season and at times was left standing but who doesn't love the guy? Samba and Nelson in the centre, Olsson at LB. Nzonz, Rochina, Hoilett, Formica, Petrovic and Goodwillie.
When Kean was installed as Rovers supremo last season I though he was brave at times to play attacking football just to show BFS that this team could keep it on the floor. But as the season went on this style of football went missing. I just hope Kean can get the guys passing and moving, we got the young legs so we shouldn't run out of steam. We still have the experience where it counts to nurdle the new young guys through what will be an exciting season.
The fans need to get behind the boys from all sides of Ewood. We need to be as 1 and cheer them on.
What next in the strange transfer coming and goings? Without repeating the obvious we have still allowed more players to leave than players coming in. Good news is, well we hope it's good news just because we can no longer rely on "reliable" sources that we are bringing in more players. I think we have done the right thing with Goodwillie bringing in what Dundee Utd fans say he is a pure 100% tryer, he's quick, young and loads of potential, some boffins in Scotland rate him as the next big thing out of Scotland since the Deep fried Mars bar. Radosav Petrovic is almost a done deal as we wait for work permit clearance. We are still linked with a few more players before the start of the season also, hopefully a big named striker and I don't mean Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
The big problem with the late arrivals of the players coming in for me would be just how quick will they blend into the squad and just how fit will these players be. Wasn't it the words of Steve Kean the only reason why Benjani, RSC didn't work last season is because they didn't have a preseaon behind them and therefore not fit enough? Ok RSC was probably injured. I'm happy that he isn't coming back just because we need players who can give a real effort.
If by a massive miracle Samba stays and is commited to Rovers our starting 11 is a good 11. Robbo probably in top 3 keepers last season. Salgado probably his last season and at times was left standing but who doesn't love the guy? Samba and Nelson in the centre, Olsson at LB. Nzonz, Rochina, Hoilett, Formica, Petrovic and Goodwillie.
When Kean was installed as Rovers supremo last season I though he was brave at times to play attacking football just to show BFS that this team could keep it on the floor. But as the season went on this style of football went missing. I just hope Kean can get the guys passing and moving, we got the young legs so we shouldn't run out of steam. We still have the experience where it counts to nurdle the new young guys through what will be an exciting season.
The fans need to get behind the boys from all sides of Ewood. We need to be as 1 and cheer them on.
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