Rovers V Everton Preview

[Ozz]

But I don't wanna be a moderator! Seems like hard work to me.

[joey_big_nose]

So by your own admittance there we did not have the players to play the formation -so Hughes did get it wrong.

Sorry for being a pain, but as you can probably tell I do have a bugbear against 5 in midfield (and not just with this team ), however the way Rovers play, the 5 does not suit our style regardless of who we have, but to keep you happy I would have started with Emerton wide and brought in Treacy (is he fit) on the left as MGP offers nothing at the moment, needs must.

At the beginning of the season we where playing 442 week in week out and looked organised - for some reason (unrest?) when we got knocked out of Europe and especially October onwards we started making stupid mistakes on a regular basis (even though we have been giving goals away for a long time) - this had nothing to do with the formation though more lack of organisation and cohesion - but Hughes then decided to keep changing it which made it worse.

5 away from home looks like it works - but if we want to show some mettle at home we have to take a game by the scruff we have to be more offensive at home (literally) - especially against those around the same position

I just have a bad feeling if we do not achieve a European berth this season - we will be fighting at the bottom end next season.

If we play 442 with a weak central midfield against teams who both have a a very strong central midfield full of powerful players who also string 5 across the middle of the park we will get murdered.

We saw it with Villa at home and Portsmouth at home. Everton would, imo, been the same story if we had walked out 442. These sides have pace in abunance, power and are very defensively sound.

Its a shame becuase we came out this season with a very attacking game plan- 442, two fullbacks who get right up the pitch, lots of attacking minded talent in midfield. Unfortunately all of that was founded on us defending well when forced to. Nelsen's injury left us exposed and when teams figured out that we are extermely vulnerable on the counter we endured a horrendous 2 month run of getting hit over and over again on the break.

We are now shoring things up and 451 is part of that. I would get used to it if I was you. We could play 442 if the likes of Everton or Villa came to our place and did it. But as they won't we can't either as Dunn and Reid cannot cope with a midifeld of Carsley, Fernandes and Cahill! It's that simple.

[CAPT KAYOS]

If we play 442 with a weak central midfield against teams who both have a a very strong central midfield full of powerful players who also string 5 across the middle of the park we will get murdered.

But that's just it ... by playing a midfield with 5 ( well actually 3 + out of form winger + none winger) to me is much worse and weakens even more as we effectively end up playing as a 3 man midfield with a limited attack and are playing just as bad as we do in the wek 442

We are supposed to be a team pushing for Europe and should not be worrying about other teams at home -playing with 5 across the midfield offers nothing IMO than just trying not to lose, which is astonishing for a team in our position at home.

As I have posted before -we outplayed Everton at Goodison playing 442 - and as for the Villa game we just imploded defensively after totally outclassing them for 20 mins with some of the best Footabll I have seen played at Ewood.

As for getting used to it ... will more than likely drive me away, as with many others -its boring and frustrating and again IMO not how football should try and be played.

[AggyBlue]

I thought we played 4-1-4-1. Reid played just in front of the defence.

[Hasta]

Hiya lads Licker here from Toffeetalk, Just read through the topic and i must say i'm amazed at how many supporters read and post in your forum, we're lucky to get 5 or 6 pages on our topics but most of your topics go into double figures.

Had to read through after the Everton match to see what the feeling was about the game, and must admit a very high percentage of you are very honest in your assesments, unlike our forum where every man women and child are 100% convinced that "WE WUZ ROBBED". I thought it was a decent enough game that we just shaded, tho we have played a lot better.

A comment about the offside rule, it seems like we the supporters dont fully understand it, the managers, players and pundits dont fully understand it and its open to different interpretations by different officials, that should'nt be allowed to continue. Imagine such a debatable decision like that occuring in the last game of the season and causing one of the teams to be relegated, the mind boggles at the furore it would cause. Why not go back to what it was, or better still do away with it altogether.

The way i see it .... its 11 against 11 and if Santa Cruz wants to hang about in the penalty area its up to a defender to come back and mark him, it would open the game up, do away with all the contentious decisions and make for a better spectacle, rather than 20 outfield players trying to sqeeze into the centre circle. But doing away with it would be too easy wouldnt it, the suits in the Governing bodies FA, FIFA, and the Premier league, have to come up with some mind boggling rules to make themselves feel important.

Just before i go i would like to thank you all for being so honest and a special thanks to Hasta for a great Preview, wish you all the best for the rest of the season. Cheers.

Licker.

Hiya mate. Welcome aboard

Not sure I'd do away with the offside rule altogether. There'd be that much space on the pitch the scores would end up ridiculous, something like 10-9 every game. In a way it would 'cheapen' a goal. For example the euphoria the Everton fans felt when the contentious 'goal' was scored was plain for all to see. Simlarly had Santa Cruz scored the chance right at the end then as someone else said earlier the roof would have come off Ewood. If every game had lots of goals then it would become something like basketball whereby a hoop (or whatever they call it) is met with generous applause.

If we had to change one way or the other I'd go back to the old method of if your offside then your offide. As I've already said though I'd prefer it if anyone stood offside in the penalty area was offside regardless of interfering or not. That would be a step forward. The most frustrating thing about Saturday if I was an Everton fan was that the officials have not publically come out and said what passage of play the offside was for which tells me they know it was an almighty cock up.

With regard to the site, it's grown steadily for many years now (About 10 to my knowledge). As ozzie says, the childish abuse and comment are quite strictly moderated which in my views keep the quality of the site up. Other disagree and cry about free speech, but there's plenty other 'rival' messageboards they could go on if they don't like it. I'll not say too much though because it's a bit of a touchy subject recently.

Thanks again for answering the questions on the preview. Next time you get asked about any memorable games against Rovers at least now you'll be able to mention the one when you was robbed! Good luck for the rest of the season. Should you have to finish infront of Rovers then, like most on here, we hope it's in 4th.

[CAPT KAYOS]

The most frustrating thing about Saturday if I was an Everton fan was that the officials have not publically come out and said what passage of play the offside was for which tells me they know it was an almighty cock up.

plus the 'no' penalty decision... but at least that evened up for ours although not as clear cut.

I'm still not of the brigade that thinks these even themselves out over the season though.

Another thingthat I just remembered and don't recall anybody mentioning is the booking for Goran - looked like he won the ball to me fair and square and Johnson fell over (again)

[Russ]

On Radio Rovers after the game they spoke to the referee's assessor and he said that after viewing the video footage the goal was offside and it was the correct decision, end of as far as I am concerned and I am getting bored of hearing about it.

The rules suck and hughes is right in saying go back to the old way of just either being off or on - easier for everyone

[Hasta]

On Radio Rovers after the game they spoke to the referee's assessor and he said that after viewing the video footage the goal was offside and it was the correct decision,

That's because he's had time to get his story straight. In the paper today Andy Johnson says he asked the ref at the final whistle why he was offside and the official said because they goalkeeper had come out past him.

[CAPT KAYOS]

That's because he's had time to get his story straight. In the paper today Andy Johnson says he asked the ref at the final whistle why he was offside and the official said because they goalkeeper had come out past him.

Indeed Hasta, but did they get it straight - as I have yet to see anybody say anything about him being off at the beginning when the ball was first played and especially as Russ has posted have just come out saying it was offside without saying when.

If it is as Johson was quoted as saying, it just goes to prove what us fans have been saying for ages in that the officials don't even have a clue which makes it all a big joke.

[roversmum]

To be honest, whatever the decision Rovers made a horrid mess of the situation and it has to be said got lucky.

However, it's done and dusted and will not be changed now, and given the situation we are now in I think we have more to worry about at the moment, like what team we are able to muster for Monday's game against Arsenal.

[Ronin]

Wiley and the officials 'punished' for the match errors, scant consolation I guess.

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0400eve...-name_page.html

[licker]

Doesnt make any difference now tho does it, they should be banned for 3 matches and given a hefty fine for bringing the game into disrepute, instead Wiley is still officiating and presumably still getting paid, and they have given the linesman a weekend off.

Is that supposed to be punishment.

[OJRovers]

Over the 2 games (Goodison/Ewood) this year I think both teams will feel like they maybe should have won the away game, anyone who was at Goodison for the 1-1 probably thought that although it was a good result for us, we should really have won.

So 2 draws maybe evens it out.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Doesnt make any difference now tho does it, they should be banned for 3 matches and given a hefty fine for bringing the game into disrepute, instead Wiley is still officiating and presumably still getting paid, and they have given the linesman a weekend off.

Is that supposed to be punishment.

Exactly licker, and still no explanation why or how they got it wrong.

As we have said, unfortunately for you Toffees you were more on the receiving end us - as generally its normally Rovers that it goes against.

[Hughesy]

Exactly OJ. At Everton we battered them but didnt get the result.

It evens itself out, just look at us last year against West Ham - Unfortunatly Everton are just moaners who feel everything is against them "handball"!!

They should try following the rovers!

[licker]

Yeah i think it does sometimes even itself out. I said on our forum after the game, "i felt we where badly done to but thats the way the cookie crumbles".

My beef is with the officials and their Bosses, they get away with it too many times, and i dont think that any enquiry into this, or previous similar cock-ups has produced any punishment whatsoever.

They just say yes he made several cock-ups so we gave him the weekend off to watch the TV.