[Archived] Liverpool V Rovers

[Fife Rover]

fife, Sky's coverage of the cricket is excellent though.

Football 365 give Gerrard a right shoeing here

And the Pundits here

I don't doubt it Flopsy, but unfortunately Sky won't give me a discount if I promise not to watch any Football, and it is their financial contribution to the PL con trick that I am doing my puny bit to demonstrate against.

Actually that has given me an idea. I will contact Sky and ask them if there is any chance of a Sports package that excludes football and a few other sports I am not interested in, pointing out to them that there must be millions of their customers that don't want football or other sports as well. Perhaps they could devise a package where each customer defines their own package and pays a fee for that configuration.

[1864roverite]

I have waited a good 24hrs and have read all the various views on yesterdays performance or lack of it at Anfield. I have also had to suffer the ignominity of having my 70yr old father in law gloat over the Liverpool win which is more than anyone can put up especially ater a few beers have been sunk.

On the face of it Rovers were the victims of their own calamtious defending. 3 mistakes = 3 goals.

Goal 1 - Why Samba didnt just stand there is something I will never understand but the ball given away was unforgiveable.

Goal 2 - Yet another example of why we should learn to pass to our own players rather than the opposition. Nelsens attempted pass was woeful at best.

Goal 3 - Samba yet again directing the ball to a Liverpool player allowing Voronin a simple tap in.

Did we really deserve to go 3-0 down ? NO we didnt.

Wiley is an incompetent Police Officer, I know this personally having actually had the misfortune to work with him. He is even worse at being or playing referee. His linesman didnt help us at all.

Robert's "goal" should have stood, it matters not whether Reina might have saved it, the ball went in and should have seen Rovers 1-0 up.

When Roberts was hauled down nae assaulted by the Liverpool defender it should have been a red card not a yellow card.

Some other fouls, both by Liverpool and Rovers players went unpunished to exemplify just how inconsistently poor he is.

As for Rovers, well yesterdays game had "holidays beckoning" written all over it. The midfield was lacking creativity, the defence asleep whilst our attack side, until we were 3-0 down, was toothless.

Too much giving the ball away, not enough passing, not enough talking, too much believing in the hype around potential superstar transfers and not enough thought/graft about our potential route into Europe.

That dream is over for the season, unless of course Rovers decide to enter the first rounds which will see us playing a game in June and early July.

I dread to think about a potential scoreline for Saturdays visit of pure scum united. I think we are going to witness the biggest defeat for many a year, especially if we try and defend like that.

Our season has ended on a really really sour note.

[yellowsubmarine]

Bring the old Samba back.

[JAL]

Not sure whether you jest or not Jal

I don't - and not just commenting on this match

As I said I thought it was offside also and would still call it as such

Obviously not that a simple offside law - so much so that all the officials /players /managers/fans don't have a clue

What i'm saying is the officials know exactly what the offside Law is and how to implement it, its just they get it wrong from time to time not that they dont understand it.

[CAPT KAYOS]

What i'm saying is the officials know exactly what the offside Law is and how to implement it, its just they get it wrong from time to time not that they dont understand it.

Far too many time to times IMO and make a total PIGS ear of it

[JAL]

Far too many time to times IMO and make a total PIGS ear of it

Yep, they trot around those officials making a complete 'PIGS' ear of it all

[Paul Mellelieu]

Tell you what Eddie, that's a pretty good post.

Erm, no it isn't. Look at the league table, divide the points gained by pounds spent and we come top.

That's the brutal truth.

As an ex-Burnley manager once said, it's a Mini against a Porche, or something else expensive.

[S15]

Take our team, add up our wages and divide it by points and we most certainly wont.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Take our team, add up our wages and divide it by points and we most certainly wont.

Go on then, it will be interesting to find out.

[ABBEY]

rovers v pompey he means

[Paul Mellelieu]

rovers v pompey he means

Arf arf.

[S15]

rovers v pompey he means

Your comment neither insults or makes any particular sense.

[John]

People keep blaming the fact that our players have gone on holiday. I purely look at the fact that as a team, we are not good enough to (to be in the top six that is).

In addition, to those who are blaming Samba, what do you expect for £400k?

[krislu]

In addition, to those who are blaming Samba, what do you expect for £400k?

An arse on the bench.

[RevidgeBlue]

The brand that is Blackburn Rovers losing what attraction is has currently, which to be honest doesn't seem that much, will be disastrous for the club in the long term.

It needs sorting out and soon.

Been thinking about that statement today Gav and I don't agree in that respect.

There are certain aspects recently that won't particularly endear the club to our own suppoort such as poor home performances and the embarrassment that currently passes as the club shop.

However externally looking in I think the brand is pretty healthy. We are marketing the club better than we ever have done imo, we have finally got it right on pricing, as a result attendances have increased and an away day out at Ewood seems to be viewed as one of the highlights of the season by most sets of travelling supporters.

It is all subject to retaining Premiership status of course.

[philipl]

If you took that photo Ozzie you can't have been sat far away from me?

Did you see a Liverpool fan jump up and down after Santa Cruz scored our conselation - he was celebrating the fact that he had torres to score first and RSC to score the last goal at 150-1 - pretty goo day out for him

Just got back from Liverpool. Incredibly disappointed with the lads and result.

Sounds like a Liverpool fan- Gerald scored first.

[philipl]

Take our team, add up our wages and divide it by points and we most certainly wont.

So a billion spent on wages between 20 teams. That makes £50m each. And we are spending £40m.

We won't be top on points per wages spent, Arsenal probably are, but we will certainly be a lot higher than 9th.

[Ozz]

He was sat behind me -the bet he had was 3-1 Liverpool, hence the joy at the late RSC notch.

[LDRover]

Erm, no it isn't. Look at the league table, divide the points gained by pounds spent and we come top.

That's the brutal truth.

As an ex-Burnley manager once said, it's a Mini against a Porche, or something else expensive.

Sorry Paul but Eddie's point was of Hughes' management style and tactical nous, and I totally agree with him. The fact that he's got us to where we are in the league is a great achievement on our budget I'll grant you that but it doesn't alter the fact that we're playing some pretty dire stuff and have been for about 6 months now.

[S15]

So a billion spent on wages between 20 teams. That makes £50m each. And we are spending £40m.

We won't be top on points per wages spent, Arsenal probably are, but we will certainly be a lot higher than 9th.

It's all speculative, you have no idea what anyone is payed, however many reports or statistics you manipulate.

All I know is our chariman constantly goes on about how we are big wage payers. This to me suggests we feel we have big players. We have payed big wages over the past 5 years, yet in reality haven't hit the heights hoped for when this money was offered to the player/s, this I am sure of of.

Reid, Pedersen, Nelsen, Emerton, Samba, Savage and now McCarthy (On the verge we are told) have all been rewarded with larger contracts than the ones they initially signed with the club. Personally I think it is highly debatable whether these players are worth it, all have gone through 6 month (No more) periods of playing well, then all have had their wages upped. Coincidently, all have stopped performing as well since this wage increase (Emerton aside to be fair, I think he's developed quite nicely for us)

This season has been poor. I admit league position isn't too bad, actually an improvement on last, but has offered little entertainment, which, though some will disagree, is very important in modern Top Flight football, as the chances of any success seemingly are very thin. If your not getting entertained, what are you getting?

[philipl]

Its not speculative at all. Plenty people have been through twenty published accounts and added the line that says "wages" together. Most Directors' comments have included a forecast for the rise paid in the season currently ending.

Result a cool billion.

Rovers were targeting using the Walker Trust wealth to pay above average but now we cannot.

However, the wages paid by Chelsea and Man U do somewhat distort the picture- take those two out and the average is much closer to Rovers' £40m.

[Eddie]

Going back to my point on Hughes.

When is the last time that Hughes out-smarted a manager? When did we last stifle the play of our opposition? I can't remember it ever happening this season. I can't actually remember the last time that it happened. We have outplayed several teams this year, but that has just been when the players have gone out and done their stuff, the approach for each game is virtually the same, yet other teams have come to us with specific game plans that have prevented us from playing to our strengths (the games against our key rivals this season, those against Villa and Portsmouth, games which have ultimately decided whether or not we will be in Europe next season, are prime examples). I also think that this lack of real coaching and tactical nous explains why we regularly make such horrible errors and also why we have failed to address our problems with defending set-pieces and why we have failed to improve on our ability to be a threat from them.

Hughes needs to be a footballing director or whatever they call them. He would be perfectly suited to only handling the transfer side of things and maybe trying to emulate Ferguson or Wenger by using the officials as an excuse after every defeat, but anyone who feels that we have one of the best managers in the league is trying very hard to avoid a lot of the facts.

[ace]

Going back to my point on Hughes.

When is the last time that Hughes out-smarted a manager? When did we last stifle the play of our opposition? I can't remember it ever happening this season.

How many games have we WON this season against teams currently in the top 10?

Answer : Only ONE

[Eddie]

That's a very interesting and revealing statistic. It also makes us the total opposite of what we were under Souness. Maybe we should have Souness and Hughes in charge...

[joey_big_nose]

Reid, Pedersen, Nelsen, Emerton, Samba, Savage and now McCarthy (On the verge we are told) have all been rewarded with larger contracts than the ones they initially signed with the club. Personally I think it is highly debatable whether these players are worth it, all have gone through 6 month (No more) periods of playing well, then all have had their wages upped. Coincidently, all have stopped performing as well since this wage increase (Emerton aside to be fair, I think he's developed quite nicely for us)

WHat are you suggesting? That we don't reward them when they play well? In all likelihood if we don't increase their wages they will look to move. And off the back of six months form loads of clubs would want to buy them - Pedersen, Nelsen, Reid, McCarthy, Savage all aroused serious interest. And then no doubt you would be pulling your eyes out because we couldn'tr hold on to those - who in that moment until the fans decide they are suddenly awful - are seen as our best players.

What you are essentially asking the board to do is look into the future and predict that the players will become rubbish. Which, to me, sounds like a profoundly difficult thing to do.

Also in you analysis you are unfair. Nelsen was excellent for us for 18 months, Samba for nearly a year, Savage a year and a half, McCarthy a year.

You are asking for the impossible. We can't buy players worth serious money because we don't have the cash, and now you are asking us to risk losing those that we do have because we think they might become rubbish at some point in the future?

There is a very strong liklihood David Bentley could have a season next year that is nowhere near as good as this years. Look at the up and down form of Joe Cole, Damien Duff, Aaron Lennon, Michael Owen, I could go on. Should we not offer him a contract on that basis?