[Archived] Birmingham City Away

[broadsword]

Disgrace is the right word - I don't think Allardyce gives two stuffs about the fans at all.

If he'd rather play away games with none of our fans present then he's going the right bloody way about it.

I was embarrassed to see my team play like that. It was almost unwatchable. And I do wonder if the players do really want to play for him. We've got to be near the bottom of the "second half league" which points to fairly uninspiring team talks.

Doom and gloom.

[thenodrog]

Aint that the truth!

Can't be bothered to look back at whats been said. I'm sure it makes for depressing reading. So apologies if this is echoing whats already been said.

Starting from the back.

Chimbonda - Masked his errors with some good covering tackles. But last night was not one of his best performances for me. Beaten too often and far too easily. Got caught up field on a couple of occasions almost leading to goals on the break.

PLAYING TRIANGLES / OVERLAPPING ETC WITH ANDREWS AND EHD MUST BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN WITH BERT AND N'ZONZI.

Andrews - At one point in the 2nd half he delivered the worst cross i've EVER seen. Gave the ball away cheaply far far too often and that is very understated. Shambles. The only saving grace is he was not a starter.

HOPELESS CASE

Diouf - If he never puts a Rovers shirt on again i'll be a happy man. I find it amazing he once commanded a £10m fee. Absolutely no fire in his belly. Please shut the door on your way out.

POOR ATTITUDE AND COMMITMENT THIS SEASON

Pedersen - Usual performance. Effort was little more than OK. If he leaves in January i'll not lose any sleep over it. That bloody throw in business is laughable. Its like watching a repeat each time. He takes them so far out now, they rarely have the distance. Even when they do Samba always fouls someone. Pointless.

WINDING DOWN HIS CAREER AT BRFC IMO. HIS WORST ASSET IS HIS ALMOST LONG THROW. WE KEEP TRYING IT BUT ALL THE OPPOSITION KNOW HIS LIMIT IS JUST SHORT OF THE 6 YARD BOX. FOR LONG THROWS TO WORK THEY HAVE TO BE AS LONG AS DELAPS SO THAT THERE CAN BE SOME VARIATION ALLOWING HIS TEAMMATES TO STRING ALONG THE 6 YARD BOX. ALSO THEY NEED VARYING WITH SHORT ONES. COUNTLESS TIMES LAST NIGHT HE LAUNCHED IT INTO THE USUAL SPOT WHILST TEAMMATES WERE UNMARKED IN MIDFIELD.

N'Zonzi - OK didn't have the best of games. He's very very raw and was outclassed last night by two very accomplished players in Ferguson and Bowyer. Not concerned too much though. When he matures and develops he'll hopefully learn where to focus his energy.

DIFFICULT MATCH TO SHINE IN WHEN YOU ARE TEAMED WITH THE DISINTERESTED MGP AND EHD AND THE TOTALLY INEPT ANDREWS.

Roberts - Watching dearest Jason last night was like watching an FA Cup tie between a PL and Conference side. Some big bulky striker sprinting about with no end product. He just gets by on effort alone. I do believe his work ethic has a place at the club. But please can he just come off the bench to ruffle some feathers once in a while. He's not a starter. Not by a long way.

HE IS A ONE TRICK PONY WHOSE TRICK IS NOT VERY EFFECTIVE ANYMORE.

The above (with the exception of N'Zonzi) were the real low points. The ONLY real plus point for me was Kalinic and Hoilett. Hoilett needs to be given a good run in the side. He can really hurt the opposition. As for Kalinic, i am rapidly starting to see why we paid £6m for him. The boy has got some class. Very neat link up play at times. Always let down by an ineffective outlet. Roberts was the most useless foil for him. Completely different wavelenghts. I think if we'd have played Benni or Di Santo we'd have pegged them back in and the course of the game would have shifted significanty.

AGREED.

[SamTheShrew]

not often i say i'm embarassed of my team, but I agree Bryan, last night was it.

too many times this season rovers havent even turned up. its unfair on those who spend good money going to see the games.

you have to wonder what preparation is going into the days before a game

[mellison24]

Ok. New Day. Still bad. Hoilett on the wing, McCarthy (or Dunn if fit) in the hole behind DiSanto and Kalinic MUST be order of the day for the Spuds game.

[Boz]

What a dire display by Rovers.

1st goal - For a supposedly well organised team, we didn't appear capable of defending a short corner.

EHD, yes you were the only one marking, but at least try to cut the cross out by the player you are meant to be watching, if he then cuts it back to his mate then you can at least question where Kalanic (or whomever was supposed to be doubling up for short corners) was, but please don't just allow them to throw a cross in from the by line unimpeded.

2nd goal - MGP when the full back races forward, makes an overlap and cuts the ball back from the by line, you really need to take a look at your contribution, or lack one, and question whether you should be on the pitch if Stephen Carr can make you look such a fool.

An utterly inept display from these two players highlighted, something which I had hoped I would not have to witness again after the Pompey 1st half.

As the Moody Blues said...

Since you gotta go,

Oh, you better go now, go now (go now)

[modes98]

Bad performance last night but I don't think it was helped by the team selection. All the brum fans I spoke to couldn't speak highly enough of the threat we had when Hoilett came on, why not start with him?

Equally why start with Kalinic and Roberts up front, who have not got a good partnership. I think any other 2 would have worked better and maybe not sent out the message that we were going to try and play head height football all match long. The way to beat Brum was to outplay them, not beat them in the air.

Andrews should not be taking set pieces or even be on the pitch. IMO Sam missed a great chance at 1-0 down to bring on Benni or Hoilett and change it up when Emerton came off. Instead he went more defensive.

Diouf did nothing.

MGP did very little.

Roberts finishing is poor and he offered little else.

[thenodrog]

What a dire display by Rovers.

1st goal - For a supposedly well organised team, we didn't appear capable of defending a short corner.

EHD, yes you were the only one marking, but at least try to cut the cross out by the player you are meant to be watching, if he then cuts it back to his mate then you can at least question where Kalanic (or whomever was supposed to be doubling up for short corners) was, but please don't just allow them to throw a cross in from the by line unimpeded.

ALLOWING THE OPPOSITION TO PICK OUT PLYAERS WITH A FREE CROSS IS A RECURRING FAULT THIS SEASON. IT NEEDS ADDRESSING ASAP.

2nd goal - MGP when the full back races forward, makes an overlap and cuts the ball back from the by line, you really need to take a look at your contribution, or lack one, and question whether you should be on the pitch if Stephen Carr can make you look such a fool.

I SPOTTED THAT TOO. AS CARR RACED AWAY (FOUND BY A TOP PIECE OF PLAY FROM THE EXCELLENT BOWYER) MGP TROTTED DISINTERESTEDLY ALONG IN HIS WAKE. NO EXCUSES WHATSOEVER. IN CONTRAST THE VETEREN RYAN GIGGS WOULD HAVE BEEN TEARING BACK. I KNOW MGP IS NOT AS GOOD AS GIGGS BUT SURELY HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO MATCH THAT LEVEL OF FITNESS AND EFFORT? THAT COSTS NOTHING.

[Roaming Rover]

Same old story for me, and why people are still not fully behind big Sam. It has nothing to do with his Bolton connections but the fact that when he does seem to have figured it out and go some enthusiasm and belief in the players and fans he goes and kills it in the next game.

Pompy first half shocking, we get a goal and seem to want to play 2nd half. Next game we revert back to the team and formation of the Pompy first half. Bolton, a very good performance with 2 upfront, so what do we do against Stoke, go back to one upfront. We seem to find something that works with formation and players then completely change it next game. Although, I appreciate Dunn being injured has not helped.

For me you can not play MGP and Diouf in the same team as they are very similar players, in that they get the ball and give it. They do not take play forward and with a central midfield like ours we need an outlet. i.e. Hoilett. Especially when Brett was clearly not fit.

As has been mentioned with MGP and his secret weapon. They go to the same spot everytime. I turned to my mate and said he needs to do a couple of short throws etc so the opposition can not defend them as easily as they don’t know what is coming.

For me Birmingham are not a fantastic side, but have some good players and seem to play to their strengths. I guess a bit like us under Hughes. But last night we made them look like genuine title contenders with some of the football they were aloud to play.

[Majiball]

Well what do you say to that, awful.

I was optimistic after our last few games, we 'd finally figured out that a team full of internationals can pass the ball 10-15 yards along the ground. We'd played well showed some thought and variety in our play and has started to look less like Blackburn Warriors and more like Rovers again.

The line-up last night was baffling alomst whole sale changes to our midfield and strikers, leaving our better players on the bench. Kalinic got the start I've been hankering for but alas he had no hope last night. Roberts I've never really spoken highly of him but at least he tried, last night even that was missing we should have played a manquin instead. Pedersen's crossing was dire most barely made the first man, how far has he fallen? Celtic he's all yours.

All in all that was one of the worst performances I can remember and at times I question whether we are a football team and not a rugby team. I have seen non-league teams who play the game better than us when we resort to punting all night. Why do we do it??? We are so predictable, Birmingham were barely streched all game I'm not even sure we once got in behind there defence and turned them. I can only now assume that our little triangles of passing before we punt it up field is to warp the statistics so long balls are one in four and as such we will not be a statisticsal long ball team.

Get back to playing football lads and throw this blitz style out of the window, Birmingham a team full off championship class players especially at the back lapped it up. You where slowly getting me back on side Sam with some more Rovers like displays last night put me right back where I was. Its not good enough, especially when you consider the level of player we have at our club. Full of internationals and yet we cannot get them to play as a unit, move into space or create and exploit it, we also seem in capable of keeping the ball. The hardest part of the game is when you don't have the ball with our possesion @ 40% we're only making a hard job harder.

It truly is time to expand the backroom team, we need fitter players, we need idea's on the pitch imagination, creativity, we need another coach. If our players can't cope with 3 in a week then a sports scientist is required one that embraces both science and football. Our players are capable of playing much better than this, sort it the (Please don't use that word again) out, because fans will stop coming if this is the way forward for rovers.

Dire & awful and I hope we sort it out for saturday.

[roversmum]

All. I. want. for. Christmas. is. never. to. see. Jason. Roberts. in. a. Rovers. Shirt. ever. again...

[joey_big_nose]

We were shocking in the first 60 mins last night. Did well in the last half hour, although it was an artillery barrage rather than football, and probably should have equalised (although they could have got two more...). In contrast to most here I though pedersen was okay. His set piece delivery was excellent (when was the last time we said that?) and he retained the ball better than anyone else in our midfield.

Diouf was utterly appalling.

We really missed Grella and Di Santo - ROberts and Kalinic couldn't gold up the ball in Brumis half, and we couldn't retain the ball in midfield. Andrews did some okay forward passing but consistently gave away possession with simple passes - not acceptable!

Hoilett changed the game.

Di Santo, Hoilett and (please be fit!) one of Dunn or Grella in on the weekend!

After that I am pretty sure that we will be seeing a massive effort to sign Hoilett and buy a creative midfielder in Jan.

I am not usually one to call for changes but it is pretty apparent that these guys have little to offer the club going forward:- Andrews (20k) Pedersen (35k) Roberts (30k) Reid (35k) Rigters (15k) Zurab (20k) Diouf (40k) We need to shift those seven, probably saving around 190k per week, or roughly 10m per season. Even after balancing the 5m wage deficit it should allow us 5m in wages to spend on a central midfielder, a winger and a striker which is what we immediately need, and hopefully supplement from the Academy.

[47er]

We have a real problem on the left flank. To me it looks like Celtic have a deal--MGP will waste his time and our money till the end of the season then go for nothing, Hoilett wants away (though he tries hard) and Doeuf seems to have given up. For me its a no-brainer----Hoilett while we have him. I never want to see Roberts OR Andrews again but I guess injuries will probably mean we will see Andrews at least as a sub. Honestly anyone on the books would have done better than those 4 last night.

As for missing Grella--we have signed a crock (or Ince did). We are never going to be able to rely on him.

[LeftWinger]

Didn’t make it to this one, but here are my ratings from the comfort of my front room….

Robinson – 6 – Could do nothing about their goals and made a decent save at the end after rushing back from a corner.

Chimbonda – 6 – Not at his best, gave the ball away a few times, but made a couple of good tackles.

Samba – 6 – Did ok

Nelsen – 6 – Not too bad, but lacked pace against Jerome and gave away a soft corner for the opener

Givet – 6 – He’s far better at centre-back for me.

Emerton – 6 – Did ok before he got injured

N’Zonzi – 6 – Failed to impose himself like he has done so far this season. Unlucky to get booked I thought.

Pedersen – 3 – What has happened to him? He gets worse and worse. Created the goal, but in general his set pieces are nowhere near the threat they were 3 years ago.

Diouf – 2 – At least Pedersen was noticeable. If Diouf didn’t get booed by the home supporters, you wouldn’t have even noticed him at all.

Kalinic – 7 – I like him, definitely something of the ‘Jansen’ about him. Tired towards the end I thought, but unlucky with his late header off the line.

Roberts – 2 – As bad as Diouf, the worst first touch I’ve ever seen on a footballer and seemed totally uninterested.

McCarthy – 6 – Didn’t do much, but he is so much more of a threat than Roberts.

Andrews – 5 – Unlike Diouf and Roberts, at least he tried. One horrendous pass nearly gave a goal away, but he can’t be used as the scape goat here, not his fault he’s not good enough.

Hoillet – 6 – Along with Kalinic, the only real positive from the game. Looked a threat, but possibly needs to work on beating his man and whipping a cross in a bit more.

[G Somerset Rover]

I back Sam, but the fact is he keeps chopping and changing the team, the front line had no idea tonight, they were like strangers. Why play Di Santo all season so far then toss Kalanic on with Roberts, I would much rather see Kalanic with Di Santo true they have no more game time together than tonights pairing, but Roberts is absolute pap and you know it. Our defence looked so w*** early on in the season because he kept swapping and tinkering, it does appear that he doesnt know who his best team are.

Totally agree and I mentioned it in another thread too. FACT - he doesn't know his best team. So what he's doing is swapping and tinkering every single game and it's hurting us and meaning that nobody except our defence is gaining any form of understanding. We made four changes and only one was enforced. What the heck did EHD, Roberts and MGP do do warrant a start? How can Kalinic be expected to tear up the league when he's getting minutes here and there and each time with a different partner?!

We lived up to every stereotype going last night. Hoof ball, route one, ugly - the lot. We could have played til next bleddy Christmas and still not have scored from open play last night. It's boring!

[Hughesy]

Keep seeing stuff like 'Utter disgrace by Allardyce - his team, his tactics etc........'

Utter bullsh!t - Andrews wasnt his signing, nor Roberts, nor Gamst....Diouf was - but he had a massive impact last season when it mattered most. I can see the logic in trying again with Gamst & Diouf last night - for a reaction from them, Gamst did ok, Diouf obviously didnt get the warning!

As for the tactics - He played 4-4-2 as some keep calling for.

As for Brum - they were not miles better, they simply work hard and got 2 very poor defended goals. We were poor and they still looked average at best.

Too many under-performing players.....but its been that case for about 3 years now with the likes of Roberts & Gamst!

[tcj_jones]

Rubbish Hughesy!

If you see a player punt a hopeless 50 yard lob up to the strikers, you tell them not to. If the player's haven't got the fire in their bellies, then you instil the fear of God in them. If your strike partnership just isn't working, you change it at half time.

Hoilett and McCarthy on the bench, Diouf and Roberts starting - our two worst performers subsequently replaced by our best two performers. That was Sam's choice.

Roberts and Kalinic up front together - Sam's choice.

There is no stability in the side. Part of that is because of Grella and Dunn's seeming inability to stay fit, but what on earth is the good in constantly mixing up the front pair and shifting between 4-5-1 and 4-4-2?

The long ball game can be very effective but not with aimless punts up the pitch to nobody. If it isn't working, you need to be able to put the ball on the floor and at least not gift it back to the opposition. We didn't do that until it was too late - Sam's fault.

[adopted scouser]

3 points from 5 games, what a load of cr@p

[Hughesy]

He probably reverted to 4-4-2 because our deluded fans keep singing 'sort it out' and '4-4-2'.......They call for it week in week out - when it happens it goes wrong and then its not their fault at all. The 4-4-2 didnt get chance to work when we concede soft goals like that!

It didnt work - we didnt seem up for it - thats the way the cookie crumbled! Too many basic errors allowed Brum to take control - FACT!

This board can be so depressing some times....lighten up lads - We should of got a point, we didnt - not the end of the world

We missed Grella in that game & Dunn.....

3 points from 5 games, what a load of cr@p

or 9 in 7 games - dress it up how you want to suit your arguement!

[broadsword]

He probably reverted to 4-4-2 because our deluded fans keep singing 'sort it out' and '4-4-2'.......They call for it week in week out - when it happens it goes wrong and then its not their fault at all. The 4-4-2 didnt get chance to work when we concede soft goals like that!

This board can be so depressing some times....lighten up lads - We should of got a point, we didnt - not the end of the world

The fans pick the team now??? The manager is responsible for team selection, tactics, substitutions, the lot. don't put it on the fans.

We shouldn't have got a point, we played absolute gash. It was park football, and made me cringe.

I wonder what percentage of our goals we've scored from open play?

[bellamy11]

This board can be so depressing some times....lighten up lads - We should of got a point, we didnt - not the end of the world

That's a harder sell to those of us who gave up free time and spent good money travelling to Brum last night to watch that shower in the freezing cold. We should not of (sic) got a point - we should have got beat because we deserved to, and that's exactly what happened. The players were embarassing. I resent the notion that Sam cannot possibly do anything wrong because IMO, and the opinion of many others, he has made a lot of mistakes recently.

[G Somerset Rover]

I wonder what percentage of our goals we've scored from open play?

Dunn aside not very many I'd wager and as I said it's becoming so boring when our only chance for goals come from set pieces. I couldn't defend us to any neutral who watched last night.

As an aside I hope Allardyce isn't telling the team behind closed doors "Clear up one or two defensive errors and that match could have gone either way". We're not testing opposition keepers at all and it takes Ryan Nelsen to show the rest how to smash a ball in from 3 yards. Anyone would think we're just getting hit on the sucker punch with the way Allardyce talks post match.

[tcj_jones]

The fans pick the team now??? The manager is responsible for team selection, tactics, substitutions, the lot. don't put it on the fans.

We shouldn't have got a point, we played absolute gash. It was park football, and made me cringe.

I wonder what percentage of our goals we've scored from open play?

I'd say less long balls are played in your average Sunday League park game than were played in last night's Premier League match.

[cesus]

The lack of pace in our team is getting to an almost critical level! With our love are going behind in away games this absolutely plays into the hands of home teams, soak up our long balls and play on the break. I'm starting to wonder if we should even play wingers they don't whip any sort of dangerous balls into the box, I'm quite confident Pedersen and diouf (pains me to even say his name after last nights debacle) have yet to beat a defender this season.

As a club we seem to have faith in "American Football" style of play in playing for yards so we can use Pedersens cannon style throws which have a 85% success rate .... of conceeding free kicks. If we are going to persist in this style of play (which I think must be a major tactic of our game when you see how often our wingers let the ball roll out of play when we have possession in dangerous areas) I cannot see the use of wingers.

For me in view of our insistance of playing these tactics we need a split of players, we need 2 strikers for me at the moment Kalinic and Di Santo are probably first choice with either Dunn or McCarthy playing in the hole behind them. We need 2 defensive midfielders to make up for the lack of pace who patrol the midfield and don't allow themselves to push on too far N'Zonzi/Grella, supported by somebody with a good engine Emerton to help with the attacking and defending. The back 4 sort of picks itself the problems arise when Givet and Chimbonda need to attack as their chronic lack of pace puts us in allsorts of danger when moves break down.

Its all abit worrying though as we clearly have no money and we have no assests to sell so I question how much can be done in January. Bentley would be lovely but I doubt we could even afford his wages if he was available for loan, which I doubt.

In Big Sam we trust

[broadsword]

It wasn't just the balls that were played, it was the ball control. It was an embarrassment to Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

I feel that play like that is contagious, it just needs a few players to hump it lump it and thump and it spreads throughout the side.

It's this cynical throwback of a manager we've got.

[Jackson]

What I just can't understand is that we all pretty much agree on our preferred line-up, as does everyone I speak to.

I can see it, you can see it, they can see it, why can't he see it?

Baffling.