[Archived] Rovers V Man United Preview and Match Thread

[Stuart]

We have a manager who is neither proactive or reactive. The game was crying out for fresh legs. We could have kept the shape with the players we had on the bench but just like Bolton our 'gaffer' is found wanting when it comes to making changes. I don't buy all this budget guff, it's just sheer ineptitude in my opinion.

I don't buy the ineptitude guff. To borrow from Gordon, a blind man on a galloping horse could see the need to put some fresh legs on - even before United scored. No-one can be THAT thick.

On a side note, I need to stop listening to the garbage after match broadcast in Radio Rovers. I know they are paid to be biased but it's vomit-inducing!

[Jock]

If that be true its nothing more than a f'kin disgrace especially for a club in our perilous position..we need our best side out possible regardless of cost.

I cant see any other reason for it. The Bolton matches showed why Cuckold Coco wont get sacked.(THEYRE ALL IN IT TOGETHER)

[Tom]

Tom - what about the Bolton game, when we didn't bring on an attacking sub when 1 goal behind in a relegation 6 pointer?

As I said in another thread, how can we stay up with a squad of 12? Venkys will deserve everything they get from this penny pinching excerice whilst us fans watch on helpless.

But this is the United thread not Bolton.

Bolton was shocking, Kean in general is a shocking manager but I was just giving my views on the game tonight that's all.

By the way I wish we would stop allowing away fans in the box behind n01 and let them wind up home fans as they please.

[cn174]

What a farce. You cannot go 90 minutes against Man U, on the back foot for most of it, and not make any changes. Especially when we went 1-0 down, absolute joke, what did he think was going to happen that miraculously we would start putting them under pressure.

I got so mad at that bit at the end when Rio just stood there with the ball, and for about 5 seconds Nzonzi just stood about 10 yards away watching him :@

Lose to west brom and its all over I think.

[roverandout]

what annoyed me was, why the hell wasnt the game put back 10 or 15 minutes, huge traffic jams, most people didnt get into until 10 or so minutes after the game had started including me!!!

[Tom]

Claire I think Nzonzi was sulking at that stage he got in a strop and just stood around, very petulant at times.

Seeing Tugay made me sad can we have him back please?

[Jock]

what annoyed me was, why the hell wasnt the game put back 10 or 15 minutes, huge traffic jams, most people didnt get into until 10 or so minutes after the game had started including me!!!

Sky own football.

[ABBEY]

All you can ask is that the players give everything and they did that tonight. Couldn't do anything about the two goals, with a touch of luck we could've taken the lead.

I am now totally and utterly convinced that Kean is working to a weekly budget in terms of appearance fees/bonuses etc. and his team (including use of subs) is worked around that budget. Tonight after 75 minutes we needed to make some changes to get the energy levels up a little bit, but nothing happened, the lack of substitutions is starting to become a big issue.

If this is true is it legal and if kean had ANY balls he would say to the scummy owners f this we need to compete and not have hands tied with bonus ######. If he was a man he'd stand up to them . Worse case for him he gets sacked and a big wedge.

Black called Dunn over and who stopped the impending sub?

And as for the utd fans in the boxes alls I will say the big brave stewards are quick to wade into the darwen end folk.

[RevidgeBlue]

I listened to the end of the Radio Rovers broadcast tonight thinking I had been watching a different game. According to them it seems they thought we played extremely well. I thought we were absolutely dreadful. The only way to play a team like United is to deny them as much space as possible and stop them playing their normal game. If you give a team like United the freedom of the pitch and camp deep in your own half there's only going to be one outcome whether they score early or later on as actually happened. It looked like we were simply content to try to keep the scoreline down to respectable proportions. Is that acceptable for a side playing at home that should be fighting for every ball in asn attempt to stave off relegation?

We didn't turn up at Bolton either. If we don't show a lot more fight spirit and commitment in the last seven games we'll be going down with barely a whimper.

[dubdubdub]

Thought Kean set the team up well and we were just lacking Formica at the end. United's class shone through. Thought everyone played well.

I think people are forgetting we're up against the league champions here.

We soaked up a hell of a lot of pressure and managed to create equally good chances as they did. They just had the will, skill and athleticism to win it at the end.

Some tough games to come but the will is there. I think if we play like that against Liverpool we'll have a good chance of taking something.

[cn174]

Claire I think Nzonzi was sulking at that stage he got in a strop and just stood around, very petulant at times.

Seeing Tugay made me sad can we have him back please?

He's not paid to be sulking. He's paid to try and pass the ball forward once in a while!

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

'commited' is the only word i can use to describe rovers' performance as, not much else to say, man utd were in first gear the whole game, they didnt really need to step out of it as rovers backed off time and time again, teams like fulham with a proper manager show what you can nearly achieve when you have a go at them, rovers rarely did that the whole match, apart from a few half chances, hanley and ollson, if this is the yardstick with which we use for the rest of the season then we are screwed!!!

I think to use Fulham as a yard stick is a little misleading - they were out played for much of the match - but managed to hang in and shoudl have had a penalty. In many ways it was like Rovers performance - but they hung in towards the end - whereas the second goal killed us.

[Tom]

He's not paid to be sulking. He's paid to try and pass the ball forward once in a while!

He does sometimes, just 3 seconds after he should do

[dubdubdub]

I listened to the end of the Radio Rovers broadcast tonight thinking I had been watching a different game. According to them it seems they thought we played extremely well. I thought we were absolutely dreadful. The only way to play a team like United is to deny them as much space as possible and stop them playing their normal game. If you give a team like United the freedom of the pitch and camp deep in your own half there's only going to be one outcome whether they score early or later on as actually happened. It looked like we were simply content to try to keep the scoreline down to respectable proportions. Is that acceptable for a side playing at home that should be fighting for every ball in asn attempt to stave off relegation?

We didn't turn up at Bolton either. If we don't show a lot more fight spirit and commitment in the last seven games we'll be going down with barely a whimper.

Have you watched United before? Put pressure on them and dive in and they tear you apart. That's what they want.

We sat back and soaked it up and created chances.

[jim mk2]

I got so mad at that bit at the end when Rio just stood there with the ball, and for about 5 seconds Nzonzi just stood about 10 yards away watching him :@

I think to be fair Nzonzi like the rest of the team was absolutely shattered by that stage. United played at high pace the whole game and had the luxury of using 13 or 14 players - our bare 11 did well to hold out for 80mins

[dubdubdub]

He's not paid to be sulking. He's paid to try and pass the ball forward once in a while!

N'Zonzi needed to pass the ball backwards or we'd have been defending for 100% of the game.

[G Somerset Rover]

I know he's a tryer but I don't think Lowe will ever cut it as a decent prem midfielder. He looks frightened on the ball and gives it to N'Zonzi at every opportunity. Our midfield, to be frank, is simply terrible and just one of the many reasons that we are where we are.

[ruggles1995]

venkys will be please with this result... man utd closer the the title which triggers 2 more million from phil jones transfer in2 the pockets.

[Kelbo]

Thought Kean set the team up well and we were just lacking Formica at the end. United's class shone through. Thought everyone played well.

I think people are forgetting we're up against the league champions here.

We soaked up a hell of a lot of pressure and managed to create equally good chances as they did. They just had the will, skill and athleticism to win it at the end.

Some tough games to come but the will is there. I think if we play like that against Liverpool we'll have a good chance of taking something.

Kean didnt set that team up, Black did, Kean hadnt got the nouse, having said that, our ball retention was awful!!

[dubdubdub]

Yeah...

[AggyBlue]

Shame that Valencia fella wasn't good enough for us.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Time for me to be unpopular

I thought we set out with the right gameplay and almost pulled it off brilliantly but for one or two amazing saves.

We limited united in the whole to half chances and but for two worldie strikes kept them out.

As for subs I thought our shape was perfect and any midfield changes would risk that although I would have brought modeste on for Yakubu to give us an outlet later on or maybe Dunn for pedersen, either way it was a risk but not sure it was a deciding factor.

The difference was quality in the end and would have been under any manager in the world I imagine, never mind the poor excuse we have now.

I agree - somehow people seem to think we are going to go from the ineptitude we showed against Bolton to playing United off the park.

Subs - well seen some of the conspiracy theories - if true would be like the old saying "sinking the ship for a penny worth of tar" - but for the moment will see them just as theories.

Substitutions - and their timing - will rarely fit in with what fans think. I would have brought on somebody with fresh legs - and to be honest when 2-0 down would have brought off Hoilett and the Yak to safe them for later matches. BUT - as you say - the team pattern was working - for all their possession we had roughly the same number of chances. To be honest I am a little surprised at peoples reaction.

[S60tti_BRFC]

John Newsham and co... you should be disgraced tonight! Allowing United fans in boxes in the Jack Walker to goad fans and incite trouble and they are allowed to get away with it! But yet when Rovers fans enter the Darwen End they need to be searched in case they have banners that 'may' incite trouble. Get your priorities sorted. Rovers aren't about anything other than the $$$ any more! Sold ourselves to the devil and we shall not be returning for a while yet.

[RevidgeBlue]

Kean didnt set that team up, Black did, Kean hadnt got the nouse, having said that, our ball retention was awful!!

If that performance tonight was down to Black then we need our 4th new coach of the season.

"Stand 20-40 yards off the player with the ball, sit back on the edge of our own area for 90 minutes and just hope they don't find a way past us.

Unacceptable.

[Joar]

venkys will be please with this result... man utd closer the the title which triggers 2 more million from phil jones transfer in2 the pockets.

I'm fairly certain they are aware that the financial loss of relegation is far worse than that 2 million gain there... I mean, they have to, right? Right? or...