joey_big_nose

Hmmmm. Shows we really need Tugay or Ferguson in the middle to spray the ball around. We seemed to lack ideas and our defence did not seem as sound as it has been. Interesting to see we have a real neck and neck race for the wide positions. Four players who are all more than capable of starting from recent evidence. John Stead sounded poor which was a real shame after looking like he was making real strides. Matteo, if our mate Niel is anything to go by, was woeful and suspended for Portsmouth. Niell suspended too. Major reshuffle on the cards. I really hope Ferguson is not serious. We are still stacking up the players- two new debuts today on top of our already high amount of player usage. I am not saying it is a bad thing but after the transfer window we could honestly make an all time rovers (even national?) record for players used in a season.

Is anybody else perplexed by the Rovers world commentary team? Niel is absolutely first class- honestly as good as anything Sky or the BBC have while his partner (cant remember his name, the one who announces the team etc. at ewood) is awful. He gets right on my nerves.

I wonder weather Hughes will be interested in bringing Gallagher on. Without Ferguson we are lacking some creativity which Paul could provide. It would be a bit risky but maybe take Thompson off and hope that Mokeona and Flitcroft can soak up their midfield.

Mokoena on for Ferguson. I hope he can pass.........

Fridel mistake- 1-1

The great MGP test begins. It might not be an exaggeration to say that his Blackburn career hangs on this.

Looks like we should start looking elsewhere, even just as a contingency plan.... Whose available in that position? Names I came up with are: Van Bommel (I wish) Joey Barton Vince Grella Sidwell Amdy Faye Um, thats about it. As Spurs have offloaded Redknapp they are no longer over stocked with midfielders. There is, I suppose, a faint possibility of Alexi Smertin becoming available- that is well worth a look. Graveson is out of our league.

sounds like Emerton and Reid too Thats not fair, Emerton has beaten loads of players in recent games using a bit of trickery. If only he could use his left....

whats shocking about that is that you have not even included Gresko or Spector. We need to start selling soon, bloody hell.

Deathwish, Flopsy, deathwish.

I can completely understand why Birmingham are ###### off. Their best player and captain has handed in a transfer request to move down the table. This board would be in uproar if Ferguson did that to us, ailing parents or not.

Could be a very interesting game.....

Exactly, you can judge who you like personally, but the true point is how many people like them. I hate to admit this, but using that guage, the Spice Girls are one of the greatest musical acts ever. Nonsense, you cannot critique things that way. It is just rank popularism. Say the majority of people were hooked on heroin and they loved it I think it would still be acceptable to say it was a terrible thing. I would also think it would be an easily defensible judgement, indee ultimately correct one, that Shakespear is a more entertaining cultural figure than the spice girls, despite being (probably) less appreciated in general. It is a funny thing, a bit like morality. Everybody knows they shouldnt steal and to not often make an argument for justyfying it on a general level. However some individuals sometimes cannot control their base urges or conspire to commit wrong for the pleasure of satisfying them. What I am saying is listening to the spice girls, or indeed heavy metal, equates to theft.

No chance if its 1-0. Only way he will get a game is if we score another or they score one or two. Personally I just want to see us win.

ANybody found a feed for the game on free premiership? Palace are on ESPN.

I am definately in the bring a few of the rested players in camp: Thompson, Gallagher, Pedersen, Tugay (is he fit?) should all get a look in even if just from the bench. Thompson and Gallaghers ability to run and run should see them start in place of Stead and one of Reid/Emerton. Also, If there was ever a time to give MGP a crack, this is it. My crazy team I realise this is a bit extreme and I am not suggestung it should stay this way- our midfield has been performing very well- but we have a huge squad so we should try and use it to our advantage in games like this.

I was a big fan of him in his successfull years but I have never seen anyone so proud and willing to let personal grievences affect his job so much. The only manager who really works in a similar way is Alex Ferguson but he has the luxery of having enough cash to replace those thrown out of the club (Beckham, Stam etc.) and better judgement in picking players. What I cant understand is at Rovers to begin with he played an excellent system of a tight defence, technically gifted midifeld and talented forwards. Fair enough, he inherited Dunn, Duff, Berg and Jansen but he brought in Thompson, Tugay, Cole and Yorke to further this style of play. Yet he progressively abadoned this and developed a new philosophy of putting "eleven real men" on the field irrespective of their ability to play together. I defended it at the time but you have to hold your hands up and say it was nothing less than lunacy. I thought he might of learned his leason by Newcastle and Blackburn's rapid decent under this policy but he was still singing the same tune yesterday in a media interview. Newcastle have got major problems. He might pull them out of the rut but he will slowly take apart the squad and I guarantee he will spend a fortune on average players. ps. As a side point I think we are playing now exactly as Souness intended in the post Duff era. A hard working midfield defending and attacking as a unit- Indeed when Emerton, Reid, Ferguson and Flitcroft are out on the pitch I doubt there is a midfield in the premeirship with that high a work rate. Hughes was quite fortunate in inheriting players who suit his type of tactics and management. What was bizarre was that if Souness wanted his team to play like that why didnt he get their fitness up to scratch?

Hang on a bit MCM1875. Surely the gain is to sell Ferguson in order to procure the services of Savage, Gabbidon and Hartson. I would argue tha we would not really be a better side with Savage, Hartson and Gabbidon. We definately would be a better side with Ferguson, Savage and a new striking alternative. I do not feel that Hartson or Gabbidon would guarantee scoring more goals and conceding less. Plus Savage and Hartson will be worth nothing in a season and a halfs time. Ferguson should still be at the very least worth that three million (providing no injuries etc)

While I agree with you that Ferguson will never reach the dizzy heights of Gerrard, Duff, Shearer, Viera etc I still think you are selling him a bit short. He is a creator and a grafter and he has had little to work with in terms of movement or coherance upfront. I think he has it well within him to be as good as players like Hargreaves, Jenas, Gravesen, Parker even Makelele given the chance. The acid test will be after the window when he has (hopefully) a quality partner and a proficent striker to play with Dickov. ps. The one thing that does annoy me about him is that sometimes he dosnt seem to want to stamp his authority on a game like he quite plainly could. I dont mean he shirks the ball or anything just he goes about his business in a very low key way.

Ferguson, despite not really setting the world alight yet, is our most talented player and what the team will be built around. To sell him and reshuffle the side is just asking for trouble no matter how much cash we get. He was, at least on current evidence, not quite worth the money we paid and has been nowhere near as influencial as Tugay or Duff in their pomp but the fact remains that if we want to get back where we were three years ago we need to keep him. With a good central midfield partner and better striking options he should be able to become the lynchpin we want. To sell and even get nine million would be not guarantee improvement. We would have to go out to the market again and then wait for the team to settle again. Hughes will do everything he can to keep him.

Its a good point that, we have one of the largest squads in the division at the moment so we could rotate a bit. Pedersen, Gallagher, Gray, Jansen, Tugay etc. are all capable of putting in a game without performing awfully. Major benefits could be reaped from using fresh legs.

We are obviously a very hard team to play at the moment. One loss in eight games. Plus it is fair to say that mostl of those games we have looked the better side. Should have picked up three points today and a Everton last week. Nonetheless it will be a completely different kettle of fish against Bolton due to their directness and reliance on set pieces. We are awful at defending freekicks and so on so I expect we might get a bit of a kicking in that department. Another 2-2 draw.

Check out the stats:- Rovers: 11 shots, 1 Goal Newcastle: 2 shots, 2 Goals Typical.....

So many still refer to the Rovers performance against Spurs as being awful but its obvious now that they have won 4 on the bounce and annhialated Soton that they were playing earlier this season to get Santini sacked. Our biggest problem was timing, if we had played em 2 wks earlier we would prob have had 3 more points. It'll be interesting to see where they finish and a lot will depend on them keeping King and Defoe away from Arse and Chelsea and Keane away from Everton in January. Never shy of your own trumpet TND..... Seriously while i agree that we lack strikers which come anywhere near the quality of Spurs' strikeforce we are decent i most other areas. I would stick my neck out and say that, Ledley King aside, the rest of the Spurs squad is much of a muchness with ours (Carrick, Davis,Brown etc promise much but are not really firing yet). Indeed I would say that Ferguson would walk into their team and I reckon they would give Emerton a crack at their left side (he was actually connected with them recently) and their full backs seemed as bad as ours, in fact Niell was the best FB on the pitch by a distance. The idea that we are poor all over the pitch in the way that Southampton, West Brom and Palace are is a myth. We have some great players, especially in midfield, while the likes of Todd and Reid have really come good. Gallagher promises alot, Dickov works hard but frankly we lack confidence and power up front. Hughes will be licking his lips. Two or three quality signings and the injection of some belief in the side and we have the potential to rocket up the table. He has, as you said yourself, made us hard to beat and will now look at the attacking side of the game. Can people give the "oh God, we are so awful" a rest....... it is just not true.

Thats a great post Bryan, but there is an additional element to it I think. Reid and Emerton work very hard and are defensively sound while providing a moderate attacking threat. I would imagine the fear is that MGP might not be able to perform defensively as well due to his sleder physique and more attacking mentality. With a relatively lightweight midfield pairing of Ferguson and Tugay, even Flitcroft cant throw himself around that well these days, it might be a major concern that we will find it hard to get posession in the first place and our left in particular- with so many problems at full back too- could be dangerously exposed. I am sure these factors are working against MGP too.