It's not as simple as that. A great part of MGP's game is the amount of defensive work he puts in, he's been doing that all season, but it goes mostly unnoticed. Where his game has been well below par, apart from the lack of goals, is in his control and his passing. Yesterday both were much better. If he can pass well and keep control of the ball then I don't mind if he doesn't score another goal all season. He's not simply a goalscorer, he can do more than that and he needs to do more than that.

You are wrong. There has been a lot of nonsense talked about his defensive qualitites. He has been abysmal defensively as well as in an attacking sense all year. If putting in a defensive shift consists of running back, on the wrong side of the attacker, looking at the ball as if it were an alien and generally doing everything wrong (tackling at inopportune times, not tackling when it's been possible), then he's been putting one in. If it involved anything else, he hasn't. His input, in the past, has been his goals, because he certainly has never been good at other things. If he scores goals, he's probably worth keeping. If he doesn't, he isn't.

Wasn't at the game yesterday so cannot comment on the improvement. Will be interested to see if it continues.

If Lucas is booed and reviled by people now because he lied about his reasons for going to West Ham, how come he was getting booed whilst still playing for us when we didn't know where he was going to??? At the time we all thought it would be Liverpool.

Because he was conceding penalties and playing awfully just before he left.(that now being Nelsen's perogative)

And the failings of other players is partly the reason you continually spit bile in his direction?

No, that would be number 2.

Plus the inability to trap short passes (or indeed the few long ones which do come his way), make any form of fair tackle, head the ball straight, shoot hard or accurately or intercept any player who wants to go past him without fouling them.

And his running is so, so slow.

And because they usually play towards the Blackburn end in the second half I'm forced to watch this masterclass of ineptitude from close quarters and it send me on the long drive home in a bad mood. In fact I'm sure that's why I get so mad at him. Against Chelsea I thought he played a bit better, but then I didn't have him performing on my side on the second half, as I normally do! (Although the guy beside me was really giving him stick- worse than me!)

Last season we employed a simple tactic of lumping long high diagonal balls from the right mid to Pederson on the edge of the box for him to win in the air and knock across the box. It frequently worked well too as he is exceptionally good in the air for a winger (Q. to all you Petrov groupies..... how good is he in the air btw?) but recently this tactic has been almost totally abscent. Anybody care to speculate why? Only thing I can think is that RSC is crowding him out on those now. If so he'd be better peeling off to the near post / pen spot area and waiting for the header across as Benni did last year.

A few of those assists and Ped would be everybodies favourite scandy pop star again.

2 reasons

1 The people who're lumping the balls are generally less accurate;

2 Even if they were accurate, Pedersen now seems to feel lonely if he's on the wing by himself so moves in to try to find company, be that one of our players or one of theirs.

12 months on (near enough) - have Rovers had value for money for the £2 million spent on Dunn last January?

Would it have been better to wait until the summer and get him for nowt (given that he hardly played until this season in any case)?

Or should we have just let Big Fat Sam take him to Bolton and spent the 2 million quid somewhere else??

11 starts and 5 substitute appearances out of a possible 23 isn't "hardly played". Tris- we all know you have an agenda, but for £2m I'd say we've got our money's worth.

Poor little rich kid remanded into custody until Jan 3rd 2008 !!

maybe a spell with some real scumbags might just make him realise the simple life he really should be leading !

More likely some time with that scumbag will teach others what sort of life they should be leading. He's scum, pure and simple. Without the footballing talent, he'd already be in there- probably for ever.

Wayne Rooney once said that without his talent he'd probably have been in jail. He, at least, appears to have a support network of people who, like him, have improved with money. Barton's lot are- it would seem- hell bent on keeping him in the mire that they're in. Or Barton hasn't done a Rooney and bought his family out of there.

Petrov disappeared when we put Emerton on him. Says it all about hit abilities as a player.

Pedersen disappears when unmarked.

Average annual salary in Beijing (chinese capital therefore most directly comparable to London) is approximately £2,400 per year. That is less than one tenth of London average salary of just over £30,000. Multiplying up, the comparative figure for China to us is therefore £491. Or £41 per month, which is about what Sky costs in the UK.

Let's see if we can explain so the dim will understand.

If you sit in the JW towards the Darwen end, the Blackburn end sounds very quiet indeed. They may not be, but the sound doesn't carry past the half-way line. Hence one side always says the other is qiuet. Sitting near the halfway line, I heard both the Blackburn end AND the Chelsea fans (who insulted our fans for most of the match with their singing because they couldn't hear the Blackburn end) albeit both were quiet.

Not true.

Hard working, tracks back well, excellent timing runs into the box, ability in the air gave full backs a torrid time defending cross field passes, 2 good feet, close control, great shot.

I've just listed the aspects of his game which have remained consistant up to this point. His set pieces have always been inconsistent, as has his ability to play a killer ball or take on his man. But now, it all seems to be going to pot. For me it all seems to have stemmed from that miss in the Semi Final against Chelsea. He's now struggling from a mental point of view and needs help. And it's up to Hughes to get the best from him again. Whether that's performances on the pitch or ££££ in January. Either way it can't carry on.

Absolute rubbish. Hard working- in that he runs around (not very fast and to no effect- but he does) I'll give you that one. Tracks back well- if you take off the word well, I'd give you that too. He tracks back, lets the person he's nominally "marking" go past him while he looks at the pretty ball and then looks up puzzled when everyone else shouts at him; Excellent timing runs into the box- fair enough, but you have to actually do something constructive when you get there and he doesn't; ability in the air ??? you were at the semi final, and watched every attempted header since? ; 2 good feet? I struggle to see one at the moment. So do his team mates, even my friend noticed that at Newcastle and West Ham his team mates were seeking someone else out when he was asking for the ball as they knew he'd lose it. Watch Warnock when he has MGP in front of him- he'll look for any pass other than the obvious;Close control- now you're having a laugh. As much close control as any other 12 year old; great shot- hahahahaha- if the object is to scare people in the Jack Walker or Riverside, I night even give you that, but it isn't.

I actually agree to an extent aout the semi-final. He must know he lost it for us. Or rather that he should have won it for us, but he didn't. But to blame that in isolation is to ignore the fact that he was this pants this time last year, and the year before (at which point Mr Hughes wasn't even playing him). THIS IS HIS LEVEL. Let's just take the money and run.

Also, why is he the only footballer that needs a drink just before kick off. I've noticed that he is given a bottle of something which he trots off to the riverside with. Wish it was "play like a professional footballer" juice.

Not strong enough?

Not fast enough?

Doesnt get up or down?

Not technically good enough?

Nowhere near Premiership sandard?

Step forward the 2007 model Morten Gamst Pedersen.

Unfortunately this was the model in evidence for most of 2006 and a good bit of 2005 too!!! Methinks it is the real Pedersen.

It turns out that Benni was in the stadium at the end of the match, but had dressed and gone up to watch the end of the game. He was also playing with 14 stitches in his leg. After his poor start to the season, he's been playing really well and I don't understand why anyone would want him to move.

Because people find it hard to warm to him because he's "lazy". So they make up absolute ###### to support their case. Which gets picked up and reported and we end up having to deny it.

Meanwhile the perennially stupid think "there's no smoke without fire" or in their lingo "the lazy barsteward wants to leave" which will become a self-fulfilling prophecy because they start to get on his back at every opportunity.

England have lost their World Cup Qualifying Group seeding

I wonder what sort of a fist England would make of being in a Group with France, Italy and Ukraine like Sctland were?

Well, seeing as how they got fewer points in a group which involved those sporting giants Macedonia and Israel than we did against the world champions, world cup runners up and a quarter finalist..............................

Sorry- Just got this from a friend

Warning - SEPA flood Alert [scanned]

New Release 2006

Scottish Enviromental Protection Agency Warning!!!!!!!!

Scotland placed on a major flood alert. All areas of Scotland were last night placed on high alert as a major flood is expected this morning. This is thought to have been caused by most of Scotland pishing themselves laughing at the England result.

Fair enough. Let's just say: Souey NOT for England.

Oh I don't know. I think it would be an excellent appointment.

I think it's a fabulous team, and I'm sure that THIS time Lampard and Gerrard will play beautifully together. NOT.

I'm so glad my team doesn't suffer from having such an idiot in charge!!

I know one thing............ He'll never be as good as the player that we sold. Move on.

Possibly true- but he's a thousand times better than what we've got- even now. Actually on crutches on one leg he's still better than what we have now.

Damien Duff is recovering from a "career threatening" foot injury, he is making good progress & Allardyce has stated that he intends to get him back to full fitness as he is one of the best wingers in the league & an asset to any club.

The last bit is all true. Let's hpoe he gets back to firtness then we can get him. We can offer them boy band in return (plus a very, very large sum of money)

Interesting article on MGP in today's Independent

Pity it was inaccurate

Souness wan't sacked

Pedersen wasn't bought to "fill the berth vacated by Duff's close season departure" (that was a whole year earlier.)

Otherwise- good article

Sorry to drag this up but what has he done to deserve this (from the bbc gossip page)

West Ham captain Lucas Neill wants the club to raise his salary just 10 months after joining them. (Mirror)

I thought that he was on quite a high wage with them anyway and thats why he turned down liverpool

Altogether now "one VERY greedy basket, there's only one VERY greedy basket"

Seriously- he's been the erstwhile captain of a not very good team- why would anyone give hima pay rise? Also how many bookings has he managed so far??

I have to disagree. There were long stretches in that period where Neill was terrible, a down right liability.

He was, however, a fundamental part of the defence by the time he left for West Ham.

And as a left back, Warnock has been head and shoulders better. Ergo we haven't missed him at all.

I'm simply amazed at Mark Hughes' ability to find replacements after selling off players which seemed to be irreplaceable.

Two key examples.

Neill-> Samba (albeit Samba's not a wing-back, but a defender nonetheless.)

I personally thought that Neill could have been replaced by the club rottweiler and we wouldn't have noticed any difference in the standard of play or the number of disciplinary points received.

For those crying for Benni and MGP, they did come on last niht- you just didn't notice. I was sitting 10 feet from Sparky, and when he was putting MGP on, I said "you've just lost us this tie". And he did. The substitutions shouldn't have been made- at that point we were doing ok, they disrupted the flow.

But he couldn't believe some of the pathetic passing and shooting. And watching Mark Bowen trying to make some of the (English) members of the team understand what he was saying was worth the travel in itself.

Right Jan, that was a complete waste of time.

My issue with you is that you have very clearly insinuated that some members of this board have racially tarred Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Jason Roberts, Shabani Nonda and Benni McCarthy with the lazy tag. That is complete and utter b******s and myself and others are offended that you have accused us of this.

There was no need to quote the above. I can remember the 'lazy' accusations myself, particularly with Yorke and Cole (I think I even contributed to the Cole-bashing). However, to say this was based on the colour of his skin is unforgiveable. I demand an apology.

Well, you'll never get one. Andy Cole and Benni McCarthy are two of the top 5 strikers to grace Rovers in the time since I've been watching them, which is since 1991. Both of them took/are taking more stick than was ever aimed at Paul Dickov, or Ashley Ward, or Graham Fenton or any of the other useless journeyman strikers that have "graced" rovers since. The fact that ALL of them were called lazy, whereas the white strikers were called other things- all different, but ALL at least called "hard-working" is what makes me know that it was simply a euphemism.

Nonda

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it could easily be 6 or 7 by the end of this one.

Nonda just looks like he cant be bothered and doesn't really want to be there!

Bentley is playing well though

Anti Euro Smiths Fan

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QUOTE(RevidgeBlue @ Dec 24 2006, 00:00 )

Todd and Ooijer were both awful today.

Agreed. I was embarrassed by some of the hopeless defending on show at the Emirates yesterday.

Philipl would make a good spin doctor. We're just one point above the relegation zone, our defending has been shambolic for much of the season (we've conceded more goals in the Premiership than any team apart from Charlton), and Philip appears to suggest that everything in the garden is rosy apart from some refereeing decisions going against us.

At the start of the season Jason Roberts ridiculously claimed that Rovers could qualify for the Champions League this season. I think some of the players (and indeed the fans) need a reality check. Having finished 6th last season, we're now firmly involved in a relegation dogfight at the bottom end of the table.

A number of factors have played a part in the hugely disappointing results this season - the shambolic defending I've previously mentioned together with a chronic lack of pace throughout the side, tactical naivety, an over-reliance on Tugay to provide any semblance of creativity in midfield, players who are unable to cross the ball properly on a consistent basis and two strikers in McCarthy and Nonda who've performed like bone-idle wasters on a number of occasions this season. (McCarthy was of course missing yesterday while Nonda admittedly had one of his better games.)

All mentioning lazy or the equivalent.