So nothing to do with your inept leadership Graeme?

who are you to call souness inept?! what is your bases for him being inept? why was the first half of southampton PURELY down to him?! incase you hadnt noticed we have 11 players on the pitch.

i also find it strange that when we pick it up in the second half an play some great football souness isnt applauded at all... surely our comeback reflects the fighting spirit and effective tactics of our great manager?...

as for that link, i read it myself last night and i found it quite a chuckle. souness may not show comedy in the way he talks or the way he looks but he sure shows he has a perfectly adequate sense of humour when it comes to post match interviews. like iv said before - if its not the ref, its the weather, or the fans, or the pitch, or the bird that flew a little too close to the players. and hes got a point anyway, we dont get the same things awarded as the bigger clubs. that must be obvious in the amount of penalties the top 5 have in comparison to us.

one thing i will say - did any of you see the body language and facial expressions of souness at southampton? his heart and soul are 110% behind the team and the club. i hate the way that his passion cannot seem to be mirrored by the players on the field and as it is souness that gets the flack, i feel more and more empathy for him each week

gresko hasnt been at all near his best. then, while hes left footed, being played at left midfield is still playing him out of position. douglas has shown promise and souness might have wanted to try him out at left mid. with an experienced defender like gray behind him he is given the support he requires and he hasnt played badly.

tugay didnt play the entire match and came on for an injured flitcroft and was pretty much the only replacement we had.

also, todd didnt have a bad match at cm

ROYB

2nd Division

Group: Members

Posts: 45

Joined: Oct. 2003  Posted: Feb. 24 2004, 12:27  

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Quote (tcj_jones @ Feb. 24 2004, 02:28)

i find it hard to recall any players played out of position NOT due to injury problems, which in my opinion, is not a flaw in tactics.

How about these then:-

(1) Right back playing left midfield;

(2) centre back playing left midfield;

(3) centre back playing central midfield;

(4) central midfielder playing left midfield;

(5) forwards playing back in midfield;

(6) central defender and defensive midfielder coming on to play in attack  

ok 4 out of the first 5 ARE due to injuries. todd playing in cm was due to our bare thin centre midfield and many said he played pretty well there too. dunno about these cb's playing in attack...

Unfortunately, in the real football world it is the manager and not the players who carries the can when teams fail to deliver results on the field of play.

oh to this i agree 100%; all too often managers are blamed for, or carry the can, following bad results or bad seasons, even when it is clearly their fault.

You can blame the board, the players, "lady luck", injuries or whatever, but the buck stops with Souness. And he knows it.

once more i agree 100%.  that is one of the reasons souness appears more and more dejected after every match and why i believe he might take the flack for this season. but hey, it aint over yet...

Without going into his transfer dealings (suffice to say that the squad is weaker than  it was this time last year), it is not controversial to say that Souness's selections and tactics this season have, at times, been extremely baffling.

Injuries have certainly played their part but Souness has exacerbated the consistency problem by refusing to pick the same team twice when he has had the chance to do so, selecting players in the wrong positions and producing tactics formations that have appeared to confuse the Rovers players as much as the opposition.

Souness has also presided over one of the worst defences in the league, one that has been apparent since the first day of the season and he has failed to rectify, and worst of all, he often appears unable to motivate a generally disinterested squad of players into giving their all for Blackburn Rovers.

admittedly, the squad is far weaker then this time last season but this isnt due to souness transfers or transfer policies but amazingly unfortunate injuries.

it is by no means controversial to say that souness' team selections are baffling, but baffling is not the word i would use. it is difficult to keep a consistent line up when we have one good game followed by one bad game as souness states. also, souness has regulars or particulars that he keeps faith with, regulars that more often then not come good. nissa is an eg of this - sure he had one particularly good game, against man city i believe, but souness preferred to stick with babbel and todd who, in my opinion, had played consistantly well in that period of time and deserved the right to keep their place in the side.

i find it hard to recall any players played out of position NOT due to injury problems, which in my opinion, is not a flaw in tactics.

the defence seems to be a riddle that nobody can solve. "residing," over the defence would not be the correct word in my opinion as due to injuries it has almost been forced upon him. however, souness appears to have shown faith in those he has purchased as to give them an oppertunity to prove themselves or to have shown faith in those that have more premiership experience.

and finally, il reitterate that motivation is not simply the responsibility of the manager but the playing staff and the captain. as the captain has been shifted so many times this season that could be one reason. however, everton find themselves in a VERY similar position to us. is this to say that moyes hasnt the ability to motivate his team? surely not one of the best managers of last season?

All those reasons for our dismal showing this season and not one mention of the poor transfer buys/team selections/tactics/motivational abilities (or not) of our illustrious manager.

once more that is an opinion, as is mine, but is an opinion i dont agree with im afraid. motivation not only lies within the manager but within the captain and the team. as we finished 6th last season with much of the same personnell i do not believe this can be attributed to our dismal showing, nor can it be placed simply on the manager. in addition to this, i have failed to note many noteable flaws in tactics, would be happy to listen to those you have seen. finally, largely i have agreed with souness' team selections considering the extent of our injuries and the experience of souness as a tactician and manager.

RevidgeBlue Posted on Feb. 24 2004, 01:09

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Fair do's tcj!   Always like someone who can argue their case whether you agree with it or not.

Personally I would summarise all that as a particularly bad decision at Boardroom level to sell Duff. No-one signed on the left side to replace him. A poor choice being made to replace Berg with Amoruso. Dunn's replacement (Emerton) being very disappointing. The players bought with part of the Duff money (Reid and Ferguson) starting to look reasonably promising after a very slow start but then getting injured.

Agree completely that various players haven't performed as you would expect at different times. Gresko, Neill and Taylor being other obvious cases in point in addition to the players we've already mentioned.

thanks revidge blue, i do try my best to back up my opinions. while admitting that the sale of duff was a huge loss, it was also a large gain; ferguson, reid, emerton, amo are proven and talented players and have provided greater depth, although not strictly in the left midfield position and cost half the money of duff. however, wi dont believe the board was in the position to refuse a bid for duff. was it he that had a clause in his contract that allowed him to be sold for 17million plus? and chelsea is a very illustrious club.

agree totally with berg for amo - seems like he swapped one proven player for another and berg has proved to be the better. not too sure as to his thinking behind that one but im sure he had good intent.

indeed i should close my very large gob a lot of the time but this is my opinion on why we are languishing in 15th place as opposed to last seasons 6th...

first off the sale of duff has had huge reprecussions. last season he was out for a long period and his return saw a flurry of goals, which on occasion won us matches, and a subsequent rapid rise up the table.  the absense of such a hugely influential player has upset the balance of the team and has made us lose our left sided attacking impetus. blackburn simply did not have the appeal or frinances to lure an equally talented left sided midfielder to the club and there were few available to him.

second, injuries have ravished the team. the loss of ferguson has seen us lose our creativity and solidity, especially as he was starting to play some amazing football up until his injury. in addition to this, the loss of thompson saw us lose a versatile and extremely talented midfielder as well as depth in midfield. reids latest injury has left us down to bear threads on the left side of midfield and players have been pulled out of position to help cover, upsetting the balance of the team. in defence is where we have had the most trouble and a large part of this can be attributed to the injury of short who is a rock at the back. these injuries have seen us unable to maintain a consistent back four and this has created a lack of understanding and experience playing together.

thirdly certain players just havent performed as they have been expected, as they did last season or because of a general decline with age, andy cole being a prime example of all three. after a flurry of goals in the early part of the season, cole has scored just once in a hell of a lotmof games ans has often been criticised for his lack of effort. yorke has been largely abysmal and has showed very little to be praised. tugay is also beginning to show a decline and has made numerous costly mistakes. friedal, admittedly is a superb keeper and last season was phenominal. however, this season while playing adequately, with exception of the last month or so when he has made some outstanding saves, he has not performed to the same standard he did last season.

thats my opinion in any case...

jesus, i finally thought this thread was gone for good, slipping down the lists of threads as far as it did. now here it is again to annoy us all and incite arguements over criticsms of souness that are totally inept and inaccurate. as a huge fan of souness i have argued his case on many occasions on ths thread and each criticsm has been dismissed in turn.

but as im a sad B****** il do it again. reid was an excellent and highly rated winger for millwall, capable of playing on the left and has played but a handful of games this season. it is short sighted to label him as being rubbish and when he did play he wasnt all that bad. it will always be hard to replace somebody of duffs calibre and souness hasnt managed to do it. what souness has managed to acheive is a far deeper and more talented squad with half of the transfer funds we received in the summer.

which brings me on to dunn... first of all, the sale of dunn really hasnt left the squad depleted considering we brought in ferguson who is a far more complete and taleneted midfielder for just 2million more the dunn was sold for and that central midfield is by far our most competetive position. then you have to consider the huge losses weve sustained from injury... also, could you please explain how dunn was treated disgracefully? cos i fail to understand how he was...

Sportsmen don't reach their peak until they reach 28yo. so apart from tommo who i think is about 27.....the other 3 are all at least2/3 years away from that.

replacing these bloke with younger ones only adds to the lack of experiance. we need a mixture, so that the older blokes can kinda look after the young lads.

how the hell can you pin an exact age of when footballers peak?! some players are amazing when theyre young and slowly fade away or are consistently good or consistently bad. different players will peak at different times and will have good and bad seasons.

replacing our older players like cole and yorke with younger players wont just add to lack of experience but will add freshness, competition for places, and generally better footballers. and we have a blend of experience and youth now, which we didnt before.

what a narrow minded comment...

how many times have clubs sacked a manager or a managers left and the club has slipped down the league... providing souness is still here (which i pray he will be) we have a real chance of europe next season. and now with those youngsters coming through we have a far deeper squad to prepare for injuries. does anybody know how long cole and yorke have left on their contracts? because if we can atleast get something for them this summer (because it does look like theyl be out, especially yorke) we might be able to snap up a left midfielder and mayb a cheapo striker. heres to hoping and hopeing parma get more and more in debt so we can get bresciano...

ian muther******* dowe?! oh...i get it, your being sarcastic.

great result! i applaud souness on an inspired team selection. stead and gallagher appeared to work quite well together and i knew gallagher would eventually work well off a big player like stead - heres to the future. played douglas as well which i was pleased with. what was especially nice to see was souness' no-nonsense touch; having yorke out of the squad brought a huge smile to my face and even jansen was played over cole. finally a kick up the back side! souness once more shows he has real balls - risking stead, gallagher and douglas was a risk and it paid off. well done that man.

i agree with slater_scott though, the thread should be locked and nobody should be allowed to commit such blasphomy and suggest souness should go, even if it is at the end of the season. id like to see souness on the touchline till hes an old grey haired man (well more so then he is now anyway)

jim mk2 Posted on Feb. 02 2004, 22:14

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Quote (philipl @ Jan. 31 2004, 22:03)

This is as intelligent and reasoned an interview you are likely to get from a football manager and it happens to have been given by Souness.

I would be fascinated to know just what particular incident or observation prompted each of Jan, jim and 6 to become so rabidly anti-Souness.

I agree that Souness talks intelligently on football and usually has something interesting to say. If he were not a manager, no doubt he would make a living as a full-time pundit on TV.

There's nothing in particular that makes me anti-Souness (though no doubt USA Blue will drag up the usual story), but I have felt for some time that his time is up at Ewood.

Every manager has a natural shelf life and Souness seems to have run out of ideas and inspiration.  He has made dreadful mistakes in the transfer market over the past year, his selections often defy common sense and his tactics are, to put it mildly, questionable.

Worst of all, he seems unable to motivate a well-paid squad that has no fight, guts, will-to-win, or stomach for the relegation battle. The defence has been a problem since the start of the season, which Souness continues to acknowledge yet shows no signs of being able to sort out.

In short, the club is in a shambles, probably as bad as it was under Bryan Kidd when a similarly under-motivated team was relegated.

It was interesting to see that Dean Richards, who led Leicester rugby club to unprecedented success over the past few years, was shown the door today after it was deemed that he had "lost the dressing room and was out of touch with his players".

Hard decisions have to be sometimes and Leicester made theirs. The Rovers board should have done the same months ago.

u speak intelligently, you clearly know what you're talking about unlike rover6...

however, you have spoken of dreadful signings this season. personally i cannot think of one signing that has been bad, let alone dreadful and frankly signing ferguson was a HUGE signing for this club.as long as hes back to the VERY high standards that he was playing at in the run up to injury, he will guide us into the top 8 next season im sure.

secondly, souness has not had a particularly long spell at ewood - nothing like say peter reid at sunderland and to believe his time has been up for some time makes me wonder if you've forgotten how he took us into the premiership and acheived a shock 6th place for us last season.

motivation of the team is not just souness job; due to injury we have switched captains more times then i can count and undoubtedly that has affected team spirit. the players arent cutting it and i dont think that is the managers fault - souness even appears to have chilled out somewhat from last season yet we came 6th last time around... the will to win is there - the amount of times we have taken the lead till the close of the game only to make ridiculously stupid defensive mistakes.

he is ready to admit that we have defensive problems, but we have been rocked by injuries and gresko has been AWFUl this season. i remember the games leading up to fergusons injury - the full backs were pushing up nicely delivering quality balls and we had an amazing quality to our play. but because of our out of touch strikers and utterly appauling mistakes at the back, we have lost. he has used a number of combinations at the back but none seem to work. without short we are not rock solid as we were last season. next season, providing we are in the division and we have the same squad we do now, we WILL be top half of the league and i hope itl be souness that leads us there. i cannot think of many managers in the league that are more experienced or more successful and there are none that are available that even come close to the brilliance of souness

joey_big_nose

Premier League

Group: Members

Posts: 158

Joined: July 2003  Posted: Feb. 01 2004, 12:14  

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Souness is hardly tactically naive, if anything he is too much of a purist. He is trying to establish a team that can compete with the big teams in terms of style and ability and he managed that last term. This has however come with the sacrifice of the 'killer instinct'. We would of been in the Champions league last season with a top goal scorer, whether it was Cole living up to his billing or even Robbie Keane. We are suffering because we arnt competing- in terms of talent in the squad we are easily in the same bracket or better than Charlton or Fulham. We have been unlucky with injuries to our most creative players, something you cannnot blame Souness for.

Ask yourself this, at the start of the season who would of not swapped their manager for our Graeme? Only the top three and arguably Charlton, Newcastle and Southampton- even Liverpool would of taken him back......

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Formerly dunnieforengland, damn that pie eating &*(^$$.  

u got it right there mate. souness is a phenominal manager and i honestly thought wed do just as well as we did last season. if we had a top goalscorer and didnt have the injuries wed be right up there.last season souness was billed as one of the managers of the season with moyes an that. why all of a sudden does he "have to go'??!!!

jim mk2 Posted on Jan. 31 2004, 20:53

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Quote (tcj_jones @ Jan. 31 2004, 13:08)

Quote  

rover6

Premier League

Group: Members

Posts: 546

Joined: Oct. 2003  Posted: Oct. 20 2003, 22:52  

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People who have read my previous comments (all of whom have been critical of Souness) will know that this is not a knee-jerk reaction following the Charlton defeat.

I do admire one of Souness' strengths - fight. But did that fight reflect itself in the team against Charlton? Or Fulham, Liverpool, Man City etc.? Souness' fight is waning and his ability to instill confidence in his players is following suit.

Tactically, he is primative. Anyone can tell you that Tommo can't play left midfield. We have zero width when that happens. Any half-wit could have told you that Charlton were without Bartlett and Lisbie - their in form strikers. Surely the objective therefore, is to attack at home, not start with ONE striker and 3 defensive midfielders.

Nevertheless, tactics doesn't always win games. Ask Kevin Keegan. But what has Keegan got that Souness hasn't? The ability to give confidence and support his players. OK, Grabbi misses sitters against Genclerbiligi - what do you do? Put him on the bench to confirm your support for him OR chuck him out of the team altogether and let him rot - all £7million of him.

Souness claimed before the match that confidence was not a problem - which is why Tiny looked terrified on the ball. Ferguson avoided the ball, Flitty likewise, Tommo looked uncertain and Emerton non-existant.

WHy is Souness lying to the fans? Because he has to hide his blatent inability to help the players in their moment of crisis. No doubt Souness will blame the defeat on missed chances - why are we missing chances. Because the players are low on confidence and their manager isn't helping.

Last time we were this low under Souness, he went and bought Cole (during our first year back) and last season DUff came back to form. Souness can't buy anyone now, we don't have Duff - what is he going to do. The money was blown on failed signings - the biggest one being Barry Ferguson. A good player but not worth £7 million. Nowhere near as good as Scott Parker, Koumas, Michael Brown or Carrick.

We need to get rid to give a new man a chance to avert this crisis before it becomes disastrous. A new man will not bring with him SOuness' idiotic beliefs. Alan Mahon is not a rabid player who'll infect our players if he plays. Flitcroft isn't infallible because he's the skipper - need I go on. We need a shake up and heads must roll - Souness'.

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Souness must resign to give Blackburn a hope of avoiding relegation, administration and a Sheff Wed-like demise.

We need Plymouth boss Paul Sturrock  

when i read this post my heart sank.i find it appaulingly inaccurate in so many ways. firstly, how can a premiership manager and a manager with SO many years of experience in football and all over europe have "primitive" tactics?! i have watched blackburn play on numerous instances since the charlton match and we have looked superb minus the hurrendous mistakes of individual players and a lack of touch up front. you speak of lack of confidence... mayb that isnt souness fault but the fault of a group of incredibly talented players that simply arent cutting it on the pitch. souness has been involved in team building exercises an such an the defenders of ewood showed a good team spirit. as for the left wing - anyone will tell u that the sale of duff will leave u a huge void. admittedly tommo aint the best suited player to that position but with so little money given to spend and the lack of players available that fall into our wage structure, he is still a decent repacement. reid is a young player and was a good signing but hasnt quite settled and has been rocked by injury. who would u suggest we buy/put out on the left? as for grabbi, grabbi was a proven goalscorer but 7million was just too much and he was a flop - one of souness few mistakes as manager. if he cant cut it, then get him out! my criticsm is not that he withdrew him from the bench but that he didnt sell him ages ago, admit defeat an such. as for lying to the fans... thats ****, he will use excuses which i find to be commical genius; if it isnt the referee, its the pitch, or the opposition fans or the weather or a bird that flew a little too close to the players... but as u speak of confidence, would saying that players were **** EVERY match raise their confidence??!!! NO! any decent manager would know that. as for ferguson.... WHAT R U THINKING?! ferguson = deal of the season (if he hadnt have gotten injured) seeing as parker went for 10million an has performed on only a few instances and is relatively new to the scene, ferguson was a bargain being scotland captain and rangers captain and a true performer. at rovers he was slow to start, but MY GOD when he got going he ran the game! he was amazing. one of the best cm's iv seen this season in the premiership! newcastle for eg, he ran the game, got injured and it started to slip away from us until we got a lucky handball goal. we have missed him and havent been the same since his injury. alan mahon is not a good player - hence why division one clubs r after him. souness is not the problem! finances and players playing badly is our problem!!! i think more fans should stick up for our manager that has done so much for us.

sorry for the essay and im sure im going to displease the moderators... sorry! but that post was incredibly wrong in so many ways.

Have you heard of punctuation and paragraphs?

No doubt you have made some very good points in your post but I can't be bothered to read it because it looks so awful.  

im sorry, maybe i should add little pictures and arrows to aid in your reading...

rover6

Premier League

Group: Members

Posts: 546

Joined: Oct. 2003  Posted: Oct. 20 2003, 22:52  

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People who have read my previous comments (all of whom have been critical of Souness) will know that this is not a knee-jerk reaction following the Charlton defeat.

I do admire one of Souness' strengths - fight. But did that fight reflect itself in the team against Charlton? Or Fulham, Liverpool, Man City etc.? Souness' fight is waning and his ability to instill confidence in his players is following suit.

Tactically, he is primative. Anyone can tell you that Tommo can't play left midfield. We have zero width when that happens. Any half-wit could have told you that Charlton were without Bartlett and Lisbie - their in form strikers. Surely the objective therefore, is to attack at home, not start with ONE striker and 3 defensive midfielders.

Nevertheless, tactics doesn't always win games. Ask Kevin Keegan. But what has Keegan got that Souness hasn't? The ability to give confidence and support his players. OK, Grabbi misses sitters against Genclerbiligi - what do you do? Put him on the bench to confirm your support for him OR chuck him out of the team altogether and let him rot - all £7million of him.

Souness claimed before the match that confidence was not a problem - which is why Tiny looked terrified on the ball. Ferguson avoided the ball, Flitty likewise, Tommo looked uncertain and Emerton non-existant.

WHy is Souness lying to the fans? Because he has to hide his blatent inability to help the players in their moment of crisis. No doubt Souness will blame the defeat on missed chances - why are we missing chances. Because the players are low on confidence and their manager isn't helping.

Last time we were this low under Souness, he went and bought Cole (during our first year back) and last season DUff came back to form. Souness can't buy anyone now, we don't have Duff - what is he going to do. The money was blown on failed signings - the biggest one being Barry Ferguson. A good player but not worth £7 million. Nowhere near as good as Scott Parker, Koumas, Michael Brown or Carrick.

We need to get rid to give a new man a chance to avert this crisis before it becomes disastrous. A new man will not bring with him SOuness' idiotic beliefs. Alan Mahon is not a rabid player who'll infect our players if he plays. Flitcroft isn't infallible because he's the skipper - need I go on. We need a shake up and heads must roll - Souness'.

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Souness must resign to give Blackburn a hope of avoiding relegation, administration and a Sheff Wed-like demise.

We need Plymouth boss Paul Sturrock  

when i read this post my heart sank.i find it appaulingly inaccurate in so many ways. firstly, how can a premiership manager and a manager with SO many years of experience in football and all over europe have "primitive" tactics?! i have watched blackburn play on numerous instances since the charlton match and we have looked superb minus the hurrendous mistakes of individual players and a lack of touch up front. you speak of lack of confidence... mayb that isnt souness fault but the fault of a group of incredibly talented players that simply arent cutting it on the pitch. souness has been involved in team building exercises an such an the defenders of ewood showed a good team spirit. as for the left wing - anyone will tell u that the sale of duff will leave u a huge void. admittedly tommo aint the best suited player to that position but with so little money given to spend and the lack of players available that fall into our wage structure, he is still a decent repacement. reid is a young player and was a good signing but hasnt quite settled and has been rocked by injury. who would u suggest we buy/put out on the left? as for grabbi, grabbi was a proven goalscorer but 7million was just too much and he was a flop - one of souness few mistakes as manager. if he cant cut it, then get him out! my criticsm is not that he withdrew him from the bench but that he didnt sell him ages ago, admit defeat an such. as for lying to the fans... thats ****, he will use excuses which i find to be commical genius; if it isnt the referee, its the pitch, or the opposition fans or the weather or a bird that flew a little too close to the players... but as u speak of confidence, would saying that players were **** EVERY match raise their confidence??!!! NO! any decent manager would know that. as for ferguson.... WHAT R U THINKING?! ferguson = deal of the season (if he hadnt have gotten injured) seeing as parker went for 10million an has performed on only a few instances and is relatively new to the scene, ferguson was a bargain being scotland captain and rangers captain and a true performer. at rovers he was slow to start, but MY GOD when he got going he ran the game! he was amazing. one of the best cm's iv seen this season in the premiership! newcastle for eg, he ran the game, got injured and it started to slip away from us until we got a lucky handball goal. we have missed him and havent been the same since his injury. alan mahon is not a good player - hence why division one clubs r after him. souness is not the problem! finances and players playing badly is our problem!!! i think more fans should stick up for our manager that has done so much for us.

sorry for the essay and im sure im going to displease the moderators... sorry! but that post was incredibly wrong in so many ways.