Benitez, Allardyce, brothers in arms

England’s brave love rat John Terry recently told Craig Bellamy that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones in relation to comments made by the angry small Welshmen about how everybody in the game “knew what Terry was like”. Suggesting that us, the general public, had no idea who the real JT was and how his public profile was a well managed smoke screen for the evil doer within.

Having a smoke screen profile is not an accusation you could level at either Sam Allardyce or Rafa Benitez. Both are very forthcoming with their opinions on any subject under the sun and more often than not recently the subject of the day has been each other. Well at least Sam is making it his own personal aim to talk up his own role in the demise of Liverpool and the fact that because Blackburn only lost to them 1-0 now more teams will be inspired to take points off the Anfield outfit.

Allardyce is only to happy to twist the knife, suggesting that he is “getting under the skin” and that now Liverpool have to rely on other teams slipping up to get in to the top 4. He made these comments after Blackburn were mocked by Benitez, who sarcastically said that Blackburn’s style was going to be copied by Barcelona. In hindsight Benitez may live to regret his comments as Blackburn’s tactics are a means to an end, playing a direct brand of football is more likely to get them a result against top teams away from home. This is something Liverpool should take note of, their overly defensive approach has been found out this season and a lack of a suitable plan B has meant they haven’t picked up results and are in danger of missing out of Europe completely.

At home Blackburn and Liverpool have both proved very strong but away both teams have really struggled to score goals. Blackburn have scored an average of 0.6 goals per away game played, and Liverpool 0.8 goals. Liverpool have lost one less away from home than relegation strugglers Wolves and West Ham. These stats don’t make pleasant reading for either manager but when a mid table team is comparable to a team who have aspirations for CL football then they are much more serious for them. So maybe instead of bickering amongst themselves they should concentrate more on coming up with a solution for their one dimensional offensive play.

Cheating Allowed?

The risk v reward for footballers cheating supplemented by the difficulties faced by referees in spotting cheats means that footballers do and will continue to cheat to gain a competitive advantage.

No it’s not sportsman like, and no you wouldn’t have seen Sir Bobby Moore sticking his hand out to control the ball. But there is much more at stake in today’s game of football and we are kidding ourselves if we think that it is simply “just a game” and not a billion pound industry where the top players earn huge sums of money. Henry did what most footballers would have done given the opportunity, not all but most. Acts of honest professionalism are few and far between in today’s game. This all means that the governing bodies, Fifa and UEFA, need to step in and make it much less attractive to deceive the referee.

The current line held by the governing bodies is much like saying a crime hasn’t been committed unless there was a policeman at the scene of the crime who saw exactly what happened. Only recently has this started change with the case Arsenal’s Eduardo da Silva (which in my opinion was sympathetic on the diver) but obviously they are not going far enough. More needs to be done to dissuade a player from cheating, fines and bans are probably the most likely but using the case of Ireland and France replays shouldn’t be out of the question where the act of cheating completely changed the outcome of the game.

The Ireland and France game also allowed the video referee debate to be reopened. Had there been a video ref the goal simply would not have stood and we wouldn’t have the mess that we now have. Even a goal line official would have helped but even he could have missed it if he had his line of view obstructed by the goalkeeper.

I haven’t heard a good argument yet why the video ref shouldn’t be introduced. Football wouldn’t suddenly become a boring topic of conversation just because it had now become fair. Referee’s will continue to make judgement calls that many fans will disagree with. There will still be upsets in FA cup David v Goliath games, Man City will still throw millions at players like Bellamy, and Jason Roberts will always struggle to finish tap ins.

Internationals

Rafa has continued to face criticism despite his team not actually playing for a week

… are so boring! Despite the entertainment of troubling times in Anfield, the threat of Benitez to resign if they sell players without his consent may have held some weight in the year after the CL win in 2005. However threatening to leave a club that many tipped to finally mount a serious title challenge yet find themselves far behind league leaders Chelsea. Give it a rest Rafa. He should have spent the international break shaving that ridiculous goatee off, now that would have been time well spent.

The return of the Premiership this weekend is long overdue, and luckily as Rovers fans we are going to see a double dose over the next seven days. Firstly we take the short trip down the road to our other Lancashire rivals, the Gartside Wanderers. Then it’s down to London to face Fulham. Bolton have been stuttering at home with only one victory in 6 games, Fulham like Bolton have 3 losses at home which is in stark contrast to their home form last season when Craven Cottage was a real fortress. The perfect chance to pick up some well needed points away from home then you will have to agree.

Hopefully Lord Nelsen will have fired up the dressing room after New Zealand gained qualification to next years World Cup. There is further reason for the defence to be more resolute this weekend with Samba putting pen to paper on a new deal at Ewood. Not that being more resolute compared to previous performances would be hard bearing in mind we have conceded an average of the 3 goals a game away from home (and only scoring a paltry 0.6 goals a game). A very disappointing return even if we have played the top 3 clubs in the country. Why didn’t we get to play Liverpool during their rough patch!?

I do fully expect Rovers to get some away points in either/both of the next two games, and hopefully I will be proved right.

Steven Reid is still on the road to recovery

Special mention about Steven Reid who is set to join QPR on loan as he continues his return to football after a catalogue of injuries. Here’s hoping this return is for real!

Benni McCarthy, 0.376

So if we are to believe the rumours, Benni McCarthy is to be leaving Ewood Park come the January transfer window. B-Mac was originally brought in before the 06/07 season to replace Welsh journeyman Craig Bellamy, who had set his sights on better things. Liverpool could offer him Champions League football, and a nice warm bench to sit on. West Ham a wage that equalled the one that Liverpool offered him, and a nice warm physio table. And Man City could offer him, a temporary starting position until all the vastly superior players got fit again.

Benni fitted in to the Blackburn team as beautifully as Pamela Anderson in to a 90′s lifeguard costume.The results were just as impressive, scoring a goal every other Premiership appearance. My personal favourite of the season however came in the FA cup 5th round replay against Arsenal. After a fantastic performance from Brad Friedel at the Emirates, Arsenal came up to Ewood where it remained scoreless until a moment of McCarthy Magic.

The 06/07 was full of outstanding performances and incredible finishes like that one. But it feels much like that was the best we ever got out of the Bafana Bafana legend, he was hit by niggling injuries the following season and struggled with not being the number 1 striker at Ewood with the arrival of Roque Santa Cruz. He did still manage to score a respectable 8 goals in 21 starts but the magic seemed to be gone as a number of those goals were put in from the penalty spot.

Last season with RSC out injured it was time for Benni to step up, but he often looked a yard off the pace. He looked unimpressed with the selection of Ince as manager, but didn’t do his talking on the pitch and slowly let him get out of shape. I have little doubt that if he could get back to his conditioning of 06/07 then he will be a valuable striker and with the World Cup in South Africa this year you would presume that would be motivation enough. However he hasn’t done enough to impress Allardyce that he deserves a spot above Roberts or young gun Di Santo which is a pretty telling story.

So here we are with January looming and an unfit, unmotivated McCarthy so it would be no surprise to see him moved on. For me I think it is time for him to move on to pastures new, but preferably not to another English club, as a fit Benni McCarthy is an opposition we don’t want to facing to remind ourselves of what could have been.

(Sorry about the terrible quality!)

I will always remember him as a truly nice guy with a big character, as well as having an incredible nose for goal and a deadly finish. So if he does go it will be a fond farewell.

0.376 is Benni McCarthy’s goals per game ratio. Football cliches – 1 (Journeymen)

H1 N1, MUFC 2 BRFC 0

So after a week where Samba lost 10 pounds due to swine flu the Rovers had to face the English Champions. Allardyce wasn’t heard complaining about our fight with the flu, but he subtly got the message across that if we were to lose at the weekend it couldn’t be his fault. He was very concerned about the state of his players for the Peterborough Carling cup tie bravely suggesting his players would carry on regardless.

Luckily this weekend no excuses were required as it was only two world class touches, first by Berbatov then by Rooney, that separated the two sides. Blackburn were kept off the ball by a Manchester side who dominated possession however unlike last week, Rovers were hard to break down and stopped most attacks from gaining momentum. Givet stood out for me as he put in some crucial tackles alongside Samba who showed little sign of his mid week illness.

 

 

The scoreline was slightly disappointing as the defence worked so hard, but Kalinic also had a legitimate goal disallowed because the linesman had a case of the “Old Trafforditis” which seems to make ordinary officials go at extraordinary lengths to please Sir Alex. Kalinic was a bright spark upfront and hopefully this is a sign of things to come from the young Croat, a goal at Old Trafford would have done wonders for his confidence of course, but hopefully he will continue to press for more first team action.

Negative with No Positives, Rovers charged with defeat

Well that was pretty much the worst ninety minutes I have seen any team play in the Premiership this season. Allardyce went with a very defensive minded team devoid of any threat going forward. Picking a team with a defensive approach is always risky because any unlucky bounce can nullify your strategy. As it happened the bad bounce came when Givet was unlucky to divert a wicked low cross in to his own net early on.

Roberts keeping his eye on the ball as ever. Photograph: GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images

I have a real problem with the negative approach employed yesterday as to contain Chelsea you are going to need top defenders playing their best football. Chelsea have scored an average of 2.4 goals a game this season which is frightening, but to expect a defence including Martin Olsson to contain them and an attack with Roberts to out score them is quite frankly ridiculous. Dunn was a massive miss because not only is he a creative spark but also a driving force on the pitch who helps the team gel together, Samba’s leadership in defence and threat from set pieces would also have been important as Chelsea have been vulnerable all season from corners and free kicks.

Looking at the result more holistically, few teams in the bottom half of the table are going to pick up points at Stamford Bridge so we are unlikely to lose ground on rivals. However for them to see our team picked apart and look so vulnerable will make others play with less fear and make it even harder for us to play away from home. When 5-0 isn’t a generous scoreline you can only imagine the drop in morale in the Rovers changing room as well so we are going to need a serious lift against Peterborough for us to take anything from Old Trafford next week and to avoid notching up 10 away Premier League defeats in a row.

Blackburn 3 Burnley 2

Rovers' fans Celebrating Victory. Courtesy of the Lancashire Telegraph

Blackburn’s three first half goals were enough to see off Burnley in derby that was full of good football.  The game swung early in Burnleys’ favour with a great strike from ex-Rover Robbie Blake but Dunn was able to level things with a great team move less than ten minutes later. A cheeky back heel from Di Santo found Dunn on the edge of the area who was able to drill the ball in to the bottom right. Dunn lifted the team in to a good spell of domination.

Chimbonda capitalised on the Blackburn’s superiority to add a third with a nice run and finish. Chimbonda was noticeably fired up after Elliot kicked out at him on the sideline and made nasty contact with his head. That could have been the first red card of a game where there probably should have been two as Roberts was cynically fouled by Burnley keeper Jensen late in injury time at the end of the game. Burnley managed to pull one back through Chris Eagles, who played some good passing football when he came on, but it was too late for Burnley.

Some big performances were put in by some of the new players, who really looked like they enjoyed playing in a game that showed the best and the worst of a derby with good periods followed by scrappy periods. N’Zonzi was my stand out player from the game, Dunn aside, he kept the midfield unit tight and protected the back 4 from Burnley’s attack minded midfielders. Ryan Nelsen was also a rock at the back, as they were only able to score because of a touch of magic from Elliot and a touch of fortune for Eagles.

The game was also an important three points for the Rovers as there are a couple of tricky fixtures coming up in the Premier league away to Chelsea then Manchester United. Hopefully we can carry the momentum forward from this game and take something away from both the Premier League title contenders.

The Derby: Storm Starts Early

So as many Rovers fans’ already know by now the Burnley fans rather humorously decorated the statue of club legend Jack Walker in Burnley attire. So in response some rather brain dead Rovers’ decided that revenge would be to go and spray the Burnley Stadium with BRFC initials everywhere and dressed up a traffic cone in a Rovers kit.

Jack Walker is decorated with Burnley attire, and was for a short while Burnley's 11th ever fan.

Slightly lacking in creativity I have to say, however we would of course have dressed up their statue had they got one. Unfortunately Turf Moor is devoid of any such character and completely devoid of footballing heroes, although that may be harsh on the Ade Akinbiyi years. Surely we could have gone for something slightly more imaginative than that, such as poisoning the water supply in Burnley, or even worse, we could have halted deliveries of coal and fingernails (their primary source of food). I am of course joking (about the poison not the coal being food), but we must do better with our responses for the next derby!

In all seriousness the Jack Walker statue joke was done in good humour and the reaction of “BRFC Daz” has let down the whole club. But he doesn’t speak for us, most of us will be happy to let Blackburn’s football do the talking come Sunday when these one season wonders come to Ewood Park. I for one will be toasting to Jack, with a nice glass of claret, come Sunday evening when we have 3 more points in the bag and the Burnley fans are still trying to work out how to get changed out of their football shirts.

Football Cliches used – Ade Akinbiyi

The Derby: Blackburn Rovers Versus Burnley

Gamst after his stunning winner against Burnley in 2005

So the time has almost come for the most eagerly anticipated fixture of the season with the rovers will face the Clarets of Burnley a.k.a the Dingles of Dingle Town. Rovers currently have 5 wins and 1 draw in the last 6 meetings however that will count for nothing come Saturday as a new chapter is born in this century old derby. The first meeting between these two clubs in the premier league comes with Burnley 5 points and seven places above the Rovers, a fact that irks me to the bone as a Rovers fan.

Blackburn will still go in to the game as favourites however as Burnley are still to pick up a single point on the road. They are very much this seasons Stoke as they can play their “lovely” football at home but can’t score for toffee any where else. A performance like the 2005 FA cup replay would go down very well, especially from MGP who is one of the only players in either squad to have experienced the real Lancashire derby.

The biggest concern for the Rovers will once again be where the goals come from and of course whether we manage to field a the defensive trio of Robinson, Samba and Nelsen who were all injured prior to the international break. I’d like to see a strong performance from the midfield and hopefully they will take on some goal scoring responsibility this weekend as we definitely need to make up for the strikers who are yet to show up this season.

Roberts’ deadly goal ratio of a goal every 7 games is unlikely stop in what will be a tight game so we will have to rely on the younger players such as Di Santo and Hoilett to start upfront. The latter has really impressed me with his performances in the last game but it’s at times like this I wish we hadn’t sold Derbyshire who was never given a chance under Sam Allardyce and was one of the most natural finishers we’ve had for years.

Despite all this I’m still confident that we have the squad and the passion to take these jokers to the cleaners. Come on the Rovers!

Football Cliches Included – Natural Finisher

The Derby – Blackburn Rovers v Burnley Streams

I will of course be spouting forth some derby banter shortly but I want to make sure everyone gets to watch the match no matter where they are located.

Blackburn Rovers vs Burnley Live Streams

Checkout MyP2P.eu on match day to see what streams are running, and if you haven’t used one before make sure you have a look at their software guides so you don’t miss a minute!

Having spent time living in Denmark and Canada I have lived off these streams in the past to get my rovers fix, and because of the poor coverage we get over here in England as well I still end up watching them on a Saturday afternoon.