BLACKBURN ROVERS

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
A point is better than nothing given a piss poor performance from a team utterly devoid of any creativity and attacking ideas. I'd be quite happy to tell Steve Cooper to his face that I reckon there must be at least a dozen managers out there who'd get far better from this squad of players. He's dining out on our league position which has been achieved by some very fortunate results in a not overly strong league - excepting the likes of Norwich and Brentford etc who are light years better than we are.

What we need is a foreign coach who knows how to coach FOOTBALL because sure as hell Cooper doesn't know. That guy who was with Fulham a while back is the type of manager who'd do something with this squad. All I can give Cooper credit for is attracting good young players on loan from other clubs but his overall tenure is pretty dire other than our defence, which is probably down to our defensive coaches anyway.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
I'm beginning to think that I don't want us to be promoted. Seriously!! As we stand we'd be cannon fodder for every single team in the Premier League and we'd be slaughtered on a weekly basis with the resultant effect on confidence and morale. The difference between 2010 and now is that I BELIEVED in that team; I believed in our style of play; I believed in our identity of passing/possession football that was so different to what most other teams were playing then. Was it Gary Lineker who compared us to Barca and coined the name Swanselona? And, alongside, you had the likes of Hansen and Lawro saying much the same. In one game against Fulham, we played well over 30 passes before scoring and Lawro had to speed up the replay to show all the passes.

There were posters of our team displayed in foreign railway stations. Our style of play was admired worldwide and we attracted comments from players of international renown. Can you imagine this happening with our present lot????????????? Our 'fame' wouldn't reach as far as Bridgend!!

Whatever Cooper brings to the table it isn't on the same planet as what we once were; and, as long as he is our manager, it never will be because he doesn't have the knowledge or the DNA to play that kind of football. I have nothing whatsoever against Steve as a person as he seems to be a really nice guy but I just don't want him managing my football team.
 

Yankee_Jack

Key Player
The dog days of the season.

Here we are. Joint second with a game in hand over Watford. One whole win ahead of Brentford. The last game of the season at Watford is going to be a killer. How many of us wouldn't have snatched at that if offered it back in September.

Could be better - yes. Could be a ton worse - hell yes.

We're a good keeper away from promotion. If Woody hadn't been nutmegged we'd have won another. He may yet be our Achilles heal.

Fact of the matter is that our squad is not that deep. Rotation is possible but not in positions where it would make a difference. Lowe was knackered by minute 60 tonight. Ayew must be super man. Routs played his first minutes in a long while after coming back from injury. Whittaker is considered "one for the future".

I don't know Oli Cooper's best role, but it seems like he should be given a start just to give some others a breather in midfield.

My stream dropped while Guehi was sub'd ... poor performance or knackered?
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Ivor, you can join my let’s not get promoted club any time. At the moment we hold the AGM in my broom cupboard. View attachment 1773
Well I'd like to hear from any poster who thinks we'll do okay in the Premier League if we get promoted and the reasons why, cos I sure as hell can't think of a single one. The footballing teams will outplay us and murder us, the physical teams will out-muscle us, Leeds and their ilk will outrun us and the hoofball teams will 'outhoof' us! Pessimistic? No, just realistic based on what I've seen this season. Some stats:

POSSESSION: 59-41 SHOTS: 15-10 OT: 4-1 CORNERS: 5-3 FOULS: 12-12 GOALS: 1-1

Note that we were playing a bog standard middle of the table team missing their best player and top scorer, yet we were beaten in all the top stats other than goals where we were gifted yet another penalty. Chances from open play and meaningful action in their box? If there was, I missed it. Cooper prattles on about fight and unity but that's the LEAST I expect from any professional football team and he expects accolades for it.

Where is his stamp, where is his footprint on the team? I'm talking in terms of tactical awareness, fluency of play, passing, possession, attacking intent with bodies in the box, consistent pressure, attitude and urgency. Apart from a couple of individual exceptions, I see little or none of this consistently as a team. It seems Cooper's only tactic is to dourly stay in games then hope for a penalty, set piece or a mistake to grab a goal then hang on like grim death for a result. So far it's worked, hence our league position, but his luck is going to run out.

It must be obvious to anyone with the faintest knowledge of football that here is a VERY limited manager. I'm sure the players like him because he's a decent guy and also because it seems to me that training must be a very lax affair. I don't see any evidence of anything worthwhile in our play especially with stuff like ball retention and passing routines etc. I suppose I might be expecting too much but I also know crap when I see it.
 

Jackflash

Midfield General
Staff member
Isn't his contract up at the end of this season?
Can we wait that long Yankee, even then is he reinstated? It needs saying, he has to go. The man is clueless at this level of football, let alone Premiership. If it wasn't for penalties we'd be halfway down the table. Just how lucky can he get. In his pre or post match interviews he doesn't instil any confidence into either fans or players, when asked a question 9 times out of 10 his opening words are "Like i've said before" Blah Blah Blah.
Jenkins as much as I disliked him would never put up with him, or more to the point, never employed him. Choosing managers was his forte. If he sacked Laudrup what chance would Cooper have.
For me waiting until the end of his contract is too late .You couldn't have a more blatant example of what a managerial change can do than those up the M4. almost in a relegation battle a few weeks back, now in a possible playoff promotion battle.
Yankee and myself have taken some stick for our views of his managerial skills since his appointment. Didn't take Trevor Birch long to see the error of his ways and jumped ship.
My inside Info. tells me the players like him, but as Ivor said, they probably like the easy training life, he had no previous training experience prior to us. the squad of boys he had were all academy trained , he just borrowed them now and again.
 

Behindthegoal

Key Player
Well I'd like to hear from any poster who thinks we'll do okay in the Premier League if we get promoted and the reasons why, cos I sure as hell can't think of a single one. The footballing teams will outplay us and murder us, the physical teams will out-muscle us, Leeds and their ilk will outrun us and the hoofball teams will 'outhoof' us! Pessimistic? No, just realistic based on what I've seen this season.
Last month I asked this question (our championship rivals) along the lines of what we should do if promoted. @CroJack gave a thoughtful reply, (as we have come expect), that a minimum spend only would be required to keep us up.

CJ may have changed his mind, but anyway, even a minimum spend may be beyond our current owners.
 

CroJack

Key Player
Last month I asked this question (our championship rivals) along the lines of what we should do if promoted. @CroJack gave a thoughtful reply, (as we have come expect), that a minimum spend only would be required to keep us up.
Provided that we play a totally different brand of football. Brave passing and attacking football on, and intelligent pressing off the ball. Then, and only then, it is possible to survive in the Premier League with minimum spend. When I say minimum spend, then I think the amount Laudrup used to get from Jenkins, and that's about £22m - £25m, which is equivalent to £30m-£40m in today's money, would be enough.

New manager

Erik ten Hag, Ajax

New goalkeeper

Predrag Rajkovic, 25, Serbia, plays for Stade Reims in France, current market value €5m

Other players

Due to the current crisis in European football caused by the Covid pandemic, there are many clubs in a difficult financial situation, especially in Spain, Eastern European and Scandinavian countries. £5m for a player is a huge transfer free many clubs can only dream of right now.
So, with a clever transfer policy we could add 7-8 good players to this squad: a goalkeeper, two centre-backs, attacking middfielder and two strikers are priority.
 
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Yankee_Jack

Key Player
@Jackflash ... we're stuck with him for the moment as the Club couldn't dump him without absorbing the balance of the contract. Club made that mistake too often in the last few years in the Prem.

I think the Club has done a decent job in recruitment of players -- not an Andy Pandy function -- and Woody notwithstanding since he probably insisted on that one -- so I have to believe (hope) that the Club has a game plan for management succession. Thinking people within the club have to see and know what's going on.

IF promoted we will need to recruit. We have young talent that are potentially Prem capable, but quite a few older players that clearly are not. And we are short on numbers. Loanees will go back home unless we can acquire them or reloan. Can Andy Pandy act as a draw of appropriate pros ... unlikely.

When we went up under Rogers we had a decent squad playing well groomed in a unique style. We have a stronger squad now in the main starting players, short on depth, but not well groomed in a unique style unless you think of 3+2 as a style.

It would be a smart but nonetheless brave step on the part of the Club to let Andy Pandy go and sign a new manager (plus coaching team) ... with Tate assuming Curt's old role of local carryover. If we are not promoted then I see no reason to renew Andy Pandy's contract unless he's dirt cheap and we have no ambition.
 

ivoralljack

Grizzled Veteran
Staff member
Reading the comments around the internet right now, an overwhelming majority are in despair regarding the football we're playing - or rather NOT playing. I get the firm impression that most of those posters believe that Cooper has run his race, taken us as far as he can go and the only way now is down. Being manager of a team that would be sitting in a promotion spot but for goal difference, let alone the game in hand, that would appear to be a harsh judgement. But is it?

Most fans have watched the live streams of our games including many who do not/can not attend the Liberty and also the away games, so they are in a good position to comment. We all know that our form of late has been nothing short of abysmal as the evidence has been there for all to see. We have enjoyed immense strokes of good fortune in games where we have been comprehensively outplayed yet still managed to get a result.

Even Cooper himself has acknowledged this yet has done little or nothing to improve the performances of his team when it is his job to do so. He now claims that fatigue is a big factor conveniently forgetting that we have played LESS games than others around us. Could it be that our players are leggy and tired because it is they who have to do the chasing and the last gasp defending instead of the opposition. Could it be that his tactics are wrong; that our fitness levels aren't where they should be; that he is afraid to trust fringe members of the squad to give the first picks an occasional rest?

Whatever the reason/s, one thing is clear - we are playing like a team in the bottom third of the division rather than one right at the top. The other thing that's clear is that it's Cooper's job to put it right and he won't succeed in doing that so long as he keeps flogging the same players to death. Mind you, if he puts that right he still has a multitude of other things that need urgent attention but whether or not he has the ability to do that is quite another matter.
 
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