by David Sweeney
It seems that now everyone under the sun has aired their views on Carlos Tevez’s misdemeanours and therefore the Argentine will be excluded from today’s mauling. However for his pure arrogance and disrespect to everybody connected with Manchester City he certainly should be made to pay and I hope the club do everything in their powers to make the rest of Tevez’s stay in Manchester as unpleasant as possible. Anyway this week’s maulings stem mainly from the North West
as we rip into a referee and bash Bolton’s beleaguered Bogdan. Add to
that a dismal derby defeat for QPR and why Blackburn’s clueless owners
must get rid of their even more clueless manager.
Martin Atkinson
Referee Martin Atkinson ruined the Merseyside derby. That is the view
of Everton manager David Moyes and it is very hard to disagree with
him after Martin Atkinson confidently red-carded midfielder Jack
Rodwell for a 23rd-minute tackle on Luis Suarez in which he seemed to
win the ball fairly.
His decision was untimely and plain wrong, just as Everton seemed to
have gained the ascendancy in what promised to be an enthralling
encounter. The replays show Rodwell would have been unlucky to receive
a foul against him, never mind a red card. But it wasn’t just that
decision that leave me baffled; Atkinson was erratic when blowing for
fouls and produced cards throughout. A crunching tackle from Tony
Hibbert, which was far worse than Rodwell’s, was not even penalised.
Inconsistent refereeing is frustrating for all concerned and needs to
be improved upon, especially by Atkinson who was at fault last weekend
as he wrongly sent off Blackburn’s Martin Olsson for two despicable
bookings. Surprisingly he was awarded the Merseyside derby on the back
of his inept display when in reality he should have been demoted. I am
not one for slating referees for no reason but until they are properly
handled after poor performances then they will not improve. Demotions
should become common place if a ref continually underperforms.
The Toffees have lodged an appeal to the FA against the sending off
and one can only hope the committee will see sense and help atone for
Atkinson’s error by rescinding the unlucky Rodwell’s red card.
Adam Bogdan
Bolton’s stand-in goalkeeper Adam Bogdan suffered a torrid afternoon
as he stepped in to Jussi Jaskelainen’s gloves for the visit of
Chelsea to the Reebok Stadium. The nervy Hungarian got off to a
terrible start and was beaten after just 80 seconds by a lively Daniel
Sturridge. From this his confidence was evidently knocked as he
fumbled and flapped, firstly at a tame effort from Sturridge before
again slipping up by parrying David Luiz’s weak effort to allow
Lampard to casually follow-up to make the score a staggering 4-0 at
half time.
Not that he was helped by the defence in front of him who parted like
the red sea as Sturridge and Lampard continue to torment and waltz
through the backline with ease and Owen Coyle’s side are in all sorts
of trouble. However it must be considered that his side have endured a
gruelling opening to the season including matches against both the
Manchester clubs as well as facing Liverpool and now Chelsea.
The Trotters have a must-win local derby against Wigan to contend with
after the international break and the Whites can only hope regular
number one Jussi Jaskelainen is fit to play after Bogdan’s blunders
contributed to another sorry defeat.
It was a demoralising day for Neil Warnock’s men who had shown signs of
improvement in recent weeks.
QPR – Mainly Paddy Kenny
West London rivals Fulham and QPR went into battle on Sunday at Craven
Cottage but few would have predicted the Fulham onslaught that was to
follow. Rangers were poor all over the park with Paddy Kenny, Fitz
Hall and Joey Barton being the main culprits. Kenny’s calamitous
afternoon got off to the worst possible start when he spilled a shot
from Mousa Dembele and Andrew Johnson made him pay for his mistake
after just 78 seconds. It got worse for the Irish international as he
brought down the lively Johnson which allowed Danny Murphy to convert
from the spot. The goalkeepers afternoon got no better as he shipped a
further four goals to compound QPR to a 6-0 defeat.
It was a demoralising day for Neil Warnock’s men who had shown signs of
improvement in recent weeks. They must pick themselves up and quickly
bounce back from this humiliating defeat. Starting at home to
Blackburn in two weeks time.
Manager Mauling
Steve Kean
Not for the first time this season Steve Kean receives my manager
mauling narrowly seeing off Owen Coyle who makes a lucky escape due to
his underperforming Bolton sides undergoing a tough start to the
season because of a cruel fixture list.
Despite putting out a side to frustrate Manchester City and succeeding
for the opening 45 minutes, his teams woeful second half display was
almost as bad as his tactical ineptness that resulted in City hitting
Rovers for four in a rampant second 45. It was alarmingly apparent
that he had no plan B as soon as Adam Johnson opened the scoring his
failure to adapt his formation cost Rovers dear.
However ‘kean’ to blow his own trumpet the deluded Scot claimed that
Blackburn’s fortunate win against a poor Arsenal side has been
forgotten too quickly stating ”A couple of weeks ago we played Arsenal
and got a fantastic result and most of the fans went home very, very
happy.” What he must realise is that you can’t dwell on past glories,
especially as a manager and you are only as good as your last match.
In this case it was not one to remember. Kean deservedly bore the
brunt of protests from a number of Rovers fans who were vociferous in
their cries for Kean to leave throughout their humiliating fifth
defeat of a miserable season. The Manchester City fans rubbed salt
into Kean’s wounds as they mockingly directed chants of ‘sacked in the
morning’ at the Rovers boss and this chant continued to echo around
Ewood Park after the final whistle where the unhappy Rovers supporters
staged a sit in protest to show their disgust at the teams plight
under Kean.
Brass Kean vowed “100 per cent” that he would not quit, perhaps it is
time for the chicken-mad Venky’s to put him and the Blackburn Rovers
faithful out of their misery and sack him.
