moggydave

Blackburn Rovers are a club from Blackburn, Lancashire. They are perhaps most famous for winning the title in 1995 under Kenny Dalglish. They finished 10th in the league last year, and have an Intertoto Cup place that should get them into the UEFA cup. They play at Ewood Park and have recently been the target of a potential takeover.


The challenge is to slowly make Blackburn great again and increase the pedigree of your players over a number of years, with a view to being one of the big boys once again. Blackburn are one of the less financially affluent clubs in the league and this adds to the challenge, though the squad is pretty strong to start with.

The majority of people who play Blackburn I'm sure will be fans but I heavily recommend playing with Rovers to anyone. With such great forwards and wingers the emphasis is on attacking, exciting football.

Honours:

1911-12, 1913-14, 1994-95: League Champions
1884,1885,1886,1890,1891,1928: FA Cup winners
2002: League Cup winners

Recent League Record:

2001-02 38 12 10 16 55 51 +4 46 10
2002-03 38 16 12 10 52 43 +9 60 6
2003-04 38 12 8 18 51 59 -8 44 15
2004-05 38 9 15 14 32 43 -11 42 15
2005-06 38 19 6 13 51 42 +9 63 6
2006-07 38 15 7 16 52 54 -2 52 10



The squad:

1 GK Brad Friedel
2 DF André Ooijer
3 DF Stephen Warnock
4 DF Christopher Samba
5 MF Tugay Kerimoğlu
6 DF Ryan Nelsen (captain)
7 MF Brett Emerton
8 MF Robbie Savage
9 FW Roque Santa Cruz
10 FW Benni McCarthy
11 MF David Bentley
12 MF Morten Gamst Pedersen
13 DF Zurab Khizanishvili
14 MF Steven Reid
15 DF Aaron Mokoena
16 DF Stephane Henchoz
17 FW Maceo Rigters
19 MF David Dunn
20 DF Bruno Berner
21 MF Sergio Peter
22 DF Keith Treacy
25 DF Andy Taylor
26 DF Eddie Nolan
27 FW Matt Derbyshire
28 DF Tony Kane
29 MF Martin Olsson
30 FW Jason Roberts
31 GK Peter Enckelman
32 GK Jason Brown
33 GK Frank Fielding
34 GK Gunnar Nielsen


Recommended team:

4-4-2:

GK Friedel 1
DR Ooijer 2
CD Samba 4
CD Nelsen(c) 6
DL Warnock 3
CM Savage 8
CM Dunn 19
MR Bentley 11
ML Pedersen 12
FC Santa Cruz 9
FC McCarthy 10


Recommended additions (for 4-4-2):
- A creative midfielder who is better than Dunn

Less urgent additions:
- Perhaps new full backs
- A defensive midfielder to replace Savage who is getting old and eating up the wage bill.

tom orchard

Im a Rovers fan and always play as the mighty blu and white halves. Ive just got to the end of the demo nad i thought i would give fellow blackburn players some hints and a review of how its gone.

PLAYERS OUT

Robbie Savage - Wigan £2.3m
Jason Brown - Hull £1.6m
Tony Kane - Preston £1.5m
Martin Olsson - Peterborough £230k
Raffa De Vita - Preston £100k
Griffiths - Stoke £75k

PLAYERS IN

Sidwell - Chelsea Loan £31kpw wages
Flamini - Arsenal Loan £15kpw wages
Modric - Dinamo £3.8m + 20% next sale £32kpw
Ignashevic - CSKA Moscow Free £34kpw wages
Aaritalo - Turun(sp) £180k + 15% sale £17kpw

January Transfer Window

PLAYERS IN
Carvalho - CSKA £3.7m compensation £22kpw wages

FORMATION

Flat 4-4-2
Attacking LB, defensive RB.
1 very defensive minded CM, 1 neutral CM.
Long arrow on the RW/LW.
Target man supply mixed.

PREFERRED STARTING LINE UP

GK - Friedel
DR - Ignashevich
DL - Warnock
CB - Samba
CB - Nelsen
RW - Bentley
LW - Gamst
CM(def)- Sidwell
CM(neutral) - Reid
TS - Santa Cruz
FS - McCarthy

SB1 - Enkelman
SB2 - Ooijer
SB3 - Flamini
SB4 - Modric
SB5 - Roberts
SB6 - Emerton
SB7 - Derbyshire

KEY PLAYERS- games inc sub apps

Santa Cruz - 27 games, 14 gls, 11 ass, 7.26avrg
McCarthy - 27 games, 22 gls, 7 ass, 7.33avrg
Sidwell - 24 games, 5 gls , 3 ass, 7.13avrg
Warnock - 25 games, 5 gls, 3 ass, 7.07avrg
Gamst - 29 games, 2 gls, 7 ass, 7.07avrg
Bentley - 28 games, 5 gls, 5 ass, 7.04 avrg
Samba - 25 games, 0 gls, 3 ass, 7.00 avrg
Ignashevich - 23 games,0 gls, 2 ass, 7.00 avrg

INTOTOTO CUP

Won 5-0 on agg against NK Zagreb

UEFA CUP

Beat Kefalik of Iceland 7-0 on agg in the first qualifing round, then B.Jerusalem 4-2 agg in the second. Qualified from a group with At Madrid, Palermo, Grasshopper and Jablonec. Drawn Werder Bremen in the next round.

LEAGUE CUP

Beat Leeds, Pompet and Newcastle to end up in the semis v Chelsea.

EPL

5 place after 19 games on 35 points with a game in hand.

Overall well chuffed.

moggydave

Great stuff - you use Santa Cruz as a TM? He doesn't have the stats for it yet (though apparently he will with the full game or patch).


My first game was with Rovers and in that I player up till November just trying to learn all the new things in 08. Have started again and so far:

In:
Andrey Arshavin - 6.5 mil
Justin Hoyte - loan

Out:
Steven Reid - 3 mil to Newcastle
Robbie Savage - 3 mil to Man City

I think I sold Roberts to Derby too but I can't actually remember.

Tried to get a DM to replace Savage and bid for Lorick Cana of Marseille with 6.75 mil. Marseille accepted but the deadline came before he accepted (or rejected contract). I'm stuck with Mokoena for DM with no backup and I can't seem to loan Flamini (despite him being listed) - perhaps you can only loan one player from a club. If someone can confirm this I'll get rid of Hoyte.

Team is 442 Diamond

Friedel
Emerton/Ooijer/Hoyte
Samba
Nelsen
Warnock

Mokoena (and hopefully Cana in Jan)
Bentley
Gamst
Arshavin/Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz/McCarthy
McCarthy/Arshavin/Derbyshire


Results so far (early days):

Chelsea away: 0-0
Newcastle home: 1-1
West Ham away: 3-3 (Santa Cruz hatrick, was annoyed I didn't get all three points here - I don't think I've grasped defense in 08 yet with the new closing down system).


Not sure how long this will last, perhaps a season at most, depending on how well I do. Either way I'll start a real game with Rovers once I get the full version and patch (subject to my personal finances...) and hopefully by then I'll understand the 08 tactics workings (because I don't quite yet).

tom orchard

Santa Cruz can be played as a TM, good first touch, technique, heading, passing and creativity. If you put targrt man supply to mixed it works great.

As for your defensive woes, I keep my RB, either Ignashevich or Ooijer defensive with very few forward runs. I keep my 2 worst headers in the defense back at attacking set pieces with my def mid back if necessary. My defensive line is mid/deep with zonal marking with only warnock with forward runs.

My team mentality is set to neutral with short passes, 2/3 tempo and width.

Hope that helps you moggydave.

moggydave

Trouble at Mill:



My defenders arn't playing well and my strikers arn't taking their chances (though Santa Cruz was in excellent form).



The Birmingham comment confuses me somewhat, but it was the same story, if not worse since Birmingham had barely any chances.

I will almost certainly start again with the full game (and hopefully Santa Cruz will be good in the air then.)

foxmad

In the Premiership you cannot make loan deals outside of the transfer window. I imagine that is your problem, as far as I know you can loan as many players from a club as you like.

roversawh7

You got drawn against Larisa...

That's eerie...

But at least you won...

Anyone else find Rigters very effective in the demo?

Zoheb

Sounds like your doing well, Tom, what are your other tactical settings, i have been experimenting with a 4-3-3 and a 3-4-3, playing with 3 strikers seems to be very effective, derbyshire and rigters are very good, i'm annoyed at Roque's mental settings for a striker though and McCarthy's composure is too low

moggydave

In the demo because they are pre-saved games the fixture list are always the same (as each other, not real life, but the chances of facing Larisa are high, providing Laria win their games).

asdfadasdsa

why do you guys all tend to sell Savage? He is the best DM in the game and will be in good condition for another 3 or 4 years(probably because of his high fitness)