What was once a strong point in "recent memory" Rovers sides is now a problem that will have to exist until the end of the season and we'll have to survive in the Premier League in spite of it. Worse still there's not a single thing we can do about it save for scraping around the bargain bin of free transfers and unearthed talent that can be a lottery at the best of times.
Sure, that same bargain bin spawned us the likes of the now departed Chris Samba and Ryan Nelsen (the two men whose exits have left us shorter than a midget with back cramps at the back) but with no room in the current wage ceiling for even the cheapest type of replacement the facts of the matter are these - We have three senior centre backs until the middle of May and a relegation fight to doggedly battle until the bitter end.
If I was a betting man I'd even go as far to say that shortfall could be the difference between survival and hurtling towards the Championship quicker than you can say "Prince Charles is a Dingle".
It probably doesn't help the cause that the defence itself has been our downfall all season long with Rovers currently bottom of the pile in terms of the number of goals conceded, it's a position that to the outside world looks like a spot in the Blackburn team that needs strengthening not gutting. To further highlight this blatant shambles even further we currently sit in EIGHTH in the goals scored table.
We score for fun but we concede like it's going out of fashion.
So how do we remedy this problem with the remaining squared headed luggers that are left? The answer I would suspect lies in the form of what looks at present like an overpriced dud.
Whilst we all know what we'll get from the criminally underrated shave dodger Gael Givet and the ever improving Grant Hanley is starting to churn out Premier League quality performances that seemed an erotic fantasy back in September the onus really is on Scott Dann to raise him game to a level that he has yet to hit in his stint at Ewood Park.
Mr Dann has been something of a disappointment since his arrival on transfer deadline day back in August, he came with a £6-8 million price tag (depending on who you believe) and he also came through door with a reputation as a stingy defender who was being monitored by the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool prior to his Lancashire switch. High praise indeed but not the sort of praise he has merited since his debut.
Similar to the hype afforded to most boxing matches and pretty much all Reese Witherspoon films, what we have witnessed so far has been a lot less than what we have been told to expect.
It's not that Scotty doesn't have it in him - he had two very successful and reputation enhancing years in a very poor Birmingham City side and prior to that was the best thing since sliced bread at Coventry City. He's played in sides that are not too dissimilar to the stature of team that Blackburn Rovers are and he's been a star man whilst he been doing it.
Furthermore a friend of mine, who is a staunch Birmingham City fan, offered the following assessment of our boy when news filtered through to him that Rovers had bagged Dann's signature - "Too good for Birmingham, too good for Blackburn, twice as good as Roger Johnson."
So what's not well at the Dann hotel?
Well injuries haven't helped. He's been in and out the side with all sorts of weird and wonderful knocks and bruises which have stopped him having a proper run in the side. Little niggles like that can disrupt momentum and get anybody down.
The other element that might not be helping his form is a change in footballing philosophy. In the Second City in particular he was used to a very defensive approach from the master of insomnia prevention Alex McLeish, over at St Andrews he was afforded a lot of midfield screening that the entire Rovers defence has certainly not enjoyed all season long from the likes of Morten Pedersen, Radosav Petrovic and Steve N'Zonzi.
It might even be that he has failed to settle at a club which is about as far away from the word "stable" as the human imagination can stretch too. Cairo probably seems a more settled place than Blackburn right now so who knows?
The frustrating thing with the man I am begging to call Scotty Too Hotty is that anybody who has watched him before his Rovers career began knows for a fact there is a far better player in there than his performances have suggested. It's not that he is just flat out useless ala a Christian Dailly or a Darren Peacock, he's actually a very talented and highly accomplished centre back.
And as we approach the last three months of what will prove to be a nail shredding relegation fight we need that player to rise to the fore again. Time for Scott to stand up and be counted because without the likes of Nelsen and Samba around the pressure has been dumped on his shoulders more than it has before.
Show us your worth £6 million Scott, because right now my only real memory of you as a Blackburn Rovers player is that you injured a testicle. Not what you or anyone else had in mind.
Spot on as usual Mikey.
ReplyDeleteVenky's have stripped the defence bare and the result may well be relegation.
In addition post Allardyce you have to ask why Rovers concede so many goals and the coaching must take most of the blame. Even last season with Samba, Salgado and Nelsen we still leaked goals. Kean just doesn't know how to get the defence organised to defend as a team nor has he brought in a coach who can do this. Yes Dann must improve if we are to survive but so must the defence as a unit. Rovers 1 Villa 0 would be a good start.
Yep, another cracking article, Rovers defence has been a perennial problem for as long as...er a long time. Kean is unable to resolve this situation and, with or without a positive input from Dann and the rest of the shabby defence, our time is running out. Agree, a 1-0 win over Villa would be a real boost, but I fear Kean has spent too much time talking with very little action.
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