Blackburn Rovers boss: Athens over-physical with my players (From This Is Lancashire)

Blackburn Rovers boss: Athens over-physical with my players

9:06am Thursday 29th July 2010 in

By Andy Cryer » Blackburn Rovers reporter

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SAM Allardyce has hit out at AEK Athens’ ‘over-physical’ approach to yesterday’s pre-season friendly claiming they almost appeared to be looking to harm his players deliberately.

The Rovers boss was left furious after yesterday’s 2-1 defeat to the Greeks in their second game of the Sydney Festival of Football – accusing them of particularly targeting talismanic midfielder David Dunn.

Dunn, who picked up a slight knock in the first half, was replaced by Morten Gamst Pedersen on just 57 minutes with his side trailing 2-0 but Allardyce admitted it was just a case of self preservation.

The midfielder was involved in a number of flash points during a heated encounter, with Rovers upset at a series of bad challenges being put in by the Greek outfit.

Gael Givet limped out of the action in the first half and, with Chris Samba and Nikola Kalinic still absent through injury, Allardyce claimed Athens’ robust approach was the last thing his Premier League preparations needed.

“I was very, very surprised and I’m very, very sad that tackles like that were going in,” Allardyce said.

“People say and talk about the physical game of the Premier League but we don’t go around tackling players like that.

“That was bordering on almost intent to harm the player rather than a mis timed tackle but at least he (Dunn) is okay.

"He got the brunt of those tackles, so we brought him off for his own protection.

“The referee wasn’t protecting him (Dunn) from the volatile nature of the Greek midfielders just going straight through him.

“We were disappointed in that sort of attitude in a friendly game really.

"Rather than playing football, they were intent on stopping our best player which meant it got a little heated at times.”

In heavy rain, AEK Athens took control of the game with two goals in the space of two minutes half way through the first half.

Rovers improved after the break and the impressive Phil Jones scored his first senior goal for the club for a deserved consolation on 82 minutes.

Despite being Rovers’ fourth straight defeat this summer, Rovers boss Allardyce was not about to get too concerned over the run of results.

Allardyce said: “It was about two young centre halves today. Unfortunately they got caught out with two very good Athens forwards in the opening half an hour.

“When you go 2-0 down, it is always very difficult to get back into the game.

"We changed things around, brought on a bit more experience and were much better in the second half.

“The conditions did not help either, but we did get another good test against a strong side.”

Comments(40)

Lauradora says...
9:14am Thu 29 Jul 10

What a joke! Jones was not at fault for any of the goals conceeded. Bit out of order to blame his two young centre halves. Clearly if you watched the games you will see Jonesy had outstanding performances. He can play in different positions and score. It was the likes of Givet, Lars and Chimbonda who looked very disappointing. So what if Athens were a dirty side?They are paid enough...deal with it! Big Sam is just trying to take the focus off the fact we have nothing up front. Wake up! All credit to Jonesy for his goal!