Beck decision made: Blackburn Rovers team news and predicted XI to face Cardiff City.
The latest Blackburn Rovers team news as John Eustace’s side gear up to face Cardiff City in the Championship.
Eustace’s message to Gueye after Blackburn Rovers drought.
John Eustace refused to single Makhtar Gueye after his glaring miss in Blackburn Rovers’ defeat to Stoke City.
The summer signing has only scored two goals, both in the Carabao Cup. He missed a glorious opportunity to open his Championship account against Stoke City, heading over from close range.
That was at 1-0 and easily the most gilt-edged miss of the match, though Viktor Johansson pulled off a string of saves to deny others. Yuki Ohashi was also denied twice, with neither of the two striking acquisitions scoring since mid-September.
Tyrhys Dolan and Andi Weimann came close but Eustace was keen not to focus on individuals. He was more bothered about a positive performance even if the wait for goals is a frustration.
READ MORE: EUSTACE’S DEFIANT VERDICT DESPITE ROVERS DEFEAT
“It’s a big chance and he has to keep getting in the right positions and the right areas,” Eustace told The Lancashire Telegraph.
“We have to keep putting the ball in the box for him. He wasn’t the only one to miss a chance.
“Ohashi and Andi Weimann, Harry Leonard had a chance at the end too. Everyone is getting in the right areas, the performance was very good.
“Really, really disappointed to lose the game, of course we are, but we’re moving in the right direction from a performance point of view.”
Rovers created an expected tally of 2.78 and had 25 attempts on goal. They also came up against a goalkeeper in inspired form and were punished at the opposite end.
“I think that (goals) would change the results but the performances overall have been very good,” he added on whether confidence was low and Rovers needed a slight of luck.
“Watford was the same, we played very well. We weren’t clinical when we had the opportunities, today was the same.
“It was a very good performance, I was pleased with it. To not win was very disappointing but we’re doing a lot of right things.
“We’ll sit down and analyse the game as a group. We can’t get too disappointed in the result because the performance was good.
“We then have a huge game on Saturday which we’ll get the lads up for. As long as we’re performing like that, it’s all I ask for. We won’t win every game but if the performances are at that level and the attitude is, over the course of the season, it will be ok.
“We dominated the ball, it was an exciting game. We have made strides forward this season and off the back of two tough results, we showed we were together.
“It’s football. You can only control what you can control. I thought we were excellent but what we didn’t do was put the ball in the net.”
Stoke were awarded a penalty late on after a Rovers mistake lead to Danny Batth pulling back Bae Junho. Eustace had no complaints with the decision and felt Rovers should’ve defended their box better for both goals.
“I thought it was a penalty. I think Danny pulled him back, I don’t know if it was just inside the area or outside but at first glance, I thought it was a penalty but I haven’t seen it back,” he said.
“Perhaps it was 50-50. It’s too late now to worry about that anyway. The way we moved the ball and dominated possession against a good Stoke team was positive. The most important detail was losing but we have to keep believing.
“We do need to defend the goals better. We have to win our tackles and block the shots. The second goal was a mistake at the back.”
