Season Preview - Blackburn Rovers

Quick Reminder, Real Life

What an ugly season. They dropped from 10th place in 2009/10 to 15th in the standings last season. They fired a solid if not spectacular manager in Big Sam and replaced him with Steve Kean who excites exactly nobody. They didn’t score well, they didn’t defend well. Really, the only thing that went even passably well was their defending at home which was the sixth most effective in the league. Sadly, their scoring at home was tied for second from the bottom so even the thing they did well didn’t help THAT much other than allowing them to avoid relegation.

Quick Reminder, Fantasy

A slight return to adequacy by Morten Gamst Pedersen and continued fantasy excellence from Christopher Samba were notable performances, as was the emergence of David "Junior" Hoillet. I suppose you could say Robbo rebounded from a long while in the fantasy wilderness. It would be stretching to get excited about much else as occasional fantasy stalwarts like Nelsen and Dunn were injured more frequently than usual.

Summer Changes

Blackburn Rovers sign Goodwillie

Blackburn Rovers | News | Latest News | Latest News | Rovers sign Goodwillie

In a boon to headline writers and 13-year olds everywhere...

Blackburn Rovers have today completed the signing of Scottish international David Goodwillie from Dundee United.

He was scoring about a goal every third match for Dundee United, which isn't THAT impressive, but still represents a big upgrade for Rovers. No offense to Jason Roberts, of whom I'm a big fan, but I would expect Goodwillie to go right to the head of the Rovers attacking pecking order.

Oh, I might as well use this moment to announce my "player that I'm unreasonably excited about in week one" of 2011. "Distinguished" past winners include famously Marek Cech against Arsenal.

Congratulations to Mauro Formica, who has been playing pre-season as a withdrawn forward and has scored a few goals for Rovers. Welcome to my week one fantasy line-up. Hosting Wolves will be a good early test for both sides. Goodwillie will become an interesting choice if he is posted to the games in time, but Formica is my pick.