Blackburn Rovers 2-0 Charlton Athletic Six Things: disciplined display

Smallwood impressed for Blackburn – rovers.co.uk

In a well-drilled performance of efficient pressing, clinical finishing from Blackburn saw them to a 2-0 victory over a one-dimensional Charlton side. Here’s six things from the game.

Blackburn’s high-press

Blackburn’s front men Dominic Samuel and Marcus Antonsson pressed effectively early on, at times looking more confident without the ball than with it. That wasn’t ideal in open play because Charlton midfielders Joseph Aribo and Jake Forster-Caskey sat deeper than they might have done against weaker opposition. Bradley Dack was the Lancashire outfit’s brightest first half performer but after he found Antonsson with a nice 18th minute pass out to the left, the ex-Gillingham man couldn’t could make contact with the Swede’s return cross.

Not Best pleased

Billy Clarke should have done better with his effort from the edge of the box but that was a rare moment of involvement for the ex-Bradford man, who was replaced by Leon Best on 27 minutes. The striker was a pantomime villain due to his poor performances in a previous spell at Ewood Park, where he failed to score a single home goal. Cruelly, the Charlton veteran scored for Blackburn within three minutes of entering the fray, deflecting home Charlie Mulgrew’s free-kick.

Reeves against Raya

In the interests of balance, Best did get the flick-on for a one-on-one chance for Ben Reeves, perhaps Charlton’s best attacking player on the day. Unfortunately for the Northern Irishman though, his effort just before half-time was read superbly by David Raya, who was confident and commanding throughout. Four minutes after half-time, the Spaniard again denied Reeves, who this time produced a curling shot from outside the box.

One-dimensional Addicks

Karl Robinson has been criticized of one-dimensional tactics at times in his career. While he compromised his philosophy to allow his side to defend deep in the first half, the tactics he employed after the break lacked variation. Charlton had two big forwards in Best and Josh Magennis on the pitch, yet the latter was stuck in a wide position that didn’t suit him. Rarely did the South Londoners get the ball in the mixer, instead opting to pass sideways and rely on individual runs from Aribo, left-back Jay Dasilva, Mark Marshall or the latter’s late replacement, Karlan Ahearne-Grant.

Solid Smallwood and good Evans

Whenever either of the aforementioned players attempted a foray into the final third, they were crowded out. Home full-backs Ryan Nyambe and Derrick Williams showed impressive defensive awareness, but the key to Blackburn’s clean sheet was the discipline of Richie Smallwood and Corry Evans, who hassled with aggression and provided fine protection for Mulgrew and Paul Downing, who were examined surprisingly rarely. The hosts wrapped the game up in injury-time, when substitutes Joe Nuttall and Danny Graham combined for the latter to nod home at the back-post, sending Rovers fans home happy.

Ruthless Rovers

The main positives from Blackburn’s performance was the work they did without the ball, rather than what they did with it. However, being in a position to bring a vastly-experienced, Championship-calibre striker in Graham off the bench – not forgetting a talent in Nuttall – has it’s advantages. That luxury means that they only need to excel in possession in short bursts of games, because they have the final third quality to capitalize when they do. By contrast, Charlton have quality in their side on paper, but they must become harder to read for that ability to shine.