Sam Allardyce is worried by Blackburn's league position at the
midway point of the season and looking for an improvement at
Manchester City.
Rovers travel to Eastlands on Monday night lying 13th in the
Premier League table but just three points away from the relegation
zone.
Blackburn have overcome defensive problems which saw them
beaten 6-2 at Arsenal and 5-0 at Chelsea, but it is the team's poor
goal return which has emerged as a bigger concern.
Allardyce's side are without a league win since November and
although he has been generally satisfied with their level of
performance, the manager accepts his players must start hitting the
back of the net to pull themselves away from trouble.
"It's a big worry because I didn't think it would be this
close from our point of view, based on our performances over the
last 20 games," Allardyce said. "But unfortunately we haven't
scored enough goals - there are 10 games this year that we haven't
scored in. That shows you our problem really.
"We have not done so bad really, clean sheet-wise - we have
got four in the last 10 (league) games having had a particularly
poor run in the first 10.
"We seem to have put that right a little bit but not got
enough goals to clinch more victories, so instead of winning five
in the last 10, we have only won two and drawn five, and that's the
massive difference that you then get in the league situation.
"We must put that right. We haven't won in eight and it's
very close to being very good, but unfortunately draws are not
enough.
"We need to get some wins and we need to get them very
quickly.
"That is going to be very difficult at Manchester City but
not impossible, so a positive result is what we will look for."
City go into the match off the back of three wins and three
clean sheets since Roberto Mancini took over as manager, and
Allardyce believes the Italian has made a point of tightening up
the team's back line.
"I think they are probably a little more defensive,"
Allardyce said. "I think he has had a look and thought even though
they have only lost two (matches all season), they have drawn so
many games because they haven't managed to keep the clean sheet.
"If they had done that they would have won more games rather
than drawn them, where it's the opposite for us - we've not scored
enough.
"They have always managed to score with the talent they have
got but they have been a little open and lost some very important
leads to end up drawing. I think he's put that right."
