Arsene Wenger criticised Mark Hughes’ side after the recent Rovers-Arsenal and labelled them ‘violent’, but when asked for his opinion on this Sven says, “They are not violent, there is always a referee who decides the rules and to what level he wants to take the game. They have some good players, I know they are a physical, strong team and if that’s what you have, you have to use it.
“I’m not worried about that, we will try to play our football and Blackburn will try to not let us, but it’s the same for us. We’ll have to defend well, but I’m not worried about Blackburn’s approach.
“It’s a big game for us, it will be a difficult game because Blackburn have a good squad and they have done well so far.”
The Manager also has praise for his opposite number, when he says, “Mark’s done a great job at Blackburn, I like him, he’s a good man and I know him quite well. I met him a lot at when looking at players while I was in my previous job, and he was the Wales manager.”
This fixture was put back to Sunday due to Rovers’ UEFA Cup tie on Thursday, which saw them reach the next round when they beat MyPa, but the City boss does think their having played more recently than City will matter.
“I don’t think that’s important, we played on Wednesday night and there won’t be a big difference. I don’t think there will be too many players from Blackburn’s team from Thursday, there will be a few changes I suspect.”
Sven confirmed that Kasper Schmeichel will return between the posts, but further up the field he says that he won’t be tinkering with the formation he has stuck with for the Premier League games so far.
“When we have played with one up front, and Elano behind, the team’s done a good job. I can’t see a reason to change it at the moment, but I’ve said before that you will see us play with two strikers up front. When a team’s doing well, I don’t see a reason to change.”
