Rotherham verdict

To be honest tonight was typical football, all about the result, anything but a win and woodgate would be slaughtered on here, as Saturday.
I'm very rarely critical of the team, look at my posts. If we lose and play poorly I just avoid the board because the doom and gloom just makes it worse.
Yes I was critical of surridge and Rico tonight, other players weren't great either.
One loss for Woodgate and serious meltdown, not convinced the performances or more importantly finding the right team to win games has been found. Not sure Wagner of Henry will make a difference, but hope I'm wrong
 
JIMNNINA said:
Excellent result winning ugly.
Defence very good
Midfield worked hard
Front 3 lightweight with poor decision making
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Defence defended well. Attacking-wise they humped it for the front 4 to wrestle for. CCV and Kelly looked good. Full-backs rarely got forward.
Midfield defended well. Going forward there was very little.
Forwards: Surridge wrestled for scraps. Danjuma (first half) shown up for lack of left foot (second half) no service. Stan: no service all match.

Maybe Woodgate can be excused for just trying to battle Rotherham. But otherwise, he has removed all creativity in the last 2 games. We are wasting Stan, Danjuma (right foot), Jack, Brooks (if he is bothered) and, in his new role, Billing.

At least it means the creativity is there for a new manager to bring it back.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
I don't think it's just me, but I just don't see a team out there when I watch us... Everything on show, to me, supports the rumours of split dressing rooms and a disliking of each other... Muted celebrations when we score and nothing at the final whistle...

Why aren't we pumped at winning a tough scrap...! Too many strops on the field... too many selfish moves when a team player would have laid it off...

7 from 9 points yes, but we're clinging on atm and unless someone puts a size 13 up some entitled footballers' arses, we'll soon be mid table and kissing promotion goodbye...
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I've mentioned it before, half in jest at the time, but maybe this squad really could do with one of Ed and Jase's famous team building excursions. As you say, it feels as though there are little cliques within the squad and no doubt within each clique they spend a fair amount of time badmouthing the others. There really does seem to be no unity, no sense of team out there. The blokes on Sky talking about how appealing it must be to a potential manager to come here and have this great group of players at his disposal. Well it didn't do Ed any good, then Jason, now probably Woodgate, so who on earth is going to do any better with them ?
There is a fundamental problem with squad unity and a lack of team spirit. If that can be fixed somehow, then yes, this is a great squad to inherit. As they are now though, not so much !
 
JW has arrested the decline. That is difficult when a team are losing and playing as badly as we were. It was a poor game tonight but there was a bit more fight and cohesion. A bit. It was better than the last 4 or 5 games under JT.

Problems abound. Brooks, Billing and Surridge rarely challenge in the air. As a team we never attack the ball at corners, the defence always seems to clear it. We still make passes to no one. There seems to be little understanding between the players. I’d stick with a regular 11, use subs if players can’t manage two games a week. Too much chopping and change, there are no partnerships in midfield or up front.

Positives? I thought Kelly and CCV did well, as did Smith (mostly).
Begovic saved us again. After that? Not much. I thought Lerma did ok. Danjuma seems brainless or headless. Cook and Brooks still seem to be half there.

The players should consider themselves fortunate that the stadium is empty. They’d be getting heaps.
 
fritter said:
JW has arrested the decline. That is difficult when a team are losing and playing as badly as we were. It was a poor game tonight but there was a bit more fight and cohesion. A bit. It was better than the last 4 or 5 games under JT.

Problems abound. Brooks, Billing and Surridge rarely challenge in the air. As a team we never attack the ball at corners, the defence always seems to clear it. We still make passes to no one. There seems to be little understanding between the players. I’d stick with a regular 11, use subs if players can’t manage two games a week. Too much chopping and change, there are no partnerships in midfield or up front.

Positives? I thought Kelly and CCV did well, as did Smith (mostly).
Begovic saved us again. After that? Not much. I thought Lerma did ok. Danjuma seems brainless or headless. Cook and Brooks still seem to be half there.

The players should consider themselves fortunate that the stadium is empty. They’d be getting heaps.
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I couldn’t have put those points any better myself.

The effort levels and will to win were generally far better than seen lately and I felt CCV had a faultless game. Frits is spot on about players such as (fancy) Danjuma, Brooks, Stan and Sam either not being aggressive enough or even shirking challenges altogether. That won’t win you football matches on a regular basis in this division. The Prem years and the over-protective refs really have had a negative impact on many of the squad and they need to buck their ideas up.

I can just hear Paul Warne in that dressing room before the game - “you guys are on £5k a week, we’re up against these prima donnas who earn 10 times that much, go out there and show them you’re better players and want to win more”. No better motivation than that for most sportsmen.

By the way, what about Paul Warne as our next manager, anyone? I can’t say I like the way his team plays but he does the absolute best with what he’s got and clearly brings out the best in them, and how well did he come across in his post match interview?? Oh, AND he’s ex-AFCB so fits the mould!
 
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glennafcb said:
I couldn’t have put those points any better myself.

The effort levels and will to win were generally far better than seen lately and I felt CCV had a faultless game. Frits is spot on about players such as (fancy) Danjuma, Brookes, Stan and Sam either not being aggressive enough or even shirking challenges altogether. That won’t win you football matches on a regular basis in this division. The Prem years and the over-protective refs really have had a negative impact on many of the squad and they need to buck their ideas up.

I can just hear Paul Warne in that dressing room before the game - “you guys are on £5k a week, we’re up against these prima donnas who earn 10 times that much, go out there and show them you’re better players and want to win more”. No better motivation than that for most sportsmen.

By the way, what about Paul Warne as our next manager, anyone? I can’t say I like the way his team plays but he does the absolute best with what he’s got and clearly brings out the best in them, and how well did he come across in his post match interview?? Oh, AND he’s ex-AFCB so fits the mould!
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Was with you until you listed Sam as someone who shirks challenges or not aggressive enough. Gives it his all and scraps for everything
 
It was a vital 3 points.
Errrrrrmmmmm.
We have overcome our losing spell which is great.
Hell it was fairly vapid and bland.
We are still mightily under performing but thankfully are holding our own in the play off positions.
Oh and Cameron Farter Knickers still looks jolly sound.
 
Topfarrier said:
Ah perspective yes let me see.....JT wins games by the odd goal while not playing well and the perspective is....awful performance....got lucky ....these types of performances will catch up on us...etc....Woody produces performances than are no better and suddenly it's good to win ugly.
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It is good to win ugly, until it’s not. Right now we are winning ugly. Let’s not forget that Woody is the caretaker.
 
AFCBade said:
Was with you until you listed Sam as someone who shirks challenges or not aggressive enough. Gives it his all and scraps for everything
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He does, but I'm not convinced he's got the ability at this level yet. Granted, he got no service last night but his hold up play was non existent. In games like this you need the ball to be able to stick up front and it just didn't. If King was still here and he put in that performance he'd have got pelters. Genuinely hope the lad comes good for us and develops into the player some posters think he is already, but the sooner Dom's back, the better.
 
I think we battled hard and wanted to win the game .
Apar
BoscombeCherry said:
He does, but I'm not convinced he's got the ability at this level yet. Granted, he got no service last night but his hold up play was non existent. In games like this you need the ball to be able to stick up front and it just didn't. If King was still here and he put in that performance he'd have got pelters. Genuinely hope the lad comes good for us and develops into the player some posters think he is already, but the sooner Dom's back, the better.
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He doesn’t back out of anything . What doesn’t help is when we are constantly limping it forward at head height allowing the centre halves to steam in .
He had a few nice little lay offs when at feet .
The ball has to go to his feet
 
BoscombeCherry said:
He does, but I'm not convinced he's got the ability at this level yet. Granted, he got no service last night but his hold up play was non existent. In games like this you need the ball to be able to stick up front and it just didn't. If King was still here and he put in that performance he'd have got pelters. Genuinely hope the lad comes good for us and develops into the player some posters think he is already, but the sooner Dom's back, the better.
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Agree, not quite there to be relied upon as a regular in a side with serious aspirations of promotion. Just needs game time , whether its enough getting 20 mins every other game as a sub, or going out on loan to a lower side for more frequent starts- although latter currently unrealistic due to lack of strikers we have,
 
The morning after.

We have gained 4 points on Brentford in two games, who a short time ago looked out of reach. They have become beatable and we are now hard to score against, let alone beat.

The most important thing this month had to be results. I saw a game where we were on top, took our goal and choose to defend it for our 12th clean sheet of the year. From the goal onwards, how we played didn't suit the stats or many of the players, but it did suit our defensive unit. In particular, call it ugly if you like, but we did attempt a significant number of low percentage but safe longer passes (clearances) rather than get caught in our half with short passes.

What we would have liked is a 2nd on the counter attack to allow us to be more expansive.

On their chances and how many saves Bego makes, we generally are so solid that we have only conceded a goal every other game from open play, so if we don't give them a set play, Bego saves quite a few longer shots that don't trouble him. The one real chance they had was the one he saved when they were offside.

Looking at the last 3 games of the season, if we can beat Brentford at home in late April, maybe with supporters back in, then our final 2 are winnable. In contrast the others have to play each other and have tough away games. Therefore, if we can close the gap by 2 points every 6 games, then we give ourselves a chance at Automatic, but either way a solid play-off position.

We shouldn't forget no matter how talented we think some players are, this is a tough league so maybe we can accept there isn't a need to invent reasons why everything is broken when we're not doing that bad, and instead give the players credit for what they have achieved this far rather than slate them for achieving our dream season.
 
Here's the xG summary. Nothing overly insightful, although it does bring home how good a chance Wood had (if the ball had been slightly further forward). You could mark this and the Rodriguez miss as two big slices of luck JW has had and without the mood would be a lot different. We had a late flurry of chances, but hardly created anything bar the goal and at 90 mins. Underneath I've asked two questions that I'd like those with more tactical nous than me to answer.

Rotherham.JPG

1) Given that Stan, Danjuma, Brooks are all fairly poor in the air, would it be better at defensive corners / free kicks to station two of them on the halfway line splitting the pitch to give us the chance of a counter? I'd be surprised if the opposition didn't pull at least an extra two back. Is there an advantage of having extra men in the box that may counter quicker compared with stretching the pitch?

2) Rico's position. For the last couple of seasons it appears that Rico is asked to be closer to the centre half leaving space for the ball to be played out to the right winger. I'm assuming this is a tactical ploy as he would have been told not to do this otherwise. We don't seem to do this as noticeably with our right back. It frustrates me, so can anyone provide a good explanation as to why a simple ball to the right wing is always on? Is cover for the cross thought to be better on average?
 
This vaccine is powerful. I think I've lapsed into a coma and woken up in League 2. All credit to Paul Warne for what...?? Recruiting from land of the giants and playing sunday league murderball. For one glorious moment I thought the keeper had done his hamstring trying to kick the cover off it. There is actually a suggestion on here that we might want to go in that direction. Jesus wept.

Thought we defended well and the midfield three scrapped and fought hard. Not a lot going on up front but Woodgate hasn't got a magic wand and that was a really tough game to get any kind of rhythm going. At least we've stabilised and he's done his job.

Don't know if you were watching Thierry but welcome to the Champo...
 
In All Departments said:
This vaccine is powerful. I think I've lapsed into a coma and woken up in League 2. All credit to Paul Warne for what...?? Recruiting from land of the giants and playing sunday league murderball. For one glorious moment I thought the keeper had done his hamstring trying to kick the cover off it. There is actually a suggestion on here that we might want to go in that direction. Jesus wept.

Thought we defended well and the midfield three scrapped and fought hard. Not a lot going on up front but Woodgate hasn't got a magic wand and that was a really tough game to get any kind of rhythm going. At least we've stabilised and he's done his job.

Don't know if you were watching Thierry but welcome to the Champo...
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they missed an open goal . They missed a one on one which their sub should have done better. Their move for that chance was a proper passing move .
Begovic also had to make a world class save .

I understand we have to battle and that is great but not all game . When we have the ball is when we should be all to pass crisply with plenty of movement . We don’t have that.
We are far to easy to stop
 
No matter how little Billing did in the game (according to some), he scored the goal that won us the points. He can do that every game if he likes!
 
Matt Stevenson said:
Here's the xG summary. Nothing overly insightful, although it does bring home how good a chance Wood had (if the ball had been slightly further forward). You could mark this and the Rodriguez miss as two big slices of luck JW has had and without the mood would be a lot different. We had a late flurry of chances, but hardly created anything bar the goal and at 90 mins. Underneath I've asked two questions that I'd like those with more tactical nous than me to answer.

View attachment 5117

1) Given that Stan, Danjuma, Brooks are all fairly poor in the air, would it be better at defensive corners / free kicks to station two of them on the halfway line splitting the pitch to give us the chance of a counter? I'd be surprised if the opposition didn't pull at least an extra two back. Is there an advantage of having extra men in the box that may counter quicker compared with stretching the pitch?

2) Rico's position. For the last couple of seasons it appears that Rico is asked to be closer to the centre half leaving space for the ball to be played out to the right winger. I'm assuming this is a tactical ploy as he would have been told not to do this otherwise. We don't seem to do this as noticeably with our right back. It frustrates me, so can anyone provide a good explanation as to why a simple ball to the right wing is always on? Is cover for the cross thought to be better on average?
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Point one is about filling space rather than winning the first ball. Extra bodies in the box make it harder to get a shot through the crowd if the initial contact drops the ball in or near the area.

The stats team at the club will have done their research to calculate the extra goals blocked by having more men in the box being higher than the goals scored from breakaways when you leave men up for corners and free kicks.
 
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