Match Day Thread Hull City v Millwall

We need to up the tempo, be more aggressive when we attack, be more expansive and most of all just test the keeper. It sometimes feels like we are playing with the handbrake on/stuck in second gear. Most times this season when we score it's from a passage of play where we do all of the above, I'm really not sure why we don't play like that as standard. It's obvious we have the talent to do it....so have confidence and just go for it

 

Splitting ligaments there LOL still a dodgy one and one where on your return most players would shy away from high impact challenges . I remember my first tackle after a cartledge trim , thought I’d done it again z, got up felt nothing and from there on in for years tackled and kicked anything without thought - it still needs a bit of bottle tho ( not meaning me)

 

Medial ligament is the one that repairs itself without intervention. That was my one piece of good news when I knackered my knee.

 

Coulda woulda shoulda. Points make prizes and we won, I’d rather win a boring game than lose an exciting one.

 

But then what would people complain about!

 

I'm sorry you found the 2nd half boring, I certainly didn't. Though, I always watch a game to enjoy it as a whole, both attacking and defending. As far as Liam's style is concerned, I much prefer us trying to play football rather than lumping it up to the front all the time.

As yet, Liam hasn't quite got the team on the field which suits his style, we now have 2 wingers Jaden and Zaroury and finally a left back who can get forward they haven't played much and will get better.

In addition, with Delap out, we didn't have an out-and-out striker on the pitch, we missed a focal point up there on Saturday. Tufan and Carvalho aren't box type players and until Connolly is back and Ohio is up to speed then the forward line jigsaw as yet is not complete.

I am sure with the squad now after a few games you will see more of what we saw in the first 20 minutes which was excellent, we are in the playoff places, and I just can't understand why there is some negativity. We are still a work in progress, but slowly I believe we are getting where we want to be.

 

I don't know how people watch our football and find it boring, but they seem the same as the Leicester fans who boo a 3-1 win over Swansea and one of, if not, the best all time Championship seasons. if people only watch football for the goals, then no wonder there's so much frustration and fighting at games, given how few there are over 90 minutes. Football is about so much more than just the ball going in the back of the net.

We play football the right way, actually keeping possession, working our way through a team's press, and passing them to death.

 

We did what was needed and got the 3 points but with the firepower we'd brought in people are expecting more attempts on goal, not necessarily goals specifically. We could have easily dropped 2 points again as a result. It's early days though, and with more time we'll find out if it's down to getting the new players more time to gel, or whether our playing style and mentality simply doesn't allow us to create more quality chances. It's not a massive problem when you do win, but when we get sucker punched it stands out more. I firmly believe the slower the build up, the better you have to be in attack in order to break down a defence that has time to get organised. I don't feel like we've given many teams a drubbing this season, and on paper there's no reason we couldn't have. This will hopefully change over the rest of the season.

 

Before people jump on this, it is a very good, honest post and is exactly how I feel too. It’s not being negative. It’s being realistic. I imagine you Benjo, are also very excited for the second half of the season and very pleased with how the transfer window has gone? And also want Rosenior to be the man to lead us to success?

 

Why is it negativity just because some people view things differently and think we should be creating more clear cut chances/shots on target with the amount of talent and possession we have, if it was a complete one off then fair enough. But it isn't. It's been an issue all season. We almost paid the price for it again with their lob just going over. Will it get better.... It's should do with the talent we have, but more importantly it has to! Again it's not being negative, it's just a crystal clear issue that people can see.

 

Absolutely. I get excited for the games and obviously would be on cloud 9 if we succeed with everything that's going on. We're clearly on the up and there's a really good vibe around the club at the moment. LR is a great manager who came in and stopped the rot and has pushed us on even further since. We're clearly going in the right direction and we have everything we need to mount a challenge.

I'll say what I see however. It's great to control games, but the word 'control' in itself is a bit misleading. It's fine being a goal up and keeping the ball, but if we're not creating many more chances as a result we're always going to be susceptible to conceding at some point and will invariably drop points we should be keeping hold of. LR has said the same himself but focused more on players making mistakes and conceding goals... If we're using the firepower more effectively we're less likely to be effected by inevitable errors. Sheffield Weds was a good example. Conceded 2 soft goals but scored 4 that day. If those worldies hadn't gone in we probably draw or lose that game. We're in a good position and play good enough football, but I've not yet seen a change in how we go forwards even with the new players in, though it's early days as I say. Hopefully we start creating and scoring more.

There's no argument now that we have the players to mount a challenge. Hopefully we will and we'll start to see successive wins and dominant performances. If we end up not kicking on and we can't chalk it up to injuries, then you've got to start looking at the way we're playing and speeding things up a bit to maximise scoring opportunities.

 

I was actually amazed how much improvement there was so quickly in that first 20-30 minutes. The understanding and link up between some of the players was quite surprising.

 

People must still accept that without true strikers at the moment we have to rely on wingers and midfielders to score , they are not as regular as dedicated forwrds . We do control games I didn’t think Millwall would score even late in the game but examples up front would be Jaden not always passing to the overlapped , holding onto the ball across the box , others may have done it but those few seconds allow the defence to get set and there’s no space .

 

I too thought in the first 20-30minutes the link up play and speed of our passing was excellent.As mentioned earlier in the post I think the state of the pitch with the type of players we now have could be a drawback.

 

At least 2 of our remaining 8 games at home are against Leicester and Ipswich so might help us in some ways against them? I say as I clutch at some straws.

 

I was surprised by this too to be honest. They really kicked off with some purpose. Just seemed to go kind of flat again after a while.

 

I think we got quite complacent to be honest. Millwall didn't even have a shot first half so think we just ended up sitting back thinking we had the game won.

 

Cruise control essentially. I got that impression too. I think they think the goals will come naturally sometimes, and when they don't and we then concede it can be difficult to go from cruise control to forcing a goal. A bit more urgency and focusing more on building a goal buffer could really help us hit that next level in my honest opinion. Ie; being more ruthless. We've got the players to really punish teams in this league when we're on our day.