Think some people need a reality check. This time last season Sheffield United had 64 points. They went on to lose another three games, and still got 2nd place. We're on 67 points, but it's more or less game over. Luton finished 3rd on 80pts. To reach that we only need four wins and a draw from our remaining twelve games. That is insane. Over a season of 46 games you're going to get one or two results that you just have to write off as anomalies; Rotherham and Millwall come to mind. We absolutely dominated both games, and on any other day 3-0 would have been a fair result. But if the oppo keeper is having a blinder, or a new manager has inspired that extra bit of grit and determination, you just have to say, 'oh well'. This season though, these type of results are amplified because the margin for error is so small. We already have replacements for some of the players we will lose in the summer (Stewart for Adams, Stephens for THB, Adarma for Brooks), and we could raise another 70-80m from the sale of KWP (sad face emoji), Sulemana, Alcaraz, Tall Paul, and whoever else. Plus we have so many youngsters coming through; Larios, Meghoma, Dibling, SAA, Ballard, Bragg. If next season reverts back to a 'normal' Championship season, it could be even more fun than this one has been. I for one, will not be losing my sh*t just yet. Just be patient.
We really didn't dominate yesterday like we did in the Rotherham draw. The Rotherham draw we played well, it was just one of those days. Yesterday, particularly 2nd half, we were awful with the ball. Millwall held us off with ease. Their keeper made one good save in the 2nd half. Domination is not just having 80% possession.
That was the first time I have been to a game in ages where I was genuinely bored. There were dozens of fans around me in the Northam sat down during that second half. The football was very Puel esq. Constant obsession to keep going down the left, which was caused by playing players out of their natural position , left the team unbalanced. I think this caused many problems to the usual attacking fluency of the team. Martin now needs to play his best 11 every week and players in their natural positions, and stop trying to fit players like Stephen’s in the team when not necessary.
Yeah we were better against Rotherham I agree. But when a team plays as ultra-defensively as Millwall, it really isn't easy to create clear-cut chances. People expect us to slice through ten men like butter. Some games you will; some you won't. And I'd just say its particularly unfair to start pointing fingers and calling for sackings after the season we've had. It also didn't help that the ref was sh*t, but we've had a lot of fortunate decisions this season too, so whatever. Yesterday was just a perfect storm. Players weren't at it; Ref was crap; new manager bounce. It's not healthy to lose our sh*t every time we fail to break down a team like that though. Yesterday's reaction from our fans was embarrassing. So entitled.
Shandy_top_89 said: ↑ Better, but I’d have kept Edozie in for the Fraser super sub late show. Hindsight often makes a fool of previous decisions.
Which one of the 3 goes into the play offs, there needs to be a mathematical advantage to the team in third.
@milton archer Yeah I agree the performance wasn't good enough, and we lacked creativity. I've been saying all season we need to take more long shots. We had two crap efforts at the start of the second half, and that was it. Huddersfield away was when I started moaning about this, and we haven't made any effort to improve on it. I'm not arguing we played well. I'm just saying it's crazy how outraged people are. Bristol outplayed us. Hull was a bad team selection. Yesterday was pure bad luck and dodgy reffing. We'll probably lose three or four more before the end of the season. It doesn't matter. It is such a big ask to expect the team to break 100 points, which they will need to the get into the autos. What we need to do now is just concentrate on improving the playing style, resting players who have played too much (even KWP), and make sure we are as well prepared for the playoffs as possible.
It’s probably fear of the play offs driving the reactions tbh. Also the 3 losses in 4 are probably going to be pretty critical come the end of the season. I agree that we shouldn’t necessarily flip right out (see: Saintsweb having a new Russell out thread) but it is reasonable for people to be airing frustrations because in the Championship this is legitimately poor form.
Playoffs will be exciting. How often do we play such high-stakes games? It's what sport is all about. Our form is only bad over the last 4 games. Over the last 30 it ain't all that shabby. And the way Leeds and Leicester are playing, we can't expect our team to keep up. These losses won't matter in the end as we'll probably finish 10+ points behind both.
I mean yeah, we cannot ignore the record breaking unbeaten run, but unfortunately we were in very poor form before it so we could probably only afford the odd defeat for autos but not a second sustained poor run of form. Play-offs are the best way to go up if you win, but hideous if you lose. Momentum will be important come the end of the season.
I don’t think many are being outraged at all. It was blind outrage at the start of the season after games like the Sunderland loss but I think the last few games have presented legitimate concerns. The Hull, Bristol City and now Millwall game have each demonstrated a complete lack of adapting to a game by RM. Teams have also shown that if you just either sit back and counter, or just go at us, we really have no answer to either of those. We will just try our thing and if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. Yesterday was the definition of trying the same thing and hoping for a different result but then still constantly doing it. It was obvious Millwall were sitting back and making it difficult but unfortunately that seemed to be enough to completely baffle us. There was no attempt at shaking things up, no attempt at different styles. Just pass it to Edozie/Sulemana and watch 100 ways to lose a ball. Any negativity on this place is seen as outrage, I really don’t think it is this time. The 3 losses and recent performances have been really bad and they all demonstrate a lack of very important management skills that will get found out big time in the PL. My biggest concern with RM since the start of the season is his in game management and I’d personally say he’s got a lot more wrong than right recently. The fact that we’re free falling from 2nd place and the players just don’t seem to give a **** suddenly is very worrying.
I mentioned the above yesterday because if RM wasn’t going to use KWP in his right position he would be better playing in the loose cannon role than Stephens, simply because he has the ability to go past a player and create panic in a defence. Their manager has said that he played in the same way as he did when he beat us in the cup game at Gillingham. He was happy to make us play wide because he knew his players would defend well against our crosses, which in itself is another concern for us. We have, potentially, 4 of the best wide players in the league yet the Millwall manager was happy to let them have the ball because, in all honesty, our crossing for most of the season has been woeful and regularly fails to get past the first defender. We also lack an aerial presence up front, which makes it easier for defenders to win crosses when they do make it into the box. Ironically we scored from a header but it wasn’t from a cross, more of a ball through the middle. So, how do we combat teams that set up like them? Against Hull it was clear from the first minute that they were going to press high and hard, which led to Bazunu clearing long a few times. I evenly jokingly referred to it, on the match day thread, as being our new tactic as we were then pushing up and pressing them, which led to the mistake that Rothwell should have scored from. Is that the way forward against a team like Millwall? Give them the ball then force an error in their last third and utilise the space?
I`ve actually seen Rod Stewart play - it was at a testimonial (for Willie Miller or Alex McLeish, can`t remember which) - he was actually pretty good. It was more than 30 years ago mind!
