For a 3-0 win that was, at best, underwhelming. Rotherham were without doubt the worst team at The Vic for some seasons. Including Blackpool. We were marginally not as bad as they were. A win's a win but had we played even remotely close to as well as we can then our goal difference would be healthier than it is now by some distance. And there was plenty of poor officiating on view, just little of it controversial save for the penalty turned down. Don't start me on the lion on the GT touchline... shocker, that is all.
Well he is tall but as last night proved we have a few central defenders - can he play as a full back too?
Strange game - funny team selection aimed at it seems stopping Rotherham from being effective at the long ball. Hampered us quite a bit first half with no real width and pace but got the 3 goals and the 2nd half certainly was an improvement. Abdi MOTM?
Poor stuff all round apart from 3 points. Abdi was good, but was allowed a lot of time on the ball. The team selection felt negative and there was a lot of square and back passing at times. I know it's the style continental managers favour but it's very boring to watch. Picking two central defenders as full/wing backs didn't add to the spectacle. Cathcart did OK but Hoban looked hopelessly out of place. It can't do his confidence much good to play him there. Deeney had one of his less effective games but I thought Watson did the job he was asked to do well enough. Now a subject not of great concern to all of you...the Highways Agency. So, close access from the M25 to the M3 at 11pm in order to start creating a "smart" motorway, whatever that might be. And then, just to make sure motorists trying to head in the Portsmouth/Southampton direction don't get complacent, why don't you shut off access from the M25 to the A3 as well? Oh, you did! Brilliant. Can we expect sometime in the next 5 years that A3 becomes a "smart" A road as well? I finally got home some time after 12.30 am. Well done, Highways Agency...smart indeed!
I wasn't there, so my observations should be treated as such. Apparently, SJ chose a team specifically to counter Rotherham's threat. Did it work ?Look at the result. Was it pretty - no it doesn't sound like it, but to those of you expecting it to be like the game against Charlton (complete control, elegant football - thanks Charlton for being so obliging) or the thriller in Bolton (extraordinarily brilliant game, but not what either manager intended!) - well, look at Rotherham's position, and think again. They took points off Derby - clearly best team in the division, so they are not a soft touch. We don't have much of a reputation for grinding out results, so if this was one of those, then well done lads - exactly what a PROFESSIONAL team is supposed to do. When we are good enough to play like Barcelona then I'll expect it every week. Until then, let's be grateful that the squad is trying its damndest. That will do for me. Very few other teams give as much fun, and having seen the displays at birmingham and 'Uddersfield, believe me , we are not Barcelona - yet. With reasonable luck, we'll be 3rd on monday, all teams having played same number of games, and only bournemouth have scored more goals. What's not to like ? And another thing, bournemouth had 76% possession tonight, and lost !
Bloody hell - very sensible post. As J T says, we could be 3rd on Monday without having beaten any of the teams around us! We may just need to rely on these teams all beating each other and hope for us drawing against Derby, Ipswich & Boro......
Not quite the right thread , but it's a continuation of looking forward. We have 13 games to go. If each of the top 7 perform the same (in Champ. games) as they have in the last 13 - in terms of points obtained - the final positions will be... Boro 90 norwich 88 Derby 86 WFC 86 Ipswich 83 B'mouth 82 Br'ford 82 Surprised me a bit, as I thought Derby would be away and I am surprised at Naaarwich getting to be 2nd. Of course, taking 1 game more or less does affect the average points and so the final outcome., but the point is... it's close enough between top 4 for any 2 to get to be first or 2nd. One more win for us, 1 draw instead of defeat for boro.... it's that close. We can lose 4 games and still get to 86. Suppose we win 1 of those 4, (e.g at home to Boto_ bingo! In our favour (I think) is that we have a fully fit squad - with ABDI pulling the strings. If we keep them all fit, then I am more hopeful than the stats suggest. I know we can all find stats to suit an argument, but I DO think it is mighty close and we are better than 4th. Whether 1/2/3 ...... ?
JT, do you not think there will be an outsider that comes hurtling up on the outside? At the moment it all looks like it is six out of the current top 8
We needed a big slice of luck to beat a very poor Rotherham side. There will not be many games where the defender falls over giving Ighalo a free shot on goal, where the goalie (twice) palms a shot straight to one of our strikers, or where Hoban plays at left wing-back. O.K Abdi (uncharacteristically) missed two sitters, so it could have been 5-0. But we need to be quicker all over the pitch to beat our immediate rivals. I cannot see Jokanovic putting out a side again that does not include at least one of Anya or Paredes. We have a great bench though.
i hope the rumor that we want to sign the rotherham keeper as cover in the summer is not true . They did not say what he would cover lol
We have no trouble normally beating sides outside the top 12 and if we hadn't had the luck scoring against Rotherham when we did, we probably would have scored later in the game anyway - at 3-0 it was all over and we seem to have relaxed and maybe slackened off. Our problem is getting a result against the top sides - 3 wins out of 4 against Derby, Boro, Wolves & Ipswich and, I suggest, we go up automatically. Draw and lose those games and it's definitely the play-offs and I hate to say, a semi-final defeat this time.
