Match Day Thread Hull City v Rotherham

No at all, but I can see what Liam is trying to do. We are missing Connolly/Tetteh/Oscar up front. I agree with him that we are not far off being a good side, and watching a game, I try to see the bigger picture. Yes, we want to win, but not all of the pieces of the jigsaw are in place, and IMO that will happen in time. Have faith in the process.

 

I think it is fair to say Rotherham made it difficult for us and worked extremely hard, and credit to them for their fighting spirit. They are fighting relegation, and teams in this position are not easy to play against. Just see what Huddersfield did to Boro!

With our 3 best strikers missing, there were one or two square pegs in round holes, which didn't work. Longman isn't a central attacker, his best position is on the wing. We might have been better to have Simms (Edit: Just saw on U21 thread he is injured) in that position as it turned out or play Tufan there.

I can see what Liam is trying to do, but as I said above we are still 2 or 3 pieces of the jigsaw missing, hopefully, that will be rectified in the next window or two.

Seri and Traore are class, and Traore has already made a couple of passes, Slater's goal last week, and Longman's chance yesterday to show he has the ability to open defences. Get Connolly on the pitch with him, I think you may well start to see something productive.

Allahyar seems to be dividing opinions, I was a bit disappointed with his first half, but thought he was much better in the 2nd and started to create some panic in their defence. He has been injured give the lad chance to find his feet again.

Coyle IMO should be kept on, both on and off the field he is the type of professional you want around your club. Rarey lets you down and always gives his all. Both he and Malcolm linked up well in the 2nd half, and create one or two really good moments.

Macca and Alfie had a solid game again, though Alfie should have hit the target late on with that chance that fell to him.

Greave is a bit of a problem, LB isn't his best position, but with Macca and Alfie playing so well, unless Liam goes with 3 at the back, will Greave look to move on or bide his time?

Yes, it was disappointing with 23,400 at the game not to see the win, but I hope the majority can see we are still a work in progress, and to stick with it and trust in the process.

 

On Ally, I thought when he came in he was essentially a striker who can play wide - a bit like how we used Tetteh wide but he was predominantly a striker. Surprised we didn't have Ally up top and Longman out wide, but I must say on the whole Ally has been a bit of a bust. I made a similar comment a few weeks ago which was a bit harsh given he was just returning from injury, but I just don't see in him the player we thought we were getting. Maybe it's the system, but I'm not sure. We just don't seem to produce enough for our wingers to get involved. Same way I don't see Ebiowei as scoring many for us in the same way that Bowen and Wilson did back in the day.

 

On Allahyar it is too early to say, he is only 21, Harry Kane at that age wasn't pulling up many trees, but turned into what he is today. I agree Longman is not a frontman, and Allahyar there might have been a better option. Ebiowei is a different type of player to Bowen and Wilson, more a provider than a scorer.

 

I don't know if we have the capacity to wait for Ally to improve in the same way Spurs could with Kane. We need players who can produce now for us (as in, next season).

 

I said it all along, used to get crucified by everyone thinking he was the next Ronaldo, but I’m not sure what people were seeing. He’s uncannily like Craig Fagan, not really a striker nor a winger. An absolute menace, a phenomenal athlete, but a bit of a ball chaser off the ball and only really seems to know to run with it on it.

He’s young enough to be shaped into something though.

 

I thought that was exactly what acun and tan wanted?

 

I was disappointed not to take all 3 points but I am really surprised by the level of negativity on here towards Rosie.

All he can do is work with the players available, had Connolly, Tetteh, or Oscar been in that side yesterday we'd have taken the chances and won comfortably.

He's building consistentcy and with a preseason and a focused transfer window we'll be in a good place for next season.

Especially with better injury luck....

 

Same goes for Ebiowei Syd'.... at least Ally is our player...

 

Agree. But it is far too early for anyone to be calling for a managerial change if we don't have a flying start next season. As others have said it takes a manager at least 3 windows to form the squad he wants. Rosie has had one. An interesting summer ahead, where I would expect 5/6 departures and 5 or 6 better players to be brought in. Will that turn us into promotion contenders? Who knows - but hopefully it will enable us to become established in the top half of the table and look to improve again next January

 

If we get belted every week like we did under Shota, sure pull the pin. If we look competitive every week and just have patchy results, no, don't be stupid and reactive.

 

Who says it takes a manager three windows!!! Where is that a FACT??
How long did Shota last? 8 months? Yes his squad collapsed on him and let’s face it we have good players, wasn’t too much of a stretch to stabilise us
Now carricks done a job hasnt he?
Roseniors been here five months and had a mini preseason with the World Cup.
He’s been told by the management to take the brakes off, he appears unable to do this.
Tufan sub again!!! WTF if you can’t find a system to utilise a player like him there’s something wrong. He’s doing exactly what he did at derby, slow patient hard to beat boring as ****. I wouldn’t trust him with my money in the summer.

 

Who has told him to "take the brakes off?" and where has that been said?

That's okay - he won't be spending your money. In fact we don't know if he'll have much of a net spend or if he will be wheeling and dealing to only spend what comes in.
Yes - someone like Carrick has had an instant impact - but has Ainsworth stopped the rot at QPR for example?

 

Exactly. We'd end up with a reputation we don't want. I get the feeling that folk outside the club are unsure what to make of Acun as it is, and with good reason with the way some foreign owners behave. Even I still have my reservations but I'm prepared to overlook them until something drastic happens (like confirmation next year of the accounts being ****)

 

Tan did in the press awhile back

 

If that is the case fair enough, but I hadn't heard that. Maybe it was in the HDM and I gave up trying to navigate their site due to all the pop-up ads ages ago.

 

Re signings this year and injuries. Have we just been bloody unlucky or have we not vetted these players properly for their history re injuries. Never known a season like it and I’m nearly 60. If I was Acun running a business that cost me millions I would call for an investigation. Without claiming to be a top side in the Championship I do wonder how the consistency of the top teams has been this year as ours quite frankly is bloody farcical.

 

Yeah I compared us to Boro but you look at their front three and their consistency of starts to ours and it's night and day.

 

As someone with a far better idea of the game than anyone on here once once said, "it's a funny old game"

According to the summer transfer window thread we signed some great players, some valuable assets cheap so we can move them on for millions of profit, and picked up some off the boil stars who just need a break. Among many other positive comments, now we either need 3 transfer Windows to get the team we want or another major clear out and its associated amount of incoming.

We have an unreal amount of up and coming talent in the under 18 and 21 teams allegedly, but we wrap them in cotton wool or loan them to non league clubs.

Manager touted as a possible for the England job in the future, but then makes some odd decisions for us. Plenty of teams doing crap get a bounce when a new boss comes in, same players showing more passion, fight and heart. Why don't we get that? We get steadying the ship, preparing for next season and the likes.

 

We did get it, it's the reason we pulled away from the relegation battle.