We could have/ should have at least drawn that.. still think Nardi should have been more decisive for first...and Dunne looked to miss the cross for second ( was it deflected?). Saito selfless to give Burrell the goal..but then Burrell should have scored with the header. We played well without a final decisive attack. Frey should not have started... Varane was not up to his usual standards. Roll on...
According to stats.... Shots 20 On target 3....... them 5/5 46 touches in opposition box..... them 7 Crosses 33 ... them 12 Total clearances by defence 31..... them 64 Basically we dominated everything apart from the important one..... goals scored....
Best we'd played all season for the first 30 minutes but then conceded an absolute sucker and the game began to drift away. Conceding the 2nd in the 49th minute of the first half was the killer, just piss poor defending and that gave Millwall the breathing space to spoil the game. 3 shots on target says it all, we just huffed and puffed. We just have to convert the type of dominance of the first half into goals but at least we are showing some positives...
It’s true. The stats show how dominant we were but as JS said our efficiency to convert this to goals is poor. Not used to having this dominance, so we now need to be more efficient with it. Let’s hope it comes now.
It’s not his fault but giving Frey an hour really hampered us. He’s an option to lob on for ten minutes at the end either to see a game out or when pumping balls in chasing a game but surely he can’t be starting when Kone is fit. Just don’t complement each other at all and we’ve got plenty of players who could play that second striker role and offer more. Love the guy and he gives everything but everything is rarely much and it dims the rest of the attack. Burrell simply being able to move made a big difference.
I must be missing something as there's a lot of criticism for Nardi re their 1st goal..... but I don't see that he did anything wrong and was just unlucky that ge rebound fell straight to their last..... If anything Morrison should have reacted quicker to the rebound to help Nardi.....
I’ve only seen it live so could be wrong but it looked like one he should have called for early and dealt with when it came over the top. Would need to see it again if it should have been Morrison’s and we’ll never know what communication there was if any but I want my goalkeeper loud and willing to kill his grandmother to get the ball away.
I see the criticism of Frey building up but to be honest Kone was much more ineffective today. The big Millwall defenders ate him for breakfast. Certainly the pairing clearly doesn't work. Very disappointing after an excellent first 30 minutes but if you don't shoot you don't score.
Nardi pulled off a spectacular save but then let himself down on the first goal. He just seemed to be doing anything to move backwards to get away from the ball. Good shot stopper, ****s himself with crosses.
I was behind the goal they scored in. Thought Nardi was unlucky with the rebound for the first. Even then thought Cook would stop the second shot but it went over his leg. Then the second goal was a collective brain fart. Everyone (including Millwall attackers) stood watching the ball as it trickled into the corner. It was a ridiculous scoreline at half time, but the second half was like a replay of Oxford, the ball constantly bouncing around their penalty area but never quite sitting up for a shot (except for Burrell’s goal of course). Saito got kicked in the head and shoved a number of times in the penalty area but the ref has obviously decided he wasn’t going to give a penalty whatever saito did. I’d like to see those again. Can’t believe we didn’t get a point but if you give the other side a 2 goal head start, the chances are you get nothing.
Really disappointing. We didn't create nearly enough. They defended well as most of shots were blocked and crosses headed away. The second half was way too slow and didn't show any real urgency until the 80th minute. No one had a good game today. It felt like they were waiting for someone to step up and create something. I was really bored in the second half.
Been think about this...I suspect...Stephan our manager has never had to juggle half his team being away on international duty ( and lost to daily observation and management) followed by a 3 match week. New to him .. He is juggling the balls carefully,perhaps a bit too carefully. ( playing Frey instead of Burrell and Smyth instead of Saito for example). I predict things will be steadier and become smoother as he learns. At this moment ..still very happy.
We had totally dominated stats, but they do not win games. Bottom line, Millwall utilsed their few chances, and we wasted our many chances. Can easily convert this to, Millwall defended better than we did.
I take back my earlier thoughts on the first goal. No idea how Cook is so oblivious to the run from the bloke who ends up scoring.
Don't you think SoDB that this is all down to not quite knowing what your keeper is going to do. Nardi was caught a bit in no mans land ...further forward and he had the option of come rushing out and claim the ball in someway ( which he should have been more aware from the moment the ball was kicked)... by foot or head or body . Further back ...the attacker would have had to do more It was an excellent first save ( but compare that to their keepers early save from Smyth)...he again does not quite do enough to get it away. But Interestingly he does gets a hand to the second shot...and that may actually have taken it away from Cook blocking it on the line. The second goal does look to have a deflection on it...which is why it seems to confuse everyone
I’d like to to think Nardi is screaming at Cook to either head it away as the ball is played over or that it’s his own ball to deal with. Hopefully the former given where it went - and a great ball over it was too from Mitchell who had a good game. As a defender, especially one like Cook, your first instinct should be to attack that ball unless the goalkeeper is explicitly calling for you not to. I suspect Nardi’s call either didn’t come or it did and he’s decided too late it’s not his to come for- probably the former. The movement of Cook is very odd as if he thinks there’s no danger.
