He spoke recently on Blunderside about how you hve to defend in the premier league. It filled me with dread. Look at the teams that go up and try to survive by scraping a clean sheet, most do it not many survive. Then look at the teams that go up and actually attack, trying to win every game. Look at some of the seasons some unfancied teams have had. The most bamboozling thing was last year, as mentioned in my previous post, he built and attacking team full of attacking players then tried to make them all defend. He brought in Ben Arfa, played him up front then sent him packing because he didn't track enemy midfielders all the way back into our box ffs. How often do we ever leave a man up the pitch when defending a set piece? How many times have we played a ball through the enemy defence to send someone through one on one with the goalie in the last 3 and a half years? In our first premier league season under El Fat, we had a division low total of 7 attempted through balls - in an entire ****ing season. To put that into context, it was lower than any other team managed in a single game.
I think that's just Bruce's style, he really likes hard workers which will unsettle a footballing side like Burnley but not faze Rotherham in the slightest. It's also just the nature of the Championship, look at the teams Middlesbrough have lost to fit example. If our players played their best every week they wouldn't be playing for us, it's as simple as that, I couldn't be much happier with City at the minute.
Our own fans seething about us stuffing Burnley. Have to put the knives away for a couple of days boys. good night all. Speaking of fans how did we manage to get 19400 through the turnstiles at £33 £36 quid a ticket??
Is that all it was? It looked close to capacity from my seat, just the few odd empties dotted about here and there. 19400 with a full away end is pretty poor in all honesty. Mind that batty old cow has probably lost us 5000 seats with segregation.
Nobody's seething, if it wasn't for some thinking that a win against Burnley wipes out all that's gone before this season, then I doubt there'd be anything but praise on here tonight. Boxing Day init.
It was 19,400 home fans + 2,400 away fans, Chazz isn't very good at explaining these things, even his wife says so.
Boxing Day. Tradition. A lot of people off work. Grown men sick of spending time with their in-laws already. Etc
My daughter just got a message from a friend in York, it included a picture of a lake where her garden used to be.
I saw some photos my cousin had taken of his street in York on facebook, the water level was just about up to the car roofs.
Apparently the Ouse is rising by 1mm per minute, I'm no expert on rivers, but that sounds quite a lot.
River Ouse York water level: 4.15m at 20:00. Big chance of flooding! #Flood #York #Ouse #Rising River Ouse York water level: 4.29m at 22:00. Big chance of flooding! #Flood #York #Ouse #Rising River Ouse York water level: 4.35m at 23:00. Big chance of flooding! #Flood #York #Ouse #Rising There's a Twitter account dedicated to this.
An example of a striker tracking back in the PL today for Stoke - Arnautovic. It's part of their job and defending from the front is more than likely to yield a clean sheet. I think Stoke are at present a really good footballing side with Shaquiri and Bojan. You can track back and still play attacking football, that was just one example I have seen today. Ben Arfa just had a ****ing **** attitude full stop.
We're not middle ranking championship though either the squad is the dearest in league , we spent enough last season to be a mid-table premiership side even the management admitted they thought they had assembled a squad capable of this , we got relegated partly due to injuries and partly due to a manager whose philosophy is to defend and not attack
Great performance today - good to see everyone up for the game from the first whistle - let's play like that every week!
I'm enjoying the win over Burnley as much as anyone. I had fully expected us to repeat our dismal performances against what has been a bogey team for us over many years. But I have to shake my head over those who are acclaiming Bruce as a brilliant manager on the strength of this and our win against Middlesboro following a year of uninspiring tactically inept displays against teams which, given the quality of players in our squad, we should be hammering. Even the scoreless first half today was hardly cause for celebration. Fortunately Hernandez capped another strong performance with a great goal, Livermore continues to impress, and Clucas late score made the end result look good. Suddenly the Bruce boosters develop convenient amnesia about the Rotherham debacle and the depressing 1-0 win at Bolton over by far the worst team in the Championship. Time and again we lost games in the Premiership in the last quarter of the game because of Bruces infatuation with pulling strikers and packing the defense. The end result was relegation. I like the man but we need a change. Burns and some on here keep trumpeting that he is the man for the job and there are no better candidates available. I remain far from convinced.
Those criticising the players for playing well now that negotiations have started - perhaps think of it from their perspective? Now that the club has indicated that it cares enough about them to want them playing next season with them, the players might mentally be a bit more up for getting promotion?
