Rotherham preview

It’s frustating because the passing and tempo was better.

But it’s ridiculous to have such a gaping void in the goalscoring area. The fact that this is glaringly obvious and we’ve persisted with it bothers me greatly.

We will see what kind of man Hurst is in the next couple of months - but I suspect he’ll play deep again against Villa and Derby and say we did well to get a draw or narrow defeat.

We might nick the odd goal but we can’t win many games playing this way. If we do Hurst will be heading for the exit by Christmas or we’ll be heading for the trapdoor.

 

If you can't score you can't win, if you sell your strikers you can't score, that's the simple truth of it.

 

It has nothing to do with players fieldmarshall. Jamie Vardy is the only forward in England who can win games playing this way.

 

So how many goals have been scored for Town by midfielders and defenders over the last 3 seasons yorkie?

 

What does this have to do with anything?

By the way just to be clear, money WILL make a difference against the top sides, but not in games like today.

 

Just goes to show that players do matter.

 

I think we'd be very very dangerous playing Harrison and Jackson together and dropping Skuse. We should have won today comfortably with the squad we have.

 

Nothing surprises me about us right now.

 

Shoulda woulda coulda.

Not good enough.

Mans league this, not league 1 / 2 players and magic.

Must swim soon, not sink.

 

The reason I am so pissed off tonight is that we have improved all over the pitch in just seven days but if we are toothless up front it won't be long before all the other good work goes to waste and the players' heads drop.

 

I can't really comment on today as didn't go but sounds as though unlucky.

Lets hope for better next time

 

One other thing we learned today is that Harrison needs to get stronger.. over and over again he was shouldered off the ball or hit the deck.

 

Surely this is the point yorkie, you can improve all over the pitch with passing, movement, etc, but if you can't score coupled with giving away soft goals there's only one direction the side will be going.
Its too early to tell whether these lower league players will make the grade and there's some very tough games coming up where we wouldn't expect anything anyway, but we can't afford to get marooned at the bottom so lets hope we find the net and soon.

 

Morning fieldmarhsall.

At the moment we're relying on the forwards to score every clear cut chance and I don't think they have the quality or ability to take that kind of pressure on their shoulders. Jackson wasn't on the pitch for long but you could see he has a hot headed kind of temperament who was getting frustrated and Harrison I think is a confidence player who doesn't need to be scoring goals himself but at least needs to be creating them.

I think by playing two up it's more enjoyable and easier for them - just by law of averages alone a chance drops to a forward instead of a midfielder and when Harrison heads it down in the box he's heading it down to Jackson instead of Skuse. When we have the ball out wide there's then somebody in the middle to pick out.

 

Agreed. I’d like to see us go 4-3-1-2 against Villa, set up almost like a diamond and have Nolan playing in the advanced role behind Harrison and Jackson. I’d have Ben Morris ready to bring on to the field as first choice substitute, rather than Freddie Sears. I’d like to see Chalobah in the holding position and then Edwards and Edun looking to exploit space on the wings in the other two midfield positions. May be slightly unbalanced but would certainly bolster a flagging frontline.

 

Back line the same for above quote. Villa are a decent team, but beatable.

 

Morris may turn out to be the best striker at the club. I would definitely be giving him second half minutes (although with one up his chances will be limited). I think we are pretty much agreed on our best XI except that I'd probably opt for Ward ahead of Edun.

The defence was a shambles at times, Villa will murder us is we play like that at the back - although it will be a different type of game because we'll have a lot less possession and won't have so many breaks to deal with.

 

Morning Yorkie, you make some valid points, some would say that in spite of getting beaten 63% of possession and 12 corners are grounds for optimism, others would say those stats indicate a serious lack of quality where it matters and against a mediocre side at best, you pay your money and take your pick I suppose.

 

A valid argument could be that without all that possession the ball doesn't make it into those areas so often but what we can't do is spend too long persisting with something that isn't putting the ball in the net, because these are bread and butter games and every two points we drop now costs us a league position in May.

Having watched the highlights, Nsiala has ended up costing us the game with a rash tackle. He was at times a headless chicken and a mistake like that from him was always on the cards.

Nolan, Edwards, Chalobah, Donacien unquestionably improve the quality at the club. Roberts looks like a dud. The jury is out on the others.

 

Donacien so far certainly does NOT. Bloody poor vs Blackburn which I went to, and a few none impressed with him vs Rotherham. He has worked to do that lad.

I'm with Field completely here - tough league.

No point playing like Barcelona and letting in dumb set piece goals. Played 2, 2 conceded from set pieces.

HOPEFULLY we can beat Villa and be off and running however I cannot for the life in me see us challenging at the top end this season. Too naive.