Match Thread Rotherham United FC - Coventry City Match Thread - Wednesday 25th Oct (1 Viewer)

napolimp

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Sep 2, 2014
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I thought that a big part of our problem was goal scoring, so far this season, but we've scored 17 in comparison to 14 goals at this stage last season. In the last 13 matches of last season we scored 21, but 8 of those came against Huddersfield and Blackpool. Hardly a marked improvement considering we were supposedly much more deadly in front of goal with Vik and Gus. I really think we need to sort ourselves out defensively, we're not as solid as we used to be. We've conceded 16 in comparison to the 12 during the run-in last season, and even at this stage of last season we'd only conceded 14.

Also, ignoring last night, we've been really poor seeing out games. Continued against Bristol, in a way. That needs addressing.
 

fernandopartridge

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Dec 9, 2011
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Yep, the new plan of being an on ball team is hurting us defensively. Need Bidwell back in and a return to the counter attacking style to fix it.
It's a really curious move by any team to go "we're the best in the league at counter attacking football so let's try not playing that way"

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CV22SBA

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Apr 26, 2013
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Da silva was reportedly offered £8k a week at Bristol - he’s just another example of someone signed as he was a child prodigy at Chelsea - pointless
His passing was awful last night. Reading the Bristol forum after Saturdays game this is something they mentioned about his game.
 

CV22SBA

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Apr 26, 2013
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We are literally one win off 12th.
Silly thing to say, not everyone between 20th and 12th is going to lose the next game.
Its a bit like saying if Rotherham win their game in hand we're one loss from the relegation zone.
 

SBT

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Sep 14, 2012
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His passing was awful last night. Reading the Bristol forum after Saturdays game this is something they mentioned about his game.
He made more passes last night than any player on the pitch bar Sheaf, and only Eccles had a higher pass accuracy rate in our midfield. He also put in more accurate crosses than anyone else on the pitch. I thought he went to pieces defensively in the second half, but his passing was generally decent, especially in the opening spell.
 

Calista

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Sep 30, 2013
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Silly thing to say, not everyone between 20th and 12th is going to lose the next game.
Its a bit like saying if Rotherham win their game in hand we're one loss from the relegation zone.
No, I mean if we had won any of the games we've already lost, we'd be 12th. It could easily have happened.
The post I was responding to was from someone who is panicking about relegation because we are 5th from bottom, but if we were in mid table he'd accept that as transitional.
 
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Matt smith

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It's a really curious move by any team to go "we're the best in the league at counter attacking football so let's try not playing that way"

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The obvious argument is we don’t have the two players the plan was based around though fernando
 

Matt smith

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No, I mean if we had won any of the games we've already lost, we'd be 12th. It could easily have happened.
The post I was responding to was from someone who is panicking about relegation because we are 5th from bottom, but if we were in mid table he'd accept that as transitional.
I’d accept a season of good performances bad performances, good runs bad runs, I appreciate overreaction to a shocking performance last night

But transitional isn’t where we are now, albeit early on
 

fernandopartridge

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The obvious argument is we don’t have the two players the plan was based around though fernando

We had more than two players, and the others who are not those two are not exactly playmakers. As has been said we've looked better as a counter attacking team this season.

I mean it probably is personnel, it needs Allen and / or O'Hare to make it work but it can work without Vik or Hamer.
 
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Matt smith

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We had more than two players, and the others who are not those two are not exactly playmakers. As has been said we've looked better as a counter attacking team this season.

I mean it probably is personnel, it needs Allen and / or O'Hare to make it work but it can work without Vik or Hamer.
Agreed with Allen and o hare back I think we’ll look much better

no but you could play it up to vik and he’d make something out of nothing and he’d create his own chances

not disagreeing, just playing devils advocate
 

dadgad

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Jul 1, 2011
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Last night could easily have gone the other way. Simms put in two great efforts on goal - one in either half - Bedwetters shud take a day off. 👍
 

slowpoke

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Apr 24, 2015
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Not sure it’s fair to pick on Dasilva I agree he didn’t have a great game last night but other than Wilson who did. Got to put it behind us and move on.
 

pusbccfc

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Apr 15, 2011
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Last night could easily have gone the other way. Simms put in two great efforts on goal - one in either half - Bedwetters shud take a day off. 👍

What about all the other games this season?
 
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Frostie

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Jan 31, 2011
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We had more than two players, and the others who are not those two are not exactly playmakers. As has been said we've looked better as a counter attacking team this season.

I mean it probably is personnel, it needs Allen and / or O'Hare to make it work but it can work without Vik or Hamer.
MR has always wanted us to dominate the ball but has been pragmatic enough to change it up as needed.

His argument, probably rightly, is that style of football is more sustainable long-term but we're clearly struggling massively with it at the moment.

I was fully behind the Hadji Wright signing because, stylistically, he wasn't massively dissimilar to Gyokeres. We have then completely pivoted away from the style of play that would suit him... 🤷🏼‍♂️
 

fernandopartridge

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MR has always wanted us to dominate the ball but has been pragmatic enough to change it up as needed.

His argument, probably rightly, is that style of football is more sustainable long-term but we're clearly struggling massively with it at the moment.

I was fully behind the Hadji Wright signing because, stylistically, he wasn't massively dissimilar to Gyokeres. We have then completely pivoted away from the style of play that would suit him...
Robins' pragmatic side usually appears in these moments so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

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Frankly_Mr_Shankly

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Have to say, I’m not getting the total love in with MVE. Was expecting this lightning fast wing back, but I don’t think he’s THAT quick and he seems a little conservative at times. Definitely a great prospect.
Thought Kitching oozed class against Norwich. He needs to play. Binks looked shaky tonight , especially 2nd half.
MR needs switch to the box formation now. Mi
Definitely with the box formation. With just the 1 Carthorse up front.
 

Macca1987

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Jul 28, 2016
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Just wanted to add something about our corners, I am one of many that has berated Eccles, but I watch the setup in the box as well, we always seem to group 3 or 4 of our big guys together and then try to split as the corner comes in, watching last night and it looked obvious that Rotherham were aware of this and just put 3 players in front and wrestled all of ours together so they couldn't get away, it's not something that refs give so they got away with it. Watching their first goal they set up players individually in the box and run between themselves also blocking our our players which led to a run from their man to have a non combatted header into the goal. Now whether that was due to someone not covering correctly or being unaware of the blocking and movement I don't know, but it seemed like they had so many more ideas than us. We seem to set up in the opposition box the same way for every corner
 

Matt smith

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Just wanted to add something about our corners, I am one of many that has berated Eccles, but I watch the setup in the box as well, we always seem to group 3 or 4 of our big guys together and then try to split as the corner comes in, watching last night and it looked obvious that Rotherham were aware of this and just put 3 players in front and wrestled all of ours together so they couldn't get away, it's not something that refs give so they got away with it. Watching their first goal they set up players individually in the box and run between themselves also blocking our our players which led to a run from their man to have a non combatted header into the goal. Now whether that was due to someone not covering correctly or being unaware of the blocking and movement I don't know, but it seemed like they had so many more ideas than us. We seem to set up in the opposition box the same way for every corner
Why don’t the centre backs mark on corners to, we mark space not men I don’t really get it
 

Macca1987

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Plus my biggest bug bear, the opposition put 2 men to take a corner and we put 1 out to defend it, this tends to lead to them passing past our one man and getting a cross in. If they have 2 men out, put 2 men out to defend, if they have 3 put 3 men out to defend. Also whilst I'm on a roll, why bring everyone back it allows the opposition to bring everyone forward and swamp the box, leave 1 or 2 up on the half way line and that means they have to bring back 2 to 3 to cover
 

procdoc

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Apr 5, 2011
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He plays there internationally for one.
No way do I go along with a lot on here who pick on Eccles because it’s Eccles but imo Joel L is the better player of the two.
I could play centre midfield against St. Kitts & Nevis to be honest
 

PVA

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Apr 22, 2011
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This is the problem though, we’ve sacrificed the defensive attributes of Bidwell for someone who is undoubtedly a tidier footballer. However, the attacking returns have never been there from him.

Dasilva had 1.3 xA last night. Bidwell had about 3.1 for the whole of last season.

Dasilva had 14 shot creating actions last night, next most was Sheaf with 10 and then Ayari with 5.

He made more passes than anyone and more progressive passes.

He was poor in the second half and had a little spell where he was all over the shop. But pretty much everything went through him last night and he's the least of our worries right now.
 

Tile Hill Phil

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Feb 24, 2014
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The atmosphere was awful.

The whole, non-stop atmosphere created in the past 3/4/5 years has completed died off. Not having the drum was an issue but it's more about the mentality of the fans at the games this season.
I thought the SBA were really good first half but died off a bit second half. At the moment the team isn’t giving them much incentive to get behind them though
 
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Johhny Blue

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Last night could easily have gone the other way. Simms put in two great efforts on goal - one in either half - Bedwetters shud take a day off. 👍

Simms was unlucky on both occasions. He’s a box player and I think he’s wasted playing wide. Having said this Wilson also made a couple of really good saves, they hit the post and missed a few sitters. We were well behind overall. Bad day at the office. Let’s hope players and fans regroup and we smash West Brom
 
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SkyBlueMatt

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Feb 20, 2013
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6th (promoted)
8th
1st (promoted)
16th
12th
5th

We’ve consistently improved under Robins, which has fuelled the atmosphere. At least last year when we started poorly there were external factors so fans were more inclined to get behind the team. There’s no excuses this year, it’s obvious the atmosphere is flat.
No excuse? We've replaced half the team, lost our two best (PL standard) players and our 3rd has only just got back from injury?

We've been spoilt with consistent overachieving.

Atmosphere aligns with performances but there is no reason the first 15 minutes of each half shouldn't be bouncing.

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