duncanjwitham

Same here. There's lots of talk on here about how good our crossing is, but I'm not sure I see it.  I think Ward put 2 good ones in second half, but failed to beat the first man with everything else - including, ironically, the one we actually scored from - a decent defender would have dealt with that rather than flick it over his own box.  And I'm not sure anybody else managed to put a decent cross in all game, from open play anyway.
Collins just went looking for the ball second half, because he got barely any of it in the first.

Surely the pertinent point, is why have we spent the whole of preseason practicing only one formation, when we still don’t have the players to play it properly?

At the very least, it was a mistake hiring him in the way we did - letting Rosenior pick a squad then doing a complete 180 on it after 10 games.  Warne from day one with a near clean slate, would *maybe* have been a different prospect.
A nice fun little game - of all the players we signed in that first post-admin window, which ones do we think Warne would have signed if he were manager at the time? Is it any of them at all?

Not wanting to get into big-club arguments or arbitrarily slagging off Warne, but I do think there’s a small nugget of truth in this, in that I think his default tactics are far more suitable when you’re the smaller team. The ultra-aggressive non-stop pressing stuff is what you do to stop teams outplaying you (if you can’t outplay them, out run them etc). But I think teams are far more likely to try and outplay Rotherham than they are us.  A lot of teams at this level will come to pride park and just try and stop us playing, and maybe nick something if they can, they won’t even try to play out from the back into the traps we’re laying for them.  Ironically of course, Wigan was a game we should have been ok in, because they did try that, we just didn’t execute very well.
I do also wonder what kind of squad he walked into at Rotherham. If he inherited a squad that was already quite suitable for his style, he only had to maintain that for a while.  He’s maybe never had to deal with having a squad that simply cannot do what he wants them to do.  Kind of like the way Steve McClaren (the first time) walked into a squad perfect for what he wanted, and he hit the ground running. Whereas Nigel Pearson had nothing like it and sank within weeks.

This forum: "Max Bird needs to get more assists."
Max Bird: *Gets assist in the first game of the season*.
This Forum: "Oh no, not *those* kind of assists"

The thing is, if you look at any player that gets a load of assists, they aren't all going to be defence-splitting passes or inch-perfect crosses, there will be the ones that fly off their backside and drop to someone, or the miscued shots that someone gets on the end of.  If Max Bird doesn't get himself in the box and get his head on it, we probably don't score that goal.  He directly impacted the game, and that's what people have been clamouring for.

At the very least, it was a mistake hiring him in the way we did - letting Rosenior pick a squad then doing a complete 180 on it after 10 games.  Warne from day one with a near clean slate, would *maybe* have been a different prospect.
A nice fun little game - of all the players we signed in that first post-admin window, which ones do we think Warne would have signed if he were manager at the time? Is it any of them at all?

Surely the pertinent point, is why have we spent the whole of preseason practicing only one formation, when we still don’t have the players to play it properly?

We did it quite well at times last season, when we had a front four of like McGoldrick + NML, Knight, Barkhuizen (all reasonably mobile, at least fairly hard working etc).  This system we’e playing now gives us less bodies up there to press, and several of them are less mobile than the other lot on top of that.

Liverpool, and Man City too, both press aggressively, but they do it selectively.  If they lose the ball, they press intensively for a short period to try and win it back, and if they can’t, they funnel back into a defensive shape. We don’t seem to want to do that, we press and press and press and press until we’re dead on our feet.  Liverpool and Man City press to allow them to get back to their main gameplan. The pressing *is* our main gameplan.

They also try and keep the ball when they get it back, rather than give it away as quickly as possible so they can run around and press some more.

They also try and keep the ball when they get it back, rather than give it away as quickly as possible so they can run around and press some more.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

When Warne was first appointed I posted on here that, given the state of the squad at the time and the financial restrictions etc, we were basically writing off at least 2 seasons.  He was going to have to replace the majority of the squad with players that could play his way, and I didn't think it was worth doing that, given his record in the Championship etc.  A lot of people were not happy with me posting that - "Warne guarantees promotion" they told me.  Nothing I have seen in the nearly a year since then has changed my mind.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

The thing is, if you look at any player that gets a load of assists, they aren't all going to be defence-splitting passes or inch-perfect crosses, there will be the ones that fly off their backside and drop to someone, or the miscued shots that someone gets on the end of.  If Max Bird doesn't get himself in the box and get his head on it, we probably don't score that goal.  He directly impacted the game, and that's what people have been clamouring for.

This forum: "Max Bird needs to get more assists."
Max Bird: *Gets assist in the first game of the season*.
This Forum: "Oh no, not *those* kind of assists"

When Warne was first appointed I posted on here that, given the state of the squad at the time and the financial restrictions etc, we were basically writing off at least 2 seasons.  He was going to have to replace the majority of the squad with players that could play his way, and I didn't think it was worth doing that, given his record in the Championship etc.  A lot of people were not happy with me posting that - "Warne guarantees promotion" they told me.  Nothing I have seen in the nearly a year since then has changed my mind.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

Was expecting a misspelt rant about the length of our injury list tbh.

This forum: "Max Bird needs to get more assists."
Max Bird: *Gets assist in the first game of the season*.
This Forum: "Oh no, not *those* kind of assists"

When Warne was first appointed I posted on here that, given the state of the squad at the time and the financial restrictions etc, we were basically writing off at least 2 seasons.  He was going to have to replace the majority of the squad with players that could play his way, and I didn't think it was worth doing that, given his record in the Championship etc.  A lot of people were not happy with me posting that - "Warne guarantees promotion" they told me.  Nothing I have seen in the nearly a year since then has changed my mind.