Rams@Millers 3/2/21 - Matchday thread

[Spanish]

10 minutes ago, NottsRam77 said:

True but this one surely stands out in terms of an abysmal results especially with it being a six pointer where the very very minimum hope is to avoid defeat ... we’ve effectively handed over an extra point too with that 6 way goal swing 

Bielik's injury is/will be the key event

[Nuwtfly]

4 minutes ago, Spanish said:

don't think we had much choice given our money situation.  Always a gamble and until last night it looked like it was the right one, still might be.  Much depends on whether the new guys are actually any good

I'm not sure I believe the money situation played a part in it too much, not if Rooney's reported wage is true!

As you say, though, it's always a gamble. I hope this one pays off for us. I just think this might be one roll of the the dice too many for Melvyn and Co...

[cheron85]

Terrible result but such is life

Rooney's a rookie manager trying to turn around our fortunes in 'the hardest league in the world' and there's a reason why it takes managers time to get to grips with this league

In this league you have to be able to play decent, passing football to beat the good teams and you have to be able to do something to cut open the teams who play 9 in defence while pressing and kicking you around - Managers tend to be able to do one or the other when they first arrive in the championship and Rooney is obviously struggling with the latter

We've got almost twice as many points as Birmingham, Rotherham and Sheff Weds since Rooney took over and if he can keep that up we should be fine

Oh btw - I'm not downplaying the effect that losing Bielik will have - His quality is a horrendous loss - But I still believe we've got enough in this squad to produce results

[Jourdan]

16 minutes ago, Spanish said:

Bielik's injury is/will be the key event

Maybe, but surely this is where Rooney needs to show why Mel and the club have backed him to do the job. The key to being a great manager is how you respond to adversity.

Bielik will be a big miss but one player shouldn’t be the difference between going down and staying up, especially not when we have 19 games to figure out how to move forward without him.

If the team falls apart with the absence of one player, then that reflects poorly on the manager and the group of players available.

So perhaps Rooney needs to re-think his approach and if the defensive unit is not the same without Bielik, perhaps now is the time to put the impetus on the attacking players and try to get the likes of Sibley, Roberts and Lawrence involved as much as possible.

The worry for me is that we are probably going to go to three at the back, bring in Mengi, drop an attacking player like Jozwiak or Waghorn and play Knight out wide to provide more of the solidity Rooney wants.

It’s arguable whether that is actually playing to our strengths now. We have tried being solid and we have still dropped 20 points from 42 including 16 points to teams outside the top 10.

[strawhillram]

34 minutes ago, JarodyDCFC said:

You’re acting like they outplayed us from minute one. They pressed us and made it difficult especially in the first half, but just before the goal we were looking the more likely to go on and win it. 3-0 doesn’t reflect the game at all, Middlesbrough was much worse than this. 

When you’re in a relegation battle every game becomes a ‘must win’ and you can’t win all of them. Name me a game this season that hasn’t felt like a ‘must win’ for us, excluding the beginning of the season. 

Wycombe

sheff W 

Rotherham x2

 Coventry

 forest

 could add a few more, but became depressed

[bcnram]

Sometimes a team playing style is difficult for another specific team to play against (thinking back to Wimbledon days). 
Rotherham have players recruited specifically for that style. 
I thought we coped well with it for the majority of the game hit the one thing we couldn’t do is let them score first. I put that goal firmly in the lap of Marshal, he is captain, he should not gave let his defence be with such a high line with the free kick coming in from that angle. Once one of their players is allowed to knock the ball on, it becomes much harder to defend when retreating. 
Once they score we would not be allowed anywhere near their are as they were happy to take a booking or two to stop us on the half way line. 
Rotherham are a club who are what they are and all credit to them. 
We will be fine. For those who panic at this result, have a nice sit down with a cup of tea and a chocolate digestive; we will comfortably be fine. x

[Spanish]

27 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

I'm not sure I believe the money situation played a part in it too much, not if Rooney's reported wage is true!

As you say, though, it's always a gamble. I hope this one pays off for us. I just think this might be one roll of the the dice too many for Melvyn and Co...

does anybody know whether WR salary is still partly funded.  I presume it is because the profile hasn't gone down.  If ii is then it was a good financial decision

[Spanish]

18 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

Maybe, but surely this is where Rooney needs to show why Mel and the club have backed him to do the job. The key to being a great manager is how you respond to adversity.

Bielik will be a big miss but one player shouldn’t be the difference between going down and staying up, especially not when we have 19 games to figure out how to move forward without him.

If the team falls apart with the absence of one player, then that reflects poorly on the manager and the group of players available.

So perhaps Rooney needs to re-think his approach and if the defensive unit is not the same without Bielik, perhaps now is the time to put the impetus on the attacking players and try to get the likes of Sibley, Roberts and Lawrence involved as much as possible.

The worry for me is that we are probably going to go to three at the back, bring in Mengi, drop an attacking player like Jozwiak or Waghorn and play Knight out wide to provide more of the solidity Rooney wants.

It’s arguable whether that is actually playing to our strengths now. We have tried being solid and we have still dropped 20 points from 42 including 16 points to teams outside the top 10.

This a league of small margins, Bielik could be worth 9 points over a season

['Rambe33]

That was a bit grim in the end wasn't it lads. A horrible game to watch but another example of how this team just isnt clinical enough at the key moments. Rotherham played the game they know and to great effect. Fair play to Paul Warne for getting that out of his players. However it is so boring as a Derby fan knowing we will get bullied in these types of games and not stand up to it. We folded for the first goal which dismantled the huff and puff we'd put in to that point. 

I thought we'd turned a corner and not concede goals like the first one again. It was extremely poor defending and positioning. 

I felt that the game would just finish 0-0 and that wouldn't have been an awful result in the grand scheme of things, however what followed as put us right back in the relegation scrap. 

We've done incredibly well to win 3 on the bounce prior to last night and Rooney has been able to get an instant reaction of out the players after a setback. 

I was livid last night at the manner we went down but it is a blip that we know need to come back from. 

While Saturday's game against Barnsley will be tough, it wont be against as much of an agricultural side as last night. 

Two more positives for you: 

1. We don't have to play Rotherham again this season.

2. We never have to endure 90 minutes of that oaf from Yorkshire screaming "C'mon Millers", "Rovrum" on our TVs again. Christ on a Bike he was annoying! 

 Keep smiling lads, a win Saturday and it all looks better. Lose and yes the world will come to an end at Oakwell 

[RoyMac5]

10 minutes ago, Spanish said:

This a league of small margins, Bielik could be worth 9 points over a season

Beni could be worth 9 points.

[Jourdan]

4 minutes ago, Spanish said:

This a league of small margins, Bielik could be worth 9 points over a season

But equally if Rooney can coax more out of Lawrence, Roberts, Sibley, Jozwiak and Waghorn, we can perhaps compensate for what we have lost with Bielik.

The current strategy relies on us having a very disciplined and organised defence and midfield and an attack that has to take one of a limited amount of chances. In essence we have to play the perfect game in both boxes to get a result. 

If Rooney strives to get more attacking players on the pitch and get them playing with more confidence and more composure, maybe we won’t have to be so fixated on defending.

Clarke, Wisdom and the entire defensive unit have done really well but that level of performance was always going to be unsustainable. So I think we will have to adjust accordingly.

[VulcanRam]

41 minutes ago, Spanish said:

Bielik's injury is/will be the key event

I fear so. With him back in the team we seemed to have found a formation/system that was working, primarily because he drove us forward. As we saw last night, we don't have anyone who can play as a single CDM, unless the lad from Man City can (I must admit I don't know his strengths), and so we lost all forward thrust. 

So that might necessitate a change in shape and possibly in style. I wouldn't be against bringing Mengi into a back three - Byrne and Buchanan have proved far more effective wide men than Jozwiak and Waghorn - and having some help for CKR up front. 4-1-2-3 doesn't work when 2 out of the 3 up top are so ineffective and the 1 is physically unable to hold firm. 

 

[rammieib]

12 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

You need 15 goals from midfield at least.  I can see half that there.  You can afford a more defensive midfielder who gets a couple- Shinnie. Knight is good for 6 . The others won't come from Bird.

And it's not even creative.

And the winger positions are not scoring 10-12 goals each.

And the striker is limited at best.

 

We have enough I think to make sure we stay up because generally, the defence is solid enough to give us enough 1-0 wins BUT serious rebuilding needed in the summer and some unpopular decisions will need to be made.

The only two players in that front six I think are good enough for top six over a season is Bielik and Jozwiak.

[Rammy03]

22 minutes ago, Jourdan said:

The current strategy relies on us having a very disciplined and organised defence and midfield and an attack that has to take one of a limited amount of chances. In essence we have to play the perfect game in both boxes to get a result. 

Exactly and yet again we've proved that when we go a goal down we can never get back into the game. This simply has to change. You can't play the perfect game keeping clean sheets every week.

[ollycutts1982]

26 minutes ago, VulcanRam said:

I fear so. With him back in the team we seemed to have found a formation/system that was working, primarily because he drove us forward. As we saw last night, we don't have anyone who can play as a single CDM, unless the lad from Man City can (I must admit I don't know his strengths), and so we lost all forward thrust. 

So that might necessitate a change in shape and possibly in style. I wouldn't be against bringing Mengi into a back three - Byrne and Buchanan have proved far more effective wide men than Jozwiak and Waghorn - and having some help for CKR up front. 4-1-2-3 doesn't work when 2 out of the 3 up top are so ineffective and the 1 is physically unable to hold firm. 

 

I think you mean Beni from Everton. I’m hoping he’s been brought in to play not just to make the numbers up. From what I’ve seen he looks decent. Whether he can do the creative side of the game too is yet to be seen. 

[DcfcMatt]

34 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Beni could be worth 9 points.

From the very few minutes he was on the pitch, I liked what I saw. Hopefully he can fill the Bielik role.

[RoyMac5]

5 minutes ago, DcfcMatt said:

From the very few minutes he was on the pitch, I liked what I saw. Hopefully he can fill the Bielik role.

I thought the glimpses we got of all the new boys looked promising. The squad has needed added depth all season.

[DcfcMatt]

One poor result does not define Rooney's start to his managerial career. Even the best teams in the world have an opposing team that is their kryptonite, Rotherham seems to be ours.

[strawhillram]

I’ve consigned this match to the history folder in my memory. it’s filed next to Cocu

I might have to do that for this season as a whole unless things improve

[DcfcMatt]

3 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

I thought the glimpses we got of all the new boys looked promising. The squad has needed added depth all season.

I agree they all looked up for it, Roberts and Byrne seemed to hit it off straight away, with minimal time training together. I expect we'll see some changes to the starting XI against Barnsley.