v Millwall (a) - 21/12/2024

[superniko]

21 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Lack of quality off the bench. Need reinforcements desperately in January.  A midfielder who can pass forward.  A decent fucking striker. Not yuki or ghueye and someone who can do what that useless twat dolan can't do

The crazy thing is the majority of that bench were in the starting 11 over years gone by - such was the shiteness of the squad for so long (cheers Venkys). 
Brittain, Buckley, Dolan, Hedges would have all been starters over prior years, Weimann and Baker new signings and Beck a Liverpool loanee.

We’ve actually been quite lucky on the injury front prior to the two picked up today. 

Edited December 21, 2024 by superniko

[smiller14]

16 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

We started the game with Ohashi, Gueye, ACD and Cantwell on the pitch.

Short of throwing Hedges / Dolan / Leonard on for one of the two CMs we literally can't get more attacking than that with this squad. 

I'm talking about the performance. We created nothing, every player seemed so cautious and every sub was more defensive than the last. 

[Forever Blue]

He picked the wrong team for a game at Millwall. I thought he got the front 4 wrong. 

[KentExile]

6 minutes ago, Forever Blue said:

He picked the wrong team for a game at Millwall. I thought he got the front 4 wrong. 

He messed with the set up, both wide players coming inside rather than one holding the width. 

Should have started with either Hedges or Beck wide left, and left out one of Ohashi, ACD or Cantwell so that we could play the usual shape

Edited December 21, 2024 by KentExile

[RevidgeBlue]

A stark reminder of how well Eustace has been doing recently, we looked a really poor side today which is probably what we are when you come down to it.

The front 4 that started might have raised a few eyebrows but I think we went even worse when the subs were made. 

Poor defending for the goal as well. Both CH's went AWOL leaving two of theirs free in front of goal.

We are resolute now though under Eustace if nothing else so you can't see us being on the wrong side of many heavy beatings if any.

[den]

From now on the season gets very tough. Injuries, suspensions, games coming fast, work load getting really tough.  Everyone at Ewood will now that. Over to the owners. It’s all on them now. 

[Andy]

Yeah, agreed - I understand keeping a winning side, but I think Beck on the left, ACD on the right and Cantwell would have been the best option.

Hindsight, I guess.

[M_B]

Eustace is squeezing every ounce out of a limited squad, we will inevitably sometimes come up short.

Don't really think Millwall did enough to deserve the win but they put their chance away and Cozier-Duberry missed ours.Those are the margins in a Championship where there's a fag paper between a lot of teams.

The lads should be proud of their achievements up to now, 5th on Christmas day is a remarkable position.

[DE.]

I think we all knew we wouldn't keep continually winning by slim margins. Sometimes it'll go the other way. We need a proper striker to push things in our favour more often, but I highly doubt Venky's will give us what's needed to get a decent one. 

Edited December 21, 2024 by DE.

[J*B]

Beck has an illness, wasn’t up to starting. 

[Forever Blue]

3 minutes ago, Andy said:

Yeah, agreed - I understand keeping a winning side, but I think Beck on the left, ACD on the right and Cantwell would have been the best option.

Hindsight, I guess.

It wasn’t hindsight. I raised before the game that it seemed to be a strange fixture to go with your most attacking line up of the season. 

[norwichblue]

What a sickener. Oh well. Positives: they didn’t create much at all really. A bad beat. We’re still 5th with everything to play for. Onwards.

[lraC]

A game lacking in quality and just a shame  we conceded so late.

When I saw 8 added, I did wonder if we could hold on with 10.

Disappointing as that is, I would have taken anyone to task, has they said we would win 6 out of the last 7.

We are in the top 6 at Christmas, which is a real achievement, but the big question now is, can we kick on? 

[JCRovers]

Eustace will have to take his fair share of the blame today; going with front two and consequently losing the midfield battle was the wrong call. Also don't like when managers use all substitution slots before final 10 minutes, there's always a chance that someone picks up an injury whether due to fatigue, non-contact injury or collision with opponent (should always leave one sub open in my opinion). Team has been in a great form recently so hopefully they can pick themselves up and go again at home vs Sunderland.

Can only hope the team gets proper reinforcements in January as more injuries are likely to occur with match congestion in the coming two weeks. 

[Valconite]

Embarrassing loosing to the likes of Millwall. JE got that lineup completely wrong.

Is this the start to our yearly Christmas collapse? Guess we find out on boxing day. 

[Rover down South]

Winning run was always going to come to an end at some point. Still sitting in a position none of believed we’d be in.

We just need someone clinical in front of goal. Gueye (1 league goal) and Ohashi (no league goals since September) just aren’t up to it. Both may offer something but goals isn’t it.

[Forever Blue]

2 minutes ago, Rover down South said:

Winning run was always going to come to an end at some point. Still sitting in a position none of believed we’d be in.

We just need someone clinical in front of goal. Gueye (1 league goal) and Ohashi (no league goals since September) just aren’t up to it. Both may offer something but goals isn’t it.

The dream is we sign a new striker who scores a hat-trick on his debut against the Dingles.

[KentExile]

Just now, Forever Blue said:

The dream is we sign a new striker who scores a hat-trick on his debut against the Dingles.

all of which should have been disallowed (but are not) for increasingly ridiculous reasons... just to annoy them

[Rover down South]

4 minutes ago, Forever Blue said:

The dream is we sign a new striker who scores a hat-trick on his debut against the Dingles.

Sadly with Venkys & Waggott, a dream is how it’ll remain!!

[booth]

It's a sickener as if we hadn't been down to ten I don't think we'd have lost.

But we were poor with eleven even though we didn't look in much danger of conceding.

Apart from Beck, the subs that came on let us down too. Hedges, Weimann and especially Dolan were very poor.

[Forever Blue]

3 minutes ago, KentExile said:

all of which should have been disallowed (but are not) for increasingly ridiculous reasons... just to annoy them

The third because it deflected off the Alien Mothership that had arrived to take their fans home. 

[BigBar]

1 hour ago, Exiled_Rover said:

What did Gueye do wrong?!

Was it not his clearance that went straight to Thier winger to swing it in? Apologies if it wasn't but it was a tame and weak clearance.

[Cherry Blue]

33 minutes ago, J*B said:

Beck has an illness, wasn’t up to starting. 

Why did he travel with team?

[Uddersfelt Blue]

Strange game today with both teams happy to launch high balls forward which didn't really suit our style. When we did try to play on the floor we were quickly closed down and forced into giving the ball away. Not much between the teams but felt Millwall had the edge going forward which inevitably won them the game albeit against 10 men.

Hopefully the injuries to Travis and Pickering aren't too bad. 
 

[booth]

3 minutes ago, BigBar said:

Was it not his clearance that went straight to Thier winger to swing it in? Apologies if it wasn't but it was a tame and weak clearance.

I'd need to see it again but it came at him pretty fast so I think he just stuck a leg out. I was more angry at Weimann's earlier pathetic clearance that he had all the time to boot up the park which led to them going forward and eventually scoring.

And then the pathetic attempt at stopping the initial cross by Hedges and Weimann.