v Millwall (a) - 21/12/2024

[ageoftherover]

4 hours ago, JCRovers said:

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).

How do we know that wasn't the plan? The Pickering sub was forced.

Had a bad feeling about this one when Eustace said there was some illness around the squad. It's one of those factors that throws a huge wrench in a coaches plans that we can not really see from the outside.

Hopefully there's not too much in these injuries. This isn't the moment you want to see our solid run with injuries keel over.

[JCRovers]

15 minutes ago, ageoftherover said:

How do we know that wasn't the plan? The Pickering sub was forced.

What's the point in making a single sub (Dolan for ACD) after an hour and then a double-sub only 5 minutes later? Would've been better to make a triple sub straight away in that case or even make a sub during half-time as they don't count towards the three substitution slots. Eustace has gotten it right defensively of late but made some tactical errors today. Millwall were always going to play physical and not having three central midfielders meant that we couldn't control the game. If Beck had been ill during the week, then Hedges should've taken his spot on the left and put Cantwell as a number 10 ahead of Travis and Tronstad. 

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Maybe,just maybe, this was a defeat needed to bring Heads out the Clouds and return Feet firmly to Ground for all.

Time to refocus and access the limitations of this side.

Edited 15 hours ago by SIMON GARNERS 194

[arbitro]

All good things have to end and whilst being disappointed about today the bigger picture is the one I am looking at and one defeat in seven is a great record. However today was somewhat self inflicted and the manager and his staff have to accept some responsibility for their use of substitutes and taking up the three available windows whilst only using four substitutes. Of course we will never know for certain but I believe had we had eleven players on the pitch we could have prevented the ball coming in for the winning goal. Making the two single substitutions within a short space of time certainly came back to bite us when Travis went off injured. Overall a point would have been a really good one as I felt Millwall were better than us on the day and several of our players were below par. 

Hopefully the injuries to Travis and Pickering aren't as bad as they appeared because they will both be big players for us in the busy end to the year and through January.I

I like Eustace but his use of superlatives in his post match interview made me chuckle. Words like magnificent and amazing weren't applicable to the performance I watched today.

[roverblue]

You can’t win them all and we had to lose at some point. Big response against Sunderland on Boxing Day hopefully 

[philipl]

Millwall are extremely fit, knew exactly what to do to nullify us and have two extremely tricky and gifted forward players whom we couldn't take any liberties with.

Cantwell had his most ineffective game since signing, ACD panicked when clean through and Eustace messed up his subs. Was particularly disappointed by what he must have failed to say at half time. Things needed changing but instead we got a repeat of the first half.

Weather conditions and a ref who had forgotten his cards didn't help.

Even so, it was very nearly an avoidable defeat.

Now we face Sunderland, Leeds and Burnley with a crippled squad. There will be a lot of hurt bodies after that clash quite apart from missing Pickering and Travis.

 

[chaddyrovers]

6 hours ago, JCRovers said:

What's the point in making a single sub (Dolan for ACD) after an hour and then a double-sub only 5 minutes later? Would've been better to make a triple sub straight away in that case or even make a sub during half-time as they don't count towards the three substitution slots. Eustace has gotten it right defensively of late but made some tactical errors today. Millwall were always going to play physical and not having three central midfielders meant that we couldn't control the game. If Beck had been ill during the week, then Hedges should've taken his spot on the left and put Cantwell as a number 10 ahead of Travis and Tronstad. 

Depends why each of those subs were bar Pickering who was injured. 

ACD appears to be tiredness 

Ohashi and Cantwell could off been tiredness or lack of impact on the game. 

Eustace's team selection now looking back seem too attacking and I agree Hedges should have replaced Beck. Either Ohashi or Gueye drop out for Cantwell. 

[Ossydave]

We now feel how Sheffield Wednesday fans and Hull probably also did after games against us. Not much in it and decided by a single goal. They way we play there's likely to be more of these too, just have to hope the majority go in our favour. Particularly cruel given the time of the goal and also whilst being down to 10 but that's football.

Big test next, not only given the quality of the opponent but also to see how this group of players react. There's got to be a slight hint of nerves here that we've been down this road before and a death spiral usually follows....

[jim mk2]

Millwall game sounds like the last away match I saw at Watford - another one we lost narrowly and probably didn’t deserve to lose.

With a low scoring team like Rovers are at present margins are very tight and it only needs one mistake or moment of bad luck for it all to go wrong

Clearly Rovers and Eustace got a lot right on the 6 game winning run but if we’re honest some of those games could have gone either way and we’d now be sitting somewhere in mid table instead of 5th

The point is, to be successful in this league over 48 games tight margins and a struggle to score goals means we could just as easily follow the 6 game winning run with a 6 game losing streak, and looking at the forthcoming fixtures that’s an entirely possible scenario

Let’s hope not

 

 

[BlueNWhiteArmy]

7 hours ago, roverblue said:

You can’t win them all and we had to lose at some point. Big response against Sunderland on Boxing Day hopefully 

Two home games to gain confidence now. Let's roar them to a win.

Accept and move on time to focus on the next big games now. 

 

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Big pressure on the Hull game to avoid going into the derby off the back of four defeats. Anything from the other two would be a bonus off the back of yesterday’s performance.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Depends why each of those subs were bar Pickering who was injured. 

ACD appears to be tiredness 

Ohashi and Cantwell could off been tiredness or lack of impact on the game. 

Eustace's team selection now looking back seem too attacking and I agree Hedges should have replaced Beck. Either Ohashi or Gueye drop out for Cantwell. 

I like Eustace but he got that team selection badly wrong. I’m not saying that with the benefit of hindsight, I thought that at 3-00 pm. He could have changed it at half time but he didn’t. We needed more bodies in central midfield where we were getting over run.
We should have started with either of Gueye or Ohashi up front with Cantwell behind the striker. Cantwell will never be a wide player as long as he lives, he must be the slowest player in the squad. As you say if Beck isn’t capable of 90 minutes Hedges was the obvious replacement.

Edited 5 hours ago by Tyrone Shoelaces

[chaddyrovers]

2 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I like Eustace but he got that team selection badly wrong. I’m not saying that with the benefit of hindsight, I thought that at 3-00 pm. He could have changed it at half time but he didn’t. We needed more bodies in central midfield where we were getting over run.
We should have started with either of Gueye or Ohashi up front with Cantwell behind the striker. Cantwell will never be a wide player as long as he lives, he must be the slowest player in the squad. As you say if Beck isn’t capable of 90 minutes Hedges was the obvious replacement.

People can't saying Cantwell but during his spell as a footballer was from playing the left at Norwich in the PL. 

looking back is a wonderful thing. 

We looked better second half but still not at our best. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

50 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

People can't saying Cantwell but during his spell as a footballer was from playing the left at Norwich in the PL. 

looking back is a wonderful thing. 

We looked better second half but still not at our best. 

He did the square root of nothing playing there yesterday. His lack of pace is surprising for a pro player. He’s slow off the mark and he’s slow over a distance. It’s central midfield or nowhere for me. I’d have subbed him off at half time and brought Baker on in his place.

Edited 5 hours ago by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Forever Blue]

26 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

People can't saying Cantwell but during his spell as a footballer was from playing the left at Norwich in the PL. 

looking back is a wonderful thing. 

We looked better second half but still not at our best. 

If you wanted someone to provide cover for your fullback away from home at a team with good wingers, you wouldn’t pick Cantwell. It was an odd decision. 
 

Comparisons with Norwich are irrelevant. They were a different team, in a different league, with different players. 

[chaddyrovers]

2 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

If you wanted someone to provide cover for your fullback away from home at a team with good wingers, you wouldn’t pick Cantwell. It was an odd decision. 

Eustace went there to win the game with that team selection. 

We would probably picked a different players to replace Beck tbh.  

2 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

Comparisons with Norwich are irrelevant. They were a different team, in a different league, with different players. 

 

Agree to disagree here

[arbitro]

2 hours ago, Forever Blue said:

If you wanted someone to provide cover for your fullback away from home at a team with good wingers, you wouldn’t pick Cantwell. It was an odd decision. 
 

Comparisons with Norwich are irrelevant. They were a different team, in a different league, with different players. 

My impression was that Eustace was shoehorning Cantwell in yesterday. Pickering was left exposed several times as Cantwell showed very little defensive awareness. I could grudgingly accept that if he was creative but he offered very little. In games of attrition like yesterday was he is missing in action.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

25 minutes ago, arbitro said:

My impression was that Eustace was shoehorning Cantwell in yesterday. Pickering was left exposed several times as Cantwell showed very little defensive awareness. I could grudgingly accept that if he was creative but he offered very little. In games of attrition like yesterday was he is missing in action.

That was my impression watching the game on TV. We took a knife to a gun fight.

[roversfan99]

Cantwell should not be playing out wide, the debate has been had many times but he isnt effective there either going forward or running back.

ACD messed up his chance by taking far too long but is the only player in the squad who would have got that far in the first place. He wasnt half as effective as against Luton but he kept helping us get up the pitch and was often fouled in doing so to win us free kicks.

A problem is he is quick but not lightning quick but beyond him, we have no one with any pace. I felt that the subs really weakened us and we were left lacking in any threat on the counter attack. Dolan was particularly bad.

[chaddyrovers]

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Cantwell should not be playing out wide, the debate has been had many times but he isnt effective there either going forward or running back.

Despite him performing very well there for Norwich during their promotion and championship seasons. 

Eustace took a risk yesterday which didn't work. I would dropped Ohashi for Cantwell with Hedges coming in for Beck. Would you have done similar? 

8 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

ACD messed up his chance by taking far too long but is the only player in the squad who would have got that far in the first place. He wasnt half as effective as against Luton but he kept helping us get up the pitch and was often fouled in doing so to win us free kicks.

A problem is he is quick but not lightning quick but beyond him, we have no one with any pace. I felt that the subs really weakened us and we were left lacking in any threat on the counter attack. Dolan was particularly bad.

ACD should have shot before the tackle came. Took far too long. If he had scored we win the game 

[smiller14]

In the cold light of day.

Pears did well, thought centre halves were solid.

Not much going forwards. Cantwell less effective than he's been as a 10. ACD faded as game went on. Too much long ball and dragged into the type of game Millwall wanted - which is a real disappointment given we lined up quite attacking. But what transpired was a gritty battle that we were less than equipped to handle than our hosts.

I hope it's a blip but Travis injury worries me as he's so hard to replace. It will be largely forgotten if we put Sunderland to the sword. They'll come and have a go, which may suit us. 

Edited 11 minutes ago by smiller14