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 8 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.