I'll file it under one to forget and hope we see a response against Bristol city..
Printable View
I'll file it under one to forget and hope we see a response against Bristol city..
For the first 20 minutes, we looked ok, but we fell apart after Sibley's goal.
Mowbray has admitted himself that he got the balance wrong, and I did say before the match that I thought four attackers was not a good idea with quick opponents and our best defender missing.
Sometimes, you have to start with nil-nil in mind (as we did at Derby LAST season).
OK - we missed two decent chances early on, but we looked pretty clueless after that.
Fair play to Derby. Their passing was excellent. Many things seemed to click for them today - in the way they did for us in the match at Sheffield.
In the build-up, I mentioned my worry that we have too many players who are not effective in backs-to-the-wall situations, and that really showed up.
Derby where and are ****e. Our inpet attitude from the manager all the way down to 10 of the 11 players made them look half decent. We where absolutely woeful. From start to finish. I know numerous Rovers fans who have travelled all over the country who for the very first time, turned off the game in disgust. And where unable to watch that 2nd half.
I'd like to know what on earth they did in training all week.
Champs, when you make extreme statements about teams in that way, I'm never sure what you're comparing them to.
This is not the PL. Most of the teams are of very similar standard. That's why they keep beating each other! I'd say we might think of ourselves as marginally better than Derby with Lenihan, Dack , Evans and Holtby in the team. As it was, they were far better on the day. If they're sh*te, though, so are almost all of the other teams. At the moment, only Leeds, QPR and Wigan could be said to be on good runs. That's just the way this league is. We might well beat Bristol City on Saturday, and then everything will look different again. I just think it is pointless to try to come to general conclusions, because the "evidence" changes every match-day.
To be honest, Mowbray appears to have had a brain-fade. The defence was already disrupted, but we started with only one midfield holding player. Admittedly, if we'd taken one of those early chances and gone on to win, he would have been hailed as a genius.
I'm the cautious type, though. When I saw the line-up, I actually did a double-check, because I thought I'd missed Johnson first time around! Thinking back to the same fixture last season, they battered us, but we held on for the nil-nil. I'd have tried for more of the same, personally.
With Lenihan out, though, I suspect TM's objective was to go for broke, but it failed spectacularly.
With our usual back four restored next Saturday, and Johnson restored to the team, we surely won't be as abject again!
And most of the sides around midtable are pretty ****e. Including us. Miles away from being good enough for the Prem. It's a poor division for standard. But quite even.
That's what I'd say too, and it looks as if last season wasn't much better, with Norwich and Villa now occupying the bottom two slots in the PL!
Villa screaming out for allardyce to come in there..
Should we all give up then?
I think a fully fit first 11 could have a good go in the premier league.
Where it falls apart is with injuries and suspensions.
Our squad is painfully poor in terms of good quality cover.