David Ball

[welovebooth]

you can't fault Warne he has won us promotion in his first full season as a manager.

by playing it cautious he is trying to keep us active in the league for aslong as possible.

if there starts to be a gap opening up with us getting left behind than he may go more for the points.


but it's early doors and he is like a squirrel trying to get as many nuts as possible before Christmas gets here.

[Redshank]

I thought the prime directive was not to interfere in the development of alien civilisations.

You see, naked, your proposition effectively closes off debate. It's TINA. The only alternative to the club's present approach is bankruptcy. I'm not sure that stands up to examination but it seems accepted by most on MM which is fair enough.

No it doesn’t close off debate; that’s naked’s opinion, if you or anyone else disagrees then challenge it…i.e. debate! Why does everything have to be so black and white?

Any visitor to this board would get the impression that, in the light of our last 12 months, Rotherham fans are a right bunch of moaners. What the club has actually achieved in such a short space of time is probably unprecedented. Take a step back, take it all in and then tell me that the club haven’t a clue what they are doing. Furthermore, step back 7 or 8 years and tell me that the club hasn’t changed out of all recognition. Incremental was the word TS bandied about when he first came and that’s exactly what he’s delivered; incremental improvement. It's laughable that some folk make sweeping statements about the state of RUFC on the basis of a handful of games. Is there really something fundamentally wrong at RUFC as some regular moaners imply? The hard facts don't back this sort of assertion up.

Does it really matter why or how we came to have PW as manager? The point is we do and are damned fortunate to have the management team that we currently have. Take note all you regular moaners; nothing lasts for ever. Why not just enjoy the ride and peddle some positivity rather than grumble all the time. PW will move onto much bigger things than RUFC, make the most of his time here while you have the chance.

We’re still finding our feet in this league, players are still bedding in and PW is (probably rightly so) being very cautious. After being full of trepidation at the start, from what I’ve seen so far we have every chance of staying in the Championship. I’m confident that tactics will evolve, players will improve and a settled squad will take shape. The reason for my confidence is the very steep learning curve that PW scrambled up so successfully last season. If things don’t work out then we’ll scrub this season and have another go at it next year. Hopefully with PW still in charge. He’s a welcome ambassador for the club and town as well as being one of the brightest young managerial prospects in the football league. Here’s another reflection; compare the PW approach to football and life in general to the Steve Evans way. I know which one I’d rather have. We all know the PW way is more affable and respectful but, crucially, it’s much more progressive.

There’s nothing wrong with debate and disagreement on tactics etc. but the snidey “cheap option” and “naïve” comments are well out of order ……and anybody talking of chucking in their season ticket on the 5th September are clueless and might as well pack up right now and go and watch W*******y instead. They’d feel much more at home over there.

[nakedtruth]

Just to clarify.

When I said not going broke is the prime directive I didn't mean to imply that it was the only directive.

I tend to agree that Warne is far too cautious, particularly for home games. There was something Frogmiller said about the Wigan game, something on the lines of, "when we gave it a go we found out that they were weak in defence" (or something similar) That sort of sums it up, being cautious and adopting 4-5-1 it gives very little chance to find out how bad the opposition might be.

However, I can understand why Warne plays this way, he's effectively worried about a rapid plummet down the league which wouldn't look good on his CV. The signing of "star" players is effectively blocked to him, so he has to make it look as though we are at least giving it a shot. Also I think he's nervous that his "band of brothers" might start to get bolshie if the team gets stuffed every week.

Sometimes I think football managers in general forget that football is a form of entertainment that folks pay good money to see, such are the pressures on their jobs. It's a system that promotes cautious play, not attacking play, which might end up with the sack.

On the scale of things Warne is more mouse than tiger.

[fivetide]

Bit unfair thought naked. While I agree being too cautious in every game is a problem, especially when we should know that a defence can be quickly broken and mistakes made, is a problem. However, I don't think Warne is doing it for his CV. This is a chap that is RUFC through and through. He's doing it, in my opinion, because he doesn't want us going behind early and he doesn't want us humped every game because we went off cavalier fashion. A tight game lost one nil is easier on the morale than a 6-0 drubbing. Very hard to come back from that and he's worked hard to get a team together and clear out negative people from the dressing room. A few heavy defeats would make it almost impossible to turn around.

That said, we need to give it a go earlier on. Yes, defend, don't lose an early goal, but having ridden the first 15 minutes, step up a bit and see if we can't force a break or something. Mind, we do like to conceed either side of half time no matter what.

[gm_gm]

I thought the prime directive was not to interfere in the development of alien civilisations.

….

But they often did Monty!

[PerigordMiller]

Redshank - what you said.

Bestist post for a while.

[mikemiller]

he is like a squirrel trying to get as many nuts as possible before Christmas gets here.

Safety warning - this website may contain nuts

[millertop]

[mellowmiller]

Redshank - what you said.

Bestist post for a while.

Hmm, the problem I have is that people who choose to question some of the things happening at our club are routinely branded as "moaners" or worse, childishly told to go and support Wednesday.
For what it's worth I'm very grateful for what Tony Stewart has done since he became chairman and I'm delighted that Paul Warne is our manager and passionately believe he should be given the full 3 years of his contract to continue the impressive work he has started. However, I'm not sure that he can achieve an awful lot with the sort of budget he has to operate with and the risk is that a club with greater resources and more ambition will make him an offer he can't refuse. This is one of the reasons I would like Mr Stewart to tell us what his ambitions are for the club.
As far as the playing style of the team is concerned, there's nothing wrong with playing 5 in midfield as long as you have players who can hurt the opposition. Players like Taylor and Newell are inconsistent and rarely succeed when they start but often have an impact when they come off the bench. So start with Vassell and Williams out wide with a central 3 of Towell, Manning and Ajayi and let's give the opposition something to worry about.

[Nardendee]

Redshank - what you said.


Bestist post for a while.

👋👋 totally agree.