Reply With Quote1 – Player Recruitment & Window failure
It has not been good enough and our ex-head of recruitment has done a poor job, indeed not relocating and working remotely hasn’t helped either. I’ve been told he hadn’t seen many games of ours too. That’s poor if true. If he had been forwarding targets to PW, PD and TS then they haven’t been appropriate for our budget constraints. If targets were put forward and were within a realistic budget then there is a big issue with financial backing at the club. I suspect the latter, still. This would not be against historic form for the past 3 seasons. Other than Crookes have we spent owt? Smith & Rodak were both good additions last season, beyond that I’m afraid there isn’t many highlights. Rodak was also a loan.
We must get better at bringing in talent, with a complimentary skillset focus for improvement of the squad, IE giving us actual options. As I’ll allude to in point 3, the team has no real threat beyond a flick on from a Vaulks throw or a corner, save the odd Ajayi header and screamer. Smith works hard only for no one to run onto his workloads fruit, save for Taylor, Forde or Towell – none of which are regular scorers really – they don’t cut in when they should and their shooting isn’t the best. Vassell and Proctor will maybe change this – if and when fit.
This is the reason we haven’t put teams to the sword this season, why Warne has all to often used a 4-5-1 or a weird 4-1-2-2-1. In short we’ve brought in Good Eggs that try hard, but who’s skillset don’t complement each other enough to give a diverse, threatening team. The results we’ve had have come because we’ve just hung in and tried harder than the opposition. You cant play every game like an underdog part time outfit in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, but that’s largely been the game plan. It worked in L1, it won’t in the championship unless there is some talent to make the effort pay. We didn’t acquire the talent.
Facilities aren’t helping either, come on TS. Roundwood looks like a Comprehensive Schools setup. Sheffield Hallam (What was Aurora) and Sheffield University have better facilities. At Championship level, as I said before, “look at our new stadium” doesn’t work. Players expect a certain level of standard for things like this and we dont have it.
January was a joke of a window. Ill say no more than that. Biggest miss? Leon Clarke would have saved our season, lived in Sheffield, close to Rotherham – Chose Wigan over us (apparently). IF we had signed him wed be staying up.
Ball, though not doing the business for Bradford would have been a better shout than Yates – why was he not recalled? Not that it matters now.
Looking at the new men…..
Vassell was brought in for goals, but has been played wider than he did in his past Goal scoring spell, the result – Round Peg Into Square Hole. A player who was recruited to do two jobs in one and has been successful in neither and then went on the sick list. He must be utilized better next year – down the middle playing off Smith or Smiths eventual replacement if hes gone. That’s assuming we go 4-4-2 and I wouldn’t mind staying on 4-5-1 to be honest, if we do it right (more on that later).
Vyner – A CB that’s young and in need of experience in L1 and playing regular football is brought in and played at RB. Warne and the management staff then wonder why he kept going deep and central during the first half of the season. Well… why do you think that is Paul? An RB who is a CB at heart is always going to drift deep and leave the right hand side exposed, that’s exactly what hes done. PW mentioned this against I think Reading at home post game and its like he had no idea why Vyner is drifting.. Really? I actually think there is the making of a good CB in him and id snap him up on a free. He can tackle and his game reading has got better as its gone on.. His weakness was being played out of position, which is why he was awful for large spells.
Crookes – Looks good, promising player who did not look out of place. More of him next season please, Id quite like him in the side in the middle of a 5.
Robertson – Good signing.
Towell – Wasn’t balled over by him in League One but he put a shift in. He still does. I understand the logic of wanting him, but his lack of finishing skill and poor decisions have cost us several points this season. Where Towell was playing and getting into positions we needed someone who can execute the attack as well as be part of the movement for it.
2 – Commerce & Budget
We MUST do more here.
It seems the club is still acting as though its in League Two when it comes to getting in revenue. Sure, away followings are bigger and TV revenue is higher but we’ve done very little to get cash in. Ask yourself, what’s changed since 2012/2013? With the exception of Chris at AESSEAL whats come on for the club?
Are a relatively small outfit like Hodge Clemco the best we can do for a Championship Clubs main sponsor? Have we really taken 6/7 years to develop exactly ZERO supporting commerce around the new ground, which is in the a busy town centre? Why? G&C site still undeveloped after nearly 9 years of planning. Why? The club desperately needs a new commercial director. The recession is over, the region is growing and Rotherham has a stadium in the town centre, get the matchday money in, get the revenue out of season and post-match in.
The Forge island development is a fantastic opportunity for the club to make use of the G&C site and the car park, get people in and make the area a venue / hub for the town. A bar on site with real ale from the local area would do wonders for foot fall, more events at the stadium and the like and we can at least get some extra cash in.
3 – Team Management & Tactics
Let me be clear, I want Warne to stay for years to come. His heart is in it, his man management can do it, he just needs time and lessons taught by failure – hes got better. Unless we’ve got bags of money to burn year in year out (which we don’t) then all we have is time. It’s a good match. Ive heard and read people saying we should get a young manager from Germany or Spain or wherever. Why? Theres no additional money, theres no pan-Europe scout network and theres a huge change AGAIN at the backroom staff level for no gains. If said manager did come and be successful, do you honestly think hed stay and not go to a larger CHAMP or lower PREM club? Come on, get real.
That being said, as much as Pauls “Good Guy” recruitment and man-management has done us good, he’s really hurt us with at times Sunday League tactics and very odd to the point of ridiculous starting line ups. Case and point was Birmingham. Wood, who hasn’t had the pace for a few years and is now looking low on fitness (in terms of age that is) being put into the first team against fast forwards, on the hottest day of the year to date was always going to be a stupid move. It was. No one planning properly would consider this a good plan, surely?
The “be solid” 4-5-1 and try to look for chaos in the box caused by Smith, knock on’s and headers is what weve done this season and for who and what we are it is a is a good and proven tactic. But it only works if you’re able to fully capitalise on a stronger midfield to force the opposition to create errors and to have someone around to make teams pay when we grind them down or catch them out. We haven’t done that because we don’t have those players in the team. Yes we have ground teams down, often grinding out a 1-1 or 2-2 when we really wasn’t expecting a point but we’ve not made those chances count because the tools haven’t been in the team. Sheff W, Sheff U, Stoke, Reading, Millwall, Wigan, Swansea and others are all case and point. You need a strong spine, a leader up front and fast wingers. The spine is not that bad with Ajayi in it as things stand but the wingers cant score like they need to do to offset only 1 striker.
Regarding that strong central midfield spine- in CM positions we don’t have a Frecklington any more, Towell isn’t that man sadly. Nor do we have a Smallwood breaking up play, Vaulks has done well – very much a Box-To-Box midfielder in my book, but those around haven’t had the spark. When weve had two in the midfield, Vaulks doesn’t have the specific skillset (though hes very talented) to be a sharp enough tool for a given role. Not quite a holding player, not a playmaker, not an attacking mid either. In a 3 midfield center hes a good asset, in a 2 he looks ineffective all too often. Especially with Towell and Newell in the side. Therefore the lack of a dedicated playmaker, attacking midfielder or the linking guy such as an Agard “Cut inside / inside forward” type has cost us dearly.
The same lack of finishing ability can be said for our “wide” men and indeed strikers 4-5-1, the very odd 4-1-2-2-1 with deep midfielder Ajayi sitting in front of the back 4 and Taylor and Forde behind Smith playing as inside forwards….. but not doing that job, or as proper wingers that cant quite cross to CHAMP standard hasnt worked. PW has cited fitness reasons for playing one CF but we’ve done this even when players have been available. Reading at home for example, we went 4-4-2 and nearly won that game.
How good would we look with 2 faster wingers / inside forwards with the likes of a Prime Frecklington, Smallwood / Ajayi and Vaulks in midfield? A Pringle type crosser on the left and an Agard style cut in behind smith on the right? We’ve had these players, in recent years, in budget. Why not now?
ONS I really like Aneke. He would be a useful asset should they not make League One this year. Infact, him and Agard together would be good. Dreaming perhaps. Other than him theres the lad at Tranmere knocking them in for fun whos come from the lower leagues (forget the name) and I also like Akins at Burton. Connor Washington ex-Blades would be ideal, if we could afford him. I suspect there are other Championship clubs looking at him. 
