Performance v Birmingham

[RawmarshMiller]

Well, people say football is a game of two halves, in the case of Rotherham United, it certainly is! Not a first half and a second half though, more like a defensive half and an attacking half.

Lets get the good part of the way quickly shall we, going forwards, at the moment and certainly last night, we look a real threat, we look like a team with goals in us. Danny Ward cannot have ever had a better run than he is on right now, Izzy Brown terrifies defenders (Jonathon Spector just gave up and booted him every time he got the ball), Taylor is starting to show a real threat and directness to his game and Frecklington, well just keeps being Frecklington. Dare I say it, Halford does offer something going forward, check out his sublime pass, Forster-Sideways dummy before the ball fell to Ward. Fisher is handy going forwards on the left and desperately needs to be on his more natural right side. Vaulks keeps play moving and Forster-Sideways invariably retains possession. We then have Newell, Forde (who I rate but clearly Stubbs doesn't) and Dextor, just need to be a bit more effective at set-pieces.

BUT, now for the bad.

Defensively we are shambolic. We do not close down, get tight, defend high, win challenges, make challenges, make challenges to head the ball, or even win defensive headers. Kelly is just poor, past it, gone - he offers less than nothing, his presence requires Ball, Fisher and last night Vaulks, to have to cover for him. Wilson - well, lets say his injury was a blessing last night, he was crap for the 5 minutes he was on. Halford is too casual and does not get tight or fight back. Ball is totally shell shocked, the youngster was totally dominated last night by the Brum big lads. Fisher is the only beacon of hope. He challenges, both in the air and on the ground, he also closes down but cannot continue to cover for his 3 defensive colleagues. Camp is also struggling at the moment, he has clearly lost confidence. However, the largest crime of all is the total lack of work rate in general (forwards & Fisher excluded). Players are not closing down all over the pitch - watch Forster-Sideways for the Brum first, watch Halford for Brums first. Honestly, I was a ****e footballer, but given that much time to pick out a cross, I reckon I could have put the ball in for the 1st and 2nd goals last night. We don't harass the man in possession, we would rather back off and give him time to pick the runners. We need to get in the opposition faces more often. I could go on and on, why is Stubbs not seeing this and more importantly doing something about it?

Anyway ratings from last night

Camp 2 - was poor and at fault for all 4 goals
Halford - 2 - would have been 1 except for his assist our first
Kelly - 1 - he was that bad
Wilson - 2 - at least he had the decency to get injured
Fisher - 5 - thought he did ok
Ball - 3 young lad totally overwhelmed covering for his more experienced team mates, was dominated by Donaldson and the big Polish chap
Vaulks - 6 - thought he did well, spent most of the game covering for Kelly and Halford
Forster - Sideways - 6 thought he played ok, needs a bit more end product and needs to pick up the tempo
Frecks - 7 - at the heart of everything decent that we did last night and showed early on the benefits of closing down when he nicked the ball high up the pitch, sadly he team mates didn't follow suit
Taylor - 7 - good work rate and being a lot more direct lately, a lot to come from this guy in future
Ward - 6 - scored a great night, but was subdued by his standards
Brown - 7 - our most potent threat, somewhat stranded out on the left wing in the first half. Clearly one of the things Stubbs did at half time was remind the rest of the team our best player was in fact on the pitch
Dextor - 5 - didn't have chance to do anything, ran about and jumped a few times.


Anyone know what is wrong with Wood, Mattock, Fry, Kirk and Belaid ? If available, would perm mattock + 2 of the centre halfs with fisher on Saturday. If we have injuries, as I joked last night, Stubbs should actually play himself rather than pick Wilson or Kelly every again.

[monty_rhodes]

Rawmarsh that is an excellent read.

[Fensmiller]

Rawmarsh that is an excellent read.

Heartbreaking I'd say Monty

[frogmiller]

Thanks for that Rawmarsh

[millertop]

Well put Rawmarshmilller, you really should send a few copies of this to the club.

[leedsmiller]

There's been more commonsense written on this site in the last 24 hours than the club has issued since end-May.