Reply With QuoteNot much in it according to the stats. Possession 46-54. Shots 14-16. On target 5-7. That makes it look like they might have shaded it. Au contraire Amigo. I thpought we had the better of the play and, had we continued with some of our last half hour attacks rather than stopping, making 15 tiki taka passes and then seeing the ball back with Allsopp, we would probably won by more.
My first thoughts which I shared with a fellow Ram via WhatsApp last night were "Still giving wide players too much room. In the middle we gave their very skilful players time and space and that could have killed us. I hate them way we storm upfield and then stop 25 yards out, 15 passes and the ball is back with the keeper. Pleasantly surprised by Allsopp. Deserved win but we make it so difficult for ourselves. A bit like the bishop with the "actress", no vinegar stroke. We need to address that."
Seems like my initial thoughts haven't altered overnight.
Their midfield were very good on the ball, poor off it. You can see, in possession, why they have 16 goals to their credit. The one and two touch passing allied to movement which saw them always have 2 outlets was a joy to watch. Conversely, we made too many less than good passes, gifting them the ball. They also seemed to "be in the right place" whereas we were, too often for my liking, on the wrong side of our man. On this showing, they will continue to leak goals, at least until some of their long term injured return and although they have found the net regularly, we also saw that they can be easy to nullify. Apart from one which brought out a fine finger tip save from Allsopp, their shots on target were one lofted effort that wasn't in the least bit dangerous and the rest were straight at him.
For us, last 30 we had a few chances to put a man through but chose to back off. As we all too well know, 1-0 isn't a scoreline we can defend all that often.
The officials? As the fans sang "we always get 5h1t refs". Last night's were, IMO, no exception. Stearman can't complain about his yellow and didn't. Later in the same half, Knight was brought down from behind when on a charge. Foul given but no card. Little wonder Stearman went to the ref to ask why. It seemed, yet again, that they got away with bad fouls and we were penalised for next to nothing. Some offsides against us looked decidedly dodgy. I lost count of the number of throws they got which should have been ours. Does the one we got that was actually theirs balance that out? Goal kicks that were awarded as corners for them. Some of the "hard man" glances the ref gave to a couple of our players. It's hard to believe that the officials are acting under EFL instructions but it is happening so often, again this season like last, the huge number of Rams fans who now believe there is a vendetta against the club can be excused for thinking that.
Our performances this season have been solid midtable. Good stats at the back. Less so going forward. Start scoring more and we will beat the 12 point penalty and beating any further deductions will be slightly less improbable. Start conceding on a more regular basis and we are shot. It's that fine a line IMO.
This is a more critical summary than usual but I have highlighted the things I saw that need to either change or be improved on. I can't say I'm unhappy, under the circumstances, but if we improve the less satisfactory areas, we will be in a better state to challenge those closest to us.
Originally Posted by ramAnag
