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Post by davidm on Feb 6, 2016 19:12:47 GMT
I also should have said that I was shocked by the lack of urgency in our side.
We were drawing a must-win game with minutes to go and the players were walking around, taking ages over throw-ins, endlessly passing backwards. There was no drive in them at all.
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Post by andyl on Feb 7, 2016 7:34:02 GMT
What I found really uplifting on the journey home was to read all the spontaneous expressions of delight for Kaiyne Woolery on Twitter from his U21 teammates and their general delight at t the victory.
It reminds me a bit of the 70s when behind a declining team flourished a really promising crop of younger players.
Dougie recruited a few young players for the future but more or less closed them out. Neil began with a fanfare of openness and Vela and Clough became torchbearers of the future. Injury, lack of discipline and Neil's retrenchment have moved him away from the introduction of youth until Holding's recent emergence. Hopefully Woolery at Wolves and that energetic pacy dash and dispossession yesterday as much as the goal indicated that there is light at the end of the tunnel
There is of course the looming threat of administration ever nearer whilst Eddie D vacillates on the precise location for and materials to be used in his various commemorative effigies to mark his'legacy
Twitter featured cries of Kaiiynee!!!! or similar from amongst others Clough,Clayton,Holding,Taylor,Finney ,Twardzik and a buzzing few words from Woolery himself. All uplifting.
There is a clear challenge for Neil . It is to learn from what was a quite dreadful game yesterday, to reappraise his ideas of players and his wariness of raw youth. He cannot do much about off field threats but he surely can see that for the remainder of the season he has to get 10or so away points and that he has to build around the lethargic class of Trotter, the pace and quality of Holding and the fire and appetite of Spearing.All have their downsides but they are committed and vital. After that we need inputs from many of those mentioned above. They all have more to offer in the Championship than Dervite,Madine and Dobbie and Heskey who are fine for latte aerial assaults in the case of Madine,Heskey and sniffer Dobbie but no good for anything-Dervite.Surely Derik,Taylor,Twardzik and maybe even Finney could offer more and crucially complement Holding better. Yesterday he would have been better on his own. If slightly below his best yesterday some of that was due to playing with and covering for Dervite
There will still be challenges. What to do about Davies Vela and Pratley who all have something to offer but all too often underperform and also about Moxey who had a dreadful first half. Big mistake to release Casado. No cover unless from Holding..
But there is now a glimmer of on field hope.Personally yesterday confirmed in my mind lots of things I have thought. I had hoped to be wrong about a number of them not least Neil's weaknesses in terms of player judgment,selection and game management. I'd hoped that the overall context was the explanation for all. Maybe it is? But we will not get away with away games unless he learns from yesterday. I know it looked odd to string five in midfield and just leave Feeney upfront and later Woolery but it worked so much better, didn't it.?And it screened the defence too. That's what we need to do. We cannot have two wingers and a slow moving upfront focal point. We get counter attacked and our weak defence cannot cope. We must screen it with numbers, and counter attack. If we stay in games we can nick them. Please Neil,Learn!!!!! Or prove me wrong!
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Post by bonaparte on Feb 7, 2016 9:33:18 GMT
Re the match, i think we were very lucky to get the three points. I agree mostly with Andy and DavidM, but man of the match for me was Spearing. Yesterday I saw the player I saw when he was on loan from Liverpool, sat in front of the back 4 tackling, running and passing. Mark Davies also worked hard sitting deeper with Spearing. Pratley was absolutely awful, it was like playing with 10 men, no it was worse because he was more a hindrance than a help. Moxey had a nightmare, nothing went right for him. In Fenney's favour his corners were much better, hitting the men on the corner of the 6 yard box. Amos was clearly under orders to hit Heskey with his kicks, poor Heskey outmuscled much of the time and when he did win a ball and hold it rarely was there a player near to take advantage. Trotter was able to give a cameo performance sitting high up the pitch and not having to tackle or run so looked better. NL is tactically inept, although for once he did use his substitutes, but in the wrong order, Pratley should have been first off without doubt followed by Heskey, at least Silva as knackered as he was offered a threat if he could get into the box. As John McGovern said sometimes you need to get lucky, and they did yesterday. Re the youngsters, again paraphrasing JMcG youngsters may be raw and naive, but they compensate for energy and effort, they play to wear the shirt whilst seasoned veterans play percentages.
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Post by westandlower on Feb 7, 2016 16:45:20 GMT
Analysis of other's comments above and my own reading of the game highlights for me the key difference between Rotherham (and most others we have played) and ourselves. Others seem able to defend and attack as a team i.e they have a "shape". Too often we feed the ball to Feeney who hairs up the wing and there is no one (or not enough Bolton players) in the box to whom to pass/cross. Invariably this means he has to delay a cross allowing defenders to get in the way and also negates the option of an early cross.
Woolery is so quick, that he could be another Jamie Vardy should he have the finishing ability. Defenders (especially ours) don't like pacy forwards running at them. They could also be tempted into giving away penalties. Having Woolery available for more than 10 minutes a match may also improve Feeney's game as it would give him more crossing options.
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Post by andyl on Feb 7, 2016 18:31:44 GMT
I agree !
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Post by whitesince63 on Feb 7, 2016 19:58:12 GMT
So do I but the problem is Lennon doesn't!!
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Post by andyl on Feb 8, 2016 8:24:19 GMT
According to the BN Neil thinks in hindsight that preferring Pratley to Trotter was a mistake. He also regrets not having the chance to buy/loan a striker or winger to help the cause.
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