Bolton Wanderers v Rotherham…match thread

Dreadful all round I’m afraid. Our key players Dapo, Doyle and Sheehan just never turned up and did somebody tell Gordon he couldn’t go forward when he received the ball, just passed it back every time. I’m afraid we wouldn’t have scored if we had until Christmas. Rotherham just illustrated what we’re missing up top and after that game I’m beginning to think mid table is our best with this squad.

Let’s not be too harsh W63
They have Just come down from the Championship with decent players and as good a championship manager there is in Paul Warne

Still so much to play for and given the way we turned last season around, anything can happen this time around

Let’s do Sunderland

COYWM ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

No complaints from me about the score.

We were outfought and outthought by a muscular, savvy Rotherham team.

There were really some bright spots in our play but Rotherham’s defence were significantly better than our defence.

The TV match versus Burton showed everyone that if they defended deep, we would struggle to create. We did struggle although Doyle, Jones, Sheehan, Afolayan all had reasonable chances.

We set off well. Both Sheehan and Afolayan had early chances of shots but the Rotherham defenders blocked well. Something we did not do later.

Rotherham had already shot over and then shot straight at Dixon before the 3rd attempt rocketed in. It was a man unmarked on the edge of the box who was left to steady himself and shoot. Poor defending.

Worse followed as Santos got caught trying to dribble, Rotherham got a corner and an obvious pre-worked corner found an unmarked man 12 yards out to head down and in.

We were still playing well at this point but the final ball was missing. Jones missed a great chance and then Doyle hit the post from a sitter. So we went in 0-2 having played OK but Rotherham had defended significantly better than us.

2nd half faded away and we couldn’t really get going.

Rotherham hit the post after some shoddy slack play at the back – AGAIN – but we just couldn’t get a goal. We still put balls into the box but it wasn’t to be.



In all honesty, it was men against boys. A team with greater experience, strength and maybe even desire outfought (in all senses of the word) and deservedly won.







Marks:-

Dixon - 6 One good save otherwise nothing to do. Couldn’t be faulted for the goals

Jones - 6 Had a great chance in the 1st half but more or less sidefooted the ball to the keeper

Gordon - 5 Initially fine but 2nd half a lot of sloppy passing

Johnston - 5 Was he marking the scorer for the 2nd goal?

Santos - 5 Caught in possession leading to 2nd goal

Williams - 7 Strong as ever

Sarcevic - 6 Busy but it didn’t quite come off for him

Sheehan - 6 Did well for a long time then finished with 10 mins of poor passing before he was subbed

Afolayan - 5 Rotherham just sorted him out. Put 2 men on him, roughed him up when they had to. He just tried to endlessly win free kicks but there was no end result from him today

Isgrove - 5 Decent possession but no killer balls into box

Doyle - 6 Busy as usual. Missed a glorious opportunity just before half time

Kachunga - 5 I am still waiting to see what he can do

Lee - 5 Couldn’t influence the game

Am I being too harsh rftr, I don’t think so? We were completely outplayed first half and they had us sussed from the start. Every time Dixon had the ball, they had seven players in our half completely ruling out the normal supply to Rico and Johnson preventing us playing out from the back. Sure we huffed and puffed and played some slick stuff but we just don’t have an end product and when the chances did come we fluffed them as usual. Doyle still hasn’t scored from open play after 7 games and for me doesn’t look like doing. He’s slow, fragile and too easily muscled off the ball. Dapo was obviously targeted but I’d ask why he wasn’t moved to lose his markers. I’m sure he could play more centrally and would surely have offered more than either Doyle or the perennially unimpressive Kachunga. 

I still think Lee should start alongside MJ rather than Sheehan who I’d rotate with Sarcevic instead who is another who looks a shadow of last year, as well as a stone heavier. Is it my imagination, or do he and Doyle look overweight and slow? I can only hope that when Baka and Xav are fit they do better because we’re very quickly being found out at this level. I think we’ve enough to beat the weaker teams in this league but after today I worry for us against the better ones, so I repeat that I think with this squad, mid table is the best we’ll achieve. He may not admit it but IE made a mistake not adding a striker in the window. If we can afford to employ two new directors then surely we could have recruited another striker, even if only on loan. If IE and CM are as switched on as they keep telling us they are in identifying targets, they missed a trick in the last window but had better get ready for January if they seriously want us to compete at this level. IE got booked again today and is beginning to show his immaturity. Paul Warne on the other hand had his team on it right from the start and could surely teach our young manager a thing or two about preparing a team and in game management. What we were doing wasn’t working yet all Evatt did was make a likewise swop of Sheehan for Lee and once again throw Kachunga on to no avail. That’s not good enough so to add to David and Andy’s points today, I’d give IE a very generous 4!!

We are desperate for another out and out striker Ian is having a laugh if he thinks we didn't need one I find it hard to believe that we was only looking at one striker and we couldn't get him. There must be someone out there looking for a club even short term who can help Doyle out anyway onto Sunderland.Stay safe one and all COYWM

Actually Chip, I didn’t think Rotherham were anything special and if we’d taken some of the chances we created, we’d have got something at least from the game. Even if Doyle hadn’t missed his sitter, it could well have changed the game. With Dapo completely neutered we still created chances, so that at least proves we’re not just a one man band. Sarce worries me, as does Doyle. They seem slow and I’d rather see Sheehan fight it out with Sarce than Lee in midfield, who I consider better alongside MJ. Sadly IE does seem to have favourites and is reluctant to make difficult decisions sometimes. I can’t believe that AiE still thinks we don’t need another striker though. None of Doyle, Kachunga or Fonz look dangerous and I’m not sure Baka will be much better once he’s fit. A bit of clutching at straws there I think but we have to remember that we’re still very much a work in progress and don’t have the resources to go out and pay for the players we need, so we’ll just have to hope what we’ve got is enough 7ntil January when we may be able to raid the piggy bank for someone who can make a difference?

I agree with kenglowhite re Doyle. At the game I thought he brought great energy, quite a few skilful touches and all but had two goals. He has had a lot of worse games. That said Rotherham weren't great defensively, so he needed to show up and he did. If he hit a post, so too did Matt Smith of Rotherham who is perhaps the division's model of the sort of partner for Doyle some of us seek. I haven't seen the replay but I'm not keen on Doyle's dozy offsides which recently cost us a win, however harshly and I'm not sure how he got to be offside for the header yesterday. It is though worth noting that Grigg was largely anonymous in the Rotherham support role. There is no guarantee a target man would bring more out of Doyle. I just wish Doyle wouldn't keep coming so deep-- it's a bit the Harry Kane syndrome. We want Doyle where it counts. But of course we need a better bench. We know Delfouneso and Kachunga has yet to impress. Maybe at the end of the season Doyle will sometimes be a sub. It might be a good role for him if not this year then next.

More generally, a bit like Spurs today, I thought we did well in the first half and the neatness of our play was at times very good indeed. Yes the goals came from set pieces but all four chances including the two goals resulted from counter attacks and lost possession. We are just too open. From what I've seen Lee and Thomasson are two of our best players. We need to think of them not as competing with Sheehan and Sarcevic but of how we can get them all involved more regularly and how we can stabilise the defence and shore up what protects them. At present we end up with any two on the bench because of a rigid formation and Lee is asked to contribute further up the pitch than ideal. So our formation obliges the slection of weaker players over stronger. In this I wsih Evatt would show Tuchel like decisiveness. If it's not working, change it.

One obvious path as offered above could be to find a way to have a three/five at the back as Rotherham did which was the reason they flooded out on counter attacks and had the men to press us out of our pretty back play. If we could do that we might be able to add Bakayoko in and keep a midfield of say Williams, Lee and Sheehan. Alternatively if we thought that was all a bit lightweight I still wonder if Santos has it in him to move into defensive midfield. He is so good moving forward and so strong. That said his dodgy positional play might be even more exposed there. Could Aimson play a role at the back. We need to find out. I think Johnston is playing well enough but he could do with competition other than Baptiste. At least though Johnston has some idea in the other box which is a major weakness of Santos.

A third option is to ask if we need the two wingers. Dapo had a torrid time yesterday but he kept going and is our best attacking asset. As someone remarked above I wondered yesterday why he didn't move in centrally especially when Sarcevic went off. Isgrove did well yesterday if fading and he had the one good shot on target. Just maybe he could do wing back in a five. Jones offers quite a lot but his final ball is very variable and he loses the ball upfield too much for one in a back four. He is though a better ball carrier than some- one excellent run yesterday but from which he took an age to recover and was baled out by Gordon covering right back with a smart tackle

Finally, I do think we miss the good long ball switch. Thomason is very good at that as is Brockbank and to some extent Santos. We really need that yesterday when they shored up their defence two up.

All of this said my wife came with me yesterday for the first time in two years and although frustrated in the second half she readily observed that the play in general was light years better to watch than the endless long kicks which had characterised the Parky years, especially the championship ones. Every home game this year has been good to watch and thrilling - even the Burton game which epitomised frustration and illustrated all our weaknesses but in which we played very well

I just think that yesterday we need something different not like for like. I take issue with whoever above criticised Sarcevic and Doyle for fitness in this game. I think both are far fitter and leaner than last year. Sarcevic does lots of good things and made runs enough to threaten. He was good enough yesterday. The problem is that strong as he is he's just too slow and he thinks too much--better if he just instinctively hit first time shots. You can see his brain ticking when he does something good and while he thinks, they recover or worse he plays some silly square ball and launches a counter attack. It was a great run to the bye line and Doyle was a bity too slow to convert his wicked cross. I think both are assets but not necessarily for all of every game.

Somehow for me we have to get more threat on to the bench and to have a viable Plan B and C when the gods or the opposition or our own off days fail to convert our chances into goals or when oppositions don't engage with us. We also need to find some pace. O for Nathan Blake or his like in that attack. Rotherham showed enough to make it obvious that they were dodgy in defence but we just couldn't adapt and expose it.