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Match day thread: Rotherham

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  • Additionally, we played a league high 94 long balls. However, only 18 of those were accurate. 3rd fewest accurate long balls in the league.

  • We played 94 long balls in only 35 minutes of play? Approx 3 a minute - is that really the case?

  • 94 long balls? Not one to doubt the stats but...it certainly did not feel like that.
    Having said that...if we win enough to stay up I could care less.

  • Football snobbery in two sentences:

    Liverpool play a long ball: "Exceptional ball from Alexander-Arnold into the path of Salah!"

    Wycombe play a long ball: "Anti-football - I would not want to watch that every week."

  • That is an absurd example

  • I like it @Shev but I have to grudgingly concede TAA long ball to Salah probably beats Allsop to Scotty for style and probable end result! :smiley:

  • Yeah, bit like writing Glenn Hoddle off as a long ball merchant because he could find a player from distance, rather than for being an awful pundit.
    It's more about aimless or hopeful clearances in the general direction forward as against passing to a person in a way they can use the ball, or just banging it forward to keep it away from your goal. Of course it's not cheating, or particularly helpful at times as the ball just keeps coming back and you're quickly defending again but it's probably needed at times against better ball players and is an approach that we are hardly likely to drop now we are up against it in the championship.

  • Match day programme just arrived!

  • @53cheese said:
    Match day programme just arrived!

    Hope you are looking forward to a high tempo game from two of the Championships newcomers, @53cheese

  • @Right_in_the_Middle said:
    I guess they will need to be ready and tested by the Millwall game on 17th October as the Swansea home game is another early kick off.

    Awaiting the gov review on October crowds too.
    We all fear it'll be unlikely with the reduction of freedoms that started yesterday, but itd be nice to know for sure.

  • I read today that the EFL are asking the Premier League for a hefty wedge to 'support the pyramid'. I wonder how much of said wedge we will get? I'm back at my desk in the smoke now, and trains seem to be getting busier just over the five days I've travelled in over this week and last, testing is a shambles, not long to a new spike in my opinion and though Cummings will not countenance another total lock-down I suspect footy attendance will not be on the cards until well into the new year. I hope I'm wrong.

  • @eric_plant said:
    That is an absurd example

    Why is it absurd? Is TAA's pass kissed by a unicorn as it glides through the air, with the sun shining gently on the rotating orb of the ball as dolphins jump out of rainbows in the background? It's a ball, travelling from one man's foot high into the air, falling (hopefully) into the path of another man. I was not saying we play like Liverpool, nor that every long pass is created equally, but rather if a ball travelling a long distance through the air is intrinsically ugly - which is very much the point made by opposing fans - it should be ugly everywhere. If a PL team had made the Nick Freeman to David Wheeler pass in the 3-2 win over MK Dons last season, they would be building statues of the players in question.

    When an Arsenal-supporting friend came to Adams Park in 2018, he said he was surprised at the disrespect towards our long-ball game, as a lot of the balls were knocked down the channel into the stride of a Harriman or a PCH. He said much the same thing when he saw us demolish Fleetwood 4-1 on TV. Of course we don't always get it right - and again, we are not Liverpool - but there is a clear hypocrisy as to whether long balls are beautiful or ugly.

  • The (hopefully) says it all

  • Which was written in relation to TAA's pass.

  • He's one of the best passers in the league

  • My toddler has drawn all over the lounge wall

    You're basically saying he's no different to Banksy

  • Best just to accept you are absurd @Shev and step away.

  • @eric_plant said:
    My toddler has drawn all over the lounge wall

    You're basically saying he's no different to Banksy

    Dreadful stuff.

  • @floyd said:
    It did feel like the red was blowing his whistle every twenty seconds. I guess that’s exacerbated by the lack of crowd noise.

    These commies love to blow the whistle

  • Just before this match gets forgotten in the glory of the 3-0 victory at Ewood Park, 3 observations.

    1. Allsop had a perfectly fine game, but didn't Blackman show the benefit of having a 'keeper who will come out, to the edge of his area in some instances, and claim the high ball? This, with a high line, nullified the threat from a good few of our free kicks.

    2. I don't usually bang on about refs, but his disinclination to tackle the Millers' defenders' policy of fouling Kashket before he could get away from them was hugely frustrating. We don't need card-happy officials, but we do need refs to sufficiently understand that sort of cynical policy and stamp it out early.

    3. As others have observed, Bloomfield was lucky to stay on the pitch after the challenge he got booked for. After Gape's dismissal at New Griffin Park, we need to ensure we don't get into a 13-14 type spiral of regular dismissals, which really cost us. Since that season, we've maintained really good discipline and we can't do without it this season, when we all know we're going to be up against it.

  • Bang on with point 2. Kashket is guilty of going down too easily at times but his ery visible frustration, especially in the first half, was understandable as Rotherham's defenders repeatedly got caught out by his acceleration so simply fouled him but always got away with a verbal warning at most.

  • Rotherham fans seemed a bit underwhelmed with Blackman it seemed to me, so who would be a goalie? As for the fouling don't think ref's have to understand it so much as stop it when they see it right in front of them...and yes, we are going to get caught out with the L1 tackling if we're not careful.

  • I don’t think there’ll be too many “up and at ‘em” sides like Rotherham and Wycombe. In the Premier League matches I’ve watched on TV, tackling hasn’t featured too prominently so I’m hoping it won’t be a major feature in the Championship.

  • @micra said:
    I don’t think there’ll be too many “up and at ‘em” sides like Rotherham and Wycombe. In the Premier League matches I’ve watched on TV, tackling hasn’t featured too prominently so I’m hoping it won’t be a major feature in the Championship.

    We are one of the teams you quote though, so we'll be doing loads of it. We certainly won't out possession anyone, so will be chasing hassling and tackling a lot.

  • Maybe I shouldn’t take the Brentford game as a yardstick for the season @Malone but it seemed to me that we were much more measured in our approach and it was good to see. But yes, against that, I included us as an example of a tear-arse up and at ‘em team because that is the way we have tended to play until now. I’m sure there will be more finesse this season. I hope so, anyway.

  • Watching Coventry struggle (so far) to get out of their half against an Eze-less QPR makes me feel even more that I would rather take our chances with our current direct style.

  • So of course Coventry equalize a minute after I write that!

  • The first 30 minutes Coventry were almost anonymous and managed less than 30% possession, the last 15 they came back into a bit more and QPR might regret their lack of cutting edge

  • @Shev said:
    So of course Coventry equalize a minute after I write that!

    You need to save this magic for our games.

  • Indeed @floyd!

    Smyth getting a 20 minute runout as a sub.

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