BFTG Rotherham

[JR]

They had 2 shots on target. 2 reasonable chances other than the goal at a push. How is that dominating?

First half they could have had 2 and all second half we barely touched the ball. When they scored was it a surprise? No.

Dominated.

Rubbish. A load of long throws does not equal domination.

O'Shea on for Meite was nuts, mind.

Think saying it’s nuts is a bit extreme. HNA has been suggesting O’Shea in that role all week and surely natural to bring on a defensive player with 20 mins left at 1-0.

If we had won you guys would have said sensible game management.

[JR]

You omly have to look at the bench today to see negativity on selection 4 of them were defensive, Gunter, O shea, Mc Shane plus keeper. This was a game we had to Win not defend

Possibly the most ridiculous post ever. On the bench we had:

GK
Right back
Centre back
Centre back (who has played midfield)
Left winger
Right winger
Striker

Looks pretty balanced to me and given our lack of central midfielders is as about as good as could have got.

[leon]

Get the point but they had only 6 corners all game. It’s hard to completely stop throw ins when they have someone who can launch it in from distance.

It was hardly a barrage of balls going into the box, and all but one were comfortably dealt with

Fully agree we should have taken the game to them at 1-0 as mentioned in my OP however

Second half THEY TOOK THE PISS

[leon]

Spineless performance today.

Totally unacceptable.

[CavershamRoyal]

Personally would have gone Barrow for Meite a bit earlier.

Meite was in the team for Rotherham set pieces and throw in's. Rotherham only have one very predictable style of football. Barrow would have been a huge gamble.

I don't really see how Meite makes the difference in a team of Moore, Blackett, Miazga, Yiadom, (arguably) Baker and Ejaria. He is not a defensive lynchpin, and indeed spurned a few chances in attack (where I think his performance should predominantly be judged considering his position).

Barrow at 1-0 would have given us more options on the counter and injected pace into a team that seemed to be content soaking Rotherham pressure.

[marlowuk]

Given what has gone before, it was always going to be a tight game and anyone thinking otherwise is deluded. Rotherham are not the best team but were always going to put up a fight. We were comfortable at 1-0 but after half time sat back far too much. Bringing on O’Shea with over 20mins left was stupidly negative and I think cost us ultimately. We have too attack these sorts of games. Recent results demonstrate that we are simply not a 1-0 sort of team. After they scored we had three decent chances to win the game which showed that Rotherham were there for the taking, had we adopted a more positive approach. My two Rotherham supporting mates admitted Reading were the better team but that the game demonstrated why both teams are where they are. Rotherham’s lack of ability and Reading’s lack of balls. Still think we’ll be OK though....just!

PS Honorable mention for no. 13 today. Best performance in a long while!

One of the more sensible posts I've read in this thread today. Our players were fighting for the ball and putting their hearts into the game - and that's why the crowd were so unusually vocal in their support. At the start of the second half we stupidly sat back and Rotherham pressed us very high and they controlled the game for about 20 minutes but, in truth, they never looked like scoring. We got back into the ascendancy and it was then that they scored. Thereafter we played pretty well, I thought, and really should have scored a couple of goals.

We've done ourselves no favours by failing to win this game but we still have a fighting chance of staying up.

[Denver Royal]

Given what has gone before, it was always going to be a tight game and anyone thinking otherwise is deluded. Rotherham are not the best team but were always going to put up a fight. We were comfortable at 1-0 but after half time sat back far too much. Bringing on O’Shea with over 20mins left was stupidly negative and I think cost us ultimately. We have too attack these sorts of games. Recent results demonstrate that we are simply not a 1-0 sort of team. After they scored we had three decent chances to win the game which showed that Rotherham were there for the taking, had we adopted a more positive approach. My two Rotherham supporting mates admitted Reading were the better team but that the game demonstrated why both teams are where they are. Rotherham’s lack of ability and Reading’s lack of balls. Still think we’ll be OK though....just!
PS Honorable mention for no. 13 today. Best performance in a long while!

One of the more sensible posts I've read in this thread today. Our players were fighting for the ball and putting their hearts into the game - and that's why the crowd were so unusually vocal in their support. At the start of the second half we stupidly sat back and Rotherham pressed us very high and they controlled the game for about 20 minutes but, in truth, they never looked like scoring. We got back into the ascendancy and it was then that they scored. Thereafter we played pretty well, I thought, and really should have scored a couple of goals.
We've done ourselves no favours by failing to win this game but we still have a fighting chance of staying up.

Yep, well said, both of you. You people that post/say the least, say the most, have class, and I respect more. No 'big boy coward, look at me' stuff behind a keyboard, and they've driven nobody away from this forum. Anyway...

Now it appears we are going all out to stay up at any cost

Well, we didn't buy anyone, and sold a player for 8mil, which most everyone said at the time was good business.

One standout for me today was Meite, this guy is a joke of a footballer, no skill, no first touch, no ability to beat his man or cross a ball and he had numerous chances to get down the flank today and beat his man, only to stop and put his foot on the ball and go backwards.

Today, looked out of his depth/low in confidence. Doesn’t look fit/looks slower. (Cometh the hour, where's Bod?)

If anything the Millers the better side.

Disagree, but they're unbeaten in 6, and a few in here b4 game on match thread actually predicted we’d lose.

Only the most deluded of fans believed we weren’t in a relegation battle at the onset of the season.

Ha, so you never believed the fans that predicted Top 10 in pre-season then?

Were fans too quick to judge Clement? 100% yes. And did it hack me off? 100% yes.

So, how do you feel about those judging Gomes after...2 months?

You omly have to look at the bench today to see negativity on selection 4 of them were defensive, Gunter, O shea, Mc Shane plus keeper. This was a game we had to Win not defend

The starting lineup and formation looked attacking/positive to me.

[Snowflake Royal]

First half they could have had 2 and all second half we barely touched the ball. When they scored was it a surprise? No.

Dominated.

Rubbish. A load of long throws does not equal domination.

O'Shea on for Meite was nuts, mind.

Think saying it’s nuts is a bit extreme. HNA has been suggesting O’Shea in that role all week and surely natural to bring on a defensive player with 20 mins left at 1-0.

If we had won you guys would have said sensible game management.

I think it's a pretty good example of posters being clueless (and sadly Blakey too). O'Shea is totally reliant on positioning and reading the game because he has no pace. You need mobility to play defensive midfield, he doesn't have it. And I'm pretty sure I said as much before the game.

Even if he was a decent bet for midfield, which he wasn't, the 71st minute is way too early to try to shut up shop at 1-0 against a team that is reliant on and strong at set pieces.

Gomes should have had an U21 midfielder on the bench and made a like for like substitution for Meite. And if he wanted to bring on a defender he should have brought off one of Ejaria, Swift or Baker for a CB and gone 5 at the back with about 10/12 to go, not stuck someone in the middle of the pitch who didn't have a clue what to do there.

[sandman]

Even with selling players we have brought in loan players from three of the top teams in the country, not to mention a Portuguese international striker we've been trying to get for two years, you better believe we are going all out to stay up. Even if it's just at board level.

If we weren't going for it then we would have shifted those players out, not brought anyone in apart from a few from the lower leagues to prepare for League 1 and kept Clement to continue building rather than bring in Gomes.

What was Gomes brought here for in your opinion Denver? To play tiddly winks? Sample the culture of Whitley? Or was he brought in to keep us up? You can't blame people for judging him after "two months" when we are at the business end of the season and have failed to win at home against the team who are below us on goal difference.

I think he will just about keep us up but he's not making it easy for himself with what he did yesterday.

[Eaststandman]

Gomes was brought in because all the other possibilities/applicants said thanks, but no thanks!

[sandman]

Whether that's true or not he was still brought in to do the same thing they were going to be brought in for.

[Snowflake Royal]

Given what has gone before, it was always going to be a tight game and anyone thinking otherwise is deluded. Rotherham are not the best team but were always going to put up a fight. We were comfortable at 1-0 but after half time sat back far too much. Bringing on O’Shea with over 20mins left was stupidly negative and I think cost us ultimately. We have too attack these sorts of games. Recent results demonstrate that we are simply not a 1-0 sort of team. After they scored we had three decent chances to win the game which showed that Rotherham were there for the taking, had we adopted a more positive approach. My two Rotherham supporting mates admitted Reading were the better team but that the game demonstrated why both teams are where they are. Rotherham’s lack of ability and Reading’s lack of balls. Still think we’ll be OK though....just!
PS Honorable mention for no. 13 today. Best performance in a long while!

One of the more sensible posts I've read in this thread today. Our players were fighting for the ball and putting their hearts into the game - and that's why the crowd were so unusually vocal in their support. At the start of the second half we stupidly sat back and Rotherham pressed us very high and they controlled the game for about 20 minutes but, in truth, they never looked like scoring. We got back into the ascendancy and it was then that they scored. Thereafter we played pretty well, I thought, and really should have scored a couple of goals.
We've done ourselves no favours by failing to win this game but we still have a fighting chance of staying up.

Yep, well said, both of you. You people that post/say the least, say the most, have class, and I respect more. No 'big boy coward, look at me' stuff behind a keyboard, and they've driven nobody away from this forum. Anyway...

Now it appears we are going all out to stay up at any cost

Well, we didn't buy anyone, and sold a player for 8mil, which most everyone said at the time was good business.

One standout for me today was Meite, this guy is a joke of a footballer, no skill, no first touch, no ability to beat his man or cross a ball and he had numerous chances to get down the flank today and beat his man, only to stop and put his foot on the ball and go backwards.

Today, looked out of his depth/low in confidence. Doesn’t look fit/looks slower. (Cometh the hour, where's Bod?)

If anything the Millers the better side.

Disagree, but they're unbeaten in 6, and a few in here b4 game on match thread actually predicted we’d lose.

Only the most deluded of fans believed we weren’t in a relegation battle at the onset of the season.

Ha, so you never believed the fans that predicted Top 10 in pre-season then?

Were fans too quick to judge Clement? 100% yes. And did it hack me off? 100% yes.

So, how do you feel about those judging Gomes after...2 months?

You omly have to look at the bench today to see negativity on selection 4 of them were defensive, Gunter, O shea, Mc Shane plus keeper. This was a game we had to Win not defend

The starting lineup and formation looked attacking/positive to me.

Denver, you've really got to stop referencing a few people making predictions six months ago. Those threads are full of people putting the most positive slant on what they hope and want to happen. There are also plenty of posters who are pretty clueless. You've got to look at who said it and the context as much as what was said.

In any case, it became very apparent after just 5/6 games that we were absolutely in a relegation fight, which we very clearly still are 20 odd games later. So it just underlines how utterly wrong anyone hopefully predicting top 10 was. Referencing them now doesn't prove anything.


No one is calling for Gomes to go. But if you replace a manager mid-season for a team in a relegation fight the expectation is you improve them. That you get a new manager bounce. Well after two months, five signings and 11 games, it's not unreasonable to say Gomes isn't doing enough and is making mistakes. Especially after dropping yet more points at home against a bottom 4 rival.

You've been judging him for weeks. But I guess that ok because it's positive? Although based on nothing but happy thoughts IMO. And you've even gone on record saying Gomes isn't here to get results.

[Notts Royal]

Denver, I don’t think either manager should be judged after 2 months. My irritation is both at a certain section of fans, and the decision-making of the club. The majority of time it takes a good number of transfer windows to sort your squad out - neither Clement nor Brian v2 were given that. With a squad full of prima donnas & players not suited to the league (bought by that pillock Stam), how was Clement supposed to turn that squad into a Top 10 team this season?

It might be just my personal opinion, but I felt we had a greater chance of survival under Clement than Gomes.

[Snowflake Royal]

Denver, I don’t think either manager should be judged after 2 months. My irritation is both at a certain section of fans, and the decision-making of the club. The majority of time it takes a good number of transfer windows to sort your squad out - neither Clement nor Brian v2 were given that. With a squad full of prima donnas & players not suited to the league (bought by that pillock Stam), how was Clement supposed to turn that squad into a Top 10 team this season?

It might be just my personal opinion, but I felt we had a greater chance of survival under Clement than Gomes.

When thinking about this it's worth considering that under Clement we were knocking along at more than a point a game between game seven and eighteen. After he was sacked, at a point when he had a striker injury crisis, we then fell apart getting just 2 points in the next five games.

I think Clement would have bettered that, though maybe not by much, and I think Clement would have had a decent chance of at least equalling what Gomes has managed since. Which means we would currently have at least a small cushion of points on Rotherham. Which means we'd be closer to survival than we are currently.

Now clearly that's just speculation, but it's not unreasonable given its based on how Clement was actually doing, not predicting a change.

[Stevie G]

Summed up by the clubs playing of the Rolling Stones 'You can't always get what you want' over the PA on the way out after the match?

[Lower West]

Even with selling players we have brought in loan players from three of the top teams in the country,

Swift came through the Chelsea system and has represented England at youth level. Yet has struggled to kick on. I'd prefer Dave Kitson types who stacked shelves in Sainsburys before making a career in football. We desperately need players with character.

[sandman]

Even with selling players we have brought in loan players from three of the top teams in the country,

Swift came through the Chelsea system and has represented England at youth level. Yet has struggled to kick on. I'd prefer Dave Kitson types who stacked shelves in Sainsburys before making a career in football. We desperately need players with character.

So would I.

[Sutekh]

After the game believe Gomes said Bod was injured (yet again), Meite was tired and that O’Shea was brought on because he had to take Meite off. Apparently part of the reason to Meite being selected tactically was to provide additional cover (by that I’m presuming big bloke with some presence) at Rotherham free kicks, corners etc. and in removing him Gomes felt he had to provide that same presence so went with O’Shea.

So yet again it seems Reading are having their team selection and tactics dictated by the opposition rather than playing to their own strengths. Against Leeds etc. I can understand that to a degree but this was a dreadful Rotherham team that were struggling badly from the point Harriott and Barrow came on.

[Zip]

We need to offload a Bodvarsson in the summer. He’s constantly injured. After a brief impressive spell in the Autumn Meite has gone back to looking like a lower League player. If we go down then keep him. If we stay up he needs to be moved on too.

No idea whether we will stay up. Whichever of the bottom four does stay up will be very fortunate. Once again fourth bottom is going to have a points total you would ordinarily expect to be relegated with, ie around 40 points.

[RoyalBlue]

That was it, only a fluke will keep us up-not so much the result but the players attitude.Today was the day to put on a performance , but it just wasn't there. Rotherham were unbelievably poor & were there for the taking out wide; but there just wasn't any self belief or commitment. I for one am fed up turning up to see once again bang average. I cannot remember our last convincing performance, bar Brum in the League cup.


IMHO:


Martinez 6: Another howler of a pass out; whats wrong with the guy ? Couple of nice catches, but that was it.

Yiadom 6: Typical Andy performance. never once did he get wide with any conviction.

Tyler 6 : Solid enough. Lost his man a few times; but as with Yiadom never got forward with any conviction.

Miazga 7: Solid. Won his battles.

Moore 6 : Too often very shaky and needed to be more of an inspiration as Captain.

Baker 6: Neat and tidy, a couple of wonder passes. But lost the ball far too often, and missed a good chance 2nd half.

Swift 5 : One of those floppy performances, which he puts in far too often.

Ejaria 7: Mom. Great goal and our one player with belief and conviction.

Meite 2: Simply dreadful.

Oliveira 5: Just not his day-still not fit or sharp enough.

Macca 5: Created the goal; but that was about it. Rotherham were hopeless out wide-but never attacked them with any great conviction.


O Shea : Really. We were under the cosh when he came on & we needed to grab the inniative back by being bold. Their goal was always likely to come once we sat back.
Barrow: Should have played a better ball back for Oliveira late on.

Big time screw up all round from Gomez downwards. To be blunt after our performances this season we deserve to go down.

Ref: Another idiot. Missed all their CF s obstruction & his failure to pick up the obstruction on Oliveira 1st half when he was through, was just pathetic. I repeat why do we have to put up with rubbish, week in week out.

Maybe we should look at the negative attitude of some of our fans. Whilst the result was incredibly frustrating, some of the comments being made are ridiculous.

It is ludicrous to claim that the players lacked commitment today - they all put their bodies on the line and ran themselves into the ground. Their were some tremendous last ditch blocks by defenders.

There is f*ck all wrong with Martinez. He was a great signing and we would be in a far far worse position without him in goal. Yes he made one poor pass out that put his defender under pressure. However, contrast that to the numerous occasions each game that his predecessors did that. What he gives us is superb distribution. On a good number of occasions he set off really quick counter attacks which we should've made more of. That included a couple of great quick kicks from his hands which set wide players free deep in their half. He was also critical in the build up to our goal.

Moore not inspirational?!! He was the one who threw his body in front of shots the most.

And it's Gomes by the way.

The usual knee jerk nonsense in here I see.

It's not though is it? People are saying the same things they've said all season about games against the teams around us and our inability topit the game away.

These players continually fail to learn week after week and produce the same mistakes over and over.

The fact people keep saying the same stuff doesn't make them right. And it is very knee jerk after a disappointing result but not that bad a performance. At the risk of falling into the trap I've just criticised others for, we once again suffered because we failed to convert our chances. We are in this mess because Clement didn't fix two of the most key positions at the start of the season i.e. goalkeeper and striker.

As for the view expressed by one poster that our existing keepers were adequate and we should have foregone Martinez for a different player

Which of those 4 keepers is most likely to be playing at Championship level or above in the future? Three are destined for far lower levels which rightly affects their ability.