MATCHWATCH : Millwall (h)

[Snowflake Royal]

In some ways even Cooper's goal was a sign of improvement.

Millwall effectively blocked off Holmes to let Cooper peel around the back unmarked, but Holmes was able to break free and catch up to him.

Unfortunately, he went too far back post in recovering and was a little too far behind Cooper.

Morrison was also close in on the danger. But just a step too forward to get up and win the ball.

So Cooper didn't get a free header and was sandwiched (not very tightly but still) between 2 of 3 of the players you'd most want challenging him.

It basically took a good block, run, pin point ball and bullet header from a guy we know is really good at corners to beat us. A slightly less good ball and Morro gets something on it, or Cooper can't make as good a contact. A less good contact gives Southwood the mili-seconds he needs to react and attempt a save.

Other than that, and a well hit speculative long shot that Southwood had covered, from a Drinkwater error, I really dont think Millwall threatened much at all. And that's a top half team who were on 4 wins in a row.

After us having fallen apart and conceded 4 in the last game.

Another day and fewer balls running under Joao's control, or someone gambling near post for Ejaria and we get a point, maybe three.

Needs to continue forward into the next game. And the sub decisions need to drastically improve, but there's plenty of room for encouragement.

[leon]

Don’t see it.

Millwall were mediocre and we were at home. It was a dismal performance but more concerning was the performance of the manager. Which was clueless.

[windermereROYAL]

Millwall have the 4th best defensive record in the division, averaging 1 goal a game conceded, it was always going to be difficult when we went behind.

[Snowflake Royal]

Yep, big, strong and very organised defence. Constantly able to isolate the attacker on the ball and happy to shithouse foul their way out danger.

Cooper could have seen red. We could have easily had a pen. But we got the worst ref in the world once more.

[Zip]

Don’t see it.

Millwall were mediocre and we were at home. It was a dismal performance but more concerning was the performance of the manager. Which was clueless.

Yep. Ian is forgetting Millwall had a stack of players out as well. They carried very little attacking threat because of it and are mediocre anyway. We could have played another 90 minutes and not scored. It was a very winnable game and we lost it. As for Ince I could not believe he was not making subs. At least Pauno had the excuse he often had no senior players to bring off the bench. Ince had stacks of options.

I would like to see a number of changes to the starting line up for Forest. My team would be

Southwood
Yiadom
Morrison
Dann
McIntyre
Rinomhota
Dele- Bashiru
Meite
Ejaria
Swift
Joao

I have no doubt Ince and Drinkwater will be picked and probably Holmes.
Obviously playing two old centre-backs is an issue but let’s face it Holmes and TMac are slow too so it won’t make much difference.

I dread to think what the pace of Johnson and Spence will do to our back four.

[Zip]

Millwall have the 4th best defensive record in the division, averaging 1 goal a game conceded, it was always going to be difficult when we went behind.

They also don’t score many but managed to find a way to yesterday despite most of their forwards being out injured. With their lack of chances yesterday we should have ground out a 0-0 but managed to make sufficient errors in the build up to the goal.

[Hound]

Millwall have the 4th best defensive record in the division, averaging 1 goal a game conceded, it was always going to be difficult when we went behind.

They also don’t score many but managed to find a way to yesterday despite most of their forwards being out injured. With their lack of chances yesterday we should have ground out a 0-0 but managed to make sufficient errors in the build up to the goal.

It’s the problem from the last few home games that I’ve watched is the teams that have turned up - Cov, Hudders, Derby, Hull, Millwall really seem to have had to do the minimum possible to score. CBA but would be interested to see how many shots on target those teams got compared to the number of goals scored. Bet it’s about 2:1

Brum actually had a few more chances and Luton just sounds diabolical all round.

[Zip]

Millwall have the 4th best defensive record in the division, averaging 1 goal a game conceded, it was always going to be difficult when we went behind.

They also don’t score many but managed to find a way to yesterday despite most of their forwards being out injured. With their lack of chances yesterday we should have ground out a 0-0 but managed to make sufficient errors in the build up to the goal.

It’s the problem from the last few home games that I’ve watched is the teams that have turned up - Cov, Hudders, Derby, Hull, Millwall really seem to have had to do the minimum possible to score. CBA but would be interested to see how many shots on target those teams got compared to the number of goals scored. Bet it’s about 2:1

Brum actually had a few more chances and Luton just sounds diabolical all round.

Luton was as bad as anything I have seen. Not missed a home game this season but it’s a miserable experience.
From memory Huddersfield could have scored quite a few more in the first half as they opened us up at will in the first half.
I can’t remember Derby, Coventry or Hull creating much.
We were lucky to beat Brum.

There certainly hasn’t been any kind of managerial bounce.

[ILoveMoonPig]

That was a largely disappointing game. I can only remember Millwall having 2 shots all game, one to force the corner, the other to score from it.

That being said, we could have continued to play for another half an hour, I don't think we'd have come any closer to scoring. Lots of positive build up play, particularly Yiadom and rhino, but no end product. When João isn't on form, we don't score, do we?

I lost count of how many times we worked a good position and then squandered it by taking a hit-and-hope shot from outside the box.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

The disappointing part of yesterday was we couldn't really convert our chances, which, for all of our faults this season, isn't usually one of them. May have just been one of those days, but we can't really afford to have too many of those games. Two tough fixtures to come now, anything we get out of these next couple is a bonus for me.

[Hound]

They also don’t score many but managed to find a way to yesterday despite most of their forwards being out injured. With their lack of chances yesterday we should have ground out a 0-0 but managed to make sufficient errors in the build up to the goal.

It’s the problem from the last few home games that I’ve watched is the teams that have turned up - Cov, Hudders, Derby, Hull, Millwall really seem to have had to do the minimum possible to score. CBA but would be interested to see how many shots on target those teams got compared to the number of goals scored. Bet it’s about 2:1

Brum actually had a few more chances and Luton just sounds diabolical all round.

Luton was as bad as anything I have seen. Not missed a home game this season but it’s a miserable experience.
From memory Huddersfield could have scored quite a few more in the first half as they opened us up at will in the first half.
I can’t remember Derby, Coventry or Hull creating much.
We were lucky to beat Brum.

There certainly hasn’t been any kind of managerial bounce.

Just scanned back through

Derby scored 2 with 5 total efforts on target
Hull 1 with 2
Luton 2 with 4
Fulham 7 with 13
Huddersfield 4 with 7
Cov 3 with 4
Millwall 1 with 2

So excluding our Brum win (1 with 7 and very much the exception) that’s 20 goals from our last 37 efforts conceded on target. That’s not normal is it?

[Snowflake Royal]

Don’t see it.

Millwall were mediocre and we were at home. It was a dismal performance but more concerning was the performance of the manager. Which was clueless.

Yep. Ian is forgetting Millwall had a stack of players out as well. They carried very little attacking threat because of it and are mediocre anyway. We could have played another 90 minutes and not scored. It was a very winnable game and we lost it. As for Ince I could not believe he was not making subs. At least Pauno had the excuse he often had no senior players to bring off the bench. Ince had stacks of options.

I would like to see a number of changes to the starting line up for Forest. My team would be

Southwood
Yiadom
Morrison
Dann
McIntyre
Rinomhota
Dele- Bashiru
Meite
Ejaria
Swift
Joao

I have no doubt Ince and Drinkwater will be picked and probably Holmes.
Obviously playing two old centre-backs is an issue but let’s face it Holmes and TMac are slow too so it won’t make much difference.

I dread to think what the pace of Johnson and Spence will do to our back four.

I'm not forgetting anything. They had players out for their other wins as well. And their performance was solid, especially defensively.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

It’s the problem from the last few home games that I’ve watched is the teams that have turned up - Cov, Hudders, Derby, Hull, Millwall really seem to have had to do the minimum possible to score. CBA but would be interested to see how many shots on target those teams got compared to the number of goals scored. Bet it’s about 2:1

Brum actually had a few more chances and Luton just sounds diabolical all round.

Luton was as bad as anything I have seen. Not missed a home game this season but it’s a miserable experience.
From memory Huddersfield could have scored quite a few more in the first half as they opened us up at will in the first half.
I can’t remember Derby, Coventry or Hull creating much.
We were lucky to beat Brum.

There certainly hasn’t been any kind of managerial bounce.

Just scanned back through

Derby scored 2 with 5 total efforts on target
Hull 1 with 2
Luton 2 with 4
Fulham 7 with 13
Huddersfield 4 with 7
Cov 3 with 4
Millwall 1 with 2

So excluding our Brum win (1 with 7 and very much the exception) that’s 20 goals from our last 37 efforts conceded on target. That’s not normal is it?

No, it's not, on paper. This is where the expected goals metric is quite useful though to show the quality of attempts teams were having on goal and the quality of chances they were creating. If they are only expected to score between 1.0-1.5 goals per game, then yes, it's very poor and you've got to look at the goalkeeper and defending there and work out why that is happening. Southwood, for example, is certainly at fault for Hull's goal and Derby's first for example.

I do think there is a pretty big psychological element as well. I think teams play against us having the belief that they will score, even if they don't play particularly well. Look at Brum, Hull and even Coventry I didn't think were great but they all scored. We concede so many goals and it comes from so many different aspects of the game. Not just open play. Take Rowett's comments yesterday, he knew Millwall could exploit us from set pieces and that was the difference, that gives teams confidence. Even when we have a lead, we've dropped a large proportion of points from winning positions, so teams know they can come back against us. It's a tough rut to get out of, particularly during the season where the intensity is high and you can have 3 games in the space of 7 days. I think I referenced it pre-match, confidence is a massive factor in football, especially in the Championship. Any minor edge you can have over your opponent can be crucial. It's just a shame those "small margins" i.e. set pieces can turn out to be defining in games. Southwood referenced this in his post-match press conference as well as Gilksey.

[Zip]

Don’t see it.

Millwall were mediocre and we were at home. It was a dismal performance but more concerning was the performance of the manager. Which was clueless.

Yep. Ian is forgetting Millwall had a stack of players out as well. They carried very little attacking threat because of it and are mediocre anyway. We could have played another 90 minutes and not scored. It was a very winnable game and we lost it. As for Ince I could not believe he was not making subs. At least Pauno had the excuse he often had no senior players to bring off the bench. Ince had stacks of options.

I would like to see a number of changes to the starting line up for Forest. My team would be

Southwood
Yiadom
Morrison
Dann
McIntyre
Rinomhota
Dele- Bashiru
Meite
Ejaria
Swift
Joao

I have no doubt Ince and Drinkwater will be picked and probably Holmes.
Obviously playing two old centre-backs is an issue but let’s face it Holmes and TMac are slow too so it won’t make much difference.

I dread to think what the pace of Johnson and Spence will do to our back four.

I'm not forgetting anything. They had players out for their other wins as well. And their performance was solid, especially defensively.

They had even more players out for this game and virtually all of their strikers. So it’s really not anything special that we limited them to few chances.

[Hound]

Further to the above in those home games we scored

1 in 7 shots on target vs Hull
2 in 3 vs Derby
0 in 1 Fulham
0 in 4 Luton
3 in 4 huds
2 in 4 Cov
0 in 3 millwall

So a total of 8 in 26

[Plymouth exile]

+1

Just in case I'm also accused of being inarticulate, I articulated exactly what I thought, as concisely as possible.

So did I.

I want him to fcuk off.

You seem incalculable of answering my original post without being abusive.

[leon]

Just in case I'm also accused of being inarticulate, I articulated exactly what I thought, as concisely as possible.

So did I.

I want him to fcuk off.

You seem incalculable of answering my original post without being abusive.

Well you seem to understand something, so that’s a start.

[Snowflake Royal]

Just in case I'm also accused of being inarticulate, I articulated exactly what I thought, as concisely as possible.

So did I.

I want him to fcuk off.

You seem incalculable of answering my original post without being abusive.

Incapable.

[Millsy]

Excuse the somewhat naive question from an old-timer here but who here is this John Wells character who wrote HNA's excellent review of the Millwall defeat, which I thoroughly agree with. As is often the case with HNA match reviews.

Why are these sane sensible reviews not reflected in these forum chats too without being met by apathy or troll responses.

[SCIAG]

Just in case I'm also accused of being inarticulate, I articulated exactly what I thought, as concisely as possible.

So did I.

I want him to fcuk off.

You seem incalculable of answering my original post without being abusive.

It was a weak piece of bait. It’s transparent that nobody kneeling thinks that “only” black lives matter.