secretchief
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It’s been very quiet on last night’s match so I thought I would write down a few thoughts for the benefit of those who weren’t able to go.
This will not be in the way of a report or player ratings, just my impressions of what occurred. Bear in mind that the pitch was absolutely miles away and most of the play was down the other end, so if I’ve got the wrong people I’m happy to be corrected.
First off all, it was a diabolical performance, the worst I’ve seen this season. We scored after about ten minutes and to his credit Porter slotted it away quite nicely after getting free from his man. It was our first attack. What was amazing about the goal is that at the point in the game that Porter scored we hadn’t made a single pass all game. Really, no exaggeration here, it was that scrappy. I don't think I've ever seen us score a goal without actually completing a pass.
Shortly afterwards Rotherham should have had a penalty when the ball bounced up in the area and hit Montgomery on the hand (he should have cleared it first time but seemed to want to take a touch). Porter later went through after about half an hour and hit a shot so high over the goal I’m still baffled at the trajectory of the ball. It doesn’t seem to make sense that someone running in on goal could get the ball so far away from it.
Jean-Francois started brightly with some alert interventions to stop the ball getting through to his man but rapidly began to struggle. He is all left foot, his control and distribution was poor and he never really got forwards. Cresswell was supposedly on the left (I can only assume this) but we didn’t use the wings at all and the two had no understanding. Later on in the game he started to mistime challenges and kept getting caught out of position as Rotherham found ways through our defence.
The midfield was a shambles, basically. Macdonald never got on the ball, never imposed himself and the passing we know he is capable of never materialised apart from a couple of occasions in the second half when he tried a couple of clever balls that didn’t quite come off. Montgomery was at home chasing Rotherham midfielders around as he is chasing around midfielders in higher division clubs, although at one point in the second half he made an astonishing last-ditch tackle to deny a certain goal when our entire net was gaping (to be honest I’m sort of assuming this was him – this really was bloody miles away). This is the sort of thing that only he can do. Unfortunately everything else is the sort of thing he can't do.
The central defenders looked steady although they were susceptible to the pace of Rotherham on the break. They seemed ok dealing with pressure on the edge of the box and heading things away, but struggled when players ran at them. Maguire tried a number of lofted balls over the top that came to nothing and this is a habit he really needs to break.
Long was ok in goal. He stopped at least three firmly hit shots from range that were close to his body and got a couple of punches on crosses. In the first fifteen minutes he was rolling the balls out to his defenders but we never played it out successfully from these positions or developed it meaningfully so presumably he stopped inviting pressure and began launching it upfield. His distribution needs work in this area as his kicking is not the best. Solid enough and had little chance with the goal as Rotherham were coming forwards in numbers.
Flynn was lightweight and seemed to contribute little. Another game has passed where I’ve not seen him so much as take the ball down the wing and attack the full-back. He took all the corners, every one of which was lofted into the centre of the box and headed away comfortably (the way Williamson takes them). Rotherham whipped theirs in and looked threatening from their corners, and a couple of times lofted it to the back post, which looked like a waste until you saw they had sneakily positioned a man there. We really need to work on ours.
In the second half Evans was released on the left-hand side of the box and beat Warrington from about twelve yards on the angle but his strike rebounded off the underside of the bar. Since he has never and will never score and one-on-one you sort of shrug your shoulders and don’t even mark it up as a chance.
A few times in the second half we showed total inability to work the ball from throw-ins and didn’t have the urgency to show for the ball or develop a crossing chance. Rotherham scored when a muddled attempt to get the ball into the box on one of these throws was cleared, their defenders were first to a couple of balls and in a flash they were breaking into our half with men over. It really was poor to concede on the break from an opportunity which should have been our attack.
At this point United looked to do things with more urgency but we were unable to exert any real pressure. We've all seen it when we're huffing and puffing but nothing is happening. Balls over the top were dealt with easily and we didn’t get into their box. We also gave a lot of fouls away which relieved a lot of pressure. There was no co-ordination in the passing, no rhythm, no attempt to use the flanks. Lowton only got forwards in the last ten minutes or so. Cresswell (I think?) had a golden opportunity when the ball dropped for him six yards out but instead of blasting it instinctively he tried to take a touch to control the ball and the chance was gone. This really was wretched as all he needed to do was turn the ball towards goal first time. Mendez Laing came on for Porter, showed a few decent touches and had Warrington at full-stretch to make the best save of the game from a curling effort but looked to hamstring himself when running down the line near the end.
Evans saved us when he ran at goal from the halfway line, tried to turn a defender on the edge of the box, seemed to be the beneficiary of a lucky bounce and got enough space to drill a low, left-footed strike in the corner. Good finish. Thirty seconds later he chased the ball down on the edge of the box and found himself clean though after the Rotherham defender slipped. He had acres of time and space and an option inside for a tap in. In the end he had too much time, too much to think about and ended up shooting tamely at Warrington. It was a one-on-one, bread and butter, gilt-edged chance which was tamely fluffed (it reminded me a bit of that time Jostein Flo ran through on Grobelaar, bottled the shot and squared it to an offside team-mate).
To sum up: Rotherham can feel aggrieved. Their movement and passing was better than ours, especially in the second half. They seem to have a couple of pacy, strong attacking players who in small stretches showed out defenders up a bit. Some nice diagonal balls along the ground in the second half got behind our full-backs. They also got to the byline a lot more than we did. Ryan Cresswell was dominant in the air for them at the back and a particularly strong tackler.
As for us, we were slow and uncoordinated. Passing was uniformly shocking throughout and there didn’t seem any method to our play. Ball and ground were rarely acquainted. There were a lot of aimless balls over the top and into channels which produced nothing of note. We failed to find much space or use the width of the pitch. Overall we couldn’t have complained if we had been knocked out.
Andy Scott said ‘we played some excellent stuff against a very good side.’ On this evidence he was only half-right.
This will not be in the way of a report or player ratings, just my impressions of what occurred. Bear in mind that the pitch was absolutely miles away and most of the play was down the other end, so if I’ve got the wrong people I’m happy to be corrected.
First off all, it was a diabolical performance, the worst I’ve seen this season. We scored after about ten minutes and to his credit Porter slotted it away quite nicely after getting free from his man. It was our first attack. What was amazing about the goal is that at the point in the game that Porter scored we hadn’t made a single pass all game. Really, no exaggeration here, it was that scrappy. I don't think I've ever seen us score a goal without actually completing a pass.
Shortly afterwards Rotherham should have had a penalty when the ball bounced up in the area and hit Montgomery on the hand (he should have cleared it first time but seemed to want to take a touch). Porter later went through after about half an hour and hit a shot so high over the goal I’m still baffled at the trajectory of the ball. It doesn’t seem to make sense that someone running in on goal could get the ball so far away from it.
Jean-Francois started brightly with some alert interventions to stop the ball getting through to his man but rapidly began to struggle. He is all left foot, his control and distribution was poor and he never really got forwards. Cresswell was supposedly on the left (I can only assume this) but we didn’t use the wings at all and the two had no understanding. Later on in the game he started to mistime challenges and kept getting caught out of position as Rotherham found ways through our defence.
The midfield was a shambles, basically. Macdonald never got on the ball, never imposed himself and the passing we know he is capable of never materialised apart from a couple of occasions in the second half when he tried a couple of clever balls that didn’t quite come off. Montgomery was at home chasing Rotherham midfielders around as he is chasing around midfielders in higher division clubs, although at one point in the second half he made an astonishing last-ditch tackle to deny a certain goal when our entire net was gaping (to be honest I’m sort of assuming this was him – this really was bloody miles away). This is the sort of thing that only he can do. Unfortunately everything else is the sort of thing he can't do.
The central defenders looked steady although they were susceptible to the pace of Rotherham on the break. They seemed ok dealing with pressure on the edge of the box and heading things away, but struggled when players ran at them. Maguire tried a number of lofted balls over the top that came to nothing and this is a habit he really needs to break.
Long was ok in goal. He stopped at least three firmly hit shots from range that were close to his body and got a couple of punches on crosses. In the first fifteen minutes he was rolling the balls out to his defenders but we never played it out successfully from these positions or developed it meaningfully so presumably he stopped inviting pressure and began launching it upfield. His distribution needs work in this area as his kicking is not the best. Solid enough and had little chance with the goal as Rotherham were coming forwards in numbers.
Flynn was lightweight and seemed to contribute little. Another game has passed where I’ve not seen him so much as take the ball down the wing and attack the full-back. He took all the corners, every one of which was lofted into the centre of the box and headed away comfortably (the way Williamson takes them). Rotherham whipped theirs in and looked threatening from their corners, and a couple of times lofted it to the back post, which looked like a waste until you saw they had sneakily positioned a man there. We really need to work on ours.
In the second half Evans was released on the left-hand side of the box and beat Warrington from about twelve yards on the angle but his strike rebounded off the underside of the bar. Since he has never and will never score and one-on-one you sort of shrug your shoulders and don’t even mark it up as a chance.
A few times in the second half we showed total inability to work the ball from throw-ins and didn’t have the urgency to show for the ball or develop a crossing chance. Rotherham scored when a muddled attempt to get the ball into the box on one of these throws was cleared, their defenders were first to a couple of balls and in a flash they were breaking into our half with men over. It really was poor to concede on the break from an opportunity which should have been our attack.
At this point United looked to do things with more urgency but we were unable to exert any real pressure. We've all seen it when we're huffing and puffing but nothing is happening. Balls over the top were dealt with easily and we didn’t get into their box. We also gave a lot of fouls away which relieved a lot of pressure. There was no co-ordination in the passing, no rhythm, no attempt to use the flanks. Lowton only got forwards in the last ten minutes or so. Cresswell (I think?) had a golden opportunity when the ball dropped for him six yards out but instead of blasting it instinctively he tried to take a touch to control the ball and the chance was gone. This really was wretched as all he needed to do was turn the ball towards goal first time. Mendez Laing came on for Porter, showed a few decent touches and had Warrington at full-stretch to make the best save of the game from a curling effort but looked to hamstring himself when running down the line near the end.
Evans saved us when he ran at goal from the halfway line, tried to turn a defender on the edge of the box, seemed to be the beneficiary of a lucky bounce and got enough space to drill a low, left-footed strike in the corner. Good finish. Thirty seconds later he chased the ball down on the edge of the box and found himself clean though after the Rotherham defender slipped. He had acres of time and space and an option inside for a tap in. In the end he had too much time, too much to think about and ended up shooting tamely at Warrington. It was a one-on-one, bread and butter, gilt-edged chance which was tamely fluffed (it reminded me a bit of that time Jostein Flo ran through on Grobelaar, bottled the shot and squared it to an offside team-mate).
To sum up: Rotherham can feel aggrieved. Their movement and passing was better than ours, especially in the second half. They seem to have a couple of pacy, strong attacking players who in small stretches showed out defenders up a bit. Some nice diagonal balls along the ground in the second half got behind our full-backs. They also got to the byline a lot more than we did. Ryan Cresswell was dominant in the air for them at the back and a particularly strong tackler.
As for us, we were slow and uncoordinated. Passing was uniformly shocking throughout and there didn’t seem any method to our play. Ball and ground were rarely acquainted. There were a lot of aimless balls over the top and into channels which produced nothing of note. We failed to find much space or use the width of the pitch. Overall we couldn’t have complained if we had been knocked out.
Andy Scott said ‘we played some excellent stuff against a very good side.’ On this evidence he was only half-right.
