Rotherham (Big Direct Side)

[PAFCJames86]

Is anyone worried for saturday, after reading Rotherham's latest match reports i find many comments about their direct approach.

Holdsworth said after their defeat "I thought we were causing them problems but the first goal was a real blow for us and we faced a very direct team today". Bentley then said after their defeat "It was all going to plan but then they put us under an unbelievable amount of pressure with high balls".

With our side being pretty small and struggling to deal with set pieces, should Fletcher change it or keep the same side and try to play our game?

 

[Steve Evans]

we should play our passing game and i think we will win

 

[Ed_Blackburn]

If we press a high line then those long balls will be less effective. In Blanchard and Purse I'm confident we have centre-backs who are good under a high ball. My concern is our apparent inability to defend set pieces. Purse and Blanchard cannot mark everyone.

 

[max]

If Cole can't catch or punch high balls we loose on Saturday!! It's obvious!! ( See on tv his effort with the two goal on Tuesday). The headers happened on the six yard line.
Bring in the big fella in goal!!!

 

[esmer]

Cheltenham are a big direct team and with a bit more luck in front of goal and better concentration at set plays we would have beaten them. We need a high work-rate and play a fast tempo passing game and we should do well.

 

[Trev501]

If Cole can't catch or punch high balls we loose on Saturday!! It's obvious!! ( See on tv his effort with the two goal on Tuesday). The headers happened on the six yard line.
Bring in the big fella in goal!!!

Its a shame you can't see his two fantastic saves that regretfully weren't shown on TV!

 

[PAFCJames86]

anyone know where the best place to park is?

 

[Ave IT]

we should play our passing game and i think we will win

I quite agree – in the long run that is. However, if my life depended on the result for this Saturday I’d want a big meaty side to go head-to-head with them if I’m honest. But this is exactly why patience is needed – we are still learning to adapt to a new style and Fletcher is still trying to assemble a squad more suited to that style so it’s very much work in progress with quite a way to go. The other thing is that if you do have a bad day trying to play football against a direct & aggressive team it looks really awful. In the long run though I’m completely in favour and don’t buy the argument that you can’t get out of this division playing pretty football – mix it with a bit of steel for sure but decent footballers playing intelligent football will win more than relying on relentless physicality IMO in any division.

 

[pastiesforlife]

I don't think we should get too hung up over long ball sides. Nobody like to play against them and they do so because it produces goals against most sides.

We were pretty much bombarded at Cheltenham with long goal kicks, corners and long throws (from Pack - the man with a squeaky voice). I see there's a Kari Arnason at Rotherham now so we can expect even longer throw ins on Saturday.

 

[gaspargomez]

Their manager is a knob.

 

[Pilgrim61]

One thing we must stop doing is giving away pointless free kicks 30 - 40 yards out. We gave away too many in the second half vs Rochdale, and Hourihane was the main culprit. I know he won't be playing but we have more bookings than any team in the division and the ref for Saturday likes to dish them out!

 

[demportdave]

You would like to think that they have been working on defending set pieces after the shambles of Tuesday night but we will probably concede similar goals again on Saturday.

Seeing how easy it was for Elliot to score on Tuesday, Purse looks like he has 'gone' as the dominant CB of last season and he has been at fault for a number of goals.

Blanchard is a good footballing CB but he has not quite matched up to the high standards of last season and is not very dominant in the air anyway.

Chuck in our Subuteo goalkeeper who can't even get out to the 6-yard line usually and we are always going to be in trouble against the high ball.

No doubt Arnason's long throws, which were largely ineffective in his time at HP, will create at least 1 goal.

Apart from the corners and long throws, we are indisciplined and constantly concede free kicks in our own half, giving teams even more opportunities to pump the ball into our box.

It wouldn't be so bad if we did the basics, such as marking people.

I applaud Fletcher's attempt at playing football, especially after the dreadful hoof-ball we had to endure for so long.

But if he doesn't add some steel and some height to the team, we are going to struggle again and that is not acceptable, especially when we see teams like Cheltenham and Torquay making a real push for promotion on gates of 2000-3000.

Play football, yes; but even Swindon and Di Canio knew that in this League, you need a 6'6" CB to defend against the inevitable string of long balls that will be pumped into the box.

What happened on Tuesday will happen all too regularly I'm afraid, play well over the 90 minutes but fail to score and then concede poor goals to lose.