I do wonder what the issue is with WTE, he was a regular for us even at times in the Prem, and is now almost frozen out. Mind melted through a harrowing Prem experience? A shame because for all his faults, he's better than Kabasele at his best. Ideally I wouldn't want Kamara at RWB, but I doubt Gaspar is going to be any better, and Hungbo is also left-footed so has the same issues (not to mention wing-back isn't really his position). Do think Asprilla will drop to the bench when Louza comes back, which might not be the worst thing as he's blown hot and cold after a fantastic game at Preston. JP is back to trying to do it all again, perhaps understandable when we're limited elsewhere, and our striking options look decent, Bayo and Davis look like different types of strikers, but both useful, and finally we might have an option off the bench
Shock, the first game after our terrible transfer window closes and people are talking about Edwards out.
I would not be remotely surprised if this was the case. A player targeted with a lot of abuse for mistakes during games and became something of a whipping / boo boy because of it going as far as deleting all social media for a while due to it. Although things like Brentford were infuriating, it was never a lack of care or will to try. He's one of the few players who, even today, goes out of his way to meet fans despite it all. I really like him as a character and, so long as he plays simple, think he still has something to offer to the team when set up appropriately. He's not hopeless but he needs a game where he's involved and it goes well for him to get back on it again. His last few games have had him setup to fail and it saddens me as we've seen him play better. You could not convince me he would be beaten in that manner like Kabasele was. (But you can convince me Kabasele is the same level of passer as him)
He did duck against Leicester last season, but he doesn't seem to have a track record of shirking (brainfarts yes, although that's a different matter). Definitely a better defender than Kabasele, maybe even than Cathcart, but it is a shame what's happened to him
You can't really expect him to say any of his players are crap, can you? Earlier this week, Scott Parker tried it (only hinted, in fact) and his tetchy boss sacked him and made it clear it was because of what he had said. Surely it's a given that coaches are there to take the flak, apart from all the other stuff they have to do. I doubt Edwards has just taken the job so he can get the sack.
That duck he confirmed was striker shouting keeper and assumed it was Bachmann. Says he'll now head it regardless in that situation. Same thing Chalobah had v Bournemouth years ago.
Much better performance than most we've seen, apart from the abysmal first 20 minutes. Looked capable of controlling the game, and created enough to deserve the win, but could've done more. The amount of time wasting from them spoke volumes. Positive signs from Davis, hopefully get him up to full fitness asap. With him, Louza, and Kabasele nowhere near the team we should be okay. Frustrating result but Rotherham are unbeaten at home. Potentially not an awful result in the long run.
FFS, how difficult was it to find an attacking, competent right back for this division. It wouldn't have broken the bank. It's not like finding a dead cert 20 goal a season striker.
I've said this many times over recent seasons, but there's something badly wrong with the mindset of our defenders when they walk out onto the pitch. They just look like they are desperate for the oppo to pass around in midfield, not start too quickly, and warm into the game nicely. Any team that says "No we're going to put you under pressure from the off and make life hard for you" Will ALWAYS give us major problems. The game starts in the first seconds, there's no time to play yourself in, but I'm convinced our CBs go out in a daydream, and it's not good enough.!!
Good points - Davis looked as lively and dangerous in his cameo as he did for Forest last year Hause was clearly the most competent of our centre back options, and is very savvy physically, as displayed several times this afternoon Bayo shows he can genuinely finish with his feet, even if he continues to genuinely shame himself with the quality of his heading (particularly when it comes to chances with an xG of about 3 million) Bad points - The other two centre backs are absolutely fuccking woeful (no surprise there) but it's really not funny at this point just how bad Kabasele is - decision-making, attention-paying, ball-playing. It's not acceptable to be this bad at this point in his career and still be starting at all, let alone for a team with supposed promotion aims. Asprilla, as others have said, needs to be relied upon less, and eased in more. We still have no real recognisable style or patterns of play, labour in possession greatly, and spend the majority of any given game with the tempo of a Barbary Macaque drunk on the fumes of fermented fruit. I don't quite understand what our coaching is doing for the players at this moment - it doesn't seem in evidence (though, as ever, that will be harder to show when you don't have the players to play how you intended to - admittedly or not). Today was basically a carbon copy of Tuesday night - start utterly pathetically, concede a pathetic goal, play abysmally for the first 20-25 minutes, then kick into another gear, equalise, and start pinging it about like Brazil. Then come out for the second half and lose all that urgency again in a relatively lacklustre and uninspiring slow jog to the finish line. The only difference was the lack of a last minute miracle. When we take the possible extent of injuries into account, it may have been a fairly costly afternoon. Let's pray Kamara is only very lightly injured, if at all, and that once he's back, we stop persisting with this ridiculous 'playing him on the right' non-solution - whatever we have to do to facilitate that. As others have said, we're certainly still in the position that we will need to improve quite significantly to look like we're genuine contenders at the top of the division, as well as hopes and prayers-ing about the fitness of quite a few seemingly vital players.
From the limited amount of the match I saw it looked similar to other performances this season . We seemed to Have decent spells but no dominance and a lack of control in Midfield . Moments of defensive shakiness as well. Still not getting the performances we would expect from This group of players, but I’m hoping It will come with time and the likes of Louza coming into the side. Still in a decent league position so if we start to kick into gear soon we will be well placed Davis did look very good and made a difference when coming on, with some excellent hold up play .
Shows how bad our defensive recruitment has been for a number of years that people are stuck debating WTE or Kabasele Both are clowns who should be nowhere near the starting 11. Also, call me a Scrooge if you like, but for tens of thousands a week over multiple years my minimum standards for football players are quite a long way beyond being nice guys and signing shirts for kids
I'm not expecting Edwards to say that - which is why I started my previous paragraph by saying it's hard to tell what's really going on behind the scenes. As I said, it'll only be those behind the scenes who'll know who wanted what, and whether either Edwards was mistaken in being satisfied enough with his RWB (and RCB) options, or whether he was eager for us to bring in one or two more but prevented by the board. Without knowing that and Edwards breaking ranks, I can't really pinpoint blame at anyone in particular for the chain of decisions which has led to Kamara still playing RWB and both Kabasele and Cathcart playing in a back 3.
Does anyone actually know that though? I can't recall seeing any footage which suggested it? It could have just been WTE trying to shift blame away from his mistake.
Agreed mate. Gino's given him the greatest squad to ever play at this level. No excuse to not hit at least 100 points this season.
Just watched the highlights, does any other keeper not just easily come and catch a slow looping ball into the box like that?
Sorry, but no. Edwards has been let down by the Pozzo’s after saying they’ll back him “come hell or high water”. It was known he’d play a back 3 by the ownership and us. That side would be just as lost in terms of a game plan and what to do with the ball as well. The fact there was one option to realistically change the game on the bench today isn’t Rob’s fault. He brought on Davis with 30 to go… struggling to see what you were expecting from him?
Didn’t even think it was that bad today and looked good in parts, although the squad is clearly lacking. We can aim for top 6, but anything above that is beyond this squad unfortunately.
60m attack, best defence in the history of the league, best goalkeeper in the league, and we are drawing with pub teams.
Had a sense of deep disappointment after watching that game. That is perhaps illogical, as we did not lose an away game, but I have concerns. Another poor early goal conceded. Are we going into matches with too casual an attitude? We need to start with a passion and spirit that upsets our opponents. Some of our defenders are too weak. WTE must be performing abysmally in training not to be given a chance ahead of Kabesele or Cathcart. Kamara is not suited to RWB. I would nearly play Cathcart there or maybe Cleverly (akin to Miller for Liverpool) when he recovers from injury. The fact that we have to play someone out of position for that spot is an appalling failing, but this has been discussed to death on this forum. I was very impressed with Davis, when he came on. I think he will be a valuable player for us. Pedro had a quiet game and Asprilla may be better as an impact sub. We dominated the 2nd half and yet Rotherham created some chances that could have nicked all three points. Bayo is proving me and other doubters wrong, thus far, although he botched an easy header. With Sarr, Louza, Davis to come into the starting line up in the weeks ahead, there is room for optimism, but I felt very flat at the final whistle today.
I don't think it is illogical. We shouldn't be looking at a draw away to one of the weakest sides in the League as a positive result.
Very encouraging that despite not playing particularly well so far we are just 3 points from first place in the table. This is shaping up to be an exciting season
The ref had a shocker too. I’d like to see the challenge on Pedro again as the gave free kicks all over the field what what appeared to be less obvious shoves. The Millers time wasting was taking it to new levels.
I watched Serbia's national basketball team at European championship straight after our match, so couldn't write a summary. In short, I thought it was another average performance, like most of our performances so far. We did miss Sarr I think, but still, even without him we should have more than enough quality to beat Rotherham. Biggest positives for me is that Bayo scored another goal (still don't think he was worth anywhere near what we paid for him, but since we can't change that, at least he started to contribute) and that Davis is now fit, as I think he'll be an important player for us. Hopefully Sarr is back for the next match and I hope there will be more improvements in the performances in the next few games.
Just saw then Rotherham goal for the first time. How on Earth are some people still happy Kabasele and Cathcart continue to be part of our squad (including Duxbury). Absolutely ridiculous set of fans and owners we have.
I concur. We parked near that club the fella was plugging on here. They'd run out of all draught beer by 1.pm, other than Carling and John Smiths. And that was only If you brought your glass back as they'd run out of them too. Mind you, there was a fair few Watford in there and don't think I've ever seen such a weird, backward bunch in one place. You'd of thought the clubs coaches had parked outside. Luckily the place didnt appear to have any windows other wise they'd be coated in saliva now.
Yes. Seemed to be in the air for ages, a few steps forward and a keeper claims it. Of course it helps if the centre backs don't let a 50 year old run past them and get a free header.
Dreadful goal to concede so early on. Kabasele was about to head it clear but suddenly left it - his reaction was to go apeshit at Flapmann so I suspect he either called for it and didn't come, or he didn't shout at all and the Rovrum lad did. Either way it meant old Flappers was erratic and lacked all composure for the rest of the game. Neither DB or CK give confidence. Cathcart remains our best defender which is damning of recruitment over recent years. Hause was shocking at first but grew into the game. I know some people won't hear a bad word about him but Kamara was pretty crap again. He bottled a tackle in the first half which people gave him pelters for, and one poor sap tried to defend him by blaming 'the system'. He might be out of position but no excuse for bottling tackles. Ever. Bayo was poor, took his goal excellently but should have won with a far easier chance in the second half. Davis looked immense. Get him playing regularly and we will turn more of these draws into wins. Rotherham defended for their lives and treated a home draw like an FA cup final win. They sat in, defended well and wasted a shed load of time. That will happen more and more and we need to be better at dealing with it.
