Wolves 1 Rotherham 0 a win that masks the truth verdict

[AlexG]

My wife and I were there today. She doesn't want to go again while Lambert is head coach. She even quoted Rodney Marsh: "well I've seen lots of football matches in my time, And this was one of them."

The bizarre alternating 3-4-3 to 5-2-3 and probably other combinations thrown in for good measure was not understood by the players at all. I may have even seen 4-1-2-2-1 at one point. The space between the back 3 was embarrassing at the start of the game but solved after those scares.

Saville and Coady cannot play as wing backs. The biggest error in the lineup.

Saiss, Hause and Williamson were solid most of the time, once they got it together about 20 mins in. Weimann took his goal well. Cav almost made an instant impact in the five minutes he was given. Ikeme saved the game a few times.

But everyone else was anonymous, save for Price who had a total mare.

 

[Derby Wolf]

Have been neck deep in my dissertation today which is probably a good thing in hindsight but my dads just text saying he's no idea how we've won that today.

Things really are desperate because this isnt just a side who are going down but are likely to be the worst side since Stockport collapsed into oblivion if not ever to be relegated from this level.

We need eyes open to see that we've today granted a team of that quality that many chances throughout the game and had to resort to desperate short corners playing for time. Especially when we've already been bitten by that tactic against Burton earlier this season.

There has been a systematic policy failure within the club which wont be corrected by binning Lambert. Its the people who appoint the manager, award huge contracts to appalling footballers and purportedly coach them.

This is Fosuns biggest challenge now. They simply cannot continue with this laissez faire governance of the club. Heads need to role.

 

[AndyWolves]

If Rowett would take the job I'd sack lambert this instance. I have no confidence in lambert and the random selection, tactics and formations we play. I really hope this was his last game

 

[Aikiwolf]

Tactics were to drop to three at the back and leave Price isolated in the middle with Dangerous running about and doing nothing. Our full backs didn't push on, meaning that there was no space to play the ball about.

If you understand football you'd also understand that a win is a win, on the back of some dreadful results we need to stop expecting to demolish teams that are almost as bad as us.

 

[Wolfmania]

Dreadful game, I'll pop some quick ratings:

Ikeme - 6/10 - Equal to the 2 one on ones saved both but they were really poor efforts, good for confidence I suppose. Distribution still woeful but tried to get it out quicker this time at least.

Coady - 5/10 - Nothing going forward but defended well. When rotherham bought on their no.11 who ran at him, however, he was really struggling and needed a lot of help, highlighting his flaws. Did he do any crosses? don't recall him attacking.
Williamson - 7/10 - Solid and dependable, helped organise the defence.
Hause - 5/10 - Solid but his missed header at the end that nearly gave them the equaliser was so poor I had to knock off 2 marks.
Saville - 5/10 - Tried and defended alright but offered nothing going forward.

Saiss - 5.5/10 - WOEFUL (and i mean WOEFUL) pass led to one of their one on ones, dropped back a lot - effectively forming a back three - and our tactics almost seemed to be "give it to Saiss and see if he can do some world class pass that'll lead straight to a goal". Defended quite nicely, mind.
Price - 3/10 - Really bad game, lots of misplaced passes and generally poor positioning I felt. I wouldn't be surprised if he were dropped.

Edwards - 5/10 - Ran around a bit etc etc etc. Missed a glorious free header in the second half, however.

Costa - 4/10 - Did well to win the penalty but not much else. The penalty itself was really poor and I wouldn't be surprised if he were dropped following that performance.
Marshall - 6/10 - Excellent first half where he was the one player looking to play the ball on the floor and did some superb set pieces. His pass for Weimann's goal was superb. Faded in the second half, however, and I can't recall him doing anything?

Weimann - 6/10 - Took his goal really really well, then did a moronic tackle straight after at the kick off and (in my opinion at WV7 in billy wright upper) should have been sent off. Worked hard but the issues are about the service rather than anything he did or didn't do.

Bodvarsson - Probably could have done better with his chance (with the benefit of hindsight) but he suffered similar problems to Weimann with service so wasn't majorly impactful.
Gibbs White - Decent run around and had a snapshot well saved by the keeper. Seems to find the right spots but he will be useless if we continue to lump it over the CAM and straight to the LW/ST/RWs.
Cavaleiro - Looked quite sharp considering how long he'd been out for. Willing to get stuck in, but we only played football for about 1/4 of the time he was on the pitch and spent the rest of it time wasting instead so he wasn't really utilised.

With regards to the tactics we appeared to go something that looked like:

---------------------------------Ikeme
----------Williamson-----------Saiss---------------Hause
Coady-----------------------------------------------------------Saville
-------------------------(saiss in second half)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------Edwards-----------------------Price ---- (this isn't to indicate CMs, they seemed to be so high up that they were CAMs)
Marshall-----------------------------------------------------------Costa
------------------------------Weimann

Also, it really p***es me off when one of our wingers goes strolling onto the other side of the pitch where the other winger is. I don't understand why they can't stick to their sides and have to roam so much - it stinks of absolute desperation to get the ball and be selfish rather than operating in a calmer fashion.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Id give Williamson 5 for a second half only. Woeful out of position, woeful outpaced and only lucky that the Rotherham forward was wank in the first half.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Saiss - 5.5/10 - WOEFUL (and i mean WOEFUL) pass led to one of their one on ones, dropped back a lot - effectively forming a back three - and our tactics almost seemed to be "give it to Saiss and see if he can do some world class pass that'll lead straight to a goal".>>>>>>> Defended quite nicely, mind.

Slate him for being the biggest bellend of the planet thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.WTFDUDE.

 

[Tony Towner]

Id give Williamson 5 for a second half only. Woeful out of position, woeful outpaced and only lucky that the Rotherham forward was $#@! in the first half.

They hadn't a clue where they were supposed to play, my guess is they hadn't even attempted in training. Williamson as right of a 3 thinking he needs to be hugging the touchline was up there with the worst set ups I have ever seen down here. I have the thick end of 40 years experience, that's a fucking high bar!

Slate him for being the biggest bellend of the planet thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.WTFDUDE.

 

[slink]

I was going to do this a bit later but i'll do it now, why we are attempting to play like that against Rotherham i'm not quite sure. I understand we are shit and have very little confidence but why are we trying to play with split centre halves with Saiss dropping in between them. We then played without a left winger as Marshall was everywhere and Dave ended up as the player widest on that side which is never going to help until Costa went out there. We then have 2 full backs who are basically useless on the ball and never got forward to any effect.

Ikeme - I'd like to say his saves were brilliant but Ward hit them at him but to be fair he did save them so fair play. Distribution is still awful.

Coady - Not sure what the point of him is, he always seems to give the ball away.

Williamson - Wasn't helped by the tactics that the players had quite clearly been told to play but recovered afterwards.

Hause - Won a ton in the air but like Williamson wasn't sure about the split centre halves tactics.

Saville - Didn't really have to defend and didn't get forward well at all, rather had Doherty there.

Saiss - Apart from one pass which was woeful as Jagginman says he looked quality. Sprayed 2 or 3 excellent passes about and it just looked easy for him despite being on his own basically.

Price - Terrible from minute one. just seemed to hit the ball 30 yards in the air all of the time. Didn't hide though.]

Dave - Fantastic. If the aim was to hide when we have the ball. Closed down well a few times but it really wasn't needed. It's a shocking state of affairs when a player this bad keeps playing 90 minutes and is idolised by fans.

Marshall - I thought he did well in the first half and looked a much better footballer than he did in his last home game and his ball for the goal was decent. Anonymous in the second half though.

Costa - This wasn't a case of Rotherham doubling up on him as they didn't he just wasn't very good. Won the penalty but then missed with a poor kick tbh. Changed his boots at half time and looked a little better but not on it.

Weimann - MOTM for me. He can't have played on his own up front many times and he constantly treid to run into channels. He also took his goal quite well.

SUBS

Bodvarsson - Should have done better with his first involvement but blazed over. Kept it in the corner for a while at the end but not a lot else.

Gibbs-White - Put himself about and had one decent shot saved.

Cavaleiro - Looked very busy despite slipping over a couple of times. No idea why he cam on in the 85th minute when he needs game time, fucking shambles.

I know we got 3 points but i can't be happy with that performance and i cannot blame anyone for booing or moaning about the game because it was truly dreadful. I don't see how we are going to beat any other sides if we play like that and with certain players playing. I really hope i'm wrong but i see us going down at the moment even with those games in hand and most fans have lost belief now.

 

[Parkins left foot]

They hadn't a clue where they were supposed to play, my guess is they hadn't even attempted in training. Williamson as right of a 3 thinking he needs to be hugging the touchline was up there with the worst set ups I have ever seen down here. I have the thick end of 40 years experience, that's a fucking high bar!

If Williamson was playing on the right of a back 3 then that's crass - if (& it's a very big if) we ever go to that formation (& we shouldn't as don't have the players to play that anyway) it could only be with him playing the central role

 

[Deleted Cyber]

This has turned into the worst season this century for me. The last championship relegation season was bad but I thought that the toxic elements in the club were then wheedled out. For some reason the club is persisting with a nucleus of a squad that has been proven as not good enough for 3 seasons. Unfortunately we now have Lambert in charge who is making some really strange almost comical decisions with team selection. We are going to have to improve just to survive. That is in no way where I thought we would be as one of the richest and top 7 supported sides in this league.I pray we stay up then really hope the club finally do what most of us on here have been asking for 3 seasons and properly rebuild relieving Thelwell and Lambert of their duties and appointing someone with more tactical nous and a better selection policy than dumbledores sorting hat.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Cyber, I think the toxic elements have been weeded out, it's the bang average elements (Edwards, coady, ikeme, Saville, Batth, Stears etc) who are now the issue. We've accepted mediocrity and got the players and a dof who embody this.

Strangely enough, I saw a bit of a game plan today, I also disagree with the negative reviews of Price. It's not much but I do feel better fullbacks (Iorfa and Doc) and an actual striker would have helped us dominate.

Alongside this, there's a lot of hyperbole around today's game. It was a grafted out result that involved two shit championship teams playing shit footy. We got a win. Move on.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Aiki, there arent going to be any team worse then Rotherham in our run in. Yes we won but it masks over the shit performance, and I cant see any hope in the players we have to get anything in the next week. Give Brentford and Fulham those chances and its game over almost immediately. We will be in the bottom three come Tuesday night and firmly inbedded come next Saturday. We are still going down.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Cyber, I think the toxic elements have been weeded out, it's the bang average elements (Edwards, coady, ikeme, Saville, Batth, Stears etc) who are now the issue. We've accepted mediocrity and got the players and a dof who embody this.

Strangely enough, I saw a bit of a game plan today, I also disagree with the negative reviews of Price. It's not much but I do feel better fullbacks (Iorfa and Doc) and an actual striker would have helped us dominate.

Alongside this, there's a lot of hyperbole around today's game. It was a grafted out result that involved two $#@! championship teams playing $#@! footy. We got a win. Move on.

Good I am glad. Now all I want is players to be played in their best positions , in a formation that suit's, coached by head coach who can motivate them and get the best out of them and then we can challenge

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Aiki, there arent going to be any team worse then Rotherham in our run in. Yes we won but it masks over the $#@! performance, and I cant see any hope in the players we have to get anything in the next week. Give Brentford and Fulham those chances and its game over almost immediately. We will be in the bottom three come Tuesday night and firmly inbedded come next Saturday. We are still going down.

Fair title for the thread I thought

 

[jd1981]

I've been going since 1987 and I can safely say this is the worse side I've ever seen.
We won but just how low can we go, the performance level is more of a concern.
Reality Rotherham will struggle in league 1 next season they're that bad but they more than deserved something out the game.

 

[slink]

Aiki, there arent going to be any team worse then Rotherham in our run in. Yes we won but it masks over the shit performance, and I cant see any hope in the players we have to get anything in the next week. Give Brentford and Fulham those chances and its game over almost immediately. We will be in the bottom three come Tuesday night and firmly inbedded come next Saturday. We are still going down.

Luckily Quirk we can't drop into the bottom 3 on Tuesday. Can't see Blackburn beating Fulham either so we should be where we are come next Saturday but then we have Fulham and i just can't see how we beat them so come next Saturday at 5:00 we just might be in the bottom 3.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Aiki, there arent going to be any team worse then Rotherham in our run in. Yes we won but it masks over the shit performance, and I cant see any hope in the players we have to get anything in the next week. Give Brentford and Fulham those chances and its game over almost immediately. We will be in the bottom three come Tuesday night and firmly inbedded come next Saturday. We are still going down.

Yes there aren't worse teams but we've been on a horrific run. We aren't suddenly going to become a good team with a beautiful style of play. We can only scrap and fight to stay up.
Every point we gain helps us get closer to this aim

Please don't get me wrong, today wasn't a performance to instill belief or to be proud of. It was a bottom of the barrel scrape to a win.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

I've been going since 1987 and I can safely say this is the worse side I've ever seen.
We won but just how low can we go, the performance level is more of a concern.
Reality Rotherham will struggle in league 1 next season they're that bad but they more than deserved something out the game.

Im with ya. Even John Paskin scored goals :-(

 

[Deleted Cyber]

You have to play something close to

Ikeme
Iorfa Williamson Hause Saville(yuk)

Price Saiss

Costa. Weimann. Cav

Bod/Dicko


Every game from now til the end of the season. That team gets you 12 to 15 points from the last games. Fuck me Lambert wake up!