KrolMong

His best position is the right of a three, Pep doesn’t overly trust him as a proper 10, but he is good there. He can’t play deeper. His issue for England is that Bellingham will play the 10, and Saka will play the right which means Foden goes left.

Rotherham were awful. I expected them to come out and make it a scrap, but they were outfought, outrun and outthought. We were comfortable throughout, and our only issue was us not taking our chances. Defensively, we didn’t have to deal with much. But our midfield and attack caused issues all the way through the game, and that extended to the subs. We now go into two home games needing at least one win. But, if we play well, we can get something from Leeds.

That game stood out for two reasons. One, the absolute pasting that Man Utd fans took all over Sheffield. And I mean pastings. Any sign of a Mancunian accent and they were at best chased, and at worse, given a hefty clip. It was known before hand in terms of what was going to happen to them. Two, this was my first intro to the monster that was Roy Keane. He ran the show, to the extent that Carlton Palmer did not want any part of that battle. Keane went through Palmer and Hyde like they were under 10’s. Immense display.

I went to an evening with Meggo. Warnock shit his pants when Meggo fronted him. Claimed also back by a couple of his own players. Some of the West Brom players wanted it post game and the United players snuck out of a side door.

Sadly, for not much longer.

It’s hard to say this out loud. But, I live in a country where all cities are throwing money at the infrastructure. The scale at which Cities change in Poland year or year is quite astonishing - I’m talking almost Middle East levels of investment coming in via the EU and monstrous businesses relocating. Now, in the last 2 months, I have visited Sheffield. Sorry to say this, but the City centre itself is just a massive slum. The outlying areas are decent, but the centre is horrific. It’s light years behind what you see in places like Manchester and Leeds, and even falling behind some of the larger towns in the area? I spent last week working in London, yes, it’s the capital city, yes, it’s a building site - but it changes every time I visit (which is monthly). I agree with Reesh about the village mentality, it’s not just the council, but the people too. The two Sheffield clubs will never amount to more than that, but I would take a run in the prem over being a 2nd/3rd division team any day of the week. But we, as a city, don’t have the pull of the teams and cities around us and that extends to billionaire owners who might want a dabble.

I’m not going to get too excited yet. I think they have a second charge to now fight which could mean further points. I full expect Wilder and Sean Bean to march to the Houses of Parliament to protest with their Matalan tracksuits on and Umbro trainers off.

It was a good game to watch. No doubt about that. Thats the only positive I can draw from it.

Preston at home, Middlesbrough at home and Huddersfield at home, under Rohl, would have likely been wins.

I agree, we stay up and we keep Rohl, and I am 99% certain we’ll get Poveda, Ugbo and convince Bernard to stay, and we’ll recruit in a similar ilk to now. I can see us getting Beadle for a season too.

We’ve not had a player like Poveda since Carbone. He comes to life 30 yards out. Doesn’t contribute much further back and likes to play wide to middle. He’s not like Forestieri, and Lee was more effective coming from deep. Poveda is a proper 10, Forestieri was at his best as the left of a three or up top with a proper striker. Lee, was probably a four in old money. We are developing a new axis of evil with Palmer, Pol and Poveda. The highlight of that Wednesday team under Gray was Palmer, Lee and Maguire. When they were at it, they were brilliant.

Interestingly, Rohl got it wrong for the first 5 mins after the red. We played a 4-3-2, and their right back was waltzing up the pitch unopposed. He then went 4-4-1, and forced him inside and we looked safer.

That was actually a very comfortable win. We were better with and without the ball. We created the better chances, Beadle had little to do. We kept shape and discipline, we won the ball back in good areas and our forwards posed different questions. Very important win and some really good displays from Valentin, Palmer, Vaulks, Poveda and Johnson. I said at Leicester, that’s our strongest 11, with Palmer either in alongside Ihiekwe, or in alongside Vaulks. We can swap between 5 and 4. I would say that we might have the balance between going all out and having enough attacking threat but being defensively sound.

Yep. Will be that team. Could also be a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 too. Palmer is there to give Valentin and Ihiekwe cover. Or, to push Bannan 20 yards up the pitch.

It’s a monstrous rebuild next summer regardless of our division. The ten replacements we thought we’d get this summer are still the same 10 next summer regardless of league. Bannan gets a deal, but we need to be moving away from him. Vaulks has earned one. Palmer, again, has probably earned one. We need to get Ugbo and Poveda signed up, same for Beadle. Bernard is a must.

There’s not been an ounce of fight from them pigs. Not a scrap. They are even pulling out of tackles now.

The only travesty was that the referee needed VAR to show it was a straight red. A lenient Sunday ref would have shown a red card for that.

They gave regressed under Wilder with arguably a better squad and less injuries. He’s a worse manager than he was the last time he was there which is impressive given that embarrassment of a second season he displayed after splurging 150 million on some right toss.

That was a set up where I think Rohl has now learned how to set up away from home, but with a bit of coaching cleverness thrown in. We went 4-3-3, to 4-4-1-1, to 3-5-2, to 4-2-3-1 on the fly. Palmers job was to play centre to right and give Pol freedom. Vaulks was there to interrupt in the middle of the park. Bannan had a defensive job, but was given a free role. Poveda had to help Pol out when Palmer tucked in and Musaba alternated between 10 and 11 all day. The key was defensive solidity. Don’t let the gaps appear, stop midfield players affecting the game 20 yards out and let our runners cause issues. And they did. More important, don’t worry about Millwall having the ball 40 yards out because they don’t have the pace our guile to do us if we block holes. Defensively good today. But it was how we sprang that was more pleasing. We constantly won the ball 40 yards out and had Poveda, Ugbo, Musaba and at least one full back ahead of the ball today. Second half, we just needed to keep shape. And we did, Ihiekwe is a player who is good in his own 18 yard box and he attracted a lot of ball today. Bernard was good, Vaulks was good, Palmer was good. And then Bannan and Musaba were very good today as was Ugbo. That is the way we line up every week away from home. Two more defensive midfield players, both attacking full backs and Bannan given freedom with the ball. Millwall are a mess though.

It’s uncanny in terms of parallels. We played Millwall, needing a win, with 15 games left and we had 30 points. We are playing them today with 26 points with 14 games left and needing a win, but, with a more favourable remaining fixture list than we had in 05/06.

It’s got shades of us at Millwall in 05. Us with a young squad, and some senior pros not good enough for the division. Needing a win. I’ll take the same result as that day too. It’s a must win. No two ways about, we have to beat all the teams around us to have any hope of safety. Draws don’t do it.

It’s different now, and I play a lot of the short sided game now which is all about imposing yourself immediately. But, when I think back, every 11-a-side team I have played for, we always had the mantra of nothing silly for the first 5 mins of each half. Turn the other team round, get your shape right, and grow into it. Just on style, Rohl is far closer to Arteta and De Zerbi. There is this myth that Pep invites the press, he doesn’t. Arteta and De Zerbi do…

That was a genuinely good second half. No bad displays, and we caused all kinds of problems. Bannan, Pol V, Palmer and Musaba good. He’s got his set up away from home now. It’s got to be two more defensive minded midfield players with Bannan and then a front three. At Millwall, I’m going with a 4-3-3. Beadle Pol V, Bernard, Famewo, Johnson Palmer, Bannan, Vaulks Poveda, BCM, Musaba We can almost play Pol V as a winger and have Palmer dropping in. After getting it wrong first half, Rohl got it spot on second.

I think we’ve been good second half. Palmer has made a massive difference because it’s given Bannan freedom and Bannan has been really good this half. Pol V has been able to get forward more. When we press we have two midfield players going now. Much much better. 4-2-3-1 with a more defensive base and we look a lot better.

Rohl has got this horribly, horribly wrong. Our team is only of any use when we get spells with the ball. Without the ball, it’s horrific. We look so easy to play through and around, it’s actually pretty embarrassing. Ugbo, Poveda and Gassama are offering no defensive help at all. Ihiekwe is being torn to pieces. We are pressing with four and the other six are 50 yards further back and they play through us.