Millwall

[jeffs right]

Then explain Rowetts record at Stoke last season. To suggest a manager taking over another team and automatically having an identical record is truly fairy tale imagination.

The same people wanting Rowett criticised Cook for playing Rowett style football, I don't understand the hypocrisy?

Its the Cook style football everyone criticises. Boring crap made worse by not even playing to the squads individual strengths and players playing out of position week in week out.

 

[walgarthjohn]

Thing is Millwall will be know we’re near the bottom 3 we will be so I would say Rowett as done his job

 

[Will_Shahane]

I enjoyed that game a lot. Managing to get down to quite a few matches now with me having a bit more independence than before (will probably end up staying in Reading overnight because the last train to Sheffield gets back at 6 in the morning - haven’t passed my driving test yet!). The ‘Boro match was also a good game, but it’s a shame we were cheated out of it by the ref.

Pilkington was my MotM. He’s probably my favourite player right now - when he’s fit and in form he can cause sides real problems. His free kick was good, and forced a decent save from Bialkowski. I really hope Cook gives him an extended run in the side, although he does seem to get injured quite frequently. I think he could be a really important player in our battle against the drop, so it’s important we do everything possible to make sure he is 100% fit to play (hence I didn’t really have a problem with him being taken off early).

Kipré and Balogun were very solid and composed at the back - the former has developed into a key player for us, and after seeing the progress Burn has made in becoming a regular for Brighton, I see no reason why Cedric cannot do the same. He has power, heading ability, the confidence to bring the ball forwards, and great positional awareness in the sense that he never seems to lose his man. Expect big things from him. Byrne also had a very good game in the RB position - I think he’s worth persisting with as he is such a threat going forwards - liked the way he linked up with Pilkington on the wing. Balogun seems a class act on and off the pitch, and I think he could be the best signing we've made in a while. Struggling to see a way back for Dunkley tbh.

Naismith didn’t have his best game, but he was being played out of position tbf. Would put Pearce/Robinson when fit at LB and move Naismith up to left wing to utilise his crossing ability more.

Morsy and Williams had pretty solid games in central midfield - not sure if anyone else has noticed this but Williams is our best ‘tackler’ imo. So often he seems to win possession back for us when we are under pressure. I was dubious when he signed, but he’s become a vital member of the team pretty much since he joined.

Jacobs and Lowe were ineffective again, although Lowe does deserve some credit for his part in the goal. Jacobs offers nothing, and is not good enough for this level. He doesn’t even come up with the occasional good moment like Jamal does anymore. I don’t think it’s right to write Lowe off completely yet, as it is his first season in the division, but Jacobs has had about two and a half seasons with us in the Championship, as well as some time with Wolves, and on all of those occasions he has failed (barring the odd game where he has played well). He served us well in both our promotion-winning seasons and is a good League 1 player, but isn’t good enough for this league imo. I would try and keep him if we do go down though. Either way, neither of those two should be playing imo as there are much better options on the bench.

Moore did put in a shift, but like KDZ said, he really needs a twin striker playing alongside him to run onto and capitalise on his knockdowns. He’s similar to Fortuné and Heskey in that regard. He also seems quite slow - often I see him get into one on one positions and then mess up the opportunity as he allows the defenders to catch up with him. But yeah, we definitely need another striker to play alongside him. I remember in the past we’ve been linked with Lyle Taylor and Karlan Grant, who both ended up going to our rivals - I’m really annoyed we missed out on those as I think a natural finisher who could run onto Moore’s knockdowns would be great for us. A Moore/Taylor or Moore/Grant partnership would rip the division up imo. I hope missing out on them isn’t the difference between staying up and going down.

Unfortunately, Marshall continues to look nervy and is prone to potentially costly mistakes. It isn’t really what you’d expect from a keeper with his experience and with a fairly solid defence in front of him now tbh - not sure what’s gone wrong for him here but hopefully he’ll get better. We struggle to score goals, so the last thing we need is him making errors at the back. He’s been one of the worst keepers in the division this season and I really wouldn’t have predicted that when we signed him in the summer. I’d still stick with him over Jones though, who has his own problems.

Anyway, that was a decent game imo. Obviously glad to get the three points. Millwall were pretty awful tbh - brought hardly any fans, and their team kind of demonstrated how little there is to separate the sides in this division (Murray Wallace is one of the worst players I’ve ever seen lol). We had a bit of luck (which we were due after ‘Boro), but so did they, and in the end I thought we played the better football and deserved our win. I honestly feel like we’d be right up there with a half-decent manager, but it’s kind of pointless talking about that now. The only changes I'd like to see for Reading are Dobre and Garner coming in for Jacobs and Lowe, and Gelhardt coming on a bit earlier to allow him to have more of an impact on the game.

I’m hopeful based on the last few performances that we have enough to stay up - it’ll take a big effort, but if the results go our way in the six pointers I think we’ll scrape survival. As mentioned on here, March will be a season-defining month for us.

 

[hindleymonwafc]

Would anyone prefer survival under Cook to sacking him then relegation ?... I know I would but I'm a Grammar school boy.

 

[Pubey]

I was waiting for this to come up as i remember folks saying that after our 2-2 at the Den that Rowett was no good based on that one game. Yet since then Rowett had Millwall in top 6 and we've not left the bottom 3. He's now 7 off the play offs when he took over they were about 7 off the bottom 3.

Millwall had a really poor display against us but we still had to rely on them missing an open net, ref missing cast iron penalty and them scoring for us at home.

Rowett also got as many wins in 20 league games with someone elses squad as Cook managed with all his own signings a pre season and 8m in 34 games. Also won as many away games in 11 games than Cook in approaching 40 games. If Rowett joined us when he joined Millwall and had the same points per game ratio he'd have us on about 45 points level on points with 12th.

But yeah don't want none of that...

where was the cast-iron penalty? the handball would have been harsh, the Byrne one in real-time was hard to call, and even with the replay, it's not 100% clear where the contact was. It looks like it was probably just inside the box, but enough doubt for the ref to understandably err on the side of caution because it definitely wasn't clear.

I thought Millwall were very poor and on the balance of play we probably just about deserved the win, but a little bit of luck did go our way (for once)

 

[moonay]

Would anyone prefer survival under Cook to sacking him then relegation ?... I know I would but I'm a Grammar school boy.

Absolutely........and I'm not.

 

[Made in Wigan]

where was the cast-iron penalty? the handball would have been harsh, the Byrne one in real-time was hard to call, and even with the replay, it's not 100% clear where the contact was. It looks like it was probably just inside the box, but enough doubt for the ref to understandably err on the side of caution because it definitely wasn't clear.

Are you David Coote?

 

[TRUE BELIEVER]

We’re talking about Championship level management. They are the pertinent facts in this discussion, not those involving games in the Irish pub league for example. Your argument has no credence.

Football is all about opinions and unfortunately on this occasion mine is different than yours.

I would still not give Rowett the job, purely based on his performances in the last two seasons at Stoke and Millwall. I accept that his previous jobs brought him success, but the same could be said of Cook, however his flame has not burned brightly of late and as I say if the form of both teams continues Cooks record will eclipse Rowetts by the end of the season.

Just my opinion and I respect that yours is different, time will tell who's opinion was right.

 

[king_dezeeuw06]

where was the cast-iron penalty? the handball would have been harsh, the Byrne one in real-time was hard to call, and even with the replay, it's not 100% clear where the contact was. It looks like it was probably just inside the box, but enough doubt for the ref to understandably err on the side of caution because it definitely wasn't clear.

I thought Millwall were very poor and on the balance of play we probably just about deserved the win, but a little bit of luck did go our way (for once)

The cast iron one was i thought was Byrne, i thought both in real time on replay it was a penalty. Very pleased we got away with that.

Not questioning Millwall being poor on the day and glad to have the luck go our way.

 

[king_dezeeuw06]

Would anyone prefer survival under Cook to sacking him then relegation ?... I know I would but I'm a Grammar school boy.

Survival trumps everything, Cook isn't goin anywhere so the idea of sack him isn't an option at this point regardless of what any of us think.

Best case scenario is Cook comes good and makes us a good team that get results and play nice football, not just surviving but making us succesful going forward. I suspect most Latics fans wanting him to go would be delighted if he did that and proved them wrong. Being proven right about him at the end of the season is very little consolation if we are in L1 and the financial disaster that will bring with is.

But we don't live in best case scenarios, in reality i think most folks think keeping Cook this long has been the cause of us being in a relegation battle we probably shouldn't be in. Come the summer whatever happens I think his position needs re-evaluating but i dont think it will be - i think he's here no matter what.

 

[TRUE BELIEVER]

The cast iron one was i thought was Byrne, i thought both in real time on replay it was a penalty. Very pleased we got away with that.

Not questioning Millwall being poor on the day and glad to have the luck go our way.

Just had another look at that incident on Sky and the contact is on the line so should have been given as a penalty, however if you look at the referees position his line of sight is hindered by Bodvarsson and I think that was the reason it was not given.

 

[Coddenchips]

I don't know what the official guidelines are on penalty decisions but I would imagine they shouldn't give a penalty unless they are 100% certain in their own minds it was a penalty. It was marginal and he wouldn't have a proper view from where he was. From my vantage point in the West Stand I thought it was just outside, but having seen the replay it was just inside. It was very hard to call.

 

[Made in Wigan]

Football is all about opinions and unfortunately on this occasion mine is different than yours.

I would still not give Rowett the job, purely based on his performances in the last two seasons at Stoke and Millwall. I accept that his previous jobs brought him success, but the same could be said of Cook, however his flame has not burned brightly of late and as I say if the form of both teams continues Cooks record will eclipse Rowetts by the end of the season.

Just my opinion and I respect that yours is different, time will tell who's opinion was right.

Fair enough, but your assumption that they have similar records at this level was factually wrong.

Perhaps we should ask Royle to run the pair through Championship Manager and see who comes out on top

 

[Stormin' Norman]

Football is all about opinions and unfortunately on this occasion mine is different than yours.

I would still not give Rowett the job, purely based on his performances in the last two seasons at Stoke and Millwall. I accept that his previous jobs brought him success, but the same could be said of Cook, however his flame has not burned brightly of late and as I say if the form of both teams continues Cooks record will eclipse Rowetts by the end of the season.

Just my opinion and I respect that yours is different, time will tell who's opinion was right.

Then why didnt you just say that yesterday afternoon, you could have saved us all the bother of trying to talk some sense in to you!

 

[TRUE BELIEVER]

Then why didnt you just say that yesterday afternoon, you could have saved us all the bother of trying to talk some sense in to you![/QUOTE}

I did Norm. Unfortunately you didn't understand my reasoning. Try a little harder next time.

 

[moonay]

Then why didnt you just say that yesterday afternoon, you could have saved us all the bother of trying to talk some sense in to you!

We know not to even bother with you Norm.

(Now, is that a snipe, or a counter-snipe? ).

 

[The_Pon]

My take is simple.

I don't rate Rowett, and in absolute terms, I'm glad he didn't come here.

But, speaking in relative terms, would I take him instead of Cook? In a heartbeat.

 

[N"Zogbia's fan club]

Oh I'm sorry - next time i will pm the individual, drive to their house and validate authenticity

And so you should before rubbishing the club at every opportunity before fact checking.

 

[Hampton]

And so you should before rubbishing the club at every opportunity before fact checking.

Really, just really - come on and join the real world chap

 

[N"Zogbia's fan club]

Really, just really - come on and join the real world chap

Your world? No thanks.