Nah, it was good yesterday. The midfield linked up well, some nice passages of play. Solid-ish at the back, but still a few gaps that need closing and things ironing out. Majority of our shots were from outside the area, so it's pretty low-margin stuff, so when that golden chance (or two with Paik's) appear, then you have to bury them.
The intent was there though to control the game and try and go forward with the ball, that was the most pleasing thing.
Our downfall all season is twofold.
Fairly solid defensively but defenders prone to really silly errors or lapses of concentration. If Aiwu (who was much better second half) makes those errors against Leicester we will be punished. Added to the general brain farts is a lack of defensive cohesion at set pieces which has been our issue for a long time now. I think Rowett has already improved us here, as did Tony.
Some genuinely good football in the middle of the park but a lack of killer ball, players over elaborating or too many (Bacuna I am looking at you) shots from outside the box. Albeit Bacuna can also point to his impressive goal tally..
The team feels like it could, if playing without the pressure of relegation take somebody apart.
Paik is the difference, calm, assured and confident. So there is less rush and panic as the ball is cleared. Having said that we didn’t look particularly potent. Some lovely passages of play and a brilliant performance overall, but no need to get carried away.
Paik and Dozell. Calm, assured footballers. Mowbray footballers.
Nikola ZigicDid you think we set up negatively?
Not at all. We looked well balanced apart from having to play Stansfield as a loan striker, and that’s not his fault. He’s much better playing just behind a target man.
Did you find watching us enjoyable?
Yes. A lot to admire, both offensively & defensively. Still a couple of bad defensive errors that could have cost us goals, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Did we show enough attacking intent?
Yes, but the final ball let us down too often, e.g. JJ’s unusually poor through ball which if accurate had a high chance of a goal. Bacuna got through a lot of good work, but a tendency to over-play or shoot when there were too many bodies in the way.
Full credit to GR and PR for instilling more confidence and desire in the players. They looked like they enjoyed playing rather than struggling with pressure/expectation
ChrisNah, it was good yesterday. The midfield linked up well, some nice passages of play. Solid-ish at the back, but still a few gaps that need closing and things ironing out. Majority of our shots were from outside the area, so it's pretty low-margin stuff, so when that golden chance (or two with Paik's) appear, then you have to bury them.
The intent was there though to control the game and try and go forward with the ball, that was the most pleasing thing.
Does this mean there are signs he's learned and will become more adventurous with better players, do you think?
It definitely wasn’t negative, but I do think Preston let us have possession - which I’m sure GR expected. Still went looking for a 2nd rather than shut up shop after the 1st.
Will be interesting to see our approach against other teams over the next few weeks.
My underlying worry, if Rowett goes on to keep us up quite easily, which I'm not totally complaining about, next season the first time we lose a couple of matches on the trot, all we'll hear is bring back Rowett!!
Lazy pigeon holing. Rowett is a pragmatist but people forget the team he inherited at Blues first time round. They were a mess and amongst the lowest wage bill in the division. He maximised what he could.
At Derby they played good football and scored over 70 goals in one season.
He shat the bed at Stoke, as did loads of managers there in that era.
Pragmatic at Millwall but again limited resources. Did well but just like at Blues fans wanted more football wise.
He's a pragmatist for sure and sets up teams to be solid first and foremost. The stardust comes once you have the solidity and the personnel.
He's very competent. Jury out on whether he can take teams to the next level but knows what he's doing.
All of that said, Mowbray next season please
The football was okay without causing them too many problems.
The most important thing for me was we had a clear structure and everybody knew their jobs, we didn't have that with Venus.
I hope that is the last we see of Drameh at LB, so much more balance with Buchanan playing there. Bielik return is timely too - back to his best yesterday.
Nikola ZigicDid you think we set up negatively?
Did you find watching us enjoyable?
Did we show enough attacking intent?
Just interested to see the reaction, I've seen some say it was classic negative Rowett and others say we should have been 4 up by half time.
You know I’m no fan of Rowett.
I thought we set up with some good attacking intent. I know we miss a proper number nine but some of the interplay in midfield was really good to watch. My big concern pre match was we wouldn’t be able to fashion chances but it felt like we did pretty well at this.
And bar the scares at the end which weren’t good for my ticker I enjoyed it.
Thought we played well just abit toothless in the final third.
Still think we would see the best out of Stansfield playing in the three behind, but then you’ll just get the Hogan moaners, just think we would be best served to let someone else do the puppy chasing role and free the kid up to have more of an impact on the game.
Aiwu and Laird were probably our poorest players yesterday but that’s being really harsh, they did enough, just lacked quality.
One thing I really liked about yesterday was how we mixed things up instead of sticking to one specific way of playing. We were happy to play intricate passes in our own box but we were also happy to hoof it up the pitch and it caused Preston problems. If they all pushed up to press us, we hit a long ball to try and catch them out. When they backed off, we passed it around and held on to possession. Seems like an obvious way to play but over the past decade, I've rarely seen it happen. It's either been hoofball or passing out from the back every time.
I definitely think we showed enough attacking intent but it's the same old problem we've had most of the season - our passing just isn't good enough. It's not the real difficult, defence-splitting passes that are the problem, it's the simple ones. We find ourselves on the counter and a simple 10 yard pass played under no pressure goes behind someone and they have to stop running. Then next time, the ball is played too far in front of them and the chance is lost. We just never seem to get it quite right.
Overall though, I thought it was a lot better than I was expecting from a Rowett side. We were much happier to play short passes and hold on to possession but I guess that's just the nature of Rowett taking charge of a Mowbray team...
Main Difference was the full backs didn’t get forward.
We are a centre forward and a centre half off a decent team. That’s no slight on Stansfield but it’s a big ask for him to play every game up front on his own and he’s good enough to play in a variety of positions.
The football at St Andrews has on the whole been much better than for a few seasons.
Away we have a soft underbelly.
1: negative set up - not really, quite a creative mf
2: enjoyed? I enjoyed the result and the after party. I did not enjoy being so anxious throughout
3: attacking intent? No. At a couple of points PNE had 6 players (2 banks of 3) in their box and just Stansfield in there for Blues when we were attacking the fringes. But no midfielders joining through the middle. What chance has he got?
I don't care about shape, enjoyment etc ATM. The season is a write off, just need to stay up as best we can and let the rise of Blues start properly.
1: negative set up - not really, quite a creative mf
2: enjoyed? I enjoyed the result and the after party. I did not enjoy being so anxious throughout
3: attacking intent? No. At a couple of points PNE had 6 players (2 banks of 3) in their box and just Stansfield in there for Blues when we were attacking the fringes. But no midfielders joining through the middle. What chance has he got?
I don't care about shape, enjoyment etc ATM. The season is a write off, just need to stay up as best we can and let the rise of Blues start properly.
agreed on this