Rotherham United 1-4 Watford Fc - 16/03/2021

I doubt the players are aiming to catch Norwich at all. They are just aiming to win as many games as possible. If it happens (which seems hugely unlikely) then fine - but I very much doubt this is in their thoughts. To coin an old cliche, they will be just “taking one game at a time” and trying to win each one.

 

Although football is a team game, what motivates players is an individual, personal thing.

That's where good managers, imo, come to the fore. They know which players need an arm around the shoulder, which need geeing up and which need a kick up the butt.

Personally I think the best approach, and the one favoured by most managers, is to focus on the next game. Don't worry about other teams or the bigger picture. Just treat the next game as the most important game of the season.

Keep winning and it literally doesn't matter what other teams do. We will go up.

 

All evidence has suggested for some time now, that Swansea could not sustain their league position based on chance creation, possession etc. Nothing even remotely suggests the same of Norwich, quite the opposite in fact. Hence whey they are tied with us in the form table with us having scored 2 more goals than them over the course of 10 games. We now have a much tougher 9 games than they do. I admire your optimism I really do, but that’s all it is. There is zero logic behind the notion of Norwich being ripe for a dip in form at all, or even if that does inexplicably happen, to suggest we can repeat our from over the past 10 games, over the following 9 significantly harder fixtures.

 

Love the optimism coming from you, but the difference is that Norwich are playing well, whereas Swansea look a bit spent.

They’ve both got ugly managers though.

 

That's not quite right. If we win all our games it takes us to 99 points. That includes a win over Norwich, which negates their game in hand, and almost certainly means we would have the better goal difference. So they would have to take 21 points from their remaining 9 games, starting tonight, to get to 100. That means winning 7 of them, or 6 with 3 draws. They could actually finish below us by losing only 2 more games, provided one was against us.

 

Success isn't injured as far as I'm aware.

 

Another solid performance, but fair play to Rotherham for at least trying to come at us rather than having 11 men behind the ball.

Zinc is ace, what a player.

 

I sort of get what @zztop is getting at but agree with others the best approach is simply to take each game as it comes and treat that as the priority. And assuming we're still in contention for automatic promotion on the eve of the final 4 games, we need to approach them with a mentality that Norwich, Brentford and Swansea have everything to fear from us. We found out in 15/16 at Brighton that us throwing down the gauntlet can make everyone else wobble.

 

Oh well in that case, it's a shoo in! HMS Pisstheleague is on track. Just need to win 13 games in a row, a mere three more than anyone else has managed since the rebrand to the Championship in 2004!

 

First person to say that we have 9 Cup Finals to play should be banned from this forum (P9 L9 F0 A54)

 

We need to hope this is now Swansea falling away, a draw or a loss in the welsh Derby on Saturday would be great.

We need maximum points from the dross between now and Norwich maintaining the gap between us and Brentford, with them ideally dropping some points as well. Then we need Norwich promoted by the time we play them.

That way hopefully Swansea won’t matter by the time we play them, Norwich will be on the beach and Brentford we can just avoid defeat against as we’ll hopefully be at least 3 points ahead.

 

As it stands 7 out of the 9 teams we have to play have something to play for, whether it be scrapping against relegation, going for promotion or the play-offs. Now isn't the time for our opposition to hang around in defence hoping to catch us on the break. This could work in our favour, of the two matches where there is nothing for the opposition to play for, one of them is Luton away; without fans and a short journey I'm more confident about that one than had home fans been allowed.

 

It's not worth over thinking the last 4, we have 5 matches to play before then, anything can happen.

 

Absolutely, I’m just trying to design a situation that avoids the inevitable angst of us having to win certain key games to gain promotion. It would be lovely if it panned out like that be it inevitably won’t. If we can get maximum points between now and Norwich we’ll be in decent shape regardless, though.

 

Remember what happens to us in Cup Finals ...

 

Wtf! Farke is not the most handsome guy in the world, ranked, but he looks quite like a Teutonic knight/Templar, and definitely has his own vibe. To compare him to Cooper is despicable.

 

IMO Swansea are not as good as their position suggests and if we assume that Naarch are away and gone then it is between us and Brentford for 2cnd . We do seem to be the side in form going into the run in and I would suggest that we have a better squad than Brentford . My only concern are injuries to the current strikers as the back up forwards could be our Achilles heel. That said are Brentfords 2cnd string forwards any good ?

 

Good to see you've moved on from 'top 2 is impossible' to '1st place is impossible'. Certainly a step in the right direction

 

I think Cooper has seen what is inside the Ark of the Covenant.

 

Most people’s opinions shift based on the evidence available to them. With every round of games we’re presented with new evidence to readjust our opinions as appropriate.

If you’re familiar with betting, it works in a pretty similar way, odds adjust according to how events unfold in real time.

Like me, after yesterday’s games the bookies odds will have adjusted a little accordingly, are you going to pull them up on it?

 

True, but Anthony Valentine’s portrayal was Gerald Harper on steroids

 

Our record since Troy got injured and we changed formation...

Played 9. Won 8 Lost 1 Drawn 0

Goals scored 21
Goals against 6

Different players to have scored. 10

Last night was our biggest away win since Feb 2019 when we scored 5 at Cardiff. For a side who've struggled on the road for large parts of the campaign, we’ve now won 4 of our last 5 away.

As I posted last night, since Xisco took over no club in the division has won more points than us. He currently has a 70% win ratio, though of course these comparisons are slightly skewed by the fact he’s only had 17 matches in charge so you can’t really compare him to the likes of GT, Boothroyd or even the likes of Zola or Gracia who had more than a season in charge.

Last night was the first match since the mid 1980s in which we had three goals scored by different players whose names all start with the same letter. The previous time it happened was Barnes, Blissett and Bardsley. Such a pity Sánchez couldn’t get one too last night after coming on!

 

"Like a new signing" in fact.

 

The ideal scenario, yes.

 

Yes of course, take each game as it comes, but you cannot hide players away from the reality of the challenges. And so it is important that there is a common focus for the group that undepins that we must win every game, and that should be, in my mind the top slot. This is just coming from my own team management experience, and I acknowledge not everyone would agree.

 

We are never going to catch N'arrchh but if we keep this form up Swansea and Brentford have no chance of keeping up with us. Promotion will be secured before we play either of them.

Oh and stop responding to the obvious trolls amongst us, dont give them the oxygen they crave.

 

Isn’t it lovely to enjoy watching football again?

 

What really pleases me is that with the current 16 or so players we're using, they all seem to know their role, and even when say Hughes and Chabs go off we don't suddenly look inept at moving the ball forwards. I am not convinced about Sanchez tbh, OK footballer but zero bite, but hey he moves the ball OK and does a job. With our good forward outlets our midfield only has to do the basics, so we look a strong squad right now.
I'm really positive, we're 50/50 top two, 90pct play offs, and even if we fail I think we will be a hell of a team in this division next season (OK even without Sarr and Kiko)...

 

Is there a time frame for the return of 'Mr Watford'?

 

On course? Isn't it a boat?
Boat-train?

 

I know it is a bit churlish, but why on earth did the ref stop play for the drop ball that lead to Rotherham's goal??

 

Well, a fictitious one. But he was a 'gentleman burglar'.
And there are connotations, I think, with Sir Stamford Raffles, who, amongst a list of achievements, helped found Singapore and London Zoo; and who sounds like a right proper smoothy.

 

Singapore slings were invented in the Long Bar at the eponymous hotel.