Rob Edwards Sacked

Edwards may just be concerned about the 15 mins it would take him to get back to his own penalty area.

 

The winner of last year's "Mr. Madman" competition?

 

Within the first minute of the MK Dons game Gaspar receives the ball and Edwards points to tell him either send the ball forward or run forward. He does neither, instead turning back and taking the easy option of a pass to the centre back, he just can't do it. We need the wing backs to play like wingers, at the moment Gaspar doesn't look like a full back or a winger. I'd try and flog him back to Spain in the next 48 hours on loan.

 

I was sat in the crap seats in the LGT on Saturday, so being so close to the pitch it was painfully obvious just how consistently far advanced Kamara was in relation to Gaspar and how much he called for the ball by comparison, and how pointless it was to have Sarr on that side with him.

 

He lacks belief, which is quite concerning giving his experience.

 

He has been at one club for his whole career and now moved to a new one in a country he doesn't know. He's probably having an adjustment period and it's not something he's used to.

Adjusting to a foreign country can be difficult.

 

Fair, he might turn out alright once he knows what the league is about, although one thing he can't just magically develop now is pace

 

No doubt, but with his experience you'd think he'd be a little bit more confident in what he's doing. He's playing like an academy full back, minus the pace of course.

Look at how Cassetti was. The bloke was older and probably even slower. He just didn't give a fark and played his own game.

Gaspar just lacks that swagger of somebody who's played his career exclusively in one of the best leagues in the world

 

That's him!

 

I think he's coming across as a manager who can get the squad together but has been quite lucky so far. Not sure what our tactics today were other than let Pedro roam wherever he wants on the pitch and carry the rest of the team. Kamara looked ineffective and dejected on the right then Sema got injured so a change forced upon Edwards and all of a sudden we had our tails up, with Kamara bombing up and down the left like a man possessed. We are playing with two wing backs but don't have any player in the back three or midfield two that can quickly switch play to the other side, Kayembe attempted it and hit it straight out of play and Choudhury tried the same and passed it straight to them.

Much like last time we went down, we are where we are in the table because of individual quality and an ok defence rather than anything approaching a coherent unit.

 

I don't want to criticise Edwards too much for playing Kamara out of position as Gaspar is the alternative, at least Kamara definitely is a flyer, and to be quite honest, I don't see what anyone else would get out of RWBs like those two or midfielders like Kayembe and Choudhury (Kayembe tonight at least did look better, I don't know if Rob gave him any new instructions, but he did a decent impression of Doucoure at times!). Under Ivic we had a similarly unbalanced squad, and we very rarely put in convincing performances, let's wait and see if/when Louza and Davis are back and he has a proper RWB to work with!

 

The Asprilla (who I didn't think had his best game at all) for Bayo sub worked an absolute treat, although I do appreciate that move won't work all the time!

 

One observation I've made is that he likes to see players tracking back (Choudhury and Kayembe especially do this) which tends to leave a gap between midfield and the front 3 (or 4 dependent on formation) so it is tricky to counter attack. Hopefully once we get this transition right, we will start to purr. I did see glimpses of this with Kayembe getting forward more and looking for a good pass. It didn't always come off but we're getting there I think.

 

I'm sure based on our games so far that Rob is well aware we'll have a much higher chance of promotion if we keep those two, so obviously it'll make his job much easier if we keep them.

 

He's just going to keep playing the same dysfunctional system with square pegs in round holes and not making any substitutions until injuries or the 70th minute all season isn't he?

 

Edwards wants attacking full-backs/wing-backs, doesn't matter whether we're playing with a back 3 or a back 4, we just don't have the players on the right side for it (nor do we have much creativity in midfield). For what it's worth, we looked our most sloppy at the back against QPR in a back 4, and we didn't particularly look great going forward even though they set themselves up very openly. As for his substitutions, maybe he could have brought Davis on sooner, but he is only just coming back to fitness, and we don't really have any other alternatives

 

Not wedded to a system so the Pozzo supporters tell us so no need to worry on this count!

 

Grrrr damn those pesky Pozzo Supporters.

 

Well obviously they don’t have the inside track on exactly what RE wants, like yourself .

 

Best squad in the league and sitting precariously in the Play offs. Not good enough. I will give him 5 more games.

Anything less than 12 points from that and he needs to go.

 

Just like Ivic I’ll give him 10 games for things to settle down and to see signs of progress, but at the moment it just seems exactly the same (from both the manager and the owner that is) just minus the solid defence.

 

This was supposed to finally be the season we got an identity on the pitch. Instead we still look consistently clueless and lacking any real or obvious game plan, and consistently have square pegs in round holes to make sure we play this awful three at the back formation.

We've struggled to dominate more or less any game we've played in, we still can barely string two passes together, the clowns at the back still constantly ping long balls up to nobody, we still start slow, we still lack intensity and attacking intent and we're still mostly very boring to watch play football.

Not impressed, so far.

 

Just like Ivic (when we were rarely dominated, but we didn't often dominate ourselves), we're missing key players, does anyone seriously think any other manager would get Choudhury and Kayembe to become passing machines, and to get something out of Kamara or Gaspar on the right side? The defence has always had a mistake in it, even two seasons ago when we barely conceded any goals, except they're all 2 years older and teams aren't as terrified of us anymore

 

No 'best squad in the league' has Kamara battling it out with Gaspar...

 

Yes, it's the lack of intensity that alarms me most. RE has said he was 'angry' at how low key we started yesterday....but it's been pretty well that way all season so far, so why hasn't he got that sorted out yet? If we were to really go at teams in the first 20 minutes in this league, with the forward options we have we could regularly be 2-0 up against players already run ragged....much easier to play a more 'controlled' style from that position.

I hoped the 'reset' would have included RE introducing a more positive, aggressive approach & I'm concerned there has been no evidence of that yet.

 

A couple of things I've noticed which may be of concern, first of all, we're not pressing anywhere near as much as I thought we would, perhaps a function of Kayembe and Choudhury playing almost every minute they've been available for in the league so far, which I hope will change when Louza, Cleverley, and more distantly, TDB come back. The other thing is that in the Boro game (the only one I've been to so far this season), they were first out in both halves, I don't know, but maybe this is connected to us starting slowly in each half?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55283941
5th, just inside the playoffs and 4 outside the top 2. It is quite funny looking at that table and seeing where the teams around is ended up, Stoke fell like a stone, Boro to an extent too, Bournemouth fell out of the playoff spots for a while before climbing back in, and Swansea's luck finally ran out towards the end of the season

 

That was around the time Hughes and Masina came back, if we could just hang in there until January, we have the chance to strengthen and then maybe we can emulate what we did under Xisco, though I wouldn't bank on it!

 

We have to hope the introduction (and continued fitness) of Hause and Davis will give us a lift before that, further helped by the introduction of Louza.

 

Plus it pretty much negates any plan from the opposition to time waste.

 

Edwards disappointed that we didn't get more crosses in to the box from out wide once we put Davis on.

“We had two out-and-out number nines on the pitch as well as Joao, and in that situation we have to get the ball out wide and then cross it. It’s what we are telling the players from the side,” said Edwards.

If that's the case, then he can't keep playing a left footer at RWB, and he can't be happy with Gaspar who just kept playing feeble short passes inside whenever he received the ball after coming on, as opposed to trying to making something happen. All our crosses as decent play came down the left side of the pitch all game.

Another thing, Edwards spoke before the game that, although Rotherham aren't only a long ball side, and do “mix their game up more than people think, they'll "give us a tough time.”. Despite that, Edwards stated that “We don’t realty want to change our attitude wherever we play, and we don’t talk about being different away from home. I don’t think we need to play differently. "

Maybe Sierralta wasn't fit, but despite recognising Rotherham do have a significant aerial threat but choosing to put Kabasele as the middle CB instead of Sierralta or WTE to supposedly stick to our more ball playing principles (despite Kabs not even being that good with the ball) could be seen as a bit too foolhardy or arrogant. One of those two would have done much more to try and head away that cross for their goal.

Edwards isn't entirely blameless for only getting a draw.

I also can't believe that I'm having to cross my fingers than Ngakia possibly returning to the starting XI next week will improve us and make us seem a more balanced side.

 

We are starting games poorly, I don't quite know why (perhaps it is just a statistical anomaly, perhaps it's the other teams wanting to burst out of the traps), but it's a stretch with our current options to suggest if we just put a bit more in early on, we can effectively put games to bed early on! We just simply haven't looked that good at any point this season, and even in the last Championship season, we didn't blow teams away early on often

 

I still think Sierralta is better than Kabasele, but Sierralta has bottled out of a few blocks and challenges of late, hopefully the lineup yesterday was Edwards' way of sending a message to Sierralta? At a push, Hause and Cathcart might be selected to help with passing out from the back, but I highly doubt Sierralta and Kabasele are being picked or dropped on the basis of their ball-playing ability as they're both pretty *****