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The good news is, we were miles better than the dross of last Friday and played some decent football at times, with Hoillett’s goal a beauty.
The bad news is that we threw away 2 points against a really poor side. We are destined for mid table if we can’t beat sides like that and only have ourselves to blame. We had the chances (2 fantastic opportunities in fact) and the possession at 2-1 up to kill the game but failed to do so. Losing the lead twice against such a mediocre side isn’t acceptable. Being beaten by or conceding to a decent side is one thing, but this was not the case tonight. Really frustrating.
Pack was excellent but any defence with Flint in it seems liable to giving up a goal. I’d get a Bamba in if he is fit.
So annoying and just not good enough, but for such different reasons to some of the rubbish that the team has played this season.
Pack was excellent? Really?
Thought pack was poor tonight. We had enough chances to win, sometimes you win sometimea you dont.
Some stupid goals conceded down to individual mistakes
No, I wasn’t there tonight, so I wasn’t stuck in a stand high behind the goals. I watched the game on TV from the comfort of my sofa.
To me, Pack looked average at best by Championship standards. I was surprised by how poor and uninventive he was on the ball. Ralls was comfortably the better of the two.
I thought Pack played well too. Ralls does a lot of running about at 100 miles an hour which masks that often his end product is lacking. All the same I thought he played well too.
It was the 1st time I've left a City match this season and actually enjoyed the game. Then I realised it was because we were playing a poor side but it was nice to see us keep the ball a knock it around a bit.
It's a disappointing result, 2 points thrown away and missed chance to climb the table. Defending remains sloppy, a real concern and still unable to finish a team off, especially one we have dominated for most of the 90 mins.
In fact Millwall did a "Cardiff City" on us and it occurred to me that last night must be what it's like to be an opposing fan watching their team against us!!!
I can't understand an earlier post indicating Pack was excellent. Although I only watched the match on TV Pack kept kicking the ball to the opposition and was far from excellent and along with Flint was one of the worst players on show. Millwall were incredibly poor and we threw away 2 points last night with abject defending.
I was me! Pack looked very steady and did all the simple things well. He kept the ball moving and switched the play when the simple ball was to hoof it. He didn't panic and always looked for the simple pass. I think that he can be credited in part with us playing a little bit more football last night rather than launching it, which nearly always ends up in us losing possession.
I know that for some that isn't enough, but not all players are capable of the defence splitting pass, or superb dribble. As someone else said, Ralls' all action game is more eye catching (he had another good game last night), but they compliment each other well.
So I stand by what I said
Doing the simple things is all well and good, but the fact is that Pack gave away possession cheaply on a number of occasions last night. He looked anything but the type of player who is going to improve City's method of play on that showing. Indeed, he looked poorer in possession than most of the team.
I don't agree with that.
I lost count of how many times we just sent it long (actually LESS than we normally do, strangely enough), and despite Ward doing a decent job, we just lost possession. It is sort of inevitable.
At least Pack was trying to pass the ball and, from recollection anyway, he did it reasonably well. He certainly stood out for me as being one of our few players who were playing the ball on the ground and to feet, which was refreshing to see.
Nothing fancy, just steady - which is just what we need to play football rather than just belting it up field.
Very welcomed.
(I'm making him sound like Zidane now! ;-) )
We just can't seem to defend any more, not like two years ago. Peltier has been very consistent, Morrison and Flint are too similar and below par, and Bennett has been way below what we've seen from him in previous seasons. We now seem to be able to score goals from all over the pitch, but we've had that since Warnock has been here.
After relegation, and losing six players in Arter, Camarasa, Niasse, Gunnarsson, Zohore and Manga , it was always going to be difficult. But our signings have been unimpressive and we are relying on Ward and Bogle, two players who will be gone at the end of the season and Bacuna, who was signed as cover last season, and Tomlin , who was also on his way out for the last two seasons (and who will be gone next summer too).
Having said that it could be a lot worse, look at Stoke, Huddersfield. So to be where we are and in with a chance in most games is not bad. Considering we are not even playing well to be on 18 points and not far off Play Off places or even top spot is pretty good in my book.
Pack did try to play the ball on the ground more often than most, but what surprised me was how often he gave away possession cheaply against a poor Millwall side. I thought he was supposed to be better than that. I haven't been to any games this season (Birmingham will be my first), but I've seen plenty live on TV and I've thought Pack has generally looked alright without being great. However, I thought Tuesday was the worst I've seen him play.
He was very effective before his injury, you could argue that the 1st 20 minutes against Reading away was the best passing performance we had and he was at the heart of that. Since his return I don't think there have been any stand out performances and he was part of a midfield ripped apart by West Brom a couple of weeks ago where they scored a couple of goals from positions where you would have expected a player in Pack's position to have an influence.
I thought he was better on Tuesday though some of that may be down to the relative strength/weakness of the Millwall midfield who generally did as effective job of giving possession away to us as we did to them!
Before his injury Pack played just one full game against Luton and 20 minutes against Reading. I didn't see any of the Luton game but I did see his performance against Reading. He looked alright, but I think his efforts in those 20 minutes were overstated. I'm keen to see how he progresses because I've seen nothing from him so far which suggests that he's anything other than a bang average Championship midfielder.
Reminds me of Whiplash
“NOT MY F*****G TEMPO”
Edit - oops wrong thread
I don't think that the difference between a 'bang average Championship midfielder' and an above average player in the Championship is actually that much (and we have had plenty of the former after all!)
I actually don't remember Pack when he played for the Wurzels, so he didn't stand out (to me anyway), but then again, I rarely notice opposition players unless they REALLY do something eye catching, as I'm too busy berating our own players ;-)
But I DO think that doing the simple things well does elevate a player, in the rough and tumble of the Championship, to above average, as the temptation must be just to get into the scrap that every other player gets dragged into, especially in midfield. It is rare to see a player make time for themselves and try to pass the ball, even if it is a simple pass, especially to open up play into other areas of the pitch. That is quite a hard thing to do.
Btw, I'm not saying that he was great: he just stood out to me as better than the rest, in doing what was needed.