Rotherham United Manager Paul Warne says that the six-one loss to Derby County yesterday was ‘hugely disappointing’ saying that he didn’t think the scoreline flattered the Rams.
Speaking to FREEVIEW the Millers Boss said, ‘They (Derby) played some excellent stuff and we failed to stay with them.’
Warney also went on to bemoan the fact that his side were missing some ‘main men’ for instance Will Vaulks and Joe Mattock (both suspended) and Michael Smith who was ‘ill’ although still had a place on the bench plus the fact that Zak Vyner played when he wasn’t really fit to play.
Derby were better than us – they’ve got some very good players who all proved it on the day and there is no getting away from that.
What I’m a bit puzzled about is hasn’t our management team always said something similar to ‘when we’ve a player out or not playing very well there is always someone to replace him’? Well, if that’s the case why was an unfit Vyner playing, why did we have a player on the bench who was never going to get on?
I’ve said this before but, for me, it all comes down to the fact that we’ve not got enough players in our squad.
We’ve had two players injured for the majority of the season in Darren Potter and Jamie Proctor as well as Kyle Vassell whose been in and out of the treatment room. We’ve known that Potter wouldn’t play from almost the start of the season and it was unfortunate that Sean Raggett, who was brought in on loan from Norwich, also got injured. So, I think, it was important that we brought in someone in January who could fill that spot. Matt Crooks came in but of his eleven appearances eight have been from the bench. For me Crooks is an ‘old fashioned’ player and isn’t afraid to get a tackle in and chase a player down. Yes, he gives free-kicks away, yes he gets yellow cards but he, in my eyes, is a fighter.
And that’s what we need in the team now – eleven fighters.
Warne also said that he didn’t remember his goalkeeper (Marek Rodak) having many saves to make in the game. True, he didn’t, but I thought his defence let him down badly yesterday though, saying that, I thought he could have done better with at least one of the goals.
‘I’m disappointed and a little bit embarrassed,’ Warney said, ‘but that game does not sum up our season. I’m not blaming the lads it’s my fault. I just want to write this day off as a bad one.’