Rotherham United Manager Paul Warne says his team have to be ‘mentally tougher’ after today’s loss away against Doncaster Rovers.
The Millers had taken the lead in the first half with a cracking free-kick from debut boy Jake Hastie, but, as has been the case many times before, Rovers equalised and then went on to win in the final minutes of the game.
Speaking to Freeview the Millers Boss said, ‘Confidence is key in sport and their first goal gave them the confidence to nick it at the end. It knocked the wind out of our sails.’
Warney is exactly right. Their equaliser seemed to not only give them confidence but appeared to start a panic throughout the Rotherham side – but it could have been so, so different.
‘I thought our first half performance was one of the best forty-five we’ve had all season and we had a couple of great chances from corners in the first half,’ the Gaffer carried on, ‘but for whatever reason it isn’t coming off for us at the moment.’
Rotherham were by far the better of the sides in the first half and although they didn’t have a lot of chances there was some good football and we were dominating and even the first ten or fifteen minutes of the second half we were doing OK – until they scored.
It’s as though we need to score three goals to be able to hold on to a lead. And, to be honest, I don’t know if it is a confidence thing but for the last twenty minutes of the game the players looked jaded, tired and yet we are supposed to be a fit side.
Let’s hope the second half is a learning curve and we can play for the whole ninety plus minutes next Saturday like we did in the first half today.
Warne said, ‘If we don’t learn from this I won’t be their teacher for long if we keep throwing away leads or can’t see out games.’
I never wanted PW as manager and have never really rated him. I cannot accept some of this guff; it’s as if it’s outside of his control. So things turned bad when they scored, as it apparently “knocked the wind out of our sails”! A pretty flimsy boat then I’d say? “For whatever reason it isn’t coming off for us…” A manager should bloody well know the reason. “If we don’t learn from this…” Well, I’ve learned from it and it’s called a new manager. “I won’t be their teacher for long if we keep throwing away leads or can’t see out games.” We don’t need a teacher but a coach and manager. We are a soft touch and are massively underperforming and to me the reason is blindingly obvious. Grrrrrr!
I just read PW’s piece on “We need to be stronger and braver”. For me it sums up why he shouldn’t be manager. Firstly, he correctly in my opinion identifies a problem in the team ie that they need to develop “mental toughness.” It’s a crucial concept in modern sport which is about maintaining form, consistency and confidence under pressure. But then (shockingly to me) he continued; “I’m not sure how to go about that, certainly I’m not turning up for training with boxing gloves…” Frankly, I despair; add in his negativity and tactical limitations and TS must make a change asap.
I’ve said for a while, particularly in this league, we need what I consider to be a couple of old fashioned big defenders. They players have to be taught it’s not just about playing football it’s about reading the game, knowing what your marker is thinking, thinking if you need to get stuck in then you should do.