A lot to like, plenty to worry about ... The David Rawson Rotherham United Fan Column
The Millers are in 17th spot after five games
It’s going to be one of those seasons.
I feel like it’s going to end with a sense of ”what if?”, a feeling that there was more available to us. If only, if only, if only.
If only we’d got the squad together earlier.
Tranmere Rovers and Bristol Rovers looked like teams who’d had two extra weeks of pre-season. They played instinctive passes into areas where a player was waiting.
Us? Look at Bristol’s goal. A midfield pass under pressure to where someone wasn’t. Sand in the mechanism, muscle memory not yet drilled into place. Those sessions we didn’t have.
If only there’d been more to build on from last season’s squad.
Being brutal, of those here last season, Kian Spence is probably the only one we might have signed this. Oh and Denzel Hall, but having him in the fourth division is like using a Ferrari to do the school run. My suspicion is we’ll see 40 per cent of what he can do and he’ll be off in January.
The rest of last term’s men fit in well enough, but aren’t first choice in an ideal world. We could probably make better use of their wages.
If only we had a “proper” first-choice keeper.
Ted Cann deserves his shot, but he is what he is: raw and inexperienced. He was a better option than Cameron Dawson because, well, anything is a better option than Dawson. But now?
He has incredible reflexes, but not yet quite the full game for the intensity of first-team football. Behind a callow, youthful defence, it’s not surprising he can’t relax and has coughed up chances through being too rigid in his shot-stopping.
Julian Eyestone will probably get his chance soon, but he’s even less experienced.
Clean sheets win you leagues and we can’t keep clean sheets.
It’s frustrating because there’s a lot to like. The team fights, it has grit and character, it keeps going. The fact we were an inch away from a second successive stoppage-time equaliser tells you something.
We can play a bit, too. When the passing clicks, it’s fluid and fast and fun to watch.
We’ve measured twice and cut once, made the budget stretch as far as it can. But patience means we’re undercooked.
If only we’d had an extra fortnight, I think we’d be right up there. As it is, we’re three points off the bottom of the bottom division, which feels like it undersells the qualities within the squad, but is still sobering after five games.
Four points off the play-offs is an okay gap at this point. But it doesn’t want to grow much bigger, or else this will become a season of looking nervously down instead of hopefully up
Then, the “if only”s stop being something to regret, and become a source of real panic.
And I don’t like to think how we’d survive that.