Rotherham United (a): Three Things The Imps Need To Do To Win Tonight

Ahead of tonight’s match away at Rotherham United in League One, I asked the Vital Lincoln City members what three things they think The Imps need to do to pick up all three points.

You can discuss what has been said in this article HERE, and also get involved with our Rotherham United v Lincoln City Match Thread! Every page view helps raise money for Lincoln City Football Club!

Here’s what sedgleyimp said:

1. Stop the service to Michael Smith. I think most of us saw last September in the reverse fixture that Rotherham are one of the best sides in this division. They are a very potent attacking force and in Smith, they have a striker who is extremely good at getting on the end of crosses. He is well over six feet tall and we currently are lacking central defenders who have a similar height. Poole and Eyoma will do their best against him, but given a decent heading opportunity Smith is very likely to punish us. So the key to this will be preventing that service from the wide positions. We need to restrict their wide players from getting the ball in and that most likely will involve doubling up in the wide defensive positions. This may involve both Bramall and Robson starting on the left side and Whitaker being deployed in a slightly withdrawn position to assist Bishop (or whomever) on the right side of our defence.

2. Midfield needs to get stuck in. We saw last Tuesday at Sunderland the almost perfect away performance and we will need another one again at Rotherham. Our midfield three of McGrandles, Sanders, and Fiorini worked their socks off and all three will need to be deployed again to nullify their attacking play. It may sound a little negative, but to win this game we need to strangle it and stop them from playing as they can.

3. Be clinical and have a go if the opportunity arises. As per last Tuesday, Rotherham will have more possession but that means we can play on the counter-attack which will suit us. If chances arise though they must be taken. That cost us against Cambridge, a game which we played well in but came away with nothing. If one of those opportunities had been taken that game would have been won. That is what we need to do in this game. Chances for us most likely will be at a premium, When a decent one comes, the onion bag must bulge.

Thank you to Graham Burrell and Lincoln City Football Club for the photograph!

Rotherham United (a): Three Things The Imps Need To Do To Win Tonight:https://t.co/q2nwALGpzE#RUFC #ImpsAsOne

— Vital Lincoln City (@VitalLincoln) January 18, 2022