So this is the quote from Grimes from the official site: “I thought we were alright against Sheffield Wednesday, we were poor against Queens Park Rangers, and abysmal against Middlesbrough so we needed to show a reaction and we did that.“
I disagree. I thought we were abysmal against Wednesday, alright against QPR and poor (OK very poor) against Middlesbrough. My response to the Wednesday performance was probably the angriest I've been post-match this season. I was incandescent, and I think with good reason. Yes, Wednesday dropped off and put ten men behind the ball, but they're near the bottom of the table for a reason, and they were without two of their best players at the start of the match. We just weren't at the races at all, in or out of possession, and the drop off in intensity from the Cardiff game was unacceptable. Truth is we were very lucky to take a point home - they hit the underside of the bar and had other clearcut chances late on. The xG of 1.74 to 1.15 in Wednesday's favour demonstrates our good fortune.
Against QPR we were decent and deserved at least a point - we hit the woodwork twice and came close to scoring on other occasions. The xG of 1.44 vs 1.30 in our favour accurately reflect how the game went.
Against Middlesbrough we were very poor for sure, but not as bad as against Wednesday, and we were away to a top half team in good form, and a striker in Lath, also in good form. The xG of 1.17 to 0.70 in 'Boro's favour reflects a poor, but close game, that 'Boro edged.
The point I'm getting to (thanks for bearing with me) is that Grimes and the manager (see Williams' post-match comments after the Wednesday game) clearly didn't understand how bad the drop off had been from the Cardiff to the Wednesday game. I imagine the fact that they got an undeserved point from the game, and were still basking in the afterglow of the Cardiff performance had something to do with it. Had they assessed the intensity levels correctly then perhaps we wouldn't have the follow-on lacklustre performance against QPR and very poor performance against 'Boro.
Having praised Williams' man management on another thread, perhaps there is some learning for him from this recent sequence of games. There is no doubt at all that Williams' anger with the 'Boro performance had a big bearing on the performance and result against Stoke - but why wait so long? The challenge for Williams and the team is to be realistic about performance levels, and look beyond the result, and properly evaluate the underlying metrics, and address short-comings immediately, rather than allowing them to continue on into a second and then a third game.
The talk post-Stoke has been measured and emphasising the need for consistency, from manager and the players alike. So, I think lessons have been learned and we will see a good level of intensity against Rotherham, if not quite at the level of the Stoke match. The aim has to be to attain a minimum level in every match - it's as much as a mentality thing as a physical one. It would be a start to reach that level in every remaining game - even once our place in the league is assured.