Rotherham United boss Paul Warne was on press duty ahead of his side’s trip to Vicarage Road to face Watford in the Sky Bet Championship tonight.
The Millers will be looking to bounce back from Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Coventry City at St. Andrew’s when they take on the Hornets.
If they are to do so, it will have to be without the services of left-back Joe Mattock, who is set for a spell on the side-lines after suffering an injury setback. You can read the latest on that news, as well as a number of other topics, below.
Warne on Joe Mattock’s injury…
“Joe Mattock is out, it looks like he’s going to be out for two to three months. He has got severe damage to his ankle and is seeing a specialist today, but the initial signs are that he has ligament damage on both sides and maybe even a little bit of bone has come away.
“He’s going to need surgery, so unfortunately for us and for Joe first and foremost, it looks like he is going to be out for a period of time.
“We’ve been lucky with muscle injuries, we’re a really fit group, but you can’t legislate for contact injuries. We’ve got Joe Mattock, Robbo (Clark Robertson), Chieo (Ogbene), Shaun MacDonald and Kieran Sadlier out, that’s nearly half the team. We’ve been a little unfortunate with injuries so far, and this is sadly more bad news for us.
“I don’t think any of them can be blamed on the schedule, if they are contact injuries, it doesn’t make a difference how often you play. I don’t think it’s the games, we’ve just been really unlucky with breaks and serious injuries this year.”
Warne on Coventry performance…
“I don’t think there have been many bad performances this season. We always try to drive performances, unfortunately I thought Saturday was an unacceptable display. We initially started the game okay, but then went two goals down inside the opening 15 minutes from very poor defending and then I didn’t see enough of a reaction.
“As a manager I look at myself all the time and ask what I have done wrong and what can I change. I speak to the coaches all the time and our responsibility is to get the best out of the coaches we have and I think we do that. In hindsight we would have probably made a couple of changes, but we pick a team every game to try and win.
“We look at everything, we changed the system to a 3-5-2 in the last few games to try and make us more competitive but unfortunately it didn’t work on Saturday.
“I don’t think they have a lack of belief. Against QPR and Swansea I think we were really poor in the first half but really good in the second, but against Bournemouth and Brentford we more than competed which gives them massive confidence.
“At the weekend Coventry didn’t play as much football as we expected, although we had more of the ball than them, I think the lads came away from the game thinking it was a wasted opportunity."
Warne on facing Watford…
“We watched the Coventry game as a group on Sunday and hopefully we can go and put it right. The games are coming thick and fast, but we’ll make changes where we think we can freshen it up and hopefully give us the reaction we want. We have full confidence in the group, and we’ll go out tonight and hopefully put in a positive performance.
“It’s going to be a tough game and there’s no disputing it. Unfortunately for us they lost at the weekend so we expect them to come out with a point to prove tonight. We have to try and keep a lot of their key players quiet. I think a game like this away from home, with the fans back in is a challenge we have to face with a smile on our face.”