good & bad in my opinion... Just some thoughts as to where we are now, prior to two home games I'm hopeful we might get 4 points from. Simple point is we are in the bottom 3 & we are facing a relegation battle. On the negative side I'd say failure to get one or two experienced players in has probably cost us 4-6 points. We may have held out versus Forest & Leeds, could have hung on for a win at Charlton & maybe nicked something at Wigan. Having someone to close out the game would have been good. The return of Kenny Dougall may help to some extent. We have lost key players for a bunch of games, Radlinger, Woodrow, Brown, Diaby, Ben Williams, McGeehan, Cavare, etc, players we can't afford to be without. On the positive side some players have shown some promise, Sibbick in particular in a new midfield role, Collins in for Radlinger has done well & Mads & Halme look decent & Thomas has shown a lot of flair. A few diappointments. Pinillos, too slow for me, Wilks not at this level as yet & Bahre & Schmidt have yet to show me much to shout about this season. I think if we can keep players fit & keep progressing performances look good, but end product at the moment is sadly lacking. I do think the loss of Moore could be costly. I don't disagree in taking the money for him, but Schmidt & Chaplin are not in my book going to give the space for Woodrow that he would have done. Will we stay up, who knows? I'd say 50/50 at this stage. We will keep on improving, but we need some points on the board from the next two games, which I'm hoping for 4 points from. We need another striker in January & I'd like us to get a decent left back, as I'd rather see Williams more as a left winger, as he is the best player we have on that side to cross balls in & would provide cover down that side. I don't think Wilks as yet is ready to start every week. With Brown back, I'm happy with Jordan Williams or Cavare, as he tracks back well. Just thought I'd float some football debate, whether you think I'm right or wrong, after comment about political threads on here. Game on!
Appreciate that JP. More or less as I see it but I think I’m just a bit more positive that we will stay up. Even though we have a very young squad we have been competing pretty well on the whole. If we stay positive and keep creating chances we’ll start to knock in a few. It’s great being a happier clapper!
If we were playing bad and getting hammered I'd be more concerned.The last 3 games as seen us gelling more and playing like we all know we can.You also mentioned the injuries,a lot of teams would have struggles with the amount of players we've had out.Playing well,injured players coming back,its time now to get the show back on the road.
It's been a sickener rather than a stinker. Naivete has cost us more than anything thus far. The Birmingham game should av' been a comfortable 0-0. Charlton 2-2 reminded me how I felt after the Stockport match in 2001. Matching Leeds toe to toe until subs fcu ked it up. Performances last three matches top notch but 1 pt. I'm reverse pyschology pessimistic. I forecast defeats and misery in the hope I'm proven wrong lol. Seriously though i'd be over moon with a shitty 1-0 on Sunday and same again tuesday and us passing on some platitudes.
If you were to compile a table based on expected goals created and allowed we'd be flat bottom with the worst defence in the league. I know expected goals aren't the be all and end all, but they usually correlate pretty well with table standings. Having said that, I recognise that we have a lot of new faces and need time to gel. I predicted at the start of the season that we'd have relegation form until Christmas, with mid-table form thereafter which would see us safe in the lower reaches. I still reckon that's about right. I do think that we've started the season with a weaker squad than at the end of the last season, and if we do go down the board should have to answer for that.
First of all, I would not want us to compete with the spending of many of the clubs in the Championship and put ourselves in exactly the same mess as they are in. Nevertheless, losing £6m at the end of the season would cause a fire sale, and we must avoid that if we can. The lack of spending power means that individually, our players are not going to be of the same standard as players in many other teams in the Championship. We have to have a different way of competing. Our team play and understanding has to be better, and we have to have a better strategy. With regard to my first point, adding 12 new players and losing arguably our most influential four players (3 from our defense) is not a good way to begin. However, I agree that the board had little choice in the matter, so there is no point agonising over it. We just have to be patient and hope that good team understanding will eventually emerge, and hope that it does so before it is too late. The one areas where I believe things are still within our control is in team tactics. It is an area that I was critical of after the Leeds game. Our Chief Coach is committed to playing the game on the front foot. He is committed to pressing the opposition when we do not have the ball, in the hope that doing so will yield errors in the defensive third of our opponent. He wants us to retain possession once we regain it, even if it slows down the speed of our counter-attack. Those are the 3 pillars of how he sees the game of football. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with his formula. It worked perfectly well in League 1 last season. However, last season, our players were better individually than those we encountered in most other teams. I am not sure that it makes sense when our players are generally inferior, or when our players have not yet formed the necessary understanding of the play of their team-mates. The press is tiring because it requires much more running. Furthermore, if the opposition breaks the press, our players are out of position defensively and there is plenty of room for them to play. Frankly, it is not popular to question the tactics of a folk hero such as Daniel Stendel, and in many ways, I am unqualified to do so, but that is what I am doing. Would it not have made more sense to let Leeds have the ball, defend deep, and attack them only on the break? Those are the tactics that Leeds fans have complained about all season, because quick players (and Leeds have plenty) revel in the increased space of an open game, and if a team sets out to play the same game as them, they have lots more pace on the bench that they can use to devastating effect late in games. Having got in front in the Charlton game, what was the point in trying to score more. We already had a lead, so why didn't we concentrate on keeping it. A club in our position must accept the limitations it has in the way that it wants to play if it wants to pick up points against the odds. We are in a relegation scrap, and every point will be important. We must forfeit entertainment in order to grind out results at times.
