I, like many, was fairly ambivalent about last season. Having seen the Sir Alex of 12 months previous fail to cope with a crack at the Premier League, we dropped a division (as many pundits predicted) and so faced a championship slog with mainly brow-beaten troops who fell well short of having a 'decent season'. This time it's different, instead of renewing contracts for people like Turner and Whittaker, we have virtually a brand new back line (get well soon...very, very soon, Ivo!), Reed / Vrancic to police the area in front of them and players like Wildschut and Watkins keen to make an impact. DF appears to rate Josh and Maddison and from last year's feeling of kind of lethargy, this time I'm a bit buzzing - to see what all the recent changes mean to a team / squad / club that was running out of ideas at a rate of knots. Not any more it ain't - OTBC It's a learning curve for all, so patience required, but a potentially exciting campaign looming nonetheless.
I'm quietly optimistic that our new set-up will produce an exciting, attractive style of football that may take a few games to settle down but then we can look forward to a good, solid season! OTBC
It doesn’t need ‘rocket science to realise that ANYTHING has to be an improvement on last season’s pathetic showing and ‘throwing in the towel’ in several away games (Brum, Brighton, Rotherham and turning victory into defeat at SJP!!!). Somehow, I just CAN’T see that happening this season with DF patrolling the away dugout. Many of us remarked on how several players seemed to be lacking fitness towards the end of games, especially when we played 3 games in 8 days, but from what has been said re the training sessions devised by DF/ER, our players should be amongst the fittest in the Championship and hopefully we’ll see a return to us scoring late goals, as opposed to conceding them. If we’re to avoid defeat at Fulham, we’ve got to be on top of their game from the off and no coasting to a 4-1 away win in our first game of the season and lulling the players into a false sense of ‘easy, easy’. I was impressed by most of the team on Saturday and I’m hoping Josh may be fit to at least come on as sub and have him and/or Wildschut putting in crosses from the wing, instead of always trying to play through a crowded midfield. The injury to Pritchard means that JM can really stake a claim to a place in the starting11 and with Naismith suspended for the first two games, he is going to have to work hard to even be on the bench. I'm hoping we'll have Pinto at least on the bench for the visit of Sunderland and that Pritchard will be returning to training soon. I’m optimistic that we can be in or around the top 6 by Xmas and stay there, but we have some tough fixtures by the time we get to the end of this month and I’d be very happy if we’ve accumulated close to 10 points before Brum roll into town next month and anything more would be a bonus, whereas fewer than 8 would mean we could struggle.
There is one thing I am very confidant about. This new season will NOT be boring. The players will be kept on their toes by our coaching team, as will us fans. Predicting our starting line-up is going to be much more of a lottery under DF than it was last season. Like you Dave, I am optomistic that we will grow into the season and end up there or thereabouts come May. I just hope we can lay our Craven (means cowardly) Cottage hoodoo to rest.
Totally agree with the point about us fading badly in a lot of games last season. Hopefully with a younger squad age and hungrier players we will have increased levels of fitness and application. I think a number of our players last season almost felt like the Championship was below them. Not this season I hope.
Well said, NB Too right they did. Gave the impression they just had to turn up to get back out of this arduous league. But their complacency came back to bite them - and deservedly so, considering the dross the canary faithful had to tolerate away from home the entire season The main protagonists have all been ushered out of the club, one or two sold - as was bound to happen, and those who remain know exactly what's required of them. As mentioned elsewhere yesterday (?), DF doesn't strike me as the guy to have 'pet favourites' in the way AN did , so if they can't do the job, fulfil the role expected of them to the necessary level, I suspect there'll be teacups in the dressing room, rather than, 'oh well, things can only get better' which I can imagine happening last season. Exciting times...bring it on !!! And I do believe a word of gratitude is due to our chairman, Ed Balls, who I gather was largely responsible for swaying the board in favour of Webber's appointment and subsequent change of direction in the way the club is run
