1. Not really, sometimes happens but no more than anyone else. He's actually quite canny at knowing when to put his foot in. Does he give penalties away? Can't remember that. 2. He's tall enough for a ball playing CB, does fine in the air and in general physically. 3. CBs aren't fast. 4. Means nowt.
If we were promoted surely it would be taking out of 09's hands because we'd be looking to sign some better quality for the step-up. Burnley are learning that the hard way and they were heads and shoulders above everyone last season.
Jack Clarke probably is the best in the Championship, but I don't know 'cos I haven't seen them all. S.A.F.C. are constantly looking for suitable upgrades with improvement potential for all of our players, so his, or Onion's (or anyone's) places won't be guaranteed if we go up anyway, which is a wonderful change from our recent, somewhat desperate, past
He is generally very good at bringing the ball out of defence which is desirable as a CB but his height may well prove to be a bit of a weakness. He can be rash at times and does a lot of holding in the box at set pieces which these days of VAR could prove costly. That being said I was not sure he would cut it as a CB in the championship but he has adapted his game and plays really well alongside Ballard. Could he do a job in Prem I really don't know as I am not too sure but because he has managed to step up when I thought he would struggle I am not willing to write him off for that just yet.
The trouble that Burnley have is that they had 3 or 4 top quality loans last season which they have struggled to replace. I still think they may survive but it will be difficult. That said yes they ran away with the league but were financially able to offer good contracts due to being very frugal in PL and banking well (may have been reason for relegation in first place) All in all looking back we had more problems than most teams that season and still made play offs when some pundits had us as bottom 5 or 6. Sheffield United are certainly not pulling up any trees either but I get the feeling they are taking the cash injection to steady the club and will probably come down and have another go next year and Luton will take the money and run for now as financially they have just hit a vegas jackpot
For Luton, promotion effectively pays for their new stadium. I doubt they give two hoots about staying up. Agree re Sheff Utd too
My thoughts on O9 being good enough for the PL - he isnt good enough at the minute but who knows how he will develop over the season. He doesnt need to be good enough for the PL, he only needs to be good enough for the championship and he is that with the way he is playing I dont think any of our players are good enough to perform weekly at a good level in the PL at the minute but we have so many that have the potential to be able to in the future. The step up is huge but the thing im most excited about is we have so many players with the potential to be good PL players in the near future Exciting times
I am sure KLD and Speakman as well as the recruitment team will be busy number crunching ready for the January window , I am sure the speculation will start cranking up soon like most SAFC I can’t believe the quality of the recruitment over the recent windows as opposed to the money wasting scattergun approach we used to operate .
Exactly this wish I could of said it so simply we have huge potential and we wont know until it is tested
Premier league, seria A, La liga, bundesliga, ligue 1 all cannot be disputed that they are better than the championship. So that puts the championship down to the 6th best league in the world. Then you have the Turkish, Dutch, Portuguese and Russian premier leagues. These ones are disputable, but still makes my championship 7-8th best league prediction fair.
Turkish, Dutch and Portugese are all definitely better than the Championship, so is the Belgian league. Then you have the Brazil and Argentina premier leagues, both better than the Championship. SPL, Russian, MLS, Mexican are the disputable ones for me. There's probably one or two we've missed out, as well.
He’d be the first player to be “upgraded” in our line up, he’s the only person in the Xl I’m not really convinced by. We need a natural CB there and a quick one imo because Ballard obviously isn’t quick by any means. People see one clearance or one big tackle and forget about O’nien losing his man or being dragged well out of position 5 minutes prior. Our xG is so low so far this season because the midfield have been quality not because of the defence. Ipswich could’ve scored 4 or 5 if they’d hadn’t fluffed golden chances. Blackburn should’ve buried us after half an hour but their front 3 couldn’t hit the target.. people see loads of chances but no goal and assume it’s because the defence are playing well when we were all sat watching Blackburn go past them like they weren’t there. We’re getting very good at dictating possession and whilst we have the ball teams can’t score.. but we need to be able to defend when they do get the ball and throw players forward. I know it’s not a popular opinion but I’ll die on this hill.
Interesting looking at our defensive stats and O'Nien and Ballard are very evenly matched. Ballard does more clearances, O'Nien does more tackles. Ballard blocks more but also fouls more. It's all close though. You'd think if O'Nien was a weak link in defence the stats would reflect that. The thing that O'Nien really excels at that maybe some people don't see is that he puts in more passes than anyone at the club and at an accuracy of 88.8% which is very good obviously. As Mowbray said recently his passing ability is very useful for how we play.
