I think promotion is very much achievable and we should definitely be going for it. I'm absolutely in favour of high expectations. Watching our games this season, I think it's clear that we have a great squad and can match anyone with the football we play. I think this season is as good an opportunity as any, if we can just start being more clinical and getting the goals to kill of games at the crucial times.
There also seems to be an obsession by Rosenior of keeping the ball for the sake. He's obsessed with ball-retention above all else. I've witnessed countless times this season so far and last season when an opponent lost the ball in our half after pushing many players forward which then left space for us to exploit if we played a few quick passes. Ipswich did this to us ruthlessly when we played them and they made Christie in particular look like a League 2 full-back. Ipswich are a possession team under McKenna but if their opponents leave space open and are vulnerable to a counter-attack, they will move the ball quickly, create overloads with their full-backs and try to punish the opposition. We don't do that. If an opponent loses the ball in our half and leaves space open, our players will just turn inside and play a simple ball backwards or sideways which allows the opposition to get back into position and then we have to build from the back again with our centre-halves and keeper. That is fine if you're two or three up but if you're drawing or losing, it's insane. It's the equivalent of a boxer landing a hard punch and the other fighter's legs have gone but then backs off and creates distance instead of going for the jugular.
SydneyTiger14 said: ↑ I've seen us transition the ball with just a few passes from a back pocket up into an attacking position, and it's done effectively and well. Against both Leeds and Ipswich at times we beat their press with ease and passed through them, but at others we struggled. As you say, it will come with time and patience. What are people so impatient for this season? Do they really think promotion is likely? This season is about development and experience for the squad. That's not sexy nor exciting but not every season has to be a promotion race or relegation battle. 100% with you on this PLT. No way should this season be about "development and experience for the squad". That's ridiculous given the talent we've now got. Plus, next season we most likely won't have Delap, Morton, and Philogene. Seri will be another year older and probably not so influential. Fair chance that Tufan and Sinik will 'go home' too. Of course, we'll therefore bring in new players & loans, which by this logic would mean the development & experience building begins again. Yes, we need to be more clinical, but we also need to be braver and more positive in our build up. We could be doing what Ipswich are doing. Continuing question for me (as you know) is, has Rosenior got it in his locker so to speak. Next few weeks should answer that.
I think we can be in the mix, but I don't think it's a failed season if we don't go up, so the impatience/frustration to me is a bit overblown.
C Could be wrong but I thought the grand plan when Acun and Rosie got together was to finish well this season and push for promotion next?
Yeah I'd be expecting top 10 minimum, play offs would be great. No one's going to turn down promotion this season, and we of course should aim for the stars, but that doesn't mean holding the team to that higher standard to the extent you then lose your head about them 'underperforming'.
For me it’s horses for courses. Unless you’re the great Barcelona team, Real Madrid, Man City. You can’t count on just being better than everyone else every week and sometimes a certain way of setting up is going to work really well and other times it isn’t and I don’t see what’s so wrong about changing it up a bit when we’re struggling. Getting rid of Oscar was also a proper head scratcher as he gave us a totally different dimension with someone to aim at in the box.
Possibly, but some of the statements surrounding Philogene don't make it seem that way, and probably not with McVitie's coming in too. I think it's more Oscar was considered surplus and we tried to get a replacement in. Only, this time when it fell through we didn't just panic buy any old random striker in. I think that's fair enough to be honest, but if Oscar wanted to stay, I'd personally have preferred him to fight for his place here knowing he has the ability to put goals away with service and knowing he'd have gotten game time over the course of a long season.
If that's true then in theory we have the money from Oscar's impending sale to play with in January or next summer. Somehow I doubt we'll see someone come in for that sort of fee though. The fact Oscar's deal could rise to 5m and Philogene cost us 5m and the deals were done close together is too much of a coincidence.
I'd guess the Philogene fee was far more down to Villa than us. We also wouldn't have been in for Keinan Davies if we were viewing Philogene as a swap for Oscar. Either way, it's swings and roundabouts. I wouldn't be surprised to see us in for Bird again in Jan, and that fee could be around 3m so not far off. The fact we missed out on two players by the end of the window suggests there are some sort of funds to use for further strengthening before we receive anything from a potential Oscar sale.
I wouldn't know. All I know is that Oscar is on loan so he hasn't paid for Philogene either. Have we paid anything for Philogene yet or is it in instalments? How is the deal structured? I don't get the impression we're operating a one out, one in policy at the moment. I guess it also depends how true it is we only just got funding through from Corendon as well...
Well under LIam Rosenoir we have played some of the best football we have played for a number of years. I am reminded of an oppositions commentators retort during one recent game "they are playing like Manchester City". Praise indeed when your team is compared to one that is at the pinnacle of the sport.
