I accept we need to concede fewer goals but let's not forget the numbers are warped somewhat by the 3 games against Norwich, Sunderland and Leicester. In the other 10 games we've conceded a total of 11. The lack of clean sheets is a concern for sure though.
Yeah this. Its a tough bloody league, because almost every team seems to have the philosophy that if you lob 20-30 balls into the box every game, you're bound to get a lucky bounce/deflection at some point. Preston's first goal was such a typical Championship goal. The free kick was practically on the halfway line and they still lobbed it into the box. Defensively they all park the bus most of the time.
Yeah, can't see 2nd at all unless we seriously stop shipping goals. Can see play off heartache incoming potentially.
Hmmm I'm not in the habit of 'but if you ignore this' points. Fact is those games happened, people could easily flip it round and say 'if you ignore the Leeds game then we've not won by more then one goal or ever been comfortable'. Plus the thing here is the defence has been a problem at both of Martin's previous clubs and he never sorted it out so history would suggest he won't here either.
Anything is possible in this division. I'm not expecting it to happen, but we still need to have the attitude that it could.
But since the Leicester game I haven't felt like we'd concede every time the other team attacked. THB and Bedders have formed a good partnership. I thought against Leeds we defended really well in the second half. And as for Martin, he hasn't had such a good squad as ours to work with before. I'm not sure how much you can consider what happened with MK Dons and Swansea TBH.
Respectfully disagree and think we should keep things realistic rather than aim for unrealistic goals. Otherwise you get people expecting far too much and calling 3rd a failure.
Megga meltdown moaning minnies. We're a work in progress, progressing. My old ticker could do without the last minute heroics but I'm happy with the attitude that bring them about.
You can't consider a manager by his previous performances? Can't agree with that I'm afraid! Presumably we hired him based on his performances there so you can't cherry pick things imo. As for players I don't think that's the problem per se I think it's his style which leads to lots of goals conceded. Histoty at previous clubs and 13 games here would suggest it's going the same way. Didn't see the Leeds game so can't comment.
It changes little really. Whatever the expectations, we are gonna go into every game trying to win it. Writing off our chances after just 13 games, when we are in 5th place, is just ridiculous though imo.
No. You and a few others need to up your standards and recognise that the clubs owners are making the fans look like mugs.. again. We made the most money in the window, whilst spending basically zilch. The club stated their goal is automatic promotion. They are currently failing at that goal - and it is 90% down to the manager playing a ridiculous system. It’s not being overly negative to comment on what anyone with eyes can see. This manager is currently making us worse.
Yeah it's by no means mathematical or anything but everything we've seen so far suggests we're not good enough to go up automatically. When has a team ever finished top 2 when conceding 60-70 goals? It's similar to back in February/March when people were saying that we still had a chance of staying up cos were only 5 points off, when realistically that was never going to happen cos we weren't good enough and didn't have goals in us. See it the same way his season. Yeah we can say its possible and it's early doors (though already 10+ behind) but realistically we don't score enough and concede too many to get an automatic promotion spot in this division.
Huge credit needs to go to Ipswich too. They're on more points than we had in 11/12 after the same amount of games. Shows how good they've been as we were excellent pretty much throughout that season. I think they'll go up.
You're totally ignoring Championship FFP regulations. It really wasn't as simple as spending as much as we made from player sales.
Speaking of the 11/12 season, after 13 games Reading were in 15th place. Didn't even get into the top 6 until the second half of the season. Some teams massively improve, while others go the other way. I feel we are more likely to improve than become worse.
It's all about expectations. I never expected automatic promotion, in fact my ideal season would be one of gradual improvement, with play-offs as the minimum target. Then another season consolidating in the Championship, because **** the PL, it's a soulless ****ing circus anyway. Of course the club stated automatic promotion was the aim, to say otherwise would be defeatist, but that wasn't realistic imo. How is the manager making us worse? We've been turd for ages and while there is talent in the squad, it's mostly potential talent at this point.
Ipswich are an interesting one. I think most people are still expecting them to drop off sooner rather than later. I haven't watched them other than against us and although they beat us which is ultimately the most important thing. They didn't look anything special. Just a well organised team who were full of confidence following promotion last season and the players very used to each other and their way of playing. Sure they were solid and effective, but I didn't see them and think they are an automatic promotion winning team. IMO we had what they have in our Champ promotion season, but with several star players too. Maybe they are better than I give them credit for and will continue to win games and remain in that second auto spot, but for me at least, for now, I still expect them to drop off, meaning that second auto spot is up for grabs. We aren't currently playing well enough to get there, but are doing a decent job of picking up points despite this. Therefore the delusional saints fan in me is going to continue to hope we can start playing better and winning a few more games and push for that second spot as on paper we have the players for it. If Ipswich continue wining games and we continue to underperform and that gap grows over the next few months then that's when I'll be adjusting my hopes and expectations to the playoffs.
