I still don't get all the negativity on here. We are 4th and playing like we can beat anyone in the league (at times). We are a new team to a new division with a new style. The way some on here are is that the players are playing **** on purpose. We are a Championship club with Championship players - maybe one player isn't, but the rest are just that. Good Championship players. And we are a good Championship team.
What killed our hope for the top 2 was the run of 4 losses in September, the run since then has us near enough the amount of points we were behind when it started. What the top 2 are doing is mightily impressive though and they will deserve to go up automatically if they keep it up.
Playing Pompey and having a season without VAR will be better than getting utterly trounced in the PL anyway imo
Southampton v Blackburn Rovers (15:00) Referee :- GRAHAM SCOTT Assistants:- Matthew Wilkes and Akil Howson Fourth Official : Lewis Smith
This. People are forgetting that we have pretty much equalled Leicester and Ipswich for points since the start of October.
Much as being hacked off like most of us for not getting more from the last two games, we only seem to need one more goal per game to get three points, not exactly a mountain to climb and I still think both Ipswich and Leicester are going to have a rougher ride and begin to drop points, only less than half the season gone for goodness sake! So I'm with you, after the last few seasons I'm relieved to approach games with the thought, could be 3 points, but pretty certain 1. Looking forward to Saturday at SMS!!
Stu looked tired tonight. He's one player that needs rotating. Manning needs dropping. His presence is as much a hindrance as Downes' absence. Charles looks shaky without Downes beside him. Some good battling from Smallbone and Aribo but they created nothing between them. Time to rethink our attacking line up. Yet again.
What frustrates and worries me is that if we don't go up this season, we are seriously going to struggle to do so next season. We will lose some of our top players: KWP, Downes, Harwood-Bellis, Adams, Sulemana will all leave 100%. Who knows about Arma, Bednarek and maybe even Baz. We are going to have to rebuild half of the first team yet again.
Yep. Get an adequate replacement for Downes, a decent left back, Stewart fit, and we'll be top 6 level again next season.
What's the points difference between us and Ipswich during the period of this unbeaten run? Imagine it's quite close but suppose the counter argument would be that even during our best run of the season we've not really made any ground up despite them dropping points in that time and we'll (presumably) suffer another downturn ourselves at some point.
I get as frustrated as the rest with our slow build up and keeping possession at all costs, and then get even more frustrated when RM says that the players need to take risks (this is based on previous interviews as I don’t know what he has said post match). Tonight Stuart was our sole flair player in midfield, yet I can’t remember him receiving the ball and then spinning past his marker into the space in front of the back line, at all. Charly, on a good day does it, but not so well when playing as a false 9. We need players to do that to draw CBs out of position and create space, but all too often we play the safe ball. I know Manning got mugged for the Coventry goal but Aribo has to take some responsibility for passing the ball backwards instead of running the ball diagonally into the space on the left wing. If he does that then the **** up at the back doesn’t happen and we have a chance to threaten there goal.
KWP - Bree THB - Stephens Adams - Stewart Sulemana - Edozie/SAA Downes is a huge one to replace. Charles isn't even close yet. Bednarek and Arma are replaceable imo.
Adams and Stewart are probably about right but Stephens is not a patch on THB and Bree is a million miles behind KWP!
