At the start of the season, I didn't feel there was any reason to think that, but now maybe so. We have got a lot of the dead wood out and a lot of fresh faces in, I think it will take a few weeks to see if promotion is a realistic option. At the moment, we are only 3 points off the playoff places and 6 behind 2nd. We could make that up in no time if Still finds the right formula. Patience is the key.
Whilst there’s definitely truth to this, Sheff Utd got like 3 more points than us and ended up on 92 points at the end of the season. Did they have a mediocre (at best) start last season?
We’re not in the Premier League. We should be strolling these games. But we’ve looked second best almost every game. Can’t create anything. Just relying on set pieces for goals.
I agree re the players needing to adapt etc. but it's also undoubtedly a terrible result. The two things aren't mutually exclusive. I don't even think the main issue in the first half was to do with tactics or anything. We failed to match their energy/intensity and that's simply unforgivable and handed them the initiative. We were better second half but did we even create a single proper chance? Arguably the header at the end was one and should have been on target. They came a lot closer to scoring than we did though. Regardless, we always talk about how finances dictate performance in football and as a fanbase were happy to fall back on that a lot last season (rightly). We have 10x the budget of them and were at home! A draw where we barely create a chance is simply unacceptable. Would Newcastle fans accept a draw at home to Sunderland? United at home to Leeds? Sheffield United at home to Wednesday? No they wouldn't and nor should they. Classing a 0-0 as an acceptable result here is as ****ing small time as them ****s celebrating it like they won the league.
I do sympathise for LTL TBH. He will go all day without finding out the score, watch THAT, and wish he hadn't bothered.
Roerslev was awful in the first half - especially with his passing - but, like the team in general, I thought he was much improved in the second half. I still don't think he played much at RB for Brentford. I don't know the stats, and I'm hardly an avid follower of Brentford, but my feeling is that they used him as a RWB much more than as a RB. So asking him to play as a RB could lead to a little uncertainty on his part, eg deciding when best to attack. I was very pleased with Fellows. Choosing a MOTM for us is very difficult when the game was as bad as that, but I do have Fellows as a contender alongside the two CBs. Charles was good second half, but unfortunately spent the whole first half just playing head tennis (or watching the ball get lumped over him).
Agreed. Him and Charles don't work as a pairing at all either. Would like Jander to come in next week.
5 games in, New team. One defeat. I think a bit of patience is required. Think of how bad we were last season and what a low base we're coming from. Not good at the moment but brighter times are coming
I am very much looking forward to seeing Charles and Jander together. Charles was the only one to come out of the first half with any credit today.
Fair point. I doubt we'll move away from Stephens and THB as the CB pairing so there's not much to be done there, but if we switch out Downes (who feels like the most Martin-style player we have) for Jander then perhaps that could change things. On a wider note, Still clearly wants the players to think for themselves more and I wonder if the old guard are struggling because they're so used to being micro-managed. Perhaps he needs to be giving them more specific instructions and a bit less freedom, even if only in the short term.
How’s it gone this season? The emotional impact of losing the play off final is another way to destroy morale.
But you were talking about coming down from relegation and being as **** as we were. The gulf is massive (as we know) so I don’t think it should be an excuse. Taking time to learn a new system and new players etc is far more relevant. This squad should be getting at least a similar points total to when we went up last time when all is said is done
Well, we are two points better off than we got over last September. Our team going down was far worse too.
Why, when we were so bad last season. I get we have dropped a level, but we needed to improve drastically to become competitive. We still have too many of the old guard in the team that failed so badly last season. Hopefully the transition is starting, but will not happen overnight. Still needs to understand players like Fraser are not the answer and Robinson maybe. We have played only 5 games. I agree we should be strolling these games after 15/20 games in the season, when the manager has had a chance to instill his philosophy ( although not sure what that is yet....)
Have avoided on here this week due to some slightly OTT sentiment, but came back post match and see it’s still rife sadly… Think some people need to be realistic… whilst I understand on a day like today, emotions run high… -WS has had barely 2 weeks with squad, some of which weren’t in due to international commitments -The previous friendly, cup and league games were very little practice for anything as there was no squad settling possible due to transfer deadline day being late -The change in playing personnel in the last 3 months has been huge… quality in, deadwood out -The “paralysing fear” still exists around the place from the last 4 managerial failures/tactics/systems -Despite the positive window, we still have the equivalent of two key players who have effectively downed tools because they just aren’t good enough for what we need-FD and THB are occupying first team places currently and hopefully can be replaced sooner rather than later. -There was and is a real possibility that developing a style, environment, atmosphere, squad that is capable and sustainable for EPL football is going to take more than a few months to put together -We all know that we blagged our way up last time and should’ve not made it based on our form from mid Feb onwards- we all knew we weren’t ready, but of course, we went for the ride and got absolutely humiliated We’ve spent a lot, expectations are sky high, and we should’ve done better today, but come on….
