The season 2020 - 2021.

For all doom merchants everywhere? (Not sure what my Kindle tablet is up to, but changes "doom" to soon ).

 

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57068040 Does anyone know what the sanctions for similar offences have been?

 

I never moan. The post that perfectly reflects my opinion is this one from PompeyLapras on the recent Bournemouth MDT:

"Congrats on getting promoted. While I'm here, I'll wish you congrats on getting promoted in 2023 as well".

Many a true word spoken in jest! Take off the yellow and green spectacles for a moment and, for all the wishful thinking on here and the talking up of our prospects for next season in the media, we are currently just as lacking in critical respects now as we were at the start of the 2019-2020 season.

 

With you among us we are never critically lacking

 

The difference being you gave up hope a few weeks into the season and I for one don't expect relegation next season or fear relegation.

And I certainly won't be pretending that I know better than Farke and the staff when we fall short .

I was critical of zonal marking but I'm assuming we are still using it but with better players in a weaker league it works .

I personally don't care how pessimistic you are I find it amusing or mute you .

 

I hope you mean "if" rather than "when" we fall short DD.

 

Might be a -12 for next season, highly unlikely to effect them this season. I don't think the penalty will be as bad as that, more likely a fine.

 

Yes IF

 

Benjamin Bloom explains it quiet well

 

And here I thought you might be just a little more 'spaced out' Robbie.

 

While I completely accept that there is a high chance we will get relegated, I could not disagree with this bit more:
“we are currently just as lacking in critical respects now as we were at the start of the 2019-2020 season”

Only someone who hasn’t noticed the changes in structure, decision making and personnel would say that. Or someone who doesn’t want to see those changes.

The changes are not perfected, there is room for improvement - IMO both in decision-making as well as, of course, personnel (though the latter we are obviously constrained).

I say with every confidence that if we go down next season it will be for very different reasons compared to last season. And we are undoubtedly better placed at the moment compared to the equivalent timing (just after promotion) the season before last.

I’m surprised even Robbie thinks he can get away with a comment like that.

 

The real key to survival will be whether or not we can bring Skipp back or replace him with an adept DM. I think this season has really shown that this area has been what we were missing. The defence has looked much stronger for it. Too many times on the PL season our midfield was pretty much bypassed leaving the defence highly exposed. Add to that the lack of defensive options and the injuries that emphasised this and we were set to fail. I think this has been recognised and hopefully we go into next season with a new DM and 4 or 5 CB options.

 

That was a really good video thanks!

 

I didn't say we are just as lacking now in every respect as we were at the start of the 2019--2020 season!

Championship success-inspired euphoria clearly blinds people to the EPL-level weaknesses that remain unaddressed. Go back to Stuart Webber's own post mortem on 2019--2020, when he specifically pinpointed three shortcomings contributing to our failure to survive: (1) lack of EPL quality players, (2) lack of pace, and (3) being too lightweight to withstand the opposition's physicality (in both height and body strength). To quote:

“The physicality of the league is the first thing. Not so much fitness because we have pretty much out-run 90pc of the teams we have played. But every team was bigger than us. Even their small players are big ........ And the pace in this league is unbelievable. Every team has three or four Michail Antonios. We have been in so many games this season and, I like F1 as a sport, it is akin to teams just turning up their engines for the last qualifying run. They can do that for 20 minutes in a game and bang you are 2-0 down and you think, what has happened there? It started at Anfield. We were 4-0 down at half-time but you could argue we were the better team. They could just turn it on for those passages of play.”

Have these shortcomings been addressed to any meaningful extent? No, they haven't. The two teams in this season's Championship who most closely resemble Premier League sides in those respects both did the double over us. If Connor Southwell is to be believed, physicality is being given greater priority this summer. But SW pinpointed it last summer and all we got was Hugill; he also pinpointed pace and that turned out to mean Placheta. Does anyone really think those two are going to have a transformational impact next season in the EPL?

As I see it, we have improved only to the extent of consolidating our position as an 18th-to-26th club playing good football. That's fine, but don't let's kid ourselves we have gone up a level beyond that.

 

We've be promoted before, and been written off before, and been relegated before, but also survived before.

Sure if we look at percentages a higher number of them would favour our immediate relegation. But part of being a fan/supporter is to hope and wish and invest in the possibility of the rare occurrences, the moments that defy expectation, the underdog stories, the unthinkable happening.

I'm not sure what point I would find to following a club on a personal and emotionally invested level if I didn't engage in that story. Perhaps there's some delusion there. But it's not so great a stretch to think we could finish mid table. We've done it in recent history with no greater resources at our disposal.

 

Liverpool have a squad that cost £530m and their players were faster more skillful and stronger than ours last time.

I hope we learn our lesson next time we play them.

 

It’s safe to say I disagree, mostly because you posted an overly dramatic turn of phrase and now have watered it down.

I think Gibson and the return to form and fitness Hanley represent greater physicality. I also think Giannoulis represents more pace. I have no doubt they are focusing on more physicality in central midfield and another centre back.

If so, what’s the point you’re making? We are undoubtedly a stronger, more balanced and better defensive unit. Am I saying it will be enough, no.

PS - I already predicted that you would go wild over the Bournemouth/Watford doubles in those respective match day threads. Both of which are you (as usual) picking a specific data point (the result) and purposefully ignoring other data points you often turn to when it suits you (xG) and ignoring other informations always (expert opinion, other fans’ opinions and Daniel Farke’s opinion).

But I don’t expect you to admit being wrong, don’t worry. We established that on the one occasion you tried to show you could admit being wrong and then promptly retracted your admission.

 

Nobody is under any illusion that next season will be easy, but neither do many have the dark, negative view you're putting forward Robbie. I set out my view of our situation at length on the 'You are the Manager' thread. We have added 10 new players to address the issues SW identified since we left the PL. Hugill is only one of those. For some reason you ignore the improvements brought by the other 9 players, including Gibson, Giannoulis, and Sørensen, who have all added physicality, height and, IMO, PL level skills. I'd add Skipp as well if he returns and the Hanley we've seen this season is a huge improvement on two years ago.

Dowell has brought new skills behind Pukki and Placheta adds more pace which could have an impact in the PL where play is more open. There's also the potential of Mumba, McCallum, Sitti, Soto, Omobamidele and Omotoye which will add depth that was lacking before. All of that is before we bring in another 4/5 quality players to fill out the 25 man squad. Of course it isn't going to be easy, but I have no doubt that we will do better this time, it's just a question of how much better.

 

Interesting league of the dirtiest sides this season .

5th is a shock

https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sp...ock-dirtiest-teams-championship-table-3233668


Norwich 23rd

 

That still won't be physical enough for Robbie.