Match Day Thread Hull City v Leeds

Thats fine and I agree with a lot of what you say, but I can't see much to grumble about when you consider we've taken 4pts from 2 games against the richest clubs in the league and many peoples favourites to go straight back up.

We're 6th after 7 games which is more than most were predicting from this opening run when the fixtures came out.

 

I think it's to make the oppo chase, and it's behind the fact we finish most games stronger.

 

Massive have played Preston, Ipswich, Leeds, Southampton, Cardiff and City. Are you telling me that we've had a harder set of fixtures, or that they're in a false position because of the teams they've played?

 

Preston and Ipswich won't be in the autos, Southampton can't defend for ****, I'll give you Leeds but honestly I think Leeds Leicester, Norwich will all be top 4, cov will be in the playoff picture too and I'd tip Bristol to be in with a shout for top 8 also.

So yeah, we've had a harder set of fixtures, though I'm unsure quite what the relevance to Wednesday being **** is - apart from it's the only one we've played who are.

 

I'm sorry, that's bollocks. They've played the form teams in the division, three of whom have just come down from the PL, by your own logic that makes their fixtures far more difficult. You can't move the goalposts just because you don't believe some teams don't deserve to be where they currently are.

 

You're putting too much stock in the early season table, which means nowt til at least 10 games anyway.

At this early stage you could say its a correlation that the form teams have all played Wednesday and that's what's contributed to their early form.

And you only listed 2 relegated sides, one of which is conceding for fun and the other they played when half their squad were on strike trying to angle for moves.

Besides we've got 4 points against our 2 relegated sides. How many did the massive get?

I'll worry about them when they look like going above us in the table.

It's clutching at straws to say they've had a harder opening 7, but I suppose all games are hard when you're the league whipping boys.

 

There you go again.... I do think you have trouble reading what is written without interpreting it to suit your agenda. The club have championed attending, including last season (£1 tickets) and on no occasion have we put in 'That' performance. I'm pretty certain Acun will be frustrated as '.." that we haven't . We just aren't there yet.. and before you jump on it, yet is the operative word.

 

My mistake, it's two relegated sides not three. But you're still going against your own argument, which started out claiming parachute payments make you a difficult opponent - not so, apparently, now that Southampton's form appears shaky.

As you say, we're at an early stage in the season, ergo it's almost impossible to say what constitutes a good or bad result, but you're the one who highlighted our results against (in your view) top teams, when in fact the season is too young to judge. Massive, faced with 'lesser' opposition, might shoot up the table into the playoffs, and our result against them will take on a whole new value, similarly Leeds could plummet and the 0-0 suddenly doesn't look so acceptable.

 

That's fair,. We. Are far from the finished article, but we're continuing to make progress and have every chance of performing to our budgetary expectation this year, which would be steady progress again.

 

Parachute payments and the technical quality in relegated squads *should* give sides a massive advantage over the rest, and I'd expect at least 2 of the 3 relegated sides and the others still with parachutes to make up the bulk of the top 10.

You also seem to be dismissing Blackburn and Coventry as sides who won't be in the mix despite them being last year what we are aspiring to this year.

To suggest we weren't anything but massive underdogs against Leeds,. Norwich, Leicester and to a lesser extent Cov, or Blackburn and can therefore expect to dominate and win is a huge fallacy.

And I still have no idea of the relevance of Wednesday. Both generally speaking and what point you were making when you brought them up.

We're 6th after a daunting opening run and that's a lot more than most on here were expecting, yet the same voices in the same breath appear to be expecting more.

Go figure!

 

Squad values were about 1-4 as well.

 

We clearly do need to score more goals. Mostly it's just being clinical. The amount of shots off target in the last two home games, particularly Coventry, was ridiculous. Many of them miles off target. People always want everything to be about tactics but I think it's pretty clear we're doing absolutely fine in the buildup, and just need to get some composure in the box. We can't be blasting it high and wide at the end of every other attack, you're never going to score enough with that level of waste.

 

It's very simple. Despite admitting that the season is too early to judge, you're deflecting valid criticism of the team by saying we've had the hardest set of opening games in the division. Using your own parameters, Massive have had a more difficult set of fixtures, yet we all seem happy enough to compare our form with theirs. I mentioned that we've really struggled to score goals at home going back to last season and pretending it's because we've had it tougher than others is unhelpful and wrong.

 

I didn't say in the division, but we've had one of the most demanding. And I don't think you're giving the opposition the credit they deserve, nor us for competing with some of them against the odds. A lot of teams around and above us currently haven't had as tough fixtures on paper and are yet to face the likely favourites that we've already taken something from.

And I still have no idea what you brought up Wednesday for or even their relevance. If the opening fixtures were even comparable between the 2 clubs then we have 10 more points than them anyway.

We've lost once, we're sitting 6th and none of the naysayers and nitpickers predicted that at the start. Yet the same ones are now nitpicking over us actually punching our weight against technically superior sides.

Is there room for improvement? Yes, there always is and I'd expect that to happen as a natural process of integrating new signings, but forgive me if I find some of the criticism a tad ironic.

 

Actually it's the exact opposite problem. Just before the Coventry game a league-wide stat came out that put us top of the league by some margin for accuracy and converting chances. I think we had something like 42% and the nearest teams in 2nd and 3rd and so on had something like 37% (someone could probably correct those figures for me). The problem then was that we weren't creating enough clear cut chances and relying on worldies like Connolly and Tufan's efforts.

The past couple of games we've had more wayward shots as you say. In this league it's probably gotten closer to the level you'd expect though. What we still need to be doing is creating more chances, not relying on burying one or two good chances per 90 minutes. That way, if we have a game where we're not as accurate, we still increase the chances if scoring rather than getting nilled.

 

Worth mentioning that when Morton was on Leeds had dropped and were down to ten, so it was easier to show for the ball. He's certainly not played badly this season Slater, it's a different role now in a mf 2. It is a wonderful situation tho that we're talking about changing the team, not because players are a liability but because we have genuinely class options on the bench. If any one of Ingram, vinagre, McLaughlin, traore, tufan, lokilo, Morton or allahyar found themselves in the starting 11 it wouldn't noticeably weaken us. It's mad how the squad depth has changed to this level.

 

And yet that absolute moron of a ref played on when he went down!

 

Rosenior’s stats as a manager are interesting. A 32% win rate, a 50% draw rate and a 18% loss rate. Points over a season= 65.

 

Not good enough. Rosenior out!