Probably would have flapped at a number of shots and let goals in as he did in pre-season. Not quite clear why people keep pushing this line of thinking as if players thrown into a play off battle when they're settling into the squad particularly in goal isn't a huge risk. Especially when we saw how shaky he was in pre-season leading to Acun investing in two new keepers! And putting all that aside and assuming he had somehow got us the points to get into the play offs - so what! We weren't going to win them but people keep looking at missing the play offs as some colossal failure rather than viewing the season as a huge positive with the step up we took from the previous season. People want Acun to stop knee jerking and overreacting to events but then do it themselves..
Not making the playoffs was at the very least disappointing and arguably a failure. Not sure why people pretend it isn’t. No way of knowing if we would’ve won them or not. That said, not sure why not using the more talented keeper at your diposal is such a farfetched proposition according to your eyes… Each to their own I suppose.
Pretend that going from 14th to 7th represents progress and improvement? Pretend that whether we'd finished 7th or 6th the same issues would have faced us in the summer as Norwich and WBA were comfortably beaten in the play offs as we would have been in their place? Our "PL quality" players in Greaves, Philogene and Carvalho having such stand out seasons when they did make it up there? I don't know why people are so eager to back Acun's sacking of Rosenior as if Rosenior being lumped with half a dozen new players in January and told "Get promoted" as if he could just work magic and get them all gelled and clicking at the drop of the hat wasn't a ridiculous over-expectation. Not sure where I said anything was "farfetched" just as assuming that Pandur's form this season could be copy and pasted to last season as if players moving to a new country, with new team mates, in a new league might take time to get up to speed, time that we didn't have in the thick of a play off battle. We also saw in pre-season Pandur was coming to grips with a more possession heavy style of football and was stranded out of position on more than one occasion. That is FACT. The fact he then settled into the role when given the number one shirt and the season started DOES NOT prove he would have done the same last season and yet people still cling to it because they're desperate to bash Rosenior who of course has gone on to prove them absolutely right by flopping in his next job. And then the same people yawn and complain about Rosenior being brought up despite taking veiled swipes themselves in the first place.
I can see what you are saying and find some of your points interesting. However, I do have a couple of gripes with your way of thinking. It’s a bit strange lambasting our excellent higher CHAMPIONSHIP standard players because they had a difficult season with poor Premier League clubs. Also using a torrid collective pre-season to judge our keeper seems a bit nearsighted to me. This is going to be one of those cases where differing opinions exist. For what it’s worth though, I think Rosenior both did a good job and disappointingly missed his KPI. I think he deserved another season with us and would’ve hoped Acun had kept him in charge. Good bit of back and forth with you! Enjoyed it.
My point in bringing up the Philogene/Greaves etc. is because throughout the discussion on Rosenior underachieving in missing the play offs one of the key points was "He had PL quality players and couldn't get to the play offs" however we're now seeing those "PL quality" players likely back in the Championship (making an argument that they weren't, in fact, PL quality). I wasn't attempting to lambast them and would have both Greaves and Philogene back in an instant. I just don't love it when posters (not you) point to their success in order to sink the boot into Rosenior as if he played no part in getting them performing to that level in the first place. I agree that pre-season was tough on players, however it's not just my judgement of Pandur that I pointed to, Walter and by extension Acun were both concerned with his form to the point they brought in Racioppi and then shortly later Rushworth. If Racioppi had had a better debut in the League Cup and Rushworth hadn't been injured, Pandur may not have even been making our bench after the first month of the season. Very clearly in hindsight that would have been a mistake, but my point is there's no point criticising Rosenior for not making a snap judgement within a few weeks of training sessions with do or die matches each week if you won't also criticise Acun for making a similar judgement over a longer period of time (the pre-season). I agree that there's no definite right or wrong answer and it's all wrapped up in hypotheticals and supposition, but I think on the evidence and what bore out, I can't imagine a world where throwing Pandur into the play off battle would have ultimately better served us without a few hiccups in games to begin with. As an aside, if Rosenior's KPI was indeed to make the play offs I would be quite surprised, as Acun regularly and repeatedly last year in interviews said a top 10 finish would be fantastic. I think what instead happened was Acun got excited by the very real possibility of a play off finish, overspent (perhaps with agreement from Rosenior), and then was frustrated when it didn't work out. Enjoy a discussion like this, everyone's entitled to their opinions and expressing them thoughtfully and well set out. Makes a change!
Still pushing the same 'we wouldn't have won the play offs' guff, once again, you're guessing. Last season Southampton won them, of their final four league games they lost three of them, we lost only one of ours, we'd have pissed the play offs*. That is all. *Guessing.
Been working at Charlie Hughes house today. He didn’t expect to win goal of the season. He thought Pedro would get it for his goal against Bristol City.
No but he did say that he was going on holiday for a couple of weeks then coming back and getting in shape for preseason.
Who's named names? And you honestly believe we'd be holding onto either, but for the fine margin of survival? It's still yet to be seen whether we hang onto both.
