Will Still OUT

Pipe down yourself

 

We have lost 3 games this season, 1 of those was against Liverpool. Yeah we are drawing more than any of us would like but considering the change in division/manager/coaches/players/tactics I would actually argue that we are doing well!

These things take time and isn't always an instant thing. This season should be a transition season and I would not be surprised if SR would actually prefer to go for promotion next season as this would probably prepare us better for the Premier League than getting promoted this season.

Obviously fans want to win, and winning leads to promotion but as a business you need to look at things differently.

We will have ups and we will have downs(excuse the pun) this season. Today was a mild disappointment for me but a point keeps us unbeaten in 3 which will help build more confidence while Still finds the best formula and the players get an understanding on what is expected of them.

 

On that note, I do remember a comment from WS pre-season or in one of his earliest press conferences about the target being to go for promotion this season and if not this season, then next season he has to get us promoted. I wonder if there's a bit of realism upstairs about us being further away from being ready to go back up than we might have necessarily preferred

 

I feel that it's not the ones we never gave chances to. That would almost certainly result in them getting the same treatment as dud signings only as dud academy players. I just dont follow the logic of selling the Tella's, the Dibbling's, the Sam Amo's to name 3 in the last 2 years. Players who are clearly good enough to be worth good money but replace them with players worth small money and somehow expect the squad to improve. That defies all common sense. And has been poroved to not work IMO.

Having said that I do feel that it would be easier to root for a poor striker we developed than a poor striker we hope to improve from elsewhere.

 

Suspected Os might be a kid. He wasnt alive for Ali Dia. How about Guido Carillo?

 

Will Still not out.

 

Like many of our recent managers, they have been let down by our recruitment team especially surrounding strikers and to go into a Championship season with an injury prone Stewart (not played for 2-3 seasons), Archer (who doesn’t suit Still’s style) and an unproven Downs (who has proven to be totally inadequate) was a huge error that will bite us in the ass
Our only chance this season is to move Archer and Downs on during January and buy a new big strong striker to replace them

 

Looking at last seasons goals count (appreciate that goals / game need to factor but I'm looking at totals for simplicity) I'm sure that SR were trying to bring goals into the team and to widen to player pool who could contribute.

Downs - 11 goals (2 Bundesliga)
Azaz - 17 goals (championship)
Fellows - 4 goals (championship)
Scienza - 6 goals (Bundesliga / Europa Conference)
Jander - 3 goals (2 Bundesliga)

Plus we probably expected Armstrong and Archer to be good at this level (i.e get 20+ between them) and we had the unknown about Stewart so I'm sure the club were expecting a tally from that of at least 70+ goals across the season (yes including an realisation that some of those players are stepping up a league)

Leeds scored 95 last season

Our current goal rate is getting 56 which is below the expected from above so we're definitely not firing properly at the moment but it's off the mark to say that SR just didn't do anything to boost our firepower up front as they clearly tried to get more goals into the team. If they did the right things or not will only be crystal clear come the next window and the end of the season.

I'm in the camp that wants to give WS the time to overhaul last seasons dross, clear the poor mental state and get us back to winning but I can also be disappointed as a fan with a poor performance but one poorer performance in a trend of improving performances isn't a case for dismissal of the coaching staff.

It of course can, and should, be a fans debate on the performances and decisions but we all need to accept that we are never in full possession of all the facts around events in the week and most importantly another fan's interpretation (which is inherently personal to them) should never be a cause for a slanging match.

(Sorry the last bit came out as a bit of an old man rant but this board is much better when threads don't devolve into entrenched posturing of the "correct" viewpoint)