How does the start to the season compare to last year? (Spoiler: We're passing the ball more often) http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014...thamptons-bright-start-compare-to-a-year-ago/ DTLW
I'm sure I'm not alone in having some doubts towards the end of last season...not going as far as wanting Mauricio to leave, but feeling that he had room for improvement. I put it down to him being new in our league and I forgave him on the grounds that he was on a learning curve. Koeman has just hit the ground running...we will have ups and downs, but I have confidence that Ron's acumen and experience will work things out.
Apart from Spurs away, our next 7 games are against teams who either finished below us or were in the Championship last season. We could still be in the top 4 come the end of November.
I actually did one of the predictor games the other day and, being as unbiased as i could , only went as far as New Years day. We were fifth. Obviously actual results will differ but until december, we have a really good run of fixtures.
Okay a better start yes, but of course if you look at like for like corresponding fixtures we're 2 points down. What is impressive though is that the team that did well last season had been playing together for years, 6 of the 11 against newcastle have only been together for a month or so and the awareness is still getting better Next 8 games are all very winnable, would be nice to build up a good tally like we did last year. In fact our fixtures really look similar to last season, good stretch sept-nov to build up the points, tricky december, varied spread for the rest of the season. If we can pick up a few more points in december compared to last year we can definitely do better.
Wafer thin squad last season meant when injuries started there was a bit of jury-rigging to be done. Hopefully, 1] we don't get the injuries. Successful clubs never have too many throughout a season, whatever they tell you about big squads, and 2] having a bigger squad means that if we have a couple of injuries we shouldn't be too hard hit. JayRod to come back as well. Will he get into the first 11 straight away..? Very much doubt it, unless we're already on our uppers. I know those two points appear to disagree with each other, but it's all about degree, so they actually compliment each other. At least, that's the intention.
I think you're right TSS, the 2 points do complement each other, but there's another dimension as well. Having a bigger squad means we can also have a stab at both cup competitions without fielding a weakened team or jeopardising our league team. So, overall, although it's obviously too early to say for sure, we should do better in all competitions, not just the league.
