What makes you think we have another gear Thai? Maybe this is our top gear. The German TV company ZDF recently featured a programme in which two of their reporters raced each other from Munich to Berlin, one travelling by air, the other by rail. The one travelling by air arrived at the finish line (the Brandenburg Gate) first -- by five minutes. He was disheveled, hungry and worn out. The girl who had travelled by rail arrived beautifully turned out, rested and well-fed, and had completed en route her research and preparation for the following day's workload!
My stream had Boro commentators and they spent most of the time talking about how well they stopped us playing, even though it compromised their own attacking play. This is likely to be the case in coming matches, but the same will be true for the other teams at the top. It's also interesting that the Boro commentators were talking about Patrick Roberts as their big attacking threat, but that it was difficult to get him on because of his defensive weaknesses. That was suspected in his time with us last season.
We are not shifting the same amount of goals as we did in 2018/19 season, but at the same time, we are not scoring the same amount of goals. We are defensively much more solid even with Godfrey and Lewis gone. Some might argue that we are better defensively with them gone? Hugill seems out of sorts and with Idah now out for at least 10 weeks then we are also thin on the striker front as well as left back. Cantwell is likely to go in January giving us some more money, but will reinforcements be drafted in?
It wasn't quite "top of the league at Portman Road", but "top of the league with an annoyed Neil Warnock" is a pretty good alternative.
Imagine the same challenge, London to Edinburgh by air or the East Coast Line. I think the young lady would probably throw in the towel (or her make up bag) if and when she reached Peterborough.
I'm not sure I like the idea of a top gear you can never get into unless the opposition clear the road for you!
Why all this negativity? Why are people implying that we are not playing as well as we should? Look at the table - after 12 games we are on top having only lost 2 games and, in both of those, reports indicate we were the better team. In virtually all games we perform better that the opposition in the stats that matter - I'm not interested in the stats that tell me how many times players ran 20 yards without farting etc - and we have got more points than any other team. How has this happened? Luck? Fluke? Every team we play has a bad day? Do we bribe the ref? Is every other team in the league crap? FFS we are top of the league because of good performances, players playing to the best of their ability and - I promise to wash my mouth out with soap and water - we have a bloody good coach. Stop worrying about what would happen if we managed to get promotion again - any realist accepts that we will quickly come down again as with the modern day Premiership that is what happens. 5 of the current bottom 6 in the Premiership went up in the last couple of seasons and 2 of them went up last year. At the same time forget about us spending money in the next few transfer windows - with the current financial position we will have to sell players to survive. Accept things as they are especially that at the moment we are top of the league - enjoy the achievement! .
Well said 1950 And when you think how far behind Bournemouth and Watford we finished, logic and statistics would argue that we should be well behind them in the Championship too.
This almost reminded me of Canary Call.... I miss some of those callers But you're right 1950, we're top of the league and at the end of the day if we keep picking up points like we have been recently we will get another crack at the premiership. People love moaning it gives them something to do ;-)
1950canary is one of the worst moaners on here. He is constantly moaning at other posters -- for moaning!
Did you ever before hear him say this though? "Clean sheets are key to being successful." (DF in an interview with Radio Norfolk after yesterday's match).
DF has always acknowledged clean sheets when they happen, but this is a stronger emphasis than usual, perhaps because we have a more experienced back four now and our tactics can reflect that. Godfrey and Lewis will continue to develop with their new teams, but neither has the experience that Gibson and Hanley have. That the former is left footed is also a big factor - something we haven't had since Bassong. Sørensen's adaptation at LB has been impressive and much of that must be down to the coaching. We're not playing defensively, just getting the balance right to develop the edge in games that works in our favour most of the time.
Yes, that has had me thinking too. Could it be that our style or players are especially effective against Championship opposition, or conversely ineffective against Premiership sides? Once again three of the bottom four sides ( Burnley hot played yet) have failed to score a point this weekend, although all three only lost by the odd goal. Another odd stat: Last season at this stage we had amassed more points from our first nine games than the current bottom three added together!