To be honest, I don't think we'll make the POs. We've still got to go to Southampton, Coventry, Preston, Leeds, Watford and a tough last day at Plymouth, plus West Brom, Middlesbrough and Ipswich have to come to ours. We don't the consistency of performance to get over the line.
Our only top teams left are Sunderland, Boro, Leicester, Ipswich and Preston. We'll be missing our current top scorer for two months, but Sargent is on fire up front and should overtake Rowe's 13 goals soon.
Yes. I remember saying exactly that a few weeks ago when the wailing about injuries reached its peak. If it's not injuries, it's suffering uniquely from poor refereeing, or bad luck!
I don’t mean places so much as points - 5th placed and eight-ten points clear of 7th would be a very different feeling to now
It’s dangerous to assume too much, but there’s also a realistic chance that Preston’s season will be over by the time we play them
Also, we play Sunderland at CR after Blackburn then they play Leicester and Southampton after that. Having lost their last two games to Huddersfield and Birmingham, they could also drop out of contention during that run of games.
I don't recall any 'wailing about injuries' but it's even more evident now what effect losing Sargent for 20 games has had to our season, and then there was Sainz on top of that. Josh had 5 shots yesterday, all 5 on target. No wailing, just logical analysis.
I am pleasantly surprised how good The Sarg is. Had my doubts that he would make it over here, but I am happy to be proved wrong. His control and finishing are excellent.
Yeah and I’m actually re-thinking my comment above - I was just guessing 8-10 extra points. However, if we look at the actual stats, on a simple points per game basis for the matches he has played, if we were to use this for the 20 games he was injured we would have another 18 points, which would put us… joint second (and incidentally possibly have taken points away from Leicester/Leeds/Ipswich, which would have improved our relative position). On a blended average points per minute basis, we would have been even better off with 20 points extra - comfortably second. On a points per game with him starting, we would be an astonishing 23 points better off and quite possibly neck-and-neck with Leicester! Those are just the cold stats - I am not sure I believe we would actually be anywhere that much better off - 8-10 points still feels more reasonable - but the gap between us with him and without him on the pitch is absolutely yawning. Im not sure he had five shots on target though, because didn’t he hit the post and finished off the rebound for his second?
I believe the keeper pushed it into the post. If correct the five on target is also correct. But my analysis of the game, for what it is worth, is that we seemed hungrier, went into contact more positively, played on the front foot more, in other words we were far more positive in our attitude and play. McLean in defence is also a positive as far as I am concerned. Gets the ball, brings it out and does not stop to look around before passing back to Gunn.
I thought Nunez was fantastic yesterday, his covering work for the full backs and defence in general is excellent, he has so much energy!
He's a different player to how he was when he joined us. He's making that connecting, knitting-the-play-together role, his own. If we play with a midfield pair, it should be him and Sara from now on IMO. Credit also to the coaching.
I have a friend who lives in Bremen who says the opinion there was that Sargent would never really make it as a striker. That could be sour grapes, but he didn't look that much when he arrived except for his defensive competitiveness. He puts that down to playing out of position. “It definitely helps when you are playing in your natural position. I've played it my whole life growing up, and I was talking about it with my agents the other day; this is the first season since I became a pro, where I started at the nine and played the whole season there. What do you know - I'm actually doing pretty well. I hope I can continue to score goals and help the team as much as possible. I'm doing the best I can - I have to give a lot of props to the guys. They are helping me out because you can't score goals alone. Hopefully, we continue to play the best possible football and put me in the best possible situations to score goals.” https://www.goal.com/en-gb/lists/us...orwich/blt4b8307df1d3c388f#csd9905c1cecf8f74d
