The 2019-2020 season.

Is it that the last few times we have ben promoted we have tried to push our players too much physically to make up for their ability and thus had more injuries, especially in our weakest spot?

 

By now he should be pretty comfortable playing with any of them then ..........

 

There is an aspect to this season that people are overlooking. Farke got us up a season or two ahead of schedule and this meant we had no money to spend on players and, quite rightly, the Board decided not to follow the mistakes of the past and put the club in debt by borrowing money. This left us with a Championship squad trying to compete at the top and, as individuals, they were never going to be up to it. We are not going to make the money most Clubs make from a season in the Premiership because of covid but we should be ok and have the parachute payments to help. What financial position would be in financially, however, if Farke had not got us up ahead of schedule and we had stayed in the Championship? Wigan went bust this week because the owner could not put the money in and a lot of other Clubs are facing that situation - we won't because of the achievements of Farke and SW and the financial prudence of the Board. Since being back I have seen all the games and I do not think we have played as badly as the results suggest but at this level mistakes get punished as we have found to our cost. Even the big boys will not have a lot of money to spend in the transfer market and lack of demand might mean that most of our players will still be here next season and, as I say, we will also have the parachute money in a league with a lot of financially stricken Clubs. I hope that we have a lot to look forward to.

 

Can I just ask a few quick questions to save a lot of research. Correct me if I am wrong but the League season ends at the end of the July but the FA Cup and European competitions follows that. When does all of the 2019/20 season finish and when does the next season start? When will the fixture lists for next season be out? When does the transfer window open and shut? What is the International schedule next season bearing in mind that the European competition has to be fitted in before the Olympics start and extra friendlies were planned?

 

Last I heard was that the 2020-2021 Championship will start either on 29th August or 12th September. No idea what decides which it will be, nor why 5th September isn't an option. Final games of EPL 2019--2020 are 26th July.

 

Do you know when the final championship games/ playoff games are?

 

As I understand it, the final round of Championship games are being played on Wed 22nd July. The Play-Off "Semis" take place over the period 26th to 30th July, and the Final is on Tuesday 4th August.

 

The next Championship season is going to be more tightly packed than ever.

 

We started the season with the attitude that we were going to stick to our attacking game and despite losing games we were exciting to watch, scoring goals, performing well in patches and getting the odd decent result.

Then the cry came that we must be more defensive, the assumption being that if we could tighten up defensively we would win more games.

Well over the season we've made some adjustments to the way we play with a stronger emphasis on defence and less on attack, a more balance approach some might say.

Well guess what we're not winning more games, we're not scoring goals and performances have generally gone downhill. Something that some on here suggested might happen.

Personally, irrespective of the results, I'd rather see us playing like we did at the start of the season than we are now. For me one of the best form of defence is to attack and I believe most teams struggle to build / create the attack when they're on the back foot

Defensively over the season our 3 main defensive problems, injuries to CB's, individual unforced or schoolboy errors & set pieces, haven't change. Only the lack of improvement in defending set pieces do I put partially down to a coaching failure and partially down to injuries to CB's.

 

"Being defensive" and "tightening up defensively" are two completely different things. Are Liverpool and Man City "defensive" teams? Are they tight defensively?

 

Failure to compete physically has also contributed - we lack aggression all around the park and not being able to win second balls and ricochets hasn’t helped us.

 

Neither of those things have anything to do with why we are conceding so many goals and losing so many games. How Liverpool & Man City play is irrelevant, we don't have their resources. I'm not going to get into this again any fool can say we need to be more defensive or we need to tighten up defensively, that is not specific enough and really doesn't analysis the problem. Unforced errors, giving the ball away in dangerous areas & failing to defend set pieces are our main issues and need addressing.

 

I enjoy the style of football Farke tries to play, but really feel this squad needs an absolute bastard in midfield. I suppose "midfield general" is the better term...

Someone tall, strong, and very happy to use their physicality. The kind of player who snaps into a tackle, wins the ball, and then screams at the Norwich player who meant he had to make that tackle. We need a leader in that area of the field who can help raise the game of those around him, even if his own game is somewhat limited. We've not really had anyone like that since Holt and Bradley Johnson left.

Matt Grimes from Swansea fits some of that description. I don't think he'd be cheap, but Swansea are looking at a drop in parachute payments coupled with a loss of gate takings, and made a loss in the last financial year despite selling the likes of McBurnie, etc. For a cheaper option, perhaps David Douline from Ligue 2.

 

Someone like Damon Francis. Actually I’d welcome Bradders back in an instant.

 

Quite so, yet we insist on playing as if we did and then you complain about the players making unforced errors, giving the ball away in dangerous areas, and not defending set pieces well enough. When you don't have the resources of a top team, how you play needs to reflect the fact.

 

The errors at times are schoolboy. The players should be capable of more.

 

I’ve said this on a recent thread, a Kalvin Phillips type player, obviously he would be unlikely to come as it looks as though Leeds won’t choke this promotion campaign away

 

Although a bit younger - Lewis Travis at Blackburn would be a good option, I don’t know anything about his personality but his play style would fit.

 

For me Zimmerman is the best on pitch leader we have. He really pulled the group together and barked at players when needed the second half of last season. That has been sorely missed this season. Tettey has been captain because of his experience but I don’t see him ordering players about or picking them up too often.

 

Not sure I agree about Tettey, Suffolk. IMO he does organise the midfield very well without needing to 'bark' at players. He is excellent at reading opposition moves and countering them. If either Aarons or Lewis is caught upfield, he moves players, like McLean dropping back to LB to break up a dangerous attack yesterday.

For me, Tettey is a hugely improved player this season, along with Cantwell and the other young players. He's always been good at breaking up attacks, but now he also operates as a midfield pivot when we have the ball. His passing has improved hugely, but he also reads the defence well as we move forward and use that to distribute the ball effectively. He's one of just a few of our players who has been PL standard this season. We have Louis Thompson and a number of young DMs in the pipeline coming along (Guilmour, Sitti, Mumba) and Tettey could be a big influence on their development.