Jump to content
IGNORED

Second Promotion place


Rossineri

Recommended Posts

8 hours ago, Davefevs said:

I know the Champ is a tough division whoever you play, but I think we’ve had quite a tough start.  Leeds, Boro, Derby, Stoke, you’d expect less than the 7 points we got from those games.  

October has some interesting games:

Preston (a) 

Reading (h)

Luton (a)

Charlton (h)

Wigan (h)

Not gonna predict points total, but I think we’ll know a lot more about City by the time we go away to Barnsley at start of November.

Preston is the biggest threat there. The other 4 are winnable. 

Despite their impressive frontline, Reading are lacking cohesion. 

Luton perform well, but need to adapt to how clinical this league is. 

Charlton are on the slide now.

Wigan have good players but not performing as a unit like we do.

If Kalas and Nagy are back by Reading, we could do alright. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suspect we will end up just outside the playoffs again.

Unfortunately we don't have a very well balanced squad. We have a number of injured players who should be fit in the next month or two. That will leave us with a lot of CBs, plenty of good midfield options but very little in the way of firepower up front.

We've been saying for at least two seasons that we needed reinforcements up front. It is really unlucky that Afobe is going to be out all season. However we shouldn't have got into a position where the loss of one new player leaves us fecked. This is a culmination of two years of poor (or no) striker recruitment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, robin_unreliant said:

I suspect we will end up just outside the playoffs again.

Unfortunately we don't have a very well balanced squad. We have a number of injured players who should be fit in the next month or two. That will leave us with a lot of CBs, plenty of good midfield options but very little in the way of firepower up front.

We've been saying for at least two seasons that we needed reinforcements up front. It is really unlucky that Afobe is going to be out all season. However we shouldn't have got into a position where the loss of one new player leaves us fecked. This is a culmination of two years of poor (or no) striker recruitment.

I totally agree, and I think people are living in a fantasy world if they think that Diedhiou can perform to the Afobe standard, or that Semenyo is ready to terrorise Championship defenses. LJ clearly doesn't think so. He's a realist.

That said... the October fixtures are games where those two could have some joy. Luton, Charlton and Reading don't defend as well as Swansea do 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, robin_unreliant said:

I suspect we will end up just outside the playoffs again.

Unfortunately we don't have a very well balanced squad. We have a number of injured players who should be fit in the next month or two. That will leave us with a lot of CBs, plenty of good midfield options but very little in the way of firepower up front.

We've been saying for at least two seasons that we needed reinforcements up front. It is really unlucky that Afobe is going to be out all season. However we shouldn't have got into a position where the loss of one new player leaves us fecked. This is a culmination of two years of poor (or no) striker recruitment.

I don’t agree with this criticism. Afobe was clearly our best quality option up front, and to lose him for the entire season was incredibly unfortunate.

It’s simply not realistic for us to have an equal level of quality on the bench ready to step in. It’s not even financially viable to have players of Afobe’s quality not playing every week, particularly with FFP and no parachuted payments. Any club would miss the loss of their best forward.

In fact I would argue that to have a £5m striker with a 1 in 3 goal ratio, ready to step in, is actually a pretty good replacement and better than many clubs in this division would be able to call upon if they lost their best forward. Plus we also have Semenyo and Wiemann capable of playing up top. We’re certainly weaker, but not “fecked” any more than anyone else would be when losing their star striker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Mr Popodopolous said:

Fair yeah can see that. 

"Most" sounds right. Can we include Afobe given his season seems to be over?

I fully agree they would be strongly competing for places in sides who are big playoff contenders and maybe more but I can't see most of them as so much above that eg Nagy/Smith walks in ahead of Phillips at Leeds or Arter at Fulham.

Kalas and Dasilva would of course be sought after by many and maybe a good shout abd we all know about Afobe's quality.

No doubt we have some serious depth and quality now but it's quite a statement- not on the level of someone who suggested we'd never be relegated to League One again (!?) earlier in the week but it's very bullish indeed.

Someone? surely you haven't forgotten me already.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Alex_BCFC said:

Unless we can replace Afobe quickly then I see a 8-11th finish. 

It was a good effort yesterday but it’ll be like that (ie not enough quality) for a period time until injuries are sorted. 

Sorry to sound like a stuck record but which injuries being sorted will make that change? What we have coming back are players where our cover is pretty good (apart maybe from LB).

What we won't have unless we recruit again is the kind of finishing power that will get us into automatic contention. The fact we are now reduced to scouring the free agent market for two of the spine of the team is a bit ridiculous, given all the money from sales.

I agree we have been very unlucky with injuries but the basic problem needs to be acknowleged i.e. MA and co haven't recruited as well as some seem to suggest. Too many wingers and CBs and not enough quality striker cover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I mean is it will be a struggle to get points until the likes of Nagy, Kalas etc come back as those are the players who control games for us. Last season we relied on defence to win us games where as I wouldn’t back the current side to do so.

I like Fammy but now we’ve seen an upgrade in Afobe - it’s hard to go back to Fammy starting every game. But he is a regular scorer. Just hoping we can find some else up there as not yet sure about Semenyo. 

I think we recruited really well but got unlucky - it happens but now they need to go and find a hidden gem. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...