The Swan and Cemetery

The stat that matters most was worse wasn’t it?

OP said league position changed, but surely people not that fickle. Some posts in the chain saying the league position change is a factor. You said fickle was reductive. I was saying that it would be fickle (agreeing with OP), but don’t think that’s why people’s views have changed (despite the other comments), agreeing with you. Basically OP, you and me all agreeing!

Think the OP is saying if basing only on league position that would be a bit fickle? Given we’re 4 points above 18th and 2 points above 15th, think league position alone would be an odd rationale for the swing in sentiment. From a supporters perspective think a) people are seeing the fruits of culture change and like seeing a team that works hard and to the end (however much that should be a given) and b) are frustrated by the lack of support in the transfer window, particularly given NP has maintained (improved vs the latter stages of LJ and all of DH reigns) our position, with a vastly smaller and less expensive squad. Suspect NP is more frustrated by the snippy/passive aggressive comments from the hierarchy about expectations, inc comparisons to the tactical genius Mark Robins. Think he’s more comfortable than the supporters to operate on a very tight budget, but (quite rightly) expects to be recognised for doing so. In terms of why we’d want NP continuing if not getting on with the doves from above, think NP without support is still likely to deliver more success than a supported innovative young manager (/sycophant), which is surely what we’d get. Whether NP fancies continuing is a different matter, albeit with supporters on his side, he may see it as an intriguing battle of wills.

Would quite like to see Cornick and Conway together as an option. Cornick’s appearance summed him up for me, some of it’s clumsy and so on, but you feel he’s always in the game and as you say, opponents know they’ve a game on their hands. Service wasn’t amazing, but none of our starting front three really got involved enough, Cornick (and Yeboah) caused more problems (accepting Coventry searching for a win maybe left more space than the starting three had access to).

Aizlewood alongside Hunter to create deep seated fear in opponents. Gavin somewhere to supply Jordan/Taylor/Shutt.

And the 1 was across the 3 seasons immediately before joining us (realise you know this).

If there being nothing new to add was a rule, this forum would dead in the water. It’s not as if people commenting on his performances for Burnley is going to be insightful/fascinating reading, but fair enough if people want to do it.

Don’t think unreasonable for people to continue to offer their opinions about him and his time here, however boring it is for others. If we could all have a veto over subjects we find boring there would be zero threads.

SL is an odd cove, seems persistently most upset by his best decisions.

Sure they’ll want to give James and Rennie good receptions along with NP, but if King comes on as sub, he’ll get a hero returns welcome, given his unique League One, Championship and Premier League winning exploits with them.

Think it’s more people responding to others who come across as having clear agendas - to see that chance as a sitter is ludicrous in my view, whether assessing by own eyes or xG. Most games would end 9-7 based on the views of a fair few on here and we’d need a lot more threads about specific chances.

Albeit that could be challenged reasonably easily on the basis of not backing him resulting in the lower mid table finish.

So far this season seems as if we’re reasonably consistent and as a result… inconsistent. Solid to very good performances away from home, struggling to break teams down at home. Somewhat out of kilter with the Championship overall, 23 home wins, 16 away wins so far, albeit early days. Whether it’s our set up/core abilities of our players vs how others tend to set up home vs away (or just that we’ve played 2 decent teams at home), not sure, but feels like plenty to be excited by, whilst also lots still to work on. Based on today, need to get Joe W signed up asap.

Potentially interesting for some in game assessments (accepting that the data for individual xG incidents won’t be perfect)? Eg in @And Its Smith’s goal mouth scramble example, if all 3 had an individual xG of 0.2, that’s a 0.8^3 chance of not scoring which is still over 50%, despite 3 chances that supporters would probably perceive at gilt edged? xG strikes me at the type of tool that [insert name of old school manager] would reject completely in favour of “my own eyes” (and half time cups of tea), NP would see as another way of triangulating what’s going on and LJ would rely on entirely (probably sacked by Hibs for demanding their board push the SPL to given up on points based on wins, draws and losses and just rank based on xG). Depending on data efficacy xG will be useful for assessing striker performance vs those creating chances for them, etc etc. Are strikers terrible vs not getting enough chances (accepting might because they’re not making the right runs etc - so can only ever be one perspective, not the only data point used)?

Not sure on the criteria for hands tied behind back, but we’re currently 2nd in that mini league, so guess he must be doing okay…

Didn’t think they were that great overall, plenty going forward, but if we’d played half decently with the ball, we’d have matched them. Space everywhere compared with Preston, who weren’t as good as Birmingham coming forward, but much more effective defensively.

I have night terrors about SL having a bright idea to bring LJ back.

Think on balance I agree, albeit we miss TC a lot. Overall think Birmingham were vulnerable and should have been easier to beat than PNE, who we hardly got a look in against. Birmingham were very decent going forward, but not great without the ball, we just failed miserably to threaten due to lack of concentration/precision. Not really a core strategy (or at least shouldn’t have to be), but endlessly letting balls run under our feet for throw ins summed up the weird mindset today.

Agree, albeit don’t think the front four did a great job of creating options for passers most of the time.

I didn’t think Vyner was as bad as everyone saying (which maybe gives me a clue!), thought he was trying to get some forward momentum, which admittedly didn’t always come off and also thought he made some decent interceptions/tackles. Today at least Tanner made it more difficult for him, his body shape/first touch seemed to be consistently to come back towards his own goal, rather than move the play forward. Roberts and Yeboah at least brightish sparks. There was a lot of space out there today and we definitely should have made more use of it.

Agree, Max’s biggest fan would struggle to suggest he has decent competition for his place.

Gary Madine on a pay-as-you-head-it (/stay out of the justice system) deal.

Surely there’s no need to fall out about it?

Think whatever anyone thinks of Max it’s difficult to argue that he lacks competition. A Ruddy-esque late in career, solid but unspectacular, keeper would hopefully be affordable. Think Scott can only be replaced by the team as whole and how that improves, as too unique to find anyone plausibly like for like. His combination of talent and consistency was amazing, maybe either a talented but unproven youngster or someone solid/experienced, but less exciting. Striker - don’t see it as realistic to significantly improve things until we improve our final ball. We’d need Rush/Fowler in their pomp to convert chances at a high enough rate and we can’t afford that. Again, maybe a lower league player might be worth a gamble, but if spending, think it needs to be on chance creation first and foremost. Mehmeti coming good or Benarous returning to fitness maybe our best chances. Not sure loans are financially much better than buying given fees/wages these days. Overall we need to suss how to play at home, but as NP said, more concentration/precision in general would make a big difference. Often very sloppy today and think we could have pushed them much harder with more care.

If you genuinely think we were awful against Millwall, you’ve lost the plot.