Skuse And Sproule

[Robbored]

Assault on automatic promotion? I think people are getting a bit ahead of themselves. We need to bring some quality in to make sure we aren't "looking over our shoulders" next season before we do anything else. Because what we have at the moment, as a squad, has relegation scrap written all over it.

Spot on.

The good news is that Johnson has seemingly realised that 'this bunch of lads' won't be good enough next season. He's publically said that he's looking to bring 3 or 4 players in. Those players leaving AG have already been announced.

The question is where these 3 or 4 players will fit in. Most of us feel that midfield needs strengthening but I'm not sure Johnson agrees. The defence also needs some pace. I don't think that up front City are too badly off even without Adebola. Maynard should be good for 20 goals next season given the right service. Styvar and Akinde will both want to impress. Maybe even Trundle will produce the goods at last. Thats four strikers vying for two places.

[bcfc_4_life]

Spot on.

The good news is that Johnson has seemingly realised that 'this bunch of lads' won't be good enough next season. He's publically said that he's looking to bring 3 or 4 players in. Those players leaving AG have already been announced.

The question is where these 3 or 4 players will fit in. Most of us feel that midfield needs strengthening but I'm not sure Johnson agrees. The defence also needs some pace. I don't think that up front City are too badly off even without Adebola. Maynard should be good for 20 goals next season given the right service. Styvar and Akinde will both want to impress. Maybe even Trundle will produce the goods at last. Thats four strikers vying for two places.

Bang on RR, I think that point about the service is one that needs to be sorted, its all well and good signing strikers like maynard but they can't do much with the limited service we get, specially with crossers like Sproule though i agree i think sproules best performances were in the 4-3-3. I think we'll need a winger for both sides, Mcsheffrey would be one to look at, also glad skuse signed a new deal, but still get a nagging feeling we need someone who can take better set pieces then Lee johnson n McIndoe

[William Stand]

Spot on.

The good news is that Johnson has seemingly realised that 'this bunch of lads' won't be good enough next season. He's publically said that he's looking to bring 3 or 4 players in. Those players leaving AG have already been announced.

The question is where these 3 or 4 players will fit in. Most of us feel that midfield needs strengthening but I'm not sure Johnson agrees. The defence also needs some pace. I don't think that up front City are too badly off even without Adebola. Maynard should be good for 20 goals next season given the right service. Styvar and Akinde will both want to impress. Maybe even Trundle will produce the goods at last. Thats four strikers vying for two places.

I expect to see Maynard around the 15 goal mark next season, which I feel would be a good return. If he takes the pens I guess he could push this up to closer to the magic 20.

My only fear for him is that he appears (in truth, like many strikers) a real confidence player. If he starts the season well he could well out do my prediction, but once he goes a few games without a goal he displays do seem to dip as his confidence ebbs away.

[Godzilla]

Assault on automatic promotion? I think people are getting a bit ahead of themselves. We need to bring some quality in to make sure we aren't "looking over our shoulders" next season before we do anything else. Because what we have at the moment, as a squad, has relegation scrap written all over it.

I thought it had 10th place written all over it?

[SJC]

The only {significant} contributor we have lost since our play-off losing side is Nick Carle. We have Basso, the same back four available, Williams instead of Noble in Midfield, Maynard instead of Adebola, Styvar instead of Byfield up top.

Yes we need strengthening, but for progressive challenging reasons rather than avoidance of relegation scraps.

To suggest if we don't make additions we'll be battling relegation is to suggest that the Championship has moved on so far in 1 to 2 years, that a team (with minor alterations) who were never far from the summit and came within a whisker of Premier League football would now do well to avoid the drop - which in my eyes is wide of the mark.

[Guest pogopete]

Sproule *can* be a good player and he's really not far off it either. On a good day he can be unstoppable, there just haven't been enough of those so far.

People are complaining that all he can do is run. Well, all Scott Murray could do for a long time was just run. Then he got some composure in his finishing and started getting better service from midfield and all of a sudden was scoring 20+ goals a season.

I do think we should have seen more from Sproule by now but if GJ still thinks he can get more out of him I'm happy for him to keep trying.

Sorry to say just not good enough he should be got rid off, he is to inconstant for the Championship.

[Bris Red]

The only {significant} contributor we have lost since our play-off losing side is Nick Carle. We have Basso, the same back four available, Williams instead of Noble in Midfield, Maynard instead of Adebola, Styvar instead of Byfield up top.

Yes we need strengthening, but for progressive challenging reasons rather than avoidance of relegation scraps.

To suggest if we don't make additions we'll be battling relegation is to suggest that the Championship has moved on so far in 1 to 2 years, that a team (with minor alterations) who were never far from the summit and came within a whisker of Premier League football would now do well to avoid the drop - which in my eyes is wide of the mark.

Spot on SJC, yes i fully agree we need to stengthen, however the facts don't lie we have finshed in the top half of the championship for two years running and realisticly (if you take out the dip in form between october-december 2008) never looked like going down. To say ''this squad has a relegation scrap written all over it'' is an over-reaction and to be fair you have no facts to back that wild assumption up anyway.

Like SJC said the championship hasnt moved on much (if at all) since the 2007-08 season when in fairness we could and should have gone up as runners up. To finish anywere near the top 6 in 2009-10 fresh blood will need to be brought in but nothing major, a couple of wingers a pacy centre half and posiibly a new striker (if Bola goes) will be enough to see us secure at LEAST a top 10 finish again IMO.

[William Stand]

I really don't buy the "without a major influx of quality we'll struggle" line at all.

The way I see it, Blackpool, Barnsley & PAFC are likely to be similarly weak next season. Teams like Cov & the Owls have been in mid table obscurity for a good few seasons & don't have the finances to buy themselves much further up the table.

I agree we need to strengthen to challenge, but not to survive.

[Robbored]

I really don't buy the "without a major influx of quality we'll struggle" line at all.

The way I see it, Blackpool, Barnsley & PAFC are likely to be similarly weak next season. Teams like Cov & the Owls have been in mid table obscurity for a good few seasons & don't have the finances to buy themselves much further up the table.

I agree we need to strengthen to challenge, but not to survive.

Look at last season.

1st quarter - average but way off the pace from the start.

2nd quarter - slid down to 18th

3rd quarter - good run upto fourth at one point.

4th quarter - relegation form. Just one win in that quarter.

It was that one period just after xmas that kept us in the CCC. The rest of the season was below par. City will struggle if Johnson keeps the same 'bunch of lads'. Thankfully he won't.

[William Stand]

Look at last season.

1st quarter - average but way off the pace from the start.

2nd quarter - slid down to 18th

3rd quarter - good run upto fourth at one point.

4th quarter - relegation form. Just one win in that quarter.

It was that one period just after xmas that kept us in the CCC. The rest of the season was below par. City will struggle if Johnson keeps the same 'bunch of lads'. Thankfully he won't.

Retrospectively chunking the season up is pointless, its the overall points tally that count, wherever in the season those points are gained.

I would actually argue against your synopsis:

1st quarter - did ok - nowhere near relegation

2nd quarter - poor, relegation form

3rd quarter v good - play off form

4th quarter - poor, but you have to bear in mind a No of the games were played when our season was effectively over & we played sides like Burnley & Swansea who had it all to go for.

We need to improve the squad to get into the top 6, but even with the same squad I wouldn't fear the drop.

[Robbored]

Retrospectively chunking the season up is pointless, its the overall points tally that count, wherever in the season those points are gained.

What 'chunking' the season into four does is show that City were mostly below par over 46 games. It was one spell of good results that made all the diffrence. Without said spell City would have been 'looking over their shoulder'. No doubt about it.

City won 15 games, lost 15 games and drew 16. Over half the wins (8) came in that one 10 game good spell between Watford away and Reading away. That means that City won only 7 games in the other three quarters of the season. That is relegation form.

Sure - points at the end of the season are what matter but the fact that City struggled for three quarters of the season is a major worry.

[BCFC_Dan]

What 'chunking' the season into four does is show that City were mostly below par over 46 games. It was one spell of good results that made all the diffrence. Without said spell City would have been 'looking over their shoulder'. No doubt about it.

City won 15 games, lost 15 games and drew 16. Over half the wins (8) came in that one 10 game good spell between Watford away and Reading away. That means that City won only 7 games in the other three quarters of the season. That is relegation form.

Sure - points at the end of the season are what matter but the fact that City struggled for three quarters of the season is a major worry.

There's no doubt about the importance of the run of wins, but it did coincide with the time when we played most of the teams in the bottom half. It's not unreasonable to think that we'd have beaten those sides however the fixtures were distributed (although I think having them all together helped in this instance).

I'm confident that the same team would stand a good chance against most of the bottom half again next season, but failing to beat them and therefore relegation would be a very real risk.

[Swansea_Red]

I know this didn't happen, but conceivably, if the fixtures had been spread correctly we could have gone through this season on a sequence of Draw, Win, Lose, Draw, Win, Lose, etc. We would have ended with the same points and finished in the same place. I wonder what peoples reaction would be then?

This season we finished in the correct position, that being, we beat the sides below us and didn't beat the ones above us (mostly). We need to somehow guard against going on terrible runs, regardless of who we play, as we seem to find it hard to get out of them and that can be disastrous. Especially if we get stuck in a rut against the lower half of the table, but that can be said for any team.

I agree that the last part of the season was relegation form, but on the other hand we didn't finish in 10th for no reason! We had a bit about us to beat the teams below us and, I'm confident going into next season we'll have a better team than the lower half of the table, so we should be clear of relegation! If the rub of the green goes against us in those games we could come unstuck.

[Tunley Legend]

I thought it had 10th place written all over it?

If every other club in the division "stood still" you might have a point. But then a weak return of around 8 points from our last twelve games of last season suggests that perhaps our current squad has reached it's limit and that you don't have a point.

It's simple - if GJ fails to sufficiently strengthen the squad then we will be battling relegation throughout next season - of that I have no doubt. The squad he has at present with no significant strengthening would do well to hit the heights of 20th place next season let alone achieve another 10th placed finish. Having said that I agree with others who believe that GJ now recognises this - let's see who he brings in and what quality they are.

[Tunley Legend]

The only {significant} contributor we have lost since our play-off losing side is Nick Carle. We have Basso, the same back four available, Williams instead of Noble in Midfield, Maynard instead of Adebola, Styvar instead of Byfield up top.

Yes we need strengthening, but for progressive challenging reasons rather than avoidance of relegation scraps.

To suggest if we don't make additions we'll be battling relegation is to suggest that the Championship has moved on so far in 1 to 2 years, that a team (with minor alterations) who were never far from the summit and came within a whisker of Premier League football would now do well to avoid the drop - which in my eyes is wide of the mark.

We amassed 61 points last season - it does not take a big shift in fortunes for that to be reduced to 49 points next time round and finding ourselves bang in trouble. And the way we finished the season OVER A 3 MONTH PERIOD would see us lucky to get to 49 if repeated next season (if we start the season like that, for example, confidence will be at rock bottom and AG will not be a pretty site on match day). What we did two years ago has no relevance to how we will fare next season whatsoever - absolutely nothing. Certain players in our squad have clearly reached the limit of their abilities, other managers have finally worked us out in terms of how to get an easy point at AG and three at their place and it is clear that a freshening up and injection of quality into the squad is needed in order for us to be "comfortable" next season. I'm just grateful that GJ has spotted this and is not taking the complacent attitude of some on here.

[SJC]

We amassed 61 points last season - it does not take a big shift in fortunes for that to be reduced to 49 points next time round and finding ourselves bang in trouble. And the way we finished the season OVER A 3 MONTH PERIOD would see us lucky to get to 49 if repeated next season (if we start the season like that, for example, confidence will be at rock bottom and AG will not be a pretty site on match day). What we did two years ago has no relevance to how we will fare next season whatsoever - absolutely nothing. Certain players in our squad have clearly reached the limit of their abilities, other managers have finally worked us out in terms of how to get an easy point at AG and three at their place and it is clear that a freshening up and injection of quality into the squad is needed in order for us to be "comfortable" next season. I'm just grateful that GJ has spotted this and is not taking the complacent attitude of some on here.

As I said, we need to strengthen and this has clearly been recognised by all.

Your position works both ways. Of course it doesnt take a big shift in fortunes for that to be reduced, however it takes even less of a shift for it to increase. Very avoidable goals vs Cardiff and Preston, the domination at Derby: chances converted and the McIndoe last minute missed penalty vs Forest would have given us an extra 9 points alone - 4 points outside the play-off places.

The fact that we endured prolonged periods of poor form at both the start and finish of the season should cause concern yes, but it should also be reflected on in a regretful, missed oppotunity sense. I understand the concern, however what I do not understand is how some acknowledge that we only performed for a fraction of the season and overlook the concept that if, and yes of course it is an 'if', we had performed only slightly better in those two periods we would have most likely, once again, been in the play-off mix.

Again, yes we need to strengthen. But this whole doomsday outlook by some is a bit premature for me.