3 points off top

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We were always going to slow up at some point, we’ve only played with a fluidity in two games and maybe two separate half’s this season.
 
I think that reality has now hit us. Despite the great start to the season we do not have a good enough squad to challenge for automatic promotion and possibly not even for the play offs

We do have a few decent players such as Cooper, Burrows and Hamer plus the injured men such as Arblasterand Sousa but the majority are just average championship players.

What is clear is that our style of play is based on a possession game which is both predictable and played at such a slow pace with no strikers who show any movement. Also following the loss of Souttar we are now week at the back

Some of this has to be down to Wilder particularly the lack of a plan b. Having said this Wilder is hamstrung with the players he has at his disposal

Without an injection of new players who have pace and a willingness to get forward so Wilder needs help from The New Owners who have to make funds available for proven championship players ideally loans from Premiership teams.

Without this we will not go anywhere
 
We just need a win and the momentum shifts back in our favour. At the moment with players out, kids on the bench and poor striking options we seem to be feeling a bit sorry for ourselves.
 
After Chatvetadze (sp) runs us ragged on Saturday it might be 6 points off top.......even tho QPR scored 3 against Watford today...oh and Dunne scored again.
 
I predicted we'd finish probably 8th or 9th this season, so I think we've massively over-performed so far this season and that has raised expectations, unfairly in my view. This blip or whatever you want to call it is to be expected. Not many teams just steamroller the championship unless they basically have a Premer League squad. We've got a small core squad with a lot of young players who are still learning their trade. We've also had serious injuries to key players and have now lost another one of our best players, Souttar.
If we are seriously going to challenge for promotion we desperately need reinforcements, 2 or 3 players that will improve the first team would be good, 4 or 5 would be even better. If not, I think we'll do well to stay in the play offs.
Hopefully we can still pick up points in January, bolster the squad, and give it a really good go for the rest of the season.
 
Some very winnable fixtures up to Boro game on Feb 12th so no panic from me.

Done amazing so far this season compared to our expectations before start of season and taking rebuild into account.

If we're 2nd or thereabouts by end Feb I'll start to believe - especially if we bring in 3-4 quality signings in January.
 
I think top 2 will go down to the wire tbh. Unless Leeds and Burnley both invest significantly more.
 
Jimmy Fleck said:
At this stage of the season, we’d have deffo taken that before August.

The rebuild is still not done and massive injury crisis, few more signings in and we’ll be fine.
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This run of 4 games has coincided with a run of bad injuries and it's taken it's toll, get through Watford, scrape a win if we can and have a bit of a reset with the cup
 
Houston_Blade said:
We just need a win and the momentum shifts back in our favour. At the moment with players out, kids on the bench and poor striking options we seem to be feeling a bit sorry for ourselves.
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All very true, but if the team do not win this Championship at a canter, we will be found wanting in the Prem next season!
Do you want fans to die of a heart attack, going up through the play offs?
 

we need 4 points minimum from our next 2 games to keep in touch at the top but to achieve that these individual errors have to stop otherwise its play offs at best for us oh and some pace in the final 3rd might help as well
 
still dont know how we didnt get at lest a point last night, was attack v defence second half

still 1 result from top spot, and key playrers coming back and the window could be vital , need to fill the Soutter and Arblaster holes in the squad
 
I’ve being saying for a while I don’t think we’ve got the strength in depth for a top two spot & the injuries & suspensions are now catching up with us , we’ve been dogged & pragmatic digging out results which deserves a lot of credit but you get found out against the better sides .
We’ll be top 6 ( with additions this month ? ) but I can’t see past Leeds & Burnley for the autos . As the the OP says I would have snatched their hand off before a ball was kicked for the position we’re in but we’re gonna need backing to sustain it .
Outside Leeds & Burnley .. i think it’ll start to get very tight with us ,Sunderland , Boro , WBA , Blackburn for top 6 position. Still could even see a Norwich or alike been up there ⚔️
 
I think, when considering our performances, we've been in a bit of a false position with the majority of the fine margins going in our favour. Now we have had more injuries and suspensions, those fine margins have begun to swing the other way.

It's always a bit alarming to me when a team is consistently not playing well, despite the results maybe being positive. It does not suggest longevity. It's something we saw under Blackwell and it's something we had under Hecky too, in the second half of the last promotion season. We got over the line then, but we went up without any real identity, especially as our approach the season before was basically to hope that Ndiaye would create some magic, of whom we obviously then lost.

We might go up again by grinding out results and being solid, but then I'm at a loss as to what next season would bring. It's hard enough as it is.

That said, I am amazed that we are 3rd and within a result of being top. I wouldn't have thought this back in the summer.
 
Houston_Blade said:
We just need a win and the momentum shifts back in our favour. At the moment with players out, kids on the bench and poor striking options we seem to be feeling a bit sorry for ourselves.
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This.

Sheffield United has been top 3 all season for a reason and are still third with us/Sunderland in 4rth - where we have been for weeks. Takes one good weekend for your lads and all of a sudden the gap between 3rd and 4rth is back to 5 points and the 3 of you are fighting it out again.

Little has changed because you lost - a rare occurrence this season - and remember every club, no matter who you are - goes through a bit of a bad run during the season.

21 games still to go and plenty of time for SUFC to regroup, go again and have an excellent end to the season.
 
Burnley have to play - Blackburn, Sunderland and Leeds before the end of this month. Let’s see where we are after that lot.
 
David Wheatley said:
I think that reality has now hit us. Despite the great start to the season we do not have a good enough squad to challenge for automatic promotion and possibly not even for the play offs

We do have a few decent players such as Cooper, Burrows and Hamer plus the injured men such as Arblasterand Sousa but the majority are just average championship players.

What is clear is that our style of play is based on a possession game which is both predictable and played at such a slow pace with no strikers who show any movement. Also following the loss of Souttar we are now week at the back

Some of this has to be down to Wilder particularly the lack of a plan b. Having said this Wilder is hamstrung with the players he has at his disposal

Without an injection of new players who have pace and a willingness to get forward so Wilder needs help from The New Owners who have to make funds available for proven championship players ideally loans from Premiership teams.

Without this we will not go anywhere
Click to expand...
Playoffs nailed on

This league is mainly gash - hence our current position with the issues we have
 
coaxingstar71 said:
I predicted we'd finish probably 8th or 9th this season, so I think we've massively over-performed so far this season and that has raised expectations, unfairly in my view. This blip or whatever you want to call it is to be expected. Not many teams just steamroller the championship unless they basically have a Premer League squad. We've got a small core squad with a lot of young players who are still learning their trade. We've also had serious injuries to key players and have now lost another one of our best players, Souttar.
If we are seriously going to challenge for promotion we desperately need reinforcements, 2 or 3 players that will improve the first team would be good, 4 or 5 would be even better. If not, I think we'll do well to stay in the play offs.
Hopefully we can still pick up points in January, bolster the squad, and give it a really good go for the rest of the season.
Click to expand...
The teams spine is out.

Souttar
Souza & Blaster
Campbell

It’s going to be hard to replace all in the JTW but let’s take a deep breath and wait and see what happens.
 
David Wheatley said:
I think that reality has now hit us. Despite the great start to the season we do not have a good enough squad to challenge for automatic promotion and possibly not even for the play offs

We do have a few decent players such as Cooper, Burrows and Hamer plus the injured men such as Arblasterand Sousa but the majority are just average championship players.

What is clear is that our style of play is based on a possession game which is both predictable and played at such a slow pace with no strikers who show any movement. Also following the loss of Souttar we are now week at the back

Some of this has to be down to Wilder particularly the lack of a plan b. Having said this Wilder is hamstrung with the players he has at his disposal

Without an injection of new players who have pace and a willingness to get forward so Wilder needs help from The New Owners who have to make funds available for proven championship players ideally loans from Premiership teams.

Without this we will not go anywhere
Click to expand...

Our second half of the season form would have to be relegation-like for us to not make top six. I don't there's any sort of risk on that.

As things stand, I do think we'll fall a long way short of top two because that's the trajectory we're on.
A brilliant January could change my mind, but I'm sceptical until the new owners prove themselves.
 
coaxingstar71 said:
I predicted we'd finish probably 8th or 9th this season, so I think we've massively over-performed so far this season and that has raised expectations, unfairly in my view. This blip or whatever you want to call it is to be expected. Not many teams just steamroller the championship unless they basically have a Premer League squad. We've got a small core squad with a lot of young players who are still learning their trade. We've also had serious injuries to key players and have now lost another one of our best players, Souttar.
If we are seriously going to challenge for promotion we desperately need reinforcements, 2 or 3 players that will improve the first team would be good, 4 or 5 would be even better. If not, I think we'll do well to stay in the play offs.
Hopefully we can still pick up points in January, bolster the squad, and give it a really good go for the rest of the season.
Click to expand...
I'm confident we'll be top two with 3/4 new players and returning injured players. We're also in our toughest run of fixtures all season so it's hardly surprising that we've dropped points. I'm going to be bold now and say we'll at least get second this season. You can't go a full season without dropping points. In 2/3 weeks time the team and squad should look so much stronger than now.

Desperately need a Souttar replacement or perhaps try RND at left centre half and see how he does because that was supposed to be his best position anyway. Robbo has done well but he's made similar errors before and we just can't afford to make them.
 
Booker4 said:
I'm confident we'll be top two with 3/4 new players and returning injured players. We're also in our toughest run of fixtures all season so it's hardly surprising that we've dropped points. I'm going to be bold now and say we'll at least get second this season. You can't go a full season without dropping points. In 2/3 weeks time the team and squad should look so much stronger than now.

Desperately need a Souttar replacement or perhaps try RND at left centre half and see how he does because that was supposed to be his best position anyway. Robbo has done well but he's made similar errors before and we just can't afford to make them.
Click to expand...
The two biggest rules in football:

- no team ever has all 90 minutes of a football match, and
- every team has a bad run during the season (even Man City!!)
 

Charlieblade said:
All very true, but if the team do not win this Championship at a canter, we will be found wanting in the Prem next season!
Do you want fans to die of a heart attack, going up through the play offs?
Click to expand...
Next season is a completely different issue, we need to keep yo-yoing to remain financially viable so we just have to accept that a season in the PL may bring misery and woe like the last couple. I think a fair few teams have just got on board with this now and accept the need to get there without actually splashing the cash and trying to stay there. Interestingly though the only team that went ‘all out’ to stay there in recent years struggled for a season or 2 but are now in the Champions League spots! Very risky though.
 
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