Enjoyment of season

[CurseofOnuora]

Just a quickie. I know we were riding high last season, but I can only think of one normal league game that I properly enjoyed. This season, appalling start aside ive enjoyed far more of the games. Just more exciting all round even though ultimately we're going to end mid table ish. Can't be just me....can it?

 

[mattbianco1]

Attacking-wise, we're miles better this season. It's the defensive side that has dropped off massively.

If Wilder had let the shackles off last season, we'd have won the league

 

[Champagneblade]

This is the trying mate.

People moaned last season even when we won 30+ games because they found the football too functional and not entertaining.

This season we have been entertaining but more vulnerable and results have suffered. So then people complain.

It seems we’ll only get folks satisfied when we do both.

I had no complaints with the entertainment from the last 3 home games and two of them ended in defeat.

In contrast, we beat Portsmouth and it was one of the most tense and unenjoyable matches!

The context is that it’s a 46 game slog. It’s so difficult to provide both entertainment and winning football. Have to remember the other teams are also striving for the same thing. It’s not just about us.

 

[joe casey]

Coventry last night - very much like us last season. Didn't play particularly well but defended resolutely and took their chances when they came and then shut up shop. I agree it's odd I also seem to have been more entertained this season but ultimately unless you have a squad like Leeds did then free flowing all out attack is always going to be a dangerous game when points are on the line.

 

[calcalcal]

Id enjoy the season a lot more if we weren't constantly getting shafted by refs

 

[Fjortoft's Aeroplane]

The interesting question is: Would we be fun to watch if Wilder had never left?

There's an argument that our weakend defence (inc defensive midfield) thanks to Selles has caused Wilder to adopt a more gung ho approach.

That said we have better attackers in Seriki, an O'hare who can (sometimes) score, and Bamford. I wonder how last season goes with current Seriki and Bamford playing?

 

[Roygbiv]

Since November, I've enjoyed this season much more than last. I don't think you can play like we do and achieve anything but it's definitely more exciting to watch. If you're going to finish mid table then at least make the games exciting and for the most part, we've done that.

Relegating Wednesday helps too obviously

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

Just a quickie. I know we were riding high last season, but I can only think of one normal league game that I properly enjoyed. This season, appalling start aside ive enjoyed far more of the games. Just more exciting all round even though ultimately we're going to end mid table ish. Can't be just me....can it?

Not just you.
I'm enjoying this season more than last.

 

[coaxingstar71]

I’ve said it many times, but we weren’t in a place where we could play free flowing football last season. We’d just come off the back of one of the worst seasons on record, we had a high turnover of the squad including a number of young players playing their first real regular first team football and we still won a lot of games and finished 3rd.
I wish our fans would accept that and realise what an achievement it was.
Those young players are now starting to blossom and with the addition of some experience, we’ve been able to play more freely, albeit after being hamstrung by a stupid decision to change manager in the summer and some disastrous recruitment.

 

[Roygbiv]

The interesting question is: Would we be fun to watch if Wilder had never left?

There's an argument that our weakend defence (inc defensive midfield) thanks to Selles has caused Wilder to adopt a more gung ho approach.

That said we have better attackers in Seriki, an O'hare who can (sometimes) score, and Bamford. I wonder how last season goes with current Seriki and Bamford playing?

We'd be higher but less fun. I think we'd be much more like Coventry last night but our expectations are higher so Wilder would be getting a lot of criticism for the style of play. Him getting sacked plus our appalling start has both ended any chance of promotion and made for more exciting games

 

[Godbeblade]

Coventry last night - very much like us last season. Didn't play particularly well but defended resolutely and took their chances when they came and then shut up shop. I agree it's odd I also seem to have been more entertained this season but ultimately unless you have a squad like Leeds did then free flowing all out attack is always going to be a dangerous game when points are on the line.

I don't want to speak for coventry fans but I imagine them going a good stretch with no top flight football probably overrides the 'functional' football element (boro in a similar boat).

I wonder if we hadn't been in the premier league quite so recently, last year would have felt differently?

I don't know if this is me admitting i'm a bit of an entitled fan or whether i'm just a bit fed up of the premier league in general but sometimes a successful team on paper isn't always a great watch (even the bielsa team threw points away)

 

[bakeblade]

Coventry last night - very much like us last season. Didn't play particularly well but defended resolutely and took their chances when they came and then shut up shop. I agree it's odd I also seem to have been more entertained this season but ultimately unless you have a squad like Leeds did then free flowing all out attack is always going to be a dangerous game when points are on the line.

Take your point on last night, however Coventry having scored 70 goals so far this season have been nothing like we were last season

 

[Nick Jansky]

I wish our fans would accept that and realise what an achievement it was.

It is possible to acknowledge the achievement but also find it shit to watch. We’re all different and I’ve enjoyed this season far more. I’m looking forward to going to games, last season felt like a chore. I far prefer being in the Championship to the last two seasons we endured in the PL.

 

[SwissBlade]

Shocking season, took me until Boro to get up for a game again.

Lost a lot of love for football generally, but I said to my dad today that the season was effectively written off in the summer with the disaster of the owners knowing best. It’s taken a lot of faith I had in the club away. Not because we’ve been shit. But the connection built over the years since league one with the fans was blown apart in one terrible summer

Boro I was pretty proud of the way we played. Last night we took the game to Coventry and I think on another day we’d have got something. The ref, the Cov shithousing and the general like if honesty in the game nowadays is killing the love for me

I did see a nice clip on insta of one of the owners saying some nice things and realising his and the other owners errors. Nice that they’ve owned it. Corrected their decision and got Wilder back.

I don’t know if they'll do things better in future. Still lots of questions

Next season will be very hard if the quality goes up again, this season has been a missed opportunity, but onwards we go…

 

[Nick Jansky]

Shocking season, took me until Boro to get up for a game again.

Lost a lot of love for football generally, but I said to my dad today that the season was effectively written off in the summer with the disaster of the owners knowing best. It’s taken a lot of faith I had in the club away. Not because we’ve been shit. But the connection built over the years since league one with the fans was blown apart in one terrible summer

Boro I was pretty proud of the way we played. Last night we took the game to Coventry and I think on another day we’d have got something. The ref, the Cov shithousing and the general like if honesty in the game nowadays is killing the love for me

I did see a nice clip on insta of one of the owners saying some nice things and realising his and the other owners errors. Nice that they’ve owned it. Corrected their decision and got Wilder back.

I don’t know if they'll do things better in future. Still lots of questions

Next season will be very hard if the quality goes up again, this season has been a missed opportunity, but onwards we go…

Next season will be enjoyable if we are able to see signs of progression and we are in contention for at least a play off spot all the way to the wire. We might aspire to more than that, but what I have described sums up exactly what we are as a club. It would be great if we could emulate Brighton etc, but realistically the chances of that are slim.

 

[SwissBlade]

Next season will be enjoyable if we are able to see signs of progression and we are in contention for at least a play off spot all the way to the wire. We might aspire to more than that, but what I have described sums up exactly what we are as a club. It would be great if we could emulate Brighton etc, but realistically the chances of that are slim.

For me it’s more about the connection with the club. I feel that was lost this season and we did lose our identity.

I don’t mind if we’re shit as long as we keep the integrity and the connection…

Next season will be another transition season as once again we rebuild and try to progress. Very hard task

 

[GymClassHero]

We will get promoted next season.

 

[Berkshire Blade]

I enjoyed the season more last year.

I enjoyed (some of) the games more this year.

 

[Nick Jansky]

For me it’s more about the connection with the club. I feel that was lost this season and we did lose our identity.

I don’t mind if we’re shit as long as we keep the integrity and the connection…

Next season will be another transition season as once again we rebuild and try to progress. Very hard task

I think we all experience the connection with the club differently. Age possibly plays a part in that. Our identity has changed during my lifetime. I started attending in the John Harris years and our identity was very much about playing attractive football and we tended to be bracketed with Everton and Spurs in that respect. Obviously that identity changed hugely in later years. It has always been a fluid and evolving thing. Supporters younger than me will cite the Bassett years as defining our identity for instance, but that’s incorrect.

For me, the umbilical connection I have to Bramall Lane and all the friends I bump into on match days are the critical things, along with my matchday rituals. And I want to watch us play entertaining football.