Instead of being postive or negative…..how about being realistic?
Promotion seeking sides are those that are top of the league with the most points, makes no difference if you lose to a rival.
Last season Leeds did the double over Leicester, didn’t do Leeds any good winning these 6 pointers.
Apparently we keep having so many off days but without the 2 points deduction, we’d currently top the league.
We’ve also won more matches than any other team in the league, this is a fact. How can that be?
Can I remind you that when Leeds and Sunderland have off days they always seem to drop points, even against poor sides down near the bottom.
Burnley have a great defense but have consistently struggled to score at home, even against the rubbish teams.
You mention a slide in performance which is true but recent mean we’ve recently struggled to put out a team.
It’s been impressive that we won away at Watford and Swansea with such a cobbled together side.
Can understand the concerns, especially regards defence.
With Souttar we were a clean sheet machine, now he’s injured think we’ll probably concede 1 goal each match
So now the team are under pressure to score at least 2 goals each match. So with a dodgy defence we become a bit like Leeds and need to be more free scoring.
However soon we will be significantly stronger. So imagine how many points we’ll get when we (in theory) click and performances improve.
Overall think there’s more reasons to be optimistic than pessimistic, altho accept there are grounds to be concerned.
"When we click" is your significant remark.
The stubborn way CW clings to shapes & systems when they are patently not producing chances & goals - has many of us wondering if we'll ever properly "click".
1.The speed at which we transition , rarely catching defences unprepared.
2.The obsession with inverted wingers with no getting down the outside unless a FB overlaps. (Alfie just can't).
3.Not seeing what's going wrong in a game and changing things to correct it.
4.Dreadful corners & setpieces - where has all the clever stuff gone that we had in 16-19 ?
5.Wasting Hamer out on the LW on his weaker foot and so not really having a LW.
2. Might be improved by JJK.
5. Might be improved by BBD.
But 1 , 3 & 4 are down to CW himself.
And i hope he isn't thinking of avoiding recruiting a CB by making Alfie & Baptiste our backup to Anel & Robbo.
We need as close to a Souttar clone as we can get.
But if we assume there are 4 defenders & 2 DMs , the biggest puzzle for CW is fitting
Hamer , O'Hare , BBD , a RW and a striker (5) into an attacking 4.
Which has been the imbalance all season.
Hamer must be central. He's not going to be LW when you've just got BBD.
But how can you lose the energy of O'Hare ?
But if you keep him , how can you get a winger on each flank for balance ?
This conundrum is why we have never clicked properly in attack all season.