I don't believe that we've become a bad side over night...

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Kozzy_is_my_Dad

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I don't believe that we've become a bad side over night.

I do believe though, that the signs were there last season in that we were never freely scoring. At this level, if you carry less of a threat, you're there to be picked off.

More pressingly, I'm worried about how we aren't "at it" at the moment, Wilder's self-proclaimed essential ingredient, that swashbuckling character. If the WBs aren't as energetic or are pinned in, and if the outside centre halves sit back more, we simply don't get going and the defense and midfield look separated from the forwards, who in turn look more and more isolated and we invite pressure from the opposition and possession against us.

Where that leaves us, is as a fairly decent possession side, who could be slightly solid defensively, although whom realistically will be likely weaker than last year given the loss of Henderson and now the significant loss of O'Connell. If you're slightly less solid and resolute and still not scoring, it doesn't bode well.

The three league games we've had so far, I still... still believe are not a barometer of how well prepared we are or are not. Wolves was over before it begun, against a side whom I expect to finish top 5, such is their spending. Villa was a training exercise for 10 men and even then, for the majority, we weren't threatened and were incredibly solid. Then Leeds, we're having to adapt to being without Egan and O'Connell - that is hugely significant, and yet we were still in it. Solid, yet unspectacular. We deserved a point.

What those games do show, is the need for depth. We don't have what others do, even with 5 signings. Then, in terms of style we seem devoid of our spark, devoid of our energy, devoid of creativity and devoid of goals. There are glimpses of hope in Burke's early impressions, Berge's srong start, but more is needed. We need Norwood's composure and Fleck's dynamism. We need a creative midfieldee and a forward who will bring renewed energy to the front line, as it's too long to wait for Moose and too much of a gamble to do so. Our current forwards, for their industry do not compliment one another well enough.

We also need to think about replacing O'Connell and creating a new, settled back line. Not with spending but with either Ampadu in the side and Enda at LWB or Enda in the role and Lowe at LWB. With Egan and now O'Connell, we simply haven't had any early luck, or a chance to be a settled side and try to play OUR game.

I understand the need to not gamble a sense financial infrastructure or the future of the club, but as things stand we seemingly do not have enough. The prince needs to spend... at the very least £20-30, for Sharp to get the Peronis in.
 

Thought it could have gone either way today. We played pretty well overall, particularly missing 2 of the CBs and Fleck!

Berge is looking the best player, which is great news. I can suddenly see past us playing without Oli Norwood regularly, which only 2 weeks ago seemed inconceivable.

Ampadu excellent. Despite J.Robinson being fairly solid, I wonder if we'll play Ampadu LCB long term.

We could really do with a striker upgrade, I'd still love Brewster. However Burke is looking better than expected early doors; signs of promise. McBurnie will have a good season too, and DidZ looks to be getting up to speed

Overall it looks bad, being bottom without scoring a goal, BUT like you say, we are not suddenly a bad side. Perhaps we'll still be bottom in a month, but even if we are I don't think we'll be near the relegation zone when the season ends.
 
But
Every other team has strengthened on the pitch, we've strengthened off it. In fact you could argue, with JOC injury, we're weaker on the pitch.
Poor recruitment this summer is my opinion.

But we wouldn't have been signing a replacement for JOC would we? So you could say, with Ampadu coming in, that we are stronger, because otherwise we'd be relying on Jags today. Also with Lowe coming in, if we want to move Enda inside, we now have someone else who can move into his position. I think it all depends on the way you look at things. Losing JOC is a right blow, but at least we now have more cover in that area - we'd be weaker still with only Jags to come into the team.
 
The difference between us having six points on the board and zero are such fine lines , I am quite optimistic for the season we were so close against villa and very unlucky today but big jack missing is a worry . When he was injured in the Championship we played Enda at LCB and he was outstanding both defending and attacking and at the moment we are missing the threat down the left hand side.
 
Thought it could have gone either way today. We played pretty well overall, particularly missing 2 of the CBs and Fleck!

Berge is looking the best player, which is great news. I can suddenly see past us playing without Oli Norwood regularly, which only 2 weeks ago seemed inconceivable.

Ampadu excellent. Despite J.Robinson being fairly solid, I wonder if we'll play Ampadu LCB long term.

We could really do with a striker upgrade, I'd still love Brewster. However Burke is looking better than expected early doors; signs of promise. McBurnie will have a good season too, and DidZ looks to be getting up to speed

Overall it looks bad, being bottom without scoring a goal, BUT like you say, we are not suddenly a bad side. Perhaps we'll still be bottom in a month, but even if we are I don't think we'll be near the relegation zone when the season ends.
Ampadu looks an excellent footballer, but not a good defender
 
There are no fans, we've barely won a game since there's been no fans, and there won't be any fans for a long time yet. That's the bottom line and Wilder needs to find an answer for it. No idea what that is.
 
If I was a CW - I’d go about getting our most talented midfielders on the pitch.

Norwood, berge and Fleck (I know he’s not been in great form but he always starts slowly) need to be starting for me. Though I though Osborn did well enough today.
 
we arent terrible & we dont have to panic it reminds me of our start in L1. when you could see the potential. because i still believe despite result performance was good. we played great, attacking wise looked best for a while. berge brilliant & im very reluctant to put any blame on the defence because in last 264 mins they conceded 2 goals. which normally is Fantastic. so they are doing there job. we shouldn't be asking the defence to have a clean sheet in every game. because thats extremely unrealistic

but its same old same old, the issue PL is unforgiving. if you dont capitalise there plenty of teams that will punish you. like arsenal did in the cup, Everton & Southampton did last 2 games last season. then villa & Leeds have this season & i still state if had finisher like a Ings Vardy Jimenez etc. we beat villa + leeds & we have 6pts. 7th in PL, everyone is happy
 
We tried to stand still in the hopes it would be like last season, I’m afraid you can’t do that in football, every team that finished below us and stayed up has strengthened the starting 11. We haven’t and look like paying the price.
 

But


But we wouldn't have been signing a replacement for JOC would we? So you could say, with Ampadu coming in, that we are stronger, because otherwise we'd be relying on Jags today. Also with Lowe coming in, if we want to move Enda inside, we now have someone else who can move into his position. I think it all depends on the way you look at things. Losing JOC is a right blow, but at least we now have more cover in that area - we'd be weaker still with only Jags to come into the team.
Depends how you look at it.
I don't particularly think loan players, especially a 19 yrs old & unproven, can be included as strengthening ON the pitch. He's only played one full match as replacement for Egan.
 
Go on then , you're CW - how do you improve ?

Wait, I'm not though. Its his job to manage the team and get results

We were a lot better today but that interview is much more concerned with moaning about VAR and refereeing than stopping this 6 game losing streak.

We're having a bad run and some bad luck but I've heard nothing to suggest that we're not just going to keep on doing the same things and then hope for the best.

It might work, it might not, but it hasn't addressed the problem over the last half dozen games.
 
Wait, I'm not though. Its his job to manage the team and get results

We were a lot better today but that interview is much more concerned with moaning about VAR and refereeing than stopping this 6 game losing streak.

We're having a bad run and some bad luck but I've heard nothing to suggest that we're not just going to keep on doing the same things and then hope for the best.

It might work, it might not, but it hasn't addressed the problem over the last half dozen games.
Well I think CW has every reason to highlight bad decisions which are directly impacting us. Plus it's Manager 101... Takes some attention off players/suggests they didn't deserve to lose.

N.B. We didn't DESERVE to lose either of the last two games. Plus we were decent 2nd half v Wolves.
 
I agree with you most of the time and not trying to pick an argument , but do you have any specific ideas ?
He said "we have to take the chances we create".
I don't see what he can do about this , other than recruit goalscorers.
And he's recently put the responsibility for doing that firmly on the Board by saying
"I've identified the targets , the decisions rest with those above me".
He now faces a season without JoC.
I think he should go back to the drawing board + reconsider 352 v 442.
Our overlapping CBs are not overlapping.
We lack creativity in mf.
Pity we've just loaned out Freeman but we have Fleck & Osborn.
Why have we dropped interest in Swift ?
Why is Bogle nowhere near the squad when he's cost us precious funds ? I'm sure he could carry the ball forward if we leave GB at RFB.
Lunny missed a penalty at Villa + a sitter today - when CW says we must take our chances he must mean Lunny , so get him replaced.
His £17m striker McB is not starting - why not ?
Didsy shouldn't be starting , unless he's an AMF. The pace of the game seemed to bypass him today.
Why does he bring Burke off ? We all know the Billy McB partnership doesn't work.
Enda looks well off form , why isn't Lowe starting ?
Why does the whole team look less fit than Leeds when top fitness was one of our strengths last season ?
The writing was on the wall in our 3 toothless defeats at the end of last season.
It was highlighted when we gave Billy & Didsy new contracts.
But we fail to find a striker with a record of scoring.
The saddest thing about our goalless pointless start to the season is that it comes as no surprise.
 
Depends how you look at it.
I don't particularly think loan players, especially a 19 yrs old & unproven, can be included as strengthening ON the pitch. He's only played one full match as replacement for Egan.

So you're saying that if we only had Jags as cover in defence, it wouldn't make any difference to us? Who cares if he's a loan player? By your reckoning then, Henderson our on loan keeper didn't make us stronger on the pitch either. That's just daft. I get what you're saying, it's frustrating to not see much progress in the starting 11 and specially up top. But I don't think you can say that bringing in some good cover in defence is a bad move, specially now JOC is out all season.
 
I agree with you most of the time and not trying to pick an argument , but do you have any specific ideas ?
He said "we have to take the chances we create".
I don't see what he can do about this , other than recruit goalscorers.
And he's recently put the responsibility for doing that firmly on the Board by saying
"I've identified the targets , the decisions rest with those above me".
He now faces a season without JoC.
I think he should go back to the drawing board + reconsider 352 v 442.
Our overlapping CBs are not overlapping.
We lack creativity in mf.
Pity we've just loaned out Freeman but we have Fleck & Osborn.
Why have we dropped interest in Swift ?
Why is Bogle nowhere near the squad when he's cost us precious funds ? I'm sure he could carry the ball forward if we leave GB at RFB.
Lunny missed a penalty at Villa + a sitter today - when CW says we must take our chances he must mean Lunny , so get him replaced.
His £17m striker McB is not starting - why not ?
Didsy shouldn't be starting , unless he's an AMF. The pace of the game seemed to bypass him today.
Why does he bring Burke off ? We all know the Billy McB partnership doesn't work.
Enda looks well off form , why isn't Lowe starting ?
Why does the whole team look less fit than Leeds when top fitness was one of our strengths last season ?
The writing was on the wall in our 3 toothless defeats at the end of last season.
It was highlighted when we gave Billy & Didsy new contracts.
But we fail to find a striker with a record of scoring.
The saddest thing about our goalless pointless start to the season is that it comes as no surprise.
Excellent post - sums up the position brilliantly. I think, to be fair to Burke he was knackered, he puts in so much effort chasing defenders down.
 
We need to invest and build a team around Ramsdale Egan and Berge Basham they are our 4 best players that we have permanently contracted to us.

Fleck and Norwood have been very poor so far which is why I have not included them.

For me Berge is our Best midfielder by far he looks quality on the ball and was a real threat most times he went forward he was taking 2 3 and 4 players at a time out of the game.

If he could improve his crossing he could well go on to be a top drawer player that could easily play for one of the biggest clubs not just in our country but the world I rate him that highly.

For me our strikeforce is awful we have no strength in depth at all.

And i will say that McGoldrick should never be played as a striker again he should be playing the attacking midfield role his link up play and his vision bring others into the game he is a clever player.
 
We haven't become a bad side overnight,
We've become a team that has gone from average but high on confidence and playing well, into an injury ravaged average team, low on confidence that isn't playing well.

And all because we haven't improved on average
 
Everybody settle down, Wilder's just running up the odds for a top 10 finish then he'll play Burke and Sharp up top. Billy for golden boot.
 
Wilder, clearly annoyed by the “punters” reactions to starting strong and then falling off at the end of the season, has decided to do it the other way around this year.

Remember YHIHF for when we go on our 35 match unbeaten run.
 

We just lack any real quality in our midfield bar Berge and our strikeforce is championship standard to say the least.

No surprise we are struggling, Chris Wilder always made the point about not standing still so I don't know what the powers that be are playing at.
 

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