reasons to be positive

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"our budget" has to be sustainable - I get that.............but surely it must match some ambition? We still have a decent chance of the play offs, despite playing shite for half a season, and giving at least 12 points away! So, get rid of some/all of the dead wood (excellent start with Verrips & Olsen - two of the worst keepers I have ever seen........and yes I went to WBA away this season & still have nightmares!). Moose, Mc'not'jabbed, & Guedioura, Freeman, Stevens, (I'd even off load George if we got a reasonable offer) and Burke (gone)..............surely there is a few quid there to burn?............................and also - get Jebbo back please!
 
Play offs are possible but we would need some luck on injuries i.e. not lose Egan or Bash (we have no cover at CH) and avoid string of other injuries to key players (MGW, Ndaiye, Brewster, and mid fielders). Whats happening with Davies? Is he now effectively out for the rest of the season in compassionate leave? We also will have to cope with potential fatigue as we are going to have to play 3 games a week pretty much from here on in.

Our best hope I think is that some of our big money buys start to deliver in particular Brewster (signs are good) and McB (no signs yet!) Plus Berge. We are going to need one or two players to score 15 goals or more.

Apart from replacing Olsen is there any prospect of recruiting cove at CH?
 
Ok, looking at performances and not future fixtures, what makes you think we have the consistency to average 2 points per game? Take the last four games for example.

Fulham, good performance against a good side, closed them down and won with a good goal.
Derby, absolute fucking shit show against a piss poor side with one, maybe two decent players.
Preston, probably sums the season up in two halves of football. First half grab the lead, should have had a couple more and coasting. Second half fucking pitiful. Rolled over and died against ten men.
Luton, we were ok and dominated the game against a side that looked so out of sorts I'm surprised they showed up.

We can look good on our day, we can look just as bad on others. I honestly don't think this group of players has the bottle to scrap it out when the chips are down. Shame really as the standard of football in this division is shockingly bad, pity that on many occasions we look as bad as any of the dross out there.
 
If we can get a run of 4 or 5 wins at some point, we will be there or there about I think. Usually as teams get into the final 3rd of the Championshio, they really start swapping points, so one good run can make the difference. What I fear, is that there is a brittleness with this team, under pressure and momentum can easily be knocked.
 
blade too long said:
21 games left
next 2 away at posh and brum Id say in their form both are winnable
that would put us within touching distance of the play offs

after that there will be 19 games left of which 12 are at bramall lane and we will only have 7 away games left

so the potential there to collect points
we need an average 2 points per game of 21 left to add 42 points to put us on 78 points that should assure a top 6 berth

Its not that far fetched

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Its not far fetched but unlikely. Anyone witnessing Tuesday night and still thinking we are good enough for 2 points a game out of the next 20 is a real optimist.

And any team who's fans talk about 2 or 3 good results to be in touching distance of the playoffs is usually a shit team.
 
Maurice Maurice said:
Ok, looking at performances and not future fixtures, what makes you think we have the consistency to average 2 points per game? Take the last four games for example.

Fulham, good performance against a good side, closed them down and won with a good goal.
Derby, absolute fucking shit show against a piss poor side with one, maybe two decent players.
Preston, probably sums the season up in two halves of football. First half grab the lead, should have had a couple more and coasting. Second half fucking pitiful. Rolled over and died against ten men.
Luton, we were ok and dominated the game against a side that looked so out of sorts I'm surprised they showed up.

We can look good on our day, we can look just as bad on others. I honestly don't think this group of players has the bottle to scrap it out when the chips are down. Shame really as the standard of football in this division is shockingly bad, pity that on many occasions we look as bad as any of the dross out there.
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I think we take it a game at a time and the bigger picture takes care of itself then.

Hecky has gained 13 points from a possible 18 and the Derby game was a bit of an outlier given it was out first league game for aeons after much good form and one where the manager was absent.

If he managed that in the next 18 he'd have us on 75 points with 3 games to go.

The real shame us that Slav managed tl arrive at a set up which got the least out of these players and sidelined the likes of Bash who are so dependable.

Whilst we won't be active much in this window, we do have a number of players to come back into the reckoning - Gibbs-White, Davies, Guedioura, McBurnie, Mousset, Berge. We do at least have some degree of quality in terms of squad depth to cope with incoming fixtures which many of our opponents will struggle to replicate.
 
The positives are that there’s a crop of young lads Bogle, Brewster, Ndiaye who seem to be finding their feet and starting to settle down after a tumultuous 18 months. Those lads represent real green shoots for the future if they can be kept in house and there’s others like Jebbison coming up to join them.
 
We are going to know soon I feel if we have a chance or not.

Good to get back to winning ways again and it was deserved. Negatives from yesterday would be that we were a bit flat 1st half. Positives would be that taking some more of our chances that could have finished 4-0 not 2-0. And Luton are doing not too shabby at present either.

We have to take it game by game, but we have ground to make up too.
We can't really afford for the gap to get much bigger, really it needs to start reducing. It won't be week on week/match by match but say every 3 matches it getting less-ish and we can start to think top 6 is a chance.

We went over the top vs. Derby and Preston but there were genuine signs of worry as well.
We went over the top vs Fulham before Christmas too.

Something we do have to bear in mind is that fingers crossed we have MGW returning in a matter of days/weeks.
On his day he is one of the best players in this division and it's great he's at us.
The shame and downside is he won't be next season unless we get promoted and even then that's not a given.
 
Admire the optimism but I think we’ll be a win one, draw one, lose one team between now and the end of the season. Shot shows like Derby and a soft underbelly like so many times this season will see to that.

When we’re good we’re a decent side, when we have an off day we really fuck up. We can’t afford many off days.

Get MGW and Ndiaye playing together a lot and we’ll have a decent chance of being good more often though.
 
derekacorah said:
Admire the optimism but I think we’ll be a win one, draw one, lose one team between now and the end of the season. Shot shows like Derby and a soft underbelly like so many times this season will see to that.

When we’re good we’re a decent side, when we have an off day we really fuck up. We can’t afford many off days.

Get MGW and Ndiaye playing together a lot and we’ll have a decent chance of being good more often though.
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That above in bold is very much where we are at!
 
I'm thinking more positively before games now and fully expect us to score at some point especially yesterday,it was more of a WHEN we score not IF and surely that's a big positive.
 
Stretch said:
2 points per game isn't inconceivable from this point in, and a points tally in the mid 70s is normally good enough for the play offs. But it will take a real effort, and we desperately need MGW for the entirety of that run, as well as a settled back line.

Then we have to consider who is going to drop out of the top 6, and who else is likely to be competing against us for 1 or maybe 2 places. On the former, West Brom look the most likely to fizzle out on current form. On the latter, it's Boro and Forest who we might have to worry about (and we play them back to back in March) whilst Stoke, Cov and some others seem to be falling away.

It could be an exciting end, or it could just splutter out like a wet fart.
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Wish I could give two likes for the wet fart analogy
 
blade too long said:
21 games left
next 2 away at posh and brum Id say in their form both are winnable
that would put us within touching distance of the play offs

after that there will be 19 games left of which 12 are at bramall lane and we will only have 7 away games left

so the potential there to collect points
we need an average 2 points per game of 21 left to add 42 points to put us on 78 points that should assure a top 6 berth

Its not that far fetched

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Been sniffing the Andrews Liver Salts again?
 

As others have said I think over the distance we will lack consistency.

IMO we will melt against a team that really comes at us.

We also don’t have the feel of a team that will make the play offs or win them if they do.

The positives are we are winning and playing football again and should comfortably finish top 10.
 
steve26272 said:
We are capable of achieving the play offs

However I’m not sure it would be best for us in the medium term

Sure it would be great to go back up first time, but we would be an embarrassment

We don’t have the money needed for a rebuild, yet we would need a GK, 3 defenders, 3 midfielders and a striker all of 1st team prem quality

That’s over £100m and that’s only allocating £12m per player, and we have several £20m players not doing it.

Strong finish to the season, good summer with a couple coming in, same again JTW and go up next season may be better for the longer term stability of the club
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I see your point, but I also think take the chance whilst/if you can.

As we know, football is a funny old game and not going up at the first possible chance could end up being disastrous.

I’d rather us yo-yo for a few years and be embarrassed in the top flight, than spend 12 years out of it again, half of that in league one.
 
Leobolly said:
"our budget" has to be sustainable - I get that.............but surely it must match some ambition? We still have a decent chance of the play offs, despite playing shite for half a season, and giving at least 12 points away! So, get rid of some/all of the dead wood (excellent start with Verrips & Olsen - two of the worst keepers I have ever seen........and yes I went to WBA away this season & still have nightmares!). Moose, Mc'not'jabbed, & Guedioura, Freeman, Stevens, (I'd even off load George if we got a reasonable offer) and Burke (gone)..............surely there is a few quid there to burn?............................and also - get Jebbo back please!
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ambition can only be to do the best we can with the money we have
like a lot of clubs fans want more ,much more than we can put on the table
we need more Ndiayes and Jebbison and norrington davies to be the best they can be

we know from having maguire walker calvert lewin and others we can develop players good enough for the prem
if we sell Berge and a couple more we can get in the iron ore players and turn them into steel
 
Maurice Maurice said:
Ok, looking at performances and not future fixtures, what makes you think we have the consistency to average 2 points per game? Take the last four games for example.

Fulham, good performance against a good side, closed them down and won with a good goal.
Derby, absolute fucking shit show against a piss poor side with one, maybe two decent players.
Preston, probably sums the season up in two halves of football. First half grab the lead, should have had a couple more and coasting. Second half fucking pitiful. Rolled over and died against ten men.
Luton, we were ok and dominated the game against a side that looked so out of sorts I'm surprised they showed up.

We can look good on our day, we can look just as bad on others. I honestly don't think this group of players has the bottle to scrap it out when the chips are down. Shame really as the standard of football in this division is shockingly bad, pity that on many occasions we look as bad as any of the dross out there.
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That's still 1.75pts per game. Maintain that and we get 72pts. Usually enough for 6th.

We need some ruthlessness back in the team. We should have been clear by HT v Derby. Shouldve seen out the game v Preston.

Next 2 are crucial games. Should be bringing home 6pts there. 4 as a bare minimum if we are to challenge.
 
Given how tight the league is then its possible but the squad is unbalanced and the record against the sides above isnt great. Hopefully hecky is just having them think one game at a time and has fresh legs coming in to help with the fixture pile up.
 
Maurice Maurice said:
Ok, looking at performances and not future fixtures, what makes you think we have the consistency to average 2 points per game? Take the last four games for example.

Fulham, good performance against a good side, closed them down and won with a good goal.
Derby, absolute fucking shit show against a piss poor side with one, maybe two decent players.
Preston, probably sums the season up in two halves of football. First half grab the lead, should have had a couple more and coasting. Second half fucking pitiful. Rolled over and died against ten men.
Luton, we were ok and dominated the game against a side that looked so out of sorts I'm surprised they showed up.

We can look good on our day, we can look just as bad on others. I honestly don't think this group of players has the bottle to scrap it out when the chips are down. Shame really as the standard of football in this division is shockingly bad, pity that on many occasions we look as bad as any of the dross out there.
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Agree…with that.

Makes me laugh how when we lose so many fans scream how crap we are and how we’ve no chance of promotion
Then when when we win, fans declare we’re so good and have a good chance of promotion.

I know it‘s not fashionable buy the truth is usually somewhere in between.
We we’re saying on Saturday that we look a decent upper mid table team, but it was noticeable that without Gibbs-White we lack that spark of quality.

We also noticed that Luton were organised but really lacking in quality, they were pretty poor, it was like playing a good league 1 side.
Agree with your assessment that theres a gulf difference in quality between the PL and the Championship.
It seems a lower standard compared to the last time we were in it, so if we find some consistency we still have a realistic chance of the play-offs.

Another factor is we have massive strength (quality wise) on our subs bench.
If players like Brewster, McBurnie, Berge etc rediscover their form we can still do it but the question is will our players with big potential finally start to deliver?
 
steve26272 said:
We are capable of achieving the play offs

However I’m not sure it would be best for us in the medium term

Sure it would be great to go back up first time, but we would be an embarrassment

We don’t have the money needed for a rebuild, yet we would need a GK, 3 defenders, 3 midfielders and a striker all of 1st team prem quality

That’s over £100m and that’s only allocating £12m per player, and we have several £20m players not doing it.

Strong finish to the season, good summer with a couple coming in, same again JTW and go up next season may be better for the longer term stability of the club
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It is quite obvious to me that the last thing that our Saudi owner wanted this season was promotion.If by some fluke Heckingbottom did get us up,instead of a congratulatory telegram from the Prince he would probably get his P45.The club are actually embarking on yet another attempt to build success on the back of our acadamy,we all know how that will end up and we have inherited an owner with big ideas in a business he knows little about and no personal wealth.
 
16 points from the last 21 possible, despite throwing away another 2 and still being shite (according to those exalted analyst expert posters on this forum) would seem to suggest optimism might actually be a realistic sentiment!
 
Trigger Blade said:
We have a few prolific and tediously repetitive Shoutbox contributors who are predicting at least L1, but nobody I speak to is so negative. I doubt this board is representative of the majority view.
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Spot on with that!
Social Media is the means by which the Gob-shites live in a space where they feel most comfortable as they imagine their voices to be those of the majority. The reality world is the opposite. The minority believing themselves to be the majority..... that deluded group we call the "Mijority"
 
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