This time last year.....

[Patrick Suffaux]

We suffered a similar loss of momentum and form which carried through to the end of the season. I really hope we’re not seeing a repeat. I’m still on the side of optimistic and respect the difficulty of the division but we do seem to be passing up opportunities every game at the moment.

Yesterday was on of the poorest performances I’ve seen under Wilder and we let a very ordinary team control the game. Allowing for an off day and the individual mistake at the end, we could have helped ourselves. Firstly by identifying that a change was needed in the middle of the park from about ten minutes into the second half. I don’t claim to be Pep Guardiola but as someone that has been involved in football all my life it looked absolutely obvious. Whenever we regained possession in our own third we couldn’t play out. Can’t imagine why he didn’t change it.

I think we’ll make the playoffs but if we want to push for the top two we need to sign two quality attacking players in January. On days like that we look so flat footed and unimaginative up front. Don’t know why he brought Leon on. Once again we did nothing to affect the game. It was a frustrating watch.

 

[Davalon]

Leon won a few of the balls lumped up top that Billy and DMcG couldn't.

Why we continually knocked it long to Billy marked by a defender a foot taller is anyone's guess.

 

[LoughboroBlade]

Leon won a few of the balls lumped up top that Billy and DMcG couldn't.

Why we continually knocked it long to Billy marked by a defender a foot taller is anyone's guess.

Yes, though I think it misread the issue as improving the person stuff was lumped to, rather than make a substitution aimed at addressing why we were lumping it in the first place.

 

[mattbianco1]

Yesterday was a total clusterfuck. We've not played that badly since the 1st half v Middlesbrough.

Need a big response on Tuesday but that could be the worst possible team to play against. Very tough team Brentford. We could've done with a home game.

 

[Rob86]

Leon won a few of the balls lumped up top that Billy and DMcG couldn't.

Why we continually knocked it long to Billy marked by a defender a foot taller is anyone's guess.

Exactly this ! I alluded to not having a plan B. Yes we changed shape, but what we needed in my opinion, and have done before was an out ball down the channels and a player who could carry the ball quickly from midfield. We have neither so hit it long to Billy and then Clarke.

 

[finlaytheblade]

Exactly this ! I alluded to not having a plan B. Yes we changed shape, but what we needed in my opinion, and have done before was an out ball down the channels and a player who could carry the ball quickly from midfield. We have neither so hit it long to Billy and then Clarke.

He brought Johnson on to do that ,,his mistake set off the chain reaction of mistakes which ended with the equaliser

 

[Patrick Suffaux]

Yesterday was a total clusterfuck. We've not played that badly since the 1st half v Middlesbrough.

Need a big response on Tuesday but that could be the worst possible team to play against. Very tough team Brentford. We could've done with a home game.

Agree with you, we have only had two bad performances in truth. Maybe a couple of others slightly below par.

What worries me is that teams have had a good look at us now and have figured out what we’re doing again. We seem to bang on the same door a bit too much when we need to do more than just change the shape.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

We've scored fewer goals than we had scored at this stage last season. We've conceded more goals than we had conceded at this stage last season. We have fewer points than we had at this stage last season.

Whichever way you look at it, we've gone backwards.

 

[blade53]

We suffered a similar loss of momentum and form which carried through to the end of the season. I really hope we’re not seeing a repeat. I’m still on the side of optimistic and respect the difficulty of the division but we do seem to be passing up opportunities every game at the moment.

Yesterday was on of the poorest performances I’ve seen under Wilder and we let a very ordinary team control the game. Allowing for an off day and the individual mistake at the end, we could have helped ourselves. Firstly by identifying that a change was needed in the middle of the park from about ten minutes into the second half. I don’t claim to be Pep Guardiola but as someone that has been involved in football all my life it looked absolutely obvious. Whenever we regained possession in our own third we couldn’t play out. Can’t imagine why he didn’t change it.

I think we’ll make the playoffs but if we want to push for the top two we need to sign two quality attacking players in January. On days like that we look so flat footed and unimaginative up front. Don’t know why he brought Leon on. Once again we did nothing to affect the game. It was a frustrating watch.

The most worrying comparison with last season for me is the tendancy over the last 10 games last time was that we could not hold a lead, and lost or drew games at the death that we should have won. It cost us the chance of the play offs that we should have achieved easily ,and It's happening again ie Derby , Stoke & yesterday , when bad game management has cost us , & this needs addressing urgently.

 

[Nicolaus_Copernicus]

We've scored fewer goals than we had scored at this stage last season. We've conceded more goals than we had conceded at this stage last season. We have fewer points than we had at this stage last season.

Whichever way you look at it, we've gone backwards.

It's not all doom & gloom. We're up on possession stats this season over the same period last season. We're currently averaging 53.72% in games as opposed to 52.78% last season.

 

[GrayBlade]

This time last year there was a good reason why we had the dip in form and never really recovered from it. We lost Coutts on November 18th and didn’t bring in a good enough replacement.

No such excuses this time around and the dip has started earlier so maybe we’re not quite good enough as it is or maybe we we’ll get a good result and turn it around. I don’t think there’s any point in making direct comparisons, we have some different players from last season and the same goes for the opposition.

Only time will tell where we’ll end up. Maybe if Wilder is allowed to bring in a couple of decent players in January we’ll still be up there but my guess is we’ll just miss out as he won’t be allowed to. Let’s all remind ourselves that our player budget is 7th bottom, what do we realistically expect? Rotherham are rightly getting all the plaudits from yesterday and are playing out of their skins, but for all that they’re still only 2 points off a relegation spot because they also are shopping in the bargain basement. 19th place I’d great for them so maybe top half will be for us?

 

[Fanny magnet]

Leon won a few of the balls lumped up top that Billy and DMcG couldn't.

Why we continually knocked it long to Billy marked by a defender a foot taller is anyone's guess.

Sounded like that's what the manager asked for ,in fact he seemed pissed off we didn't do it quicker

 

[Ainsley Harriott]

Leon won a few of the balls lumped up top that Billy and DMcG couldn't.

Why we continually knocked it long to Billy marked by a defender a foot taller is anyone's guess.

I thought Billy was marked out of the game in that first half personally.

 

[oldblade]

We've scored fewer goals than we had scored at this stage last season. We've conceded more goals than we had conceded at this stage last season. We have fewer points than we had at this stage last season.

Whichever way you look at it, we've gone backwards.

I do not agree. You are not comparing like with like.

We have played 18 sides so far this season. Last season we played against 13 of those 18 sides.

So far we are 11 points up on how we performed last season in those 13 fixtures.

So, the picture is not straight forward and we have not necessarily gone backwards.

 

[metalblade]

We have already thrown too many points away to be a serious contender, to be a contender we will have to go on a tremendous run and I just can't see it happening

 

[JohnDenver]

We've scored fewer goals than we had scored at this stage last season. We've conceded more goals than we had conceded at this stage last season. We have fewer points than we had at this stage last season.

Whichever way you look at it, we've gone backwards.

But I’m more confident in our squad depth this time. That should pay back in the coming months.

 

[Topplayersleave]

Last season's bad run started with good performances but not getting the results and it eventually descended into average performances with an odd shocker thrown in

This season's bad run started at Derby where we played well but lost, and since that day we've been average and yesterday was our shocker.

The team isn't good enough, there's too much over elaborating when we're on top and there's too many shocking decisions made everywhere on the pitch

They're good honest pros and they work harder than other teams (usually) but they have very few footballing brain cells between them

 

[blade too long]

Think too many under estimate Rotherham on their own turf .
Lost only one at home back in August like us
Beat Derby and Swansea of late
We are level on points with West Brom and Derby who like us have been top for a while . Are they fading away too

 

[SwissBlade]

Were a much more resilient team than last season, we keep the ball better now than we did last season and I feel that we’ve evolved into a side that doesn’t counter attack as much because of the greater possession.

We seemed to struggle far more last season in containing sides, whereas this season we’ve been on a similar level to most sides and dominated many, at least with possession

In recent weeks we’ve not created as much, perhaps understandable against a resolute Forest. But not as forgiveable against lower end opposition such as Wednesday and Rotherham. But they are not normal games and they both raised performance levels against us, albeit in very different ways

 

[ekke287]

We've scored fewer goals than we had scored at this stage last season. We've conceded more goals than we had conceded at this stage last season. We have fewer points than we had at this stage last season.

Whichever way you look at it, we've gone backwards.

Or...

The league is tougher and we have virtually the same squad as last season, bar a new defender. Norwood has replaced Coutts for depth and options, but generally we're the same side as before.

No team is achieving consistency and anyone can beat anyone, as the 3 ex-prem teams are finding out (4th / 10th / 13th).

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

anyone can beat anyone

That's such a meaningless, bullshit phrase.

 

[ekke287]

That's such a meaningless, bullshit phrase.

Yet it's true.

Who's storming the league again?