Where will it all end?

[gazan]

We're currently in 6th with a half-decent gd and 6 points from the automatics. The good thing is we're grinding out results. On the negative side, it's often not pretty.
In our remaining games we have six of the top 12, including two of the current top 3, mostly at home and 5 of the bottom half, mostly away. What, on recent form, does that portend for our position come the end of the season?
Last week 8 points from automatic promotion seemed much too big a gap. But 6 points doesn't sound so bad, particularly when you consider we play the current 2nd and 3rd at home in the coming weeks.
I am a pessimist when talking about the Alex but I am susceptible to a pinhole of hope. My pre-season forecast was 9th and sensibly I should stick with that.
But.........
What do you think?

[MikeSB]

We're currently in 6th with a half-decent gd and 6 points from the automatics. The good thing is we're grinding out results. On the negative side, it's often not pretty.
In our remaining games we have six of the top 12, including two of the current top 3, mostly at home and 5 of the bottom half, mostly away. What, on recent form, does that portend for our position come the end of the season?
Last week 8 points from automatic promotion seemed much too big a gap. But 6 points doesn't sound so bad, particularly when you consider we play the current 2nd and 3rd at home in the coming weeks.
I am a pessimist when talking about the Alex but I am susceptible to a pinhole of hope. My pre-season forecast was 9th and sensibly I should stick with that.
But.........
What do you think?

I don't know whether to post or not tbh but I cannot figure out why you see so many hundreds and even thousands of views on this site and yet they won't post an opinion for some reason and yet we are in the media age when everyone has a mobile phone or computer and so my question is why, when you see how massive our support is at home and away? Even the last thread was a couple of thousand views and yet what? Three posters? And we are in the play offs and so why not?

Its a strange league with a couple of almost certainties for automatic promotion and then a load behind where its hard to see anyone obvious that can come through. We have players who seem to be good enough for promotion and have a great desire to win games like yesterday. On that basis with players coming back in the side then if we can stay in the play offs, we could have a great chance of promotion. I think the automatics are just out of reach. Any place in the play offs will do as its home and away games. I think we will make the play offs. I wish LB would start the games with the better players in and not leave them as subs as that is too risky a strategy that could have resulted in a loss yesterday.

This is a piss poor site to post on though as you have to save and post messages.

[Timmy58]

I don't know whether to post or not tbh but I cannot figure out why you see so many hundreds and even thousands of views on this site and yet they won't post an opinion for some reason and yet we are in the media age when everyone has a mobile phone or computer and so my question is why, when you see how massive our support is at home and away? Even the last thread was a couple of thousand views and yet what? Three posters? And we are in the play offs and so why not?

Its a strange league with a couple of almost certainties for automatic promotion and then a load behind where its hard to see anyone obvious that can come through. We have players who seem to be good enough for promotion and have a great desire to win games like yesterday. On that basis with players coming back in the side then if we can stay in the play offs, we could have a great chance of promotion. I think the automatics are just out of reach. Any place in the play offs will do as its home and away games. I think we will make the play offs. I wish LB would start the games with the better players in and not leave them as subs as that is too risky a strategy that could have resulted in a loss yesterday.

This is a piss poor site to post on though as you have to save and post messages.

Players returning from injury, some of our better players, have their minutes managed by the medical team. Not something that used to happen, it seems to be a relatively recent innovation. Time will tell whether it is a good thing or not by the recurrence of these injuries I guess. I know it adds to the team of what you might call hangers on that are taking a wage but I think more and more clubs are going this way.
I don't know if we will make the play offs, when you get to the end of the season clubs at the wrong end of the table start to put results together and others go off the boil. My prediction of our final position was, at the start of the season if memory serves me well, was 10th place. It could end up being a bit better than 10th but not much.

[jimmyboldon]

I don't know whether to post or not tbh but I cannot figure out why you see so many hundreds and even thousands of views on this site and yet they won't post an opinion for some reason and yet we are in the media age when everyone has a mobile phone or computer and so my question is why, when you see how massive our support is at home and away? Even the last thread was a couple of thousand views and yet what? Three posters? And we are in the play offs and so why not?

Its a strange league with a couple of almost certainties for automatic promotion and then a load behind where its hard to see anyone obvious that can come through. We have players who seem to be good enough for promotion and have a great desire to win games like yesterday. On that basis with players coming back in the side then if we can stay in the play offs, we could have a great chance of promotion. I think the automatics are just out of reach. Any place in the play offs will do as its home and away games. I think we will make the play offs. I wish LB would start the games with the better players in and not leave them as subs as that is too risky a strategy that could have resulted in a loss yesterday.

This is a piss poor site to post on though as you have to save and post messages.

As I have said several times Mike, take the number of views figure with a spade full of salt. I don?t know where it comes from, but I a certain it?s not a true figure.
Once again, this is not a site for the vast majority of the fan base. The Alex Chat on FB has a post match vote for MoM. This week it got 148 voters, it?s usually over 200.

[MikeSB]

Players returning from injury, some of our better players, have their minutes managed by the medical team. Not something that used to happen, it seems to be a relatively recent innovation. Time will tell whether it is a good thing or not by the recurrence of these injuries I guess. I know it adds to the team of what you might call hangers on that are taking a wage but I think more and more clubs are going this way.
I don't know if we will make the play offs, when you get to the end of the season clubs at the wrong end of the table start to put results together and others go off the boil. My prediction of our final position was, at the start of the season if memory serves me well, was 10th place. It could end up being a bit better than 10th but not much.

That is true but I would think giving the players, minutes on the pitch at the start would be better policy as them coming on later with 20 minutes etc adds to the pressure in some ways. They could say play the first half and see?? I cannot understand why our No9 doesn't start the game when we need goals so badly?

[Timmy58]

That is true but I would think giving the players, minutes on the pitch at the start would be better policy as them coming on later with 20 minutes etc adds to the pressure in some ways. They could say play the first half and see?? I cannot understand why our No9 doesn't start the game when we need goals so badly?

It makes sense not to start these players, if Lankester was designated to have 20 minutes that 20 minutes is better at the end because all the planning during the week will be for the starting line up that is expected to play for an hour. Jack came on for the last 20 minutes including the injury time. Coming on against players who are tiring is better for the player.

[MikeSB]

It makes sense not to start these players, if Lankester was designated to have 20 minutes that 20 minutes is better at the end because all the planning during the week will be for the starting line up that is expected to play for an hour. Jack came on for the last 20 minutes including the injury time. Coming on against players who are tiring is better for the player.

Its my old fashioned brain and you are probably right.

I tend to think if they are on the subs bench, they should be able to play for 90 mins and being one or two up by using their skills at the beginning of the match seems better than losing for 80 mins as we were seems the wrong decision.

I think youngsters like this should be good for 90 mins based on all the training and facilities we have. No9 should start the game as he has had weeks to get fit...

I know injuries and size of squad comes in but in the old days.....

[Timmy58]

Its my old fashioned brain and you are probably right.

I tend to think if they are on the subs bench, they should be able to play for 90 mins and being one or two up by using their skills at the beginning of the match seems better than losing for 80 mins as we were seems the wrong decision.

I think youngsters like this should be good for 90 mins based on all the training and facilities we have. No9 should start the game as he has had weeks to get fit...

I know injuries and size of squad comes in but in the old days.....

The old days are precisely that. Things have advanced over time and I guess we have to defer to the management team on the basis they know what they are doing and what they are dealing with. With regard to youngsters and whether they should be good for 90 minutes, I am not sure about that. I can remember the club being quite stringent over someone (can't remember who it was) not being over played because their body was still developing. It is generally considered that lads aren't fully physically developed until they are 21/22. I think Dean Ashton was an exception to that as he seemed fully developed when he was 16!!

[gazan]

Can people please stick with the thread and try not to be sidelined.🙂

[jimmyboldon]

Can people please stick with the thread and try not to be sidelined.🙂

So, we get a rare day or two when we get a sort of discussion going, and then?
I despair.

[gazan]

So Bell says that the team have to be locked into effectively a 10 game season. With that point in mind, how many points do you think we need and how many will we get?
I think we need 20 and we'll get 17.

[ShropshireAlex]

So Bell says that the team have to be locked into effectively a 10 game season. With that point in mind, how many points do you think we need and how many will we get?
I think we need 20 and we'll get 17.

I'm thinking 18 could be enough, but we will do well to get 15 ....

[Timmy58]

I'm thinking 18 could be enough, but we will do well to get 15 ....

I agree with you Shropshire, tough run in and 15 would be a good outcome

[Harlzed]

I agree, 15 looks most likely, maybe a couple of surprises either way but I think 15 would be a good performance and it won?t be quite enough. People may like the excitement of the play offs (even if we don?t get up) but I would prefer the players had a longer break. I really wouldn?t want to go up until we look like a side that could compete at league one and we?re not that at all this year. We wouldn?t need a couple of additions to compete in league one, we would need ten.