Are we better than last season?

[Fletch_11]

I think perhaps a bit lucky. But mainly in getting away with the problems we cause ourselves when we think our defenders comfortable on the ball and hail from Brazil. If we click like last year we will storm this league but it ain't happening yet.

Bizarrely I think the opposite to that; I think we were quite fortunate at times last season like Bamford's Worldy at Sheff Weds and Sammon's sublime last minute chipped winner at home against Middlesbrough. There was also a player sent off for Boro that night who had two undeserved yellow cards.
Things seemed to go right for us all the way to Wembley.

The contrast this season is that we have seemed to get punished for virtually every mistake at times yet still have bounced back! Contrast us with the other play-off teams and consider the fact our biggest signing (cost wise) for many a year got injured before kick off and the difference is resilience!

To paraphrase the great Chu

[ellafella]

The answer for me is yes.

It all depends what we mean by "better" though and it also depends on what we mean by "last season". I won't labour the "last season" bit, but a season is made up of 46 league games and seasons comprise different runs of form, so to treat it as a unified whole is not really helpful.

I'm not just splitting hairs here;

What do we mean by better?

Do we play "better football"? No. We have played as well as the free-flowing stuff we saw at some times last season but we still haven't done it consistently. However, I think as we tick down the games we will.

Do we make fewer mistakes? No. We are still prone cf the Florist game

Are we more solid at the back? Probably not. We are in the middle of a run of clean sheets but we did have a good run of clean sheets last year.

Are we scoring more goals? It seems that we are, given the comparison that Ramondo gave above.

Do we have a stronger squad? Yes; no question.

Do we have a plan B? Yes; we didn't hav

[swaledale]

The question are we better is most likely unanswerable, are we doing better? Then yes we are and the record books show whether a team wins promotion or a cup so we have been consistent in being top 6, we are currently joint top and have won 7 out of the last 8 games and kept clean sheets in 7 of those!

I thought we had got past the theory that the only way to improve a team is by buying better players (or notionally better players - Earnshaw and Claude spring to mind at £7 million for the pair) a good coach improves the players and the tactics and we continue to add good value loans and perm signings to strengthen and add to the team.

For me, its obvious what McClaren and his coaching staff have done, long may it continue!

It isn't a criticism, it's just a question.

Is it unanswerable? No it isn't, but it is subjective. There is sufficient evidence to form an opinion - 28 league game

[1944]

With the 2-0 beating of Cardiff we are currently 3 points ahead of last seasons total at 28 games so I think the answer has to be yes, we are better than last season. COYR!

[Old codger]

Interestingly enough matches 29 to 38 last year produced 15 points (4 wins 3draws and 3 losses). Looking at the next ten fixtures this season there only appears two games where we could struggle. I can see the strong possibility of gaining 20 to 22 points, which would put us around 8 to 10 points better at that stage. Let's hope for an injury free period to make this possible

[Toddo]

Some great stats there, it all feels positive. Add into the equation the pending return of Thorne... All good.

[KingCharlieGeorge]

No, I don't think we are. We've dropped some silly points against teams we would expect to beat e.g Leeds. There's been games we haven't turned up to and we don't seem to be playing with the same pace of passing and movement. Obviously Thorne made a big difference and it seems we don't gel unless we have someone providing cover for the CB's. Hendricks seems out of sorts, seemingly because he isn't comfortable with the position/role he is playing. With the diamond our full backs need to push on to cover the midfield.

I think if Cardiff had scored today, and they nearly did, we would have panicked. It's a game we should have won by more goals if we had pushed on. I don't think the game plan was to sit back, usually we are not very good at it.

[ManxRam]

Results wise we are evidently better, the points and GD+ are there for all to see.

Performance wise we've probably not quite clicked in to gear so many times as we did last year but have perhaps been a little better at grinding out results.

We've not had that golden spell with blips against Leeds, Forest etc standing out as games we expected to win but the eventual promotion sides will have lost silly games, you can't win them all.

We look like we have another gear but would like to see us find it sooner rather than later.

Another thing I've noticed is that penalty misses have not yet cost us like last season but they can haunt you and our record remains average at best from the spot.

Time to start killing games and nibbling at that goal difference which could be decisive come the run in.

Last season raised expectations in how we can play, we were awesome at times. I expect the return of GT and the addition of a loan winger to give us the extra dimension and balls on the block ex

[Rambo74]

Don't care if we're better or worse, so long we are in the top 2

[swaledale]

No, I don't think we are. We've dropped some silly points against teams we would expect to beat e.g Leeds. There's been games we haven't turned up to and we don't seem to be playing with the same pace of passing and movement. Obviously Thorne made a big difference and it seems we don't gel unless we have someone providing cover for the CB's. Hendricks seems out of sorts, seemingly because he isn't comfortable with the position/role he is playing. With the diamond our full backs need to push on to cover the midfield.

I think if Cardiff had scored today, and they nearly did, we would have panicked. It's a game we should have won by more goals if we had pushed on. I don't think the game plan was to sit back, usually we are not very good at it.

I think that the Bolton game answered your question, tomorrow night at Bournemouth should be a better indication.