Thoughts on how we have gone so far. Few thought at the start of the season we may go well, few not sure and a few thought we would be in trouble.
The legacy of Orta, Radz, relegation and the length of time the takeover took to be approved coupled with the great escape of players seeking to exercise the loan clauses etc meant there was quite a lot to do
The good
We seem more stable as a club - less drama - CEO/Chairman rarely say things unless needed
The manager - Farke has a pattern of play that seems to work and has forged a decent XI. He has also brought out the best in Rutter and Summerville.
Style of play - refreshing to see ‘proper football’ after some of the garbage of last year.
The signings - by and large we have recruited well - Kamara, Ampadu and Rodon in particular have been great and Bryam, Spence and Piroe have been good too.
Rutter has also shown what he can do and his potential to grow.
Archie Gray - already one of the most consistent performers.
League position - think we are doing fairly well given what Farke inherited and if you take away the first 5 games (when we dropped a lot of points) we are up there with anyone. Farke pretty quickly worked out his best XI and we kicked on from there.
The not so Good
Certain players seem to be forgotten and aren’t getting game time - Cresswell and Joffy must be wondering what they have to do.
The old guard - time can be cruel and seems to be catching up with Ayling and Cooper - sad to see but I think we all have a sense of doom when they play/Start
Bamford - had so many chances given to him to be the main man and for whatever reason it just isn’t happening for him. He misses big chances at key times - club needs to decide what to do with him as he is now blocking younger players progressing whilst not really delivering.
Squad rotation/subs - we don’t seem to rotate players very much and subs tend to be made late and often not many. Feel like we may be missing a trick here. How do the young players progress, Gruev must be wondering why he signed. Sunderland had a very young side against us and seemed to prove if they are good enough they are old enough - we don’t seem to be really willing to find out. I recognise this can be hard when trying to also win promotion but it will get harder still in the prem.
Overall rating for me B+/A-