Season so far

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

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-

[cherrypie7]

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-

I think its been okay so far. The only thing I can complain about is midweek form. We have lost to Stoke and Sunderland, drawn against Hull on midweek evenings. We also "lost" to Salford in a midweek fixture. They appeared tired against Sunderland.
For the ump****th time, I repeat - we need a specialist left-back.

[spaldy]

we'll lose automatic because we don't have a LB.

Frankly, we still don't have a striker with a killer instinct. They are out there we just haven't found one since Wood, Mccontract, Becchio and Beckford.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Let’s see what January brings.

Ayling, Cooper and Bambi out with LB CAM and ST in would be marvellous.


Here’s hoping!

[Rev72]

we'll lose automatic because we don't have a LB.

Frankly, we still don't have a striker with a killer instinct. They are out there we just haven't found one since Wood, Mccontract, Becchio and Beckford.

Throw a creative midfielder in the mix as well spaldy.

[norfolk white]

Haven’t had a proper left back since Charlie Taylor, bielsa played alioski there and he was fairly good,but he was really a winger.

[joellufcprice]

A poor start because of off the field issues, no team was going to win with an attack of Gelhardt, Poveda, Shackleton and James.

Since then, very good just with the odd blip where I feel at times we play like a team that thinks they've won before they've won. The whole season is being muddied by the fact two teams at the top are on record breaking starts never seen before, any other season we'd be 2nd if not 1st.

Just got to keep going, if we end the season having averaged 2 points per game and we don't get top 2 then there isn't much more you can do.

Would like us to sign a left back in the transfer window, Byram is brilliant but the lad is made of biscuits and will break down again at some point other than that I'd keep the squad the same unless something really good comes up.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Haven’t had a proper left back since Charlie Taylor, bielsa played alioski there and he was fairly good,but he was really a winger.

We don’t play a proper left back but

Leif Davies is now probably the best LB in this league
Huggins looks good for Sunderland
Hjelde was excellent their for Rotherham last season

It just seems to be some jinxed position for us and we don’t seem prepared to give people a proper run of games there to prove their worth unless they are a midfielder, centre back or right back. It’s a puzzle, wrapped in a conundrum crossed with a curse.

[joellufcprice]

we'll lose automatic because we don't have a LB.

Frankly, we still don't have a striker with a killer instinct. They are out there we just haven't found one since Wood, Mccontract, Becchio and Beckford.

We will lose automatic because Ipswich and Leicester are having seasons never seen before in this league, there is bugger all we can really do about that, need teams to grow a pair and start beating them

[cherrypie7]

We don’t play a proper left back but

Leif Davies is now probably the best LB in this league
Huggins looks good for Sunderland
Hjelde was excellent their for Rotherham last season

It just seems to be some jinxed position for us and we don’t seem prepared to give people a proper run of games there to prove their worth unless they are a midfielder, centre back or right back. It’s a puzzle, wrapped in a conundrum crossed with a curse.

Not completely true. We got Firpo as a specialist left back. I just don't think he's been very good.