How come every other side is 'great'?

[paulscott]

It's wearing a bit thin. Every side we play 'will be there or thereabouts' or 'it's a hard place to come' or 'we knew it would be a hard game' or 'they're full of quality'...

It's management-speak. It's nonsense.

How about the Boro being 'there or thereabouts' of the Riverside being 'a hard place to visit'.

Wilder must think we're silly. Also, why do bloody journalists allow them to get away with it?

How about 'whose fault other than your own is it this week, Chris' or 'Let's be honest, given the financial resources, training ground, heritage and stadium capacity, should the club expect a win against Rotherham, or don't you get paid enough to answer hard questions, would you like me to tee you up with an easy one. How about 'a tough night tonight, Chris?'

(I do know that journalists need access, but what if they all changed their tactics?)

 

[futureboy]

Every side we play 'will be there or thereabouts' or 'it's a hard place to come' or 'we knew it would be a hard game' or 'they're full of quality'...

I agree, but every manager does this. What really hurts is when you've lost 3-0 and the opposing manager says it in his post-game interview.

 

[Jedi boro]

It's wearing a bit thin. Every side we play 'will be there or thereabouts' or 'it's a hard place to come' or 'we knew it would be a hard game' or 'they're full of quality'...

It's management-speak. It's nonsense.

How about the Boro being 'there or thereabouts' of the Riverside being 'a hard place to visit'.

Wilder must think we're silly. Also, why do bloody journalists allow them to get away with it?

How about 'whose fault other than your own is it this week, Chris' or 'Let's be honest, given the financial resources, training ground, heritage and stadium capacity, should the club expect a win against Rotherham, or don't you get paid enough to answer hard questions, would you like me to tee you up with an easy one. How about 'a tough night tonight, Chris?'

(I do know that journalists need access, but what if they all changed their tactics?)

This reminds me of My fave bill shankley story.

They were playing Ajax and he sent the top scout over to watch them and compile a thorough dossier on their strengths and weaknesses.

Before the game they were all in the dressing room the scout steps up with his comprehensive report on all things Amsterdam he steps up but is stopped in his tracks by bill.

I don’t care about them let them worry about us.

Here’s a quote he said about the opposition

I never, ever discussed the opposition at length. The last thing you want to do is build up your opponents and frighten your own players. We might have been playing Manchester United that weekend, but I wasn't going to be singing the praises of the opposition.

 

[The_Lizards_Jumpers]

'Let's be honest, given the financial resources, training ground, heritage and stadium capacity, should the club expect a win against Rotherham, or don't you get paid enough to answer hard questions, would you like me to tee you up with an easy one. How about 'a tough night tonight, Chris?'

How does the fact that we used to be better than average (our heritage is hardly amazing!), or how many people the stadium potentially could attract, mean that we should be beating Rotherham?

Smacks of Geordie / Mackem levels of delusion that.

 

[Andy_W]

It's wearing a bit thin. Every side we play 'will be there or thereabouts' or 'it's a hard place to come' or 'we knew it would be a hard game' or 'they're full of quality'...

It's management-speak. It's nonsense.

How about the Boro being 'there or thereabouts' of the Riverside being 'a hard place to visit'.

Wilder must think we're silly. Also, why do bloody journalists allow them to get away with it?

How about 'whose fault other than your own is it this week, Chris' or 'Let's be honest, given the financial resources, training ground, heritage and stadium capacity, should the club expect a win against Rotherham, or don't you get paid enough to answer hard questions, would you like me to tee you up with an easy one. How about 'a tough night tonight, Chris?'

(I do know that journalists need access, but what if they all changed their tactics?)

The Championship is fine margins most years, and this year even moreso I think, hard to read who will be top and bottom. The 4 teams at the bottom likely won't end up at the bottom and there are no teams which stand out a mile at the top, not like Fulham and Bournemouth last year I suppose. There doesn't look to be any absolute pushovers either, not like previous years.

Two of the better teams in Sheff Utd and WBA have both came here and neither would have complained much if they had lost especially Sheff Utd. Sheff Utd are top of the league but not really played many of the supposed "fancied" sides yet, other than us, who they should have lost to, and Watford who they lost to.

We've only lost one home game this year (largely down to one bad half, of multiple individual errors), and last year only Fulham had a better home record than us.

We had more than enough chances to beat Rotherham, and Rotherham struggled to create anything against us, way less than any other team they've faced.

We've had different reasons for not getting results, be that bad individual errors, poor ref decisions, and not putting anywhere near enough chances away. This isn't really excuses, as the manager can't control any of this, he's largely picked a similar side to what most of us would pick, especially up front. The only one who hasn't missed many chances is Muniz, and he's been picked every game. Individual errors have been occurring from players who were not really making such errors last year.

I don't think over the whole game, that any team could easily say they've had an easy ride against us, and two sides have had an opportunity to make an easy night of it and then buckled when we stepped our game up, giving them squeaky bum time.

I don't think anyone has really beat us yet, and dominated us the whole game. But we have been good at beating ourselves, trying to punch ourselves in the face, with regular occurrence, doesn't mean the opposition have found it easy though, we've just given them some gifts (as had the refs in some of the earlier games).

 

[newyddion]

It's wearing a bit thin. Every side we play 'will be there or thereabouts' or 'it's a hard place to come' or 'we knew it would be a hard game' or 'they're full of quality'...

It's management-speak. It's nonsense.

How about the Boro being 'there or thereabouts' of the Riverside being 'a hard place to visit'.

Wilder must think we're silly. Also, why do bloody journalists allow them to get away with it?

How about 'whose fault other than your own is it this week, Chris' or 'Let's be honest, given the financial resources, training ground, heritage and stadium capacity, should the club expect a win against Rotherham, or don't you get paid enough to answer hard questions, would you like me to tee you up with an easy one. How about 'a tough night tonight, Chris?'

(I do know that journalists need access, but what if they all changed their tactics?)

The Championship is tighter than a ducks anus. We.. like ever other club in the division have tried to improve the squad. We have missed out on targets.. like every other team will have and we have lost key players., like everyone else.

It is tight and truth be told there isn’t much difference between top an bottom.

The only way to turn from champo scrub to premier bottom feeder is with 3 or 4 properly mint players. The guys we were linked with but never got close.

In our squad we will have lads who can make that jump Jones, Giles, Muniz, McGree but it won’t be enough.. we’ll still need 3 proper daddies to come in January and that will only happen if we’re still in with a shout.

We’re rolling the dice, hung ho slashers over a pragmatic plod, our fullbacks are key to this but our defence need to be switched on too.

 

[Rofesleg]

there are no teams which stand out a mile at the top, not like Fulham and Bournemouth last year I suppose.

Sheff Utd have got more points than either Fulham or Bournemouth had at this stage last season. They are also 5 points clear of 3rd place.
So that's not true.

 

[Andy_W]

Sheff Utd have got more points than either Fulham or Bournemouth had at this stage last season. They are also 5 points clear of 3rd place.
So that's not true.

Aye, 3 points more than Fulham, at the same stage, but look who they've played? The season is longer than 10 games, you have to play everyone twice.
Look what came after for Fulham though, they went on a run of 7 wins on the bounce, and scored about 25 goals, only conceding about 2, nobody is doing that this year. They had a level which no other team could get anywhere near, they were scoring 3,4,5,6,7 with regularity, often with little to no reply.

Let's see how many points Sheff Utd (or any other team) end up with by the end of March, when Fulham practically went on an early holiday with 10 games to go.

Like I said though, Sheff Utd struggled against us and Watford, probably the two best teams they've faced, and both of those are underperforming. They also lost to the underperforming WBA in the cup.

Not at all saying I don't expect Sheff Utd to be up there, I think they'll be top 4, but they're a mile from where Fulham were, and Bournemouth were a mile from Fulham too, despite only ending up two points behind.

It will be tighter this year, all across the table. I don't think anyone expects the bottom 4 to be there come the end of the year, and everyone above that is on more than a point a game.

 

[Rofesleg]

Aye, 3 points more than Fulham, at the same stage, but look who they've played? The season is longer than 10 games, you have to play everyone twice.
Look what came after for Fulham though, they went on a run of 7 wins on the bounce, and scored about 25 goals, only conceding about 2, nobody is doing that this year. They had a level which no other team could get anywhere near, they were scoring 3,4,5,6,7 with regularity, often with little to no reply.

Let's see how many points Sheff Utd (or any other team) end up with by the end of March, when Fulham practically went on an early holiday with 10 games to go.

Like I said though, Sheff Utd struggled against us and Watford, probably the two best teams they've faced, and both of those are underperforming. They also lost to the underperforming WBA in the cup.

Not at all saying I don't expect Sheff Utd to be up there, I think they'll be top 4, but they're a mile from where Fulham were, and Bournemouth were a mile from Fulham too, despite only ending up two points behind.

It will be tighter this year, all across the table. I don't think anyone expects the bottom 4 to be there come the end of the year, and everyone above that is on more than a point a game.

That might all be true, but highlights the fact that it is too early to say whether anybody will stand out at the top or not.
Sheff Utd might very well continue winning. Who knows? Or they might do a WBA and fall away.
Norwich might win the next 10 and be this seasons Fulham.
Struggling against us so early in the season means nothing in the context of a full season. Fulham struggled against us at the Riverside last season also btw.

 

[Andy_W]

That might all be true, but highlights the fact that it is too early to say whether anybody will stand out at the top or not.
Sheff Utd might very well continue winning. Who knows? Or they might do a WBA and fall away.
Norwich might win the next 10 and be this seasons Fulham.
Struggling against us so early in the season means nothing in the context of a full season. Fulham struggled against us at the Riverside last season also btw.

I just don't think any of them look to be all that great, not when they come up against good sides, it's probably one of the reasons why I'm less concerned than most.

I'm not that concerned about Norwich, they've not played any good sides either, other than WBA, who they drew with at home.

I think we can beat anyone, anywhere, once we have a run of games with a settled/first-choice side, and some confidence back. We're certainly not settled, and not had a first-choice side once yet, and are obviously low on confidence. I think we'll click soon, then will get some good results home and away.