ThePrisoner
Well-known member
Who voted for 4th? :)
Where will we finish
- Thread starter WillowsOrchid
- Start date
Expat Smoggie
Well-known member
Sadly not in the playoffs for me. Like a few have mentioned we haven’t addressed the issues in midfield with Morris being ok but not good enough to add real quality as DM. I think when we were smashing in the goals we became too cocky and then McGree goes MIA, which I feel has really hurt us. The left back situation as well as right back situation has been a thorn in our side for 2 seasons now and while Borges is a steady eddy he’s not the answer also.
I’m also of the opinion that LL should have been sold in the summer but the management compromised possible promotion by waiting for an extra £5m from his transfer to fill the coffers.
I’m also of the opinion that LL should have been sold in the summer but the management compromised possible promotion by waiting for an extra £5m from his transfer to fill the coffers.
Expat Smoggie
Well-known member
My other point with the recent transfer situation is the fact that both Matt Clarke and Izzy Jones were willing to leave the club for clubs in the relegation zone so it’s huge gamble on their behalf. But what does this tell you about the club and its current dressing room situation? Maybe I’m reading too much into it but I certainly wouldn’t leave the club for a club that’s embroiled in a relegation dog fight.
BoroMart
Well-known member
It’s already been discussed lath couldn’t be sold because we didn’t have time to replace him. It wasn’t about getting another 5m…although it’s brilliant that we did
Alwaysaborolad
Well-known member
8th or 9th at best, our form last 6 games is 16th, our defence is shocking, they treat the ball like a hot potato, or like the chuckle brothers, "to me to you", "to you to me". Our back 4 consists of 3 players who cannot pass or control a ball under pressure, Edmonton, Ayling Giles, and yet we still try and play out from the back take away the three results against a poor QPR Luton and Oxfotd, ⁷then most of our other games this season have been very underwhelming. Coventry WBA Blackburn Norwich will all finish above us, Leeds Sheff Utd Burnley Sunderland will all finish miles ahead of us. Sunderland have mostly average players, but are well set up, and compared to us, a well balanced team We really are not as good as some fans think we are. A past it's best RB, a LB who cannot defend, and a CB who cannot make a 10yrd pass, will not get you promoted. The club had January to address our problems both at the back and in midfield, due to only having Morris as a defensive mid but instead we get 2 attacking wingers, and an attacking LB who can't defend, crazy.... when we needed a box to box midfielder, and a RB. Rant over! we will finish top half 8th-9th. roll on next season.
jeff_potato
Well-known member
I think it'll be either 6th or 7th.
A big chunk of the season unable to get it into the opposition's net, a big chunk where we can't stop helping the opposition put it into our net.
We score enough to finish in the play-offs and if Boro do get in there I hope we don't just repeat those awful Coventry games where we were pretty much there to occupy their time before they could go to Wembley.
A big chunk of the season unable to get it into the opposition's net, a big chunk where we can't stop helping the opposition put it into our net.
We score enough to finish in the play-offs and if Boro do get in there I hope we don't just repeat those awful Coventry games where we were pretty much there to occupy their time before they could go to Wembley.
It's easier to predict 4th to 8th right now .. When there's likely a 25 points margin for error by season end .
I suspect that you , or anyone else , wouldn't have had us 14 points off 4th at this stage of the season
BoroMart
Well-known member
I predicted 4th-8th right at the beginning of the season
4th to 8th at the start was a pretty decent each way pick ..
4th to 8th now is a 20 point gap , and not exactly ' a spread bet
Boro_Madrid
Well-known member
9th. Sadly I think we will limp to the end of the season, mainly driven by our inability to defend but also with a little help from losing our best striker in the window and our best winger getting injured.
BoroMart
Well-known member
I'm not really bothered about the gambling side of it. I'm more bothered about what expectations were as a fan. I saw Leeds, Sheff U and Burnleys squads and thought they're so much stronger than ours, the only way we beat them is for them to screw up, and I didn't think any of them would. I said Luton would be down fighting relegation too, maybe that would have been a good bet.
Too many of our fans got over excited about our squad from the off without considering opposing squads. Yes we've got a decent squad, and all fit and firing we probably wouldn't be 14 points behind. Sunderland have been the wild card and I think their success has frustrated our fans, but we have to be honest they've had every break and we've had none. They've played 27 players, Inheacho will be our 33rd and Smith and Lenihan were on the books and didn't kick a ball first half of season. They've had 10 players start 24 or more games. We've had 3. Some will bemoan it as a tired excuse, but injuries have been a major disrupting factor that has held us back.
With a consistent back 4 and keeper I'm sure we would have been more consistent, but it hasn't happened. Maybe we can get a run of 10-15 games with the same back 4 and keeper and get some cleansheets.
Expat Smoggie
Well-known member
Ok we didn’t have a replacement but whose fault is that really? We had Burgzorg and Conway and dare I say it— Coburn and supposedly an unfit Forss. Now as I understand it if we’d had sold LL to Ipswich or whoever (in the summer window) we’d still have the opportunity to loan a striker? So I don’t really see what was the problem— apart from losing maybe $5m in extra revenue.
Bruce
Well-known member
I did a quick look at the teams at the top. Number of players with 2,000+ Championship minutes for each team. (Means they've played 75% or more of the games).
Burnley 7, Sheff Utd 5, Leeds 6, Sunderland 10, Blackburn 4, WBA 7, Boro 3
Our three players to manage this are Hackney, Borges & Azaz.
Looking even further, Blackburn have had 9 players who have played 1,800+ minutes, we've had 4. All of the top teams except us have an identifiable core of 8+ players who have played most games together. The main reason I'm on the fence about Carrick rather than Carrick out is that he has had his team disrupted by a massive injury list for 18 months. Of course that may be in part due to how he conducts training which means that he has some responsibility for the problem.
FabioPorkpie
Well-known member
Quite a big margin for error there though. Not exactly nailing your colours to the mast. Smiley winky face emoji
I went all in on top 2. Ho hum.
Now I’m pretty confident of us finishing at least 6th but I have zero confidence that we’ll be be successful in the play offs.
BoroMart
Well-known member
Points-wise it’s usually a very small margin between those positions and there are too
Many variables to predict more than that. Especially with injuries unknown. Top two are usually miles ahead and so many people selected top two, they needed a reality check and I guess they’ve got one. Problem is they blame the manager rather than their own expectations
viv_andersons_nana
Well-known member
Saying we’ve used 32 players to make a point is pushing it slightly imo. Two of those 32 are McCormick and Simpson, who’ve played two minutes of football between them while the player above them is Coburn, who played five minutes before being sent out on loan. So that’s seven minutes between three players, two of whom came on for the final minute of games we were winning so they could make a league debut and the other a striker who was sent out on loan and replaced with someone better who was signed at great expense.