Where will we finish

[BoroMart]

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.

It’s not pushing it because the 27 that Sunderland used includes players that have only had a few minutes too, zero starts. 4 of their 27 players have just got a handful of sub appearances. So if you just want to look at starts, it’s even worse. It’s been addressed above, you can slice and dice it in many ways but we’ve been FUBARed by injuries and the other top teams haven’t.

Defense is the worst part for us. I worked out the permutations the other day, for our back 4+keeper. We have had 21 different combinations of back 4 + keeper! The most any have played together is 4 games! That’s madness

 

[FabioPorkpie]

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

Do you think Gibson, Bausor, Scott and Carrick thought 4th-8th after sanctioning Conway, Morris, Borges, Doak, Edmundson, Hamilton deals, as well as holding onto our (then) saleable assets in RVDB, Hackney and Lath?
I know that’s no guarantee of succsss but I’d be relatively confident their expectations/hopes of where we’d finish were closer to 2nd than 8th.

 

[UTB70]

We cant string 2 wins together, i think wba will secure 5th. The battle for 6th is on . Think we will miss out tbh. Can see us droppinf even further than 7th to 10th by the end.

 

[BoroMart]

Do you think Gibson, Bausor, Scott and Carrick thought 4th-8th after sanctioning Conway, Morris, Borges, Doak, Edmundson, Hamilton deals, as well as holding onto our (then) saleable assets in RVDB, Hackney and Lath?
I know that’s no guarantee of succsss but I’d be relatively confident their expectations/hopes of where we’d finish were closer to 2nd than 8th.

I think they were aware that Leeds, Sheff u and Burnley had better squads. So we needed them to mess up.

 

[Blamethrower]

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.

I agree with most of this post.
I’m just hoping that with the new attackers we have got that we will win games 5-4/4-3

 

[RavsFan]

I just can’t see us finishing inside the play offs in the form we have been displaying since end of November. We are a team of individuals rather than individuals forming a team. We lack battlers, we are poor at full back, struggle to defend with any assurity, players that can’t play the system, far too one dimensional, reactive rather than proactive with substitutions more often than not. We have left the window weaker, without resolving any of the real problems in the squad. Apart from that though…..

 

[starplayer]

My rose tinted glasses thought a flirtation with the top 2 was not out of the question. Obviously way out on my part. That said even without those specs on, never did I think we would be closer to the relegation places points wise than top 2 at this stage of the season. Majorly disappointing season which I only see imploding further now. 9th for me.

 

[Blamethrower]

I just can’t see us finishing inside the play offs in the form we have been displaying since end of November. We are a team of individuals rather than individuals forming a team. We lack battlers, we are poor at full back, struggle to defend with any assurity, players that can’t play the system, far too one dimensional, reactive rather than proactive with substitutions more often than not. We have left the window weaker, without resolving any of the real problems in the squad. Apart from that though…..

All of the above.
I don’t even think we are reactive regarding subs, it’s nearly always like for like regardless of the current score

 

[TheBoroBuzzard]

We just need to go on one of those runs (that we are capable of) and finish in the play offs with a decent form line behind us.

All depends on the new signings - if Giles, Whitaker, Junior and Inheanacho can give us the extra we need to get over the line

 

[Powerhouse]

How Will everyone feel after another loss on wednesday like me i suppose wanting the season to end now.

 

[Boro_Madrid]

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.

I totally agree with this. You could also factor in that we have just sold our star striker and our best winger has picked up an injury that we don’t know the extent of. We have all heard “a few weeks away” before when describing an injured player, and then it turns out to be much longer.

In sticking with my prediction of 9th.

 

[BoroMart]

You lot are so miserable

 

[B_G]

I think they were aware that Leeds, Sheff u and Burnley had better squads. So we needed them to mess up.

I agree that we would have needed or one of two of those teams to underperform to get into the autos, but we haven't put ourselves in a position where if they did/do underperform that we will capitalise.
I thought 3rd-4th with a points total of 80+ for this season. Didn't think we quite had enough to get 90+ and get into the top 2 but we'd be stronger than the standard play-off chasing teams.
Given we got to 69 points last season with a lot of injuries.I felt and still feel like we improved on that squad in the summer. 80+ points seemed a reasonable target.

I've predicted 7th in the vote. It think we'll either scrape into or just miss out on play-offs, by midges d1ck either way.
That isn't really where I envisioned this season to be honest. I thought we'd be better than that.

 

[BoroMart]

agree that we would have needed or one of two of those teams to underperform to get into the autos, but we haven't put ourselves in a position where if they did/do underperform that we will capitalise

I’d agree with that and if we had a largely fit squad then Carrick would have to go. But it’s been decimated

 

[Caesium137]

I’d agree with that and if we had a largely fit squad then Carrick would have to go. But it’s been decimated

Whilst I agree to an extent. All the first teamers who have been injured have been replaced in the squad except Morris. And despite our obvious short comings without him, isn't our PPG better while he was injured?

The number of injured players has obviously had an adverse effect on our recruitment places / finances though. But that we've seemingly decided Edmondson is the best third choice CB we can hope to attract and we're happy having only Ayling available at RB, knowing that Smith would be retiring. Weird choices.

 

[BoroMart]

Whilst I agree to an extent. All the first teamers who have been injured have been replaced in the squad except Morris. And despite our obvious short comings without him, isn't our PPG better while he was injured?

The number of injured players has obviously had an adverse effect on our recruitment places / finances though. But that we've seemingly decided Edmondson is the best third choice CB we can hope to attract and we're happy having only Ayling available at RB, knowing that Smith would be retiring. Weird choices.

You can o ly get momentum with a largely settled team.

As I stated above, we have had decimation particularly in defence. Here are all the 21 variations of back 4+GK, thatwe have started games with in the league, with the number of times they’ve played together (not consecutive), you can’t build a strong defence from this :

Dieng-Ayling-Rav-Clarke-Engel 2

Dieng-Dijksteel-Ayling-Clarke-Engel 1

Dieng-Dijksteel-Ayling-Clarke-Borges 1

Dieng-Ayling-Edmundson-Clarke-Borges 4

Dieng-Dijksteel-Ayling-Edmundson-Borges 1

Dieng-Ayling-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 4

Dieng-Dijksteel-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 1

Dieng-Dijksteel-Edmundson-Clarke-Borges 2

Brynn-Ayling-Edmundson-Clarke-Borges 2

Brynn-Dijksteel-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Dieng-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Brynn-Ayling-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 1

Brynn-Dijksteel-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 1

Brynn-Dijksteel-Fry-Rav-Borges 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Fry-Rav-Engel 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Fry-Rav-Borges 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Edmundson-Clarke-Engel 1

Glover-Ran-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Glover-Ayling-Fry-Rav-Borges 2

Travers-Ayling-Rav-Edmundson-Giles 1

 

[B_G]

You can o ly get momentum with a largely settled team.

As I stated above, we have had decimation particularly in defence. Here are all the 21 variations of back 4+GK, thatwe have started games with in the league, with the number of times they’ve played together (not consecutive), you can’t build a strong defence from this :

Dieng-Ayling-Rav-Clarke-Engel 2

Dieng-Dijksteel-Ayling-Clarke-Engel 1

Dieng-Dijksteel-Ayling-Clarke-Borges 1

Dieng-Ayling-Edmundson-Clarke-Borges 4

Dieng-Dijksteel-Ayling-Edmundson-Borges 1

Dieng-Ayling-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 4

Dieng-Dijksteel-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 1

Dieng-Dijksteel-Edmundson-Clarke-Borges 2

Brynn-Ayling-Edmundson-Clarke-Borges 2

Brynn-Dijksteel-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Dieng-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Brynn-Ayling-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 1

Brynn-Dijksteel-Rav-Edmundson-Borges 1

Brynn-Dijksteel-Fry-Rav-Borges 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Fry-Rav-Engel 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Fry-Rav-Borges 1

Glover-Dijksteel-Edmundson-Clarke-Engel 1

Glover-Ran-Fry-Edmundson-Borges 1

Glover-Ayling-Fry-Rav-Borges 2

Travers-Ayling-Rav-Edmundson-Giles 1

A lot of these have been down to preference and form rather than injuries.
We made 3 unforced changes last game for instance. Edmondson, Giles and Travers in for Glover, Fry and Borges.

Obviously we have had some injuries but nowhere near as bad as last season. There were weeks we could barely field a team last season, yet we are still performing at the same level.

 

[RavsFan]

Do you think Gibson, Bausor, Scott and Carrick thought 4th-8th after sanctioning Conway, Morris, Borges, Doak, Edmundson, Hamilton deals, as well as holding onto our (then) saleable assets in RVDB, Hackney and Lath?
I know that’s no guarantee of succsss but I’d be relatively confident their expectations/hopes of where we’d finish were closer to 2nd than 8th.

He should have done, he knew the issues with the defence, especially FB’s and lack of defensive midfielders in January but Scott and Carrick left us with only 3 x CB’s one of which is poor, a RB whose legs are gone and no defensive minded LB’s. Our problems have been around for longer than this season. When the opposition gain the ball we get the deckchairs out, the only 2 forwards that could defend were Lath and Jones and we sold them for Whitaker and Iheanacho, who from what I’ve seen of them elsewhere are likely to be as much use as a one legged man in a backside kicking contest.

 

[viv_andersons_nana]

Travers is probably better than Dieng and Brynn.
The club has pushed for Giles ever since his loan ended.
When Ayling’s contract was up it was between us and Sheffield United, y’know, the team we couldn’t possibly dream of being anywhere near this season.

The club had all last season, last summer and through to the end of January to replace Lenihan but haven’t. They didn’t replace McNair. Well actually they’ve replaced the pair of them plus Matt Clarke with George Edmundson.

I cannot get my head around what they’ve done at the back in January. That’s the weakest part of our team and they’ve actively used the transfer window to weaken it further. It’s absolutely bizarre and I’m looking forward to hearing Scott try and explain it when he does his next round of podcasts. It makes no sense whatsoever, much like dropping Fry for a much inferior player for the Sunderland match.

What are these people actually watching when they see us defend like we do.

 

[Frazza65]

8th with Woodentop as caretaker