Well people were calling it a piddly league pre season and now we are a chasm behind 2nd. I think it’s part of the problem. Feel free to make the same mistake that we can’t possibly miss the playoffs now the autos are gone, but our performances all season would suggest it’s hardly “impossible” we don’t make playoffs given we are a mild dodgy run away from bottom half!
The fact we're currently the third best team in the division when we've played Dan Gosling at RB, Mario Gaspar at CM, children up front, Kabasele at the back and not having a full strength squad for any period of time, proves the level of this division perfectly. I do agree that play offs aren't guaranteed, mind. All depends on how quickly we get JP, Louza, Davis back, and how the new boys settle.
It's fair to say it's not impossible, anything could feasibly happen as we've seen with our injury crsis and when I say it's impossible I do have to add the caveat that Pedro & Louza came back very soon and don't miss another stretch of games. We had a mini dodgy run, we lost 4-0 and 2-0 in back to back defeats to Swansea & Millwall, Billic remedies it with a few tweaks, we don't lose any of the next 3. I just think it's unlikely now that we're getting closer to a full strength side that we go on the kind of run that sees us lose four or five on the bounce. Bachmann, Ferreira, Sierrelta, Cathcart, Kamara; Choudhury, Louza, Kone; Sarr, Davis, Pedro. Subs: Asprilla, Araujo, Gaspar, Martins, New CB + 2. If (and it's a HUGE if) we can get that roster available more often than not, we will 100% make the play-offs.
Another day we probably win that even though it wasnt our greatest performance. Gaspar, Bayo, Asprilla all had chances they should have done better with and Martins hit the bar. Sarr should have had a penalty, it was blatant obstruction by the Rotherham player. The second incident I didnt properly see so cant comment. Speaking of theatrics, that nonsense from their 17 at the end of the first half was farcical. Going down pretending Bachman had nutted him. It was actually cringe worthy to watch
I think you are rather overplaying your hand with the notion that we have been playing “children up front” or Gaspar in midfield for enough time to have a huge impact over 28 games. We’ve had injuries since World Cup for sure, but our performances as a squad are absolutely in line with a 3rd to 12th team performance as evidenced by their being 6 points covering those teams. We are and have performed as an above average championship team so far. I think we will make the playoffs but it’s only about 75% in my view right now.
Once King Ken comes back in we will start to tear this league to shreds. He’s different gravy at this level
Do you think we've had any significant run (or even 3 games!) where we haven't had to shoehorn someone in out of position, or had a key player (or 2, or 3) out injured? I fully agree we've performed as an above average Championship team, which, given the circumstances highlighted, shows how poor the division is. Agree. Think it's more likely than not, and if we keep the main quality core of the squad available, it shouldn't be an issue. Whether we've got the ******** to actually win the PO is another matter.
As to your last point I’d say absolutely not, but my views on our squad mentality are well documented!
I’ve actually agreed with nigh-on everything you have said about the club and this season for a while now. But I do think it’s time you rowed back on the ‘piddly little league’ and ‘best championship squad ever’ comments you made? I know they perhaps weren’t said exactly as I’ve typed them. But you can understand why they are continually referenced?! Would make sense to just say some adjectives were used that weren’t wise and then it stops!
For all the grief I give him at premier level this is true. He has a winning, hard working mentality in the championship and the skill to dominate.
Personally think Bilic is doing a decent job with the **** at his disposal. We weren't great today but we deserved the win. We hit the post & the bar plus a few shots that just went over.
Agree, I’m not sure it’s even 75%. About 11 teams within 6 points of us, some with games in hand, battling for 4 places. Yes we have a good team when fit but WBA and Boro are flying. I’d say about 60% personally.
Agreed but the amount of penalties we should have/of had this season that weren’t given us a joke. The level of officiating in the championship is woeful. As much as VAR slows the game down, it’s needed in the championship. The refs just do what they want in this league.
VAR won’t necessarily get to the “ right outcome “ or the one we think it ought to be though as seen in the Premier league .
What penalties should we have had? Referees in England are dreadful - no doubt about it. But the levels of cheating by the players don't help and should also be called out. There are more instances of players diving than there are of refs not giving clear penalties.
Off the top of my head, there were consecutive games a month or two back where Davis was denied absolute stonewallers despite the refs having a clear view of them. And yes, that's taking into account the ones where he went down far too meekly for a man of his astonishingly considerable bulk/size/unitness.
As a general fence sitter, possibly leaning towards the more positive thoughts, it’s fair to say some of you who predicted the ‘doom’ 3 or 4 years ago haven’t been miles away from the truth. And at times it’s been a bit grim. However, it can’t be much fun having that mindset constantly. A 1-1 draw at home to Rotherham isn’t great on paper. But the injuries have been insane. I’ve skim read quite a bit of this thread, but it’s very very very negative. Our goal has hardly been mentioned. A young lad on his full debut with a peach of a finish! Some positives out there and I’m team Bilic at the moment for sure. Quite enjoyed the game (thanks to the safe poster who set the river free). Lots to play for, looking forward to the games to come, got to love a promotion chasing season!
Sarr is one hundredth the player Zaha is. Zaha genuinely takes on players and offers a threat. Sarr does next to nothing every game. Sema does more for our team, and he’s terrible.
And relying on VAR is a no no! Even tonight seen basically the same sort of foul be seen differently by one ref to another . Yes one at Huddersfield I think .
If you think we won’t finish in the play offs, you should put money on it. I’m sure you’d get massive odds.
Well that was somewhat frustrating. There were positives, although not many. Second half was entertaining at least.
Chumlax possibly referring to the fact he wanders into offside positions a fair bit and so puts himself out of contention to receive a pass?
Thanks, indeed - it was bad enough that Mooney ranted about it on comms - the presumably non-scientific number he came up with was 'a dozen'.
Fair enough, I hadn’t really noticed. He looked much brighter with Kamara down his side linking up. I would argue none of Kone, Gaspar or Choudhury are capable of playing over the top for him either. May be a case of Sarr making his run and our midfield faffing about with the ball at the back as they so often do. Sarr is not blameless but I don’t think we’ve helped him much AT ALL during his spell here.
I dunno what the odds are on us not reaching the play-offs but Sky Bet’s market for teams to reach the play-offs has us as 5th favourites behind Boro, WBA, Norwich and Millwall. So presumably the odds on us not getting into the play offs won’t be massive?
Yes we probably just about deserved the win today but where is the leadership on that pitch? I did not see one player even mouthing a word after Rotherham scored and they meekly kicked off. We 100% need a proper leader/captain on that pitch. As for Sarr today, hang your head in shame mate, literally played below 50% effort, hard to fathom.
Thanks! Sorry though, I really do think this league is poor. We've dealt with poor squad management, the worst injury crisis I've seen, been poorly managed at times (by RE and Bilic), and we're still 3rd. It's incredible, honestly. I do think the coaching at this level has improved though. Much more sides have clear plans and patterns of play, and there are many more coaches who I can see going on to higher levels. However the standard of player in your average Championship team has stayed the same as ever, and might have dropped a bit, to be honest. As for the one of the best squads comment, that's been misquoted and misused so many times that it's got a little silly. I prefaced the comment by saying "if our squad stays in it's current state". We then sold our most potent forward in Dennis and (imo) our best (and only left footed) CB in Samir. Even if we did have hands down the best squad ever, I don't think it could have dealt with the disruption we've had. We had a very strong squad, then lost all the good players in it for varying degrees of time. I will admit that I overestimated the ability of the following members of our squad, and with the benefit of hindsight, that may change my opinion looking back: -Gaspar - the drop off from Kiko to Gaspar was something I completely underestimated. It's killed our right side and massively hindered the threat of Sarr, which he hasn't been able to adapt to. -Okoye -Kamara -Sarr, at Championship level -Pollock - thought he'd be good back up and progress, new CB needed -Hungbo - thought he'd be ok back up, he's crap
