Colours Nailed and all that

[magicdaps10]

I absolutely agree with most of what you've said here. We are and Matos are being found lacking now we've had a run of difficult games. However, this is entirely natural, this is learning / transition and these are by their very nature tough games. But this cannot continue into next season with our 'expensively assembled squad'. Our 'best in class' recruitment team need to be looking at replacements in the obviously deficient areas 'prompto'.

This is the thing, we can't ignore the things at hand and then talk it down to save face because it starts feeling like it's excuses or even is.
We have a very good keeper.
As one poster said,Galbraith is in the top of RB in this league.
Tymon an experienced champ left back.
2 more than capable CBs
An experienced campaigner in Fulton and Stamenic who has played European comp football aswell as Yalcouye.
Widell who is a young Swedish International.
Eom a Korean international.
Vipotnik who is the leagues top scorer
Idah with champions league experience who cost a lot of money for a club out size as well as what we paid for Inoussa.
I am sure I could add more to that.

We could potentially end up with our lowest championship finish, it's a high enough possibility.
I'm not going to lay blame on Matos because he has been a breath of fresh air and there has been an improvement but our away form can't be ignored.
I understand some posters maybe going overboard with the negatives, I do feel as fans we have had a lot of hot air blown up our arses and understand why people get their backs up when they read things that they believe is having a knock at the club but we really need some improvement in this away form. On paper we have a squad of players capable of doing quite a bit better than what we are seeing most notably away from home.

 

[Copamundial]

Millwall are third and Hull are fifth so mid table squads?

Oh hang on.

You were basing your comment on the quality of player that we have, I don’t think either of the sides I mentioned have better players and that’s my opinion.

 

[Jack2jack]

It's all about managing expectations.
We're doing alright. Room for improvement of course. Man City we ain't.
Over and out.

 

[magicdaps10]

For me we are where we deserve to be .
Teams in the playoffs are there because they can win on the road , keep clean sheets score lots of goals.
Hull , Millwall & Wrexham are good examples of this .
We are an average team with average players with the odd exceptions .

After the turn around of players in the summer a new coach did anybody expect a push for the playoffs .

Having an energetic midfield doesn't mask the weakness defensively or the lack of goals .
Another good transfer window should see us be a top 10 team .

Talking about Charlton winning at Ipswich they are the only team to win at Ipswich .
The recruitment from those top 6 clubs tells you everything .

Aside from Galbraith can we really say any of our signings have been a success?
Hopefully these boys kick on 2nd season but it could be argued with that we spent quite a bit on players who haven't delivered or delivered consistently enough.

 

[exiledclaseboy]

You were basing your comment on the quality of player that we have, I don’t think either of the sides I mentioned have better players and that’s my opinion.

Which you’re entitled to. But mid table squads tend to finish in mid table.

 

[Smurph]

Considering we've given the other teams in this league half a seasons head start, we're doing better than expected.

 

[Copamundial]

Which you’re entitled to. But mid table squads tend to finish in mid table.

Poor tactics and team selection also leads to mid table finishes and relegations as well.

 

[SwanseaBoy123]

This is the thing, we can't ignore the things at hand and then talk it down to save face because it starts feeling like it's excuses or even is.
We have a very good keeper.
As one poster said,Galbraith is in the top of RB in this league.
Tymon an experienced champ left back.
2 more than capable CBs
An experienced campaigner in Fulton and Stamenic who has played European comp football aswell as Yalcouye.
Widell who is a young Swedish International.
Eom a Korean international.
Vipotnik who is the leagues top scorer
Idah with champions league experience who cost a lot of money for a club out size as well as what we paid for Inoussa.
I am sure I could add more to that.

We could potentially end up with our lowest championship finish, it's a high enough possibility.
I'm not going to lay blame on Matos because he has been a breath of fresh air and there has been an improvement but our away form can't be ignored.
I understand some posters maybe going overboard with the negatives, I do feel as fans we have had a lot of hot air blown up our arses and understand why people get their backs up when they read things that they believe is having a knock at the club but we really need some improvement in this away form. On paper we have a squad of players capable of doing quite a bit better than what we are seeing most notably away from home.

We were performing as a top 4 team under Matos over a 15 game spell I'm not exactly sure what people want and why this discourse has happened over one poor performance against a team which will most probably finish in the top 2.

We're not a top 4 team so as football naturally does we will start to see a regression back to what we are over the next set of games. That of course doesn't mean tweaks and changes aren't needed especially away from home but hopefully with a pre season and summer window under his belt we will see that.

I will keep banging this drum but we need to leave the winger position behind next season and move to a 3 4 3. It suits the better players of our squad more (Galbraith, Tymon, Cabango)

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

Which you’re entitled to. But mid table squads tend to finish in mid table.

In general I’d agree but the difference this season IMO is that there are 15-18 first XIs and squads of comparable quality, which hasn’t been the case for a long time in the Championship - hence Millwall & Hull looking like they’ll overachieve and 6 points between 8th & 17th.

At the start of the season I expected us to finish between 8th and 12th. Now I’d say it’s more likely we’ll be 13th-16th which would be slightly disappointing but not the end of the world, particularly given the up turn in home form since Matos’ arrival.

I guess it depends on your definition of what mid-table is too.

 

[Darran]

And yet others are complaining players look tired. They’re not playing FIFA, rotation is always going to come into it

Do you see Pep leaving Haaland out of league games then?
We left our only striker out yesterday and that’s complete and utter bollox.

 

[Copamundial]

It’s amazing how far some people will go when they have an attachment to a certain manager or player, our results away from home have been poor, apart from SW our home performances have been less than convincing as well, we could easily have been three down at half time on Tuesday and Bristol City could quite easily have beaten us on another day.

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

Poor tactics and team selection also leads to mid table finishes and relegations as well.

I think criticising team selection (over Matos’ spell as a whole) is a bit harsh.

I don’t think anyone wants to go back over the right back discussion, but what pretty much everyone would agree on is that Key was going through a very poor run of form, his confidence was at rock bottom and he needed taking out of the team initially.

Attacking wise he’s been without his second centre forward and only winger with pace for the last couple of months (albeit I’ll happily admit both were underwhelming in the 1st half of the season given the outlay).

Some midfield rotation is inevitable these days, especially in 3-game weeks but the others have started pretty much every game (Vipotnik on the bench yesterday being the exception).

 

[malc]

I would say 7 wins out of 9 is impressive home form .
Defeats away at Coventry & Hull we could have drawn there .
Matos is doing a good job .
Lots of positives for me , think what a difference Ollie McBurnie would have made to this team .

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

Do you see Pep leaving Haaland out of league games then?
We left our only striker out yesterday and that’s complete and utter bollox.

Tbf he did it last month.

It’s unfortunate Idah being out for so long which has meant Vipotnik has played 90 mins in 6 of the last 7 games.

I get the ‘professional footballer should be able to play 90 mins every 3/4 days argument’ but whether people like it or not that’s not how professional sport works these days.

 

[J_B]

Yes, footballers can play 90 minutes every 3/4 days but will become jaded very quickly.
Many years ago it didn't matter because all clubs had about 15 players in their first team squads and tired players were playing against tired players.
The successful clubs now have the biggest, highest quality squads and can rotate regularly and effectively without much of a fall off in performance. It's the quality that you have in a group of almost 20 players that gets you success in this gruelling marathon of a Championship season.