Bottom of the League.

Too late now. We are playing catch up and we now never will.

 

I think the biggest problem is that even when we play really well we still give the opposition enough chances to win it, for example the 15 minute spell against Fulham when they dominated & had two off the line, the second half against Leeds & the second half against Swansea but that’s what you get with a young team who aren’t used to playing with each other that are fading in the second half of games as they have to play out of their skin to stay in the game against better quality sides

 

That was a very good performance today. Credit to the players and their professionalism.

I thought we looked more solid throughout the team defensively. Someone has had a word with the Defenders on how to make judgements on when to play and when to clear your lines. Attacking wise, we’re obviously very very short on quality. But I have absolute faith in the Board sorting that out in the January transfer window.


Just kidding...,.......less chance than no chance.

 

Yesterday was a far superior performance and shows what can be achieved with more flexible tactics, man rather than zonal marking, and by dropping that piece of crap Bahre. We created more chances in the first half than we had under Stendal's last 5 games.

 

Let's not get carried away. Take away the Preston game and we had plenty of attempts against Forest and Derby.

Yesterday wasn't our first decent performances of the season, and it wasn't the first game we kept going to the end.

We've had plenty of the ball in lots of games this season, but it's quality at either end that we are lacking at times, and a second gear.

Someone on radio Sheffield last night suggested we give this guy the job - after 1 game!

 

yep, Hansen got slated for saying you don’t win anything with kids but in effect they didn’t have just kids that year. Giggs, Beckham, Scholes, Neville et al were, crucially, mixed with bags of experience in Schmeichal, Bruce, Irwin, Cantona, McClair, Pallister, and Keane.

 

Im with you on this. I thought the lads played well and could hold their heads up high yesterday. However the same issues exist where we create loads of chances and missed that goal scorer or composure. Good to see Bambo showing leadership talking and organising. But i still think the inexperience, not having goal scoring options and being weak down the flanks in defence still exist.

 

League One table after close of play on 05 December 2015

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 Burton Albion 20 13 2 5 24 16 8 41
2 Coventry City 20 11 6 3 38 21 17 39
3 Walsall 20 11 6 3 35 19 16 39
4 Gillingham 20 11 5 4 39 25 14 38
5 Wigan Athletic 20 9 7 4 29 19 10 34
6 Peterborough United 20 10 3 7 46 31 15 33
7 Millwall 20 9 4 7 31 28 3 31
8 Southend United 20 8 7 5 25 22 3 31
9 Bradford City 20 8 7 5 22 20 2 31
10 Bury 20 8 6 6 31 30 1 30
11 Port Vale 20 8 5 7 26 23 3 29
12 Sheffield United 20 7 6 7 32 30 2 27
13 Rochdale 20 7 6 7 24 23 1 27
14 Scunthorpe United 20 8 2 10 24 27 -3 26
15 Doncaster Rovers 20 6 6 8 20 26 -6 24
16 Chesterfield 20 7 2 11 25 35 -10 23
17 Swindon Town 20 6 4 10 29 34 -5 22
18 Fleetwood Town 20 6 3 11 27 29 -2 21
19 Shrewsbury Town 20 6 3 11 26 31 -5 21
20 Colchester United 20 5 5 10 30 49 -19 20
21 Oldham Athletic 20 3 10 7 22 32 -10 19
22 Blackpool 20 5 4 11 16 28 -12 19
23 Crewe Alexandra 20 5 4 11 19 33 -14 19
24 Barnsley 20 5 3 12 25 34 -9 18


Well I also never thought we would survive that season too.
As someone once said "it's a funny old game"

Can lightening strike twice? Or was that a never to be repeated season?

There's always hope and yesterday I thought there were signs of revival

 

You would hope so, but that's a division lower and the strength of opposition is much stronger, plus we were massively underachieving with those players.

Add to that, we have made things even harder for ourselves by not bringing in loanees.

January will be crucial to us, if we're not cut adrift by then. Other clubs will spend a bit of money to strengthen. What will we do?

 

'Catch up , never will' ...........Jeez we are 8 points off mid table!

 

I think this has been our achilles heel at this level since the Hill era. Teams can come to Oakwell and if we are struggling to score, they know we will hand them a chance on a plate of they are patient. The back four were much more decisive yesterday and cleared their lines well, but we still had the mix up between Collins and Halme in the second half.

 

Yup, it's all about quality mate. Quality costs money. We're trying to do it a different way and any quality we unearth will be off to strengthen someone else.

 

Agreed, but we haven't managed to get 8 points from 12 games.

 

The squad is too thin. Injuries, inexperience and the January sales will do for us.

 

I still think the beginnings are there, the players are of the right potential, just need to progress them, will we have the time to do so?
That's the real question.
In 2015/16 the club was galvanised by one signing at Christmas, Adam Hammill

If the board recognise that impact from a player whatever the age and even if he doesn't fit the age rule etc, then surely they should protect their investment by paying good money for someone like Hammill who can come in and drastically change things

 

I admire optimism as much as the next man but this team is miles off being competitive in the Championship. Our hope is to limp through to January and then to somehow strengthen

 

Some of these lot will shine in league one, but surely that's just part of the cycle?

We buy players for league one whilst in the championship, hopefully get promoted and sell the best ones and go for a quantity of potential rather than quality.

 

Dougall, Mowatt, Woodrow and To a lesser extent Diaby and Chaplin stay fit we can give anyone in this league a game. Best atmosphere for a while, it may be tougher now other teams will plan for us playing 3-5-2 but still think we can string a few results together- think it will go to the wire.

 

January is going to be interesting. Part of me asks 'surely they wouldn't consider offers for our better players and bring in more youngsters for the future,' but I'm not convinced.

 

we have played 12 games. In at least half of those we have played to our maximum and we still have won just once. We are a long way from being good enough. We would need to be in touch and sign 4/5 players in January who were Championship ready and all made an immediate impact. Even then we would struggle.