Struber is **** and doesnt care. Mads is **** and is not good enough and never will be. Schmidt is **** and contributes nothing. We're proper **** and have no chance of staying up. The fat lady has finished her finale and is tucked up at home in bed.
I know!!! The post was a poor attempt by me to try and put some perspective on things. I was trying to say that it's not as **** as people think....and that we have to be patient I've never given up hope with this squad and this manager. We have been v poor at times but for the most part we've played some lovely football. weve not had much luck. people will say that the table doesnt lie but I'm baffled that were in the bottom three having seen some of the opposition this season.
Usually the better team on the day wins the game. In a normal season, for most teams, there's a few exceptions to that (when they've battered the opposition for 89 minutes who managed one break away and one goal to win 1-0, or backs to the wall defending throughout but a winning goal from a set piece) but mostly the best side gets at least a draw and often wins. Last season, for the first time since I've been watching Barnsley, we won however we played. When we played well, we battered the opposition, when we were average, we won comfortably, and when we were poor, when the opposition were the better team, we still tended to win. In Pinnock, Lindsay and Davies we had a rock solid defence that refused to let the opposition score. Woodrow and Moore both scored at a rate of better than a goal every two games, while Mowatt, Thiam, McGeehan and Potts then Brown all chipped in with plenty of goals. Mean in defence, prolific in attack meant lots of wins, even when performances didn't always reach the levels we were capable of. For most of this season we could have been defending well but a mistake has led to an opposition goal. Time and time again. As for scoring goals: Woodrow was doing OK before lockdown, almost averaging 1 in 2, but the replacements for Moore: Chaplin did OK, almost a goal every 3 games, but Wilks was a flop, Schmidt, despite his goal today, still hasn't adapted to the English game and Simoes was only brought into the squad in the latter stages of the season. Moore scored 17 goals last season in 26 starts and 5 sub appearances. His replacements have collectively scored 17 goals, but have taken 51 starts and 51 sub appearances to get there. The 5 midfield players I mentioned bagged 35 goals last season. This season Mowatt has 3, Brown has 3, McGeehan 2, Thiam 0 while Potts had gone before we started. The grand total from everyone else we've tried (Bahre, Dougall, Odour, Palmer, Ritzmaier, Sibbick, Styles and Thomas) is just 2 goals. Halme, playing most of his games at centre half has outscored the lot of them with 4. When Woodrow's goals dried up, we found scoring very difficult. The combined goals last season from just the 7 players I mentioned was 68, 21 more than we've managed in total this season. We've been properly battered a few times this season. That can happen to very good teams such is the quality in this division. But more often than any other season I can remember we've played reasonably well and lost. We find it painfully difficult to score and for much of the season (although we appear to have cut that out now) we regularly just gave a goal away. A few weeks ago I didn't care if we remained in the division or not. Staying up, I believed, would just result in another painful season like this one. Reasonable play but toothless in attack and the weekly frustration of simply giving goals away. But we've stopped giving goals away. We have a reasonably solid defensive foundation on which to build. In Palmer, Styles and Wolf we have midfield players with energy and stature who look built to play in this league. And a young keeper who looks way better than the players we signed for that position. We still need goals. Hopefully Simoes will get some of those next season, but we need another striker who can score and create for others. A Kieffer Moore. Get one and I think we could do a lot better than just survive next season. Go down and promotion is a hell of a lot more difficult than many people believe.
Can't argue with any of that. In particular, I think losing Kieffer was the biggest loss and I agree with you that he hasn't been adequately replaced. If we can keep the players you've mentioned in your last para then the future does look positive. Styles should have been blooded earlier in the season as the other thing we've missed is a solid midfield partner for Mowatt. Fingers crossed for Wednesday.
I don't see the point in comparing Div 1 & the Championship, Jay. Any suggestion that Lindsay + Davies would be part of a rock solid defence at this level is hopeful. Moore would have been "an option", but I wasn't green-eyed when I saw him in Mads' pocket last week & he's always struggled for consistency in the Championship. I agree with the OP &, as i posted a few days ago, we've been competitive for most of the season... 6 points from Fulham & these last 2 matches are great examples of why we deserve our place in this division next season.
