we're not actually doing that badly

are we??

 

Rubbish nowhere near good enough ( get ready for it).

 

Only 6 points up on last season after the upheaval of losing our head coach and his assistant, the entire central defence unit, both of last season's goalkeepers, our talismanic central midfielder to long term illness and allowing a regular starting striker to drop to non-league football? When things are put in those terms it's amazing that we're within touching distance of last season never mind better off. However, and it's quite a big however, the standard of football is worse and unlike last season doesn't appear to be building towards something, likewise our home form is appalling and you have to hope that as the season progresses our home form will come to resemble the away form and not vice versa.

We need to view the current situation as a positive but be sure to consider that the positives are not built on strong foundations and unless we address the issues things could come crashing down.

 

You won’t hear me shouting for Collins out but you will hear Khaled out. Collins is working against a massive tsunami at this club whilst the CEO is so inept.

 

I was going to post similar. The Lincoln and Morecambe results were the nadir for Duff, team seemed directionless and weren't really clicking. After those two defeats we seemed to find another gear and the players seemed to finally gel and buy in to what was being asked. Hopefully similar will happen for Collins.

 

The football is dire but the easy results have been good with our home form fairly disastrous.

I would say we are doing okish.

 

The return of paul.d the stats man.

Welcome back

 

The away form is behind our league position but we’ve not played any of the top sides away yet.
Derby away next week will tell us a lot.

 

After 5 years!

 

Thankyou

 

Never mind that, no way have you just casually returned like that!

 

Please do tell, the wording of this looks like you know more s*** behind the scenes than we've already seen from Khaled, surely there can't be more? Can there?

 

That table shows we have won two more games than at the same stage of last season yes.

But it also shows that the fixture list possibly threw out more fixtures against the better teams last season; but also that there was inconsistency whilst the team settled. We competed against the best teams whilst losing out to lesser but tactically sound opposition early doors.

This season we have consistently been second best to anyone that is actually any good. We’ve beaten only sides in the lower half with the exception of Cambridge who are currently, just, too half (though very limited and unlikely to stay there).

I’d also suggest the standard in general is lower this season.

It’s easy to conclude we’ve been poor at home and better away, or that we’ve made a better start this season than last.

My take is that we’ve a collection of very decent players at this level, good enough to see off some of the dross in the league, but who have repeatedly shown to be found out against anyone with any quality or endeavour. They play on a stifled manner, sideways, backwards and slow. They seem almost shackled in possession.

We also look relatively easy to get at out of possession. We have a decent record in terms of goals conceded, amongst the best in the league, but whilst difficult to quantify, it is pretty clear that this is due to the limitations of some of the opposition in taking chances in part, and also in the number of saves made by and the general performance of Liam Roberts.

Ben Killip has made no real/obvious errors but has conceded five goals in two home games against Fleetwood Town and Horsham. Would Roberts’ presence have made a difference? Is he a better communicator and organiser as well as better shot stopper? I’d argue the evidence suggests he is. Killip is much better with the ball at his feet and reminds me of Brad Collins, even if not quite as good maybe, though I do think we are much stronger with Roberts.

Overall I honestly think the points haul is due to having played a number of poorer teams due to the quirk of the fixture list. I don’t specially think our away form is due to this. Once we have played some of the better teams away from home, starting with Derby next week.

 

We’re doing fine, but you can’t explain that to idiots on account of their idiocy.

 

That's some sleep that, Rip Van Winkle-esque.
Welcome back Statto!

 

Points total so far is reasonable, certainly, but, as others have pointed out, the vast majority of our points have been gained against weaker teams. The main concern for me is our defence, which has looked very poor at Oakwell, despite a surprisingly impressive record away from home. I really do not rate McCart very highly at all, and I think he needs to be replaced by Shepherd immediately. There is Lopata to return too, of course, but I think we need to be in the market in January for a quality centre-half who can dominate. De Gevigney appears to have a lot of admirers, but I think he has been overhyped somewhat. He is not the commanding presence that Mads was last year, or that Helik was when we reached the Championship play-offs. As for Williams, I think he has generally played well at centre -back, though he had a dreadful game last night. He is clearly our best right wing -back though, and I would like to see him return to that position, if we can sort out central defence. Dodgson, who was very poor last night, is another, who, in my opinion, has been overhyped by some. I think Cadden is a far better left wing-back and a much more reliable crosser of the ball. Up front, Cole and Jalo are pretty clearly our best options. I think Jalo should be a regular starter.

 

Welcome back, Paul. It's great to see you posting again.

 

Bloody hell is it the same bloke.

Haven't gone out to sea in a canoe have you?

 

Yep, that sums it up perfectly. The home/away thing is a big red herring, as we haven’t played a good team away. The worrying signs are that we are now not beating the weaker sides, having failed to beat Leyton Orient, Fleetwood and Horsham in the last 4 games.

Had Cole performed as badly as all the other strikers we’d be mid-table. Had Killip been the keeper throughout we’d be in mid-table. So we owe a lot to Cole and Roberts. Most games we’ve played the opposition have had more shots than us. Port Vale should have been 3 up before we scored and beat them 7-0!!

But you don’t even need to look at the results, you can see the problems by watching us play. We haven’t played well all season, just in patches. And we’re getting worse. Yes, new defence, new manager, etc, but we’re 15 games into the season and there is no improvement. Our strikers, Cole apart, have been pretty rubbish. Our midfield is slow going forward and slow to react defensively, and our defence has been all over the place, but De Gevigney has papered over those cracks somewhat, with loads of last gasp tackles and interceptions.

We’ve got more of the better teams coming up against us over the next couple of months. Maybe Connell can make a difference, but if things don’t improve we are going to drift down to mid-table.