I can definitely see why people want our manager sacked

I'm sorry, i've been trying to think of a more diplomatic way of putting this. But that is just statistical waffle.

We have some good players, and some not so good. We need the good players to play well, which they are doing. If we sell our good players, results will get worse. If we buy better players they'll get better. Nothing to do with mean outcomes or expected outcomes. Are Cole and Roberts expected to perform worse than they are doing?

On Collins, I don't think he's done any better or worse than he should be doing. If Duff was in charge of this squad with the centre backs we have, we'd concede chances. Ismael's style would be an absolute car crash as teams go long and bully our defenders. Stendel showed what happens when you don't adequately replace the centre backs you lose.

 

Between 1982 and 1996, we were involved in 5 promotion challenges (1982, 1989, 1991, 95 and 97) and 1 relegation battle (1990) based on the final season table. I know we struggled in other seasons, but we generally recovered to be comfortably safe by the end of the season. We might all remember the bad times, but we were consistently mid-table or higher.

 

I honestly don’t know why teams just don’t go long ball against us TBH. Wouldn’t be pretty but would be a nightmare for this current team. But teams keep trying to play out from the back against us? It’s like the opposition aren’t watching our games.