Won 2 Drawn 2 Lost 2 is a decent enough start for a brand new side that contains so many young players. If we thought we were going to do significantly better than that in the first month or so I reckon we were kidding ourselves. It's not just a case of the team gelling, a good deal of our squad are playing at a level they haven't experienced before or are making their first steps in to the professional game. It was always going to take time and we will continue to make mistakes for a few months yet. What we've got to work on is making sure those mistakes don't continue to cost us goals. We're playing some very good football at times, although not consistently enough yet over the 90 minutes, we've scored some fantastic goals and we're banging them in on a regular basis. We're averaging 2 a game. Only yesterdays opponents have scored more than us in this League. I've no problem with our attacking play at all, we create loads of chances in every game and we're putting plenty of those away too. Our obvious weakness is we're letting in too many goals. If you discount the bottom 3 teams, no one else in the league has conceded more. I think Cranie and Nyatanga are playing well, they're just getting very little protection. The full backs have struggled these last few games. Whether it's a case of not being good enough or a dip in form/confidence is way too early to tell. Our problem is we have few if any options. We can't rest our full backs if they're going through a difficult period as, other than the 16 year old Bree, we don't have replacements. We could do with bringing in a full back who can play either side As good as our midfield is at creating and scoring goals, it does tend to go missing when we're under pressure. The last time I saw Bailey he was fantastic, but without him we just don't have the experience. Wilson put Digby on at half time yesterday to shore up the midfield. It worked in the sense that MK Dons were no longer marauding forward through the centre of the pitch. Unfortunately, his inexperienced told, he twice gave the ball away in critical positions when there was no real danger and the opposition added 2 more goals to the scoreline without even having to mount an attack. Digby will learn and he'll get better, but while he's going through that process we need an experienced midfielder in. After years of watching us try to grind out results, it's been extremely refreshing watching us go in to every game attempting to win and win well. Maybe we've gone too far the other way. Seeing seven Barnsley players get forward during many attacks is producing the goals, but without a disciplined, experienced player in central midfield willing to hold back and make the tackles when they're needed we're too vulnerable at the moment. We don't need a Dawson, but we couldn't half do with a Darren Sheridan. IMHO and all that.
A good proper right back would improve us, Brown only looks ok to do a job away from home at right back for me. Would love Ryan Mc back on loan from Liverpool, I bet he's kicking his heels!!! We also need a target man to play with Cole....O'Grady isn't getting on the bench
Exactly how I see it. Really good post. Think Bailey will be the man to break up the play when he's back fit. Digby and Abbot will provide adequate cover mostly, but may be a bit much too soon against the better teams in the division, as shown yesterday. That said, they're not going to learn if they don't get thrown in so if we didn't get further cover here I wouldn't be too fussed. Youre spot on with us needing some full back cover though.
Not a bad post for a Sunday morning, old mate! You missing Hourihane's brilliant opening goal is still making me chuckle!
Would be great to get Ryan Mc from Liverpool and Ramage from Palace, assuming neither have already gone elsewhere. Then maybe Crainie can step into the defensive midfield role if Bailey isn't fit. The goals we conceded were mainly due to individual errors and the fact that we're scoring pretty freely means we'll always be competitive. After the shambolic pre-season it was never going to be easy to hit the ground running with this squad but there are definite signs that they might come good later in the season when they have gelled and the youngsters have gained some valuable experience...
Boo, where's corner watch? Agree with pretty much all of that and I saw all Barnsley's goals yesterday.
Agree with that Jay. I felt we'd be mid-table or even bottom half in December & push towards the play offs after Christmas so I'm not going to complain at been 2-2-2 after 6 games
Points wise we are about where I thought we'd be. Although not from the games I thought we'd pick them up from?!?! That's the frustrating bit I suppose. Not capitalising on great away points by been rolled over at home. But young side, new group, bedding in and all other clichés I reckon we're about par!
Said exactly the same about needing a Sheridan type. Do they even exist today though? You usually get tripe like Perkins or Dawson who can't play. The record isn't that bad. But obviously Wilson needs to turn it around.
Reckon we can forget about McLaughlin and Ramage. Liverpool will want McL at a championship club and I can't see Ramage dropping to third division.
Both would be perfect. As would the aforementioned Sheridan type. I'm not sure if Bailey is that player, I've only seen him twice I think....
Can also see Cole being off in January, surprised we got him to be honest and he can certainly fit the bill in the Championship and reckon Man City will want him there for second half of the season. As my mate was saying on Saturday - just going to enjoy watching him whilst we have him.
8 points from 6 games if that average continues then we will end up with 61 points. But I think we WILL improve as Jay has hinted. To that end our points tally will be more, I think we will top the 70 mark. Not sure if 70 is enough for the top 6, but it surely would see us in the top ten. That would be a very encouraging result considering the huge rebuild that Mr Wilson has undertaken so far.
Re: 8 points from 6 games Ben told me top six was the aim. He also suggested a number of goals scored which would see us in that top six. However, he probably didn't expect the opposition to score two more than us after scoring three ourselves against a tinpot outfit.
Re: 8 points from 6 games If we finish above that tin point outfit then, based on Saturday, we'll be in the Play Offs and probably in the top 2.
Re: 8 points from 6 games They were very good, their team. Alli in midfield ran the show and I can see why he's so highly rated now. You'd expect them to be top six based on that game, and their results so far. But they're still MK Dons, and thus they'll always be tinpot to me. Look how many 'fans' they brought up. Tinpot. And I will never see them as a proper club because they went about giving Milton Keynes a football league club in the wrong way. Winkleman could have bought them up the pyramid properly, but no, they robbed another club's status and that's just not on. But, they've managed to garner a similar sized fanbase (on matchdays) to us over the years, and eventually they could be quite a proposition. Tinpot *******.
