We have the same points but we are closer to our rivals and in my opinion we have a much stronger squad than last season.
Many of our fans seem to panic when we lose a match but I am confident we have enough quality in our team to get us up.
I hope all our fans stick with the team, that's the best way they can help get us over the line.
comment by Hepworth Peacock (U21961)
posted 1 minute ago
We have the same points but we are closer to our rivals and in my opinion we have a much stronger squad than last season.
Many of our fans seem to panic when we lose a match but I am confident we have enough quality in our team to get us up.
I hope all our fans stick with the team, that's the best way they can help get us over the line.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
👏
Nothing to panic about certainly and really I think we can expect at least another 3 of these types of results under Farke this season because coaches like Eustace know and have the players to nullify DF's highly predictable set up and in game management reasonably easily.
Without labouring the point which I have brought up on a
few occasions now which is DF will never change his pragmatic approach which for the Championship yields his sides an average of 91 points per season and that certainly this season I think should secure us one of those top 2 spots but after that he's a dead man walking for me.
I personally would give him no more than 10 games next
season before I think inevitably his stoicism belligerance and reactionary coaching style is deemed unworkable and totally unsuitable to survive a season in the EPL and I hope a coach like Graham Potter is still available to lead us forward in not only surviving and not getting relegated in our first season back but establishing us like a Brighton or Brentford have been able to do at the very least.
Yep. The relative success of Brentford and Brighton (and Villa) shows us what can be done. I’m not in the camp that says get rid of DF next season, but I get what you’re saying Macca👍.
The thing is Light it's not that I don't wish the man to be a successful EPL manager I truly hope he can prove my gut feeling wrong which is I think that he'll struggle to adapt tactiically against the vast bulk of sides in the EPL and we'll experience similar to what Southampton are atm but I suppose if we can at least attract a quality lethal goal scorer to convert more regularly the many chances we create and the young Irish lad at Brighton, Ferguson might be a possibility on loan at least,there is
always a chance Farke will keep us away from the bottom 3 and I will be pleased for him but like I say at this present moment in time I feel he is just a very good Championship standard manager and promotion specialist.
Yep, fair points made Macca. I also wonder if DF has any capacity to develop further as a manager? He has been asked this (or similar questions) a few times in pressers and he tends to answer with things like ‘I can’t be a flag in the wind’ and ‘I’ve got to stick to my principals’ (or words to that effect anyway). Good managers/players/people evolve and learn. If he can’t do that and he ends up as you suggest, he’s only got himself to blame. And again, as you infer, I’ll be happy to cross that bridge when we get promoted this season😁👍.
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
Always hard to judge until the new year. We are in the mix, if we stay in the mix until everyone has played everyone and then the league table starts to tell the full story. Sheff Utd got a tough run in December.
Another comparison is last promotion season - by this time we’d also lost 3 games, all by 1 goal and all frustrating - Swansea, Charlton and of course Millwall.
Home form is fantastic.
Away form is crap.
We need to play better away from home.
That's about it.
Conceded first in first half, five out of last six away games.
no team, no matter, how good they are, can keep doing that and expect to get wins
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 2 hours, 58 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s the difference between saying ‘We might be’ and ‘We are’.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So four days ago, when we was top, you think we was best team
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Wakey's right, conceding the first goal against well organised sides who's ambition against you is to sneak a 1-0 win makes life hard. Since the Bielsa days, regardless of the coach we've conceded defendable goals, often against the run of play and then struggled to break down sides we've given a foot hold to. We're a soft touch at times.
Sides like Burnley and Sheffield UTd win their close scrappy games. We invariably lose or at best draw them. Manager? Mentality? Luck? Mabe a bit of all of them but sides that try to play tend to come out on the wrong side of the ugly games.
Ask yourselves if you're unhappy with the manager and how we play would you like to watch Burnley and Sheffield Utd every week? Leeds and Middlesbrough are the best sides in this division by almost every measure but the table says differently... so maybe they're not the best sides. That's football, that's why it keeps everyone hooked.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Just had a look at where we were at this stage of the promotion season too.
1 West Brom 18 16 39
2 Leeds United 18 14 37
3 Nottm Forest 18 11 33
4 Fulham 18 11 32
2 points off top instead of 3 and 2 points better off. a small gap to third which was beneficial but in the end irrelevant as we won the league by 10 points.
Shows how much things can change from here and we are still in a very strong position if we can continue to be the better side in the vast majority of games we play. Which we clearly are.
We will obviously have plenty more games like Saturday which are pretty painful tbh. But we lost 9 games under Bielsa. You can't avoid having those games at this level.
As LIW keeps pointing out we have conceded 1st a lot away from home. Doesn't take much to change that and despite we are still 6th in the away table.
I fully expect us to be on 2 points/game or better at Christmas and at least in the top 2.
If we fall off between now and then, then I will start to worry but right now we are in a very very strong position to win the league.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
5 stars Light
totally agree with the article
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
However you look at it we are in a strong position with probably the strongest squad. Position now means very little but the fact we are near the top, points wise, does.
Keep within three points of top spot and see where 2025 takes us. I’m hoping by then we will have created a bit of a gap to third spot.
A game at a time I think.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by LIW 100 Points, champions, Lose two games only (U8453)
posted 9 hours, 50 minutes ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So four days ago, when we was top, you think we was best team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Over 17 games, yes we were the best team. How good a team is in comparison to others can only be judged by how many points (plus GD) it has accrued in comparison to others. That can’t be hard to comprehend, surely.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
But I agree we have the strongest squad, which is why, like many on here, I think we’ll finish 1st.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Evening all🌞.
What a great debate … reminds me of the House of Commons last Friday👍. Many thanks to each of you for your contributions (but I hope nobody minds me singling out my confidante Spanish for special mention👍😁🍻).
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
In other news … in the 3rd round of the FA Cup we’ve been drawn at home v. Harrogate Town 😁👍
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Great draw
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 4 hours, 46 minutes ago
comment by LIW 100 Points, champions, Lose two games only (U8453)
posted 9 hours, 50 minutes ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So four days ago, when we was top, you think we was best team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Over 17 games, yes we were the best team. How good a team is in comparison to others can only be judged by how many points (plus GD) it has accrued in comparison to others. That can’t be hard to comprehend, surely.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last year we did the double over Leicester and Ipswich, but got done over 3 times by a team below us. Chris Wilder said we were the best team they had faced all season, Sunderland were better than them on Friday night...yet the Blades have accrued 5 more points than us.
Sign in if you want to comment
Comparison with last year - update
Page 1 of 2
posted 3 weeks ago
We have the same points but we are closer to our rivals and in my opinion we have a much stronger squad than last season.
Many of our fans seem to panic when we lose a match but I am confident we have enough quality in our team to get us up.
I hope all our fans stick with the team, that's the best way they can help get us over the line.
posted 3 weeks ago
comment by Hepworth Peacock (U21961)
posted 1 minute ago
We have the same points but we are closer to our rivals and in my opinion we have a much stronger squad than last season.
Many of our fans seem to panic when we lose a match but I am confident we have enough quality in our team to get us up.
I hope all our fans stick with the team, that's the best way they can help get us over the line.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
👏
posted 3 weeks ago
Nothing to panic about certainly and really I think we can expect at least another 3 of these types of results under Farke this season because coaches like Eustace know and have the players to nullify DF's highly predictable set up and in game management reasonably easily.
Without labouring the point which I have brought up on a
few occasions now which is DF will never change his pragmatic approach which for the Championship yields his sides an average of 91 points per season and that certainly this season I think should secure us one of those top 2 spots but after that he's a dead man walking for me.
I personally would give him no more than 10 games next
season before I think inevitably his stoicism belligerance and reactionary coaching style is deemed unworkable and totally unsuitable to survive a season in the EPL and I hope a coach like Graham Potter is still available to lead us forward in not only surviving and not getting relegated in our first season back but establishing us like a Brighton or Brentford have been able to do at the very least.
posted 3 weeks ago
Yep. The relative success of Brentford and Brighton (and Villa) shows us what can be done. I’m not in the camp that says get rid of DF next season, but I get what you’re saying Macca👍.
posted 3 weeks ago
The thing is Light it's not that I don't wish the man to be a successful EPL manager I truly hope he can prove my gut feeling wrong which is I think that he'll struggle to adapt tactiically against the vast bulk of sides in the EPL and we'll experience similar to what Southampton are atm but I suppose if we can at least attract a quality lethal goal scorer to convert more regularly the many chances we create and the young Irish lad at Brighton, Ferguson might be a possibility on loan at least,there is
always a chance Farke will keep us away from the bottom 3 and I will be pleased for him but like I say at this present moment in time I feel he is just a very good Championship standard manager and promotion specialist.
posted 3 weeks ago
Yep, fair points made Macca. I also wonder if DF has any capacity to develop further as a manager? He has been asked this (or similar questions) a few times in pressers and he tends to answer with things like ‘I can’t be a flag in the wind’ and ‘I’ve got to stick to my principals’ (or words to that effect anyway). Good managers/players/people evolve and learn. If he can’t do that and he ends up as you suggest, he’s only got himself to blame. And again, as you infer, I’ll be happy to cross that bridge when we get promoted this season😁👍.
posted 3 weeks ago
* principles
posted 3 weeks ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
posted 3 weeks ago
Always hard to judge until the new year. We are in the mix, if we stay in the mix until everyone has played everyone and then the league table starts to tell the full story. Sheff Utd got a tough run in December.
Another comparison is last promotion season - by this time we’d also lost 3 games, all by 1 goal and all frustrating - Swansea, Charlton and of course Millwall.
posted 3 weeks ago
Home form is fantastic.
Away form is crap.
We need to play better away from home.
That's about it.
posted 3 weeks ago
Conceded first in first half, five out of last six away games.
no team, no matter, how good they are, can keep doing that and expect to get wins
posted 3 weeks ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
posted 3 weeks ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 2 hours, 58 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s the difference between saying ‘We might be’ and ‘We are’.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So four days ago, when we was top, you think we was best team
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Wakey's right, conceding the first goal against well organised sides who's ambition against you is to sneak a 1-0 win makes life hard. Since the Bielsa days, regardless of the coach we've conceded defendable goals, often against the run of play and then struggled to break down sides we've given a foot hold to. We're a soft touch at times.
Sides like Burnley and Sheffield UTd win their close scrappy games. We invariably lose or at best draw them. Manager? Mentality? Luck? Mabe a bit of all of them but sides that try to play tend to come out on the wrong side of the ugly games.
Ask yourselves if you're unhappy with the manager and how we play would you like to watch Burnley and Sheffield Utd every week? Leeds and Middlesbrough are the best sides in this division by almost every measure but the table says differently... so maybe they're not the best sides. That's football, that's why it keeps everyone hooked.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Just had a look at where we were at this stage of the promotion season too.
1 West Brom 18 16 39
2 Leeds United 18 14 37
3 Nottm Forest 18 11 33
4 Fulham 18 11 32
2 points off top instead of 3 and 2 points better off. a small gap to third which was beneficial but in the end irrelevant as we won the league by 10 points.
Shows how much things can change from here and we are still in a very strong position if we can continue to be the better side in the vast majority of games we play. Which we clearly are.
We will obviously have plenty more games like Saturday which are pretty painful tbh. But we lost 9 games under Bielsa. You can't avoid having those games at this level.
As LIW keeps pointing out we have conceded 1st a lot away from home. Doesn't take much to change that and despite we are still 6th in the away table.
I fully expect us to be on 2 points/game or better at Christmas and at least in the top 2.
If we fall off between now and then, then I will start to worry but right now we are in a very very strong position to win the league.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
5 stars Light
totally agree with the article
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
However you look at it we are in a strong position with probably the strongest squad. Position now means very little but the fact we are near the top, points wise, does.
Keep within three points of top spot and see where 2025 takes us. I’m hoping by then we will have created a bit of a gap to third spot.
A game at a time I think.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by LIW 100 Points, champions, Lose two games only (U8453)
posted 9 hours, 50 minutes ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So four days ago, when we was top, you think we was best team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Over 17 games, yes we were the best team. How good a team is in comparison to others can only be judged by how many points (plus GD) it has accrued in comparison to others. That can’t be hard to comprehend, surely.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
But I agree we have the strongest squad, which is why, like many on here, I think we’ll finish 1st.
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Evening all🌞.
What a great debate … reminds me of the House of Commons last Friday👍. Many thanks to each of you for your contributions (but I hope nobody minds me singling out my confidante Spanish for special mention👍😁🍻).
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
In other news … in the 3rd round of the FA Cup we’ve been drawn at home v. Harrogate Town 😁👍
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
Great draw
posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 4 hours, 46 minutes ago
comment by LIW 100 Points, champions, Lose two games only (U8453)
posted 9 hours, 50 minutes ago
comment by Lorralorimer (U18994)
posted 6 hours, 43 minutes ago
comment by steross17 (U6898)
posted 6 hours, 47 minutes ago
Away form is poor, one win in six! We might be the best team in the league, but Sheffield have taken 8 points more than us minus head to head, and Burnley have only conceded 6 and are starting to gain momentum. For the first time this season, must admit I am a little concerned.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Steross, we’re not the best team in the league - we’re third best, based on points scored. To say any different is arrogant and delusional.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So four days ago, when we was top, you think we was best team
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Over 17 games, yes we were the best team. How good a team is in comparison to others can only be judged by how many points (plus GD) it has accrued in comparison to others. That can’t be hard to comprehend, surely.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last year we did the double over Leicester and Ipswich, but got done over 3 times by a team below us. Chris Wilder said we were the best team they had faced all season, Sunderland were better than them on Friday night...yet the Blades have accrued 5 more points than us.
Page 1 of 2