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Post by observer on Nov 28, 2019 8:02:19 GMT
Currently in 14th position. But this team is so much better than that.
Really strange season so far. Can't get my head round it?
Would be a shame if such a quality team can't make the playoffs.
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Post by NobodyGood on Nov 28, 2019 8:08:59 GMT
Completely agree.
Play nice football. Play with swagger. But ultimately points win prizes.
What I will say, the league tables a mess. We've played 16, others 17 18 19...
So, we may well be closer to the play offs than we think!
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Post by annable on Nov 28, 2019 8:35:25 GMT
I agree and also the current team feels so much better than the one that got promoted a few years ago in how it plays. The main differences are that the team that got promoted took a higher percentage of its chances, regularly scored first and vitally was able to hold onto leads and see games out. This team hasn't quite mastered that yet I think.
I also think that with such a small squad our success in the cup competitions, we have played 9 cup matches so far this season, in the long term comes back to bite you. I think in the promotion year we were dumped out of all the cups in round one. We have a talented, small squad but it is made up of experienced pros who are not up to playing to weight of games without picking up a niggle or two and also young players who are also not used to playing this number of games and their bodies are not yet up to it. I was thinking the other day that out of the main outfield players this season there is only Akins, O'Toole, Wallace and Edwards who have been fit and available for every game, everybody else has had a niggle or two at some point this season. That makes it even more remarkable that we can play as we do.
Either way the only league one game between now and 7th December is our game against Southend and if we can win that we will be in striking distance of the top six with a favourable run of fixtures in the next couple of months to try and make up more ground.
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Post by trevor1946 on Nov 28, 2019 14:35:25 GMT
The big problem with today's squad,is the final pass and woeful finishing, one Sunderland fan said the only good thing was the Burton forward line is as poor as ours, we should have scored 4, and the defence have only Reilly collapsed once at Fleetwood, But the big test is picking up points against clubs in the bottom half of the table,this is where a touch of class in your team picks up points. we all want to perform against top clubs ,Southend emnty ground tues night a big test
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Post by bennyboy on Nov 28, 2019 14:54:44 GMT
The last two posts are spot on. We could be like world beaters if we could put even 50% of our chances created away.
Then of course it would all begin again, infact it's happening to an extent now, getting money for team building if we do get a pop and succeed at promotion, I won't go there!
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Post by observer on Nov 28, 2019 15:29:54 GMT
And if we are in promotion contention the manager getting linked with any championship club that sacks their manager
It's all a vicious circle !! Lol
Would like to see some more seats in the stadium as some kind of solid progress off the pitch at some stage.
Promotion would probably lead to that if nothing else long term
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Post by trevor1946 on Nov 28, 2019 16:38:02 GMT
Nice thought
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Post by broomo on Nov 28, 2019 21:57:09 GMT
The big problem with today's squad,is the final pass and woeful finishing, one Sunderland fan said the only good thing was the Burton forward line is as poor as ours, we should have scored 4, and the defence have only Reilly collapsed once at Fleetwood, But the big test is picking up points against clubs in the bottom half of the table,this is where a touch of class in your team picks up points. we all want to perform against top clubs ,Southend emnty ground tues night a big test I'm from Sunderland Trev and I've got a lot of mates who are SAFC fanatics, every single one of them said we looked dangerous whenever we got it down and played and were impressed with how much pace we were able to inject from back to front. A lot of them want Nigel as their manager NOW but don't believe he's daft enough to go. When I told them we didn't play as well as we could, their reaction was, well you must be some team when you hit form. They are right. We are. When we play well, we're very difficult to contain. I personally don't believe there is a big problem in any area of our side, maybe a clear choice left back would be nice but other than that and possibly being one or two bodies short, I think we're ok. We've missed way too many chances, I agree with you on that, but someone is going to get an absolute spanking. Let's hope it's Southend. I've been saying all along we're good enough to finish top 6, we won't be a million miles away. There simply isn't a better footballing side than us in this division, to be fair I've not seen Wycombe play. We've got some winnable games coming up. I'll stick my neck on the line and say we'll get 18 points from the next 8 games and if we do that we'll be very, very close to a play off spot.
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Post by broomo on Nov 28, 2019 23:01:37 GMT
I agree and also the current team feels so much better than the one that got promoted a few years ago in how it plays. The main differences are that the team that got promoted took a higher percentage of its chances, r egularly scored first and vitally was able to hold onto leads and see games out. This team hasn't quite mastered that yet I think.
I also think that with such a small squad our success in the cup competitions, we have played 9 cup matches so far this season, in the long term comes back to bite you. I think in the promotion year we were dumped out of all the cups in round one. We have a talented, small squad but it is made up of experienced pros who are not up to playing to weight of games without picking up a niggle or two and also young players who are also not used to playing this number of games and their bodies are not yet up to it. I was thinking the other day that out of the main outfield players this season there is only Akins, O'Toole, Wallace and Edwards who have been fit and available for every game, everybody else has had a niggle or two at some point this season. That makes it even more remarkable that we can play as we do. Either way the only league one game between now and 7th December is our game against Southend and if we can win that we will be in striking distance of the top six with a favourable run of fixtures in the next couple of months to try and make up more ground.Well put, as always. Interesting but boring stat number 132 of the season. We've yet to win back to back League games so far this season. That's the biggest issue right there. In 16 league games, we've played 12 of the 13 teams above us. Out of our next 8 games, only one side is above us, Wycombe away. The MK Dons home game on 4th Jan will hopefully need to be moved to fit the 3rd of the FA Cup in. All being well.
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Post by trevor1946 on Nov 29, 2019 11:22:07 GMT
For me Jan just around the corner,and teams will be adjusting their squads, the big clubs staking a claim for promotion, , and clubs like us will try to maintain a safe position in the top 12. After 16 games we are 1 point off my target. Playing clubs in the bottom half of the league and expecting to gain a lot of points can lead to big disappointments. Sunderland had two home games against Coventry a dysfunctional club with no ground and Burton Albion a mid table club with no resources and a very average league 1 club. 6 points a target to maintain their promotion push==1 point gained leaving the club in total meltdown and 2 weeks to get frustrated, 15 pages of discontent on there forum, owner=manager=players all who aint a clue. Burton Albion know it is a long season and we should take nothing for granted.
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Post by broomo on Nov 29, 2019 12:30:26 GMT
For me Jan just around the corner,and teams will be adjusting their squads, the big clubs staking a claim for promotion, , and clubs like us will try to maintain a safe position in the top 12. After 16 games we are 1 point off my target. Playing clubs in the bottom half of the league and expecting to gain a lot of points can lead to big disappointments. Sunderland had two home games against Coventry a dysfunctional club with no ground and Burton Albion a mid table club with no resources and a very average league 1 club. 6 points a target to maintain their promotion push==1 point gained leaving the club in total meltdown and 2 weeks to get frustrated, 15 pages of discontent on there forum, owner=manager=players all who aint a clue. Burton Albion know it is a long season and we should take nothing for granted. My internet is re-installed at home. Yay!! I see where you're coning from Trev but I don't think 12th is the managers or the squads target. i'm not saying it would be a failure but I think they'd be disappointed. You're right about expecting points against the bottom clubs, I should know better than to predict they'll be any easier to beat. I just looked at last season. After 16 games we had erm…. 22 points. We're only a point better off. We had played 19 league by this stage though (Nov 27th) and from game 16 to game 19, we only picked up 3 points, sitting on 25. Our next 3 fixtures could see a repeat of that with two draws and a loss. Or it could see us 8 points ahead of where we were after 19 games last season. (Southend WIN, Lincoln WIN, Wycombe away DRAW?) For me, there are some key differences to last season. First of all it took us until October 20th to win away. Secondly by game 16, we'd played 8 at home and 8 away, this season it's a 6/10 split. AND we've played 12 of the top 13 (75% of our games, v 25% of our games against teams in the bottom half) Thirdly, last season we lost at home to Southend and Rochdale, and we drew at home with relegated Scunthorpe. I don't see that happening this season. We also lost away to Gillingham and relegated Bradford. This season we beat the Gills away. I'm aware that's a long winded way of saying I think we're in a false position in the League this time around and I expect us finish comfortably top 10, likely top 8 and possibly top 6. I wanted to put some meat on why I thought that.
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Post by trevor1946 on Nov 29, 2019 16:03:52 GMT
Glad the internet is back broomo here i am being positive,but in reality fearing the worse, but i will be their on a cold winters night tues in a sparse stadium with 2-500 die hards seeing if we can turn the league season around against a relegation threatened Southend fighting for every point, people can watch it on ifollow But i think this could be a big test, especially in a half empty stadium, but we did it against Salford oh but then again not against Everton und 21s or Mansfield. Must be hard injured and tired to be motivated in a empty stadium. We are the Brewers.
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Post by observer on Nov 30, 2019 8:11:33 GMT
You can sum up the difference between this season and last season by saying we don't even have to look at the bottom of the table and worry about how many points clear we are
Last season you had to keep your eye on both ends of the table
There's no way we are getting dragged into a relegation battle
It's either mid table or challenging playoffs (providing Sunderland don't poach NC at some stage that is)
Ps I say all that touching wood as I would hate to jinx us
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Post by bennyboy on Nov 30, 2019 9:07:34 GMT
"providing Sunderland don't poach NC at some stage that is"
I think NC has learned all too well about big clubs by now. Plenty of cash to splash no loyalty if it goes a little pear shaped. It's a good old trek too, comfortably seated at BAFC. Let's face it even the latest managerial change down the A52 didn't tempt him enough.
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Post by trevor1946 on Nov 30, 2019 10:19:34 GMT
Dont worry about Sunderland you dont get in their position by making good decisions,I get no feedback about Nigel, Roy Keane==Kevan Phillips or some other disaster leaving them sorting out how to get out of league 1, when with the size of the club they should be giving Man City=Liverpool a challenge. Sunderland 13 times bigger than Burton Albion. and Sunderland only 10-000 gate short of both these clubs,even with their horrendous record and total failure in how to run a club. The thought of Ben and Nigel having their resources. look out premier league .Money men do not buy a toy for someone else to play with. Chairman and directors are a managers curse, and Sunderland have had some beauty's. P_S Nigel does not travel
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Post by observer on Nov 30, 2019 11:57:02 GMT
He would actually be the solution to Sunderland's problems though
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Post by bennyboy on Nov 30, 2019 13:32:40 GMT
He would actually be the solution to Sunderland's problems though
He would be high on the list of many L1/L2 clubs managerial vacancies as I think most want to acheive success on relative low income. Besides of course the aforementioned club and the likes of the clubs whose recent monetary troubles have been in the news of late. I don't think our Nigel fits in with Prem/Champ clubs, they want things to happen far too quickly. I think he knows that and I reckon he'll be around for a while yet, after all he did came back having tasted what life was like elsewhere.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2019 18:54:57 GMT
I did think about this when Arseholes sacked Emry.
Just for once, would a big club select a proven manager like Clough or Wilder.
Alas, they will churn.
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Post by observer on Jan 14, 2020 22:21:33 GMT
Just for luck
Now we aren't mid table any more
This team is so much better than playoffs!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2020 23:13:40 GMT
Just for luck Now we aren't mid table any more This team is so much better than playoffs! Much as I agree with many of your comments, I don't on this one. We are still missing too many key facets to our game to be better than where we are. Can we go higher? Of course, the current management team have shown that year on year. Will we? I'm not sure we will have the resources to. But the two signings in two days do show the direction of travel.
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