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Thanks for the great write up again, Bob.
My thoughts were the same that we have that lost that edge that has taken us clear and it will be difficult for us to raise our game form now on in, particularly against teams battling at the bottom. For that reason it would not surprise me if Blackburn will beat us Tuesday. The season is going to peter out now, hopefully Warnock can blood one or two players and try a few ideas before the end of the season.
At least seven of our remaining eleven fixtures are likely to see us play teams with more to play for. If this side is considering losing its edge then we could only have four games to pick up those four draws described and all the good feeling and momentum Warnock was building could take a serious hit.
Get to 50 points as soon as possible then give opportunities to those showing the most desire in training.
To be honest, our recent run was always going to be fragile.Quote:
Originally Posted by surge
We are at least 3-4 good first team players ( not simply squad additions) short of a consistent team that may challenge for a top 6 place
I am sure we will see examples of our shortfalls as we complete our run in to the end of the season.
Interesting read as always, thank you.
Personally I don't believe for a minute that Warnock will accept complacency & mediocrity as he has a winning mentality & he knows that a really good end to the season will fill us with confidence as we head towards 2017/2018 - I am in no doubt that he will expect players to battle for every single point between now & the end of the season. I do expect him to experiment with some youngsters & maybe formations but equally I feel that we will get to around 60 points which should see us finish broadly where we are now. That may not seem like progress to some but we must not forget how much we have come on in the last few months.
As far as yesterday was concerned I saw nothing which suggested that the players had lost intensity & I honestly think that a defeat was harsh on us - in the 2nd held we were in control of the game until their equaliser. As you said we had more attempts on goal & I feel that Hoilett in particular missed a great opportunity. We have had a decent run of late & I see yesterday as nothing more than a blip which happens in football.
Interesting stats on Bristol City which just shows how incredible their slump has been & I am amazed at the loyalty which Steve Lansdown is showing towards to Lee Johnson. Hopefully that prat Jursett will think twice about trolling in the future but something tells me that he is too arrogant to realise what a laughing stock he is on here. Now that Blackburn have shown a bit of form, relegation is a real possibility for both Bristol City & indeed Wolves. Although both clubs are on my dislike list, seeing Bristol City relegated would be more enjoyable.
I must say that I am enjoying this season much more than the last few although back in October I really thought that it would be a long hard fight where relegation to League 1 could well happen - Burton away was when it really sunk in that we were struggling to compete. It's great that we are now in a position where we can start to focus a bit on 2017/2018 with a lot of positivity....... hopefully it will be an even better one for us.
Once again Rob, I find myself agreeing with you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfonso Perez
First half was an unspectacular battle withQPR being on top physically and Bamba struggling so badly with Smith and Ken with their centre halfs that my son was saying 'we might as well go short with the corner as we aren't winning anything in the air '.
Of course on cue Bamba smashed a technically superb header in.
At half time we were a bit lucky to be 1-0 up, not forgetting QPR hitting the post... but then after 20 minutes of the 2nd half we could have been 3-4 up with Hoilett really causing them problems, but again being hesitant in front of goal.
After this QPR seemed to gain a foothold and as expected scores with their first decent move of the half. Personally I thought it was a lovely bit of football. You could tell the pressure was off !
For 10 minutes we lost our way and they scored again, but we then had several chances to level. 2 of which ( Pilkington and Hoilett efforts I think) looked like they were in from the awful angle we had in the top deck.
Overall a point would have been fair, but it could be argued we used our luck up at Leeds and Derby and 10 points from 5 games is still decent.
One thing on the subject of desire, I can't remember one big or nasty tackle from yesterday which must be a first for a Warnock v Holloway clash and may well have been different if there was more to play for.
FYP :hehe:Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremy corbyn
Spot on this was one slip up after a great run.We could have won with a little luck.We have players playing for their jobs knowing NW will be watching and deciding who stays or goes.So I think the pressure is on with the promise of better things to come very soon and wanting to be part of that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfonso Perez
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alfonso Perez
Good post
Bob i just listened to Warnock post match interview and i disagree that he's lost a bit of intensity.
On the contrary i thought he was very clever in this interview. He ensures the players desire in the next 11 games by constantly hinting in these interviews that they're playing for their places next season.
He knows we have very little to play for other than that and he straight out said that if we had some of the decisions we had against us Saturday next season ge would probably react very differently.
I found it interesting that Warnock said that Gunnarsson was a bit off cos he has had flu all week. This is surely another reminder that Whitts is surplus to requirements as far as Warnock is concerned.
I have mixed feelings about this. Whittingham has been an amazing, loyal servant to this club and has given us some of our greatest memories in the last 10 years.
Without him we certainly wouldn't have got promoted as he created probably about 90% of our goals. We probably wouldn't have got to the FA cup final without his goal at Boro, we probably wouldn't have got to the play off final without his free kick in the semi final at Leicester and we probably wouldn't have scored any goals in the premier league!
He has been the one player who has made us say "how the heck did he do that?"
However lately it has become increasingly difficult to find a place for him as the championship players seem to be becoming more swift of foot and he tends to be struggling to adapt to the pace as he gets older.
The only position i can realistically see him playing is the position given to iniesta for barcelona tucked in narrow on the left midfield but i can't see Warnock playing him in this way as i believe Warnock will be looking for high intensity from his midfield and the fact that Whitts can't beat a man either leaves him a bit redundant at the moment.
He'll always be a Cardiff City legend and i believe we will appreciate him far more when he is gone in the same way we do Jay Bothroyd.
Thanks for the write up Paul. I think we will bounce straight back into the form we saw at Leeds and Derby tomorrow evening. No way in my mind will Warnock accept complacency (as Alfonso stated in this thread). IMO there Saturday was no indication of how the season will fizzle out for us.
I thought we were unlucky to lose on Saturday, even if we seemed to have let QPR into the game with a sluggish 10 to 15 minute performance in 2nd half. I am going to Blackburn tomorrow and I think with Blackburn having to come at us, we may be ruthless on the counter. If Bamba and Morrison are up for it, we will win up there. Follow this up with a thumping win over Brum and people will be getting excited again and maybe even talking about getting that play off place. :biggrin:
Spedger
I just think it's basic human nature that when a target has been achieved, or is about to be achieved, you can talk all you want about how it will have no effect on you, but, in a team of eleven, there will be some whose intensity levels will drop.
If you are set a target in work of x amount, do you still work as hard when you reach x? Is it as important to you to get x + 5 if you are not on some sort of productivity deal? When Warnock took over, the task for him and the players was to avoid relegation, nothing else, just stay up.
i accept that Warnock will be looking very intently at how individual players react to the fact that, almost certainly, our last eight games or so will have nothing on them, but by saying that he would react to some of the refereeing decisions on Saturday differently if they are repeated when we go to Loftus Road next season, he is admitting in as many words that we are now in a position where results don't matter as much as they once did.
As for what Gringo says about Whittingham, I was expecting him to start featuring again (even if it was only off the bench) after he'd had a few games rest, but it's just not happened and it's definitely beginning to look as if this could be his last season with us. It almost seems as if Warnock doesn't see a set of circumstances whereby he can use Whitts off the bench - if we are losing, then the the call is for more urgency and he is hardly going to provide that. If we were winning, then you could a see a role for Whittingham if the plan was to keep possession. but that's hardly the way we play as keeping hold of the ball hardly seems high on Warnock's list of priorities.
I agree -I can see some changes in personnel for re-action reasons but I think we will still see a committed bunch.Season Ticket sales may well depend on how things go for the rest of the season.The club will want to keep the fans onside and there could be a few playing for their future here.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sloop_Jon_Bee