Reply With QuoteMy guess is neither will be correct.Originally Posted by Father Dougal
Mid table (I have hopes for the 2/3/4 new signings to come) not pushing Top 6 or teetering above the drop zone.
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Just interesting the bookies only have Rotherham, qpr, Huddersfield and Plymouth as more likely to go down than us.
Yet while at the end of last season there wasn't too much hope around the club there seems an enthusiastic buzz about the season from fans? I was surprised to read people were disappointed and surprised by our lack of goals or goal threat in pre season. Is that really a surprise to people?
Not sure I can think of a season where the difference in expectations internally and externally seems so stark. Season tickets up apparently due to the buzz and expectation things will be different this season.
We've have threads on here about cardiff are really going for it and the amount of times I've read if we could just add one or 2 more we Will push top 6...... yet externally and the bookies seem to basically think we will be pretty much where we have been the previous 2 seasons (18th and 21st?)
Wonder who will be proved correct?
My guess is neither will be correct.
Mid table (I have hopes for the 2/3/4 new signings to come) not pushing Top 6 or teetering above the drop zone.
The bookies aren't often wrong, we've lost Kaba our only goal-scoring Striker who kept us up, we haven't replaced Allsop who was one of the worst keepers in the League for save ratios and was relegated the previous two seasons.
We've lost the best two Centre halves, Kipre and NG (to right back), and we've still lost O'Dowda on the wing, he's not the best defensively at left back, and Collins looks to have lost his way, and we've lost Philogene our most creative player and one that could provide openings and create scoring opportunities. we seem to have more negatives than positives.
Positives are Goutas, Grant, and Ramasey, but we need three or four better players better than we have in those key areas, or we will struggle.
We need to address those problem areas or they could be right again we we could struggle.
Tough first game, Leeds beat Forrest 2 nil in their latest Friendly, and are being linked with many good signings.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/l...-live-27411077
https://www.leedsallover.com/major-1...ff-clash-view/
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/l...piroe-27422863
You'd swear to god the drivel we had last season were promotion candidates
Would be very surprised if we get relegated but likewise don't see this being the big turn of fortunes that many are suggesting. A very rare season of nothingness I'm expecting, no excitement at either end of the table with the squad as it stands.
Yeah I think the bookies have it about right. We should have just enough to stay up. However it's interesting the optimism of a few weeks ago on social media seems to be going already after a pre season which has laid bare our obvious gaps.
Maybe I'm too pessimistic/realistic but people being disappointed/surprised at us not creating anything in pre season has really surprised me. What were people expecting?
It's nice to see some positivity on forums, social media.
Went from top 6 with a couple of signings to relegation after pre season. It's typical of the bipolar nature of such places.
In reality the bookies have it about right. We survived by the skin of our teeth last season, lost 3 of our better players and have replaced them as best we can under an embargo + a bit of a bonus on Ramsey.
I think we can stay up but I'm not overly confident.
I wouldn't take much notice of anything in pre season mind.
To stay away from that bottom 3 we are going to need 3 quality players to go straight into our line up.
Lets see what happens in the next week.
Ideally we can move a number out as well.
I think with a couple of additions we’ll be stronger and better balanced than last season. Collins is coming back from a bad injury and it was always going to take time to get back to match fitness and full confidence in his leg. Adam’s is also coming back from a couple of injuries so needed pre season, along with Robinson. We seem to have more options attacking wise off the bench and just need a number 9 and centre half to finish the rebuild. As always we’ll know more after 10 games with the new manager.
I was really positive until the game yesterday.
Jack Simpson was MOTM but is that because league one is his level?
Second Tier podcast has us finishing above Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Rotherham in twenty first place - the patronising one got plenty of digs in about how City fans are talking about a top six finish - I’ve not come across anyone saying that. They think Grant is a good signing, not impressed by Ramsey, wouldn’t be by Barkley (yesterday’s men), but thought Moore would do well. Neither would be surprised by Bulut leaving before Christmas and it’s hard to argue with their fundamental point that we’re a very poorly run club.
I can't imagine grant and Ramsey are cheap. I wonder what tan is expecting? If we aren't solidly in top 6 by November then bulut probably will be sacked won't he?
Considering they sacked morison after 10 games after he made 17 signings and spent millions on a striker who played 1 or 2 games for him why should we expect tan will be any different with bulut?
Unless of course we believe tan is sanctioning big wages and has actually lowered his expectations at the same time. Fairly unlikely?
Hes not going to sack Bulut for not being solidly top 6.
Weve just been lucky not to be relegated.
I dont think anyone would be suprised if Bulut is gone by November but if we are out of the bottom 6 he will be doing well. Top 6 - even our clowns running the club are not expecting that.
I would hope that they still have some identified targets coming in, maybe we are having to wait until the end of the transfer window for clubs to finish their business before they sanction loans on allow players to leave?
Ideally we still need the spine of the team to be improved with a GK, CB Midfielder and number 9 to be added in my view, with a number 9 being the priority.
The only thing we don’t know as yet is how good a coach Bulut is?
Could he get a tune out of some of the players who failed spectacularly last season?
I’m not expecting miracles and still think we have to move 5-6 players on, but that’s easier said than done if no else wants them.
Mid table would be a good position based on what we have now, let’s just hope we don’t see the cycle of hiring and firing continue, because if he’s going to build something , Bulut will need to be shown patience and given time
Lots of options up front, but personally Jordan Hugill on a free would have been as good an any of them..
I haven’t seen any of our pre-season games. Were we failing to create chances (shouldn’t be with the new additions) or failing to convert them?
The worst run club in the entire country they said.
Not The Top 20 Podcast have us in 20th and also mentioned we're a poorly run club.
I think what people aren't taking into account in this thread that the bookies are is the Tan factor.
Say we're 17th place come November, is that good enough for Tan? Chances are he'd sack Bulut and hire a cheap option and wreck any progress made.
The strange thing is that we had chances against the best side we faced, Porto. The first quarter of the game especially saw us have no end of promising situations about thirty yards from their goal and we wasted them all - too often someone was too willing o show us how poor they are at shooting from distance while ignoring better placed team mates and when the ball was passed rather than shot, we showed how poor we were at providing a quality final ball.
In our other matches we enjoyed periods of control in games, but it was noticeable how little this was reflected in terms of goal attempts and worthwhile chances created.
It's unfair to draw any conclusions before a ball is kicked in anger, but I'd say it's legitimate to say that the evidence of our pre season is that we struggle to create chances and, on the rare occasions that we do, our finishing les us down.
A lot of our fans on social media really bought into Morison and are convinced much of the dross brought in last summer are good Championship players despite all the evidence to the contrary
yes it will probably be another grim season, but for now at least we can kid ourselves that we are going to be good - please don't take that away from us with facts as it will probably end up being the best part of the season.
We did play well in that first quarter against Porto but I suspect that had a lot to do with how slowly they started and with very little closing down to begin with, yet we still didn’t put the ball in the back of the net during that time. As soon as Porto picked up the pace they scored.
Sory Kaba’s goals saved us last season, without his signing we would have gone down. We still desperately need to replace him, we won’t find a 15 - 20 goal striker but one that can score just 8 - 10 in a season would help us to mid table. I can’t see Etete or Ugbo scoring that many. Moore would but I still can’t see him signing - though hope I’m wrong!
Opta supercomputer has us finishing 19th
https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/07/ch...dictions-opta/
We've had 27 seasons where the Championship has consistenly been a 24-team, 3-up, 3-down division. Teams finishing in 21st have finished in the bottom third of the division on 17 times and been relegated 10 times. 7 times in the last 14 seasons has the side finishing 21st gone down a year later. However, 3 times in 27 years has the side finishing in 21st got into the playoffs.
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