Are we that good?

[A Quiet Monkfish]

Re: Are we that good?

two things can be true at the same time.

We can be playing the best football we've played in many a year. Fans can also be frustrated at not converting the possession into chances. It seems we're now playing the percentages game, always looking for a better angle at goal, a better position rather than just taking a swing and seeing what happens. Saying that we're top scorers but you do feel we could score plenty more if we just loosened up a bit.

This team have great resilience and are all very comfortable on the ball, but this league is not great and we've seen so many attempts from the opposition missing the target whereas the same chance in the championship would see us conceding. That is the real worry....our current L1 hegemony is as much down to us as our opposition.

But we're top of the league playing free flowing football, so I'll take it

We actually scored 5 and could have had 6 or 7 on Tuesday night, the big difference for me is that we didn't have the lumbering elk up front. Salech works his socks off but our 1st 3 goals wouldn't have happened with him up front. It's telling that in the latter stages we were getting balls into the box, and also Robinson got off 2 decent efforts which I doubt Salech would have done. Don't get me wrong, I'd be delighted if Salech bangs in another 15 goals and leads us to promotion. I just don't think that's going to happen.

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Re: Are we that good?

We actually scored 5 and could have had 6 or 7 on Tuesday night, the big difference for me is that we didn't have the lumbering elk up front. Salech works his socks off but our 1st 3 goals wouldn't have happened with him up front. It's telling that in the latter stages we were getting balls into the box, and also Robinson got off 2 decent efforts which I doubt Salech would have done. Don't get me wrong, I'd be delighted if Salech bangs in another 15 goals and leads us to promotion. I just don't think that's going to happen.

Thought we won 4.0.
Agree about Salech though.

[Splott-light...]

Re: Are we that good?

No doubt Bluetit also hears the crowd shouting out 'Splendid!', 'Marvellous!' and ''What an insufferable cad!' 😊

BALDERDASH!!

[Splott-light...]

Re: Are we that good?

i'm a simple man, I see a group of lads playing for each other, for the fans and for the shirt, then I see a leader who appears to have the full respect of the players, a manager who isn't a chancer and isn't full of shit when in front of the media, is respectful to the opposition without pandering or playing down our threat, and appreciates the support from the fanbase..

I think we're great.

[NYCBlue]

Re: Are we that good?

I think we've got a core of good footballers and a great manager. If we don't get back-to-back promotions it's going to be difficult keeping him.

[delmbox]

Re: Are we that good?

i'm a simple man, I see a group of lads playing for each other, for the fans and for the shirt, then I see a leader who appears to have the full respect of the players, a manager who isn't a chancer and isn't full of shit when in front of the media, is respectful to the opposition without pandering or playing down our threat, and appreciates the support from the fanbase..

I think we're great.

Agreed. Throw into that that we've got a bunch of academy players in there and I don't think we can ask for much more really

[Jimmy the Jock]

Re: Are we that good?

i'm a simple man, I see a group of lads playing for each other, for the fans and for the shirt, then I see a leader who appears to have the full respect of the players, a manager who isn't a chancer and isn't full of shit when in front of the media, is respectful to the opposition without pandering or playing down our threat, and appreciates the support from the fanbase..

I think we're great.

Spot on Pedro , cant argue with a word of that .

[Dave Blue]

Re: Are we that good?

ItÂ’s been a joy so far, especially seeing the youngsters given their chance, the good football and the goals. Credit to all for the progress made. ItÂ’s obvious BBM is a fine manager and is a great representative of the club in general.
There are certain things IÂ’d like to see and not want to see in the performances as next year will be a different test if, yes IF, we go up. IÂ’m confident we can see it over the line but as a long time fan I will never be complacent.

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: Are we that good?

It's not just him saying it, there's a lot of EFL watchers saying it now. We are in that category. If we had a little bit more in midfield, a little bit more out wide, this would be over already. Keep Kellyman next season, add a few others and who knows. All credit to the manager, he's got his recruitment spot on and his coaching is paying dividends. We have to keep him, at all costs.

[olderblue]

Re: Are we that good?

It's not just him saying it, there's a lot of EFL watchers saying it now. We are in that category. If we had a little bit more in midfield, a little bit more out wide, this would be over already. Keep Kellyman next season, add a few others and who knows. All credit to the manager, he's got his recruitment spot on and his coaching is paying dividends. We have to keep him, at all costs.

I’ve been saying that for a while, he needs to be backed and supported so that we can get out of this cycle of replacing the manager almost every 12 months
He seems to have the buy in from the squad, he definitely comes across as a decent bloke who knows what he’s doing

[bobh]

Re: Are we that good?

I think we've got a core of good footballers and a great manager. If we don't get back-to-back promotions it's going to be difficult keeping him.

Getting a L1 side to the Prem in two seasons would be an amazing feat - getting up from the Championship with an experienced side is hard enough, let alone with our youngsters. Have you been on the pop?

[PaulWent76]

Re: Are we that good?

Anyone else feel slightly uncomfortable with how much praise we're getting. It's nice for a change but not what we've been used to over the years. Gary Bowyer from 4:20 on sums it up. Obviously BBM has got loads of fans amongst coaches. Long may it continue.

https://youtu.be/LzOJXW3YK-A?si=cp6vh1_mSE7ue5Gv

[Pedro de la Rosa]

Re: Are we that good?

I’ve been saying that for a while, he needs to be backed and supported so that we can get out of this cycle of replacing the manager almost every 12 months
He seems to have the buy in from the squad, he definitely comes across as a decent bloke who knows what he’s doing

He needs to be tied down and we need to tie down half the squad. We can get better we should be kicking on from here. Hopefully (and I’m not holding my breath) the powers that be are being proactive

[Rjk]

Re: Are we that good?

If you had predicted that after relegation we would be top of the league, most goals scored, with far more academy players involved and a more progressive approach to the football we've been playing, plus a good cup run and acquitting ourselves well against some teams from higher divisions, then a lot of people would have dismissed that as pure fantasy.
So on that basis BBM deserves all the plaudits he's currently getting and more.

However, next season will be a much much bigger challenge.

It's one thing, playing the way we do, and doing well when we have probably the best squad in the division and probably one of the highest budgets.
Most teams we face have very few players who would get into our side.
In fairness it isn't always a guarantee of success, as plenty of teams take a while to go back up after relegation.

Next season will be a very different prospect - even with a good transfer window there will be a lot of teams around with better squads than us, and probably 25-30% of the teams in the league will have a much higher budget than we will.
Then we will learn a lot more about this squad and the manager.

[Tuerto]

Re: Are we that good?

If you had predicted that after relegation we would be top of the league, most goals scored, with far more academy players involved and a more progressive approach to the football we've been playing, plus a good cup run and acquitting ourselves well against some teams from higher divisions, then a lot of people would have dismissed that as pure fantasy.
So on that basis BBM deserves all the plaudits he's currently getting and more.

However, next season will be a much much bigger challenge.

It's one thing, playing the way we do, and doing well when we have probably the best squad in the division and probably one of the highest budgets.
Most teams we face have very few players who would get into our side.
In fairness it isn't always a guarantee of success, as plenty of teams take a while to go back up after relegation.

Next season will be a very different prospect - even with a good transfer window there will be a lot of teams around with better squads than us, and probably 25-30% of the teams in the league will have a much higher budget than we will.
Then we will learn a lot more about this squad and the manager.

The players deserve credit as well, for taking on what is expected of them by the manager and his coaching staff. It's a two way thing. I think that we will do pretty well in the championship, I've spoken to other people whose opinion I respect and they're in your camp. I just think that Barry Murphy is adaptable, thinks quickly, isn't afraid of change and expects from players, whatever their age and however they have played previously. His football ( in my opinion) leaves a fair bit of room for change. For the first time ever we have a manager who isn't scared to try things that most of us wouldn't think of doing.