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When Ng, Kipre and Philogene are all in the Second Tier podcast’s team of the month for October (Ng for the second consecutive month)?
This may surprise you, but this time last season we'd conceded 14 goals, 2 fewer than this season. However, we'd scored 12 goals, slightly short of the 23 we've netted this season. Despite that, we were only 5 points worse off at this point last season.
We couldn't score goals is the simple answer. We were far too defensive.
Agreed and we had a shyte keeper, (God knows how he was chosen above Alnwick) and no cover for Collins, when he was injured we struggled like mad, and there is the warning, we need cover for Collins and we need Keiffer!Originally Posted by Eric the Half a Bee
We basically had to play defensively because we were very vulnerable, especially down our left, then when we lost O'Dowda to full back we were weak on the left attacking side, any Striker we played was isolated. Thank God for Kaba, he kept us up.
Poor management on the whole
I think if sabri had been given the job in the summer he would have had us fairly safe
Yep I'd agree with that, our confidence was shot by the time he arrived, it was a difficult job to turn us around after Morison and Hudson.
I thought it was the wrong decision to not offer him the job once we were safe but the club should be congratulated for the appointment of bulut
Breathe of fresh air, decent signings and the Sala insurance sorted…..on the up at long last
A poor one-paced midfield with little creativity
..and he didn't really. Averaged 1.1 points per game which is what we averaged over 46 games.
Agreed about the lack of goals being the main factor behind us having such a poor time of it. Who was most responsible for keeping us up, Lamouchi for increasing our scoring (even if it was at the expense of our defensive record to a degree) or Kaba, who was coming here before Lamouchi’s arrival? I think it might be the latter, he wasn’t a good footballer, but he was able to stick the balls the net at a rate that we’d not seen in years.
However, I asked the question because all season long I had the feeling that we weren’t a relegation side and I think the way we went to struggling sides late in the season and won quite easily confirmed that, even without Kaba, there were more goals in the team than they’d managed during the first three quarters of the season.
Philogene is getting rave reviews this season and two of our regular defenders from last season are getting picked in divisional team of the month selections this time around. I’ve heard Ng being described as the best right back in the division this season and credit must go to Bulut for his part in his improvement, but there was a decent player there all along.
We were not as useless as many made out last season even if my early season optimism had gone by May and I was fearing the worst for this season.
McGuiness being out on loan with the injury to Collins really hampered us defensively.
We struggled to score until Kaba came in.
Sawyers and Rinomhota didn’t really add much to an already static midfield.
Ojo was shocking and I know we have discussed this, but personally don’t think that Phologene was that great until towards the end of the season.
Philogene, like the rest of them, looked short of confidence at stages last season but in terms of talent was clearly head and shoulders above anyone else in the squad and is premier league quality. Would have loved City to have signed him for this season more so than any of Bulut's recruits, as good as they've been.
Let's not ponce about here
We could easily have gone down last season
And anyone saying they always KNEW we would be OK is lying 🤥
i agree that Beatles song was rubbish
Shit management
this
Players being completely inept going forward because of two things - their ability and our management.
Philogene's great but we have 3-4 Philogenes (or close to him) this season.
We also have a manager that is able to have an air of confidence whilst still remaining likeable. That's why he can ask for a lot from his players. He also let's them take risks. Understanding that you're not going to win a game of football if you leave it all up to an isolated striker all game.
Last season felt like we were already thinking about breaking up the counter attack before we inevitably lose the ball around their box. This season feels like we are hitting their box faster and from all angles and not scared to try things (like Colwill last game).
Easier to bring out the best from players (like Ralls' improved much improved set pieces) when they actually like you.
And I thought the Morison sacking was a bad one. I know **** all
No ohe seems to be addressing the point about how more than a quarter of our starting line up are getting selected in a Championship team of the month less than six months after 22/23 ended though. The facts are undeniable, we were only spared from the drop by another team’s points deduction, but I’d say we had enough to have stopped it from getting that close and our lack of goals at home in particular was the main reason why we didn’t do that. Away from home, there were plenty of games we didn’t score in, but we did go to Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Watford and win by scoring three times in the first half, so we did have some sort of counter attacking threat.
This time around, we’re finding goal scoring easier, the most obvious reason for this being that recently we’ve become a threat from set pieces again, but it’s hardly as if Bulut has brought goals into the club - Ramsey, Ugbo, Grant, Bowler and Meite have only scored one more goal than Kaba did between them (although you’d like to think the first named would have managed a few more by now if he’d stayed fit). So, we’re getting more goals scored by defenders and maybe Etete was on the point of becoming a fairly regular scorer at this level before his injury - if I think it was a little bit of a mystery as to why we came as close to the drop as we did, this season’s mystery is why we’re one of the highest scoring sides in the division? I suppose scoring from the penalties we get helps.
Succinct but very correct.
I’d like the current side to be a bit less cautious but overall it’s much better than last year. One major improvement is the players’ technical ability. They look more skilful and can pass a ball to the same shirt for a lot longer.
There were lots of factors as to why we were so poor last year.
I still think the main one was a lack of leadership from the top, which meant we had to try and do things on the cheap
An enthusiasm from the top will trickle down in most organisations, it just hasn’t been there for the last few years.
Poor choice in management and allowing someone as inexperienced as Morison to lead the team was bound to end in tears.
Good leadership with a plan and a direction of where they want to be, as we appear to have now won’t guarantee success, but it will give you a fighting chance.
No one really knows what is happening behind the scenes, but it’s easy to imagine that Dalman has told Tan the only way he will get a return on his investment is if we get back to the premiership, or are seen as a club with the ability to get there?
What ever the reasons are behind it, the fact that we have some stability as a club without a court case every other week, and our first decent manager in a long time points to the fact that we are heading in the right direction.
It’s been bloody hard the last few years to get excited about going to watch the City, thankfully that’s all changed now!!!
Our midfield was too slow and our strikers weren’t very good
They’re still slow and our strikers are still crap but we seem to be playing the ball a bit quicker
Last season we played too slowly and with little purpose. Our midfield was ineffective, we created few chances and obviously didn't score enough goals. This year we move the ball around well and work harder. In my opinion, it's mostly down to management and recruitment. We seem to have an experienced manager that knows how to play effective football at this level and who has banked a lot of knowledge about a network of available talent from all over Europe.
Basically the difference has been Ramsey (quality) and Siopsis (a type of player we needed but didn’t have)
Lack of confidence, defensive minded setup, clueless managers until Lamouchi came in plus it only takes 2 or 3 players to make a real difference to a team in this division to transform them from strugglers to challengers.
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