Originally Posted by
Eric the Half a Bee
I've repeated myself enough on this, but for me it's about progress.
Positives this season:
If a game is close, we often find a way to get a result. We're ok at coming back from behind, away from home at least. We're good at winning games late on. We have been good at scoring from set pieces.
Negatives this season:
Pointless passing. Less creativity than previous seasons. Worse defensive record. Slow starts to games. Often too negative.
Some stats:
Defeats by 2 or more goals:
2019/20: 5
2020/21: 4
2021/22: 8
2022/23: 9
2023/24: 11
Wins by 2 goals or more:
2019/20: 8
2020/21: 10
2021/22: 4
2022/23: 5
2023/24: 4
This season, for me at least, has rarely ever felt like one where we might be challenging for the playoffs. Finishing in the top 6 a season after finishing 21st is pretty rare in itself, so statistically I never really thought that was on in any case.
There's no doubt there's good spirit within the squad, they battle well for each other in tight games. That's no more evident than set pieces, where a number of those goals scored have been from second balls where we've shown a bit more hunger than the opposition in their own penalty area.
However, this season has felt quite attritional at times. That battling ability has been the reason we're in the top half, not our footballing ability. Yes, we've got some duds in our squad, not all Bulut's signings have been that good, but the defensive tactics haven't helped us at all. Trying to be more defensive has seen us lose more games convincingly than we've seen in recent seasons. We had a go at Coventry on Monday and got something from it. All too often we haven't had a go and surrendered quite meekly.
If what we saw at Coventry, and earlier in the season, is Bulut's blueprint for next season, I'd be happy for him to stay. If it's going to be the attritional battling and hoping for set pieces because we haven't got a clue what to do in the final third, then he can go.
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