Half way. Good season or not ?

Ivyhouse

Ivyhouse

Star Player
Have we progressed that much ? Being a natural pessimist the recent slump has given me doubts. In among the impressive wins against West Ham, Leicester and Watford we go and lose to Newcastle and Burnley and fail to beat a miserable Southampton side.
I hope, maybe starting today, we click at last, and pull off some wins where we don’t expect to. Otherwise we’re probably looking at a 10th or 11th place finish. People are still saying to me that we’re living the dream. Maybe we are but I don’t want to wake up yet.
 
The thing is, 4 weeks ago we were 6/7/8th and there were no complaints, we’ve had an extremely tough run of games. Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal. I posted this on another thread, this was before yesterday’s games.

I don’t have the slightest worry of relegation this season. So I feel we have progressed and another season to look forward to in the premier league whilst established clubs like Stoke West Bromwich and Swansea all struggled massively last season.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1078406529374699525


:utc:
 
By any stretch of the imagination 26 points at half way is excellent.
I don't expect us to repeat that in the second half simply because of the appalling run of injuries.
I think we have progressed from last season but it is a relentlessly hard league to get any points. Our squad strength on paper looks good but it is how we operate as a unit rather than the individual talents on the bench that is the clue to our success. that is why the loss of old time stalwarts like Smith, Francis and Gosling hits us hard. To lose a playmaker like Cook as well is tough to take.
the sooner smith and Gosling get back the better.
 
Yes - decent season but also a “shakeout” season in which weaknesses in the squad are being exposed, sometimes brutally. Nothing fundamentally wrong with Eddie’s tactics but bad luck with injuries, lack of cover, and some players falling short. Pluses - Brooks, Lerma, Wilson. Problem areas - wingbacks, midfield. Unless youngsters come through and show instant success, recruitment is needed urgently.
 
We struggled for much of the first half of last season, then performances and results picked up and we gained 27 points in the second half of the season. That was a great improvement and a very good return on 19 matches. As RH says, we have gained 26 points in the first 19 games this year. I think that is a good season so far.
 
A half season of Huge highs..and lows. Come May I believe the highs will be well ahead. Events and decisions in the Summer , I think will determine whether we progress further or some other outcome.
If....things stay as they are, and Eddie stays with us with a similar budget...I can see us mid-table for years. I can live with that tbh and still get a Buzz! It will never be boring!
 
I think at the start of the season we all looked at November until January and thought we need to get out the blocks flying and have a cushion, I certainly did. We did just that, then during the last two months we were unlucky not to get anything from Man Utd or Arsenal, I thought we pushed them both really hard

Newcastle was a turning point in so many ways, at the start of the season we might not have expected to win there, but on the day we did, they were terrible and we were flying. So the surprise of the defeat, and the loss of Smith can't be underestimated. Then the disappointment of losing to Wolves, despite the amount they've spent and the points they've taken off bigger clubs than us. I wonder whether maybe going into some of these games we thought we were the big club, I don't know. The disparity between some performances is the worrying thing

As for season so far, overall really happy, we're on course to break the 50 point barrier for the first. That's no mean achievement looking at the continued dominance at the top of the table. In fact I think breaking 50 points got a Euro spot last couple of seasons. I'm not thinking about Euro, just that given the current injuries and what feels like a slump we might all be underestimating our achievement so far
 
Better than most seasons.
Someone asked on twitter how we compared at halfway this season compared to our previous three seasons.

2015/16 20 points 16th place

2016/17 24 points 10th place

2017/18 16 points 18th place

Of course we stayed up every season.

The next few games are crucial though.We still have a nice cushion between us and the bottom three,but if we continue in the form we are ,we will be right in amongst it.
 
On balance a good season so far. Though I think it might have been a different story without Brooks and Lerma, absolutely crucial signings.

Positives
- 10 more points even though the quality of the league has improved
- Excellent new signings of Brooks and Lerma, already looking like 'bargains'
- Looking better and more ruthless away from home with new counter attacking style
- Begovic very solid
- Wilson has improved
- Fraser has stepped up another level

Negatives
- Injuries in key areas where we don't have cover (and should have)
- No stand out win so far against a big team (although Watford away was pretty special)
- Daniels looks to be struggling and Rico hasn't worked out yet
- King seems to be struggling a bit, with a few flashes of his best

With 1 or 2 astute January signings, no further big injuries and a couple of off form players (Stan, King, Daniels) coming good, there's no reason we can't beat our record points total this year.
 
Last season was very disjointed and we really struggled to put proper cohesive performances together.

Early this season we'd appeared to have fixed that and the team looked balance with EVERY player making a positive contribution both in attack and defence. Picking Cook over Francis, for example. The best players were in their best positions. "Aces in Spaces", as I've heard it called before...

Obviously due to injuries we've now got players all over the place that shouldn't be. Round pegs in square holes galore. I'd like that experimentation to stop, actually, unless maybe it's a cup game. "I know, remember that worldy Surman scored in training? Let's try him as lone striker against West Ham in the league. Callum? Oh, he's strong. He can play CB instead." Just some of the kind of thinking that totally confounds my otherwise total trust in Eddie Howe.

So, in short, even though we have a bunch of players who, in fairness can play in several positions if required (though not to the extremes that have been asked of them) we still haven't got any kind of cover for the injuries we all predicted.

Verdict: disappointing after such a great start and a run of form that could have been avoided with better attention to the deficiencies of the squad.
 
I'm happy with it, even if it doesn't end up our highest finish it will still be the only season we've never been close to relegation.
 
simonhpieman said:
"I know, remember that worldy Surman scored in training? Let's try him as lone striker against West Ham in the league. Callum? Oh, he's strong. He can play CB instead." Just some of the kind of thinking that totally confounds my otherwise total trust in Eddie Howe.
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Eh?
 
No complaints here.
Always entertained every game win lose or draw.

Only time I have been dischuffed this season was Spurs away.
Thought we folded top easily.
 
Just in case this thread gets a bit gloomy.

Here's our last 9 games.

Apart from Spurs, we could get 3 points from every game.

And decide some relegation issues along the way.

Home

Newcastle 15 (current league position)

Burnley 19

Fulham 18

Spurs 2



Away

Huddersfield 20

Leicester 8

Brighton 13

Southampton 17

C Palace 14



We're only missing Cardiff in 16th and we would have the set.


 
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It's first season where at this point we're not looking at relegation, although other 3 seasons we pulled away second half. So amazingly 4 seasons in premier league, and not involved in dog fight at end of season.
Brooks and lerma great additions to the team.
Big shame the injuries to 2 or 3 certain starters, which you can't predict. Hard to bring another right back if smith and francis were fit, but clearly right sided defender is priority.
Mousset l thought looked great against Chelsea, so one for the future. For me jury still out on Rico, even with Charlie not at his best, isn't in the team.
Away games at Watford and Fulham are highlights for me, we were outstanding
 
bigfatolly said:
Better than most seasons.
Someone asked on twitter how we compared at halfway this season compared to our previous three seasons.

2015/16 20 points 16th place

2016/17 24 points 10th place

2017/18 16 points 18th place

Of course we stayed up every season.

The next few games are crucial though.We still have a nice cushion between us and the bottom three,but if we continue in the form we are ,we will be right in amongst it.
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Did you spend Christmas with Minty?
 
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