The bigger picture

DJ said:
I don't know if it's just the enjoyment of being back in the ground and watching the games again, but I'm enjoying this season and I think we've had spells of looking rather good and certainly entertaining.

I don't see some of the complaints being banded about by others. We do have a clear game plan, you can see patterns of play and can see what they are trying to do.

You can also see that they are working hard at what they're trying to do, you can see an identity emerging and all this in just three months. We're not the finished article, far from it, but we're pretty darn good in spells and those spells have been long enough to win more often than not, whilst remaining difficult to beat.
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This is it DJ, consistency is hard in this league there isn’t a one size fits all with regards to opponents, no two opponents are the same. I walked away from Blackpool like it was a loss, aside from that I’ve been entertained, encouraged by what I’ve seen and love that Parker keeps saying we will improve.
 
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We're equal on points with the team that's currently top of the league after 10 games despite struggling a bit for vital creativity in midfield, and our most skilful and creative midfielder hasn't played one single minute so far this season. How SP manages to fit Lewis in to the side when he's fully fit, available and back on form is likely to define the outcome of the season it seems to me.
 
DJ said:
I don't know if it's just the enjoyment of being back in the ground and watching the games again, but I'm enjoying this season and I think we've had spells of looking rather good and certainly entertaining.

I don't see some of the complaints being banded about by others. We do have a clear game plan, you can see patterns of play and can see what they are trying to do.

You can also see that they are working hard at what they're trying to do, you can see an identity emerging and all this in just three months. We're not the finished article, far from it, but we're pretty darn good in spells and those spells have been long enough to win more often than not, whilst remaining difficult to beat.
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Difficult to beat ? So far, we've been impossible to beat !
 
northstandmark said:
The main problem last night was a lack of partnerships or understanding between our attacking players. There's plenty of time to work on that. If we're still seeing disjointed play like that past Christmas then something has gone wrong, but it's probably what you expect at this point in the season.
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We haven't seen that in recent games, but it happened last night because we rotated the squad, something which notoriously is hard to do. Even Eddie Howe struggled at the top level to do this.

You take players out and bring fresh players in, but that understanding, that momentum isn't there.

So we’re always likely to have dips when we rotate, getting 18 players all playing perfectly in tune at the same time is the dream in this league as you'd then switch it around and stay fresher than everyone else.

But you only get a chance of getting that to work if you are willing to rotate.
 
DJ said:
We haven't seen that in recent games, but it happened last night because we rotated the squad, something which notoriously is hard to do. Even Eddie Howe struggled at the top level to do this.

You take players out and bring fresh players in, but that understanding, that momentum isn't there.

So we’re always likely to have dips when we rotate, getting 18 players all playing perfectly in tune at the same time is the dream in this league as you'd then switch it around and stay fresher than everyone else.

But you only get a chance of getting that to work if you are willing to rotate.
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I wonder what the reason for rotation was, I missed any post match interviews. I expected the Anthony Rogers swap as Rogers hasn’t come here to sit on the bench. Brooks hasn’t done anything to warrant a start and I guess perhaps they are resting Smith after his illness a few weeks ago. I think I’ve probably just answered my own question.
 
blandford_cherry said:
I wonder what the reason for rotation was, I missed any post match interviews. I expected the Anthony Rogers swap as Rogers hasn’t come here to sit on the bench. Brooks hasn’t done anything to warrant a start and I guess perhaps they are resting Smith after his illness a few weeks ago. I think I’ve probably just answered my own question.
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LOL My missus does this in a sentence. All I need to do is keep quiet!

I think we'll see Anthony and JZ rotated in and out of the squad as this seems to be the approach coaches take when they are bringing younger players into a squad.

Players rarely play a whole first season because it takes time to get to the right level of fitness and condition.

Sp also need to start building partnerships around the squad, so to me a game against a newly promoted team was a good time to do this and a nicked goal at the end would have removed any rotation questions
 
The next five games will make our prospects clearer. All against top half sides, we’ll Sheffield are 13th but by one goal. Chances are we’ll go behind for the first time in the league. We’ll have to play against a team defending a lead, bit like Peterborough played.
 
Coughlin said:
All fair enough but those at the game will know Coventry were there for the taking, that man for man we had far better players but were too slow and predictable to get that first goal and only upped the pace in the last 10 minutes when the clock was ticking down. Not a disaster but a worry.
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We've not played Coventry yet.
 
24 hours on there’s still a few posters putting a negative slant on the season so far. Bloody unbelievable.

The only reason I can think of is to say ‘well I told you so’ when the wheels do fall off and we do lose a game.

The same people would probably pick fault at a six star hotel saying the bath water was a degree too hot.

Just enjoy it.

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blandford_cherry said:
24 hours on there’s still a few posters putting a negative slant on the season so far. Bloody unbelievable.

The only reason I can think of is to say ‘well I told you so’ when the wheels do fall off and we do lose a game.

The same people would probably pick fault at a six star hotel saying the bath water was a degree too hot.

Just enjoy it.

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I like the fact that we have two weeks to bathe in the glory of the current table :cool: Very nice !
 
Just trying to keep Reading last season in mind as a cautionary tale. Top by 5 or 6 points around this time last season, they ended up below us and outside the playoffs.

What I like is that we have such a robust spine to the side, it should mean we're rarely out of any game at this level. Just keep the points ticking and we'll see where it goes.
 
northstandmark said:
Just trying to keep Reading last season in mind as a cautionary tale. Top by 5 or 6 points around this time last season, they ended up below us and outside the playoffs.

What I like is that we have such a robust spine to the side, it should mean we're rarely out of any game at this level. Just keep the points ticking and we'll see where it goes.
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Don't think you can compare our squad with Reading's tbf.....they were massively over achieving..... don't think we've really got out of first gear yet tbh.... I'd like to see us be a lot more positive in games but I can't see us losing many ...... I'll.make a bold statement and say I don't believe we'll lose more than 3 games this season!
They'll be a lot of draws but automatic promotion should be easily achievable..... Fulham...West Brom and Sheffield are miles off the three teams that replaced them in the PL.

.
 
Topfarrier said:
Don't think you can compare our squad with Reading's tbf.....they were massively over achieving..... don't think we've really got out of first gear yet tbh.... I'd like to see us be a lot more positive in games but I can't see us losing many ...... I'll.make a bold statement and say I don't believe we'll lose more than 3 games this season!
They'll be a lot of draws but automatic promotion should be easily achievable..... Fulham...West Brom and Sheffield are miles off the three teams that replaced them in the PL.

.
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This is what I mean. I respect your opinion but Thursday you say we need to ‘go for it’ and ‘attack every team’ and ‘don’t mind if we get punished’ Aslong as you are ‘entertained’ failing to realise every opponent is different and needs a different style of play now you’re saying we won’t lose more than 3 and should comfortably get promoted, something you also didn’t want as we ‘won’t win anything in the PL’ despite having a negative slant on more or less every result this season. I don’t think you can make your mind up!
 
blandford_cherry said:
This is what I mean. I respect your opinion but Thursday you say we need to ‘go for it’ and ‘attack every team’ and ‘don’t mind if we get punished’ Aslong as you are ‘entertained’ failing to realise every opponent is different and needs a different style of play now you’re saying we won’t lose more than 3 and should comfortably get promoted, something you also didn’t want as we ‘won’t win anything in the PL’ despite having a negative slant on more or less every result this season. I don’t think you can make your mind up!
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This is what I think will happen.......what I want has got nothing to do with it......I don't know what it is this evening but everyone is misinterpreting everything I post!....lol
 
Topfarrier said:
This is what I think will happen.......what I want has got nothing to do with it......I don't know what it is this evening but everyone is misinterpreting everything I post!....lol
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You are starting to realise what it’s like on this board if you hold an opinion that even remotely deviates from the popular narrative. Maybe bear that in mind next time you are trying to shoot me down lol
 
Waz afcb said:
You are starting to realise what it’s like on this board if you hold an opinion that even remotely deviates from the popular narrative. Maybe bear that in mind next time you are trying to shoot me down lol
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Whats the popular narrative? It seems like you both deviate from it and yet you get shot down. ;-)
 
Waz afcb said:
You are starting to realise what it’s like on this board if you hold an opinion that even remotely deviates from the popular narrative. Maybe bear that in mind next time you are trying to shoot me down lol
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Waz it’s not the opinions for me, you post some insightful stuff it’s the constant negativity, as someone posted on here yesterday you did a post and the negatives outweighed the positives when we are bloody unbeaten and top of the league. I just don’t get what more you want. We can’t be consistent in this league it’s too competitive. What works one week doesn’t work the next. One week we need to hold on to a lead from the 60th minute and defend, the next we need to go all out attack for 45 minutes to get an equaliser. I’d just love to see a bit more positivity
 
blandford_cherry said:
Waz it’s not the opinions for me, you post some insightful stuff it’s the constant negativity, as someone posted on here yesterday you did a post and the negatives outweighed the positives when we are bloody unbeaten and top of the league. I just don’t get what more you want. We can’t be consistent in this league it’s too competitive. What works one week doesn’t work the next. One week we need to hold on to a lead from the 60th minute and defend, the next we need to go all out attack for 45 minutes to get an equaliser. I’d just love to see a bit more positivity
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We were unbeaten at the top of the league last season too but the warning signs were there, I think it’s interesting to analyse areas where we need to improve to maintain this position in the table. I gave massive credit to Parker for the team spirit he has managed to generate and acknowledged that we have spells where we look very good. However it is pretty clear that we’ve had to ride our luck quite a few times this season and luck eventually runs out. My hope is that Parker recognises that there are areas that need to improve too and that the next two weeks will give him time to work on making our better spells more extensive throughout games.
 
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