Season expectations 2017-18

[CT]

We are going straight up.  Empty your bank accounts and get to the bookmakers.  See you all in the Seychelles in June.

Do you own a bookies ?!!

I reckon he's "Tight mouth Larry" and he's getting us to back "Sad Ken".

[LukeJames]

I bet he uses Timotei.

[NorthStand_View]

Realistically if we do not promotion this season I cannot see us getting out of this league for a very long time. I can't see dr Tony chucking money in every season. IF we don't go up I can see us  being another Ipswich or forest of the league....

[oldtimernow]

Welcome to the site.......your optimism will fit in well in certain areas

[Matt Collins]

I just looked at out appearances last season

Put it this way, I don't think these players will make as many starts this year - we've got better quality in

Elphick 25
Baker 32
Bacuna 22
Gardner 25
Westwood 20
Gollini 20
Cissokho 11


 

[peter w]

I think that Westwood and Gollini apart, all 5 of the others, as well as Richards, McCormack and one or two others wouldn't weaken us one bit by being sold/released.

[Steve kirk]

6th with us winning promotion via the play offs.

[Ads]

They all started at Wednesday last August. Compare that with what will likely start against Hull and there's a leap in quality;

Terry
Chester
Elmo
Whelan
Lansbury
Johnstone
Taylor

The squad and first XI is definitely better going into this season compared to last.

[cdbearsfan]

Our defence was fine last year, though. Our weakness was lack of creativity and goals and we haven't addressed this.

[Ads]

I disagree.

I think Bruce was afraid of conceding less the mental fragility shown at Bristol and nigh on every game under RDM crop up. So he buttoned us up tight.

Adomah and Hourihane created more than any other midfielders in the league. Lansbury and Elmo carry a threat. Hogan and Kodjia know where the net is. Unleashing them is key and Whelan I think is the pivot to that.

Faster and better distribution from the back and the holding player is key. Terry and Whelan offer that compared to Baker and Jedinak. That touch of mobility with Whelan let's us play higher up.

Better crossing from Bree than Hutton wouldn't go a miss either.

[pauliewalnuts]

Who was Hourihane playing for when he created those chances?

Don't get me wrong, I'll think he'll come good, but if you're looking at last season and suggesting him as evidence our weakness wasn't creativity, then that's a bit misleading.

[Ads]

Fundamentally I think a lot of last season came down to Bruce opening the door to BMH and lifting a lid on Pandoras Box.

The Italian Sherwood hadn't steadied the ship at all and we couldn't get a result for love nor money. I think it came down to a "this shit that's been happening for 6 years now has to stop". Getting twatted by Luton and Bristol and Preston, mixed in with caving to late goals was not evidence of a side going anywhere but the bowls of the league.

He struck up a knack of grinding a result out, was able to add better players in January, when Kodjia had gone and due to the awful run, never let us loose with any purpose. Save Brighton where we bossed them and played probably our best football.

Jedinak was crucial to helping stop all the nonsense, but his poor distribution and lack of mobility means we are not going back to front in anything like time or accuracy we need.

Lansbury often sat in to hold his hand, taking up positions sometimes 30 or 40 yards deeper than where he normally pops up (such as scoring against us the little fucker).

I think the more subtle change to the squad is all that was required. Most of the tools exist for us to do better. I think we will.

Hourihane will.score a lot more if he's receiving the ball higher up the park and doesn't have two ranks of 4 and 50 yards to go to their goal.

Only a friendly but Elmo getting beyond the full back to cross to Hogan square, so Hogan can face his own goal with the defender turned instead. That's playing to his strength and is a different animal to Hutton ballooning one from 25 yards.

I'm not disagreeing that we didn't score or create enough, more that I believe that we have players who can do that in spades already at the club.

[LeeB]

Fundamentally I think a lot of last season came down to Bruce opening the door to BMH and lifting a lid on Pandoras Box.

The Italian Sherwood hadn't steadied the ship at all and we couldn't get a result for love nor money. I think it came down to a "this shit that's been happening for 6 years now has to stop". Getting twatted by Luton and Bristol and Preston, mixed in with caving to late goals was not evidence of a side going anywhere but the bowls of the league.

He struck up a knack of grinding a result out, was able to add better players in January, when Kodjia had gone and due to the awful run, never let us loose with any purpose. Save Brighton where we bossed them and played probably our best football.

Jedinak was crucial to helping stop all the nonsense, but his poor distribution and lack of mobility means we are not going back to front in anything like time or accuracy we need.

Lansbury often sat in to hold his hand, taking up positions sometimes 30 or 40 yards deeper than where he normally pops up (such as scoring against us the little fucker).

I think the more subtle change to the squad is all that was required. Most of the tools exist for us to do better. I think we will.

Hourihane will.score a lot more if he's receiving the ball higher up the park and doesn't have two ranks of 4 and 50 yards to go to their goal.

Only a friendly but Elmo getting beyond the full back to cross to Hogan square, so Hogan can face his own goal with the defender turned instead. That's playing to his strength and is a different animal to Hutton ballooning one from 25 yards.

I'm not disagreeing that we didn't score or create enough, more that I believe that we have players who can do that in spades already at the club.

Totally with you on all of that, spot on.

I feel the stick Bruce gets for last season doesn't take enough into account the abject culture that had existed before, and our 'safety first' approach was exactly that, for good reason.

For the first season in a long time we go into a new season settled, with options and no excuses.

We're going up.

[Matt Collins]

I'm increasingly confident

This is when villa let me down the most, mind!

[Clampy]

Fundamentally I think a lot of last season came down to Bruce opening the door to BMH and lifting a lid on Pandoras Box.

The Italian Sherwood hadn't steadied the ship at all and we couldn't get a result for love nor money. I think it came down to a "this shit that's been happening for 6 years now has to stop". Getting twatted by Luton and Bristol and Preston, mixed in with caving to late goals was not evidence of a side going anywhere but the bowls of the league.

He struck up a knack of grinding a result out, was able to add better players in January, when Kodjia had gone and due to the awful run, never let us loose with any purpose. Save Brighton where we bossed them and played probably our best football.

Jedinak was crucial to helping stop all the nonsense, but his poor distribution and lack of mobility means we are not going back to front in anything like time or accuracy we need.

Lansbury often sat in to hold his hand, taking up positions sometimes 30 or 40 yards deeper than where he normally pops up (such as scoring against us the little fucker).

I think the more subtle change to the squad is all that was required. Most of the tools exist for us to do better. I think we will.

Hourihane will.score a lot more if he's receiving the ball higher up the park and doesn't have two ranks of 4 and 50 yards to go to their goal.

Only a friendly but Elmo getting beyond the full back to cross to Hogan square, so Hogan can face his own goal with the defender turned instead. That's playing to his strength and is a different animal to Hutton ballooning one from 25 yards.

I'm not disagreeing that we didn't score or create enough, more that I believe that we have players who can do that in spades already at the club.

Totally with you on all of that, spot on.

I feel the stick Bruce gets for last season doesn't take enough into account the abject culture that had existed before, and our 'safety first' approach was exactly that, for good reason.

For the first season in a long time we go into a new season settled, with options and no excuses.

We're going up.

There does seem to be a bit more thought behind it this time, rather than appointing yet another manager and bringing in 12 players and expecting them all to click. I'm glad it's the approach we've took.