Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[ChicagoLion]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

[Drummond]

Its a two game turn around, 1 if we beat Cardiff.

I could take 2 games, that's true, but catching 2 points in 14 games suggests it's likely to be a lot more unless we have another gear to go up to.  I said 2 months ago that the key to getting back into it was to have a run of 8-9 wins in 10 or similar and I still think that's the case, if we win every game between now and the new year we'll be in the top 2, if we don't I suspect we'll go into January still 4-5 points adrift and needing a run of wins to bridge the gap.  That's been my point all along  If you're aiming for 90+ points any run of draws or defeats, even with a win mixed in (such as us in August) has to be offset by a long run of wins, it's very unforgiving in that way.  The issue is we've got our form up to the point where over an entire season it would have us right in the mix but we haven't yet counteracted the run where we were a lot worse than that.

I'm not saying this to moan or have a go or suggest that Bruce should go, I've said that this form is what was expected of him all along and as long as he's delivering it he's doing the job he was given and is perfectly safe but he still needs to find another step up at some point and he needs to avoid a bad run, any draw or defeat has to be followed up by a victory right now, dropping points 2 games running would cripple our progress right now.

Except it's 5 on Cardiff who are in second but were leading at the time.

Our current form, as I said before, in any of the last 1 to 17 games has us only behind Wolves in the form table. He doesn't need to step up as we'll more than do it if we maintain current form. Over the last 17 games we've achieved an average of 2.137 points per game.

[Clampy]

I don't think we can afford too many more lengthy injuries though. It'll take it's toll eventually.

As for the season thus far, I don't think the two defeats at the start will dictate how the season will pan out, not in a league with this many matches.

[Drummond]

Dropping points right now?

doesn't dropping imply teams around us are not going to, and in the same argument about Barcelona and Citeh I don't see them in our division of course excluding the mighty Wolves etal barca citeh.

of course they are, currently they're dropping points at about the same rate as we are, which is why we're not really closing the gap on them.  The problem is cardiff have a 5 point buffer over us, if they lose 2 games in a row we need to win both to get ahead of them, if we lose 2 games in a row any points they pick up widens the gap and they're averaging over 2 points a game right now so it's a reasonable bet that 2 defeats (or 2 draws even) would see us 7-8 points behind again.

Brighton certainly weren't Barce/Man C standard last season either but they got 93 points and that's what we should be aiming to replicate if we want to get top 2 and getting there means avoiding winless runs and not even long ones, 3-4 games without a win can take months to recover from at the top of this league.  We've already gone 3 without a win twice (in the first 7 games) and it's had us playing catchup all season.

The 5 point buffer Cardiff have was 10 points 14 games ago. So we're closing in. I I know you think you're the only one who can do maths, but in reality we all know what happens if one team wins and another loses. So give the patronising stuff a rest.

[Chris Smith]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Our best defender and striker both injured, plus other important players just returning from lengthy lay offs and yet we have won three successive games and are climbing that table. No other team in this division would cope as well as we have. I am unclear as to why a tiny number of persistent posters are so unwilling to offer even the merest hint of appreciation.

[ChicagoLion]

We miss Kodija and Terry.

[garyshawsknee]

Most teams in the league would miss the players we have out. But it makes the decision to let Baker go seem very short sighted, as it leaves us with two centre backs who SB doesn't want to play and an aging limited player in Samba. Baker can cover at LB too.

[ChicagoLion]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Our best defender and striker both injured, plus other important players just returning from lengthy lay offs and yet we have won three successive games and are climbing that table. No other team in this division would cope as well as we have. I am unclear as to why a tiny number of persistent posters are so unwilling to offer even the merest hint of appreciation.

We, because of the strength of the squad are able to put better teams out than the opposition.
How many of the QPR, Ipswich or Sunderland players would you pick ahead of the Villa players they faced?

[KevinGage]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Perhaps.  But there is no real like-for-like replacement for John Terry or Kodjia.

They have become big players for us (much as I still think Terry is an arse) and I'm sure most feared the loss of those two could impact us badly.  It still might, but we're doing OK so far.

We might have squad depth.  But Tottingham are struggling without Alderweireld and would miss Kane if he was out for an extended period. Ditto Citeh with Kompany and Aguero etc. 

Your biggest players are always the most difficult to have a contingency for, regardless of the size of the squad or £ available.

[ChicagoLion]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Perhaps.  But there is no real like-for-like replacement for John Terry or Kodjia.

They have become big players for us (much as I still think Terry is an arse) and I'm sure most feared the loss of those two could impact us badly.  It still might, but we're doing OK so far.

We might have squad depth.  But Tottingham are struggling without Alderweireld and would miss Kane if he was out for an extended period. Ditto Citeh with Kompany and Aguero etc. 

Your biggest players are always the most difficult to have a contingency for, regardless of the size of the squad or £ available.

and we are still able to put out better teams than the opposition.

[Drummond]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Perhaps.  But there is no real like-for-like replacement for John Terry or Kodjia.

They have become big players for us (much as I still think Terry is an arse) and I'm sure most feared the loss of those two could impact us badly.  It still might, but we're doing OK so far.

We might have squad depth.  But Tottingham are struggling without Alderweireld and would miss Kane if he was out for an extended period. Ditto Citeh with Kompany and Aguero etc. 

Your biggest players are always the most difficult to have a contingency for, regardless of the size of the squad or £ available.

and we are still able to put out better teams than the opposition.

And we've been performing better than all but Wolves for the last three months. So what's your point?

[Drummond]

I don't think we can afford too many more lengthy injuries though. It'll take it's toll eventually.

As for the season thus far, I don't think the two defeats at the start will dictate how the season will pan out, not in a league with this many matches.

Of course it will, those 2 games are pivotal. It doesn't matter that they were almost 4 months ago and that we are the second best team on form since then, they are dictating this season, as last season's poor patches were too.

[ChicagoLion]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Perhaps.  But there is no real like-for-like replacement for John Terry or Kodjia.

They have become big players for us (much as I still think Terry is an arse) and I'm sure most feared the loss of those two could impact us badly.  It still might, but we're doing OK so far.

We might have squad depth.  But Tottingham are struggling without Alderweireld and would miss Kane if he was out for an extended period. Ditto Citeh with Kompany and Aguero etc. 

Your biggest players are always the most difficult to have a contingency for, regardless of the size of the squad or £ available.

and we are still able to put out better teams than the opposition.

And we've been performing better than all but Wolves for the last three months. So what's your point?

Just off to Church to light a candle.

[Drummond]

I'm greedy - I want to be IN the top 2 by January

With our current injuries, we are doing well to be where we are.

Rubbish.
How many managers would choose any of the opposition squads over ours despite our injuries?
Look at the teams we are putting on the pitch, we are hardly down to picking kids and the St Johns Ambulance men.

Perhaps.  But there is no real like-for-like replacement for John Terry or Kodjia.

They have become big players for us (much as I still think Terry is an arse) and I'm sure most feared the loss of those two could impact us badly.  It still might, but we're doing OK so far.

We might have squad depth.  But Tottingham are struggling without Alderweireld and would miss Kane if he was out for an extended period. Ditto Citeh with Kompany and Aguero etc. 

Your biggest players are always the most difficult to have a contingency for, regardless of the size of the squad or £ available.

and we are still able to put out better teams than the opposition.

And we've been performing better than all but Wolves for the last three months. So what's your point?

Just off to Church to light a candle.

Try not to burn it down then for god's sake.

[cheltenhamlion]

Where we are heading in to Christmas will tell us a lot. It would be bonkers to give Bruce the shove at the minute but I do worry about us catching up if we have a shit month.