Can you see us going on ‘that run’

BFCPaul

BFCPaul

Well-known member
Take Pompey away out of the equation and now until the end of the year (including the FA Cup) we play sides well below us in the table - can anyone see us going on the sort of run we need to in order to push back in to the Top 6?
 
Yes, me.

What we need I think is settled combinations that work. Marv and Casey in central defence. Norburn and Dougall in CM. Rhodes plus Lavery, or someone else.

I don't think our wide players are good enough. 352 requires good wing backs, but we don't have them. This is a big factor in our struggles, I think.
 
If we can't beat average league 1 side we don't deserve to be uo there and the players and Critchley will have failed.

We're certainly capable imo.

No excuses now, need to be putting a run together.
 
No, I just don’t think we’re good enough to go on a good run of results.
17 games in and we’re still playing with a different team most games of the week I’m amazed Critchley still doesn’t know his best starting 11.
17 games in and we’ve still not performed over the full 90 minutes yesterday was near but we just fell away second half and invited them on to us.
Decent sides in this league do both week in week out sadly were not one of them.
 
We’re still in a decent position in the league and went toe-to-toe with a top team away from home, just like we did against Oxford. It feels like our fans will only accept dominating the league which seems completely unreasonable. If we drew yesterday a decent chunk on here would STILL be moaning, it’s just ridiculous…

We’ll be in the fight for a play off spot which is a decent effort, next year is where I expect us to kick on and fight for automatic.
 
TangerineTom said:
We’re still in a decent position in the league and went toe-to-toe with a top team away from home, just like we did against Oxford. It feels like our fans will only accept dominating the league which seems completely unreasonable. If we drew yesterday a decent chunk on here would STILL be moaning, it’s just ridiculous…

We’ll be in the fight for a play off spot which is a decent effort, next year is where I expect us to kick on and fight for automatic.
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What I can't accept is our unwillingness to take shots at goal. Bolton didn't win by walking the ball into the net, they shot from distance having been gifted the ball by our jittery defensive midfield. If we are to be in the mix for the play-offs we need to sort these two aspects of our game.
 
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
No, I just don’t think we’re good enough to go on a good run of results.
17 games in and we’re still playing with a different team most games of the week I’m amazed Critchley still doesn’t know his best starting 11.
17 games in and we’ve still not performed over the full 90 minutes yesterday was near but we just fell away second half and invited them on to us.
Decent sides in this league do both week in week out sadly were not one of them.
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He doesn't have a best 11

He changes to deal with the opposition

Frustrates rhe hell
Jaffa_The_Hut said:
No, I just don’t think we’re good enough to go on a good run of results.
17 games in and we’re still playing with a different team most games of the week I’m amazed Critchley still doesn’t know his best starting 11.
17 games in and we’ve still not performed over the full 90 minutes yesterday was near but we just fell away second half and invited them on to us.
Decent sides in this league do both week in week out sadly were not one of them.
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He doesn't have a best 11. Chops and changes to deal with the opposition

Frustrates the hell out of me

Let us get settled and let the opposition worry about us. Not knowing if you're playing week in week out must be unsettling
 
BFCPaul said:
Take Pompey away out of the equation and now until the end of the year (including the FA Cup) we play sides well below us in the table - can anyone see us going on the sort of run we need to in order to push back in to the Top 6?
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Yes. The squad are showing progression similar to Critch’s first season, slow and steady as the squad is moulded into a confident team.
I see us in the top six before the end of this season.
 
Absolutely no chance. Two things need to happen:

- Critchley sacked or change the formation
- Better quality players in January.

Neither are likely to happen.
 
Not a chance....cant get any momentum going with the chopping and changing and the players quite clearly unsure of their roles.
Prime example yesterday with Bolton's tactical organisation to not deviate from what has worked for them.
Pro-active thinking from the sidelines, not reactive.
It doesn't even need a drawing board to get this team in the right direction, just play to our strengths and for crying out loud, up the tempo!!
 
Yes, without a doubt. We’re not far off at all…

One or two additions in January will make a massive difference, but I’d expect a solid December and to be there or there abouts and ready to kick on in the second half of the season.

The formation is absolutely fine… we’re improving as a squad / team as each week goes by.
 
Yes I think it is possible but we need to get used to a settled system. We are now regularly 3 at the back but do we then have 4 or 5 in the middle and either 2 up top or 2 playing behind a single striker.

A settled midfield with Dembele playing a free role would help and Norburn with Dougall or Virtue might give us a solid midfield to go on a run.
 
No I can't really. We are exactly where we should be. We are in the bang average territory with a good striker who gets us out of jail.
We are not creative enough, we are not positive enough and our wing backs are poor for this system. Gabriel will make a difference but he's still a few weeks away.
 
Morgan, Dale, Weir and the lad with the double barrelled name just don't offer enough in midfield for me....

Quality not quantity is required!

We will probably sign another duffer in Jan; is Charlie Kirk still available?
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Yes, without a doubt. We’re not far off at all…

One or two additions in January will make a massive difference, but I’d expect a solid December and to be there or there abouts and ready to kick on in the second half of the season.

The formation is absolutely fine… we’re improving as a squad / team as each week goes by.
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Mostly agree x3 but it is the consistently repeating problems that are letting us down: Jitterily passing the ball around in defence, as if it's a hot potato; passing backwards from forward midfield so that potential attacks falter. These are not tactical manoeuvres worked out to progress the play. They are habits that slow us down and benefit the opposition. They must be cut out of our game.
 
It feels like, and is at the moment, a mid table type of season.
We need some fresh blood for anything better, whether that comes from injured players returning, or from decent acquisitions in January (hopefully both).
A few more key players getting injured and some more dropped points and we will be looking over our shoulders.
 
1966_and_all_that said:
Mostly agree x3 but it is the consistently repeating problems that are letting us down: Jitterily passing the ball around in defence, as if it's a hot potato; passing backwards from forward midfield so that potential attacks falter. These are not tactical manoeuvres worked out to progress the play. They are habits that slow us down and benefit the opposition. They must be cut out of our game.
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I’ve no problem passing it backwards etc.. That to me is how proper football is supposed to be. If you watched Bolton yesterday, they frequently passed backwards and sideways to the GK, even from very advanced positions (on the edge of our box).

That kind of patient build up and willingness to literally bin off an attack and start again is something fans need to get used to, if they want to see good quality winning football…. It’s not 1966 anymore (as it were) and English Football has moved on leaps and bounds.

There’s no doubt we need to improve our decision making, the slickness and pace of our passing and movement needs to improve and I have seen progress in that regard.

On the whole I thought we acquitted ourselves very well yesterday against a decent Bolton side. I think Lavery would have played a key part in that particular game and his injury will have been a massive spanner in the works from a tactical perspective.

There’s plenty to be positive about right now… Playing Portsmouth next league outing may be a bit of a blessing or a curse in some respects… A win would give us a massive boost, but they are another good side (possibly one of 3 or 4) that currently have the edge on us imho. I think we may come up short, but you never know.

My biggest concern right now is the fans… Last season seems to have broken their will… We seem to lack resilience (understandable perhaps), but I’m not sure that our fans quite have the stomach for anything much more than a very comfortable run out… There’s not much fight in many of them (well not unless their fighting amongst themselves on Twitter)…
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
Yes, without a doubt. We’re not far off at all…

One or two additions in January will make a massive difference, but I’d expect a solid December and to be there or there abouts and ready to kick on in the second half of the season.

The formation is absolutely fine… we’re improving as a squad / team as each week goes by.
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I don't think we are far off either. But I reckon we need to either change formation or find better wide players.
 
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voyeur said:
I don't think we are far off either. But I reckon we need to either change formation or find better wide players.
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I like the formation, but we possibly need to bring in some additions. I’m not entirely sure where we need to strengthen.
 
BFC_BFC_BFC said:
I like the formation, but we possibly need to bring in some additions. I’m not entirely sure where we need to strengthen.
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We lack genuine quality out wide. The service in to the strikers is really erratic and it limits our scoring opportunities. I think. But we have underutilised options like Lyons and Apter. And hopefully Gabriel.

The injuries to Norburn, Virtue, Lavery, Joseph aren't helping. Obviously.
 
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I thought CJ struggled to impose himself as much yesterday. That said, I actually thought he handled the defensive side of his role very well and made a number of good recovery tackles yesterday… He did come a bit more into the game as time progressed, but I wonder how much the lack of an equivalent LWB impacts… We really need to threaten down both sides to be at our most effective.

Reality is that it kind of went tits up yesterday with no Lavery.

I think Lyons could have a positive impact… Having spent a bit of time watching more of Rob Apter, I think I’m coming round to the idea of him (at the very least) offering an alternative to CJ and I’d be happy to see him return in January… I think I’d view that as a positive move from the Club.

I’d like to see Virtue back obviously, although as I said in another thread, I’d also like to see a Ritchie Wellens type CM who really takes us up a notch in that central area.
 
He doesn’t have the players to get us up with the system and tactics we are employing. It’s as simple as that. People are just assuming we will go on a run because we’ve done so in the past. Law of averages says we can’t keep on doing it in the run in.
 
Not unless he changes the formation..I think he played 4-3-3 at the start of our promotion season and was reluctant to change it (hence the slow start). We went 4-4-2 and became the form side of the league for the rest of the campaign.
 
NoFindsFriday said:
Yes. The squad are showing progression similar to Critch’s first season, slow and steady as the squad is moulded into a confident team.
I see us in the top six before the end of this season.
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He changed formation in his first tenure as his initial way of playing wasn't working. We went 442 and had a steadier 11
 
No. Not consistent enough. You can see 2/3 wins followed by 2/3 losses followed by 2/3 draws.

All adds up to top half finish, maybe 8th.

In the main the players are there, possibly an addition or 2, and you could see the play offs.
 
We need a settled team with no more than one or two changes per game unless injuries or suspensions dictate otherwise. For me it would be Grimshaw in goal, Pennington,Expiteta and Husband in Central defense, Norburn & Dougall holding in central midfield with Dembele in a free role ahead of them, CJ & Dale out wide with Rhodes and Kouassi/Lavery/Joseph up front. Play that team consistently and let them play too fast friends and we'll see the 3 points per game accruing
 
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No issue with the ideology of the formation and playing it around to draw the opposition out to create the space/opportunity.

Its the execution that is lacking and I get its a work in progress but has this become a vanity project for critchley? Is the way we play more important to him than the points. Wegner was guilty of this in the twighlight of his arsenal career.

Other teams have shown it can be done at this level, Peterborough and Bolton to a lesser extent for example. As others have mentioned we don't seem to have all the component players to make it dynamically work for us at the minute.

I live in hope that it will click but my head says win some, lose and draw some but no real run of wins for me, sadly.
 
It’s like when you were a kid at school. Why do your homework 5 nights in advance, do it the night before it’s in!

The play off pressure in the new year will kick us up the arse.
 
BFCPaul said:
Take Pompey away out of the equation and now until the end of the year (including the FA Cup) we play sides well below us in the table - can anyone see us going on the sort of run we need to in order to push back in to the Top 6?
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No
 
The statistics don’t lie, we’ve won just 6 league games in not a strong league. That’s on a par with those below us, worse than some. We have the squad to be pushing automatic, but Critchley is content with being average. His percentage football has always been dire.

The number of draws in his overall statistics paints a picture of negativity, focussed on stopping the opposition. When he was learning his trade, it was a very FA way of coaching, a mirror of Southgate.

With 3 points for a win, those tactics are likely to leave us short. Next season will be far more difficult and for me, SS needs to take a long hard look at what is happening.

I was thinking about his time with us and just the big away followings. The fans are doing their bit, but the approach and outcome is usually the same. We are never thrashed or outclassed, we just don’t turn up and play our game. Even when we are ahead and controlling a game, his approach is negative, which invites teams back into the game.

This is becoming a very frustrating season, because the squad has all the quality & depth. At what point does SS realise we’re treading water.
 
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