It's going to take...

I was thinking during the game how if, in years gone by, we'd signed a player like Thorniley from a Championship team, he'd have been a shoe-in starter for the rest of his time here.
Nowadays he's the 5th choice centre half.

That isn't a slight on Jordan, it simply shows how far we have come in an extremely short period of time.

We will no doubt lose a few more players to injury before the season is out, but we'll have players return and others who will step up.
 
I think it looks promising, but there is quite a lot of work to be done yet. The two teams who I think are the biggest threat to us are Pompey and Ipswich, both of whom have pretty decent run ins. Set against that, Charlton's looks insanely difficult.

I still feel 75 points is going to be close to the benchmark for top six. It usually is.
 
I think the boss has finally gone back to the sort of football he wants to play and the Madine based 4 4 2 has been put to one side.
When Madine is available the option is still there but that was so much better today and that is the sort of formation we should be sticking with. The players can change and the game plan can be tweaked but today was the blue print for the future.
 
basilrobbie said:
I think it looks promising, but there is quite a lot of work to be done yet. The two teams who I think are the biggest threat to us are Pompey and Ipswich, both of whom have pretty decent run ins. Set against that, Charlton's looks insanely difficult.

I still feel 75 points is going to be close to the benchmark for top six. It usually is.
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yep, an awful lot of work still to be done. Nothing is guaranteed. I'd say it's likely that those teams on a poor run could come good and equally so those on good run come falter a bit. It's what happens in this division.
 
Agree with the general feeling. There's still a lot of work to do, but the encouraging thing for me is that when it comes to those 5th and 6th placed spot, no-one is really looking likely. Whereas we keep chipping away at it.
 
Tin hat here, but promotion would be not good this year. Build for one more then, as Wham might have penned: Get back, hands off, Go for it.
 
If
fcblackpool said:
Tin hat here, but promotion would be not good this year. Build for one more then, as Wham might have penned: Get back, hands off, Go for it.
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Going up will mean SS gets to throw more of his money around, I don't think he is under any illusions it would be needed, I think he'd relish it.
 
BlackpoolsFinest said:
If

Going up will mean SS gets to throw more of his money around, I don't think he is under any illusions it would be needed, I think he'd relish it.
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Possibly, but there a lot of players on decent term contracts who may not be easy to shift. And you're into creating a fairly new team with all the pitfalls evident this season.
 
fcblackpool said:
Possibly, but there a lot of players on decent term contracts who may not be easy to shift. And you're into creating a fairly new team with all the pitfalls evident this season.
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I think (hope) we'd have enough players on the books already to not need the same amount of changes we saw last summer in order to be able to be safe in the Championship for a season.
There would obviously need to be some turnover, but I doubt it would need to be wholesale (again).
 
13 points behind with 2 games in hand on Peterborough........ Even the most optimistic supporter must think that's a bridge to far.
 
BlackpoolsFinest said:
I think (hope) we'd have enough players on the books already to not need the same amount of changes we saw last summer in order to be able to be safe in the Championship for a season.
There would obviously need to be some turnover, but I doubt it would need to be wholesale (again).
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I'm reluctant to criticise players; manager and back staff, owners, fair enough, however if you go first IX and think who could make it in the C/ship and then consider the probable sub 10, it's fair to say we'd need a fair few in. It's not as if we have an identity to carry us through.
 
fcblackpool said:
I'm reluctant to criticise players; manager and back staff, owners, fair enough, however if you go first IX and think who could make it in the C/ship and then consider the probable sub 10, it's fair to say we'd need a fair few in. It's not as if we have an identity to carry us through.
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I agree, but I think in Marv, Garbutt, Stewart, Dougall and Yates we have the basis of a team.
I dont mean all the rest would need replacing, but those 5 would be a start, at the very least.
 
I think it’s going to hinge on the two Sunderland games which are as close to back to back as you’re very likely to get in a season.

A unique situation, which could either push us over the line or stop us dead.

To be fair I didn’t think we’d be in this position, so what ever happens after this point it’s going to be a positive end of the season.
 
BlackpoolsFinest said:
I was thinking during the game how if, in years gone by, we'd signed a player like Thorniley from a Championship team, he'd have been a shoe-in starter for the rest of his time here.
Nowadays he's the 5th choice centre half.

That isn't a slight on Jordan, it simply shows how far we have come in an extremely short period of time.

We will no doubt lose a few more players to injury before the season is out, but we'll have players return and others who will step up.
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He's a club signing on a long contract who was supposed to replace Curtis Tilt so I think that shows more that Critchley doesn't like him and will only play him out of necessity. He was told he can leave if another club wants him, and I don't think that will have changed unless the head coach does. But they've kept it professional and fair play to the lad for keeping ticking over. As it's been made absolutely clear to him that he's third choice for his own position behind a left back. 100% improvement on his last visit to the Kassam Stadium.

Good news on Dan Grets above. Congrats to him too and his family. Hopefully when he comes back into the team he's one off the injured list and it stays that way.
 
poolfc said:
He's a club signing on a long contract who was supposed to replace Curtis Tilt so I think that shows more that Critchley doesn't like him and will only play him out of necessity. He was told he can leave if another club wants him, and I don't think that will have changed unless the head coach does. But they've kept it professional and fair play to the lad for keeping ticking over. As it's been made absolutely clear to him that he's third choice for his own position behind a left back. 100% improvement on his last visit to the Kassam Stadium.

Good news on Dan Grets above. Congrats to him too and his family. Hopefully when he comes back into the team he's one off the injured list and it stays that way.
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I didn't mean to make out that signing him was some genius long term plan because someone identified his quality knowing he would come good.
He was undoubtedly one of the random signings that took place during the early days of the new regime.
The fact that we have now signed better despite him being what would have been a real coup 5 years ago was what I was trying to get across.

He has been criminally under used and his ability seemingly stumbled upon. But we do have a decent talent for this level who is currently out 5th choice centre half.
 
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