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The season so far...


ChezGiven

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The comment that is understated in your analysis is that we are not a premiership side. Pompey would do us 5-0 right now. This scares the hell out of me. We are better than the majority of this league, but they are much worse than I had expected.

 

We could become a good side and kill this league with just a couple of players, but I don't think we have the money or the ability to find these people.

 

1. Midfielder who can run into space. We have Ranger, Carroll and Shola who can all knock a ball down back and hold it up - well we need someone who can run with pace for 90 minutes and either put it out to another midfielder or shoot - we need a fit Kieron Dyer really.

 

2. A finisher - one who can run onto a ball and compliment one of the three players mentioned above. Nolan is trying but I think he is at his best now and what we could really use is someone like Chopra.

 

We could improve in a number of other areas as well. And even if we got these two players I mentioned we'd still be killed after promotion.

 

One last observation: At the start of the season we seemed fitter than the other teams... that gloss seems to have gone now. Even when we fell behind the other teams seemed to fade in the last 20 and we seemed to have more fitness and drive than our oppoenents - we aren't like that anymore. The Blades and certainly Scunny seemed even fitter than us and last longer. Have we lost fitness? Have they gotten better? I have no idea.

 

 

 

Watch Darran Pratley next Saturday.

 

A fellow Swans fan described him as a duracell bunny on acid..  ;D

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Agreed but just saying we need to be on guard. Swansea won't come and accept deafeat like Peterborough did, they'll have a go. They've lost one in their last 11 and have climbed to forth as a pose to Preston who we played on a bad run of performances.

 

Similarly Watford are begining to find a run of form. It would be nice to take adavantage of being on home turf and put some real daylight between ourselves and third though.

 

Edit: They might actually be unbeaten in their last 11, can't be arsed to check. Ironically Preston were the last side to beat them.

 

Actually no, undefeated for 12 games now.

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The best thing is that we have some good young players emerging who I think can play in the Premiership in time - Kadar, Ranger and Carroll. Ironically, the lad who I thought was really going to seize his chance - Lua Lua - seems to have slipped backwards. I wonder if he has too much of an individualistic streak, like his brother.

 

The most worrying thing from the point of view of possible promotion is how often the defence gets exposed. We don't close the opposition down further up the pitch and they have time to create chances. We're simply not getting punished at this level.

 

The team that intrigue me are Blackpool, who are mixing good results with bad.

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I'd be tempted to play Guthrie with Nolan in the centre, with Jonas on the left, and R.Taylor on the right. Starting to get frustrating again seeing Smith charge about like a bull in a china shop. Was good in the run of games up until the Blackpool away game, think he's been a liability since then.

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Not a popular opinion but i'd still like to see Barton in the middle if he ever gets fit again. He was obviously carrying an injury at the start of the season.

 

If we could get him playing to his potential, it would open up many more options in midfield.

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I just want to see some pace up front and a winger on each side. Hopefully Pancrate will be the answer to the right-wing problem because we can't continue to play Guthrie there.  Now that Lovenkrands has got over his family problems I'd like to see him given a long run in the team alongside Carroll or Ranger. At times last season (in the Premiership I hasten to add) Lovenkrands looked very good and I'm sure he'd tear this league's defenses a new hoop given the chance.

 

 

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Not a popular opinion but i'd still like to see Barton in the middle if he ever gets fit again. He was obviously carrying an injury at the start of the season.

 

If we could get him playing to his potential, it would open up many more options in midfield.

 

A "fit" Barton could be the best player in this league.

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Very happy at this point. Considering we lost most of our saleable assets and many doom-mongers like HTL and UV were predicting two successive relegations is it so bad that we are top of the league?

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I have to keep remembering to compare our situation with where we expected to be. As TRon says, a lot of people were saying we would go down again... in that respect I'm very happy.

 

Bit disappointed with some of our performances, but we still have a number of players, particuarly in attacking areas and midfield, who's lack of ability will obviously lead to some stale games.

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I think we'd have been close to a relegation scrap if Kinnear was still here, if only for the simple fact no fucker wanted to play for him whatsoever. Whilst Hughton's all nicey-nicey and never ballsey enough to be a Premiership manager, all this squad of players needs in this league is some motivation, fitness and basic tactics. The personnel are far too good not to be in and around the top spots.

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Guest Howaythetoon

I actually wouldn't read too much into the performances. I was in Wolverhampton last week and a few of their lot were claiming that Wolves last year were patchy in terms of performances, and that this is the norm for this league apparently. Because the actual quality is so poor and so many teams are even, its hard to romp the division in terms of performances. I mean when we beat Ipswich 4-0 which on paper reads as a hammmering, we were not that hot I thought.

 

I'm quite happy though, top, a bit of distance between us and 3rd and looking pretty strong defensively. My only concern is our lack of goals.

 

We'll go up though, maybe not as Champions, but I fancy us strongly for automatic promotion.

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Lack of goals is a massive worry in that it strongly suggests we'll have to completely revamp our midfield and attack to survive in the prem. Hull have scored 8 goals in 2 and a half games in the premiership. We haven't exceeded that in our last 7 in the championship.

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Guest Howaythetoon

Lack of goals is a massive worry in that it strongly suggests we'll have to completely revamp our midfield and attack to survive in the prem. Hull have scored 8 goals in 2 and a half games in the premiership. We haven't exceeded that in our last 7 in the championship.

 

I think outside of the defence, if we were promoted, the rest of the side would need a complete revamp as neither the midfield nor attack is remotely good enough for the PL, both areas in current guise is actually relegation fodder in that league if you ask me. Its that bad (our midfield and attack), they struggle at times even in this division. A mean defence, a good team spirit, momentum, poor teams around us, some luck and the form of a few individuals is what has us top of the league in my opinion and not outstanding quality throughout. Not that I expect that given the players we have.

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Guest WashyGeordie

To be honest, a January that involves us letting none go (bar perhaps Butt and Geremi), signing Simpson permanently and maybe one or two more would be quite good by our standards.

 

So, none of that will happen then.. :undecided:

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  • 2 weeks later...

These next 4 games could be the most important of the season. If we can put some points between us and the rest, we could rid ourselves of a bit of doubt.

 

 

Won all 4 of them and we have that distance we need. Hope we dont get complacent.

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I cant see us getting complacent enough to fall out of the top 2. Yes we will lose more games before its over, think we lost 9 last time we got promoted? But the teams below us are losing aswell, only us and West Brom are consistantly winning in this league. Also if we did lose a game or 2, we would more than likely go back on a run of wins and draws again which would open up the gap further.

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Guest firetotheworks

Surely it must get harder than this? Something will happen to fuck it up, it doesn't feel natural for us to have everything going our way.

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The only way I can see us slipping up is if Colo or S Taylor get a bad injury that keeps them out for a big chunk of the season.

 

Good thing about Colo is he is probably the least injury prone player we have had in years. Dont think he was injured at all last season was he?

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I think we hae the potential to improve even further. With Nolan out next match it's a great opportunity to move Guthrie into the middle and start Pancake out wide. We might even get a performance to match the results.

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To have what is basically a four game swing between us and the Playoff spots is absolutely massive.

 

As it stands, it's going to be a big, big ask for those teams (Forest, Leicester and Cardiff) to turn that around any time soon. Forest, for example, go to Brammall Lane next and then to Swansea, while Cardiff are away to WBA and then away to Middlesbrough.

 

We've got trips to the Ricoh Arena and Oakwell. I know where I'd rather be going.

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To have what is basically a four game swing between us and the Playoff spots is absolutely massive.

 

As it stands, it's going to be a big, big ask for those teams (Forest, Leicester and Cardiff) to turn that around any time soon. Forest, for example, go to Brammall Lane next and then to Swansea, while Cardiff are away to WBA and then away to Middlesbrough.

 

We've got trips to the Ricoh Arena and Oakwell. I know where I'd rather be going.

 

When we were on 30 points i reckoned the next 4 were very winnable but after that the league would tighten up, with quite a few of the top teams playing each other. Our next 4 are 3 away from home and Boro, so we are going to drop points just the same as everyone else.

 

On another note, Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Us, Leeds, Charlton, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Notts County and Barnet still unbeaten at home.

 

Forest are unbeaten away incidentally. With 7 of those draws, they've not taken full advantage of that form.

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