What’s your opinion on our season so far? | Vital Football

What’s your opinion on our season so far?

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
With a quarter of the season gone what’s your opinion so far?
No doubt Potter’s doing a great job with this young squad and it’s a pleasure to watch real football once again. He has exceeded all expectations after the owners decided to have a fire sale and decimate the squad, leaving fans in despair as our youngsters from the Academy were left to pick up the pieces.
The quality of our defence makes us promotion contenders with only 6 goals conceded in 11 games.
The problem is that we’ve only scored 10 goals in 11 games, with 3 of those coming in one game.
For example with 60% possession against Wigan we are dominating teams but not getting the goals and the 3 points from matches that our play deserves.
Is Baker-Richardson the answer, he could have had a hat trick against QPR.
Not used at Wigan perhaps he’ll return for the Ipswich match next Saturday, McBurnie certainly needs help up front.
Frustratingly we look only a few additions short of giving promotion a real shot this season.
If only Bony and Montero can step up to the plate and stay fit once they’ve returned from injury, we could have smiling faces come next May.
 
I think we've got to be realistic here. It's a new team, full of young, inexperienced players and so what Potter has done so far is quite remarkable really. We've seen other clubs go through a similar process after relegation and fail miserably.

Celina is our only real signing who's made a big impact. McKay so-so and Asoro very very little so considering that as well, it's even more impressive.

Defensively we look pretty solid although we looked vulnerable against Ipswich, 50% of the goals we've conceded all season conceded in our game against the bottom side. Hopefully that's a one-off and we get back to keeping clean sheets again!

At the rate that we're improving, I'm confident that things will click up front and we'll start putting chances away. We've got Montero to come back again and Fer is still slowly getting to full fitness but I just can't see Bony getting involved. Rumours are that he's picked up another injury to set him back further.

I see this as Potter's consolidation season. Get to know the players, set some good foundations and prepare for a better season next year. My only concern then though is our squad is actually worse, not better, and Potter might be looking elsewhere if that's the case and with a total lack of financial backing to show ambition of getting back to the Premier League.
 
Yes, strange that his three signings have yet to impress. Celina I thought was poor against Ipswich until he scored, but he’s obviously the pick of the three. McKay has had one good match, the first of the season against his old club Sheffield Utd.
Asoro has done absolutely zilch so far.
I feel that our chances of bouncing back up lessen with each season that passes, so I think it’s important that we do well up to January. If the owners see we have a chance of promotion I think they will open the purse strings to get a few players in.
Possibly by getting Bony fit and available we can sell him on and free up the 80k a week that’s being drained from the club by his wages. Some of this would then cover a few new players salaries with the rest feeding the supposed debts we’ve accumulated.
 
The elevation to the senior squad of several U23’s players is having a profound effect on the Academy teams. Players from U18’s are being used to replace U23’s players and as a consequence there is a big downturn in their results compared to the successes of last season.
The massive clear out of senior players after relegation meant that players had to come from somewhere, but are they being replaced further down the conveyor belt, not that I’ve heard, as the cull extends throughout the club.
 
The emergence of Dan James in the last few games has given us a real threat on the wing, one that’s been missing since Montero was injured.
Ironically Montero has now recovered and is back in training together with Bony.
If only we could get those two firing on all cylinders, together with what we’ve already got, we would be a real threat in this league.
The last two convincing home wins have given fans the optimism that we can challenge for promotion this season.
Whilst we are still a project in its infancy, the hard work of the coaching team and players is already starting to bear fruition.
It will be a long hard winter with the heavy pitches and sheer volume of matches, but the enthusiasm and endeavour of the young players will be a big factor in seeing us through this period and we could even end up exceeding all expectations.
 
James has been the difference lately. 2 assists for McBurnie now and he should have proved to be the difference again today but we threw it away at the end
 
Yes, agree.
James was really good again yesterday, as he had the beating of the Rotherham full back every time.
He faded second half though, with two players marking him as Rotherham changed their formation.
 
Good luck to James and Roberts called up to the Wales squad but tough on Rodon who has excelled this season. Unknown 26 year old defender James Lawrence of Anderlecht replaces him, which is baffling, after Rodon’s excellent displays for the Swans this season.
 
Last edited:
Well a month or so later and optimism has turned to pessimism as we struggle for any sort of form or consistency, with four defeats in the last six games.
After a fine start and hovering around the top end of the table, suddenly we find that our passing game has gone, our midfield is non existent, we can’t score and we can’t defend.
Has the recruitment of relatively inexperienced players and the introduction of too many Academy players at the same time, who have never played Championship football, finally caught up with us as we near the half way stage of the campaign?
 
Last edited:
Reading have today sacked our ex-manager Paul Clement.
Form Guide last 10 matches:
Reading W2 D3 L5 Pts9
Swansea W3 D1 L6 Pts10
Reading form not much different to ours!
 
With two successive wins under our belt we can look forward with a bit more optimism to the Christmas period. The half way stage of the season will be reached on Saturday as we face Hull away.
Presently our 9 wins from 22 games gives us a win ratio of nearly 41%.
Jose Mourhinio by comparison had a win ration of nearly 57% covering 118 games with 67 wins in this his third season. This season though they’ve won only 7 from 17, and he’s just been fired after the worst start by Man U in 28 years. Although his overall record is not too bad, he’s spent £400 million in the process. Just heard he’ll get £18 million compensation, unbelievable.
 
Last edited:
Well the optimism was unfounded as we reached the half way stage of the season with another late collapse and a heavy defeat yesterday, to a Hull side that rarely score more than one goal.
One thing is for sure we have to reinforce the midfield, we are weak at defensive midfield and covering the back four.
This weakness was highlighted even at the beginning of the season when Potter wanted defensive midfielder Ryan Woods from Brentford, but the owners would not sanction the deal after weeks of deliberation. Stoke stepped in with a deal that took him on loan until this January before signing him permanently, why couldn’t we have done that?
Presently our best midfield is Grimes,Celina, and Fulton. Fer is not a leader and shouldn’t be captain. He disappears in games and makes too many mistakes, Norwich and QPR fans called him lazy when he was there.
What is likely to happen when the transfer window opens in a few weeks is that whoever can be sold will be sold and inferior players brought in to make up the numbers, as per August window..
Can you honestly say John and MacKay are any good and improve the team?
Asoro and Dhanda can’t even get near the first team, so four of the five signings Potter made in August have been flops so far.
The exception being Celina, who is a quality player, but even his form is up and down and he has had to be rested.
 
Last edited:
We sold Alfie Mawson, Federico Fernandez, Jordi Amat and Kyle Bartley, leaving us with one senior centre back in the summer.
Potter recently said there is an imbalance in the squad. overstocked in some areas, and short of options in others.
Leroy Fer has said that January signings were not necessarily essential.
 
After that fine win over a very good Sheffield United side, we are at a crucial stage of the season. Six points of a play-off spot do we go for it or stick with what we’ve got and hover in mid table.
We are a couple of players short of making a challenge, surely they can release funds for a few loanees if they do not want to buy players at this time.
With ten days left of the transfer window a lot will depend on getting rid of the non productive high earners bleeding the club dry.
We sit and wait in anticipation.
 
With some consistency now in terms of starting XI and the way we want to play (formation etc) we are getting the results. Unbeaten this year now and looking a lot more confident. Wasted too many games now to challenge for top 6 but to be honest we're not strong enough anyway to compete in the play-offs and look at promotion.

We won't sign anyone this month and we'll do well to keep the squad as it is until the Summer.