18/19 Race for Promotion

[abdulaziz1]

The most worrying part is that we’re not playing well. Some of it is because if we’re playing Whelan. I didn’t have a good connection especially in the last half an hour. But we’ve been trying much better with Birker than we did with Whelan. Wether he missed chances or not, but we need him to make up the abscence of Jack. We can’t put Whelan and expect to play as we did with Grealish.

Generally I guess results were fine, we’re one point closer to Leeds and Norwich. Still 9 with West Brom. Although we’re 5 points to top 6 instead of 3.

I’m not too confident against QPR, but playing Birker instead of Whelan will make us look much better atleast. Then we’ll look at our squad and hope for the best.

[VillaChris]

Criminal result today when we see what the top 3 did.

Worth noting though the amount of goals Norwich are conceding.

WBA also not winning again when Dwight Gayle is injured.

We simply though have to win on games when Norwich or Leeds drop points. Today was nowhere near good enough against Preston's B team.

[Jareth]

I'm not feeling the anxiety after this result, DS needs his own players in and every game until the window was always going to be a case of making the best of it. Next game we can start a new keeper and Elphick, in a few weeks time we'll probably have a proper defence and Grealish back. Having never thought top 2 was possible, as far as I'm concerned we are right on track for play-offs.

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Still fancy us tbh, apart from Leeds who were a lot fitter than us and that's why they won, and maybe Forest, I haven't seen a team who are better than us when we have Alex T and Jack in the team. Average 2 points a game, which I think is DSs average here, we wont be far off.

[villalad21]

9 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said:

The most worrying part is that we’re not playing well. Some of it is because if we’re playing Whelan. I didn’t have a good connection especially in the last half an hour. But we’ve been trying much better with Birker than we did with Whelan. Wether he missed chances or not, but we need him to make up the abscence of Jack. We can’t put Whelan and expect to play as we did with Grealish.

Generally I guess results were fine, we’re one point closer to Leeds and Norwich. Still 9 with West Brom. Although we’re 5 points to top 6 instead of 3.

I’m not too confident against QPR, but playing Birker instead of Whelan will make us look much better atleast. Then we’ll look at our squad and hope for the best.

We suddenly started playing well and creating chances when Birkir came on for Whelan.

Coincidence? I think not.

[abdulaziz1]

People seem to forget that missing the most important players isn’t as easy as losing any player. Everyone are seeing Real Madrid without Ronaldo, even Barcelona without Messi. There are couple of positions which we could afford to rotate or have replacements for. The only player that might fill Grealish place was Lansbury who have been injured. Even O’hare who might be introduced at these game is injured now. Thor is just getting back. So basically playing Whelan instead of Jack is a big blow in our system. Its the last thing you’d want. Add to that losing Axel without having any defender. We can’t just say that Smith system isn’t working with us nor that all of our hopes are gone. We still have a huge window coming up.

[Vive_La_Villa]

28 minutes ago, hippo said:

Really ?

You do realise Preston had around 8 first teamers out today -the defence was breached only once - all clubs get injuries. Shef u scored 3 with 10 men on the pitch - albion equalized with 10 on the pitch. 

Meanwhile JK spends 90 minutes on the bench.

Yes all clubs get injuries and they have to get through that period as best as possible. If we are still dropping points when key players have returned and players have been added in January. Then I’ll agree with your scepticism.

[abdulaziz1]

3 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

We suddenly started playing well and creating chances when Birkir came on for Whelan.

Coincidence? I think not.

Exactly, I don’t like to slate players just because of missing chances. Glad I’ve haven’t seen Birker one, and actually accepted a draw by then. But as long as you’re creating and playing well, you’ll reach where you want. With our play at the first half, you knew it was coming. If we were creating a proper chances since the beginning things would have been different.

[Tommo_b]

13 minutes ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Exactly, I don’t like to slate players just because of missing chances. Glad I’ve haven’t seen Birker one, and actually accepted a draw by then. But as long as you’re creating and playing well, you’ll reach where you want. With our play at the first half, you knew it was coming. If we were creating a proper chances since the beginning things would have been different.

Oh you wait then, it’s a hell of a sitter. 

[VillaChris]

28 minutes ago, Jareth said:

I'm not feeling the anxiety after this result, DS needs his own players in and every game until the window was always going to be a case of making the best of it. Next game we can start a new keeper and Elphick, in a few weeks time we'll probably have a proper defence and Grealish back. Having never thought top 2 was possible, as far as I'm concerned we are right on track for play-offs.

That's true but it's always frustrating on matchdays when Leeds and Norwich don't win and we can't capitalise.

As much as top 2 remains a pipe dream cut the gap down to under 10 points and you never know in this league.

[Lord Willard]

That was the weekend to make a move for autos. I can't see that happening today. It was the perfect weekend for us and we blew it. 

[Dave J]

42 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

That was the weekend to make a move for autos. I can't see that happening today. It was the perfect weekend for us and we blew it. 

Has auto ever really been on the cards? I'm not sure tbh with you - for me the play offs have always been the realistic route to promotion after the faltering start we had.

[VillaChris]

2 hours ago, Dave J said:

Has auto ever really been on the cards? I'm not sure tbh with you - for me the play offs have always been the realistic route to promotion after the faltering start we had.

Very true but if you can close the gap to second to 8-9 points it's possible in this league to still challenge.

Anyway Norwich have WBA, Leeds and Sheffield united in their next 5 so I reckon they won't be in top 2 when that is all done.

WBA could replace them but they struggle to win games when Gayle is injured. Jay Rodriguez out for their next three after his red today so back to Robson-Kanu upfront which will hurt them.

[villalad21]

We really looked on to something with the convincing results against Boro and Derby and then we see results and performances like today.

Really depressing how we seem to go backwards.

[sidcow]

Team loses its best, most influential midfielder (plus his most obvious replacement) and 3/4 of it's defence and doesn't play as well as it did before shocker. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by sidcow

[Jareth]

Think I read earlier we've dropped 12 points from winning positions under DS - now if he had a back 4 not composed of an injured CB and x3 average RBs, we might just be challenging for automatics. 

[Davkaus]

3 hours ago, Dave J said:

Has auto ever really been on the cards? I'm not sure tbh with you - for me the play offs have always been the realistic route to promotion after the faltering start we had.

Smith made a rod for his own back by stating top 2 was the goal.

He gets the benefit of the doubt from me, as frustrating as the last couple of games have been. The previous manager essentially sabotaged our season with the state he left our backline in.

 

[Demitri_C]

We are conceding late goals under smith which is frustrating.

[Mark Albrighton]

27 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Think I read earlier we've dropped 12 points from winning positions under DS - now if he had a back 4 not composed of an injured CB and x3 average RBs, we might just be challenging for automatics. 

I’ve seen this a bit recently, not quite sure on this stat generally speaking as it presumably also includes the Forest game which can also counted as a point gained from a losing position (incidentally that would be 5 points won from losing positions). 

It’s a problem, but it has been all season. Prior to Smith, we dropped 9 points from winning positions (just for completion, we gained 10 points from losing positions). 

So 21 points dropped from winning positions, 15 points gained from losing positions across the season.

7 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

We are conceding late goals under smith which is frustrating.

I feel because of the high profile nature of the late goals we have conceded, it’s seems more pronounced than it really is. I count three late goals conceded, Forest, Baggies and Leeds. And one of them shouldn’t have counted.

Edited December 29, 2018 by Shropshire Lad

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

4 hours ago, abdulaziz1 said:

Exactly, I don’t like to slate players just because of missing chances. Glad I’ve haven’t seen Birker one, and actually accepted a draw by then. But as long as you’re creating and playing well, you’ll reach where you want. With our play at the first half, you knew it was coming. If we were creating a proper chances since the beginning things would have been different.

It was harder to MISS!

No exaggeration.