Mick De Lyons Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 (edited) That it will now be a close call with regards to making the play offs......... Only a few weeks back, we were looking at the possibility of being ten points ahead of Norwich, who were then the seventh placed club. Today we are sixth by two points, with in form Fulham having a game in hand. It's more than likely that come Friday's game with Reading, we will be in seventh position and out of the play off places. We just didn't capitalize when we should have a few weeks ago and bar the Norwich game, the recent run of results have been poor and have left us in a far more vulnerable position. A short while ago the play offs seemed an almost certainty, with us even having an eye on the possibility of finishing in the top two places, such was the optimism, although that was a long shot. How things can change in a short space of time, especially when the 5-1 win over Norwich was only one week ago. Now we have mounting injury problems in key areas and to key players. We were already missing Lees, Lee and Hooper. Now to add to that role call of injured players are Hutchinson, Loovens, Forestieri and Sasso will serve a three game ban. Some will make a return, some not, but the squad is now depleted in key areas, mainly the centre back positions. The possible back four for the Reading game looks really weak. Carlos should have strengthened this department in the summer, but chose to reinforce the midfield instead and maybe the competition for a quality centre back mean't the prices became too high. These injuries have come at the wrong time and it leaves serious doubts as to whether we will make the play offs. It's crucial for Carlos that he does make the play offs, because if he doesn't i feel he will be sacked. Thoughts ? Edited March 12, 2017 by Mick De Lyons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouncing Owl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 1 minute ago, Mick De Lyons said: That it will now be a close call with regards to making the play offs......... Only a few weeks back, we were looking at the possibility of being ten points ahead of Norwich, who were then the seventh placed club. Today we are sixth by two points, with in form Fulham having a game in hand. It's more than likely that come Friday's game with Reading, we will be in seventh position and out of the play off places. We just didn't capitalize when we should have a few weeks ago and bar the Norwich game, the recent run of results have been poor and have left is in a far more vulnerable position. A short while ago the play offs seemed an almost certainty, with us even having an eye on the possibility of finishing in the top two places, such was the optimism, although that was a long shot. How things can change in a short space of time, especially when the 5-1 win over Norwich was only one week ago. Now we have mounting injury problems in key areas and to key players. We were already missing Lees, Lee and Hooper. Now to add to that role call of injured players are Hutchinson, Loovens, Forestieri and Sasso will serve a three game ban. Some will make a return, some not, but the squad is now depleted in key areas, mainly the centre back positions. The possible back four for the Reading game looks really weak. Carlos should have strengthened this department in the summer, but chose to reinforce the midfield instead and maybe the competition for a quality centre back mean't the prices became too high. These injuries have come at the wrong time and it leaves serious doubts as to whether we will make the play offs. It's crucial for Carlos that he does make the play offs, because if he doesn't i feel he will be sacked. Thoughts ? Personally, I think we will make the playoffs but it will be close. I've said for the majority of the season, we will finish 6th and I am not going to change my mind. Last season, I was confident as the chasing pack of Brum, Ipswich or Cardiff were not as good as us. Now, we have 1 team chasing who are a very good side and I think they will finish 5th. I think Reading will be the team to miss out and this makes the game next Friday a massive one. Regarding Carlos - I think he will be gone if we don't get promoted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S36 OWL Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I think we will still make the top six , in sixth place and Reading will miss out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pride_of_the_road Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Barnsley and rotherham are must win at all costs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgmetcalf Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 9 minutes ago, Mick De Lyons said: That it will now be a close call with regards to making the play offs......... Only a few weeks back, we were looking at the possibility of being ten points ahead of Norwich We'll just have to take 8 points then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roscoe P. Coltrane Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Well according to the brains trust on here there's nowt to worry about apparently.I beg to differ personally i think the chickens are coming home to roost ie lack of recruitment in key areas, negative tactics, poor team selections and wrong substitutions during games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StudentOwl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I'm surprised anyone ever had the opinion that play-offs were a near certainty... I definitely never really felt they were and I couldn't help but laugh at those on here who thought we would even be close to troubling the top 2. Sorry if that sounds harsh/dickish, but it just seemed we were so far off that achievement that it came across as near delusion that we might be. As for you saying our defense looks weak... it does, but I wouldn't necessarily criticise a lack of recruitment for it (And I've been criticising our recruitment since July). At the end of the day, the original plan was to have a back 4 pool of Lees, Hutch, Loovens and OTHER. OTHER didn't materialise so we brought in Sasso with the plan being Hutch and Lees as a first choice pairing. To me, that's enough strength in depth and 4 decent CB's. Then Jones failed to do what we wanted him to do, so Hutch has to push forward... it's at this point we start looking thin on the ground. If we'd stuck with the original plan we'd be fine, but certainly the second you start treating Hutch as a first choice CM again you have to get another CB in to make sure. We didn't, and perhaps we will struggle for it. It's going to be tight for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gurujuan Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 We are where I thought we would be, fighting for that sixth place. All those ideas of pushing on for the automatics, was probably fanciful. The injury problems are a concern, and have thrown the spotlight on our recruitment. I still fancy us to get to the play offs, though I'm dubious as to whether we will win them. To some extent, the play offs are a lottery, so of course we have a chance, but I don't feel we are playing well enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick De Lyons Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 8 minutes ago, Bouncing Owl said: Personally, I think we will make the playoffs but it will be close. I've said for the majority of the season, we will finish 6th and I am not going to change my mind. Last season, I was confident as the chasing pack of Brum, Ipswich or Cardiff were not as good as us. Now, we have 1 team chasing who are a very good side and I think they will finish 5th. I think Reading will be the team to miss out and this makes the game next Friday a massive one. Regarding Carlos - I think he will be gone if we don't get promoted. Its a difficult one with Carlos. I personally think he will keep his job if he gets us into the play offs. Some like yourself think he has to get us promoted. It could be either. I suppose it all depends on how we finish the season. If we finish strong, it may boost his claim to stay, but if we limp over the line, then that may force Chansiri's hand to sack him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick De Lyons Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 4 minutes ago, Andoverowl said: Well according to the brains trust on here there's nowt to worry about apparently.I beg to differ personally i think the chickens are coming home to roost ie lack of recruitment in key areas, negative tactics, poor team selections and wrong substitutions during games. Totally agree mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmowl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Possibly our weakest back four of the season, depending who pulls through for Friday, but I hope that doesn't mean Carlos will pack the midfield. We need our front six to dominate as high up the pitch as against Morwich, so our back four have a quiet evening. If we sit deep and play the awful slow stuff they will come more and more into the game and it's likely the weakened defence will give at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouncing Owl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 2 minutes ago, Mick De Lyons said: Its a difficult one with Carlos. I personally think he will keep his job if he gets us into the play offs. Some like yourself think he has to get us promoted. It could be either. I suppose it all depends on how we finish the season. If we finish strong, it may boost his claim to stay, but if we limp over the line, then that may force Chansiri's hand to sack him. I think it's more to do with the fact that we have underperformed this season after significant investment. I think the owner will think whether he trusts giving CC another £15million or so to get us top 2 next year given our last bit of recruitment. If it was my money, I wouldn't trust him and I would bring somebody else in. It's not personal with Carlos. I really like the guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverstone Owl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 The bookies agree, Fulham are favourites to win the playoffs...... I can't say on current form I disagree with that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick De Lyons Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 4 minutes ago, StudentOwl said: I'm surprised anyone ever had the opinion that play-offs were a near certainty... I definitely never really felt they were and I couldn't help but laugh at those on here who thought we would even be close to troubling the top 2. Sorry if that sounds harsh/dickish, but it just seemed we were so far off that achievement that it came across as near delusion that we might be. As for you saying our defense looks weak... it does, but I wouldn't necessarily criticise a lack of recruitment for it (And I've been criticising our recruitment since July). At the end of the day, the original plan was to have a back 4 pool of Lees, Hutch, Loovens and OTHER. OTHER didn't materialise so we brought in Sasso with the plan being Hutch and Lees as a first choice pairing. To me, that's enough strength in depth and 4 decent CB's. Then Jones failed to do what we wanted him to do, so Hutch has to push forward... it's at this point we start looking thin on the ground. If we'd stuck with the original plan we'd be fine, but certainly the second you start treating Hutch as a first choice CM again you have to get another CB in to make sure. We didn't, and perhaps we will struggle for it. It's going to be tight for sure A few weeks ago many people thought we looked secure for a play off place and then we lost to Brentford and the mood changed. As for the back four, i think it has a lot to do with the possible allocation of money by Chansiri and the decision by Carlos to move Hutch to centre back. Essentially, we had two solid centre backs in Lees and Loovens. Sasso was a back up and was released. So we should have signed two new centre backs, certainly one. What happened was Carlos decided to move Hutch to centre back, no doubt to curb the injuries he was getting and put the main resources into the midfield area, after seeing the prices clubs were asking for quality centre backs. I think it was a more a case of Missing Hutch in that defensive midfield role, than Jones not being up to scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdiwonderland Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 The favs to win the play offs haven't been in them all season. I see why, but still... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick De Lyons Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 12 minutes ago, gurujuan said: We are where I thought we would be, fighting for that sixth place. All those ideas of pushing on for the automatics, was probably fanciful. The injury problems are a concern, and have thrown the spotlight on our recruitment. I still fancy us to get to the play offs, though I'm dubious as to whether we will win them. To some extent, the play offs are a lottery, so of course we have a chance, but I don't feel we are playing well enough I feel we could make them Guru, but i don't think we are playing well consistently over three games to win them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WalthamOwl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Would people see finishing 7th as a failure for the season? Would that mean them wanting CC sacked? I love CC and really hope he gets us to qualify in that 6th spot. He has made a big mistake not bringing in a CB but at the same time we have been so unlucky with injuries to some of our most important players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick De Lyons Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 11 minutes ago, Holmowl said: Possibly our weakest back four of the season, depending who pulls through for Friday, but I hope that doesn't mean Carlos will pack the midfield. We need our front six to dominate as high up the pitch as against Morwich, so our back four have a quiet evening. If we sit deep and play the awful slow stuff they will come more and more into the game and it's likely the weakened defence will give at some point. I agree mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marshy Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 I said weeks ago we were in 6th but we were clinging onto it rather than pushing on through it. No manager can help injuries, and 6 first teamers out would affect the best manager in terms of selection. However I think Carlos will live to regret not solving the CB issue in the Summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouncing Owl Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Just now, Mick De Lyons said: I feel we could make them Guru, but i don't think we are playing well consistently over three games to win them. At the moment, I agree we are not playing well enough. But there is no team to fear this season. Last year, we had very good and physical sides in Brighton and Hull in there. There is also a possibility that all players come back from injury including Kieran Lee and in my opinion we could be the team to beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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