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It is, you compare to other seasons and we’d have been out of touch the years where the points tallies were higher. We strung together a really good run of consecutive wins against teams around us that allowed us to go and win the league. Before that 8-1-0 run we were in playoff contention, not...

The operative word was relatively. We were out of the playoffs for more games than we were in the automatics and it was only around Xmas that year we stormed to top spot. Likewise, in 22/23 we spent less time in the playoffs than QPR who finished 20th. Let’s be honest, the L1 season, not many...

I don’t think we’ll be good enough for automatics this season even if we sign 2 marquee players. Top 4 is realistic with those extra bodies that add quality, as I’ve said in previous threads, we haven’t actually improved our midfield or defensive options from last season. So I agree on those...

It’s probably fitness related, the club probably plans to have players peaking leading up to Xmas period (for arguments sake). We’ve just had the olympics, so for context, athletes will often plan their cycles with the big events in mind so will often be performing at 80-90% in between those...

Which is not automatics. The reality is we entered the automatics and then top spot 2-3 weeks before the season ended. In relative terms, it’s a ‘slow start’.

To state the obvious, you want to peak towards the end of the season when the most games are, right? We’ve started slowly every season (barring season 2 in Championship). Even the year we won League 1, we won our first away game in December (v Wycombe). Particularly when we were rubbish (pre...

People never learn. We had one below par performance and all of a sudden it’s a shit team full of shit players. Torp’s only really getting started now with the amount of games he missed last season. Give him at least 10-15 games before writing him off!

After last season you’d have thought you’d wait 10-15 games before making such rash comments. I’ll leave it to someone else to keep the receipts on this.

Yes and no. Playoffs will be the target this season but if you still look at our squad, it’s still short of 2-3 players to be really considered anything close to automatic standard. I’m holding out on signing a marquee CM as intended with Stamenic. Likewise, there’s a need for a CB who...

Well, the forum’s annual tradition of overreacting is under way, again. We’ve made tactical tweaks and have players adapting to that, new teammates or even the league itself. 10 games is a useful barometer and even then it’s clear that Robins sets the team up to peak later in the season. It’s...

Agreed and they need to be players that are marquee signings. Definitely at CM and I’m in two minds whether or not the CBs we’ve got are good enough to be a Top 4 defence this season. Case in point being Binks. In time, he will develop into a solid CB but why is this signing seen to be...

The depth nor quality is there. Robins said we needed more quality in midfield and we’ve only added Rudoni to replace COH. Who, in the now, isn’t necessarily an upgrade on COH despite my belief that he’ll turn out to be a better player over time. We’ve added a lot of quality in our forward...

There’s a few sources, I might be out a % on tackles and probably over egged his interceptions. https://fbref.com/en/players/7b4a62af/Ben-Sheaf

Sheaf was in the top 98 or 99% of ball winning and interceptions in the championship last season. He is the ‘enforcer’. I said this multiple times last season, without Sheaf in midfield we look a lot worse. In fairness, Eccles didn’t start the game but you’d expect him to really step up this...

That’s a given, he won’t be shoehorned in. Sakamoto played better on Saturday but given it was EMC’s first game at Championship level, he did alright and will grow into the role more. After all, it took Sakamoto till October/November to have a real impact. There’s no reason other players can’t...

Hence why I think eventually, EMC-Simms-Wright will be our starting 3 upfront. Out of possession we could easily make it a 4-4-2 too which is a fashionable tactical idea atm.

In fairness, if you concede around 75m you need to come out and attack more which can leave you vulnerable to being picked off by teams. If you don’t kill games off, you run the risk of dropping points. Going into half time, I thought we’d be making Stoke pay for their inability to convert their...

You just have to accept that sometimes you have an off day. To share a snippet of a conversation I had with my old uni mate who is a Stoke STH, who said: Went on to say how he expected us to be in the playoffs. That’s because you can see the way we moved the ball in patches was really good...

More shots doesn’t necessarily equate to better team. The control of the ball was there in the second half but the incisiveness in creating chances wasn’t. On the balance of things, we were lucky to be 0-0 going into the break so we can’t have any complaints with the final result.

At risk of going into ‘off topic’ territory here, but looking at a lot of the areas rioting - they’re all ‘left behind’ places. To state the obvious, that’s not justifying disorder and violence. It’s easy to see why these communities are so angry. Coventry, for its sins, is getting better and...