The magical months (1 Viewer)

Macca · 2026-02-07T22:25:44+0000

Looking back at the season so far and unsurprisingly everything we have and are desperately trying to cling on to is down to a staggering 2 months between 27/9 and 29/11. 13 games 36 points. The other 18 across the other 4 months only a very ordinary 23 points. So the obvious question. Same players, same manager, what was the secret to our success in that extraordinary run? And how to we get back to something even close to it?

stupot07 · 2026-02-07T22:34:26+0000

I'm just going to copy and paste my post from the tactician thread:

I think the problem is more, nothings changed. We seemed to come out of preseason fitter and sharper than the rest of the league, we basically had the same team as last season so didn't have the "gelling" issue, and we took teams by surprise.

Teams know how we play, how to nullify us and what our weaknesses are now, there is no longer a mismatch in fitness and sharpness (in fact if anything, the lack of rotation means we're now suffering from fatigue), and teams that made a few signings in the summer have now gelled

We're still trying to play the same way.

Perennial Lurker · 2026-02-07T23:00:57+0000

We are missing BTA badly , dont know the stats but since he first got injured we started playing poorly . Rudoni quite obviously has an issue , Grimes has been way over played and has lost his early season fizz.Also shows just how influential EMC is to our success.
Don't know how we get back into form but it's almost like Lampard has too many options now(??) , seems our good run coincided with a lack of available players which almost forced selection

Cov98 · 2026-02-07T23:06:36+0000

I don't know what thread I said it on, but a lot of our early success was down to the fact we were the only ones performing.

Ipswich had a bad start, Boro to be fair were with us right until they had their little blip, Hull weren't up there and Stoke were the only team near us results wise and now they've ended up where you'd expect.

We were playing well yes, but the fact a lot of the teams we were playing had a bad start gave us a lead that in reality we were never going to maintain.

SeaSeeEffCee · 2026-02-07T23:21:31+0000

Puts it into perspective when you realise it was only 13 games. From 36 in 13 to 16 in the following 13…

Super Graham Withey · 2026-02-07T23:33:50+0000

Macca said:
Looking back at the season so far and unsurprisingly everything we have and are desperately trying to cling on to is down to a staggering 2 months between 27/9 and 29/11. 13 games 36 points. The other 18 across the other 4 months only a very ordinary 23 points. So the obvious question. Same players, same manager, what was the secret to our success in that extraordinary run? And how to we get back to something even close to it?

We had a lot of luck

fernandopartridge · 2026-02-07T23:35:06+0000

Super Graham Withey said:
We had a lot of luck

You can tell things are going badly, people like you crawl out of the woodwork

Super Graham Withey · 2026-02-07T23:39:37+0000

But having got into the position we did we needed to gamble in the transfer market.

fernandopartridge said:
You can tell things are going badly, people like you crawl out of the woodwork

i don’t think they are going badly we are still way outperforming our playing budget and we are still in with a chance of going up. Everything fell for us early on this season and now it’s not. We just need to play through it and hope things turn.

SkyBlueMatt · 2026-02-08T00:02:35+0000

stupot07 said:
I'm just going to copy and paste my post from the tactician thread:

I think the problem is more, nothings changed. We seemed to come out of preseason fitter and sharper than the rest of the league, we basically had the same team as last season so didn't have the "gelling" issue, and we took teams by surprise.

Teams know how we play, how to nullify us and what our weaknesses are now, there is no longer a mismatch in fitness and sharpness (in fact if anything, the lack of rotation means we're now suffering from fatigue), and teams that made a few signings in the summer have now gelled

We're still trying to play the same way.

Spot on, Lampard needs to earn his stripes now

When I got back, there was even a shit episode of Only Fools & Horses. If that isn't a hint

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk

lord_garrincha · 2026-02-08T00:05:06+0000

SkyBlueMatt said:
Spot on, Lampard needs to earn his stripes now

When I got back, there was even a shit episode of Only Fools & Horses. If that isn't a hint

Sent from my M2101K6G using Tapatalk

Like Rodney... if Frank Lampard died tonight... he'd wake up as Frank on Monday!

rob9872 · 2026-02-08T00:14:38+0000

Teams go on runs, good and bad, weve had both. Hopefully a mixed bag left will get us over the line.

clint van damme · 2026-02-08T08:04:38+0000

stupot07 said:
I'm just going to copy and paste my post from the tactician thread:

I think the problem is more, nothings changed. We seemed to come out of preseason fitter and sharper than the rest of the league, we basically had the same team as last season so didn't have the "gelling" issue, and we took teams by surprise.

Teams know how we play, how to nullify us and what our weaknesses are now, there is no longer a mismatch in fitness and sharpness (in fact if anything, the lack of rotation means we're now suffering from fatigue), and teams that made a few signings in the summer have now gelled

We're still trying to play the same way.

Made a comment on another thread, what works in September doesn't necessarily work in January for a host of reasons.

Think you've hilighted several of them.

Osullivan18 · 2026-02-08T09:25:49+0000

I do think we played a more direct style earlier in the season. Getting forward quickly not allowing teams to reset shape. On the flip side to that teams seem to play more direct against us now, meaning less chance to steal the ball high up the pitch, which we were doing really well.

Gynnsthetonic · 2026-02-08T09:38:43+0000

rob9872 said:
Teams go on runs, good and bad, weve had both. Hopefully a mixed bag left will get us over the line.

Another run is needed, if we beat Middlesbrough that's 2 unbeaten and we move on, West Brom and Stoke are hardly at the top of their game

chiefdave · 2026-02-08T11:06:22+0000

stupot07 said:
We seemed to come out of preseason fitter and sharper than the rest of the league, we basically had the same team as last season so didn't have the "gelling" issue, and we took teams by surprise.

Teams know how we play, how to nullify us and what our weaknesses are now, there is no longer a mismatch in fitness and sharpness (in fact if anything, the lack of rotation means we're now suffering from fatigue), and teams that made a few signings in the summer have now gelled

Stupot has basically posted exactly what I was going to post. One thing to add, the way the fixtures fell this season the general consensus was we had an 'easy' start. Add that in to the above and we got on a roll. Confidence was sky high and there was a feel good factor around everything to do with the club.

The signs were there for a while. Game after game our defence would fuck up and it was only thanks to either Rushworth or opposition strikers not hitting the target that we weren't conceding. The phrase 'what a let off' was in regular use in match threads.

Even with how good Rushworth has been we've not really had a huge number of clean sheets. So when we stopped scoring for fun the draws and defeats came.

We're now in a situation like the end of last season. Teams have worked out how to play against us and we don't seem to know how to change things.

Skyblueabo1111 · 2026-02-08T13:24:23+0000

fernandopartridge said:
You can tell things are going badly, people like you crawl out of the woodwork

In fairness, we did have a lot of luck. Every bounce, etc, went out way. Recent games, 5 or 6 good penalty shouts, nothing.

harvey098 · 2026-02-08T13:58:55+0000

Luck. I genuinely don’t think the performances are much different.

I can think of so many lucky goals we scored in that dominant spell and on the versa, so many gilt edged chances missed by oppos. Those small moments have just evened out a bit more.

Guarantee that if that Esse ball that nearly deflected as an OG actually went in and we won 1-0 yesterday all the player ratings move up by a point or two for the same performances. Football fans are so emotionally affected by result it clouds everything else. I don’t really see a difference in performance to me.

Having 5 stone wall penalty’s not given doesn’t help, mind.

Samo · 2026-02-08T14:03:28+0000

I'm starting to think it was just blind luck tbh.

Nick · 2026-02-08T14:05:46+0000

Gynnsthetonic said:
Another run is needed, if we beat Middlesbrough that's 2 unbeaten and we move on, West Brom and Stoke are hardly at the top of their game

Not like those big hitters Oxford

Gynnsthetonic · 2026-02-08T14:12:35+0000

Nick said:
Not like those big hitters Oxford

The team that beat Ipswich and drew with Middlesbrough this season you mean

Nick · 2026-02-08T14:23:12+0000

Gynnsthetonic said:
The team that beat Ipswich and drew with Middlesbrough this season you mean

Yeah the ones second bottom.

Gynnsthetonic · 2026-02-08T15:38:34+0000

Nick said:
Yeah the ones second bottom.

Yeah they're the ones

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