10 Games In - Your Verdict

[volpeazzurro]

Mainly shite with brief sunny periods. 

[Ian Nacho]

Just hoping we’ve decided to have a sh*te start opposed to a sh*te finish. 

[Paninistickers]

An off season is normal. Even Man City and Chelsea (and Liverpool) are off  (by their standards) every third season or so. 

 

We were due a duff year. 

 

Fwiw, i think we'll be fine second half of the season. 

[foxfanazer]

I reckon Brendan should stop injecting the players with ketamine before games. 

 

In all seriousness though we're a nice side to watch when the opposition gives us as much time and space as we want. Whenever we're put under any sort of real pressure we fold. We continue to fail to address our glaring weaknesses yet somehow expect different results. 

 

We do however have some quality individuals that paper over the cracks sometimes (vardy and tielemans mainly). 

[An Away Move]

I think we were a healthy Fofana away from having a great season. Now I expect we’ll finish around 9th or 10th and see some important players leave in the summer and possibly Spurs come in for BR. Remains to be seen if he’d stay. Lots of change on the horizon. BUT we might win a cup, which could be very important. 

[MalletFox]

Average … which is an improvement from where my view was after 6-7 games. 
 

Sooo so disappointing today but the positives are that we are still in the mix for Europa league spots (one result out), today was massive in that regard as if we had won I would have upped my verdict to “Decent”. 
 

Europa League still in the mix with 2 home games against the weaker teams to come, which SHOULD (he says) push towards qualification to the knock-outs.

 

In the QF of the League Cup … can’t complain about that can we!??

[Corky]

Underwhelming. Defensively we've been poor all season, especially on set-pieces. Attacking wise the first five games were hideous, I think we had the lowest shots at goal in the league in that time? The last five have been much better going forward. Vardy, Iheanacho, Tielemans, Evans have all looked good in league games, others have shown flashes of good form, the rest mainly disappointing.

 

We look like a team who has enough quality to be on the fringes but probably not enough consistency to take us further. I would also factor in that the players have given so much in terms of effort in the past two years in very trying circumstances, had a mixture of ecstasy (the cup win) and disappointment (missing out on top 4). Maybe there's a feeling they can't go further or do more?

 

I think several forums will be having the same comments about their teams at the moment.

[Angus Scott]

Not very good really. Key players & management all crucially out of form & showing little sign of getting back to where they should be. Mid table beckons

[ronnup]

It'll do. We're fighting on a lot of fronts, and a win today would've taken us 5th. We need to improve for sure, but JJ, Wilf and Wes coming in will make us a much better prospect defensively. I'm happy enough. 

[Pliskin]

We’ve had a slow start, we’ve had a few key injuries and an influx of new players who need to settle. I predict after Christmas we will have a good run. I still fancy us to win a trophy and get a top 6 finish. No need to get carried away. 

[Ric Flair]

6 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I think we were a healthy Fofana away from having a great season. Now I expect we’ll finish around 9th or 10th and see some important players leave in the summer and possibly Spurs come in for BR. Remains to be seen if he’d stay. Lots of change on the horizon. BUT we might win a cup, which could be very important. 

It's not just 1 player that's derailed us this season, I think the seasonal nose dives have shown that we aren't robust and it's no surprise to see us drop off the overall levels of the previous seasons. The longer Rodgers is here, the less the players seem to be fine tuned to what he's supposedly wanting them to do. 

[don_danbury]

only 2 games that i can think of that were decent. 1 the man city game, which was a defeat and that utd game.

[splinterdream]

Losing little wes was massive, and it's shown, but it's been a level worse than I thought it'd be.

[An Away Move]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

It's not just 1 player that's derailed us this season, I think the seasonal nose dives have shown that we aren't robust and it's no surprise to see us drop off the overall levels of the previous seasons. The longer Rodgers is here, the less the players seem to be fine tuned to what he's supposedly wanting them to do. 

I think we can’t underestimate how losing him has changed the whole dynamic at the back. It’s put the jitters into the spine of the team. Agree on Rodgers. He’s as frustrating as he is good. I think he’s very replaceable.  

[Blue-fox]

6/10. 

[Mythyaar]

Keeping clean sheets again is number 1 priority.

[kristianity77]

On a scale of 1 to 10.

 

6 out of 10 for points gained and league position.

 

3 out of 10 for general performances over the season.

 

In theory, this should bode well because our performances can and should be a lot better than they are.  We can't be this leaky in defence for the whole season, it has to get better at some point.  But I feel it won't improve until we have Justin and Fofana back.

 

This season may be a reverse of the last two.  First third mostly trash, last third, go on a decent run to finish in or around the top 6.  Thats the hope anyway. 

[StriderHiryu]

40 minutes ago, Cadno'r Cymoedd said:

Pretty spot on assessment.

 

The inconsistency even within matches is maddening in many aspects. I am not really clear what type of game we are trying to play. I appreciate that is governed to a big extent by players availability. But I can't see any discernible pattern. 

 

We only beat Manchester United because they were clueless tactically. 

 

Still lack an outfield leader in my opinion. 

When Evans is missing this is 100% the case.

 

Today though we had him and still lost. He was doing a good job; he was trying to spur us on and sort out the defence, but by the time we got going the game was already over. I think we deserved to score at least one goal today, but did not deserve to take anything from the match.

 

The wider point of not having a player to grab players by the scruff of the neck and sort things out I totally agree with though. Jordan Henderson in terms of technique is nothing special, but he's a brilliant captain. I wished we had someone with that sort of personality in the team.

[hejammy]

I think this season so far is summed up by - 

'Too many sideways passes' 

Edited 30 October 2021 by hejammy

[Brizzle Fox]

We're a mediocre team in what this year looks like a mediocre league. 

Oh and we can't defend for shit. 

We'll finish mid table and this season will not live long in the memory. 

[hejammy]

19 minutes ago, An Away Move said:

I think we can’t underestimate how losing him has changed the whole dynamic at the back. It’s put the jitters into the spine of the team. Agree on Rodgers. He’s as frustrating as he is good. I think he’s very replaceable.  

With? 

[J.Lisemore]

Goes back to the West Ham game for me. It was a message to the rest of the league on how to beat us. We are so predictable to play against even now, any manager with a tactical brain (not ole) have shown we are very beatable, hence the questionable performances. We've rode our luck for sure, quality will see us through sometimes. 

 

[Suffolk exile]

It pretty simple really. For us to push on, we have to get back to basics - in no particular order

 

Set pieces - we must have someone within the first team who is able to do better than Madders or Youri. I actually become anxious every time we get one as it usually ends up with the opposition breaking on us. We are hopeless at them......

 

High press - Where has it gone? It has to return to our game.

 

Zonal defending - As others have observed on the 'set pieces' thread - it only works when you have top drawer defenders. We don't. I am very much of opinion that space doesn't score goals.........

[filbertway]

Not seeing much difference to last season, were just not getting as lucky with the results. The football is frustratingly slow, especially considering the calibre of player we have.

 

We will keep picking up enough points due to the quality available. Id imagine top 10, out of Europe early and we might get lucky in a domestic cup competition.

 

Massive underwhelming atm.

[Foxxed]

I did think we were in the shitter, then I got optimistic thinking Daka would pull us out of our doldrums, now I'm not sure again. Daka and Soumare are great signings but I think we're underachieving with the squad now we've got Evans and Soyuncu back (the latter's form seems psychological).