Have we got enough to get in the playoffs?

newyddion said:
‘vastly superior’
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I would say our back line is stronger and more robust than last season.
Our midfield has improved, Barlaser is better and the return of O’Brien is a huge boost.

Now.. our frontline.. Ramsey dipped out.. so we’re looking at Akpom & Archer. Azaz, Silvera, Latte Lath & Greenwood are capable of those numbers.. with them we have greater depth.

Coburn is an improvement over Muniz

Giles has been deitfied his 4 assists in 2 games the 2nd half of the season certainly painted over the cracks.. including being at fault for the goal that knocked us out of the playoffs!

Akpom our record goalscorer and Archer with 11 goals in 20 games (Akpom managed 16 in the last 20 games) 26 goal between them. 8.6 goals 0.43gpg for 3 players 225mpg

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Coburn is under valued, Latte Lath needs to play more games, Forss should be tried as our striker. Azaz will make a big impact.. as will McGree. We are better as a team.
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That's the frustration a half decent striker and we would make the playoffs with ease we are better in all other areas
 
Hopefully the two new full backs tighten up the defence so we don’t need to score so many goals to win a game. Also, if we can get O’Brien firing in the remaining games he could make a big difference.
 
Hap said:
We’re three points off, with a game in hand.

I still feel we are as in the mix as anyone
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We're 4 points off with a far inferior goal difference.

The team in 6th hasn't lost a game since the 2nd of December.

We're definitely still in the mix, but it's going to take some major improvements and teams above us tripping up to make up the ground.
 
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TeaCider said:
We're 4 points off with a far inferior goal difference.

The team in 6th hasn't lost a game since the 2nd of December.

We're definitely still in the mix, but it's going to take some major improvements and teams above us tripping up to make up the ground.
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We started the season with a six game handicap and have had.. half of our squad injured or unavailable.
 
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TeaCider said:
We're 4 points off with a far inferior goal difference.

The team in 6th hasn't lost a game since the 2nd of December.

We're definitely still in the mix, but it's going to take some major improvements and teams above us tripping up to make up the ground.
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Still in the mix 👍
 
TeaCider said:
I don't think there's any chance whatsoever of us scoring 42 goals in the last 18 games of this season.

Both of our strikers are injured, Jones is injured, we've sold one of our main creators and we've brought in one attacking player as a replacement for a side that was already misfiring.

We might well still score enough to get us in the play-offs, if we sort out our defending, but we've got no chance of matching last season's goal tally.
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I like the way you are thinking, however Carrick has found a way all season, and I expect he will do the same again.

He did say at the beginning of the season that you don't have to get a 29 goal a season striker, but you have to find a way to replace those goals. So far he has done exactly that.
 
InglebyUTB said:
Why are the odds long? We're 3 points short and have had injured players all season.
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Because the top 4 positions have opened up a gap, leaving several teams battling for the final two places, of which I would say there are better teams than us, this far.
 
newyddion said:
We started the season with a six game handicap and have had.. half of our squad injured or unavailable.
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Coventry had a terrible start too tbf. They were 20th after 16 games and had only won 3. Now we’re trying to chase them down.
 
Jonathan said:
Coventry had a terrible start too tbf. They were 20th after 16 games and had only won 3. Now we’re trying to chase them down.
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I’ve said somewhere that I thought Coventry were similar to us. 4 points with a game in hand isn’t a world away. I think we will come out on top.

Leicester
Leeds
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Ipswich
Southampton
Hull
Middlesbrough
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If we could play our best team and keep playing that team we’d have a shout but think the injuries will find us out. Anyway not sure we’d get very far in the play offs and promotion would be a big challenge the squad is a long way off being competitive in prem.
 
Sorted defence out but seem to have abandoned progress up front.

Don't think we have the goals in us. Our situation seems to be similar to Sunderlands.
 
I just can’t see it. We can’t really lose more than 3 games and need to pick up points almost every game. With away games against Leicester, Southampton, Ipswich and Hull it looks very tough. Plus our home form has been poor.
 
B_G said:
Rogers - 8 Goal Contributions in 26 appearances or 0.55/90 mins (For Boro in Championship this season)

Azaz - 12 Goal Contributions in 26 appearances or 0.61/90 mins (For Plymouth in Championship this season)

I'm hopeful that Azaz can contribute just as much as Rogers if not more.

Using Rogers as an emergency striker wasn't exactly a positive. He was pretty poor there. His best performances came from the left or the no10 role. Forss will hopefully play the striker role better than Rogers now he's available.
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I think Azaz will do well once he has a run of games but don't forget that Barlaser was top with assists and even had a few goals...looks at him now
 
The problem we have is the daft defeats - I know any team can beat any team in this league - but it's pointless beating Leicester if you're going to lose to Bristol City the following week.

Last season - We took 15 points from the relegated teams (Wigan, Blackpool and Reading) out of a possible 18, and the game we lost was Wilder at the start of the season.
I think Carrick only conceded 3 or more goals against top of the league Burnley, and Warnock's Huddesfield. I think he only conceded 2 against teams in the top 8.

This season - The 3 currently at the bottom are Rotherham, QPR and Sheff Wed... and we haven't beat any of them... 3 draws 1 defeat so far. 9 points lost which puts us comfortably 5th.
...and we've conceded 3 or more to Plymouth who came from league 1, Bristol City, Leeds, Coventry (twice), and West Brom...
We conceded 2 to Exeter in the cup with our starting 11.

I think the reason for this is an ever changing defense.
We've had 4 different players starting at LB this season (Engel, Bangura, Coulson, O'Brien)... not including the few minutes McGree played there too.
We've seen 6 different CB partnerships... Fry - Lenihan, Fry - McNair, Fry - RVDB, Fry - Clarke, McNair - RVDB, and Clarke - RVDB.
and I think 5 different players at RB too (Ayling, RVDB, Dijksteel, McNair, Smith)...

I know some of these changes have been forced upon up with injuries, but the teams at the top are all very consistent defensively.
Ipswich had a consistent LB (Davis) - CB (Woolfenden) - CB (Burgess) for something like 22 of their first 25 games, and they all played 90 minutes in almost all of them.

For Southampton, Walker-Peters has played every single minute, and Harwood-Bellis has only missed 3 games.

I shouldn't be able to predict other teams back 4 correctly more consistently than I can predict our own...

I think if we can keep Ayling - Fry - RVDB - Thomas fit for the next 18 games - concede less - and beat the teams we should be beating... We've got enough.
 
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