So despite everything...

[king canary 7,604]

@Hoegsar

I''m not even sure it is a question of faith in Farke, more faith in his style of play.

I''ve seen in flashes what he''s trying to do but after 42 games I thought we''d be more consistent in that style than we are now. We still have the issue of painfully slow buildup play that is far too easy to defend against (sit deep, let us pass it sideways until someone gets frustrated and shoots from 30 yards), we''re still vulnerable to longer balls and counters and we have managed to destroy the confidence of every striker at the club pretty much.

To then contemplate this team without Maddison and Gunn in it does not fill me with optimism. In an ideal world we spend the Maddison money improving the strike force, our attack is forced to vary their play a bit more and we spread the creative burden out. Worst case is we continue how we have been just without a player with his talent to bale us out with a wonder strike or fantastic pass. I see a lot of talk of ''if we''d finished better a lot of our draws would turn into wins'' without considering the flip side- that if Maddison had scored a few less wonder strikes an awful lot of our wins would be draws.

[Guest]

We can all take what we want from the results.

What annoys me the most is the inconsistency in virtually everything we do.

Team selection for starters. Why all the changes last night? Even if we accept Tettey can''t play too many games in close succession, I still don''t get the others.

At one time we played three at the back, then four, back to three, change to four etc.

Then our performances completely illustrate our inconsistency.

Beat Villa, draw with Sunderland. Better away from home generally.

Our signings beggar belief. Edwards gone without playing. Raggett a no show. No striker of any note brought in. But a whole army of midfield players.

I know DF likes the possession game, but virtually all teams play that style now so it isn''t anything different. And to be honest, what can we change with such an imbalanced squad that has more keepers than strikers.

So despite everything . . . my verdict is we are going backwards.

[Highland Canary 76]

Nothing like winning the second half after 1-0 after losing the first 5-0. Results not important! What a fiasco.

[Capt. Pants 4,226]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]We''ve only lost four games so far in the second half of the season.

Is this a positive?

Are foundations being laid?

[/quote]Broadly speaking I think they are. Whether we would have progressed faster with another manager, another style, who knows. By and large the new ''foreign'' players have been a credit to themselves, not a whiff of a Naismith amongst them. I''m worried DF can''t deliver consistency and ability to win a whole bunch of matches like Fulham have to sustain a promotion challenge. Hopefully he will and we build on that next season as I do like him as a coach, frustrating as his tactics can be at times.

[norfolkngood 1,086]

i like him capt but like you with his funny team changes etc i think it will be hard to gel a top 6 side

also i quite like the keep ball at the right times but then you have to change gear and move with pace after

keeping the ball at the back is ok but i noticed against villa that hanley lost it a couple of times when he was deep leading to a throw in deep in our half it is a dangerous game to play one miss pass etc and the other team are close to goal

also the slow slow build up lets teams settle back in position putting a wall of men between their goal we need a change of pace for the ball turning their defenders

when they are facing you they can see everything in front of them the old saying defenders do not like running towards their old goal is what we need to see more of

and hopefully more clear cut goal chances

can farke do that ? i have my doubts

[Making Plans 936]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]We''ve only lost four games so far in the second half of the season.

Is this a positive?

Are foundations being laid?

[/quote]Not much in the way of foundations being laid this afternoon.