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fredherring

Four wins, top of the league, but...

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I'm struggling to get my head round the negativity if I'm honest, we are still in August and folk are moaning despite four straight wins and sitting second. Not saying everything is perfect as we can play much better but that will cone with time, the season is still young. We started similarly the last two Championship seasons, the difference this time is that we are grinding out results.

As for the strongest eleven, we almost have a bench of finishers as Eddie Jones would call them. Our strength in depth is scary. 

We are going to lose games along the way so when we win it needs to be enjoyed, especially  late winners. And I fail to see what good it does anybody to continually question the managers position, its getting boring to be honest.

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2 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

I'm struggling to get my head round the negativity if I'm honest, we are still in August and folk are moaning despite four straight wins and sitting second. Not saying everything is perfect as we can play much better but that will cone with time, the season is still young. We started similarly the last two Championship seasons, the difference this time is that we are grinding out results.

As for the strongest eleven, we almost have a bench of finishers as Eddie Jones would call them. Our strength in depth is scary. 

We are going to lose games along the way so when we win it needs to be enjoyed, especially  late winners. And I fail to see what good it does anybody to continually question the managers position, its getting boring to be honest.

It’s just so poor to watch, awful team selection again, yes, Smith is very lucky we have 5 subs and the strongest squad in the league as it certainly isn’t his managerial brilliance winning us games!

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4 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

It’s just so poor to watch, awful team selection again, yes, Smith is very lucky we have 5 subs and the strongest squad in the league as it certainly isn’t his managerial brilliance winning us games!

The 5 subs rule is key here, be interesting to see where we'd be if it was still 3, no way of proving either way but I'd wager we wouldn't be 2nd.

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4 wins on the bounce is brilliant but I am still concerned we haven’t got the balance of the team right yet. The midfield is a problem and an area we are not controlling enough. I think Hayden will make a huge difference once fit. Hayden, McClean/Sara and Nunez looks to be a great mix and should bring solidarity in the middle of the pitch which should allow the forwards freedom to attack.

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4 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

It’s just so poor to watch, awful team selection again, yes, Smith is very lucky we have 5 subs and the strongest squad in the league as it certainly isn’t his managerial brilliance winning us games!

Exactly this! The man is a clueless clown!...I just hope he's a lucky one!

And for all the happy clappers lapping up 4 wins on the bounce who think this is amazing...reality check time! we have played scrapyard dogs of teams to date and looked bang average. When we get our arses handed to us by a Sheff utd or even a QPR who are the next level up to these lesser teams then the bitter pill of mediocrity ain't gonna taste so sweet!

Smith out!

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I love the way Billherringhorsie starts these idiotic post under his Fred account but never replies to anyone 😂

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28 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

I don't think anyone on this forum does. We've got so many options and great strength in depth, so you could ask ten fans what our best team/formation is and quite conceivably end up with ten different answers.

In such a long season, that's not a bad thing.

I think the difficulty for Smith in knowing his best team is he's got some maddeningly inconsistent players in key attacking positions. 

Between Rashica, Dowell, Sinani, Cantwell and Hernandez you never know what you're going to get on any given day. Apart from Rashica I'd say all the above have looked like match winners at times this season and looked like dross on other occasions, which is crazy considering we're only 7 games in.

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31 minutes ago, Ken Hairy said:

I'll tell you what it doesn't include, Kieran bloody Dowell, would love it if we got a cheeky offer for him by Thursday 

Who the hell from?

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Just now, wcorkcanary said:

Who the hell from?

Didn't say we'd get one, I said I'd love it if we did 😀

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29 minutes ago, Virtual reality said:

Four wins on the bounce but I still can’t highlight a great Dean Smith moment. Tonight was largely dire again but thankfully we have the quality in the squad to get through it. We are winning matches but I remain unconvinced that this is a manager that can take the club forwards 

What about the match-winning subs he bought on in the last couple of games?

 

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20 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

It’s just so poor to watch, awful team selection again, yes, Smith is very lucky we have 5 subs and the strongest squad in the league as it certainly isn’t his managerial brilliance winning us games!

Lucky? Why didn’t he know we could use 5 and it came as a surprise for him? Maybe he factored that in to his starting line up and timed substitutions accordingly. I really can’t see how knowing a rule introduced at the start of the season is luck.

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43 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

I suppose if you do want to be a negative Nancy, we're playing poorly and scraping wins but haven't played a top team yet, and by that I mean one of the sides who are expected to be chasing automatic promotion. 

But still, we've got points on the board, and we haven't really come close to hitting top gear yet.

We're not playing poorly. We're playing against teams who have little interest in doing anything other than defend and hope to nick a goal on the break. Most of the goals conceded have either been silly lapses in concentration or just ridiculous bad luck like the Brum goal today (cross comes off someone's knee and lands on the toe of the only player Brum have in the box). We always look likely to nick a goal and have quality, dangerous subs to bring on.

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31 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

You really are a complete prat, I’m confused as to if you actually watched our football under Farke? 

I do remember the first 15 months under Farke was pretty painful to watch and lots of people were on here calling for him to be sacked before he achieved God status. 

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1 minute ago, Mr.Carrow said:

We're not playing poorly. We're playing against teams who have little interest in doing anything other than defend and hope to nick a goal on the break. Most of the goals conceded have either been silly lapses in concentration or just ridiculous bad luck like the Brum goal today (cross comes off someone's knee and lands on the toe of the only player Brum have in the box). We always look likely to nick a goal and have quality, dangerous subs to bring on.

Well we certainly aren't playing to our potential, that's for sure.

We're much better, on paper, than every side we've played this season but have made really hard work of it at times. In the last two games we've been poor for the first hour and against Sunderland we were second best. But as you say, our strength off the bench is immense and that is what has got us out of jail.

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27 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

It’s just so poor to watch, awful team selection again, yes, Smith is very lucky we have 5 subs and the strongest squad in the league as it certainly isn’t his managerial brilliance winning us games!

We are seven matches into a 46 game season. This team will get better and better. And play better.

I'm not sure I'm bothered about 'managerial brilliance' but the bottom line is that his team selections and substitutions are winning games, just enjoy it! 

Sign of the (stupid) times that people want a manager out when the team is in an automatic promotion spot, but then some Liverpool fans were wanting Klopp out after the Man Utd game so it shouldnt come as a surprise.

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11 minutes ago, Rivvo said:

Lucky? Why didn’t he know we could use 5 and it came as a surprise for him? Maybe he factored that in to his starting line up and timed substitutions accordingly. I really can’t see how knowing a rule introduced at the start of the season is luck.

Oh of course, he thought he would pick the wrong line up (yet again) and be saved by the subs for the crack, didn’t think of that 🙄, good point well made!!

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5 minutes ago, Gordon Bennett said:

We are seven matches into a 46 game season. This team will get better and better. And play better.

I'm not sure I'm bothered about 'managerial brilliance' but the bottom line is that his team selections and substitutions are winning games, just enjoy it! 

Sign of the (stupid) times that people want a manager out when the team is in an automatic promotion spot, but then some Liverpool fans were wanting Klopp out after the Man Utd game so it shouldnt come as a surprise.

You sure about that? Better and better? I’ve been waiting for a Smith team to look like a team let alone good since Nov 21

Edited by wheres my rebate gone?

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11 minutes ago, Yellow Kiwi said:

I do remember the first 15 months under Farke was pretty painful to watch and lots of people were on here calling for him to be sacked before he achieved God status. 

Only a fool couldn’t see what he was trying to achieve and it certainly didn’t take 15 months to play good football winning or not!

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With our large squad being better than most other squads in this Division, over a 46 game season where 5 subs are allowed this will be a major advantage! - We are already seeing this at this VERY EARLY stage of the season!

 

Anyone who thinks this Division will be a stroll in the Park really hasn't got a scoby doo!

 

This Division is notorious for being packed with limited but organised teams who are hard to beat, Ipswich were the epitome of this for years before they got relegated to the 3rd Division.

 

People look at Farkes two title winning seasons with rose, yellow and green tinted glasses. Most wins were one goal victories and some of them we're scraped. The teams that scrape are usually the team with the better quality who also have the desire. What I've seen so far I think the team have both aspects!

 

Remember we are still in August!

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2 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

Only a fool couldn’t see what he was trying to achieve and it certainly didn’t take 15 months to play good football winning or not!

Do you throw scrabble pieces into a cement mixer to construct your posts?

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19 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Well we certainly aren't playing to our potential, that's for sure.

We're much better, on paper, than every side we've played this season but have made really hard work of it at times. In the last two games we've been poor for the first hour and against Sunderland we were second best. But as you say, our strength off the bench is immense and that is what has got us out of jail.

I'll give you Sunderland. But then set that against Cardiff, Wigan and Hull where we were all over them, they scored from lucky deflections and we should've had several penalties. 

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13 minutes ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

Oh of course, he thought he would pick the wrong line up (yet again) and be saved by the subs for the crack, didn’t think of that 🙄, good point well made!!

So you're criticising Smith for making effective subs at the right times to win games?

I'm just asking because Farke was regularly criticised for not making subs and when he did, for them not making an impact.

Watching Smith Outers wriggle and writhe on this forum is going to become a fantastic hobby.

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'Results and point are the only thing that matters, **** xG and performances!

4 wins on the bounce, several of them narrow gritty victories 

'this just isn't the level of performance I'm expecting of my club, points or not I'm concerned'

It's still early, things can change. But I can't wait to see what Smith Challenge lvl 4 is after Won't Finish Above 8th, Never Finished Above 5th and I Won't Trust Until He Wins Away 

 

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9 minutes ago, Mason 47 said:

'Results and point are the only thing that matters, **** xG and performances!

4 wins on the bounce, several of them narrow gritty victories 

'this just isn't the level of performance I'm expecting of my club, points or not I'm concerned'

It's still early, things can change. But I can't wait to see what Smith Challenge lvl 4 is after Won't Finish Above 8th, Never Finished Above 5th and I Won't Trust Until He Wins Away 

 

😅😅😅

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It's almost as if anyone who refuses to see anything good by Smith have forgotten that we done practically the same thing under farke, how many games did we need to come from behind and score late winners in, especially in the first promotion season? 

The only difference is the perceived sexy football under farke isn't this. But I'll say it once and will again playing pretty football shouldn't matter as much as points on the board, if you can do both, fantastic, but if you have to scrap and fight it out for an ugly 1-0 or last minute 2-1 win so be it as long as we win. 

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I honestly don’t understand how people are moaning? We’re not playing beautiful free-flowing football, but we’re winning games. We don’t look solid defensively, but we’re without any recognised LBs or defensive midfielders. We’re winning by odd goals but Pukki has yet to find the net this season. Come on people, this squad has the potential to absolutely storm this league and we’re 2nd after 7 games with 4 wins on the trot, 2 of them away from home! Let’s enjoy it a little!

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And there's the Smith issue in a nutshell...we don't look good defensively, we don't look good in midfield and going forward not great either! Yes we have scrapped a few wins and that's great and all, but wheres the signature to our style of play, the fluidity, the directness if you want. There is absolutely nothing..just a seeming reliance on the quality of our bench to add a different dimension. We will come unstuck and it will be soon and it will last.

With Farke you could see the style of play he was building and wanting for the players. What does Smith give us? A semi press on opponents that's a bit sporadic?  Risky passes playing out of defence or just lumping it to the wings? Early crosses or walking it in? 

Which leads us to the underlying problem and one which even if he gets us back to the Premiership...do you trust him to take us forward as a better team one that can last in the Prem? That is why those of us who get football and see a little bit more than "4 wins in a row we must be winning the Championship!" Happy clapper types, are just a little bit more than concerned. It's not negativity it's direction of our club.

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1 hour ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

Only a fool couldn’t see what he was trying to achieve and it certainly didn’t take 15 months to play good football winning or not!

I suggest you go back and look at the forum from August 2018 because you don’t have to look hard to find plenty of posts calling for Farke to be sacked. Even more posters saying the quality of most of the football was awful to watch at that time so I’m not sure what you are calling good football. Do you not recall all the reports of Farke being dumped if we lost to Ipswich? 
 

FYI Millwall game in January 2018 was when I first figured what Farke was trying to achieve. It didn’t make most of it less painful to watch for the rest of the season though because it appeared so rarely. Don’t get me wrong, Daniel got us playing the best football I’ve ever seen at the club but some do seem to have heavily rose tinted specs on or poor memories of the early days. 

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2 hours ago, wheres my rebate gone? said:

Oh **** up you Moron, that was an awful performance but 3 points which is what matters, I’ve said from the start of the season that our players are good enough despite Smith and thankfully it seems so, although we’ve not played anyone good yet so we will see!

We had 2/3s posession, overwhelmingly more attempts at goal, more corners and most independent reports have us down as 'deserved winners!

Was it pretty? No. So what? If you want pretty, try going to watch ballet maybe?

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