After 22 rounds of games..

[nutty nigel 7,648]

Fourth in the league 

Fourth highest scorers 

Third best goal difference

Perhaps it's xg that suggests sacking the manager...

 

 

 

[The Real Buh 3,486]

And still you won’t publicly back him… such a shame

[Petriix 2,853]

Is fourth place in the Championship where we expected to be when we sacked Farke and appointed Smith?

Do you think we're getting better or worse as time passes?

When were we last outside the top 2 halfway through a Championship season?

[nutty nigel 7,648]

Well if they sack him and those stats aren't repeated in the second half of the season it'll look mighty daft.

And Farke's not coming back whatever😥

[canarybubbles 1,947]

1 minute ago, nutty nigel said:

Well if they sack him and those stats aren't repeated in the second half of the season it'll look mighty daft.

And Farke's not coming back whatever😥

Equally if we don't sack him and we slump and end up ninth, it'll look mighty daft, too.

[The Real Buh 3,486]

Just now, canarybubbles said:

Equally if we don't sack him and we slump and end up ninth, it'll look mighty daft, too.

Trajectory based on observation 

[FenwayFrank 2,469]

6 minutes ago, Petriix said:

When were we last outside the top 2 halfway through a Championship season?

2017

[crab man 164]

Hope he gets the boot after our next loss. With the squad we have we should be top 2 no less, to be losing at home to Preston and Luton is embarrassing.

The players don't look particularly happy playing under him either. 

[canarybubbles 1,947]

1 minute ago, FenwayFrank said:

2017

It's also worth nothing that the competition was much stronger in 18/19 than it appears this season. Bielsa's Leeds, a very efficient Sheffield United, a parachute-payment West Brom, a Villa squad packed with talent and Grealish which Smith managed to get into fifth place almost twenty points behind us, plus a decent Derby County.

[Branston Pickle 3,698]

The problem is that it’s neither good enough to say it’s going great guns, nor bad enough to say it’s poor. It’s inbetween.

The next 4 games, against decent opponents, ought to help…though I dare say we’ll still be 4th and no closer to the answer.

[Petriix 2,853]

5 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

2017

So it's fair to say that we're at a lower ebb than at any point in the last 5 seasons. Do we just accept that we've fallen back down football's tree or do we think the current manager might be at least partially responsible for the decline? 

[A Load of Squit 5,223]

20 minutes ago, The Real Buh said:

And still you won’t publicly back him… such a shame

It's a good job that you are, it must be a great comfort.

[hogesar 9,766]

4 minutes ago, Petriix said:

So it's fair to say that we're at a lower ebb than at any point in the last 5 seasons. Do we just accept that we've fallen back down football's tree or do we think the current manager might be at least partially responsible for the decline? 

Arguably,  expecting us to consistently be in top 2 of the Championship for a third consecutive championship-post-relegation was unrealistic. Has it ever been done in the history of the Prem / Championship before?

[nutty nigel 7,648]

17 minutes ago, canarybubbles said:

Equally if we don't sack him and we slump and end up ninth, it'll look mighty daft, too.

No, we could look mighty daft if we didn't sack him then but still wouldn't look daft for not doing it now.

'Norwich sack their manager because Pink Un soothsayers say we'll finish ninth or just don't like him"

 

[FenwayFrank 2,469]

8 minutes ago, Petriix said:

So it's fair to say that we're at a lower ebb than at any point in the last 5 seasons

Including the premier league seasons ? 😉

[nutty nigel 7,648]

 

1 minute ago, FenwayFrank said:

Including the premier league seasons ? 😉

It's worse than that, we're dead Jim...

Edited December 11, 2022 by nutty nigel

[Petriix 2,853]

2 minutes ago, FenwayFrank said:

Including the premier league seasons ? 😉

Yes. As far as I understand the Premier League (and every place therein, including 20th) is above the Championship. It would take some imaginative analysis to pitch 4th in the Championship as being on a higher ebb than being 20th in the Premier League.

[Branston Pickle 3,698]

4 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Arguably,  expecting us to consistently be in top 2 of the Championship for a third consecutive championship-post-relegation was unrealistic. Has it ever been done in the history of the Prem / Championship before?

Us and Fulham seem to have mirrored each other for a while, but I have no idea where they finished each promotion season or where they were mid-way.

[Branston Pickle 3,698]

4 minutes ago, Petriix said:

Yes. As far as I understand the Premier League (and every place therein, including 20th) is above the Championship. It would take some imaginative analysis to pitch 4th in the Championship as being on a higher ebb than being 20th in the Premier League.

It’s well known that our target is to be in the top 26.  It is a bit harsh to talk about ‘low ebbs’ when you’re within that target if at the lower end of it. It could/should be better than 24th though the best it could be this year is 21st. 

[chicken 2,654]

2 hours ago, Petriix said:

Is fourth place in the Championship where we expected to be when we sacked Farke and appointed Smith?

Do you think we're getting better or worse as time passes?

When were we last outside the top 2 halfway through a Championship season?

We were going down if we kept Farke. It was going to be nigh on impossible to stay up no matter who came in. Many on here said it at the time. I believe Ricardo may have been one of them.

[PockthorpePete 331]

As a club we seem to be the victims of a very imbalanced league structure. We go up to the strains of 'fu ck bankruptcy' from those johnny come latelys who never seem to grasp how things work. There are a dozen or so clubs who did follow this route and now languish in the Championship, or L1. Swansea, once hailed as the model club now wallow in the Champs with little chance of going up. No club outside the top 8 in the PL is ever safe. The problem is how much damage is done to those coming down. A season or two blip, or a West Brom, Boro, Sunderland, Huddersfield, Wigan. etc collapse ? You only have to look down the A140 to see what financial incompetence can do (Derby, Sheff Weds). Kids in suffolk have been born, gone to school and left only knowing non PL football. 20 years outside the top flight, part of their inglorious present. Plenty of those down the road would give up sx with their sister to have our last 20 years. Four titles, a Wembley win and numerous seasons in the PL. Not for us watching games in a barely third full stadium. We are not a big club, so stop endlessly moaning.

[Midlands Yellow 4,107]

6 minutes ago, PockthorpePete said:

As a club we seem to be the victims of a very imbalanced league structure. We go up to the strains of 'fu ck bankruptcy' from those johnny come latelys who never seem to grasp how things work. There are a dozen or so clubs who did follow this route and now languish in the Championship, or L1. Swansea, once hailed as the model club now wallow in the Champs with little chance of going up. No club outside the top 8 in the PL is ever safe. The problem is how much damage is done to those coming down. A season or two blip, or a West Brom, Boro, Sunderland, Huddersfield, Wigan. etc collapse ? You only have to look down the A140 to see what financial incompetence can do (Derby, Sheff Weds). Kids in suffolk have been born, gone to school and left only knowing non PL football. 20 years outside the top flight, part of their inglorious present. Plenty of those down the road would give up sx with their sister to have our last 20 years. Four titles, a Wembley win and numerous seasons in the PL. Not for us watching games in a barely third full stadium. We are not a big club, so stop endlessly moaning.

I believe their attendances are nearly matching ours this season. To be be fair anyone around 50 and above will remember when they were an excellent side that won the bigger trophies. 

[Newtopia 519]

2 hours ago, hogesar said:

Arguably,  expecting us to consistently be in top 2 of the Championship for a third consecutive championship-post-relegation was unrealistic. Has it ever been done in the history of the Prem / Championship before?

I agree three times on the bounce is unlikely, yet post covid is a new eerie, the economic differences are huge.  I also think if we saw a dip in performance as the transition occurred people would feel okay with that, it is (hopefully only apparent) the lack of a plan which worries me.

[Petriix 2,853]

1 hour ago, chicken said:

We were going down if we kept Farke. It was going to be nigh on impossible to stay up no matter who came in. Many on here said it at the time. I believe Ricardo may have been one of them.

Yes. I also think Farke (or Pep or any other coach) wouldn't have kept that squad up. That wasn't the question.

Given that we are at our lowest mid-season position in the football pyramid for the last 5 seasons (including this one), do you think Smith's tenure is successful?

I also note that Smith has never achieved more than 76 points in a season as manager. Would we be happy if he continued that trend this season?

Do we all need to reset our expectations to accept the playoffs as our best hope?

[nutty nigel 7,648]

My expectations were never top two. I saw nothing last season that would remotely suggest us bouncing back that easily.

People are entitled to expect anything they want. But if the expectation was based on a season behind closed doors with Farke and Emi it was destined to end in disappointment.

Having said that we all still have hope if Sheffield Utd is the standard.

 

[Robert N. LiM 4,545]

4 hours ago, nutty nigel said:

Perhaps it's xg that suggests sacking the manager...

I know you're joking but the xG chart I saw of yesterday's game was pretty horrific. xG of 0.0 in the second half...

[Branston Pickle 3,698]

5 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

I know you're joking but the xG chart I saw of yesterday's game was pretty horrific. xG of 0.0 in the second half...

Sounds like we did ok then by scoring 1?!

[nutty nigel 7,648]

42 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

I know you're joking but the xG chart I saw of yesterday's game was pretty horrific. xG of 0.0 in the second half...

Don't say that. The people who laughed at it will start to love it and say it's more accurate than the league table...

[city4eva 215]

8 hours ago, Branston Pickle said:

Sounds like we did ok then by scoring 1?!

Thought we scored in the first half

[littleyellowbirdie 2,604]

14 hours ago, Petriix said:

Is fourth place in the Championship where we expected to be when we sacked Farke and appointed Smith?

Do you think we're getting better or worse as time passes?

When were we last outside the top 2 halfway through a Championship season?

I expected to be top two by the end of the season, which is still a long way off.

In spite of misgivings over details regarding training over the break, Swansea was actually encouraging with regard to defensive proficiency, which has been our chief issue this season in my view, so I'm still fairly confident that we'll be heading upwards back to where we were as the season progresses. Put our usual goal-scoring ability on top of that and we'll be in good shape.