Failure to sign striker cost us


Absolutely. In hindsight we needed to sign 4 additional defenders in January. Having no fit defenders is what ultimately cost us. If we’d played last night with a back four of Hume, Ballard, Batth and Alese, then we’d have cruised through (in my opinion).

Agree with you.. That back 4 gets us through. Would've dealt with Lutons 2 corner goals
 
Did we struggle to get past their press?
Were our defenders constantly under pressure in possession.
Did we often have to go backwards in possession.
Why do you think that was.
They finished 3rd and beat most teams, all of which had strikers, and mostly better than a lower league journeyman
 
Lets get this straight. Our owners are billionaires, richer than some premier league owners. We have been getting gates which far exceed most clubs in our division.
We have invested modest amounts so far but paying 5 million for a striker will fuck us up financially and stop us buying players in the summer.
Really?
Yes.
If he's not a great striker. When we can get someone we really want in the summer.
Getting players in who are way down our list and paying over the odds in wages and fees rather than waiting for someone who we really want is exactly why teams fuck up.
 
Tbf to the lad, no one on here will know what players were available or the parameters the club were working towards.

exactly the point

saying for a fact that we didn't sign a striker because the owners refused to stump up the money is wrong. name the player, and name the price we were quoted that we wouldn't pay, or shut up

it might have been the case, i'm not saying it wasn't, but passing it off as fact is wrong. we'll never know

i think they tried, but the cards didn't fall for us. either they were too expensive, wanted too much wages, weren't fit, club wouldn't sell, went somewhere else, or any other millions of reasons. its a complex business and people are trying to simplify things for effect
 
We're very much a work in progress. We're at the very start of building the team and club too hopefully get back to the premier league. Unless you're spending biggish money, that doesn't happen over night. We've made very positive strides this season and we've probably jumped a season ahead of where we realistically expected. We should be confident the club has a plan and knows what they're doing. Instead we have numpties wanting to point the finger and blame someone. All I would say maybe on that, we've finished 6th and deserved too. That then means we need to improve again and look to be better next season now regardless of what the original plan was. Another interesting summer for recruitment and KLD too show his genuine ambition for the club.
 
Im not mate. I think that’s what we need and hence why I said it will show KLD ambition going forward

I don’t think we will get two quality plus LND simply because they tend to go for unknown. The thing is with that is you might get another Gelhardt. Two proven quality strikers would come at a high cost and I think it is well known that they won’t do that.
 
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Well done to our players and Tony Mowbray for working miracles with the players at his disposal.
Lot of nonsense posted about tactics or players bottling it.
The cold facts are we were unable to counter their high press because we had no option to play long.
The reason for this is the abject failure to sign a decent physical striker in January.
Those responsible have let down the players who have performed amazing the manager and the supporters.
You need the tools to do the job.
Perfect. Luton’s manager spoke after the match about their ‘really obvious’ game plan. Throughout the season our deficiencies were equally obvious, but they (and their causes) weren’t addressed.
 
The lack of an outright number 9 certainly hampered us. However a squad striker replacement for stewart most certainly would not have bridged the 22 point gap to the automatic places. And then we would have been in the same boat - playoffs against the best of the rest in the division without the benefit of our centre halves. It wasn’t the difference between promotion and not.
 
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Think it's funny because if we have Batth and Ballard playing those two play off matches we go through.
Spot on. Our last 5 conceded from corners. We'd prob be playing Boro as we would've beaten Watford too. (Although a striker would've made everything less last minute.
 
Agree with you.. That back 4 gets us through. Would've dealt with Lutons 2 corner goals
And the one on Saturday. Since Ross Stewart was injured against Fulham we’ve scored 3% more goals per game than we did before he was injured. However we’ve also conceded 12% more goals per game. As our defensive height and strength gradually got injured, we’ve conceded more and more goals from set pieces. This is what did for us in the end. I’m not sure how fans don’t see that.
 
We did better than anyone expected. We actually performed better without a striker. It's been a strange season and there's no one reason why we have done so well and no one reason that we haven't gone up. If Ballard and Batth were fit we would probably be going to Wembley. In the end it was injuries to defenders that cost us.
Spot on post.
 

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