Reasons we’ve had a shit season....


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Complete lack of athleticism all over the park is the single biggest reason we’ve struggled.

None of our wide players look capable of beating their man with pace alone with any regularity. Our midfield are frequently second to every ball and struggle to track runners. Baldwin, Flanagan and Ozturk are too slow to recover from their inevitable mistakes.

This arguably should have been addressed in January and whilst Leadbitter appeased the fans a bit, and has been prominent with his set price deliveries, I’m not sure he was the signing we really needed.

Not making him a scapegoat at all, I just what he was playing alongside 1/2 better athletes in midfield.

Edit: and for clarity I mean struggled relatively. I’m aware we’ve made the play offs.
 
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Ah, so the manager doesn’t have any say whatsoever in transfers despite the owners saying the manager has the final say in transfers?

Glad you cleared that up.

Sunderland boss Jack Ross 'will have final say on transfers'

As my post above indicates, I think recruitment has let us down badly and as far as I’m concerned Ross sits at the top of that strand of the football club.

The thing we don’t know is - behind the scenes what players could we realistically get and who would come? Arguably we could have done a lot in January but at the time we needed a replacement for Maja, especially with Wyke not fit/many questioning his ability. Hindsight is 20/20, very few on here thought the Grigg signing was a bad idea and tbh it may still prove to be a great signing if we’re in this league next season.

What we do need is to recruit shrewdly next time round. I suspect McGeady will be off so that’s our big matchwinner gone.

This. If we hadn't have signed him the wailing cries bemoaning skinflint owners with nee cash and nee ambition from some on here would have been deafening!

This. Easy to criticise looking back but most were quite happy and all indications were he should have been more of a success.

He gets in the right positions as well which gives me confidence it’s not an issue with him as a player.

As an old manager of mine used to say, he's the type of striker who requires the midfield to put the ball in the net for him.

No pace, no tricks, no anticipation, no strength, no heading ability and no bottle. It's easy to see why he hasn't progressed his career beyond this shit division. In a side with no passing ability nor guile he was always going to struggle. If we keep him on we really do need to find someone who can pass the ball in the final third.

If you think he has no anticipation then I’m convinced you haven’t watched much of him.
 
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Seeing us win more games than single figures in a season is far from shit.

From our standards it’s been somewhat a pleasant one in my opinion.

The problem is expectations, if at the beginning of the season after last years absolute dross we were told we would be in the play offs most would take it.

We’ve barely been in the top 2 all season and for me the play offs is a bonus as we’ve hardly taken the league by storm and don’t really deserve anything more.
 
As an old manager of mine used to say, he's the type of striker who requires the midfield to put the ball in the net for him.

No pace, no tricks, no anticipation, no strength, no heading ability and no bottle. It's easy to see why he hasn't progressed his career beyond this shit division. In a side with no passing ability nor guile he was always going to struggle. If we keep him on we really do need to find someone who can pass the ball in the final third.
We need that regardless.
 
It seems to me that coming into this season we underestimated the whole effect the previous 7 years of catastrophic management has had on our club,and our lowest ever finishing position is as much a reflection of that as any mistakes made during this year.
It's going to take us longer than we may have thought to re-establish this club in the higher leagues.....no matter what happens in the play-offs.
I,for one,am happy to be patient. Apart from the obvious disappointment,in the main I've enjoyed this season,and I'm looking forward to seeing how we can progress from here. I have confidence in the ownership,the management and in Jack Ross,who I think will learn from mistakes made during his first season.
We were in a complete shit state when they took over,lots of good work has been done. More squad improvement over the summer will see us in a much better situation come August,no matter what league we're in.
 
Lots of valid reasons given , but the season is not over yet , so Ross needs to work with what he has got for a few more weeks .

I really think he needs to address the slow / small problem which is across the whole team,
for starters how about moving Luke 09 into the midfield to offer some legs to Cattermole or Leadbitter. I doubt we can afford to play them both without some serious added pace and strength alongside.
Then work relentlessly on the training ground with the defence, it’s not too late.

After that just pray that we get rid of the dead wood in the close season, sign a few players that are fit enough to play , no more crocks or has beens , got enough already .
 
As my post above indicates, I think recruitment has let us down badly and as far as I’m concerned Ross sits at the top of that strand of the football club.

The thing we don’t know is - behind the scenes what players could we realistically get and who would come? Arguably we could have done a lot in January but at the time we needed a replacement for Maja, especially with Wyke not fit/many questioning his ability. Hindsight is 20/20, very few on here thought the Grigg signing was a bad idea and tbh it may still prove to be a great signing if we’re in this league next season.

What we do need is to recruit shrewdly next time round. I suspect McGeady will be off so that’s our big matchwinner gone.



This. Easy to criticise looking back but most were quite happy and all indications were he should have been more of a success.

He gets in the right positions as well which gives me confidence it’s not an issue with him as a player.



If you think he has no anticipation then I’m convinced you haven’t watched much of him.

What players could we realistically get as the only club in this division with regular 30,000 crowds, the biggest wage budget and the best training facilities? Seriously?
 
We had more games postponed for internationals than we did for the checkatrade trophy. Infact fleetwood was pointless to postpone as i dont think any of them ended up going
 
Most already been mentioned on here but definitely appears to be a bit of a bottle job here. Only 5 wins in our last 12 games and countless opportunities since the turn of the year where it's been in our hands and we've not taken advantage. Add to that the 2nd half debacle at Wembley. Another note worthy stat is that in 22 games against the current top half, we've only won 4.
 
Finishing third or fourth and getting to a cup final.
I wouldn't mind a few more seasons as shit as this one.
Yes, it's league one, but that's who we are right now.
Most supporters would have settled for that last May.
For all the bluster, JR has done a decent job, juggling injured and unfit players.
I'll give him another season and another transfer window to shuffle the pack and get the team he wants.
 
I think the everyone including the club underestimated how hard it is to get out of this league. The biggest issues that we didn't address was bringing in highest power and pace, which the teams around us have all got..
 
Seeing us win more games than single figures in a season is far from shit.

From our standards it’s been somewhat a pleasant one in my opinion.

The problem is expectations, if at the beginning of the season after last years absolute dross we were told we would be in the play offs most would take it.

We’ve barely been in the top 2 all season and for me the play offs is a bonus as we’ve hardly taken the league by storm and don’t really deserve anything more.

Eh? Is that where you set the bar? Winning 10 or more games in League One? Every side in the League has done that man.
 
Who was the poster that started a thread after the January window finished criticising posters for saying it was a poor window?

I can’t remember the exact words but it was along the lines of ‘best business we’ve done’
 
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