 | Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 23:23 27 Jan 2026
Well the argument goes round and round.
Your argument is that injuries and fitness are a particular problem for us and we should be doing better. I say there are always a lot of injuries in football, giving some evidence from the Premier League. What hard evidence have you got other than anecdote and a feeling in the water?
As for the minutes we give players that is a matter of judgement and compromise based on the feedback you are getting from the performance guys and medics and what you think you need to win. What can you reasonably get out of the best players? What risks can you reasonably take? How should you manage the squad players?
There are no absolutes here, just judgement, whether it is the medics, performance guys, coaches or the manager.
As for Sheffield Wednesday we were only 1-0 up with 81 minutes gone, Burrell scored the goal but only lasted 21 minutes. If we had lost that match this forum would have gone bonkers.
Hindsight is a beautiful thing. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 20:49 27 Jan 2026
As far as fitness is concerned with Sports Science and the data clubs now collect I would have thought that the coaches and performance team would know exactly what each player's capacities are. Distance covered, sprint distances and speed and all the other metrics they collect. If a player is achieving below their personal capacity or performance is dropping off quickly they will know by how much in real time and probably have the reasons for that.
From Athletics we know that when athletes try to stay at or exceed their peak they becoming more vulnerable to injury and illness. Then's the importance of recovery which is talked about a lot these days and maybe that is where A-A-H teams are really hit relative to the H-H-A teams. Dealing with all this must be a matter of judgement and compromise, along with the players abilities, tactics and all the other factors.
Tell the club that the players must be fitter if you like but I reckon you are way behind the game in terms of what they know, what they can do about it and what's possible. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 19:41 27 Jan 2026
Injuries come with football. With the best conditioning, physical specimens, and medical support money can buy Arsenal had already had 27 players out with injuries by around this time last season. The average for the Premier League up to 25 games through the 2024/25 season was 15. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 16:06 27 Jan 2026
So what statistical evidence is there that our fitness and injury record is any worse than other Championship clubs?
I don’t mean anecdotes or feelings in the bowels. I mean hard evidence? |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 16:30 26 Jan 2026
Well we are below our 12th league position on the Championship wages budget available table, which is anything from 16th to 20th according to the sources I've seen. Which fits with our current 19th place on attendances. Maybe someone is doing an above average job to compensate for the lack of money. I wouldn't have a clue who? |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 01:58 26 Jan 2026
Its not an organisational failure, a lack of effort or any of the other daft theories that turn up on this board. What it is is the opposition want to win as much as we do and being of roughly equal ability they will win some of the time and we will win some of the time.
What's now called Profitability & Sustainability rules (the old FFP) ensure that most of us are recruiting from a pool of players of similar ability with the predictable result that we are all much of a muchness. With parachute payments giving some clubs an advantage, lucky ones overachieving for a while (eg Beale The Bullshitter's spell for a few short months), for the rest of us it's a tough ask. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 16:30 25 Jan 2026
Yet there were two 3-game weeks when we got 6 points. Average 2 points a game which is promotion form. I believe the manager is learning. It's never going to be easy including keeping the players fit and rotation which always involves compromises. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 14:50 25 Jan 2026
Well Keith Andrews is obviously well tuned into standard sports management bollocks.
If you could tune athletes to be able to withstand two attritional away matches, the travelling and time away and have no more affect than Wrexham's three home matches in a row I am sure we would be doing it and no doubt everybody else would too.
The thing is there are times when you are advantaged and times when things are against you. We tend to forget when we profited from the advantages and the deluded start to believe we are therefore better than we are. The disadvantages we might use as excuses, which is regarded as a sign of weakness, but that doesn't mean the disadvantages were any less real. |
| Forum
Reply | Three-game weeks
at 12:50 25 Jan 2026
Apart from all of that the three games a week thing has been loaded against us. 6 weeks with two away games and only two weeks with two home games. So tough weeks made tougher still by the schedule.
Without an exceptionally clever owner like a Tony Bloom or Matthew Benham we are just one of twenty four clubs trying to fight each other up the greasy pole. |
| Forum
Reply | Traitors UK thread **WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS**
at 00:04 24 Jan 2026
That's the way I saw it too. Both Faraaz and Harriet (earlier) managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory having figured it out and uttered the magic words Traitor on Traitor for the Fiona v Rachel bust up.
Fair play to Rachel and Stephen though. Worthy winners. |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 20:48 23 Jan 2026
Unrealistic expectations would include expecting to look good away at Stoke, or at Oxford in the wind, or winning away at West Ham, obviously. You can always hope but there seem to me to be plenty on this message board who are addicted to moaning and disappointment. I am enjoying watching the defence getting steadily stronger and looking forward to our best two attacking talents, Burrell and Chair, eventually getting back to give us a lift. |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 14:09 23 Jan 2026
Unjustified expectations are a killer in sport.
I just go to a match hoping we’ll win and to be entertained. No expectations of winning however lowly the opposition. We’re a mid table team improving gradually with a stronger squad with more Championship level players. Unless luck goes our way and the players confidence grows I don’t see things changing much. |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 13:54 23 Jan 2026
Fair enough Myke. We’ll have to agree to differ.
What I see is many people work back from results which makes up their mind as to how well we played. Whereas you can play OK and lose and play poorly and win. So often it’s just the run of the ball and a single incident or two that decides a match.
The other thing people, including you, do is assume that league position is a good guide as to whether we should beat an opponent. You’ve just done that. Watching the Championship all these years I cannot see why anyone would confidently make that assumption. It’s all much more random than that. |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 00:13 23 Jan 2026
What makes you think the performances vary that much?
These days I see around half the matches either in person or on live TV. No streams.
I read stuff here telling me the team played well or dreadfully and in my eyes they played just like QPR usually do. This or that player may make a bad mistake or show an occasional bit of special quality. Unlikely to be repeated any time soon. Fickle luck. How the ball falls in the area etc.
The differences are the opposition and the results, not the performances. Some lowly opposition are quite difficult for us. Some top teams find us difficult all depending how the players and tactics match up.
It’s the Championship. Forget about ‘form’. |
| Forum
Reply | Form Guide:
at 21:41 22 Jan 2026
You really should know better after all these years.
As far as three quarters of the Championship is concerned results are more or less random and ‘form’ is meaningless. Lose to a bottom three team one week and beat a playoff team the next. Go on a winning run for a while, followed by a losing run, repeat. It has been the same for ages? Little to choose between the clubs.
Internationally though the Championship is a strong league better than most countries top divisions. |
| Forum
Reply | Just back
at 19:43 22 Jan 2026
Sure it was a poor quality game but nowhere near the worst I’ve been to. The wind blowing straight down to the car park end didn’t help. At one point Madsen took minutes to take a corner due to the wind keep shifting the ball.
But Oxford’s defence has let in less goals than ours and is no pushover so I guess without Burrell, Chair, Saito etc 0-0 was always favourite. |
| Forum
Reply | Madsen
at 22:38 21 Jan 2026
LFW ratings make Madsen our 6th best outfield player. Whoscored ratings our 3rd best.
If he scored 12 goals in a season plus 12 assists Premier teams might show an interest but don't you need to be very good indeed or a few years younger as a Championship player to attract much interest? |
| Forum
Reply | Madsen
at 18:58 21 Jan 2026
Much improved and now I’m one of the many who should be eating humble pie after earlier criticism. Important to the team, particularly with Chair out, however I have Dunne and Burrell as more important.
There is a certain sort of fan who is enamoured by silky skill and composure. I’m more interested in end product and Madsen’s nothing special. |
| Forum
Reply | Dembélé new boo boy?
at 16:22 21 Jan 2026
All of which has nothing to do with Dembele being a boo boy.
He brings the criticism on himself with the limited ability, lack of effort and team ethic and should not be in the team when we have the injured back. |
| Forum
Reply | Dembélé new boo boy?
at 00:13 21 Jan 2026
Thought he was regulation poor tonight with occasional contributions which spared him from being rated dire.
JS seems to see enough in him to keep giving him a start. Maybe he is brilliant in training?
Hopefully JS will be able to reconstruct him in time out of the unpromising bits I watched this evening. [Post edited 21 Jan 0:19]
|
| | Spaghetti_Hoops
|
Site Scores| Prediction League: | 0 | | TOTAL: | 0 |
|
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.