8 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Bit concerned that Carrick thinks we were the better team in every game this season, presumably including Blackburn.

Really want to believe in his ability to turn things around, but we were absolutely not the better team on Saturday.

I'm not sure he does think that, I think he's protecting the players in public. Though he's not really doing it in a way that's digestible because he's not really offering up alternative explanations asides from luck.

10 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

I'm not sure he does think that, I think he's protecting the players in public. Though he's not really doing it in a way that's digestible because he's not really offering up alternative explanations asides from luck.

Maybe he needs to do the opposite when merited, say the performance wasn't good enough for this level and certain players need to do better, they know who they are. Kick up the *** without mentioning names and getting angry might be the medicine needed to get them to really want it.

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by thomas

21 minutes ago, Changing Times said:

I can't see it.  We haven't played the same line up yet so why would we start now?

I think it’s more likely to happen than 99% of these teams being posted. If it changes it will be a weird random change.

23 minutes ago, TeaCider24 said:

Bit concerned that Carrick thinks we were the better team in every game this season, presumably including Blackburn.

Really want to believe in his ability to turn things around, but we were absolutely not the better team on Saturday.

I can only hope he’s seeing intricacies of ‘the system’ starting to work that we maybe don’t notice. Watching Brighton on Saturday I remember when they first got de zerbie they went ages without scoring and everyone was questioning it until it suddenly all clicked.

I get that I’m reaching here but there’s still hope imo.

2 minutes ago, TheJew said:

Dieng

VDB Fry Lenihan Bangura

O'Brien Hackney

Jones ELL McGree

Forss

 

As close to being as back to it all began as possible.

I’d be happy with that team tbh.

Crooks for sure shouldn’t be starting he’s good off the bench but ruins us going forward and build up

Obviously he would say so in public anyway but Carrick has dismissed any rumours of a falling out with mcgree 

 

 

56 minutes ago, LinoJo3 said:

I think it’s more likely to happen than 99% of these teams being posted. If it changes it will be a weird random change.

Oh yeah there could be weird changes but it would surprise me if we went with the same XI.  I can't see O'Brien playing in the same position, Carrick admitted that it didn't work against Blackburn so you'd hope he wouldn't be looking to try it again.

26 minutes ago, Neverbefore said:

Obviously he would say so in public anyway but Carrick has dismissed any rumours of a falling out with mcgree 

 

 

But not huge enough to play much then I guess 🙃

 

I already know this comment won't go down well, but our xG has been better than our opponents in almost every single game this season. Blackburn is the exception, but even that was close.

Of course stats only tell part of the story, and we've been poor - but I genuinely don't think we've been as bad as everyone is making out on here. There's absolutely no way we should be thinking about sacking Carrick.

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by 2plus2

41 minutes ago, 2plus2 said:

I already know this comment won't go down well, but our xG has been better than our opponents in almost every single game this season. Blackburn is the exception, but even that was close.

Of course stats only tell part of the story, and we've been poor - but I genuinely don't think we've been as bad as everyone is making out on here. There's absolutely no way we should be thinking about sacking Carrick.

I agree with this, I know people will say ‘but wilder blablabla’ and while it’s true it was the same back then I feel it’s different this time because (hopefully) Carrick is more respected by the players and he got it to work last season, plus the turnover in players he’s gone through. 
 

Although we aren’t finishing the chances it encourages me that we make so many, even despite playing poorly. It’s annoying that we’ve got the hard part done and struggle with the easy part. While we are doing terrible rn it does seem we are a couple of tweaks away from turning it around.

22 minutes ago, TheJew said:

Like Wilder's team?

I don't know why you say that as if it's some sort of gotcha. The actual league table is obviously important but underlying numbers also have value. Both things can be true.

In fact, our underlying numbers help paint a more nuanced picture of what happened since the start of last season. As you say, our numbers under Wilder were good, really good in fact, until his last couple of games. If they were bad, or if you think they're meaningless, then Carrick must be viewed as a miracle worker for the turnaround. On the other hand, bearing those underlying numbers in mind suggests Carrick tweaked an already strong squad and took us in the opposite direction. I think the latter interpretation makes far more sense.

Now we're in a position again where our underlying stats are superior to our league position. Don't get me wrong, things are far from rosy and at some point if we continue at the bottom of the table some tough decisions will have to be made. However, accounting for more than just league position helps prevent the urge to deal only in extremes and have more patience - and dare I say faith - that things will improve.

Of course you need more than just stats and league tables to paint a full picture, I'm just making the point that underlying stats do have value, despite what some people on here seem to think.

 

 

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by RealSlimSladeyy

2 hours ago, TeaCider24 said:

Bit concerned that Carrick thinks we were the better team in every game this season, presumably including Blackburn.

Really want to believe in his ability to turn things around, but we were absolutely not the better team on Saturday.

The amount of high quality chances we're giving away is insane.

Even last season during our hot streak of form we'd give away a lot of good chances but not on this scale. Every time a team runs at us we look so, so brittle. If we'd have nicked a draw against Blackburn it would have been good and on another day one of those good chances we created goes in but given how frail we look at the back I'd still be hugely concerned. We just look unconvincing at the minute but as I've alluded to in my previous post hopefully some tweaks can start to lift us into a stronger league position.

Edited September 18, 20232 yr by RealSlimSladeyy

7 minutes ago, RealSlimSladeyy said:

The amount of high quality chances we're giving away is insane.

Even last season during our hot streak of form we'd give away a lot of good chances but not on this scale. Every time a team runs at us we look so, so brittle. If we'd have nicked a draw against Blackburn it would have been good and on another day one of those good chances we created goes in but given how frail we look at the back I'd still be hugely concerned. We just look unconvincing at the minute but as I've alluded to in my previous post hopefully some tweaks can start to lift us into a stronger league position.

We need some urgency in that midfield. We really need to drop howson now and try O’brien in there, hopefully having his energy there gets Hackney going aswell. Neither of them seem to be ‘busting a gut’ when we get countered on and that’s why we’re letting teams have all these free shots at our goal or feed their wide players.

46 minutes ago, RealSlimSladeyy said:

On the other hand, bearing those underlying numbers in mind suggests Carrick tweaked an already strong squad and took us in the opposite direction. I think the latter interpretation makes far more sense.

Now we're in a position again where our underlying stats are superior to our league position. Don't get me wrong, things are far from rosy and at some point if we continue at the bottom of the table some tough decisions will have to be made.

I think this is spot on. The issue with Wilder was Wilder. He had, as it turned out, a really good squad but he was so busy raging against everything that he eventually broke the team. All Leo and then Carrick did was to purge the poison and set the team up in a way that worked for them. Plus, almost by accident, Carrick unlocked the Chuba cheat code. Carrick didn't do nothing but he wasn't the be-all and end-all of that team's success.

It seems to me that there were two factors in our under-performance under Wilder. One was the formation. He was so emotionally wedded to proving it worked that he couldn't bear to change it. The other was his personality. Right now, Carrick seems to be making the same first mistake. Instead of fitting a system to players he is trying to shoe-horn them into something they simply can't make work (yet). Unlike Wilder, though, Carrick's personality and manner with the players is a positive. Wilder was part of the problem, Carrick could still be part of the solution if he finds a way through this.