Woulda Coulda Shoulda

[RalphCoatesComb]

1 point from 5 games doesn't fill anyone with confidence.

BUT, we shoulda had at least 1 point from yesterday, 1 point from the Brighton game, and 3 points from the Leeds game.

Time to lump on us staying up !

And, for what it's worth, Arsenal were there for the taking yesterday... certainly shoulda laid that ghost to rest.

UTC !

[claptrappers_union]

I think we’ll be ok.

[beddie]

We woulda if we coulda and more importantly we shoulda.

[Spijed]

1 point from 5 games doesn't fill anyone with confidence.

This is the third season where we've got 1 point from 5 games.

[RalphCoatesComb]

This is the third season where we've got 1 point from 5 games.

But Coulda had 6 points

[RalphCoatesComb]

Charlie Taylor agrees with me in his post-match interview, we were frustrated because we could and probably should have got sommat, at least a point. So, there it is, in black and Yarksher

[superdimitri]

What matters is how we do against those likely to be around us. We can't lose against teams like Brighton if we're to stay up. Hopefully we'll start scoring and taking our chances.

[RalphCoatesComb]

We can't lose against teams like Brighton if we're to stay up.

Fazakerley ! As they say in Bootle

[CrosspoolClarets]

All five teams could yet finish top half, Brighton and Leeds could be the “best of the rest” after the big 6, Leicester and Everton (I doubt Leeds will but they are better than Norwich, Watford, Brentford, Palace, Newcastle and Wolves who are the teams to judge us against - I’ll ponder the state we are in after Norwich).

[Ric_C]

Personally think we've played well in patches, but been punished when we've had bad spells.

In three home games Pope has hardly saved a shot yet we've only got one point.

We are in the top 8 for XG (if you are in to that) which is unusual for us. Yesterday was us shooting ourselves in the foot again however as Pope's kick out was terrible and we hadn't regained our shape by the time Westwood fouled Saka.

Overall I'm not too despondent, we need to get Cornet and Vydra into this team and maybe even play 4_5_1 on occasion bit like we did when Defour played.

Next two signings should be a midfielder who is comfortable on the ball and a striker with pace. Barnes and Jay are past their prime unfortunately.

[Tall Paul]

Brighton aren't likely to be around us.

[tiger76]

This is the third season where we've got 1 point from 5 games.

Yes we're consistent in our slow starts if nothing else, and despite all the doom and gloom in both those previous seasons, we still stayed up with relative ease, and I think we'll be fine once we get that 1st win on the board, however it does need to come soon to settle everyone down, as the longer our winless streak continues the more the pressure will mount and anxiety grow.

Positives from yesterday for me.

We limited Arsenal to virtually nothing in open play.
Cornet and Vydra made their presence felt when they were introduced. And Sean made the changes early enough to give them a chance to influence the match.
We created chances again.
Another game without a red card, and at points in that 1st half this was a genuine concern.

But for all the plaudits the lads received particularly for the 2nd half, it's yet another hard luck story against Arsenal.

And my biggest worry is where are the goals coming from, normally Wood is dependable for a fair amount of strikes, but big Chris isn't on his game right now, and we lack goals from the rest of the squad, and until this drought is addressed we'll struggle to climb the table.

Also 8 games without a clean sheet now, although we probably shoulda had two against Arsenal and Leeds, but for lapses in concentration.

I'd bite your hand off for a couple of scrappy results now, give me a dour 0-0 at Leicester, followed by a gritty 1-0 win against Norwich, similar to what we achieved at this point last season in the Brighton & Palace encounters, points are what we need PDQ, and how the come doesn't matter to me, just as long as they do come ASAP.

[RalphCoatesComb]

"My biggest worry is where are the goals coming from, normally Wood is dependable for a fair amount of strikes, but big Chris isn't on his game right now"

Time for Sean to throw away the omelette cookbook and start feeding Big Chris on raw steak. More aggression needed from Wood and less from Ashley Barnes.

[Boss Hogg]

You’d have to hope things would improve or at the current points rate per games we’ll be relegated and break Derby’s points record. We once looked good at defending a 1 goal lead but not anymore. This along with a lack of quality in front of goal and the final third is not a good combination. Just hoping we can nick the odd goal isn’t really cutting it. We have to be able to score more than one goal in a match and there are far too many matches where we fail to score and when on top in the game.

[Tall Paul]

As Ric says, the xG stats show we're creating chances. The goals will come, particularly for Wood, just like they did last season.

[Woodleyclaret]

We are looking good with Cornet now lets get Collins in at rb and we will be a lot stronger

[ClaretMov]

"My biggest worry is where are the goals coming from, normally Wood is dependable for a fair amount of strikes, but big Chris isn't on his game right now"

Time for Sean to throw away the omelette cookbook and start feeding Big Chris on raw steak. More aggression needed from Wood and less from Ashley Barnes.

Wood will score more with a decent strike partner and I'm afraid Barnes isn't that man, Vydra needs to start each week, if not Vydra will not sign a new contract and walk away for free, how can Dyche let a 10 million pound player walk away by treating him like that just to keep Barnes happy by playing him, I love Ashley Barnes he's been one of my favourite player's for a few year's now but he's championship level at best now.

[MACCA]

I always think under SD we will always have enough to stay up just with the style, however just looking at the league I'm struggling to be convinced that theres definitely 2 other teams along with Norwich who are not as good or capable of results as us.

With a few difficult games coming up, the Norwich and Brentford home games are biggies, the rest look like games we could easily come away empty handed in.

Hopefully that will change with a unexpected win somewhere which lifts the confidence and then a couple of wins follow in the aforementioned fixtures

I think we really are behind the curve in terms of points when you consider who we've played, and the positions we've been in.

All in all I'm still confident, but probably the least confident I've been for a few seasons now and if we fail to get 6 or 7 points from the next 5 games I think that could spell trouble for us.

You csnt keep thinking we've been here before and dicing with death, eventually you get caught.

The other teams in the scrap with us will no doubt strengthen in Jsnuary and throw money at staying up, or change manager and hope for a bounce, where that's not and shouldn't be our style.

[Jamesy]

Last words of a fool.

[Spijed]

The next five fixtures will go a long way to defining our season.

Leicester
Norwich
Man City
Southampton
Brentford

[Vino blanco]

Don’t forget we won at Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Wolves away last season….12 massive points. We won’t be doing that this season.

[Spijed]

Don’t forget we won at Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Wolves away last season….12 massive points. We won’t be doing that this season.

Whilst true, we are normally are so good against the bottom sides, less so last season.

If we can revert to type on that basis it'll be the results against those around us which will define our season.

Edit: we haven’t played wolves yet

[tiger76]

The next five fixtures will go a long way to defining our season.

Leicester
Norwich
Man City
Southampton
Brentford

Is that our next 5, while I wouldn't expect anything at Leicester or Man City, although in footy you never know I guess, but Norwich, Southampton & Brentford SHOULD offer a chance of points, and boy do we need a couple of wins and a draw out of that batch, otherwise we could be looking at the prospect of having played 10, and be sat on 3-4 points, as we were back in 14/15, and despite averaging a PPG from then on we still went down with a whimper, so yes there's still plenty of matches remaining, but we can't give ourselves too much of a mountain to climb, hence the need to get some points on the board.

[Rileybobs]

I always thought it was shoulda woulda coulda.

[Grumps]

We are looking good with Cornet now lets get Collins in at rb and we will be a lot stronger

That would be harsh on the right back we've just signed

[BleedingClaret]

"My biggest worry is where are the goals coming from, normally Wood is dependable for a fair amount of strikes, but big Chris isn't on his game right now"

Time for Sean to throw away the omelette cookbook and start feeding Big Chris on raw steak. More aggression needed from Wood and less from Ashley Barnes.

Play Vydra and Wood will score goals

[Spijed]

In the previous seasons here are the points from the first 5 and ten matches:

14/15 season - 3/4 (ended in relegation)
16/17 season - 4/11
17/18 season - 8/16 (54 points)
18/19 season - 1/8
19/20 season - 8/12 (54 points)
20/21 season - 1/6
21/22 season - 1/???

A couple of things to note.

In the season where we played in Europe (18/19) we'd got 7 points from 7 matches then went on a shocking run, gaining only a further 5 points from the next 12 matches.

Last season we'd only scored 6 goals in our first 12 matches.

[RalphCoatesComb]

I always thought it was shoulda woulda coulda.

My thread and it is what I have written

[Spijed]

In the previous seasons here are the points from the first 5 and ten matches:

14/15 season - 3/4 (ended in relegation)
16/17 season - 4/11
17/18 season - 8/16 (54 points)
18/19 season - 1/8
19/20 season - 8/12 (54 points)
20/21 season - 1/6
21/22 season - 1/???

A couple of things to note.

In the season where we played in Europe (18/19) we'd got 7 points from 7 matches then went on a shocking run, gaining only a further 5 points from the next 12 matches.

Last season we'd only scored 6 goals in our first 12 matches.

Even in the season when we went down, we managed to get out of the relegation zone and were looking ok. We then went on a poor run getting 6 points from 14 matches which sealed our fate. That started when we were 2-0 up at home to Palace, losing 3-2.

[Rileybobs]

My thread and it is what I have written

Sorry, didn’t mean to bubble your burst.

[IanMcL]

Sorry, didn’t mean to bubble your burst.

Now it appears it is your burst bubble!

Coulda shoulda woulda

[RalphCoatesComb]

And yet another game falls into this class.

The lads played their hearts out yesterday. ALL OF 'EM !

Lowton played like his life depended on it, Vydra ran himself ragged, and everyone put in a shift. A couple of errors but I am very proud to be a Claret today - and every other day

[TsarBomba]

Saturdays game against Norwich is our biggest of the season.

Win, and we’ll settle down.

Anything else and we’ll be in for a bit of a slog.

[tiger76]

Saturdays game against Norwich is our biggest of the season.

Win, and we’ll settle down.

Anything else and we’ll be in for a bit of a slog.

I wouldn't normally describe our 7th PL game of the season as a must win, but given we travel to Man City after the international break it's vital we get all 3 points against Norwich, and if we do we'll find ourselves back amongst the pack, and not chasing our tail.

It's amazing to consider we've dropped 10 points from winning positions already, and that leakage has to be resolved soon, otherwise it's going to be a long season.

[RalphCoatesComb]

If Dwight had put the ball away, like he SHOULDA, we WOULDA had 5 points by now and COULDA started to climb the table.

Still no panic, but it's time to start putting the ball in the onion bag

[tiger76]

If Dwight had put the ball away, like he SHOULDA, we WOULDA had 5 points by now and COULDA started to climb the table.

Still no panic, but it's time to start putting the ball in the onion bag

That's always been our problem in the PL, even in the seasons when we finished top 10, we were hardly prolific, but we managed to churn out several 1-0 wins in both those seasons, yesterday wasn't as bad as many posters are saying, but we do need to get that 1st win on the board soon.

5 goals in 7 games (2 of those at Leicester) tells you where our problems lie mainly, however we've also leaked soft goals throughout the campaign, so although it was only Norwich the clean sheet yesterday is encouraging moving forwards.

And thankfully for us neither Newcastle, Norwich or Southampton can post wins either, so this means we're well within touching distance of the pack.

[RalphCoatesComb]

The performances this season, goals aside, have generally been good. When Maxwel starts supplying crosses for the likes of Wood, Vydra, Barnes and Jay, all will be rosy. But we'll not speak about our upcoming visit to the Ethiad