vonwright

Of course they might come good. Any player might come good after any length of time. But also: they might not. The question is what's a reasonable judgment after a reasonable length of time. Enough time has passed to say that as things stand a lot of Warne's signings look pretty poor. The more time that passes without them having much impact the stronger that conclusion will be. Particularly when you consider part of the reason for signing 'seasoned pros', 'good characters', etc was that they could have an immediate impact. When exactly in Bradley's two year contract are we entitled to expect him to 'come good'?

The bar he needs to clear isn't 'getting them all right'. That would be unreasonable. I think he's had too many misses and not enough hits. Even Nyambe (a hit) was the third right back he signed. Presumably because he realised his two previous signings weren't up to the job (they weren't helped by his complete u-turn on preferred formation after he'd spent all the money). I guess we disagree as to whether big-money signings like Bradley, Ward, Elder, Washington are indeed 'bedding in', or if they represent bad business. Whether Fornah just needs time or will forever be lightweight and error prone. Personally I think they've been here long enough to form a reasonable view of their likely value, and the overall picture is poor. Good players often come in and make an immediate impact - because they are good players. At any rate, they tend to have a lot more impact than this.

I think promotion is a completely reasonable expectation for a club with our resources, facilities, and the squad left by Rosenior: a demanding but far from impossible expectation. Failing that, you might accept a manager who managed to build a squad, and tactics, that gave you great confidence in future success. Personally, Warne's signings and tactics don't fill me with any great confidence about this season or any future season but I would be very happy to be proven wrong. I think this view is much more common than the 'vitriol' mentioned above.

Think this is right and also why we often struggle against better teams, with better stocked midfields. I personally don't like it - I'd rather be one of those teams that pack midfield and win the battle rather than avoiding it. Either way this is hardly a new problem and Warne's had a lot time to come up with a workable plan b.

They certainly don't have a better squad than most of the teams above them: Leicester, Southampton, Leeds etc. Fair play to Ipswich.

No idea what the strategy is. No idea what the tactical approach is, beyond 'put out 11 "good characters", tell them to get it forward quickly, and see what they come up with'. Eight points off automatic and heading in the wrong direction, despite the manager inheriting a more-than-decent squad, and being given plenty of latitude to sign new players. Odd, piecemeal recruitment with no long-term vision. A squad increasingly tilted towards technically limited, League One journeymen. Anyone questioning any of this jeered and sneered at - as if you can't really care about something unless you believe, contrary to all evidence, that everything is absolutely fine! It isn't. It really isn't.

Always knew Cashin wasn't Usain Bolt but still... Alarming how often (and how comprehensively) he was done for pace.

Recruitment this summer was pretty poor, and catching up with us now - Bradley, Elder, Ward and Washington presumably take up a fair whack of what budget we have, while contributing very little.

Nice one - second column (ie passes per cross) very useful in this context I think, maybe more so than the third. Thanks! But yeah this feels intuitively right. Stevenage and us do seem quite 'crossy' in our approach.

That's interesting. Wonder what it looks like adjusted for average time in possession though? Eg Stevenage see a lot less of the ball in a game - I imagine they put in more crosses per minutes in possession than Peterborough. One possible reason the better teams tend to put in more crosses is just that they see more of the ball. (Edit: although I notice Luton and Everton have the most crosses in the PL this season.)

Four fairly high-profile signings at the very bottom. One at the very top. A mixed bag!

He might well be £6m better to be fair. Maybe not in terms of performances right now, but as an investment. I love Cashin but I don't think he'll end up a top-six PL regular. Don't know much about Edwards but if there's a chance he will then the future gap in value will be immense. Agree we've not been great at getting value over the years, but a lot of our best players haven't kicked on as we thought after they left the club. Maybe they weren't quite as undervalued as we thought.

Not saying I want us to adopt that model but it wasn't good fortune. They just spent the money better: Mel wasted his.

Just randomly? Despite Warne telling them not to do this? I'm a bit confused about how the players are being told to attack. Maybe they are, too. It's not coaching to tell players they need to make the right decisions at the right time. Coaching is setting up clear systems and tactics which help them to do so.