blackNwhites Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Just been watching the interview with Johnny Russell on ramsplayer and this part of the discussion got me thinking... Interviewer guy - "The teams target was obviously to challenge for the top six, at the start of the season. Given from what you've seen from the division and from Derby as well, do you still think that's achievable"? Russell - "Yeah, erm, I don't...from what we've...the way we can play football, erm, I don't want to blow us up too much, but, I don't think we should fear anyone, the way we can play, the way we can play football and carve teams open, soo, I don't see why we can't and ya know, that's still the aim and hopefully we can achieve that". They then go onto how we're joint top scorers in the division and talk about our strength offensively. So, our defensive record is pretty poor as we all know, but is that how far away from play offs or promotion we are? A solid defence? Because he's right, we do break teams down and we've scored a lot of goals this season, some of the build up play for a team in the championship has been brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notts_ram Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 We still dont have a squad to match the likes of Reading, QPR, Wigan, Forest, Leicester which will probably account for 5 out of the Top 6 places at the end of the season so we're struggling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curb Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Yes, we're a fine line away from being a very good side, the difference between us and a play off place is not conceding as many soft goals, which makes it even more odd that Clough refused to acknowledge that the defence needed strengthening. You'll notice though that I said a play off place and not automatic promotion, that's a different kettle of fish altogether, we'd need to strengthen all over the pitch for that, and as Palace are finding out, being a play off standard team will mean you'll struggle big time in the Prem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramble On Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Wisdom at cb and a decent rb and we'll be top six. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duracell Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 The strange thing is, none of the obvious candidates for promotion see to be dramatically underperforming this season, and there's a higher than usual number of teams out of a realistic chance of a play-off spot already. I'd find it a bit odd if none of the current break-away sides completely crash, but with the exception of Burnley, they have squad size and money in their favour. I think those saying there's only one play-off spot left are correct. We're just not good enough to get it in our current form. If, after a dozen matches or so with Wisdom playing and we start conceding fewer goals, I might change my mind. We'll always be competitive with this sort of attacking team, but we'll drop too many points by conceding so many goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G STAR RAM Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Tough to call. There are times when our defence have let us down badly. But there are also times when we have failed to break teams down (pretty much all of the games we lost at home). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbydave96 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I think the fact that we're having this discussion goes to show that we're not ready for the prem, what's the point of going up and then crashing like last time or like palace are doing now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notts_ram Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I think those saying there's only one play-off spot left are correct. Someone actually agrees with me yippee lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambitious Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I think we're just missing a centre half to deal with the long ball, that seems to be where teams try and get at us and it works. If we can do that I think we'll be up there. - quarter of the way through the season, we're 8th with a very generous run of games at home. If we aren't in the top 6 by Christmas then we're not doing good enough! After Christmas it gets harder, but from now to Christmas we need to be winning games and in the top 6 (for me) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smiffy Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Top goal scoring teams are never far away for obvious reasons, we are at the moment in line for 100 league goals, that would certainly put us in the top six. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curb Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I think the fact that we're having this discussion goes to show that we're not ready for the prem, what's the point of going up and then crashing like last time or like palace are doing now? It depends, there are obvious examples of it being the ruin of clubs, but then there is others, for example West Brom who yo-yoed for a few seasons and eventually strengthened enough to stay up. There's no blue print, just because we crashed last time doesn't mean we're going to next time. I'm more confident that the management we have now could handle a surprise promotion better than the last one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackNwhites Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 The strange thing is, none of the obvious candidates for promotion see to be dramatically underperforming this season, and there's a higher than usual number of teams out of a realistic chance of a play-off spot already. I'd find it a bit odd if none of the current break-away sides completely crash, but with the exception of Burnley, they have squad size and money in their favour. I think those saying there's only one play-off spot left are correct. We're just not good enough to get it in our current form. If, after a dozen matches or so with Wisdom playing and we start conceding fewer goals, I might change my mind. We'll always be competitive with this sort of attacking team, but we'll drop too many points by conceding so many goals. The way the top 7 look now is a bit of an anomaly imo, obviously QPR and Leicester should be up there and then you could maybe look at Wigan and Reading to make the top 4. Wigan competing in Europe is a massive negative for them, alright, it's good, but in regards to their championship season it's a negative. I don't think Leicester were that much better than us, and I certainly don't think Forest are better than us at all. They have a better defence. Anyway, I don't wanna get too carried away, like Russell himself says, (one for the cliche thread) we carve teams open with some fantastic movement going forwards. I think we're starting to get competition in defence now. 3 fit CB's at the club and 3 to come back, can only be a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormantonRam Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 A LB, RB, Wingers, Striker away IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChaddesdenRam Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Don't need any attacking players Left Back and a another CDM for when Eustace is too tired to play Saturday and then Tuesday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Day Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Can't see us getting promoted till at least May Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormantonRam Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 If Bryson goes in Jan, probably not this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stive Pesley Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I'd have a flutter on Blackpool not staying up at the top end all season. Weirdly for saying we are the joint top scorers in the league, I still don't think of us as having "deadly strikers" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott129 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 I'd have a flutter on Blackpool not staying up at the top end all season. Weirdly for saying we are the joint top scorers in the league, I still don't think of us as having "deadly strikers" We don't need to have deadly strikers when we've got goals coming from all over the pitch. That's probably better too, saves us relying on one player all the time (like a Jordan Rhodes). Having said that, our two main strikers are averaging a goal every two and three games, which is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leicester Ram Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 A LB, RB, Wingers, Striker away IMO. Top goalscorers in the division, really doubt we need either of those. Our two strikers have scored 12 between them and we have goal scoring midfielders, one of them being the winger Jamie Ward. Martin's been one of the best players so far and Sammon's good competition, not sure why we need a striker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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