Season Expectations

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Minimum Expectation For The Season

Poll ended at Fri Sep 11, 2020 1:19 am

League Champions
2
7%
Automatic Promotion
7
26%
Playoffs
11
41%
Top Half Finish
6
22%
Avoid Relegation
1
4%
 
Total votes: 27

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Dave Sutton's barnet
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Re: Season Expectations

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:28 am

Yeah, yesterday was a big knock to hopes. Whatever the formation, that's two of our best "wide players" gone from a fairly shallow talent pool.

It's funny, for all the talk of formation and personnel and signings, a lot of football is about momentum, or inertia. I've seen various Bolton sides go from fairly hopeless to formidable (and back again), for a month or two at a stretch. Allardyce and Parky both lost half a dozen on the bounce; Phil Neal put together a club record unbeaten run. I'm not sure Evatt is all he thinks he is but with new players and a new formation after a 10-day gap, it felt like something of a new beginning. Now, maybe not so much. But y'know.

To check the thread title: I'm now not really expecting the season to finish, or perhaps not until late. In that case, finishing 8th or 21st makes no real difference, but I fully accept BWFCi's fears of losing time. TBH I'm still glad I've got a club to support at all.

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by Worthy4England » Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:07 pm

The_Gun wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:03 am
See, if Kioso was still here and John hadn't got crocked yesterday I'd be thinking my prediction of being one of the better sides in the second half of the season might not be far off. Now I'm back to thinking we're still a few players off being a consistently winning team.
We're always likely to be 1 or 2 players short of an optimum line up. We have enough average League 2 players, supplemented with Doyle, Sarce, Crawford, Delfouneso, Kioso (until recently), the issue isn't the players, it's the way they're playing together. We've added Lee and John (albeit injured).

The problem is that we've won 7 games of League football out of 21 with one of the leakiest defences in the League. Joint third worst in the Division. We should be better than that with some organisation and not waiting for the white knight to come over the horizon.

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by The_Gun » Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:21 pm

If there's one thing which still gives me some hope, it's that none of the other teams in the division seem to be much cop either.
Of the current top six, Newport and Forest Green I remember thinking looked ok, but we played them right at the start of the season when I think it's fair to say we were still in our 'shambolic' phase. Carlisle and Cambridge we were unlucky not to beat, Cheltenham we did beat and Crawley we should have had at least a point off.

If we actually settled on a system and were able to play most of our better players each week, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think we'd be winning a lot of our games. I'm definitely an optimist when it comes to Bolton, but in these troubled times the thought of a strong finish to the season is, perhaps rather pathetically, one of the things keeping me going. I fully expect these dreams to be comprehensively dashed this evening. :D

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by The_Gun » Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:24 pm

Worthy4England wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:07 pm
The_Gun wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:03 am
See, if Kioso was still here and John hadn't got crocked yesterday I'd be thinking my prediction of being one of the better sides in the second half of the season might not be far off. Now I'm back to thinking we're still a few players off being a consistently winning team.
We're always likely to be 1 or 2 players short of an optimum line up. We have enough average League 2 players, supplemented with Doyle, Sarce, Crawford, Delfouneso, Kioso (until recently), the issue isn't the players, it's the way they're playing together. We've added Lee and John (albeit injured).

The problem is that we've won 7 games of League football out of 21 with one of the leakiest defences in the League. Joint third worst in the Division. We should be better than that with some organisation and not waiting for the white knight to come over the horizon.
No I do agree with you on that, Worthy. I'm perhaps too often guilty of seeing new players as a panacea. I think what was particularly dispiriting about yesterday is that Kioso and John looked like they could be a really good pair of wide players to provide balance which was previously lacking.

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by Worthy4England » Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:27 pm

Yeah, I think if we had Kioso and John, we'd be in a better position to judge whether the master plan might work. It feels a bit back to square one, now.

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:58 pm

Worthy4England wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:27 pm
Yeah, I think if we had Kioso and John, we'd be in a better position to judge whether the master plan might work. It feels a bit back to square one, now.
While I agree broadly, for me it's not so much back to square one as year zero. John and Kioso are/were good wingbacks, so if the back-four thing lasted as long as last time we could perhaps switch back. Now, it feels like the back four *has* to work or we're just spannered.

Then again - maybe by early Feb we'll have John and Kioso back. Or maybe the football won't be on.
The_Gun wrote:
Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:21 pm
I'm definitely an optimist when it comes to Bolton, but in these troubled times the thought of a strong finish to the season is, perhaps rather pathetically, one of the things keeping me going.
if you're pathetic, we're all empathetic with you. Surely the hope of a brighter day is what keeps all football fans coming back.

Certainly if fandom were "a results-based business" then Wanderers would be very thin on the ground. Of the 147 league games since summer 2017 we're W30 D37 L80. I suspect that might be among the league's worst four or so. I noticed the other day someone listed number of days since a domestic cup win (inc FLT) and we were fifth bottom. But we keep coming back, because we hope. And if that's what keeps you going, mate, then all power to your elbow.

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by Prufrock » Tue Jan 12, 2021 1:03 pm

Idly speculating about this the other day I thought it probably had to be between Sunderland and us for worst 2010s?

I'd think we'd even win that (though remember laughing at a stat that said that in March 2019 Sunderland and Leo Messi were neck and neck for league goals in the 2010s :lol:)
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Re: Season Expectations

Post by Dave Sutton's barnet » Tue Jan 12, 2021 1:18 pm

Arguably goes back further. It's been a painful slide.

In the previous 14 seasons (excl this one, but including Sam's final, aborted campaign), we've conceded more than we've scored in 12 seasons. (The other exception, bar promotion, was the first in the Champo.) At least that last Sam season, even with negative goal difference, had more wins than losses – unlike 11 of the 13 that have followed.

So if you include this one (and yet again W<L, F<A) then that's a decade and a half in which we've spent almost every season being poorer than the oppo - in a bewildering variety of divisions.

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Re: Season Expectations

Post by officer_dibble » Tue Jan 12, 2021 6:37 pm

I think when I looked a few season ago Villa and Sunderland were worse but I suspect we are on our own now. Hopefully get overtaken by Wigan soon!

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