What have we learned?

[FOXES-BROWNBOY]

the football in the prem is not much better than the champ

[Phube]

To play your best players, whether their wives tweet or not.

[Dan]

You cannot be sentimental.

 

A lot of teams in this league aren't outstanding, but they are effective.

 

You cannot have defenders prone to lapses in concentration.

 

La Liga is comfortably a higher quality league.

 

I'd say the bottom half being full of shit but in all honesty I knew that anyway. You can always rely on sides like Newcastle United, Aston Villa & Sunderland to turn to shit at some stage. Even when we were comfortably bottom I wasn't feeling like we were on the end of a lot of teams being infinitely better than us, but more ones who take their chances.

 

Hardly any teams can defend well consistently.

[Danno]

the football in the prem is not much better than the champ

[LCCFox96]

Premier league experience in defence makes a massive difference. Huth, there it is!

[theessexfox]

Gabriel Obertan is a goblin

[EnglishOxide]

I thought we would be comfortably mid table as I considered the bottom half of the league to be shit. I was partially right, we got battered by pretty much no one yet we fell victim to ruthless finishing time after time whilst not taking our own chances.

That luck counts for a lot. 8 less games than in the championship means your season can be defined by fine margins, luck and shit refereeing. We were on the wrong end of them for most the season and had relatively few games to have the opportunity to make up for it.

[HighPeakFox]

That some posters on here are very idiot....

[fleckneymike]

This can't happen again. Strengthen significantly through the spine of the team.

[muzzy1981]

Sign one of the most decorated footballers in history ogh yeah and a bloody good CB!

[Ric Flair]

That we must defend from the front with the pressing style of football that served us so well in the Championship winning season. It upsets the rythm of our opposition and keeps all of our players switched on.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

Just go at everyone. It's our best quality and it pays off 90% of the time

[Collymore]

Confidence is key.

 

I think this was summed on Saturday when Huth played a dummy to beat the forward and then Morgan did some outrageous skill seconds later to keep possession. Morgan was so nervy earlier on in the season and was like a new signing towards the end. It has been an unbelievable transformation. 

 

Confidence breeds confidence  

[reynard]

The difference between the Championship and Premier League in terms of quality is significantly greater than most thought it would be.

 

That pure raw talent is not enough. You need that and experience together combined with hard work to succeed at this level. It is no coincidence we have improved so much since Huth arrived and since Cambiasso really started to play to the highest level.

 

You need to be able not only to find ways to win but to find ways to draw. To lose 19 games in a season isn't great.

You need pace up front especially.

 

You need a leader and game manager on the pitch. Morgan is club captain but for me the leader on the pitch in the last two months has been Cambiasso. Not only for his play but also for his game management  not only in directing his teammates but also in the way he continuously talks to the Ref. He doesn't rush at him and shout in his face but he quietly points out where there should have been a free kick or where the ref got it wrong. All the best teams have this sort of player.

 

Concentration for 95mins is key. The quality of strikers etc means you can't switch off at all or you most likely get punished.

[fleckneymike]

The difference between the Championship and Premier League in terms of quality is significantly greater than most thought it would be.

 

That pure raw talent is not enough. You need that and experience together combined with hard work to succeed at this level. It is no coincidence we have improved so much since Huth arrived and since Cambiasso really started to play to the highest level.

 

You need to be able not only to find ways to win but to find ways to draw. To lose 19 games in a season isn't great.

You need pace up front especially.

 

You need a leader and game manager on the pitch. Morgan is club captain but for me the leader on the pitch in the last two months has been Cambiasso. Not only for his play but also for his game management  not only in directing his teammates but also in the way he continuously talks to the Ref. He doesn't rush at him and shout in his face but he quietly points out where there should have been a free kick or where the ref got it wrong. All the best teams have this sort of player.

 

Concentration for 95mins is key. The quality of strikers etc means you can't switch off at all or you most likely get punished.

 

I think this is what many overlook.

 

We no longer have Huth and Cambiasso. Even if we get them back they wont be enough. We effectively need two Huths and two (however unlikely) Cambiasso's. All it takes is a freak injury and that defensive solidity is gong or that calming game management disapears.

 

We could conceivably find ourselves minus Huth and Was, suddenly that leaves us with Wes and a still sulking Moore. Lose Cambiasso and the midfiled consists of just King and Drinkwater.

 

The reassuring thought is that the recruitment team lead by Walsh tend to have a first, second and third choice replacement for most players but as we saw last summer, getting those players is not longer a formality.

[Dan]

That we must defend from the front with the pressing style of football that served us so well in the Championship winning season. It upsets the rythm of our opposition and keeps all of our players switched on.

 

This, and it's seriously hard for any team to defend against. It's the future. We need to build around it. We've got a very nice core to build from.