Lack of Goals / Goal difference.

[Sir Fynwy]

If more people on here accepted that we are at best a mid table team at the moment we might get some more realistic expectations posted.

[harpendenfox]

It's a little like this summer's Ashes. Statistically the aussies had most of the leading batsmen and bowlers. But we won the critical moments (apologies to Aussie Foxes reading this).

We appear to have the happy knack of scoring crucial goals, and long may that continue.

I was looking at the League table last night. Apart from the three who came down, who are already the top three, there's no reason why we can't beat anyone else, home or away. And as confidence grows, we'll fancy our chances at the top three. Boro away at the end of the month I think.

And I reckon we will be pretty highly motivated to put one over Joe 'Big Club' Mattock's West Brom. What are the odds that Brown finds his way up the field to impart an early reducer on the lad.....?

[James.]

If more people on here accepted that we are at best a mid table team at the moment we might get some more realistic expectations posted.

I agree. Before this season started many people were talking about survival and consolidation. Now it's play offs and promotion.

Nothing wrong with being optimistic but when those expectations get dampened by a poor run of form (which I'm sure will happen eventually) that's when optimism turns into negativity.

Right now Pearson has done an incredible job. To take a relegated club in a complete mess to a League one title and then a top 6 position in the Championship is a feat not seen round here since O'Neill.

I just hope people's expectations have got some slack built in because it'll be ucking depressing if we lose a couple and everyone starts moaning.

[davieG]

The negativity on here is astounding.

It wouldn't matter if we were top of the league, scoring 2 or 3 a game, some people would find something to moan about. We've had a very steady start, i think pretty much everbody would have taken it prior to the season starting.

Cast your minds back to how bad it really has been for the last few years compared to now.

Just enjoy it while we are doing well for f***s sake.

I didn't think there was much negativity just a football discussion, debating the merits of the team is not necessarily negative and doesn't have to stop when we're doing well.

I think it's more a case of you can't seem have a debate about your team without someone accusing you of being overly optimistic or pessimistic. Do you think that the fans of teams permanently at the top of the football ladder don't have discussions like this?

Just because people want to discuss strengths and weaknesses doesn't mean they're are not enjoying that we're doing well for f****s sake!

[Guest]

Our performance at Newcastle perfectly illustrated our limitations, the problems we will have as a result and why.

And the performances against pretty much everyone else illustrate the type of team we will be playing on a more regular basis.

Exactly Fez. As frustrating as the Newcastle game was, I could take a lot of positives from that game, and what a certain someone has failed to mention is that this time last year, one of us was in the top flight, the other was in the third division, and neither have seen too many changes in personnel over the summer.

[marbelladave]

Davie G's stats show just how small the margin of error is in this league.

A couple of poor results and we could be mid-table or worse yet a couple of good ones could see us fighting for a promotion spot. Naturally as a City fan I want to see the latter, and whilst I really do not think promotion is at all likely this season, I see no reason why we should at least give it a go.

To do this we need to improve on a decent start, and it is my view that we can improve with the players we already have.

There has been plenty of discussion on these pages, but for what it is worth these are the areas that I think need addressing.

Despite strong individual performances our central defense looks a bit shaky at times, we really need the Tunch, as soon as he is fit and ready.

Central midfield remains undermanned, having our wide men 'tuck in' and help out is not the answer, as was pretty obvious on saturday.

We need to improve our goal threat from midfield, for me this means King or Adams have to play.

We have to seriously consider breaking up the sainted Howard / Fryatt partnership. If we play the ball on the ground as we did for long periods against Blackpool Howard becomes marginalised.

Last season we had the strongest team in the division and all NP had to do was identify our best starting XI and get them on the pitch as often as he could. It worked fine.

This season we cannot match the top clubs, they have too many excellent (for this league) players, so we have to match them by other means. We appear to have a decent team spirit, now we need to add flexibility and a bit of invention.

[THE MAGICIAN]

The negativity on here is astounding.

It wouldn't matter if we were top of the league, scoring 2 or 3 a game, some people would find something to moan about. We've had a very steady start, i think pretty much everbody would have taken it prior to the season starting.

Cast your minds back to how bad it really has been for the last few years compared to now.

Just enjoy it while we are doing well for f***s sake.

The most sensible post on here by a country mile.

[Corky]

Our performance at Newcastle perfectly illustrated our limitations, the problems we will have as a result and why.

Our problem in the past Thrac was that we always seemed to play well against the better sides, but struggle against equal or lower opposition.

Thankfully, the latter seems to have been sorted out.

[dogadug]

The negativity on here is astounding.

It wouldn't matter if we were top of the league, scoring 2 or 3 a game, some people would find something to moan about. We've had a very steady start, i think pretty much everbody would have taken it prior to the season starting.

Cast your minds back to how bad it really has been for the last few years compared to now.

Just enjoy it while we are doing well for f***s sake.

Great post. Exactly what i'm thinking

[Babylon]

We've done well so far but you could say we have been lucky to win all those home games by 1 goal. From what i've heard Blackpool played well yesterday and perhaps deserved a point, we didn't play that great against Barnsley and nicked a 1-0 win, and had a lucky deflection against Swansea.

We were the better team in all three games, I'd hardly call it lucky that we won.

[Edmund]

The negativity on here is astounding.

It wouldn't matter if we were top of the league, scoring 2 or 3 a game, some people would find something to moan about. We've had a very steady start, i think pretty much everbody would have taken it prior to the season starting.

Cast your minds back to how bad it really has been for the last few years compared to now.

Just enjoy it while we are doing well for f***s sake.

Top post

[davieG]

Great post. Exactly what i'm thinking

Top post

Disagree - so we can't discuss the merits or otherwise of the team just because they are doing better than most people thought? We may as well shut down the forum then.

[Edmund]

Disagree - so we can't discuss the merits or otherwise of the team just because they are doing better than most people thought? We may as well shut down the forum then.

Of course you can post what you want but it astounds me people are looking at the situation negatively when as you've written we are doing better than most people thought. Davie I thought you of most people on this forum would know that it's better to enjoy the moment having seen lots of ups and downs in the clubs history.

The way I look at it is you could have started a thread on the same subject but praising how we have had a good start coinciding that we have not scored as many as we have liked. Instead it is simply we are scoring a lack of goals putting our good start out of the window. In seasons gone past we had something to moan about with the lack of goals as we wern't getting any results now we are lacking goals but getting results. Thats all that matters to me.

[davieG]

Of course you can post what you want but it astounds me people are looking at the situation negatively when as you've written we are doing better than most people thought. Davie I thought you of most people on this forum would know that it's better to enjoy the moment having seen lots of ups and downs in the clubs history.

The way I look at it is you could have started a thread on the same subject but praising how we have had a good start coinciding that we have not scored as many as we have liked. Instead it is simply we are scoring a lack of goals putting our good start out of the window. In seasons gone past we had something to moan about with the lack of goals as we wern't getting any results now we are lacking goals but getting results. Thats all that matters to me.

There's plenty of upbeat threads on how we are doing, 1 year unbeaten, Praising Pearson, 50 goals for Fryatt. The same people that are accused of being negative in here are posting in those threads in a positive and praising manner.

Besides discussing in a grown up, articulate, thought provoking manner about the game of football is not negative what ever the subject matter is. It just so happens that an obvious fact at the moment is that we've scored less goals than those around us so it's genuine point of discussion.

People post about the team they'd put out and suggest changes to a 'winning' team , with no justification, are they being negative? Of course not.

All this thread is doing is the same but providing reasons and justification for those changes albeit focusing on the goal scoring aspect of the team

I really do not see what is negative about it!

[Edmund]

There's plenty of upbeat threads on how we are doing, 1 year unbeaten, Praising Pearson, 50 goals for Fryatt. The same people that are accused of being negative in here are posting in those threads in a positive and praising manner.

Besides discussing in a grown up, articulate, thought provoking manner about the game of football is not negative what ever the subject matter is. It just so happens that an obvious fact at the moment is that we've scored less goals than those around us so it's genuine point of discussion.

People post about the team they'd put out and suggest changes to a 'winning' team , with no justification, are they being negative? Of course not.

All this thread is doing is the same but providing reasons and justification for those changes albeit focusing on the goal scoring aspect of the team

I really do not see what is negative about it!

You make some good points Davie. You can't blame me or others for thinking otherwise though as if you look around in other threads there is a lot of moaning going on. Don't get me wrong you have every right to discuss what you want and definitely have valid points in this thread I just got the wrong end of the stick.

[dogadug]

Disagree - so we can't discuss the merits or otherwise of the team just because they are doing better than most people thought? We may as well shut down the forum then.

Same with me, I were not trying to say that people shouldn't be discussing about the team , and I certainly don't want the forum shutting down!!! All I was trying to say is that we should be making the most of this, considering all the club has been through recently and am really interested in reading all the merits and worries that people have about the team

Keep up the good work

[Thracian]

Exactly Fez. As frustrating as the Newcastle game was, I could take a lot of positives from that game, and what a certain someone has failed to mention is that this time last year, one of us was in the top flight, the other was in the third division, and neither have seen too many changes in personnel over the summer.

I saw the Newcastle team that was relegated as not good enough for the Premiership and the Championship is where it looked like it belonged.

And why I should mention where the two teams were a year ago I don't know because it had no relevence whatsover to either our attempt to win the match or the comparative standard of the two sides that night.

And just as Newcastle were not good enough for the top flight, Leicester proved too good for the rest of Division One so it's little surprise they've ended up in the same division and looked to be of a comparable standard.

There was no reason we shouldn't have beaten Newcastle on the night - they were entirely indifferent.

Pearson said that things we tried didn't come off. But what were these so-called "things" cosI don't believe we ever showed the same attacking conviction in the second half that we did in the first 30 minutes. Nor did we ever commit sufficient players forward when we went behind.

It wasn't so much that we failed to break Newcastle down once they'd taken the lead as that we never seriously tried.

[leicesterfox86]

The negativity on here is astounding.

It wouldn't matter if we were top of the league, scoring 2 or 3 a game, some people would find something to moan about. We've had a very steady start, i think pretty much everbody would have taken it prior to the season starting.

Cast your minds back to how bad it really has been for the last few years compared to now.

Just enjoy it while we are doing well for f***s sake.

Some football fans just aren't happy unless they are moaning. We are in a good place right now and things are looking positive. As long as we know that, all is good.

[Joe.]

I don't think this thread is about negativity, more improvement no? Don't see a problem with that.

[cecchini]

I saw the Newcastle team that was relegated as not good enough for the Premiership and the Championship is where it looked like it belonged.

And why I should mention where the two teams were a year ago I don't know because it had no relevence whatsover to either our attempt to win the match or the comparative standard of the two sides that night.

And just as Newcastle were not good enough for the top flight, Leicester proved too good for the rest of Division One so it's little surprise they've ended up in the same division and looked to be of a comparable standard.

There was no reason we shouldn't have beaten Newcastle on the night - they were entirely indifferent.

Pearson said that things we tried didn't come off. But what were these so-called "things" cosI don't believe we ever showed the same attacking conviction in the second half that we did in the first 30 minutes. Nor did we ever commit sufficient players forward when we went behind.

It wasn't so much that we failed to break Newcastle down once they'd taken the lead as that we never seriously tried.

Well, I'm not so sure. There were two leauges between Newcastle and Leicester last season. Newcastle is chock full of players used to playing in the prem and yet they got relgated, the same thing happened to us the season before last. Why did we both slip?

Bad management/ poor motivation, I don't care if you are Christiano Ronaldo, if your hearts not in it you won't play well - thats why fergie let him go - thats why fergie is a good manager.

For me, we've had an excellent start, we are winning more than we lose and we are in a playoff position - i would have given my right gonad for that this time last year. Pearson is building an excellent team, he's plugged the leaks, and now we need a good midfield to take the play forwards to the strikers - I think he's getting there.

I'm really positive about the whole thing - fantastic start. - Well done Nigel - well done the lads!

[GloverFox]

Well, I'm not so sure. There were two leauges between Newcastle and Leicester last season. Newcastle is chock full of players used to playing in the prem and yet they got relgated, the same thing happened to us the season before last. Why did we both slip?

Bad management/ poor motivation, I don't care if you are Christiano Ronaldo, if your hearts not in it you won't play well - thats why fergie let him go - thats why fergie is a good manager.

For me, we've had an excellent start, we are winning more than we lose and we are in a playoff position - i would have given my right gonad for that this time last year. Pearson is building an excellent team, he's plugged the leaks, and now we need a good midfield to take the play forwards to the strikers - I think he's getting there.

I'm really positive about the whole thing - fantastic start. - Well done Nigel - well done the lads!

... totally agree Nigel is building a solid team, he's very positive in his outlook and it shows in the team. If we get a top slot for a play-off shot then I'll be over the moon and off the Wembley, but would be ready for a top-flight return yet? Don't get me wrong ... aim for the top and go for it, but let's not get carried anyway ... this time last year we were still looking a the long hard struggler to get out of League 1 and that's no mean feat first time round (ask Forest or Leeds!). Yes, it will be great to see the goal difference open up and see City smashing a few more into the net, but so long as the results continue the way they have we're definetly going in the right direction for me!

[dogadug]

... totally agree Nigel is building a solid team, he's very positive in his outlook and it shows in the team. If we get a top slot for a play-off shot then I'll be over the moon and off the Wembley, but would be ready for a top-flight return yet? Don't get me wrong ... aim for the top and go for it, but let's not get carried anyway ... this time last year we were still looking a the long hard struggler to get out of League 1 and that's no mean feat first time round (ask Forest or Leeds!). Yes, it will be great to see the goal difference open up and see City smashing a few more into the net, but so long as the results continue the way they have we're definetly going in the right direction for me!

We don't want to do a Derby

[maddog]

The only negative thing thus far of having a shit goal difference is come the end of the season our crap goal difference will effectivly mean 1 less point than other teams on the same points as us.

[Guest]

I saw the Newcastle team that was relegated as not good enough for the Premiership and the Championship is where it looked like it belonged.

You can say that about half the Premiership teams.

[dogadug]

You can say that about half the Premiership teams.

especially Hull