What are people's expectations

A lot of this -will we or won't we- will be decided by loan players CH can convince to come to the club. As I said before I don't think we will see much just yet as the max is 93 days and you need that to run into the Jan window so you can extend deals if needed.

Well Pannu is back on 25th so maybe we'll see some deals around that time. Still Parnaby, McFadden and Carter training with the club, as far as I'm aware, so maybe they'll sign up. Hopefully things will be clearer late september/early october.

Acording to a couple of the papers this morning, parnaby is on the verge of re-signing for the club.

I think our goalkeeper issue is main worry hope his confidence improves. Carr will need understudy as long hard season. If Ridge wants too go and dont perform we have to let them go.

Midfield is a worry as need someone too dominate hoping that would be Mutch... Spector seems poor positional play and battling for sapce and marking..

Gomis showed some passing ability but need a nobbler type player. What i mean someone that irritates the opposition busy busy no time too settle on the ball...

Creation is better and we look like we can score generally which is great...

positives Caldwell does enough Daviesgood tackler and gets on headers so will score a few..

Burke Mcsheffers at his best type of player. Redmond will be decent player over time..

Front King decent palyer who will score Zigic will score a good few at this level and King may benefit from him too..

Not the same quality but if we play more as a unit surely will improve as season goes on.

Top half finish will be good play offs will be exstatic

One issue that will fill me with joy is signing CH on more than a 1 year rolling contract a that what i think he is on.

KRO

KBM

I think thats a fair and spot on assesment, while on paper we do have a decent sqaud (BCFC83 who are not good enough, then name me players for Brighton who stand out head and shoulders above them).

But as you said KBM on paper is on paper, honestly Southampton and Derby's sqauds cant touch West Hams but they are doing better, its not always the strongest team that gets promoted, Boros side now is just a shadow of the side they had when first relegated but they are doing better now than then.

Your right maybe players are not happy, Carr since the Window closed has seemed to not look as good as he was prior, i hopped the window clossing will give players a boost and allow then to finally concentrate on the task at hand.

We dont know what effect all thats gone has had on our sqauds ability and while on paper Southampton do not stand out to me (they dont look as strong as say the Wolves/WBA/Newcastle sides that was promoted over the years), they are doing well and they well and truely beat us.

I still think the quality of the sqaud is good, hopefully we shall see them prove that once they gell and Houghton figures out who works best.

As that sqaud i put above with the ????? for players i am not sure we have sussed out whos best for, i feel the names listed in that XI are stronger than any other club apart from West Ham and maybe Leicester

The KiD

abluesfan01

Thats what i am talking about i think our main problems stem from 3 areas.....

1) We do not have a settled central midfield, with injuries to Mutch and Fahey, and Gomis early on, we had to play Spector and others. Our propper CM are Mutch, Fahey, Gomis and N'Daw but Elliot and Spector can play there.

Spector looks decent at tackling and not bad on the ball sometimes gives it away and prone to errors like Ridgewell and Davies. I think the main thing is sometimes he does not read the game like a propper CM player does.

Gomis is good on the ball but as with Fahey he is not good at breaking up play.

So the Problem is what we never suffered with McLeish a Big Eck side could break up play to a treat and close play down but could not create for toffee. Hughtons side can create far more and are more adventurous but we just lack the break up play we used to have, we need to find that ballance.

2) Certain players at times do not seem as commited as they was before, Ridgewell and Carr are vital but we have to hope both players will become/remain as commited as they once was. I have seen a few times when the pair are up the field high under CH more attacking play and we get caught on the counter only to see them not really be bothered to track back or go in for tackles like they used to, leaving poor Spector and Davies do do extra work.

3) I dont think Myhill has command of his box or other players, he needs to organise his defence a lot better, maybe thats hard if players do not respect him or are not happy at staying with the club.

Maybe time for a mix up.....

The KiD

I haven't read anything other than the title of this thread (sorry Banjo ) .

It looks as though we will see a fair amount of goals this season, and that makes me happy. However, a finish in the top 10 would suffice for me.

CH needs to add a couple of quality players to ensure we don't get dragged into the bottom half & back up/replacements for Carr and a pacy midfielder would probably be enough.

AND at least we won't have to put up with:-

0-0
1-0
0-1
1-1
0-#

with less than a handful of shots & the odd corner.

I think we are creating more chances but lacking players to put them away and i think Zigic and King will do just that.

We need to find the right ballance with centre midfield and get that to Gell, we also need to find a settled defence and i think Carr and Ridgewell can play a massive part if they cant be as commited as they used to do then Highton needs to get tough and give others a chance.

I will not pass judgement untill after 10 games

We are creating more, but we seem to be caught out more, partly because we are going for attack more and partly due to not having a settled side and also some players at times either lossing concentration or not being as commited as could be.

I guess we need time to see how well Gomis, Elliot and N'Daw can be, so far Spector is not a out and out midfield player and Fahey is ok if we have a solid partner for him otherwise we suffer from not being able to break up play enough (that dont mean i wanna see Big Ecks negative Football back though ).

The KiD
The KiD

Its good news that Fahey is back tomorrow as I thought he started the season well with Mutch along side hime. Mutch has been a big loss since he got injured and I hope he is back sooner rather than later.

From what I have seen so far, Gomis doesn't look good enough for me and as Banjo said Spector doesn't look like a midfield player.

We need to find the right combonation in midfield and I think Fahey could be a big part of that.

I think Fahey is ok on the ball, but again lacks ability to break up play, he does try but cant tackle. Mutch was a miss if we had him and 1-2 more who could tackle and attack we would be sorted, Ferguson and Mutch would have been good but we got a good deal for Bazza!

Gomis i have seen just 3 times, and he looked good on the ball great vission like McFadden but like Faddy he offers nothing in our own half as far as defending goes, which i think has been our problem, Redmond, Burke and Beau do try and defend but thats not their main asset, so when we have a midfield that cant break up play and fullbacks who at times dont look like they want to be here, this is what i feel has let us down.

At home its different i think we are going to have see how we fair at home, as home form could be important and with Zigic and King back we could see us get goals.

Which means maybe away we have to take a different more negative apoach of go for a draw.

The KiD