Progression or Regression?

[dsr]

I'm sick to death of this we are in 7th place comment, it has undoubtedly been a decent season up to press, but it means nothing. SD is now making fundamental mistakes, Saturday was unforgivable, watching him dithering on the sidelines was something I thought I'd never see with regards to the subs. But, he has enough in the bank for me...im not happy with his tactics at the moment but I trust him to turn it around.

"Decent"? That's the best you would rate it - "decent"? Not even "good"?

How can you say that Dyche makes mistakes that you cannot forgive, and yet that you trust him, in the same paragraph? If you trust him, you must have forgiven him; if you haven't forgiven him, you don't trust him. QED.

[RingoMcCartney]

High quality pedantry there.

Good effort. Be proud of yourself.

[dsr]

High quality pedantry there.

Good effort. Be proud of yourself.

Thank you. "Unforgiveable" is one of my bugbears. Very little is unforgiveable - certainly not making a "wrong" decision re. substitutions.
[Edit] sorry - I see you were complimenting Paul!

[Rowls]

It says an awful lot about the league when we're 7th with a minus goal difference, 2nd lowest scorers in the league and haven't won in 11 games. Lets face it, we're absolutely crap. I've never seen a football team so scared to pass a football forwards, a complete lack of self belief, we need someone to come in and motivate the players, hands on coaching of the basic pass and move, give them a cuddle.... even if it's a part time attacking coach alongside Dyche.

I'm going to think of this post when I feel like cheering up and want a giggle.

[Bfcboyo]

Clearly just obsession.

[RingoMcCartney]

Thank you. "Unforgiveable" is one of my bugbears. Very little is unforgiveable - certainly not making a "wrong" decision re. substitutions.
[Edit] sorry - I see you were complimenting Paul!

Complimenting?

No.

[dsr]

Complimenting?

No.

I took it as a compliment. I get so few!

[ewanrob]

Trust him over the longer period...but can't forgive him for saturdays poor decision making. That game was there for the taking, very poor from the big man.

[Ashingtonclaret46]

So now you're calling our players, ''Championship players''..... how positive of you........

Btw, I asked for the positives to watching us play, not a f88k ton of excuses as to why we can't string a pass together.

Just for the record as far as passing is concerned------we made just 10 passes less than our opponents on Saturday but were more accurate than they were with more passes reaching their target ----not bad for a team who can't string a pass together.

[jurek]

Dyche is still learning as he's admitted himself I believe.
How fast is he learning might be another question.

However it's more than likely we will end up in our highest position for a long, long time
so that has to be progression although in respect to the first half of the season we are regressing.

Time to judge whether we are or not is at the end of the season.
Let's see where we finish and how we perform over the last 10 games.

[Spijed]

However it's more than likely we will end up in our highest position for a long, long time
so that has to be progression although in respect to the first half of the season we are regressing.

Finishing the second half of the season weaker than the first applies to many sides and we finished last season with only 10 points from the last 15 matches.

Hardly something to be worried about.

[bfccrazy]

Finishing the second half of the season weaker than the first applies to many sides and we finished last season with only 10 points from the last 15 matches.

Hardly something to be worried about.

But if we end up finishing the season in a pretty much similar spot to last season, surely the "well we have more points than last so far" argument is gone.

I'm not saying this as anti Dyche/Burnley etc but the way we won the Championship was spectacular as we were turning over teams in great form and with arguably better players at times. We're doing brilliant this season but with half the league struggling to pick up points and some finding form late will we look back at this season as a wasted chance or possibly start next season with a false hope.

[Spijed]

But if we end up finishing the season in a pretty much similar spot to last season, surely the "well we have more points than last so far" argument is gone.

I'm not saying this as anti Dyche/Burnley etc but the way we won the Championship was spectacular as we were turning over teams in great form and with arguably better players at times. We're doing brilliant this season but with half the league struggling to pick up points and some finding form late will we look back at this season as a wasted chance or possibly start next season with a false hope.

I certainly agree that if we finish just a few places above the relegation spots it will be hugely disappointing.

[bfccrazy]

I certainly agree that if we finish just a few places above the relegation spots it will be hugely disappointing.

We have probably the worst form in the league at the minute but because we're 7th it seems we cannot question it or have any opinion other than "we're flying though, remember Orient".

There must be something underlying that has changed - we started the season truly flying and played a way that other teams were frustrated against .... maybe our early success and dissection of our game plan and defensive astuteness to follow the framework and game plan is now our undoing and we need to mix it up and change our styles.

If we're safe and trying completely new systems and losing and drop down the league then I can understand it. Currently though, we're playing the same way even when we need to mix it up which I would argue isn't teaching or gaining the squad much - hopefully when players start returning to full fitness it can be different.

[Spijed]

We have probably the worst form in the league at the minute but because we're 7th it seems we cannot question it or have any opinion other than "we're flying though, remember Orient".

There must be something underlying that has changed - we started the season truly flying and played a way that other teams were frustrated against .... maybe our early success and dissection of our game plan and defensive astuteness to follow the framework and game plan is now our undoing and we need to mix it up and change our styles.

If we're safe and trying completely new systems and losing and drop down the league then I can understand it. Currently though, we're playing the same way even when we need to mix it up which I would argue isn't teaching or gaining the squad much - hopefully when players start returning to full fitness it can be different.

To be fair, we didn't play that well at the start of the season, with disappointing draws against Huddersfield and West Ham, along with a very poor display against Crystal Palace, a game in which we offered nothing but rode our luck enormously!

[Lordlucan]

Can't believe the negativity on this thread. Our form may not look good but you've got to look at who we've played and how many have been out in that run. It's about performances and they haven't been bottom three standard, just small margins.
We've had a blinding first half of the season and this half has allowed us to blood players who will be more than good enough next year. Remember that Tarks struggled in similar circumstances last year.

[Longside4evr]

But what about the narrow defeats where we have deserved something from the game.
Why do some supporters just pull up the poor performances like that's how we have been.
It's fine margins but also we have deserved our points and with a bit of luck that we haven't had much of at all how can anyone say we are in a false position, if anything we should have had more points in a good few games where our performance as outweighed the result.
So if anything we should be higher in the league we are what we are and those players deserve the praise that they are 7th not that we are doing bad the would be bottom three.
I would have took your hand off if someone would have said at the start of the season with 10 games left we be 7th that's the reality of it UTC.

[dsr]

I certainly agree that if we finish just a few places above the relegation spots it will be hugely disappointing.

Surely you mean "mildly disappointing"?

[BennyD]

Burnley fans; they arent happy unless they're unhappy.

[bfccrazy]

Burnley fans - we'll let you have a discussion ...... but your opinion can't be different to ours!

[bfccrazy]

Surely you mean "mildly disappointing"?

I think he means after the start to the season we had - if we finish right down the league then as far as what could have been .... it'll be hugely disappointing. In general as a club it'll still be great as it will bring another windfall and give us even more stability as a prem club........... but it'll be a shame from where we could have gone.

[FactualFrank]

When taken into account the injuries we've had, plus the opposition we've come up against (overall, obviously) in the last 10 or so games, and also take into account how well we played before we lost the likes of Brady and Defour, putting all that together, I'm convinced we're moving forward. Our squad is better than last season and I fully expect us to finish several places higher than last season.

A few more players in during the summer, and providing we keep our best players and ship out the ones we've replaced with better and I think we'll move even further forward next season, too. With better players can come better, more attractive play.

[evensteadiereddie]

Progression.
I enjoyed yesterday - even when we were one-nil down, the chances kept coming. We battered Everton in the second half.
The tide has turned, I think we'll get 50 points.

[evensteadiereddie]

Progression !