by Snowball »
04 Jun 2011 11:43
Reading Chronicle suggests McDermot wants to fight and keep the side together
even while recognising SJM wants to make cuts. Add in Hammond seems to be sabre-
rattling a little, perhaps Hammond-McDermot genuinely feel that hanging on to Shane,
Jimmy, Matt etc, and maybe one addition we have a fantastic chance next year.
The flip side is that once one star goes, 4-5 might and then we could be flirting
with the bottom six
The table since L-Wood arrived (all 28 games, not just the ones he played in)
shows we averaged 1.86 points-per-game, the equivalent of an 86-point season,
and that's starting with an unfit L-Wood and two 0-0 home draws
The squad held together might easily achieve that 86 points, good enough for automatic.
There is every reason to expect Shane to get 20+ goals. We should see big improvements
in HRK and Cummings and McCarthy, improvement in Karacan. It's unlikely Simon Church will
have a worse season than this one. He may well recapture his 2009-10 form and be a force,
and there's Manset and Williams pushing for a place.
The only question will be the full-backs who are aging. Can they cut it for another season
or would we need to bring in some pace? I'd say this squad +1 or +2 would be top three for
most of the season and have a great chance of top two.
1 28 16 09 3 56-33 +23 57 (94) 2.04 Norwich City
2 28 14 10 4 49-29 +20 52 (86) 1.86 Reading
3 28 14 08 6 38-24 +14 50 (82) 1.79 Queens Park Rangers
4 27 14 05 8 45-26 +19 47 (80) 1.74 Swansea City
5 28 14 06 8 48-34 +14 48 (79) 1.71 Nottingham Forest
6 28 13 06 9 53-40 +13 45 (74) 1.61 Leicester City
But lose Long, Kebe, Mills, NcAnuff, maybe Karacan and ,,, ?