by Snowball »
20 Apr 2022 10:44
I am neither for or against Ince but I do wonder if there are some clouded judgements out there
simply because we are breathing a sigh of relief and getting to 98% certainty of staying up.
Ince has had, without doubt, a better squad to utilise, than Pauno (including injuries)
PS. Most here seem to be calling Pauno a total clown, so being better than Pauno isn't much of a step up.
A quick glance at the last 11 games shows us conceding 20 goals = 84 goals per season.
Peterborough have conceded 83 with three games to go.
NOTE, this is not PAUNO's conceding but Ince extrapolated to a full season.
We have conceded 4 goals three times in 11 games.
Whereas it's true we dug out two brilliant results at Sheffield United and at home to Swansea, we could very easily have drawn 1-1 at Sheffield and lost to Swansea.
I don't say we didn't deserve the points we got, but it's fine margins. We have still not comprehensively beaten anyone but we have pretty-much capitulated at Forest and Blackpool, were "torn apart" by Swansea for much of the game. We blew the Cardiff game, lost at home to Millwall. It's hardly GREAT!
20 goals conceded in 11 games is a huge worry
Factor in, too, a return to the squad (and form) of JOAO, and the talismanic McIntyre
TACTICS
Few here dispute we have (at worst) mid-table players, and most think we should never have been struggling, even with the -6 penalty. The lack of "good tactics" has been mentioned often and that "weakness" counterbalanced by Ince's apparent ability to make the players fight harder, work harder in the last quarter.
Goals on 63, 66, 73, 78, 83, 83, 92 and 95 certainly testify to that, but the Preston win (Pauno) and Birmingham win three days later give the team six much-needed points and relieved some pressure. Add in returning players (9 goals of the 15 from JOAO-McIntyre) and it's not hard to believe many managers, including interims from within the club, might have achieved our current 1.36 ppg (including the Birmingham game). It's 1.2 without that transitional game
I am NOT saying Ince is no good, or we shouldn't rapidly sign him up, but the results are NOT stellar, IMO, our defensive record is still very much "relegation form", and we have been, are currently being, "saved" by an in-form striker and two very late goals from Mac.