It is both isn’t it?

And tbh, why expect anything different? We have this coach and this squad because this is the maximum quality available to us with the resources we have. We were mid table last season, and while we tried to improve with signings, it was only a slight overall improvement, now offset by injuries. Wagner is not a bad coach, but he’s not a great coach, so he won’t generally outperform.

You put all of that and this is what you get. An average team with average players trying to perform average tactics and delivering average results. If by chance we could play our strongest 11 every week, we could be better. But no team has that luxury, unless they’re very lucky.

I didn’t see anything that made me think we were better than either Coventry or Swansea. We can play better for sure, but we can play a lot worse. Last two games feel pretty much at par to me. Looking at it objectively, why should we be better than either of those two, or WBA/Watford/Swansea/Middlesboro…etc etc.

From here, we need another Buendia/Pukki/Farke miracle, as we simply don’t have the resources to be anything other than totally average. It’s doable, but you need the stars to align. We had the chance to be something more, but we f**ked that chance up with a couple of summers of terrible, terrible recruitment, and the decision to hire Smith.

And now, here we are. This new chap from Arsenal had better be amazingly good.

Posted By: Under soil heating, Oct 8, 10:03:46