Understand that fans are somewhat undecided so far with Pools way of playing. However, we must remember this is a new way of playing and a work in progress. Positives for me, the back 5 are rock solid, we are playing more on the front foot and the midfield are working hard to break the play up. Determination and effort cannot be criticised. Next steps passing from midfield to front men is to erratic at the moment but am confident that will come. At the moment creativity is some what lacking but it’s understandable after only a few games that it’s not quite there yet. We need to be patient, Yeovil, Southend and Tamworth not exactly an easy start. A draw or win at Tamworth will be ok as long as we are seeing improvement every game. Well done lads.

Agree with being patient but if those 3 games aren’t an easy start I don’t know what is

Most of the recent teams to get promotion had that no nonsense physical approach, but even Chesterfield started with a stumble and the manager’s ability questioned by fans but got themselves sorted and sailed away.
A team has to stay disciplined and be well drilled …once you stop leaking goals at the back you’ve got your foundations laid…why people expect instant results from day one under a completely different tactical approach is beyond me.
We’ve had several anaemic seasons of confused tactics and inconsistent players and management, time to tighten things up and get a drilled squad who know and understand their role on the pitch.
We seem in recent seasons to have a handful of decent players/ entertainers, surrounded by continually changing dross and hoping it’ll turn out well, it never did.
Fans do like to watch their entertainer’s , but it’s the team who are an organised disciplined real team who win the plaudits and the things that really count.

feel there needs to be a half way house between a teams that are technically disciplined well organised units who are difficult to break down to ones with flair and a goal threat but look like conceeding goals everytime a team attacks them. know for us its only two games in with one playing with 10 men for half a game but still feel we are a work in progress. can we actually break teams down who come to the vic with 10 men behind the ball just coming for a point. unless me get the old mancini back we might need a similar type of player who can ebtertain and change a game to our advantage. most fans see the play offs as a minimum requirement this season after getting rid of the dross and finishing just in the top half of the table. just live in hope that after 10 games we do not just have the leagues best defence but somewhere in the middle of goals scored also.

Time will tell if it was an easy start, but the 3 games were against runaway winners of NLN & NLS and a team the would have finished 6th in our league but for a 10 point deduction. So all 3 teams with a good deal of momentum going for them.

Yeh totally agree - just because teams who come up from the lower division are classed as underdogs id say they are the ones to fear most as they have earned their right to be here and also want to show that they deserve to be here too. Especially a team like Yeovil whom romped their division last season and came along with momentum even from pre season ! 100% going in the right direction for me - DS knows what he is doing and knows what he wants - give this man the tools to get us promoted and just like DC he will !
The team still needs some fine tuning in areas but like we all know early days etc and only going to get better aslong as all stay fit and out of the red cards. Plus id imagine we see a few more bodies in before this month is out to make us even better and stronger from the bench.
Sloggett will be a massive welcome to the side and i think a fully fit Mancini playing in his correct position too !

Teams coming up are on a massive high, never easy like tommorw wont be, especially if we play a style were chances are at a premium. You look at our next batch of games and they dont look too bad, its whether injuries will cost us?

And whether the front 4 continue to buy into the philosophy, it’s a lot to ask them to continually press and at the same time create nothing for them offensively apart from waiting for a mistake after another hoofed ball
Sarll himself referred to the challenge of players buying into
The approach…so far they have but for how long if we don’t play ANY football….hopefully it will come

Grey found his feet in a footballing side last season - as bad as we where he looked alot better in the position he played last season.

Campbell and Mancini both want ball to feet and play some neat stuff - we hopefully will adapt to each opponent across the season but for now i think its about winning the game and not letting goals in - maybe even DS is still finding his best 11 with what we have and the way he wants to setup - given on game day 1 it worked, you wouldnt change it for day 2 which rightly so he didnt (albeit the injury to Dodds and then to Charman). Interestingly if Charman is out for sometime we really need to look for his replacement over out else. Or change the formation and look to bring in another alongside Mani D.

People trotting out cliches here, the observable facts we saw last year was that there was a huge gap between Nat and the league below, with the teams coming up from the league below mainly shite, same with part time teams
Yes there are always surprises and no guarantees etc, but the idea that a run of fixtures containing yeovil, Tamworth Boston and Braintree will be harder or as hard as one with Sutton, rochdale FGR etc does not stand up to serious review

The observable facts of last season relate in what way to what may or may not happen this year? Are we going to finish just above mid table because the observable fact from last season is that that's what happened?
Nobody has compared any particular set of fixtures against any other from what I've seen. Well find out as the season progresses wether 4 points from 6 is a decent return, I suspect it will have been. Btw didn't Tamworth draw with Sutton first game so maybe no mugs also they ran away with their league last season finishing 8 points clear of 2nd place Scunthorpe who are no mugs either.

Are you on a wind up ? You think we can’t make educated predictions on what will happen this year based on last year?
You think you can’t predict arsenal will finish ahead of Ipswich this year because last years observations have to out the window?

Stick to the point, Loyal. The only person considering who will finish above the other in the case of Arsenal and Ipswich is you, not PTID or anyone else. He, or anyone else has not suggested an opinion on that score.
I'll stick me neck out and predict that Arsenal will win that one.

He is sticking to the point. Just cos he's using other clubs as an example doesn't mean the subject has been changed.

Promoted sides often struggle. The stats don't lie and that's why the bookies use them. You'd get better odds on us winning at Oldham than winning at Tamworth for good reason.

I get and agree that you can’t predict somethjng 100% ….but that doesn’t mean that you can’t predict anything with some confidence

To use another example…just because Leicester won the prem once when virtually no one predicted it shouldn’t be used as a reason there is no way to predict where they will finish this year

So we're in agreement - owt could happen.

Yes but some things are more likely to happen than others…

Time will tell

No he is not. The point being discussed has nothing to do with Arsenal or Ipswich. The words used started with "you can't". It is not in Loyal's domain to make that judgement as PTID could say it, if he so wished. That fact that PTID never remotely involved those two clubs, makes the notion that he could more remote. That's my take, end of.

People can predict what they like (keeping it legal of course) A prediction is what it is ....a prediction. The history of football is littered with so called unpredictability.
After all it is really only an opinion at the end of the day.
Talking about Arsenal and Ipswich. I watched Ipswich wipe the floor with Arsenal at Wembley in 1978, having watched Sunderland beat the mighty Leeds in 1973.
When I hear people say you can't say that, the answer goes straight back......I just did.

There'd be no bookies left in business if football was so predictable.

Wow, you're serious? Analogies? similes? Metaphors? No?

It is quite predictable quite often. Plenty of shit odds flying about (for good reason).

[quote="Pooly_Imp"][quote="derwent"][quote="Pooly_Imp"][quote="derwent"][quote="loyal_fan"][quote="PTID"]The observable facts of last season relate in what way to what may or may not happen this year? Are we going to finish just above mid table because the observable fact from last season is that that's what happened?
Nobody has compared any particular set of fixtures against any other from what I've seen. Well find out as the season progresses wether 4 points from 6 is a decent return, I suspect it will have been. Btw didn't Tamworth draw with Sutton first game so maybe no mugs also they ran away with their league last season finishing 8 points clear of 2nd place Scunthorpe who are no mugs either.[/quote]

Are you on a wind up ? You think we can’t make educated predictions on what will happen this year based on last year?

You think you can’t predict arsenal will finish ahead of Ipswich this year because last years observations have to out the window?[/quote]

Stick to the point, Loyal. The only person considering who will finish above the other in the case of Arsenal and Ipswich is you, not PTID or anyone else. He, or anyone else has not suggested an opinion on that score.
I'll stick me neck out and predict that Arsenal will win that one. [/quote]

He is sticking to the point. Just cos he's using other clubs as an example doesn't mean the subject has been changed.

Promoted sides often struggle. The stats don't lie and that's why the bookies use them. You'd get better odds on us winning at Oldham than winning at Tamworth for good reason.[/quote]

No he is not. The point being discussed has nothing to do with Arsenal or Ipswich. The words used started with "you can't". It is not in Loyal's domain to make that judgement as PTID could say it, if he so wished. That fact that PTID never remotely involved those two clubs, makes the notion that he could more remote. That's my take, end of.[/quote]

Wow, you're serious? Analogies? similes? Metaphors? No?[/quote]

Im going to predict now man city finish in the top 2. Based on recent seasons.

Well I think it's a reasonable start all things considered. Averaging 2 Pts a game- keep that up and we'll be there or thereabouts, where we want/ need to be. Factor in we have two clean sheets from 2- given we only managed to get 3 all last season, think there is a lot to be positive about. OK we would have rather have beaten SARFend but the fact we played pretty much the whole of the second half with TEN men, bodes well- Last season we'd have shipped 3 or 4 in the second half.

More importantly for me, our second half shut out gives me family bragging rights with my Shrimper outlaws - 'What you couldn't score against 10 men, for 45 minutes and were only a coat of paint away from Campbell scoring a Pools winner!? '

I've watched that free kick back several times and still can't fathom how it stayed out the net!

Let's give it ten games - before getting too carried away, with both criticism and praise!

11

You are correct, I’d rather be playing the newcomers than the established teams….is it just a ‘getting in early’ excuse in case these new teams beat us…?

Reminder :
It's a no excuse season.
Championies
Championies
We are the champions.
UTP.

lets see how Gateshead may implode like we did when we lost 2 of our best players so early on - only thing with them is they will more than likely go and find their replacement playing out the back alley in pilaw somewhere and no doubt turn them into FL standard players come few weeks time. Or loan some worldies in.