Fine margins, late goals and being there when if matters.....is this coach-able?

[Jeroen]

I think we can conclude that we had a decent enough squad to stay up this year Except maybe a striker that scores/ or creative CM that puts them on a plate, but we should have got enough regardless.

The thing that did us in was fine margins:
2/3 missed penalties that would have given us 4 extra points and I think we conceded 2/3 injury time goals as well whereas Newcastle scored a couple of injury time goals to gain points.

The other thing I noticed is that the other teams around us seem to have got results and stepped up when they needed to, whereas we seem to coast/aim for a 0-0 with the hope of a late goal.

Are these things coach-able or is it recruitment & luck that we missed?

[colinwhite]

A fair post and a good question.  I do think that if we had had newcastles front three things would have looked very different. Good enough squad to stay up ? Maybe but we have created plenty of chances that havent been put away as you mention.

[The Rational Fan]

After some good recruitment and a lot of defensive coaching, we became solid enough at the back to stay up. But we really need two seasons to improve team cohesiveness for both defense and attack. Tony Khan has spent the same money as Brighton over the last three seasons and only a little more than Burnley; but those teams have had more time to gel together cohesively and it shows with there attacking teamwork is better. Every year starts with 6 potential yo-yo teams, and so far 5 of them still are. We have to focus on yo-yoing until we can get promoted with a dozen premier league players.

[Whitestone]

We have a decent squad that has come short because we failed to recruit in certain areas. Defensively there has been a major improvement and that is down to quality additions and coaching. As the OP says it's a combination of factors that have cost us.

That said, if we recruited sensibly and stopped relying on loan players we probably wouldn't be a yo yo club.

[filham]

I don't like to point a finger at individual players especially when they show a continual good work ethic but it is quite obvious that Cav and Reid, who have played regularly this season, have failed. What is more they were not outstanding in the Championship and should have been replaced before the start of the season.

[rebel]

I'd say everything is 'coachable'. For example when you bring on a sub and that substitution hasn't been thought out, that can effect the understanding and mindset of the other 10 players on the pitch (who prior to the substitution, were on the same wave length). There are numerous occasions that the substitutions have been unwarranted or wrong and we have conceded soon after.   

[ScalleysDad]

Yes a good question. A decent squad but not a Premiership one,(imho), and the two positions mentioned, creativity and scoring goals, are absolutely critical. Our fine margins seem to be like canyons at times. The players we ended up with , who in the main were not on anybody else's radar, are out on loan for a reason be it post injury, to get match 'savvy' and put in the hard yards or simply because it was very unlikely they would get game time at their home clubs. Had RLC worked out like Lingaard or had our forward line not had to be chopped and changed so much we might have had creativity and goal scorers, the latter evolving over the season. It is a rather sad indictment of the position we were in that many of the players who started the season are now firmly planted on the bench or out on loan themselves in lower leagues, possibly on the basis that they would never feature, after being usurped by a player somebody else did not need. Anderson and Areola have done more than enough to move onwards and upwards but then it all becomes a bit of a bunfight. I would not be surprised if when the book is published SP states that he never knew his preferred starting eleven for this season because of inconsistent form and fitness.

[toshes mate]

If only two coaches in a hundred could have levitated this squad up to the top half of the PL we can deduce SP is among the 98%.  If fifty coaches in a hundred were to suffer relegation then Parker is at best a bang average coach.  If twenty five coaches in a hundred could prevent relegation with this squad then FFC have the wrong guy.

[ALG01]

60 years of playing and watching and I do not think the squad was anywhere near good enough to stay up.

The defence was soirted and played really well after a terrible start. But we simply had no creativity in midfield and no attacking threat. relying on mitro was crazy espoecially as he was clearly injured and out of sorts at the end of last season.

This is a team game and that means having a squad capable of doing all disciplins, not just defending. It worked, sort of, in the championship, wiyth one striker, but it does not at this level. This squad will never be good enough.

you can not coach goalscoring or genuine creativity. That is why forwards and brilliant midfielders cost so much. However we could have made an attempot at getting a few players worthy of the name. If we got them and they failed I would have been OK with that because everyone is a gamble. But to simply let the january window go by, with parker wanting forwards, he pretty much said as much on a number of occasions, and many of us said so in December and november on the MB, and my wife said so in the first arsenal match (see a different thread) but tony failed to bring in the missing pieces of the jigsaw that goes into making a team.

The squad was not good enough. It just hasn't been all season.

[WindyCity]

Hahaha....and yet another woulda coulda shoulda thread makes an appearance.......

[We Are Premier League]

i'm not sure that this "late goals" problem actually exists...teams in the bottom half are always likely to concede goals towards the end. I havent seen anyone compare us to the rest of the league (and im too lazy to check it myself).