Lazy claim/post. Appleton inherited a demoralised bunch of has beens and never weres. He started disastrously, but from November - as he weeded out some of the worst non-achievers and tweaked his system - we gradually improved. In Jan he brought in Roofe, MacDonald, Baldock and Skarz. All very good at that level. By the end of the season we were a team on the up.
Whereas, Pep inherited a youthful team of achievers, who just 2 or 3 months beforehand had been hammering Millwall away.
Unlike Appleton, his team started brightly and in place of improvement he has gradually brought uncertainty, tactical inertia and lack of motivation to those same players whilst chucking in a bunch of ageing crocks, most of whom are picking up a last six figure pay cheque, to 'add experience.'
So in actual fact, far from being the same as Appletons first season it is the opposite.
We are now 6 points or so clear of a dank and nasty place, after a run of games against bottom 8 teams. Looking at points totals to date it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if 54 points are required for 20th place. That means 16 points from the next 16 games (don't fancy needing something from Blackburn on the last day). Sounds fine until you realise that we have 32 points from our last 27. And we need to play almost all the top 10.
I think we will make it and end up in something like 18th place, with 58 points and thanking our stars for the first two games of the season.
The wild cards are the new players. If Pekalski, Ricketts and Brannegan can swiftly inject pace and authority then it could be an easier ride. But the form sample with current manager and tactics is deeply worryingly. We have not been much off a point a game since September.
Posted this on the Pep vs MApp thread, but worth posting again here...
I’ve seen this comment quite a lot, but I’m not sure how true it is. Sure, he inherited a stronger group. But I’d say it was only marginally so, not ‘much’ stronger. Don’t forget, the likes of Hylton, Wright, Clarke, O’Dowda and Mullins we’re already at the club when Appleton arrived
Off the top of my head, here’s a list of players that left or had their loans expire last summer:
Dunkley
Edwards
Skarz
Johnson
Lundstram
Johnson
McAleny
Maguire
Martinez
Sercombe
That’s nearly a whole team of first team players.
So, he inherited a squad that was better. No one could argue that Eastwood, Ledson, Hall and Nelson are not good players at this level. But I think it’s often overlooked just how many changes to the squad there were last summer, all of which were seemingly out of Pep’s control.