You're the Board - what are the targets and expectations for the 26/27 season?

Henry Irving · April 30

The key stat I took from that was "finished 5th"

Rothko · April 30

The 21/22 Luton team were the joint 5th highest scorers in the league, with 63 goals, they also shipped a lot of goals that year as well, more than Derby who went down. The underlying numbers don't back up that they were defensive that season, nor from memory, did the eye test. (Edit, the numbers look worse as they were done 7-0 by Fulham on the final day)

The year they came up with us from League 1, they scored 90.

Rothko · April 30

Henry Irving said:

The key stat I took from that was "finished 5th"

E-fucking-zackley, first year, stayed up, second year was solid midtable, third year in the play offs, and then even when he left, still around the play offs and went up.

llama_child_21cws · April 30

Style of plays means nothing.

Results is the only thing that matters.

NabySarr · April 30

Rothko said:

The 21/22 Luton team were the joint 5th highest scorers in the league, with 63 goals, they also shipped a lot of goals that year as well, more than Derby who went down. The underlying numbers don't back up that they were defensive that season, nor from memory, did the eye test. (Edit, the numbers look worse as they were done 7-0 by Fulham on the final day)

The year they came up with us from League 1, they scored 90.

The league 1 and league 2 Jones Luton teams were very different to the championship teams, but it does show Jones isn’t wedded to one way of playing. It’s been clear since Jones joined us he has been building us in the mould of his Luton championship teams, which makes sense because he knows that works at this level for a team on our kind of budget

The football is never going to be beautiful, but it can definitely be better. It also has been better at times, again I don’t remember many complaints at all between January 2025 and October 2025. We can easily get to a way of playing under Jones where we are doing well and scoring goals, as that’s exactly what we were doing before. The style of play complaints only really happen when we are losing most of our games

ShootersHillGuru · April 30

SouthLincsAddick said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

SouthLincsAddick said:

ShootersHillGuru said:

Style of play is important. Conceding large amounts of possession in every game is nearly always going to mean you’re chasing. It’s simple but you can’t score a goal without having the ball and the obvious contrast is that when the opposition has the ball there is always a chance of them scoring. I’d like to see us dominating teams particularly at The Valley instead of setting up to stymie them and nick something. It puts enormous pressure on the attackers who by definition get less chances and then need to convert when they do. I fully understand that this season Jones saw this tactic as the best way of achieving survival and fair play he did. No complaints. This is about next season when I’m expecting not to see statistics of possession in the 30% 40% every game. We have to change. I’ve no doubt that Jones knows this and it will be reflected in our transfer dealings.

Firstly, why do we have to change, it worked didn't it? Secondly, Carter has already said our budget won't be mid table for another 3 years (currently bottom three), the budget increase will be minimal next season. So why would we abandon a tactic that worked when we will still have one the worst budgets in the league? I'm sure there will be a gradual improvement but I don't understand this 'we have to change' attitude, we didn't get relegated, despite having the huge disadvantage in budget, what wrong are we trying to write?

If we set up like we have this season, next season I’ll be expecting another relegation battle. Just my opinion.

Fair enough, valid opinion. But were we in a relegation battle this year?

Joke right ?

valleynick66 · April 30

jose said:

The appointment of Gritt/Curbishley was virtually an accidental forced move by the board.
When Curbishley left it seemed to me the board didn’t have a clue or proper experience in appointing a manager, and a kind of stupid hubris led to Dowie and our subsequent fall from grace.
Now Nathan Jones achievements at Charlton cannot be denied or downplayed, but I think the board should at least gameplay or think through what they should do if/when they have to appoint a new manager.

Well I guess now in ‘modern’ football you’d argue that is what the Director of Football is for amongst other things. So we rely on Rodwell in that scenario.

Of course reality is the usual suspects are nominated as candidates and money does the rest.

Braziliance · April 30

Rothko said:

jimmymelrose said:

SouthLincsAddick said:

jimmymelrose said:

SouthLincsAddick said:

Carter has already stated that their aim is to have a mid table budget in 3 years time so I would expect just a modest increase on this seasons bottom three budget.

I’m expecting no pivot to expansive, attacking football, I think there will be more of the same, if we want to survive. I also think it’s going to be hard to expect NJ to overachieve on our budget two years in a row, so I’m expecting us to stay where we are, not in a relegation fight but around the same finishing position.

I worry that a lot of the fan base will become frustrated with NJ because they will perceive a lack of progress, when actually he is working miracles with the finances we will have. Blaming what will turn out to be our best manager for a decade when their frustration emanates from the funding of the club. Yet the owners are still losing a huge amount of money each year and want to keep those losses manageable, and avoid points deductions.

I personally don’t get this obsession with playing expansive football, did we turn into Spurs all of a sudden? Does anyone remember the Curbs PL years and his mantra of ‘stop the opposition playing their game’. Perhaps the same fans demanding pretty football now are the same that said Curbs had taken us a far as he could.

Just what is this 'expansive football.'

Is it too much to ask for a team that
passes the ball forwards on the ground, creating openings and taking a shot on goal.

That's all many fans are asking for, not to bang it in the air like a hot potato that needs cooling down and to land aimlessly and fruitlessly on some tall bugger's head.

Is that really too much to ask?

You can play real football AND stop the opposition playing their game you know?

Just what is 'real' football and can we play it on the budget we have, our players can pass the ball around but not as consistently as the players we're facing who are paid twice as much? We also can't afford the decent strikers who are going to get the goals. It means employing a defensive, disruptive style of play for survival. Go toe to toe with better opposition will more than often mean defeat.

NJ has been in charge of nearly 500 professional games, coached under 21s, won multiple promotions and has been our most successful manager for years. I would credit him that he knows what he's doing and is only pursuing the current style of play to get success, not because it's his preference. Yet, many fans are not happy, they want the impossible, they want 'real', 'attractive' football, promotions and stability and all on the 3rd worst budget in the league, if there were any professional coaching staff reading this forum, they'd have a chuckle and shake their heads.

To a certain extent your right, but I disagree with two main points:

1. NJ’s preference IS this style of football. If it were easily quantifiable I would have bet that, even with a large budget, he’d still choose to play the same way. In fact, he’s proven so already at other clubs.

2. Some of our players are underrated and could play better football, they’re just being held back by the system. You mention a decent striker for example but we’ve got one: Kelman. Play the ball to his feet in and around the box and he’d be a 20 goal Championship striker. Apter can’t defend for toffee but as a winger, he be a great provider for Kelman. It’s frustrating and I don’t buy into all this repetitive narrative about not having the players to play any other way.

This just isn’t true, his Luton teams were high scoring teams who played really good attacking football

Not really. It's hard to break down Jones full stats as a manager (unless people know better sites) cause he has left Luton so many times.

But in full seasons under Luton in the EFL:

One outstanding season in League 2 where his side got 94 goals.

One stand out is when he had a season of consolidation in 2020/21 and then got top6 in 21/22. Significant improvement in goals and points

20/21:

Pts: 62 | W: 17 | D : 11 | L: 18 | GF: 41 | GA: 52

21/22:

Pts: 75 | W: 21 | D : 12 | L: 13 | GF: 63 | GA: 55

Conceded 3 more goals and scored 21 more. Hopefully, we can see a similar transition here.

Also worth mentioning the squad differences. The squads were quite different between seasons in terms of appearances. Be interesting to see who our matchday XI is on opening day as it seems Jones isn't afraid to shake it up from seasons.

Sword65pf · April 30

Fuck it was going to be sensible but, I think spunk loads of readies on really good players get promoted to the prem, worry about the points deduction when we are there!!, have some of that!!😂….. or just be sensible and enjoy the journey with subtle improvements all round with a smattering of better football.👍

letthegoodtimesroll · May 1

It’s hard to see there not being more Leicesters and West Broms, the flood gates have opened now on that one and teams that have been in the Championship for a while must be sailing close to the wind. This years publishing of accounts might produce one or two upsets. A knock on effects of the Iran war could also well lead to another Sheff Wed scenario but that may not necessarily feed through for next season.

last season we had to play catch up and went for squad quantity, this year I suspect the focus will be on quality, probably a mix of hidden gems and one of two well polished articles.

more off pitch moves on revenue streams. We should be looking at a 2-3k increase in average attendances in this division. If that’s not happening I’d expect some displeasure with those not delivering.

Hospitality has to be a focus because it can bring in a lot more money per fan so I’d expect more movement on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Fans Zone is expanded a bit more.

Merchandising still falls short imo ie I think it’s still too hard to help spontaneous purchases, which for most fans is practically the only way they can buy something on a matchday.

A top half finish has to be the minimum target with a reset comeJanuary window time.

RaplhMilne · May 1

Let’s hope it’s not that 3 teams will get 18 point deductions, and we will survive with no investment.

Crispywood · May 1

letthegoodtimesroll said:

It’s hard to see there not being more Leicesters and West Broms, the flood gates have opened now on that one and teams that have been in the Championship for a while must be sailing close to the wind. This years publishing of accounts might produce one or two upsets. A knock on effects of the Iran war could also well lead to another Sheff Wed scenario but that may not necessarily feed through for next season.

last season we had to play catch up and went for squad quantity, this year I suspect the focus will be on quality, probably a mix of hidden gems and one of two well polished articles.

more off pitch moves on revenue streams. We should be looking at a 2-3k increase in average attendances in this division. If that’s not happening I’d expect some displeasure with those not delivering.

Hospitality has to be a focus because it can bring in a lot more money per fan so I’d expect more movement on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Fans Zone is expanded a bit more.

Merchandising still falls short imo ie I think it’s still too hard to help spontaneous purchases, which for most fans is practically the only way they can buy something on a matchday.

A top half finish has to be the minimum target with a reset comeJanuary window time.

You have teams like Stoke who have been in the prem in the last decade who struggle to get top half finishes nowadays. We aren’t going to have a midtable budget until yr3 as well and won’t have a prem relegation club or a West Brom finishing below us as well may want to lower those expectations.

Absolute minimum is survival scraping through a relegation battle. The expectation should be comfortably midtable avoiding any sort of relegation scrap like your QPR’s, Bristol City etc, top half would be an exceptional season

killerandflash · May 1

This season we were never bottom 3, and if we had won one of those " winnable" home games like Bristol City or Preston, we would have had comfortable survival, instead of the tension we ended up.

On that basis comfortable survival by the start of April is realistic.

letthegoodtimesroll · May 1

Crispywood said:

letthegoodtimesroll said:

It’s hard to see there not being more Leicesters and West Broms, the flood gates have opened now on that one and teams that have been in the Championship for a while must be sailing close to the wind. This years publishing of accounts might produce one or two upsets. A knock on effects of the Iran war could also well lead to another Sheff Wed scenario but that may not necessarily feed through for next season.

last season we had to play catch up and went for squad quantity, this year I suspect the focus will be on quality, probably a mix of hidden gems and one of two well polished articles.

more off pitch moves on revenue streams. We should be looking at a 2-3k increase in average attendances in this division. If that’s not happening I’d expect some displeasure with those not delivering.

Hospitality has to be a focus because it can bring in a lot more money per fan so I’d expect more movement on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Fans Zone is expanded a bit more.

Merchandising still falls short imo ie I think it’s still too hard to help spontaneous purchases, which for most fans is practically the only way they can buy something on a matchday.

A top half finish has to be the minimum target with a reset comeJanuary window time.

You have teams like Stoke who have been in the prem in the last decade who struggle to get top half finishes nowadays. We aren’t going to have a midtable budget until yr3 as well and won’t have a prem relegation club or a West Brom finishing below us as well may want to lower those expectations.

Absolute minimum is survival scraping through a relegation battle. The expectation should be comfortably midtable avoiding any sort of relegation scrap like your QPR’s, Bristol City etc, top half would be an exceptional season

A lot of those team like Stoke and West Brom have been in the. Championship for too long. They are now most likely financially hamstrung by a large wage bill.

I believe the is a two year window of advantage to teams that are new to the Championship, whether they come down from the PL, or are promoted from the division below, as we were.

The PL clubs have the parachute money which they could gamble with and go for broke and try and achieve promotion.

The promoted clubs basically have an injection of incoming funds, the tv money is much more, they get bigger gates (unless they used that card up getting promoted like Wrexham and Birmingham, and which we obviously didn’t), more merchandising, hospitality, drinks etc, advertising and any other add ons. Clearly for the teams that come up a lot of that will go on rebuilding the squad for the first year but if it wasn’t for the injuries I suspect creeping into the playoffs with that squad and enhancements in January wouldn’t have been impossible the way we were playing in the first couple of months.

Season two is the one where that financial advantage is at its peak, there are still upsides to revenue enhancements, the basis of the squad is already in place and basically awaiting the right enhancements to come in.

for every other team in the Championship, they probably need to sell or offload some key players before they can bring in any meaningful changes to their squads that would support a promotion drive but they might also need to divert some of those incoming funds to pay the bills or even start reducing any looming FFP issues.

Covered End · May 1

letthegoodtimesroll said:

It’s hard to see there not being more Leicesters and West Broms, the flood gates have opened now on that one and teams that have been in the Championship for a while must be sailing close to the wind. This years publishing of accounts might produce one or two upsets. A knock on effects of the Iran war could also well lead to another Sheff Wed scenario but that may not necessarily feed through for next season.

last season we had to play catch up and went for squad quantity, this year I suspect the focus will be on quality, probably a mix of hidden gems and one of two well polished articles.

more off pitch moves on revenue streams. We should be looking at a 2-3k increase in average attendances in this division. If that’s not happening I’d expect some displeasure with those not delivering.

Hospitality has to be a focus because it can bring in a lot more money per fan so I’d expect more movement on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Fans Zone is expanded a bit more.

Merchandising still falls short imo ie I think it’s still too hard to help spontaneous purchases, which for most fans is practically the only way they can buy something on a matchday.

A top half finish has to be the minimum target with a reset comeJanuary window time.

How could a knock on effect of the Iran war well lead to another Sheff W scenario?

The chances of a 2-3K average attendance increase is unlikely in my opinion, unless we're in with a chance of a top 8 finish. We are presently more than 3,000 S/T holders light of this season's 12,500 total.

Covered End · May 1

letthegoodtimesroll said:

Crispywood said:

letthegoodtimesroll said:

It’s hard to see there not being more Leicesters and West Broms, the flood gates have opened now on that one and teams that have been in the Championship for a while must be sailing close to the wind. This years publishing of accounts might produce one or two upsets. A knock on effects of the Iran war could also well lead to another Sheff Wed scenario but that may not necessarily feed through for next season.

last season we had to play catch up and went for squad quantity, this year I suspect the focus will be on quality, probably a mix of hidden gems and one of two well polished articles.

more off pitch moves on revenue streams. We should be looking at a 2-3k increase in average attendances in this division. If that’s not happening I’d expect some displeasure with those not delivering.

Hospitality has to be a focus because it can bring in a lot more money per fan so I’d expect more movement on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Fans Zone is expanded a bit more.

Merchandising still falls short imo ie I think it’s still too hard to help spontaneous purchases, which for most fans is practically the only way they can buy something on a matchday.

A top half finish has to be the minimum target with a reset comeJanuary window time.

You have teams like Stoke who have been in the prem in the last decade who struggle to get top half finishes nowadays. We aren’t going to have a midtable budget until yr3 as well and won’t have a prem relegation club or a West Brom finishing below us as well may want to lower those expectations.

Absolute minimum is survival scraping through a relegation battle. The expectation should be comfortably midtable avoiding any sort of relegation scrap like your QPR’s, Bristol City etc, top half would be an exceptional season

A lot of those team like Stoke and West Brom have been in the. Championship for too long. They are now most likely financially hamstrung by a large wage bill.

I believe the is a two year window of advantage to teams that are new to the Championship, whether they come down from the PL, or are promoted from the division below, as we were.
The PL clubs have the parachute money which they could gamble with and go for broke and try and achieve promotion.

The promoted clubs basically have an injection of incoming funds, the tv money is much more, they get bigger gates (unless they used that card up getting promoted like Wrexham and Birmingham, and which we obviously didn’t), more merchandising, hospitality, drinks etc, advertising and any other add ons. Clearly for the teams that come up a lot of that will go on rebuilding the squad for the first year but if it wasn’t for the injuries I suspect creeping into the playoffs with that squad and enhancements in January wouldn’t have been impossible the way we were playing in the first couple of months.

Season two is the one where that financial advantage is at its peak, there are still upsides to revenue enhancements, the basis of the squad is already in place and basically awaiting the right enhancements to come in.

for every other team in the Championship, they probably need to sell or offload some key players before they can bring in any meaningful changes to their squads that would support a promotion drive but they might also need to divert some of those incoming funds to pay the bills or even start reducing any looming FFP issues.

Apologies, but this is purely an unsubstantiated ramble, although you do say it with such authority.

letthegoodtimesroll · May 1

Covered End said:

letthegoodtimesroll said:

It’s hard to see there not being more Leicesters and West Broms, the flood gates have opened now on that one and teams that have been in the Championship for a while must be sailing close to the wind. This years publishing of accounts might produce one or two upsets. A knock on effects of the Iran war could also well lead to another Sheff Wed scenario but that may not necessarily feed through for next season.

last season we had to play catch up and went for squad quantity, this year I suspect the focus will be on quality, probably a mix of hidden gems and one of two well polished articles.

more off pitch moves on revenue streams. We should be looking at a 2-3k increase in average attendances in this division. If that’s not happening I’d expect some displeasure with those not delivering.

Hospitality has to be a focus because it can bring in a lot more money per fan so I’d expect more movement on that front. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Fans Zone is expanded a bit more.

Merchandising still falls short imo ie I think it’s still too hard to help spontaneous purchases, which for most fans is practically the only way they can buy something on a matchday.

A top half finish has to be the minimum target with a reset comeJanuary window time.

How could a knock on effect of the Iran war well lead to another Sheff W scenario?

The chances of a 2-3K average attendance increase is unlikely in my opinion, unless we're in with a chance of a top 8 finish. We are presently more than 3,000 S/T holders light of this season's 12,500 total.

Some wealthy owners might not be so wealthy as they were. Someone must be losing a fcking fortune somewhere and that’s only going have a knock on effect.

There are enough teams above us with bigger average attendances that are not finishing in the top 8 to show that this league is attracting more fans.

re the STs, as the club said, sales so far at this stage are ahead of what they’ve been. There’s no reason to believe those fans that purchased after the deadline day for whatever reason personal to their circumstances etc won’t do so again this season.

jimmymelrose · May 2

What nonsense. The only people that benefit from any crisis, be it war, pandemic or financial, are the rich, unless they’re completely stupid.

The ’fucking fortune somewhere’ as you put it is the loss of accumulated savings of the other 99 per cent.

up_the_valley · May 2

BigDiddy said:

- Minimum 20,000 fans at every home game
- get some real quality loan signings in key positions
- 15th position or better

And beat Millwall.

aki2798 · May 2

Can I just say. This season there has been a lot of talk about how blunt we’ve been offensively which is justified. However our defensive inconsistencies are very unlike a Nathan Jones side. Why have we been so defensively inconsistent?

up_the_valley · May 2

.

up_the_valley · May 2

jimmymelrose said:

Rothko said:

jimmymelrose said:

SouthLincsAddick said:

jimmymelrose said:

SouthLincsAddick said:

Carter has already stated that their aim is to have a mid table budget in 3 years time so I would expect just a modest increase on this seasons bottom three budget.

I’m expecting no pivot to expansive, attacking football, I think there will be more of the same, if we want to survive. I also think it’s going to be hard to expect NJ to overachieve on our budget two years in a row, so I’m expecting us to stay where we are, not in a relegation fight but around the same finishing position.

I worry that a lot of the fan base will become frustrated with NJ because they will perceive a lack of progress, when actually he is working miracles with the finances we will have. Blaming what will turn out to be our best manager for a decade when their frustration emanates from the funding of the club. Yet the owners are still losing a huge amount of money each year and want to keep those losses manageable, and avoid points deductions.

I personally don’t get this obsession with playing expansive football, did we turn into Spurs all of a sudden? Does anyone remember the Curbs PL years and his mantra of ‘stop the opposition playing their game’. Perhaps the same fans demanding pretty football now are the same that said Curbs had taken us a far as he could.

Just what is this 'expansive football.'

Is it too much to ask for a team that
passes the ball forwards on the ground, creating openings and taking a shot on goal.

That's all many fans are asking for, not to bang it in the air like a hot potato that needs cooling down and to land aimlessly and fruitlessly on some tall bugger's head.

Is that really too much to ask?

You can play real football AND stop the opposition playing their game you know?

Just what is 'real' football and can we play it on the budget we have, our players can pass the ball around but not as consistently as the players we're facing who are paid twice as much? We also can't afford the decent strikers who are going to get the goals. It means employing a defensive, disruptive style of play for survival. Go toe to toe with better opposition will more than often mean defeat.

NJ has been in charge of nearly 500 professional games, coached under 21s, won multiple promotions and has been our most successful manager for years. I would credit him that he knows what he's doing and is only pursuing the current style of play to get success, not because it's his preference. Yet, many fans are not happy, they want the impossible, they want 'real', 'attractive' football, promotions and stability and all on the 3rd worst budget in the league, if there were any professional coaching staff reading this forum, they'd have a chuckle and shake their heads.

To a certain extent your right, but I disagree with two main points:

1. NJ’s preference IS this style of football. If it were easily quantifiable I would have bet that, even with a large budget, he’d still choose to play the same way. In fact, he’s proven so already at other clubs.

2. Some of our players are underrated and could play better football, they’re just being held back by the system. You mention a decent striker for example but we’ve got one: Kelman. Play the ball to his feet in and around the box and he’d be a 20 goal Championship striker. Apter can’t defend for toffee but as a winger, he be a great provider for Kelman. It’s frustrating and I don’t buy into all this repetitive narrative about not having the players to play any other way.

This just isn’t true, his Luton teams were high scoring teams who played really good attacking football

His Luton teams were not high scoring in The Championship, and I wouldn't define it as good attacking football

Luton got to fifth in The Championship in April 2022, after which they lost in the play-offs and then he never took them any higher because he left and went to Southampton.

This is from https://themastermindsite.com/2022/04/29/nathan-jones-luton-town-tactical-analysis/

”Despite their high position in the table, Luton have accumulated just 44.2% of the possession this season – the fourth lowest in the league. But rather than just soaking up all the pressure in their defensively minded 5-3-2, Luton press from the front and then look to hit teams on the counter. They play a direct passing style, with verticality in their quick transitions, and constantly search for their target men up front from any situation.

Defensively resilient and well organized, Luton prefer to create traps centrally and force the opposition into making mistakes, rather than settling on the ball. Therefore, they often attempt to force the play into the middle, where the pressing traps come to life. While man-marking is often scrutinized in the modern game, Jones elects for a predominantly man-to-man marking scheme, whereby his players mark tight and look to win the ball back as soon as possible. With two central midfielders often sitting in front of Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Jones often leaves the Congolese midfielder free to sweep in behind and screen the opposition striker, anchoring the back-line. In their compact structure, Luton leave little room to penetrate through the middle. Opposition teams often combat that concern by opting for overloads in the wide areas, where Luton’s compactness can come back to bite them. Luton have conceded 20 crosses per game through their narrow defense, the fourth most in the league. But in their organized 5-3-2 low-block, Jones’ men gather in numbers around the width of the eighteen, clearing the ball out of danger time and time again.

Having conceded just 48 goals in their 44 matches, Luton have achieved wonders this season, and Jones’ defensive approach has been a massive reason why the club sit in fifth place.”

This is from an excellent post by a Luton fan on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/SaintsFC/comments/yqkqs5/as_promised_elsewhere_a_luton_fans_take_on_what/
There is a lot here that sounds very familiar

”The tactic really lies with the ability of the single defensive midfielder to sit deep and help the centre backs out as much as possible while the full backs push forward, essentially creating a sort of 3-5-2.

In terms of advanced midfielders, the key in distribution. Diagonal balls, internal triangles, arriving late into the area... these are all things NJ would require from the three in front of the defensive midfielder.

At Stoke, NJ's team struggled for goals, and they drew most of their games.

This isn't the only reason we punch above out weight, though. A lot of it is down to NJ's new favourite tactic which is well-suited to underdogs where raw talent won't suffice -
.. it's a route one back five. Yep, a total departure from the free-flowing diamond mentioned earlier. But it's a testament to NJ's versatility and willingness to try whatever it takes to get results. In truth, it's what I imagine he'll initially set up with while you're in a relegation scrap in order to pick up the odd point against the bigger sides.

Seems simple, but it isn't really. It's lopsided, with the right-hand side pushing a lot further forward than the left. The left centre back is required to have excellent long ball-playing ability, something we've lacked since we lost Naismith. The right wing back and right centre back will both step forward while the left wing back supports the defenders. The middle central midfielder will typically sit deep whilst the other two essentially free-roam, collecting loose balls and playing them forward for Adebayo to knock down. Simple on paper, but require insane levels of fitness in practice

NJ will buy a tall striker in the next available opportunity. He really needs someone 6'2"+ to knock it down in this system

You may have noticed a lack of wingers in both formations, and you'd be correct to have done. He doesn't like them, frankly. Any winger you have will be converted to either a striker, a midfielder, or a fullback, else they'll be gone.

Right, so that's his tactics done and why he came to play them, so here is some more quickfire what to expect:

Positives:

Will get the most out of players already at the club as long as they are humble enough to be played in unconventional roles

Will relish the opportunity to work with and improve raw talents

Will relay as much passion as the fans give him, unequivocally

Will adapt tactics both in game and long-term if it isn't working - something he's learned from his notoriously stubborn tenure at Stoke

Will recruit outstandingly if given leeway and freedom in the market - signings that seem unusual tend to turn out the best.

Will improve the ambition of the squad if they buy into his vision.

Negatives:

Media-handling; the rest of the league's fans will loathe him, but you'll love him for it as it creates a great us-against-the-world mentality which ultimately wins game

Has his favourites; rewarding loyalty is often a double-edged sword and is sometimes hesitant to acknowledge when a good servant is in bad form. He's also very data driven so will continue to play players who aren't meeting the eye-test or pleasing fans if their data is okay

He'll sell your wingers if they can't prove to be adaptable to his full back-based systems

Youth development is something he doesn't really consider that much, though this might be because our academy is years behind the first team. He considers 23 and 24 year olds as "youngsters" and will often only give them odd minutes.

Doesn't take the domestic cups seriously”

I dare you to say that again.

up_the_valley · May 2

aki2798 said:

Can I just say. This season there has been a lot of talk about how blunt we’ve been offensively which is justified. However our defensive inconsistencies are very unlike a Nathan Jones side. Why have we been so defensively inconsistent?

Injury to Edwards and lack of sufficient back up.

ShootersHillGuru · May 2

aki2798 said:

Can I just say. This season there has been a lot of talk about how blunt we’ve been offensively which is justified. However our defensive inconsistencies are very unlike a Nathan Jones side. Why have we been so defensively inconsistent?

I suggest that it’s because in practically every game we have less than 40% possession and it’s phenomenally difficult for a defence to defend consistently against those odds. Swansea are a bang mid table Championship team and they accrued 71% possession today.

Crispywood · May 2

ShootersHillGuru said:

aki2798 said:

Can I just say. This season there has been a lot of talk about how blunt we’ve been offensively which is justified. However our defensive inconsistencies are very unlike a Nathan Jones side. Why have we been so defensively inconsistent?

I suggest that it’s because in practically every game we have less than 40% possession and it’s phenomenally difficult for a defence to defend consistently against those odds. Swansea are a bang mid table Championship team and they accrued 71% possession today.

Conceded 3 goals today when we changed into a diamond to attack the game more. Think the inconsistencies is obvious as soon as we open up and try to take a game to an opposition we concede

Sage · May 3

Think the board’s expectations would be to finish anywhere above 14th. What Jones will be doing is pushing to finish in the top 8 and to do that you need to finish on practically 69 points.

That’s 16 more than we finished on this season. With the right level of player signed, I genuinely think we can make up an additional 16 points throughout the season.

Why not push the boundaries and aim for that top 8?

Crispywood · May 3

Sage said:

Think the board’s expectations would be to finish anywhere above 14th. What Jones will be doing is pushing to finish in the top 8 and to do that you need to finish on practically 69 points.

That’s 16 more than we finished on this season. With the right level of player signed, I genuinely think we can make up an additional 16 points throughout the season.

Why not push the boundaries and aim for that top 8?

Cause with unrealistic expectations youre going to either be incredibly disappointed or make irrational and silly decision for having this dillusion that youre better than you actually are and pay the price for it like we’ve seen with Plymouth when they appointed Rooney and Birmingham where they sacked Eustace a top 3 championship manager who had them 6th and got relegated

jose · May 3

I realise there is new league table malarkey to contend with next season, as far as I can tell the bottom three are relegated but the top two go up, but the next six are in some kind of playoff situation.
Hull just squeezed in to the playoffs yesterday and they were delighted, and beyond that Derby and Wrexham were sniffing around, the final game of next season could involve a bigger wedge of Championship clubs vying for this or that.
Probably unwise to arrange your holiday before June 2027 once the season starts.

NabySarr · May 3

Sage said:

Think the board’s expectations would be to finish anywhere above 14th. What Jones will be doing is pushing to finish in the top 8 and to do that you need to finish on practically 69 points.

That’s 16 more than we finished on this season. With the right level of player signed, I genuinely think we can make up an additional 16 points throughout the season.

Why not push the boundaries and aim for that top 8?

The top of the championship looks like it could be very strong next season.

You’ve got Spurs/West Ham, Wolves and Burnley coming down. Hull won’t be as strong but the other losing play off teams will be up there again. Norwich were one of the best teams in the league under Clement. Wrexham and Birmingham will be throwing more money at it. You’d expect Sheffield United to be much better. And that’s already 9 teams I’d be very surprised if we can get above in 1 summer. Can probably add Derby to that too as they’ve got a lot of financial backing and a good manager

If we can be in the chasing pack for 8th for a decent period then we will have done very well

jimmymelrose · May 3

up_the_valley said:

.

Why do people makes a post with just a full stop? I had previously assumed that it was intended as a statement of ’end of discussion ’ but @up_the_valley made another post immediately afterwards.

You're the Board - what are the targets and expectations for the 26/27 season?

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