Are we expecting too much?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I still haven't been able to watch the whole match, but having read all the associated threads, and watched the different versions of the highlights that are kicking around and it seems to me that a lot of the issues that people are raising for us might be being blown out of proportion.

Take Daly's supposed lethargy on the pitch.  Watch the kick off again, he sprints after the ball and is way ahead of the rest of the tream.  Not the uncaring jog that some internet armchair pundits seem to be describing.

The two tires scored by Toulouse also aren't that worrying.  There is no such thing as an impermeable defence.  For years we have prided ourselves on repeatedly breaking through the best defensive structures in the world and it has been the end of the world when that has failed to happen as much as we'd want in a game.  They were down to missed tackles.  And those tackels were missed due to extremely fine errors in placement.  One player obstructing another's line of sight, or a gap being a foot wider than ideal.  Lines liek those happen all the time, and the vast majority of the time the ball carrier runs straight into a tackle.  Every now and again either the line is chosen better, or the defence isn't quite up to scratch.  That is what appears to have happened againtst Toulouse.

We could still field a team that would stand a chance of beating the best in the world from our injury list, and yet we are still proving competitive at the highest level against one of the best teams in the NH.  Yes it's a shame we lost, but it is actually realistic to expect anything more than a lot of close games interspersed with losses right now?

I'd say we're doing alright to be honest all things considered.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

All things considered, yes. Defense was not perfect, but is better. It was the silly ball lost episodes that really cost us the game. I think some of them were very nervous, if I can use that word. With a packed Ricoh, we can lift the roof and give all Wasps a good Christmas.

[Rossm]

All things considered, yes. Defense was not perfect, but is better. It was the silly ball lost episodes that really cost us the game. I think some of them were very nervous, if I can use that word. With a packed Ricoh, we can lift the roof and give all Wasps a good Christmas.

More stickum.

[wasps]

Although I posted a thread about rebuilding, I do agree with the gist of this post that things aren't as bad as made out.
We've recently lost to the best team in England the 2nd best team in France, but have been in both games at the 60 minute mark, and I really feel that we lost against Toulouse due to our own poor handling, rather than them being better than us - next week may be different.

Things really aren't terrible. There are a lot of clubs in a worse situation than us at the moment.
I would be happy if we could put a lot of the recent rumours behind us and move on with the core of the team that we have because I do believe that they are good enough

[coddy]

I think Wasps fans in general expect too much from the team, they've read things like "richest club in the Premiership" and seen high profile Southern Hemisphere signings and then with this huge stadium we play in expect to win every game.

As a long time time supporter I've seen both highs and lows and despite the uncertainty with player retention, legal shenanigans and Wasps Holdings financial losses, im still of the opinion that we are currently in one of the highs rather than lows moments in time.

[Vespula Vulgaris]

I think Wasps fans in general expect too much from the team, they've read things like "richest club in the Premiership" and seen high profile Southern Hemisphere signings and then with this huge stadium we play in expect to win every game.

As a long time time supporter I've seen both highs and lows and despite the uncertainty with player retention, legal shenanigans and Wasps Holdings financial losses, im still of the opinion that we are currently in one of the highs rather than lows moments in time.

This!

[Raggs]

Almost half our squad is injured/absent. We're still top 4. We've not been performing that well, but with huge amounts of disruption.

Given how close the season is so far, I'll not start panicking until top 4 looks very unlikely by points, rather than just "We can't make it!" exclamations.

[wasps]

I totally understand all the reasons why people are getting despondent.

Last season, our attacking play genuinely was scintillating, and a large part of that was because of Cipriani.
Last season, we often scored from first phase, and had Jimmy, Willie, Chrissie and Ellie running some amazing lines.

This year, at times, we look like we wouldn't score of the opposition only had 10 players, and at times we've looked like we weren't aware that tackling was actually a thing.
In fact, a lot of the time they've looked like they've never played together before and don't even know each others names.


However, if you look beyond the initial disappointment, it's easy to see that the reason for this is that, a lot of the guys haven't played together and probably have only recently learnt each others names.


All this "build from the academy to stop these problems" is great in theory and I'm sure every single person involved with the club, including Dai would love to have players in the academy who could improve us.
However, even if we replaced all our superstars with 20 year olds from the academy, we'd have exactly the same problem if the better half of them were injured.
We'd be looking at the other academy options who weren't good enough in the first place, or bringing in medical Jokers that don't know anyone.

The bottom line is that if you're down by 50% of your squad, you'll always struggle... So would every team.

[wasps]

I've tried to work out what a Saracens team would look like with the same number of injuries we have

Mullan and McIntyre injured, so remove Mako and Barrington from Saracens
Taylor injured, so remove George
JCW injured for much of the season so remove Koch
Launchbury out for much of the season, so remove Itoje
Gaskell out recently, so remove Kruis
Willis out for the season, so remove Isiekwe
Robson and Simmo out, so remove Wigglesworth and Spencer
Jimmy out, so remove Barritt
Wade gone walkies, so remove Strettle


So that would leave something like:

Thompson-Stringer, Tolofua, Lamositele
Skelton, Day
Wray, Rhodes, Billy
, Farrell, Lewington, Tompkins, Loz, Gallagher, Goode

(I don't really know the Saracens side well enough to know exactly how accurate that is, and doing a bench was proving very difficult)

Admittedly, there's still some quality players in there, and Saracens do field some of these during international windows.
However, that doesn't look like a team that would be unbeaten at the top of the table

[Vespula Vulgaris]

That is very interesting reading!