Danny Salman: Mid-table is not good enough for Plymouth Argyle

I'VE heard a few people talking about being happy if Argyle finish mid-table this season, but I'm sorry, that's not good enough for me and I doubt that's good enough for manager Carl Fletcher and his coaches either.

The point is that everyone wants the club to progress and if people get a mindset that mid-table will be good enough, then I'm afraid progress is not going to happen.

I'm often delighted to talk to people about my opinions in this column and I'd like to thank them for their comments – whether they agree with me or not.

Even if they don't agree with me, I still appreciate what they say.

I sometimes end up in the city centre talking to people in the rain about what's happening at Argyle.

I'm a supporter and I love the club, but sometimes people doubt that and that upsets me.

People sometimes wonder why I don't say we were brilliant and we should have won by 10 goals.

But I'm honest in my assessment of a game and in what I see and what I know, and while my view might be stronger than the average fan, most supporters appreciate honesty and they appreciate things which are factual.

Anyway, I'm quite sure that after the first few games, some people would be happy with mid-table for the club.

But unless we change our philosophy, we're going to win some, lose some and draw some.

That might be all right for the club, but I think we need to go forward.

We should be asking what can we do to improve and win matches, and what can we do to improve so we can move up the table?

I'm sure Carl Fletcher and his management team, who, in my opinion, are doing a good job, are thinking about how to do that all the time.

The fans haven't had much to shout about in the last four years and now they would like to see a bit more.

The club has been through administration and survived, but it's not all about that.

It's about going for it and thinking about finishing a bit higher.

I think some of our problems stem from the fact that sometimes we can be a little predictable.

People watch us to see how that can stop us, as we watch other teams for the same reason.

If you do the same things all the time, people are going to find you out.

I remember Stoke City in their first year in the Premier League – eight of 11 of their home goals came from long throw-ins and people are going to get wise to that very quickly.

That's why we need to be a little more unpredictable in our play and mix things up a bit more.

I've been going on for years about Argyle needing to retain possession of the ball and it seems the club has realised that is what they have to do.

You can keep possession and still win matches, but passing the ball just for the sake of passing it is not going to get you anywhere.

Knocking the ball 60 yards and somebody flicking it down for a striker to score will get you a goal. But just knocking the ball aimlessly and hoping something drops for you doesn't work.

We have got to keep passing with purpose – we have small, quick players up front who would benefit from having the ball knocked into their feet, rather spending the match running after lost causes.

If you keep possession, you create more chances and you score more goals.