Certain Relegation/Championship - 2020/2021

Yes it was an improvement. If our defence had left Dawson unmarked like that from a simple freekick people would have been howling.

I saw that as a must win game. I think we could easily lose the next 3 and be a long way adrift. 3 points would have huge yesterday and we didn't show enough intent to win.

 

If every player performs perfectly against their opponent then the only goals that would ever be scored in football would be 30-yard worldies.

Also, Sheffield Utd have only conceded 7 goals this season, which is 4 fewer than both Arsenal and West Ham; i.e. they have a better defence and so even getting the chances we did against them was pretty good.

 

Hence my reference to "if Sheff Utd had performed to their usual standards".

 

How do you know it wasn't their usual standards?

The one goal they conceded in the fixture before (vs Liverpool) was from a defensive blunder even worse than any of the ones against us.

They'd been conceding on average 1 goal per game (until versus us), so the anomaly was not that they didn't concede, but that their opponents (us) were unable to capitalise on any of the rare opportunities presented to them.

 

Despite our position and points, there are definitely at least three worse teams in this league than us.

We'll be ok.

 

How do you know it was their usual standards? Watched every game have we? It’s like your certainty that Cucho is rubbish and Lukebakio was a 50 million player. You state all your opinions as fact.

If you are happy with the creativity we showed against Sheff then fine. I wasn’t. What else is there to say?

 

Please name them - I will follow their progress with interest

 

Norwich, Newcastle, Southampton, Sheffield Utd.

Norwich and sheff will fall away eventually as no decent strength in depth. Maybe add villa to that.

Newcastle and Southampton are also pants.

 

(Cue Newcastle hammering Man utd!!!)

 

I am going to hold you to this - if we don't finish 5th from bottom I want my money back!!

 

On what basis are any team in the league "definitely" worse than us?

We are on -16 goal difference and have 3 points after eight games. We also lost the final three games of last season and drew the game before that. We are ****ing terrible.

It's just strange that people are still spouting such utter rubbish at this point. Clearly the board must have had the same opinion, hence the mess we are in, especially with our fan base being so full of enablers.

 

Lol.

 

Woah woah woah - hang on.... Money??!

 

Excellent post. "Definitely" proved me wrong.

 

Indeed.

 

Kabasele has sealed it by saying "we're too good to go down"

 

We are doomed !!!!!

 

I'm sure the 4 suggested will be looking over their shoulders and acknowledging that there is no way they will finish above us given we are clearly a much better team irrespective of our results this season and last season since about February. In fact when was our last league win before that unconvincing win at nailed on for relegation Huddersfield ?

 

I would say I’d rather be us than Newcastle. I see our team and can see a 4 game winning run. I look at Newcastle and have no hope for them.

 

Better than MU so far (not saying much). May well pick up 3 points. 8 shots to 3 though Maguire should have scored. I still hold out hope of catching 3 teams. NUFC, NCFC, but struggling to think of a 3rd I'm confident we can beat and finish above. So much is down to confidence which is why a win yesterday would have been so so valuable.

 

Need to keep confident and keep hoping that there are three other teams.

As Jumbolina says above, I can see us going on a decent run at some point. And we are only 4 points off safety with a long way to go.

So I'm not panicking or throwing in the towel myself yet. Far too early.

 

Posted on the other relegation thread:

Our main hope is that we are the team that picks up form. Over the last ten years 5 teams have survived with 3 points or less at this stage, and 7 teams with 4 points or less. The last few years it seems to have become more common, but it is not that many seasons to know if that is trend or not. Indeed it is in the last 6 years that all 5 of those teams surviving have occurred.

So it is certainly not impossible, and I assume that all of those fans would have had a similarly depressing outlook as we do now, apart from possibly Liverpool in 10/11.

In fact if we don't survive, this season will have highest points total for a non relegated team to have after 8 games since 14/15. Based on that, and limiting the time frame to the last 4 seasons we are in pole position for survival! In the last 1,596 days the Premier League has never seen at least one team not survive with less than 5 points after 8 games.*

We are that team. #imagineif

18/19 - Newcastle 3 pts (13th place)
17/18 - Palace 2 pts (11th place)
16/17 - We're doomed! (Swansea survived with 4 pts after 8 games)
15/16 - Sunderland 3 pts (17th place)
14/15 - We're doomed! (Newcastle survived with 7 points after 8 games)
13/14 - Palace 3 pts (11th place), & Sunderland 1 pt (14th place)
12/13 - We're doomed! (Southampton survived with 4 pts)
11/12 - We're doomed! (Wigan survived with 5 points after 8 games)
10/11 - We're doomed! (special mention to Liverpool who had just 6 points, but ended up in 6th place)
11/12 - We're doomed! (West Ham survived with 5 points after 8 games)

* statistics can be manipulated to make something look more better or worse than it really is.

 

Errrrrrrrrr.......

 

Ha Newcastle beating Man Utd. Our spineless cowards really are the worst of the worst.

 

How does Newcastle winning against a poor Man Utd team have any reflection on us?

 

Because if you read the thread an hour ago I said Newcastle were hopeless and had no chance compared to us. I was wrong. Context???

 

It will when Utd do the double over us

 

Told ya ! Will apparently definitely finish above them though ......
What a **** weekend results wise. Still we won a point at home to SU with a 0-0 draw, Hurrah !

 

It will then yes! Let’s just hope they keep Ole on a bit longer, it is amazing how far they have fallen considering what they have spent.

 

It’s incredible how poor Man Utd are under Solskjaer. Doubt they will finish top 6

 

Okay - I often skip to the end of threads rather than reading it all. But based on common footballing wisdom if we can draw with Newcastle then we should be to take the lead/beat (delete as applicable depending on the result) beat Man Utd.

Having said that, I’m not looking forward to playing Aston Villa as that same logic would see us lose by 12 goals (Villa > Norwich > Man City).

To be fair if Newcastle can win a game it must give us hope miracles are possible for us too!

 

I still think we'll survive comfortably but understand why some think we're already down. Hopefully we can pick up a few results and have everyone pull together to support the team, the players and the Head Coach have a mamouth task winning over those fans that have a more realistic view of it all.

 

Watford and Norwich gone.

This point last season the 3 times with the worse GD went down. That was Fulham 17th minus 12 Huddersfield 18th minus 13 Cardiff 20th minus 13

 

... having been watching Watford for many years I always thought there might come a moment when we would get relegated again ... I really don't mind that much - it's football and there are too many other things in life to get upset about - and, the Championship can be exciting and has some interesting away days. But. At this moment I'm in three minds: Part of me just wants to see us play some exciting and entertaining football while the ship goes down, and part of me wants us to grind out a series of ugly boring 1-0 wins and stay in the Premier League (and then rebuild in a big way, if that is possible) ... another part of me hasn't got a clue (like most people on this forum ... insert suitable emoji)

 

With Newcastle winning today, we are already being cut adrift.
Will OGS and Poch be getting their P45 on Monday.
At least their plight makes interesting reading rather than reading about relegation bound Watford.
I have just seen the highlights of the Sheff Utd game. Woeful finishing. AG's miss is unreal. Oh well, nevermind