Certain Relegation/Championship - 2020/2021

Comfortably! Wow I’d like your confidence. I’m still erring on us staying up but that is not based on any logic really. Just a gut feel. I’m normally pessimistic about Watford so hopefully this is a good thing.

In fact (true story) I had a dream we lost 3-0 to Sheff Utd with Foster making a howler in the first minute worse than Lloris. Maybe that is why I’m not too depressed as my consciousness expected worse!

 

But if we carried on with that attacking intent we will go down conceding 120 goals. It had to be sorted to give us a chance and yesterday it worked. All goals and chances can be put down to mistakes but the facts are, we kept a clean sheet and had 3 glorious chances to score. I can see the frustration that people have with yesterday but it was an improvement on what he had been watching defensively.

 

He hasn’t has he? We are doomed

 

Most goals conceded in a season ever was 100 by Swindon so I think 120 is a bit hysterical. Yesterday was a must win game and we didn’t show any urgency. A point and a clean sheet is all very well but lose the next three and we are finished. We had to win Saturday in my view and QSF hardly tried.

 

You have to play several teams before you can claim it worked. Sheffield United are limited going forward. It's not a fair judgement to say the formation worked because it only gave us a point. If we go to Spurs and Bournemouth, keep clean sheets in those games and nick a couple of 1-0 wins, then I'd change my opinion on it.

But I think the clean sheet would probably have happened regardless of formation, because of the limitations of the opposition. In my opinion, the formation hindered our changes of winning the game.

It's amazing that Flores has got away with playing 5 at the back, plus a defensive midfielder at home against a newly promoted side who didn't really pose much of an attacking threat in the first place.

 

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/kabasele-watford-are-too-good-go-down

 

What a deluded clown. He doesn’t think we will even be in a relegation battle at all!

 

The house is on fire and Kabasele is stood at the window telling everyone we'll never have a fire because our smoke alarm is top notch.

 

I wonder what he thinks we’re in now?!?

 

This is half the reason we’re in the trouble we’re in

None of them are taking it seriously

 

Unless we win a few games in the next month or two we won't be luck enough to take part in a relegation battle. It will all be taking part way above us. Is that what he meant?

 

I think now is a good time to predict who the likely strugglers will be. Everyone has played 8 games and the league is taking shape.

For my money the teams involved in a relegation battle will be as follows:-

Norwich. They will take the odd scalp, but their defence is so porous. It was even last season, and I thought they would concede too many goals for them to survive. So far I've seen nothing to suggest they have solved this issue. They've even conceded more than us this season!!…...and that's going some.

Sheff Utd. They are making a good fist of it so far, but they just do not have goals in them. I would expect them to be in the bottom three by the end of the season.

Brighton. They will get the odd good result at home, but they are very weak on the road. They might have just about enough to stay up, but it will be a close run thing.

Newcastle. Similar to Sheff Utd, they find goals very hard to come by. They are slightly stronger than Brighton/Sheff Utd, but have Steve Bruce as the manager which is a handicap. Their owner is also a destabilising factor.

Southampton. They'll will probably do enough to stay out of trouble, but don't be surprised to see them down there.

Watford. Of course we have to include ourselves now. Any team who cannot score goals, or has a leaky defence, has to be a prime candidate. We are both......so right now, we have no hope.

Crystal Palace. They have surprised me actually. Cahill has been a massive plus for them and with the quality of Zaha up front, I think they'll be fine.....although they could be the one side who could be dragged into it later in the season. They would be my dark horse for relegation.....but only as an outside bet.

I cannot see any other club in the shake up at the end. Villa are proving very capable and their scattergun "buy everyone" approach at the start of the season, seems to be working for them.

Bournemouth are too strong and even though Everton are currently in the bottom three, they won't be anywhere near it come May (unfortunately). Burnley are too well run and have a brilliant manager who constantly gets the best from his side, season after season. Wolves have too much ability as well...….but it was fun seeing them down the bottom while it lasted.

 

This is a good summary of our relegation candidates.

Only adjustment for me is that, Despite their win today, I’d have Newcastle a bit less likely to stay up. I know you don’t flat out give a bottoms 3, but I still think Newcastle will be in there,

 

I hadn’t even realised this until you posted it.Wow. I don’t think It directly helps us, but it makes me more confident Norwich will be going back down.

 

Zaha was very keen on leaving Palace in the summer. Do you think they will keep him in January? If they sell I doubt they would be able to replace him adequately, so I would expect their results to dip.

 

I don’t think you can really claim we played with five at the back on Saturday. Janmaat and Holebas were certainly not sitting back in the full back positions and they weren’t expected to. And pretty well every team plays with at least one defensive midfielder.

 

They are all defenders or defensive minded players. You cannot pretend otherwise. It was a ridiculously over cautious approach against a side we should be brushing aside comfortably. It was Sheffield United. If we are timid about team like them....…..there is no hope for us at all this season. You have to attack teams like this at home.

 

No idea why you missed out Villa. They will certainly be in the mix

 

QSF will need to play 8-1-1 against Bournemouth .
How times change.

 

It amazes me, the attitude of players and some posters that "oh, we'll be fine. There are 3 worse teams than us" despite the fact that, excluding the fortunate win at HTFC who were already relegated, we haven't won in the league since about Feb. One of the teams we will certainly finish above have beaten Spurs and Man U already THIS season. I don't think it's impossible we will stay up, but I do think it's looking very unlikely.

 

Sarcastic or a ****? An elite member no doubt

 

Making fun of mental illness. Weird.

 

The exact attitude that some of our players have which is why we wont be getting out of this mess.

When is Deeney back? We need a bit of leadership so desperately.

 

I'm not rising to that bait.

Or are you seriously saying people on here who are overly worried & nervous about getting relegated 8 games in to a 38 game season, might have a mental illness that I'm making fun of?

 

Not wishing to burst your justifiable negativity bubble, but what was 'fortunate' about our win at 'uddersfield?

 

Looking at the matches in blocks, I can see the next 8 as an opportunity to not only restore some pride, but to get our season back on track.

Spurs (a ), Bournemouth (h ), Chelsea (h ), Norwich (a ), Burnley (h ), Southampton (a ), Leicester (a ), Palace (h ).

I would say we'd need to win 5 of those games. Looking at the games it's not impossible, but of course is a tall order.

That would give us 18 points from 16 games. The picture would be so different if we did something like this. But it's going to take a dramatic upturn in form like this to get us back in the shake up, instead of cut adrift as we look right now.

 

Weirder still, suggesting that the belief that we will probably be relegated must lead to depression / suicidal thoughts. It seems the poster perhaps takes football a little too seriously ?

 

So why have you suggested the samaritans line for those that believe we are likely to be relegated ?

 

From recollection, we took the lead, sat back and allowed them to take the game to us, they had a couple of very good chances to score and get a point, before we nicked a second close to the end...GD I think ?

 

Pretty much anything is possible of course but you'd get good odds on us winning 5 of those games. Would be great if we did though !

 

Which is odd given the difficulty they had in signing anyone during the window....

 

You'd get good odds, because of the unlikelihood. However, it's going to take such a run to pull us away from the drop zone. Even after a run like that we'd still be in the mix for relegation, although not bottom.

This is the position we've put ourselves in because of our bad start. If we are to stay up (big if), then we're going to have to go on a run like this.