Premier League Discussion

Whilst i can see one or two anomalies I may disagree with I think that is a realstic and bold Prem prediction. I think some of the more established teams will struggle and one or two threatening to take their place. Just because he's put us bottom does not make his predictions ridiculous. Also his reasoning behind us finishing bottom is exactly the concerns which are being aired on here in multiple threads.

 

I don't disagree with his comment though:

 

I agree with his bottom 3 right now. I was looking more at the Palace prediction.

 

Are Palace that bad? A lot of their players could easily get into the Spurs or Liverpool squad. Definitely underrated.

 

It'll help!

 

I cannot help but look at Palace and remember the time we didn't turn up at Wembley and lost a game we really should have won. Whilst we've been battling to get into the Premier League they've been quietly establishing themselves as a force to be reckoned with. I don't think they'll finish 5th, but I certainly believe that they'll be in the running for a top 7-8 finish.

We can actually learn a lot of lessons from their time in the top flight so far. It's been far from plain sailing - hiring Warnock was a very strange decision and had they stuck by him I'm sure they'd have been in the relegation dogfight last season. It's certainly been far from a smooth upward trajectory - it took the nous of Pulis to prevent relegation in 2013/14, and then Pardew came in for Warnock and took them to another level.

I guess the lesson is not to get too downtrodden during bad runs. It's a long old season - we might well spend a long duration of time in the relegation zone this season. We have a decent looking run in which I feel could be very very important.

This season is all about survival. Achieve this, and I'd love to be able to emulate the success of Palace.

 

What a fool, worst pundit on tv - he watched the City game for sky and from that decides we don't score enough goals

 

Or maybe it's the fact that in 4 of the 5 games so far we haven't scored...

I think we will get better and stay up but there's no denying that our lack of goals is the most concerning aspect of our play right now.

 

His comments are irrefutable.

 

F*** me sideways this place is like a never ending record

Everton - could have won it if we hadn't run out of steam last 15 minutes
WBA - totally dominated, 16 shots on goal, should have won
Southampton - 2 clear cut open goal moments to score we screwed up, should have won
Man City - one of the best teams in Europe right now, better teams than us will lose by more than 2, Merson is just being a stupid c*nt but he's a gooner so what else is new they are all stupid c*nts

We could so easily be sitting on 9 points right now

We are creating enough and doing enough to hit the target over the course of the season - 17th and survival

 

This makes it all the worse that we have three. We need actual points to survive, not hypothetical ones.

 

Doesn't that tell you that we are not far away?

Or should we instead just sit around crying like babies because Gino won't give us instant success, and established teams costing hundreds of millions of pounds are refusing to roll over and let us ar5e f*** them until their eyes pop?

 

Teams make decent chances all of the time. Have you missed the number of open headers we have gifted the opposition this season? Should we count them and argue that we should be sitting on less points than we currently are?

You cannot argue that smashing the ball across the face of goal and it going between our strikers legs is terrible fate working against us, any more than you can argue that Berahino had the best chance of the game against West Brom and therefore was unlucky to be on the losing side.

If possession counted as a benchmark for success, then perhaps we would deserve to be higher in the table. If we had scored the two or three half-opportunities we get each game, yes, we would be doing really well. Of course we would; no team scores all of their opportunities. The Liverpool's and United's of this world are currently dominating possession and missing plenty of very good opportunities with some rather good players. They do not deserve to be top of the table however.

We are, as it stands, barely making chances and I would argue that we haven't had an excellent, clear-cut chance since the Everton game. If you would be happy for us to continue with the amount of clear-cut chances we are creating, then prepare for relegation.

The argument is not that we have deserved to win because we have created great opportunities. The argument is that we have not gelled, and so we are only creating half-opportunities which we are snatching at.

We are very clearly running out of ideas in the final third. One fifth of our shots hit the target. We have had an average of 2.5 shots on target a game. We would need a proficiency rate of 40% to even score in games, let alone win, as it stands.

And that discounts the fact that teams will throw men forward when they are desperate for a goal, and we still don't really know how we would cope with that at the moment.

 

I had a season ticket at Watford under Boothroyds management in our last season in the Prem in 06/07

In our first 10 games of the season we played very well and were superior to Villa, Tottenham and Fulham in our home games. Results were two 0-0 draws and a 3-3 draw. We dominated a Jose Mourinho Chelsea later on in the season - should have won - and conceded a last minute goal and lost 1-0.

I think we have a much better chance of staying up this year as the quality of our players are far superior. However, nobody wins points or stays up for playing well or creating chances that dont go in. With the paucity of chances we are creating we would need a striker that is of a very high level that scores with every other opportunity - a Charlie Austin, a Harry Kane or dare I say it a Vydra. Deeney will not get the same number of opportunities in this league and QSF was playing this system when he won the Europa League with Diego Forlan and Sergio Aguero playing for him. It is still early to judge but if we cant score and show we can defend a lead by the Bournemouth game then I will start to worry about our prospects this season. There are not any bad teams thus far in the league this season barring Sunderland.

Yes we have only lost one game - to the best team in the league - but if and buts never won any team a game. Everton, West Brom and Southampton could have won those games if they had taken their chances and the only game we were clearly superior was against West Brom and even then most of our shots were long range shots straight at the keeper.

 

You lot are hypochondriacs

 

So true. Makes me cringe reading some of the posts on here. So little belief.

 

Ighalo's early shot was really the best chance of the WBA game, he had the ball under control with the whole goal to aim at .... unfortunately he fired it straight at the keeper.

And anyone who says we had no shots on target against city is forgetting Anya's gilt edged chance which Sagna somehow blocked.

 

anyas chance and the corner that was toed inches wide from prodl. fair enough not on target but bloody close enough

 

Newcastle looking an absolute pile of shiny shyte vs West Ham tonight.

 

Share Wembley with WestHam?

 

dont you mean Spurs?

 

If Newcastle play like they did tonight I feel very confident for Saturday

 

there are no easy games in the prem

 

Newcastle are proper **** though. Best chance we'll have. I reckon Deeney will be galvanized by the St James' park crowd and score our winner.

Steve McLaren is an absolute tosh manager.

 

I remember him saying last year that the thing he was looking forward to the most was goading the home fans at St James' Park after he scores

 

Why would that be? As a Birmingham fan, surely Villa Park is where he'll get some stick? Am I whooshing myself?

Newcastle utterly will not want to play our pressing, defensive, in your face game right now, their fans will turn sour after 10 minutes and we'll be laughing.

 

A few weeks on from suggesting that Bornmuff should be targeting the top 6/8, Jamie Carragher is now 'worried' about them but feels it's too early to suggest they'll get relegated.

 

To say the Geordies look ripe is an understatement as I thought West Ham looked well beatable.

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...watfords-troy-deeney-hoping-newcastle-9193415

 

Good find ... now where's my wallet?

 

Garth Crooks' team of the week - gone for a very unorthodox 3-1-1-5 formation. This just pips Lawro's predictions to the post of being the most irrelevant feature on BBC Sport. Still nice to see Ighalo in there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34310193

 

Hes putting players in a different position on the pitch to where they played at the weekend which makes no sense. Having Zouma as a defensive midfielder makes as much sense as having Payet there.

Ivanovic despite not being as hopeless as he has been this season was not more worthy of a place than Nyom

 

It's just a 3-4-3 with a couple of players dropped back a bit for linking defence/midfield/attack.

Of course, the places he put some of the players in that 3-4-3 make no sense...Ighalo and Martial should be flipped, for starters.