So What Should Actually Happen - Poll

Have you not watched us this season?! All the rest of our strikers have obviously not been fit for purpose - Welbeck has struggled to stay fit and has looked completely out the game and off the pace whenever he's featured, JP is still too young and seems more of a left-sided forward anyway, Gray has become even more s**** than he was before, and I've no idea who you could be alluding to as your final one who could be much able to contribute.

Troy is way, way passed his best, but sadly he's still our first choice CF and required for the run-in.

Given GD will likely still be out for most if not all the remaining games, we will need all the attacking options we can get.

 

Welbeck has been a diabolical signing.

 

It's not been a surprise that he's spent a lot of time out injured, but I figured that at least during the occasions when fit that he'd be able to make an impact - however, even when available he's just looked a shadow of his former self.

 

I'm not sure he's ever been truly fit, even when he's played. He was always a gamble but it hasn't come off.

 

Yeah - very predictable in hindsight but I was still excited when we signed him.

 

Assuming Wellbeck is out/finished and Deeney is not returning, is the only striker option Gray? If do does anyone give us a chance of staying up?

 

Gray purple patch incoming.

 

Step up Success and Penaranda (like a new signing).
This is your time.
We are in safe hands.

 

if we come back fighting (and assume all fit) we have Gerry D , Bobby P, Sarr, Hughes , cleverly , Capoue and Doucs all capable of scoring we could (Should) be fine , we will just have to play nobody up top and 8 in midfield

 

I spoke to soon. Deeney returning to training tomorrow

 

Deulofeu won't be back in time for any restart next month. He's off crutches and exercising, but hasn't even started running again yet.

From the sounds of it I'd guess at a mid-July return, meaning we'll be lucky to even have him for half our remaining matches (perhaps someone else with a bit more physio knowledge may correct this estimate slightly).

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...-nears-watford-return-revealing-off-crutches/

 

Apparently the number of people tested per club rose from 40 first time, to 50 next time, to 60 this time. So there were in total 200 tests on people that hadn't been tested before. They might be the positive ones.

 

When was the first round of tests though? As isn’t it meant to be gone within 7 days?

Either way it’s entirely commensurate with what you’d expect, around 0.25-0.5% of the population are infected in any given week at the moment, so positive tests will keep occurring.

 

Further to this, it does seem from the BL as if some home advantage has been lost, with only 5 home wins from the 27 games so far. General form and the overall quality of the two teams have been the main factors in the results.

I'm not sure how much of a difference this would make to us overall, as although it might make our home games vs Southampton and Newcastle a bit trickier it may also make our away games against Burnley and West Ham a bit easier (though Burnley have been in very good form).

In fact, it would probably impact Bournemouth more severely than us, as none of their away games are against teams they might think they'd have a decent chance of winning against, even with the home advantage being removed.

Another thing I wondered about - could the games being played in the summer also benefit us slightly? This season was an exception, but many of our players have often been considered 'fair-weather', doing better at the start of the season when the sun is shining. Pereyra and Deulofeu often seem to find another gear in good weather, for instance.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/s...e-39-SECONDS-average-games-study-reveals.html

Bit confused. This paper has posted this as a positive headline?!

 

996 tests done before and 1,008 in this last round. That’s 12 extra, not 200.

 

Well, for the purposes of track and trace the government says 'close contact' means being within 2 metres of someone infected for more than 15 minutes without PPE. So 39 seconds sounds very positive.

 

You're right. Today's paper says the increase to sixty instead of fifty per club is not until the next round of testing. Sorry.

 

I know. But the way it’s written, it sounds like they expect players to be exposed for 39 seconds and that’s good. I would have though being exposed for no time at all was the only acceptable target on a football pitch, given the measures they are putting in place.

Surveys suggesting you will be exposed aren’t positive surely?

 

It's based on the assumption someone slips through the testing net isn't it?

 

In an ideal world, yeah, but to have no exposure at all would mean no football until there's a vaccine or herd immunity, by that point, the club and many others would probably cease to exist.

 

But I thought the whole point of the regular testing etc was so that they could be sure that no one playing a match has the virus?

I’m just pointing out that it’s weird that it’s being deemed as positive that someone playing MAY have the virus, and that if they do, a player will be exposed to the virus for an average of 39 seconds. I don’t see that as positive!

 

Taken from the article: "Some Premier League clubs will today ask that relegation is not enforced if coronavirus stops the season again because of concerns over imbalances in the fixture list."

It would be sod's law if we ended up getting relegated because of a "fixture imbalance".

 

We have form....

 

Well, yeah, it is but there's always going to be a risk someone has it until a vaccine or herd immunity is achieved. Testing will minimise that risk as much as it can.

It's also the Daily Mail.

 

PL restarting on the 17th June, Villa v Sheff Utd and Arsenal v City - guess we'll be playing our game against Leicester on the 20th.

As long as nothing major changes between now and then, we'll finally have PL football back.

 

So our first game on the 20th or 21st.

Shame it's not the week later so when GD eventually gets back it may be a game earlier, but oh well.

 

I assume they will try to play the remaining matches in the same order as the original fixture list.

 

Solving the games in hand first. We really need to cheer on Sheff Utd on 17 June, just in case the whole circus crawls to a halt suddenly straight afterwards.

 

If it does that and villa win, sending us down i think we'd have a bigger complaint than anyone on ppg systems.