Yeah, they are, but I think RM will be much the fresher and have enough quality to win the game. Liverpool haven't looked great for some time, which is understandable given the amount of high pressure games they've had.
Save their place in the top division. I quite like this 3rd from bottom v third from top of the division below play off idea.
Bottom two teams in PL relegated, top two in Championship promoted. 3rd from bottom PL plays off over two legs with 3rd from top of Championship for final place in PL. Of course you lose the drama of the Championship play offs and incentive to finish top six which adds a lot to the season. So perhaps 4 down, 4 up with the fourth place decided through championship play offs as now, just need to finish top 7. Increase the jeopardy and reward all round.
We have a similar system uo here, although it is heavily weighted in favour of the PL team. Bottom team relegated, top team promoted. From Championship, 3rd plays 4th over two legs, winner then has two leg play-off with team in 2nd. The winner then has a two leg play-off with the 2nd bottom team from PL....St Johnstone (PL team) won 6-2 on aggregate last night. The PL up here do something even more baffling though....after playing each other three times (33 games) the league gets split in half. The top six play each other, and the bottom six play each other. So when you look at the end-of-season table it's a mind ****....for instance, Dundee Utd finished 4th, on 48 points, and qualified for Europe whilst Livingstone finished 7th on 49 points!
They have the same system in Norway, or at least they did until recently. Smaller leagues though there with only 16 teams in each of the top 2 Leagues, so most Clubs are either fighting for one of the top 4 possible Euro giving places, or against relegation. With the English leagues having more teams, the top 6 play off system provides more to play for for a higher number of Clubs.
Greetings from Coral Bay, been here for last 3 weeks escaping the rat race. Caught up with some local football at the end of the Cypriot League season. Pafos have had their best ever season finishing 6th when the League split Scottish style and qualifying for the top 6 Championship round for the first time. They more than held their own taking 12 points from their 10 games against the other 5 teams including a 2-0 win at new champions Apollon and I saw them finish with a 3-1 win over APOEL Nicosia the most successful team of recent years. They are captained by ex QPR loanee Jason Puncheon in his 3rd season with them although he didn't play in the match I saw. Hard to equate the quality but lower Championship to League Two is a top to bottom guess. Matt Derbyshire has been quite prolific in this league for several years and many clubs have a high number of Balkan players In their teams. I noted there wasn't a Cypriot player in the Pafos starting XI and 11 different nationalities. Just to round the season off there was the Cypriot Cup Final between last year's Champions Omonia Nicosia and bottom club Ethnikos Achna. Omonia are managed by the ever-charming Neil Lennon and he produced a timely reminder to those of us familiar with his antics near the end of extra time, still, he's a winner...
Kick off is delayed to 815pm. I'm due to get to our local theatre where Mrs Rangercol is performing. It's their last show tonight so there's an after show party. If this goes to penalties I'm going to be very, very late.
