I just came across these stats that may give us a clue to how many points we'll get in our final 8 matches. So far... Matches Against Bottom Half Teams Played 15, Won 1, drawn 2, lost 12 - 5 points (shocking) - 0.33/match - Palace are the only team with a worse record - 4 points. Matches Against Top Half Teams Played 15, Won 6, drawn 6, lost 3 - 24 points - 1.6/match - We're the 11th best team against bottom half clubs, so not too bad. Remaining Matches Against Top Half: 5 Against Bottom Half: 3 (Home Norwich, Away Hull, Away Sunderland) If we perform like in the previous matches we'll get 1-2 points against top half teams (1.67) and 4-5 from bottom half teams (4.8). That would give us an extra 5-7 points. We currently have 29 points, so that would suggest we'll finish on 34-36 points. I suspect that bottom three will have around 35-36 points or less, so that puts us in or very close to the drop zone. To add a little extra excitement to the season, our final match is away to Sunderland. That will be some match if the last spot is between us and them. I also found a final table based on points so far plus points from remaining matches based on recent form. 15 Sunderland 38 points 16 Swansea 37 17 Palace 36 ----------------------- 18 WBA 33.6 19 Cardiff 30.6 20 Fulham 28.2 Can we survive? Where will our points come from? All matches are starting to look difficult. Norwich, which is our only remaining home match against a bottom half team is now looking like another of those "must win" matches. Bookies still have as as 8-1 for relegation, so that suggests that most people think we won't get relegated. I don't understand why people are so confident.
I would'nt like to go to Sunderland and have to win, not with the way Monk plays. Just cannot see us toughing out a one nil win. Hopefully we can win two of the games and get a draw. That would be at the top of expectations. Just hoping that all the teams below us are worse, hopefully West Ham will get dragged back as they seem to have hit some poor form.
Agree Gendros it will be a hard place to go but if things go ok we could be safe by then with a bit of luck Were abouts are you I lived in Middle Rd behind the school .
Middle road Lauds, always wanted to go to Perth, applied to Australia House got accepted but my wife bottled it. Intend to pop out in a few years God willing after the kids finish Uni, travel a bit.
We have to keep playing the way we are, to play any different is certain suicide but i cant see us changing the way we are playing because its good football and creates a lot more chances than we use too.....Its whether bony or anyone else can start to put those chances away much better than they have been doing is the question. We are playing like a top 8 team with no reward and that is because we don't have a prolific finisher. The reason why the bookies have as at 8/1 is because they know we are in a false position and should be 9-12 points higher than we are. We look a solid team but our finishing is poor but we have enough to see us through the remaining games where another 6 to 8 points will see us home and dry...
Your scraping the barrel now with your excuses Dai, if the useless Monk persists with his tactics we will have another 1 win in 9 and will go down. It doesnt matter to you though because you wont be there next season. Playing like a top 8 team my arse.
By replacing Laudrup with Monk we have changed the way we are playing .... Monk: 1 win in 9, out of two competitions. Laudrup: 3 wins out of previous 9 (including games against United x 2, City, Chelsea) and still in two cup competitions. Bony .... 3 goals in 9 games under Monk; 6 goals in previous 9 under Laudrup. How much more prolific a scorer do you want - under Monk his goal production dropped 50%. Hard numbers .... things have changed ... suicide to be determined (99% yes, but the 1% could still, with some miracle, swing it).
Sorry Yankee, but surely you can see the improvement in the way we have played under Monk barring the second half against WBA?
The decision to sack Laudrup was unjustified,and unwarranted. Monk is not the answer,and we are getting closer to the trap door. Well done,Huw.
Numbers say no improvement. We have had good performances undermined by bad game management and bad substitutions (Lita @ Everton, Cup; and Bony going off yesterday although not as egregious as Lita). Laudrup had good performances undermined by individual defensive blunders usually by one of his main detractors. We have had bad second half slumps in the last three games - I count yesterday as a bad second half, we conceded two goals and I am not going to count Ash's free header at the end since Everton had clocked off. This isn't figure skating. This is football. There are no points for possession, passing or any thing else that doesn't result in the ball in the net more times than the opponent. We can look as pretty as we like playing tiki taka in the middle and back thirds .... but this is the business end of the season and a point is a point. We are not capturing points, we are leaking goals, losing games and eroding our goal difference and the number of games available is getting smaller, which could actually be a blessing. At this pace we will be praying that one of the bottom three don't have enough games left to stage a heroic last gasp grasp for points ... if they do and we can't respond it's going to be brutal. Sunderland have two games in hand and -12 goal difference with respect to us. If they win those two games we are two points in arrears and the gd difference slips to -10 at most. From then on out its between us, Sunderland, WBA and Palace. The other teams are sluggishly picking up momentum and we are more like a falling knife. It's just ugly and perceived improvements on the field don't mean a thing. I haven't seen passing / quality stats before and after the manager change but they would give a more accurate picture of whether the on-field performance in terms of quality have stood pat, increased or decreased.
Laudrup had a lot of time and effort into building this team. The team will get us over the line in spite of the roller coaster ride they've had to endure .This sacking will go down as one of the biggest managerial blunders in the history of the Premier.That being said , were still here and the tough work lies ahead and the easy flowing manner in which we got us here is in the rear view mirror . Under the conditions he was thrown in , Monk is doing ok but will be cut loose within days of seasons end . Hope this hasn't stunted his managerial dreams
Did you know...... Under ML we were 24 from 24 Under Monk we are 5 from 6 So why did we sack the manager?
Good place to visit Gendros a Jack is always welcome ,so I used to live on the same Rd as you I Left there in 1982 was there for 14 yrs hope we can get a point on tues.
It was the timing that was the biggest balls up for me. Surely you only sack your manager mid-season as a final resort. Laudrup had won 3 of his last 6 games, and was looking forward to the return of half the squad from injury. We were in no crisis - far from it. The last thing we should have done is to rock the boat when we didn't have to. Why didn't the board bite their lip and put up with things until the end of season. It all comes across as more personal than professional.
I wonder how much, if any, pressure Monk and Williams were exerting at this time? History now but what happened was to the great detriment of our club. IF we do go down, our best players will leave, we miss out on £60 million plus, AND we'll have to pay Michael Laudrup (rightfully) £4 million plus in compensation. It beggars belief, it really does. Question. If we are relegated should Jenkins (and others) resign? Right now, my answer would be yes.
