Bournemouth goalkeeper Adam Federici has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Things keep getting worse for them.
For the person who wanted to know about Burnley's remaining fixtures....our remaining away games are against Hull, Swansea, Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Everton and Bournemouth. After today's home game against Chelsea....our remaining home games are against Spurs, Manchester Utd, Stoke, West Brom and West Ham. I hope we will be safe with a 2/3 games to go but am somewhat reassured by our run-in....our last 4 games are Palace (a), West Brom (h), Bournemouth (a), West Ham (h).....if we need points home games against mid-table, already-safe teams like the Baggies and the Hammers are the sort you want with their players already dreaming of being on the beach.
It won't have gone in Austria Great conditions in March in previous years Bluebird days sometimes and still great pistes and off piste In the extremely unlikely event of snow issues I'm a short trip from a glacier that's so high you can snowboard there in August!
As much as I think Paul Merson is a prick, he spoke, yesterday, about the inconsistency of the bottom group of survial battlers and I think that is the crux of it; it will be those teams who can establish their defensive consistency, as well as score goals, who will survive and I think we fit the bill.
We've made great strides with our defensive consistency, although that started before Silva arrived. It's the scoring goals that still worries me. If we sort that out we'll stay up. If we go down it'll be because we didn't.
No matter how the Swansea V Leicester game ends today I think we will be out of the relegation zone if we beat Burnley at home in our next game. On that weekend Leicester are at home to Liverpool and Swansea are away to Chelsea.
Both yourselves and Burnley will have midfield selection problems for the Feb 25 clash (Clucas and Hendrick suspended). Marney is out for season, Defour is struggling with a hamstring strain and Barton may be banned unless he appeals against any ban. Could be Westwood & Arfield in central midfield( Dyche might be ecstatic with a 0-0 after parking the bus.
We're ok in central midfield. Evandro will come in for Clucas. It was surprising he didn't start yesterday.
Not so sure our defence was consistently sound before Silva; Marshall was only one factor, another was not being able to defend crosses. We are much better at that now. My general concern, yesterday, was the slack passing, but I am sure the coaches will be right on top of that. In attack we are much more positive and we are scoring more goals. Niasse shows promise, although he has to convince me he is a real predator - his instincts should have had him a full yard further forward with a goal as his reward, but Arsenal got off very light and we wasted a great assist. I think we have the players, especially as some return from injury, so my real confidence is in the coaching team, as they have worked wonders so far.
Looking at the fixtures it's goodbye Middlesbrough. That's what you'll get by adopting negative tactics, fearful of losing a game and not supporting your one lone striker quickly enough. We used to have a manager like that but he left a small town club to join Villa, a massive one that he thought his reputation deserved. He's struggling at the moment but it's down to deep rooted problems before his time - nothing to do with him.
You can usually ID those types as soon as they appear on the pitch, but yeah I know what you mean, I don't usually hang around for very long if they're time wasters.
hmm I thought he left cos Ehab wouldnt let him spunk money on players that he couldnt get a tune out of.
