Derby is lucky to only be down by one. Leeds' swarming defense is smothering the Rams offense like it did against us.
If we lose against WBA away and Sheffield win at home we will go from 2nd to 4th. We need a much better performance than shown recently. Let’s hope Farke has got the defense sorted. Can’t see any new players coming in to CR this January. This match will show the fans how much the players want promotion.
Great to be taking that many traveling fans. The loss of Harvey Barnes will be a blow to them and Tettey, Lewis and Buendia being fit a lift for us. Hopefully we can get back to our pre Christmas form. Fingers crossed.
Amused that one of the replies comes from the aptly named Bielsabub. Bet the league does nothing about this.
Great team. I am a little worried the amount of only just fit players involved. WBA aren't a team to go in for a soft challenge....
I am trying to tell myself that even if we lose today, I would have accepted being level with West Brom on points after 27 games and perhaps one point behind Sheff Utd, especially after the start we had. Also, we will have played Forest, Derby, West Brom and Brentford twice, so a lot of the harder games are out of the way. We would badly need to beat Birmingham next week, though, just to keep up with WBA and Sheff U, and keep us in with a shout by the end of January.
I am also trying to tell myself that it's not the end of the world if we don't go up, and that next season in the Prem playing negative football in the hope of sneaking a 1-0 victory would be depressing. On the other hand, I know that if we don't go up, we will probably lose a lot of our good young players, who are looking like our version of a 'golden generation'. Also, we may lose Leitner. I imagine the half of the teams in the Prem who will be hoping not to go down would love to have his ability to set the pace and rhythm of a game. IMO, he would flourish in the less hectic pace of the Prem.
I would say that if we can get 4 points out of the next 4 games, it's not looking too bad. Yes, we may be down to fourth, but we will have played Forest, Derby, Leeds, West Brom, Sheff Utd, Birmingham and Brentford twice, so if we can win the so-called easier games that follow, we must have a great chance of finishing up there.