Nitty Gritty

Ok,its down to the Nitty Gritty,Are we going to stay up,come May? And have we now got the January transfers,that we needed to keep us up.
I think we need to pick up some quick points in Feb and March,because if we dont get some results early our confidence will go out the window.
Most people are predicting,Wigan and Bolton plus another team to be relegated,but If they start to get early points on the board,anything can happen.

I think we have just enough,to stay up,with Swansea finishing about 15th-16th and about 4 points above the drop Zone.Yes i would be very happy with that,but i hope we can get some results early and calm my nerves.
From now on,every game is IMPORTANT,even the games we think we will lose,before the ball is kicked.We need to be positive,home and AWAY.
crossed fingers,we can do it.

 

Optimist Pessimist
Swansea v Chelsea, 19:45 1 0
West Brom v Swansea, 15:00 3 1
Swansea v Norwich, 15:00 3 1
Stoke v Swansea, 15:00 1 0
Wigan v Swansea, 15:00 3 1
Swansea v Man City, 15:00 1 0
Fulham v Swansea, 15:00 1 0
Swansea v Everton, 15:00 3 1
Tottenham v Swansea, 16:00 1 0
Swansea v Newcastle, 15:00 3 1
QPR v Swansea, 15:00 3 1
Swansea v Blackburn, 15:00 3 1
Bolton v Swansea, 15:00 3 1
Swansea v Wolverhampton, 15:00 3 1
Man Utd v Swansea, 15:00 0 0
Swansea v Liverpool, 15:00 1 0

just got to beat the sides below us and nick the odd point, beating sides like wigan, blackburn, qpr, wolves is a must

 

1 point away at old trafford,dont like the look of our away point or points,hoping to get 3-6 points away at least.

 

must get a point at stoke, bolton, wigan, fulham and qpr

 

its to close to call as it stands, to me Wigan are almost certities to go down and that leaves 2 places left where we are contenders with everyone in the bottom half.....Im hoping we can find a bit of form away from home as we will need some points to ensure our chances. all the bottom sides with the exception of wigan are finding a bit of form and that is not good for us unfortunately and should this trend was to continue and we want points in the last two games of the season then we will be in trouble, another thing we must try to improve on is our goal tally as i would hate to go down on goal difference.........my gut feeling is we will do enough to stay up but i cant say we will definately stay up as it stands......

 

We need to win 5 out of 16 (or is it now 15) matches to be safe. Hardly sterling form required to do that. What we can do is go into a sequence of drawing matches - that's death. What happens to other teams is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. We need to focus on our minimal objective. We have the players in the squad to make this happen. We do need to get productive in the final third; we can be as good as anyone else in the other two thirds of the field and defensively we are sound (aberrations at Blackburn and Sunderland notwithstanding). I am confident we stay up but like Dai .... it's 99% yes, but the other 1% could swing it.

 

We;ve got 4 away games against teams below us that are having trouble winning at home ... a good sign IMO

 

i know but our away form is the worst in the league that dont give much confidence to anyone....

 

Rodgers has failed by in large to get to grips with our away form, he really needs to get his head around this issue, because we just don't seem robust and clinical enough in the final third! Surely he has nothing to lose in putting Dobbie behind Graham, for a run of away games, hell it's not rocket science....................

please log in to view this image

 

Out of the 8 home games left, I reckon at least 3 maybe 4 are very winnable games. That puts us up to 35 or 38 points. Bearing in mind, most people think the points total to stay up will be lower than most years, I don't think we need to worry too much about our away form.

Although we haven't created enough, we have had a couple of decent results (Newcastle, Villa) and a couple of unlucky results (Liverpool and Arsenal). And when 4 of the 8 away games are against teams in the bottom half, I reckon we will definitely nick at least a few draws, without changing too much. We are more likely to get a good home run going by sticking to our style away from home, to make it easy for the new signings to bed in.

 

When 5 of your first 6 away games are against Man City , Arsenal , Chelsea , Norwich & Liverpool , don't expect the first half of the away season to be all roses !!

 

Iff sinclair can get back to form and rogers sets a more attacking forward line away we can get safe before the nerves take over. Our home strength is going to get a stern test this half of the season we need a few players who are capable of scoring to excell from now on in, and our back line to defend every game as iff it was a last day relegation battle . The team is more than capable of delivering without just for once not doing it the hard way !

 

Over the last few seasons our away results against teams at or near the bottom have been, shall we say, not very good. This season it`s obviously been not so good, because of the opposition we`re pitted against.
We need to start getting better results away `cause we`re going to not have such good results at home in the remainder of games left. Brendan needs to give the supporters who go away more to cheer about, as a few have said, let`s try Dobbie on a regular basis to give the team more ooomph.
If we can manage an average of 1 point a game we`ll be OK.

 

I was not talking about our first few games,We have played all the teams either home or away up to date.The teams below us that are struggling can easy or surprisingly turn it around.I think because the teams below us who we have to play away or home we all think they should be +points.I hope that is the case,but i am hoping that we are not just relying on them games ,but every game we should be aiming for at least 1 point or more.I am not saying we will get that ,but we dont want a bad run if the teams below us start upping their performance.fingers crossed yes

 

Sorry Thai , my last post was more directed at Phil & 99 . Thought it was a terrific article & I to think the next few months , after the Chelsea game cause any points against Chelsea is gravy IMO , is critical . I also think we'll pass with flying colors leading into the final few games

 

No problem CJ,I hope you are right.Is there really an easy game or games.As i said,the bottom clubs i think will raise their game.Yes looking good end of January,but still hard work to go.

 

You may be right, but based on Dobbie's last game where he had a whole 90 minutes to show us something, I wouldn't use him again.

 

all tactics, a few games i would be parking the bus and hoping for the breakaway - spurs, manu, manc, chelski and liverpool, other games epecially against the lower teams at home (and away in fact) have to be obviously more attacking, even two up front

 

"You may be right, but based on Dobbie's last game where he had a whole 90 minutes to show us something, I wouldn't use him again."

You mean the Spurs game which at that point was our best home performance of the season? That one?

Graham was given more than a 'whole 90 minutes' to prove himself. Match after match after match he was missing sitters and only then has (just) started to come good. Dobbie has been hard done by. I know others disagree but that's my view.

 

I completely agree Knackered! Dobbie helped get us here because he's quality and I think he deserves a run in the first team behind Graham and I'm pretty sure that it will increase our attacking threat!