TBH if we end up in the Championship for another season it wouldn't be the end of the world. I think the 3 clubs coming down from the PL this season won't be as good as the 3 from last season. So provided we replace the departures with good Championship players I think we'd have a good chance of going up.
After the rubbish of the final 3 or 4 seasons in the PL, Southampton have surprised me in being so high in the table. Enjoy the play-offs and if it goes belly-up, it shows that SFC are not quite ready for the PL, and can regroup for next season.Apart for the loanees, are clubs in the PL.and in Europe queueing up to.sign the club's stellar players?
I am undecided on the teams coming down. On the one hand Burnley and Sheff Utd have been dismal in the PL this year, but both were very good in the Champ. I can’t see them losing many players and will have strong squads for this level. Add in parachute payments season 1 and I can see them doing very well next season. They might not have the names that us, Leicester and Leeds have but they have experienced Champ players who are proven at this level. One unknown is how they react to their piss poor seasons and if they are mentally as pathetic as our bunch If Luton are the third team the same applies. Would fancy our chances much more against Everton or Forest
I do somewhat agree with this. Which is why I said he has positives too. His massive weaknesses are in-game tactics and not being able to set up a midfield. He is very lucky we have Downes as his quality is making Martin look better than he is imo. I am worried that without Downes and the other PL quality players we have, Martin will be found out pretty quickly next season.
Couldn't that be said of the star player at any club? Klopp is lucky he has Salah in his team. Downes was a Russ-signing too, so gotta credit him for that.
But a lot of Burnley's success in the Championship was down to loan players (Tella, THB for example). Will the likes of Morris want to stick with Luton now they've had a taste of the PL? As for Sheffield United, they'd be a decent side in the Championship but no Leeds or Leicester.
What PL club is going to want to sign Morris We’ll have to wait and see how the squads unfold over the summer
To an extent, sure. But not when he shoehorns Stephens into Dm and plays rothwell at number 6 To me these are fundamental misunderstandings of how to set up a championship midfield. He doesn’t value the “rough stuff”. He only values neat and tidy passing. Look at when we actually went up before - Morgan who had a lot of quality was still used sparingly and we played Hammond and cork a lot who got stuck in and dragged us through games. You have to sprinkle nous and fight in with the tippy tappy stuff. Even Real Madrid and City have players that are willing to mix it up and get stuck in. Yet Martin thinks any old player can play at CDM
There's truth in both sentiments, of course there is. My frustration comes from the same repeated mistakes over and over, and then Russ comes out and says "I learned a lot from the game" - which he hasn't. At least not to the extent he ever acts on it. The *way* we lose games in the main has the same fingerprints on it. I know it was the strikers missing chances over and over, but it's also the second half performance we see even more frequently. The lack of appreciation of the fact that bringing on an actual DM to shore things up when people tire (on both sides, but particularly ours) WINS US THE GAMES. It has done each time. So do it. I could go on, but it's that whole thing of look at when we lose games, look at the midfield "solution" that's out there at the time. If you're bringing on Rothwell (if you really must) then he comes on for Stu. Not as a ****ing DM. That's a waste of a sub. Bring on a winger for Brooks, who always, always runs out of gas. Don't bring on a million ineffectual wingers, and take off your season's biggest goal threat. Smallbone's quality was, as always when he's played as a 6, completely nullified today. If you're going to play Smallbone, you HAVE to play him with a proper DM in the side, otherwise he's completely anonymous. EVERY TIME. It's happened a billion times this season already. So when you're "learning", Russ, I'd love to know what it is exactly you're learning, because I don't see it happening.
Can't see either Luton or Burnley being picked apart if they get relegated. Imagine they will be the favourites for the 24/25 championship should they come down. Still too many unknowns for this year and very good chance we go up in the playoffs and retain our best players for a few more years. Would love to keep THB, KWP and Downes. We've had so much churn lately it's difficult to really love our squad compared to previous years where we had some long term players with good rapport with the fans. Only KWP has really been a mainstay of our first team for a prolonged period.
You can blame the strikers for today @Che’s Godlike Thighs . But everyone knows that defences win titles. Defensively we are a shambles still. And Martin isn’t learning
Except if we had gone up we would still have to replace the loanees so we would still be starting again.
We miss a lot of good chances sure, and sometimes that’s cost us, but we’re joint leading goalscorers in the league. Far more often it’s keeping them out that’s the issue. 11 teams have conceded less than us… and unfortunately that is not something Martins going to get any better at. Weird considering he was a defender.
Klopp was lucky he had Mane and Van Dijk for so long. If we’d had them for a few seasons, we’d have been playing in the CL
It is strange but when we had a settled team during the unbeaten run we were hardly letting any goals in. The issue is when Downes is missing or the back four is messed about with If I could be bothered I would look up the stats of how many we concede when KWP is RB, THB and JannyB are CBs and Downes is DM and when that is changed but I know from memory that there is a big differential in goals against. Charles HAS to be Downes' back up and the back four needs to be settled with no fancy inverted FBs.
We should have a lose thread we revert to after a loss then we can just cut and paste all the anti RM stuff after each game to save people time?
