was watching the fa cup games with much interest this weekend, the lesser teams were generally not eclipsed by the premier opposition ( even brighton did well first half before emploding. my question is how much better in % do you think the top 8 teams in the premiership are than southampton, the bottom 8 and the middle, and what are the differences in the leagues. personnally I think no dif with the bottom teams, only 10% off the middle and I really fancy our chances against the big boys so only 15% worse than the big boys. we need to improve on not giving the ball away and being more clinical
At the moment we will get absolutely thrashed by Man City, Man Utd and Spurs and if we go up even after strengthening we would do very well to get anything at all out of them. We would get beaten by Sunderland, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Fulham, Stoke, Everton, Newcastle, Villa. I think you are deluded - only Fox has PL experience (you can't include Puncheon). We are a top Championship side at the moment - not a PL side. There is a big difference between the PL and the Championship - sloppy defending will get punished much more often. There is still a big difference in quality between Saints and most PL teams, if not all.
A top Championship side is probably better than at least the bottom 5-6 PL clubs. Remember that we are top because we play well as a team, whereas a bottom PL side may have better players theoretically but not play well. Let's hope we get the chance to find out.
Ironically, the only way you can tell is if we were playing premiership teams week in week out, so you just can't judge it. One off cup games don't really give too much insight. It's almost a certainty that we would also look to bring in a further 2/3 further players and sell on some dead wood if we were promoted so there will unlikely to be a direct comparison to our current team.
your points are true, however you look at birmingham against chelsea, swansea vs arsenal and do you not think we could get something from those games. honestly I am talking about playing well against these teams, not winning them . there seemed to be a much bigger gulf between the championship and premier league a few years ago, and if we do go up then I can not see how we could strengthen the first choice team- squad yes but not the starting 11
We're good with the ball, however we need to be far more clinical, we have been fortunate defenses are pretty bad in this league.
as I live abroard, not a much as i would like- maybe why i ask stupid questions. of course we need to be more clinical as chances will be less, our defence makes mistakes but i cannot see anyone better to strengthen with
There is a huge gap between the premier league and the championship.I don't think that some people understand how tough it is,it's very unforgiving. All the teams that are in the premier league have quality players that would get into our team easily. We are miles off teams in the top 10 at the moment and there are some good teams in the bottom half aswell. Our team would need atleast 4 to 6 new players next season if we were to go up this season.
There is no doubt that mistakes are more likely to be punished in the premier. We are beginning to pass the ball faster and to be less predictable with our passes. Yes the comments re taking our chances is 100% correct in the premier. Our style of play will allow us to create them but we will have to take what chances there are or we will not survive. Norwich have not done so bad nor have Swansea, QPR are struggling a bit but pull off the odd surprise. I think in the main the crowd we have now will keep us up but if we want to get into the big money European matches then obviously we have to get a top 4 or win the bloody cup or something. To do that we are going to have to get top quality players in to blend in with what players we have that make the better quality grade. Sadly it might be too late for players like Lambert as all that I am saying would have to happen over a 3 year programme and by then he may not be up to that standard who knows. If that is Corteses intention then it is going to be a very exciting few years for the fans. Always assuming of course that we make the grade this season
Quite, Norwich and Swansea have brought in hardly anyone (few players they have brought in were championship players), and it's QPR who have 'strengthened' that are struggling
I strayed on to Talk Sport earlier this evening and not paying attention, I thought I heard some one say Poyet is on the short list for the Wolves job, did I hear right?
I actually think quite the opposite, that the gap couldn't be closer. Just look at how the promoted teams have done in the past few seasons (although the majority of these eventually slip up in the second season...)
