season defining spell of games coming up

The next 8 fixtures coming up - 5 of them at home - will define where we will end up

WBA home (winnable yes - but they are dogged under Pulis)
Swansea away (definetly winnable - and the team owe the fans one after last years shambolic display there)
Everton home (another winnable but tough one)
Stoke away (winnable - but a draw would be fantastic)
Man City home (lets just try to limit the damage in this one)
West Ham away (could go either way - would be happy with a point)
Spurs home (can't see anything out of this one)
Burnley home (would be considered a must win winnable)

So I reckon we could get a the very best 15 points - but much more likely to be a couple of sketchy wins and a couple of draws - 8 points it is then!!!

 

Form we are in, we'll be lucky to get 4 draws.

 

It means nothing. We had a period of games last season that we thought would give us a chance to recover from maulings by Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea and got 1 point from Watford, West Brom, Sunderland and Middlesbrough and that point was a last gasp pen against Boro!

 

Lets hope the weekend was the low point of this season.

 

i reckon 11 points but we will have to improve to get them.
11 from those 8 plus what we already would leave us on 16 about a point per game just about the rate that keeps you up.
not exactly progression and top 10 establishment.

 

That period resulted in us getting into a relegation battle - dunno about you but I don't want that.

If this period at the beginning of the season doesn't show any improvement then I will be calling for Shakey to go and someone with more experience to come in before the Jan transfer window and take the shame of having 3 managers within a year.

 

I agree, we can't take any games for granted and need to see an improvement in performances as well as results imo. I like Shakey but don't have faith in him. Too big a job for him at this time. Not sure who I'd have instead who'd have us mind

 

"There's only one Nigel Pearson!!!"

 

Indeed, however unless we change things around little, I.e formation, i'm predicting lots more frustration/ no points and ultimately a change of manager. For me the jury is still out on CS, great coach or assistant but not a master tactician. Maybe the answer is to get someone more experienced alongside him for a while (Carlo Ancelotti anyone, if he'd come here for a cameo?)

 

Good man manager but tactically clueless. Nobody on here ever agreed with a team that he picked. I think Shakespeare must have picked up some tips from him.

 

Not sure I could take 3 years of Big Sam

 

No not at all. If we swap managers it has to be someone who will try and change the style. We've had enough negatives managers recently and need an overhaul. I love what Pearson built but wouldn't want him back as manager. In an ideal world he would be at the club in another capacity where he can rebuild what he did behind the scenes

 

Bizarrely we seem to perform beyond all expectations against Man City ... let's hope we do again

 

Nigel Adkins

 

If our owners do make a change I think they will look to a foreign coach ... the last one did OK

 

More likely will follow the same pattern.

A veteran manager, castigated by his peers, unwanted by our fans...











...Sam Allerdyce.

 

Ranieri had a very good CV ... had managed teams to second place in the top division in Italy, France and England and possibly Spain? ...certainly did wonders in Spain ...

Allardyce in contrast ... well he does keep teams up

 

I blame Champions of England - we all thought we were going to win the league again after his comments. The truth is we played really poorly last Saturday, but still got a point away from home. Our most experienced midfielder wanted away and went and we replaced him with someone who cant play for us or even train with us and is not even named in our first team squad. Our best striker is carrying an injury. We have played a number of the best teams in the Prem so far this season and strangely got nothing from any of those matches. Is Shaky to blame for our poor start? Too many factors going on to blame him IMO. But hey - this is football - just thankful we aint spent £150m in the transfer window and look absolute ****e - grateful I am not a blue scouser at the moment.

 

When you look back at how much we have spent over the last couple of years or so trying to strengthen our team, we don't come out looking very good. We bought Mendy, Slimani, Musa, Kapustka, Iborra, Iheanacho, Ndidi and Maguire for a total of over £130 million. How many of those started on Saturday? Just the 2. I know 2 more came on in the second half, but did we spend all that money on bench warmers? We seem to buy players and then play them in different positions to where their strengths lie. We are stuck in this 4-4-2 formation with players who aren't suited to it while the new boys sit on the bench trying to change their style to suit and fail to impress when they get the odd half hour..