Premier League 2019-2020 Thread

[sidcow]

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

You know the next response will be "What about Sheffield United or Wolves?" right?

But they didn't have to lose half their players as loans did they.  Half our signings were just to stand still. Plus they were better championship teams than us too. 

[villa4europe]

38 minutes ago, supermon said:

Had that been Villa and we took Liverpool all the way to a 3-2 loss at Anfield, would you not take some heart n optimism out of that?

On the contrary, where do we take heart from after Southampton? 

I think if Southampton start the game on Saturday as quickly as they started the game vs us then any good feeling they have from last night will be gone, the nerves will kick in, the groans will follow and then it's back to where they were 

Footballer mentality is a funny thing, hard to tell what they think of last night, or if moyes is a good man manager or talking to the wall, or if too many of them have already had the chat with their agent and are out of there this summer, or if they get monster contracts and don't care

But any way they are obviously in trouble and their fans aren't helping, there's nothing to suggest they can do something that we can't 

[eholm]

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

tin hat on...

I think the club have almost quite sensibly bought some players who can yo-yo should we go down, hause, konsa, el ghazi, trez, probably wes following his injury, nakamba, guilbert will all be there in the championship next season, be good players at that level and then in theory give a 2nd bite of the PL a better go

I don't think we'll have the turnover of players and 3 year (failed miserably) rebuild should we go down, we maybe lose mings and McGinn (im not convinced we would lose both), definitely lose grealish, plug their quality loss with some loans, buy a couple of development players, give the likes of barry a chance, come back up, spend £100m on 3/4 positions

that's what we should have done the 1st time around but thanks to xia / RDM / bruce we **** it up

Unpopular view, mate, but one I completely agree with. The club is now run with longer term strategies and so it would make perfect sense to incorporate contingencies in all that we do. The short term approaches of previous regimes are no longer and although some may see it as a somewhat negative approach, building a squad that will on the whole stay together irrespective of the division we are in is sound business planning. 

[AVTuco]

I've disliked this season so much that I'd rather win League Cup and go down than the other way around.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

I concur haven't enjoyed this season at all....so far! 

[markavfc40]

I think some may be reading a little too much into West Hams gallant defeat at Liverpool last night. First of all had Liverpool had won that game by 3 or 4 goals it wouldn't have been an injustice. Also West Ham aren't alone in coming close to getting a result against Liverpool. That one man team we all support came within 7 minutes of beating them and 1 minute of getting a draw. All without Jack Grealish. More recently bottom side Norwich came within 15 minutes of getting a draw. Out of Liverpools 26 league wins this season 13 have been by a single goal so plenty of sides have put up gallant displays and ran them pretty close on the face of it although I'd imagine the stats, like last night 70% possession, 25 shots to 7, tell a more accurate story.

 

I think rather than judging West Ham on last nights game the fact they have one win in 10 and have taken 5 points from the last 30 available is a more telling picture of where they are and the form they are in.

[villalad21]

Just for the confidence we need to avoid a heavy defeat to Man City.

Imagine if we get battered meanwhile the bottom 3 manage to do their business in the weekend.

Really could do without this final at this point in time.

[Rob182]

2 hours ago, Laughable Chimp said:

Sure,

So after calculating and adjusting for inflation, I've gotten 49 points. Looking at the league table, it shows that that wouuld've been enough to put us in 11th place that season. But we were the 8th highest transfer spenders and the 7th highest wage bill that season so I would've expected us to be somewhere up there as well. Probably made a mistake somewhere then in the inflation calculations most likely but I'm not really sure where. But regardless, you get the picture. We should've been comfortably mid-table with the amount we were spending that season. Not rock bottom.

I could input all the finances for all the teams in that 2015-16 season so I don't have to take into account inflation but I'm too lazy to put that amount of work in.

Thanks, that’s what I expected, to be honest. Not that exact league position (I’m not Rain Man!), but that we massively underachieved that season, and, that if you were to draw comparisons between the two teams’ fortunes, we’re doing better now.

I’m sure some people are wishing that we’d spread our budget over fewer players, say 5-7, instead of 12-13. I bet those people also assume that doing so would just allow us to get a few older free transfers to add to the squad and add experience.

Well, that’s exactly what we did in the 15/16 season, and it was a complete shit show. Obviously our spend was less in 15/16, but with inflation and the recent market, it’s not a huge stretch that our £10m signings from 15/16 would be like £15-20m signings nowadays.

In 2015/16 we had the added bonus of a higher allowed wage bill, and the fact that we already had Premier League players at our disposal (Clark, Gabby, Guzan, Richardson, Westwood, Bacuna, Gil, N’Zogbia etc), and because of that it meant we didn’t have to put 8-9 brand new players in matchday elevens, like we have done this season.

[Zatman]

We have only had 1 season over 40 points at this level since 2011

[Keyblade]

4 minutes ago, Zatman said:

We have only had 1 season over 40 points at this level since 2011

Didn't realize we finished with 41 points in that first Lambert season. That end to the season was stronger than I remember. I thought it was 4 straight seasons of 38 points after Houllier lol

[ciggiesnbeer]

These players, owners, manager & staff have got themselves into this position.

Now they have to train harder than anyone else in the league, work harder, plan better and win more games than anyone else in the league. Amazingly its still within our own control as we got lucky with the results.

The reality is we made this mess ourselves now the same people have a chance to fix it. I honestly think they can, I hope they do.

 

 

[ciggiesnbeer]

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Just for the confidence we need to avoid a heavy defeat to Man City.

Imagine if we get battered meanwhile the bottom 3 manage to do their business in the weekend.

Really could do without this final at this point in time.

I am gonna try and look at the bright side. If we play the same players who got us to the final then they might force themselves into the league starting 11 from a good performance even assuming we do lose. Dean Smith should take the cup final as an opportunity to experiment with tactics/players for the more important league games ahead. He has nothing to lose but a cup final we are likely going to lose anyway.  Our starting 11 against Southampton should all regard their places as under threat for the next league game, it was that bad.

Edited February 25, 2020 by ciggiesnbeer

[DCJonah]

2 hours ago, Zatman said:

We have only had 1 season over 40 points at this level since 2011

This is why our expectations should be realistic this year. 

No way should people think Smith should be sacked this season 

[HeyAnty]

Im still holding out for a winning streak. From last season and previous team supporters mentioning it, Smith is an extremely streaky manager. Can go from loosing 10 games to winning 10 games. Im thinking things are about to change 

[Laughable Chimp]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

This is why our expectations should be realistic this year. 

No way should people think Smith should be sacked this season 

If he somehow loses every game for the rest of the season, hell yeah I'm asking for him to be sacked. He isn't untouchable at all. Now, the point isn't that he will lose every game for the rest of the season, just that there are definitely things that can happen that should make him sackable.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Laughable Chimp

[abdulaziz1]

5 hours ago, supermon said:

Had that been Villa and we took Liverpool all the way to a 3-2 loss at Anfield, would you not take some heart n optimism out of that?

On the contrary, where do we take heart from after Southampton? 

We had a much worse result at Watford, then we came from there to beat Burnley and drew with Leicester away. That won't take a heart from Southampton?

We came back from difficult situations in the last two years. So I'm sure we can do that this time.

Hopefully it will begin with winning the trophy next week!

[briny_ear]

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

This is why our expectations should be realistic this year. 

No way should people think Smith should be sacked this season 

If we think he hasn’t achieved as much with the squad as he could/should have - which is certainly how it is looking at present - then the question certainly has to be asked about his tenure.

 

[abdulaziz1]

I don't know why are everyone keeping forgetting that Bournemouth are still in the relegation race. They're only one points above us and keeping losing points!

Brighton are getting the odd draw but haven't won for a while.

Newcastle had a flucky win at Chelsea (last minute) as their only win in the last 10?

It's not just West Ham and Watford. It's two of :

West Ham, Watford, Us, Bournemouth, Brighton and Newcastle.

People were saying Bournemouth are out of the relegation fight earlier the season. Same with West Ham. All eyes were on Southampton. Things changes quickly. That's why having more teams in touch is important.

Newcastle are playing Burnley, in a regular basis that could be a 0-0 written all over it. But with Burnley's form and their ugle way in playing, I think they could thrash Newcastle and beat them.

West Ham and Southampton is a tricky one, hopefully Shane Long could think that he's playing against us (claret and blue) and score against them.

Liverpool should hopefully beat Watford.

Bournemouth have a tricky one against Chelsea, depending on these has been a nightmare, but hopefully Chelsea can do it this time.

Brighton and Palace has a draw written all over it. Preferebly a Palace win so they can keep nerves with Brighton.

Then the week after we'll still depend on Palace, Saints, Liverpool. But Arsenal instead of Chelsea.

I doubt Palace would win three in row, but they usually win two and then sleep again. Hopefully they win their next two. Same with Saints and Liverpool.

Imagine we can go to Leicester while the table is as it is now (maybe with Brighton have one more point or so). That would be fantastic. Hopeful thinking but isn't far from reality.

[sidcow]

Not sure why people think West Ham take heart from Liverpool. They were winning for large portions of the game then threw everything physically and mentally into trying to keep at least a point.  They lost it, it probably felt more like a body blow. 

[gurru991]

For me it's down to West Ham, Bournemouth, Watford & Villa to join Norwich .

I can't see Newcastle not getting  6-8 points from their next 11 games leaving them around the 38  point mark. Same with Brighton, 9 points from 11 games puts them at 37.

West Ham & Watford appear to have slightly better run ins but any team from that four that kicks in and puts a few wins together can be safe.