Premier League 2019-2020 Thread

[vreitti]

9 hours ago, HeyAnty said:

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 

Please do tell us what in our performances or otherwise suggest things are about to suddenly change?

[DCJonah]

7 hours ago, briny_ear said:

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.

 

Cup final and 17th position.

See earlier point about expectations. What exactly have you seen from our squad to suggest we should be doing much better?

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Hopefully one of Bournemouth, Newcastle or Brighton will have a bad end to the season.

I'm not really confident we can win enough games, three maybe (two at home and one away).

Can't see us getting any more than 36 points, will it be enough?

[Rob182]

9 hours ago, sidcow said:

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. 

They were actually only leading for 15 minutes. We were leading against Liverpool for 65.

If we should take anything away from both results, it’s that both teams have fight, but that we’re capable of hanging on for much longer. (But, inevitably, in most cases, both teams crumble).

[tomav84]

9 hours ago, sidcow said:

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. 

i dont buy into this 'taking heart' from good performances. we took loads from the leicester and spurs performances didnt we.........

[OxfordVillan]

The concern is what damage the league cup final could inflict on us. All ifs and maybes at the moment, but it’s possible that by next Monday we could find ourselves in the relegation zone and nursing a humiliating loss in a cup final. By the time we play our next league game it’s possible we could be 5pts adrift of safety. Highly unlikely, granted, but possible. On the flip side of that we might win the final and fathom the confidence that we can win against the top teams and go on a little run that proves to be the pivot to us staying up. Dean has to get the cup final selection and team approach perfect. 

[Herman22]

55 minutes ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

Hopefully one of Bournemouth, Newcastle or Brighton will have a bad end to the season.

I'm not really confident we can win enough games, three maybe (two at home and one away).

Can't see us getting any more than 36 points, will it be enough?

I was saying this to my mate the other day. Newcastle are terrible and could easily go the rest of the season without another win. We all know SB's approach to football and I think he is being found out now. Newcastle away is one of the games we have to pick up 3 points if we are going to stay up. 

[Mazrim]

I'm hoping and indeed betting that Southampton was a low point and that we get a reaction from here on in. We'd better. No more sluggish starts. Defend and attack as a team.

The Final is basically a freebie with nothing to lose. I don't think we'd have a setback if we lost, unless it was something really humiliating. After that, we need to be on our business with a returning McGinn to help.

[Herman22]

14 minutes ago, OxfordVillan said:

The concern is what damage the league cup final could inflict on us. All ifs and maybes at the moment, but it’s possible that by next Monday we could find ourselves in the relegation zone and nursing a humiliating loss in a cup final. By the time we play our next league game it’s possible we could be 5pts adrift of safety. Highly unlikely, granted, but possible. On the flip side of that we might win the final and fathom the confidence that we can win against the top teams and go on a little run that proves to be the pivot to us staying up. Dean has to get the cup final selection and team approach perfect. 

I'm all for being realistic but I can't see either Watford or West Ham winning their next two games. Watford have Liverpool (h) and Palace (a) and West Ham have Southampton (h) and Arsenal (a). West Ham haven't won in 10 games and Watford haven't won in the last 7. We are all at the bottom end of the table for a reason. If any team down there and put 2-3 wins together they are odds on to get out. 

[pas5898]

Southampton at home will be a pivotal moment for West Ham. In a tough run of fixtures it's a "winnable" game at home. Bit like us with Watford at home, it's a must win for them. 

For me, if they win they are huge favourites to stay up, baring in mind they have "winnable" fixtures at the end of the season.

 

[osmark86]

8 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

I'm all for being realistic but I can't see either Watford or West Ham winning their next two games. Watford have Liverpool (h) and Palace (a) and West Ham have Southampton (h) and Arsenal (a). West Ham haven't won in 10 games and Watford haven't won in the last 7. We are all at the bottom end of the table for a reason. If any team down there and put 2-3 wins together they are odds on to get out. 

tbf he said "Highly unlikely, granted, but possible."

[Rob182]

52 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

i dont buy into this 'taking heart' from good performances. we took loads from the leicester and spurs performances didnt we.........

I think we did take heart from those performances. Our problem is that we're often up for the bigger games and then complacent in the 'easier' games.

Smith and Co need to sort out the complacency.

Maybe we should stick with the 3-4-3 for the bigger games, but then switch back to the 4-3-3 for the smaller games, and perhaps give the occasional appearance to fringe players like Elmo and Conor, to increase competition.

[useless]

We could being going into the Leicester game with two games in hand and still find ourselves outside of the relegation zone, for that to happen it will have to mean West Ham losing to both Southampton (h) and Arsenal (a), and Watford getting no more than one point from both Liverpool (h) and Palace (a), but I'd say that that's more likely than either Watford or West Ham winning both their next two games and us being five points adrift by the time we play Leicester.

[cyrusr]

I actually am really surprised people are saying we are relegated already. Do people really forget about 2015/6. This is what it was like after 27 games: 

POS

CLUB

P

W

D

L

GF

GA

GD

PTS

15	Bournemouth	27	7	8	12	30	44	-14	29
16	Swansea City	27	6	9	12	25	36	-11	27
17	Norwich City	27	6	6	15	30	51	-21	24
18	Newcastle United	26	6	6	14	27	49	-22	24
19	Sunderland	27	6	5	16	32	51	-19	23
20	Aston Villa	27	3	7	17	21	48	-27	16

We were dead and buried by this point. We are no where near that stage. The year before in 2014/5 at this stage it was like this: -

POS

CLUB

P

W

D

L

GF

GA

GD

PTS

12	Everton	26	6	10	10	33	37	-4	28
13	Crystal Palace	26	6	9	11	28	37	-9	27
14	West Bromwich Albion	26	6	9	11	24	34	-10	27
15	Hull City	26	6	8	12	25	35	-10	26
16	Sunderland	26	4	13	9	22	36	-14	25
17	Queens Park Rangers	26	6	4	16	27	45	-18	22
18	Burnley	26	4	10	12	25	44	-19	22
19	Aston Villa	26	5	7	14	13	36	-23	22
20	Leicester City	26	4	6	16	24	42	-18	18

 

We got 16 points after this to reach 17th, Leicester got 23 points from 12 games. The point is that we are not down and out at this stage, there is still a lot to play for.  We also have the return of McGinn shortly which will assist and I can see him having a massive impact on the team where we do seem to struggle.

Of our home games I can see us getting at least 2/3 win from Chelsea/Wolves/Man Utd/Arsenal/Palace. All are hit and miss in from and are winnable games. Even if its 6 points (1w,3d,1l), that puts us on 31. Of the away games only Leicester/Liverpool I would write off. Newcastle are terrible but difficult to break down. So long as we get 1st goal, they will have to come out and then the gaps will appear. Everton/West Ham are trickier, West Ham in particular will be if they need something from the last game, but Everton's season could be over by the time we play them. I can genuinely see us getting another 6 points in this lot, putting us at 37 points. Which will possibly be enough. 

Would I want us to have more? Yes.

Could we get more? Yes.

Could we get less? Yes.

Is it impossible to predict the future? YES. 

We are not doomed. Please can people stop acting like this. 

[VillaChris]

21 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

Needing a miracle would be us being 20th, dead and buried and we put together a huge run and stay up.

Our situation now does not require a miracle. We're not even in the bottom 3.

Yeah I'm as guilty as anyone of thinking we're done after Spurs but reality is we still need 3 wins and 3 draws from 11 games, just less games to do it but ultimately Norwich are the only team who needs a miracle atm.

[Bugzy1991]

Looking at our remaining fixtures someone posted, fk, were going down  

the best we can hope for in my opinion with those fixtures is that it's do or die against West ham on last game

 

[VillaChris]

17 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

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

Really? This season is miles better than 16/17 imo when we were just a mid table championship club going on long winless runs playing awful football. Oh and we spent 40m+ just on strikers to do that.

I've enjoyed this season more than many of our recent premier league ones which isn't a high bar I admit, certainly up to December and since then we've hit problems and our performances have declined bar the odd game.

I do think we all did get carried away after the euphoria of Wembley. Not just us the paying customers but the experts who make the decisions actually did if you play back Purslow's interview the day after the game on YT.

That said we kept Grealish, got in Mings and with Heaton and McGinn there was experienced core to really build around. We've played this season one striker, one experienced CB and arguably another CM short all season and that has its limits I'm afraid with results.

[Rob182]

1 hour ago, cyrusr said:

I actually am really surprised people are saying we are relegated already. Do people really forget about 2015/6. This is what it was like after 27 games: 

POS

CLUB

P

W

D

L

GF

GA

GD

PTS

15	Bournemouth	27	7	8	12	30	44	-14	29
16	Swansea City	27	6	9	12	25	36	-11	27
17	Norwich City	27	6	6	15	30	51	-21	24
18	Newcastle United	26	6	6	14	27	49	-22	24
19	Sunderland	27	6	5	16	32	51	-19	23
20	Aston Villa	27	3	7	17	21	48	-27	16

We were dead and buried by this point. We are no where near that stage. The year before in 2014/5 at this stage it was like this: -

POS

CLUB

P

W

D

L

GF

GA

GD

PTS

12	Everton	26	6	10	10	33	37	-4	28
13	Crystal Palace	26	6	9	11	28	37	-9	27
14	West Bromwich Albion	26	6	9	11	24	34	-10	27
15	Hull City	26	6	8	12	25	35	-10	26
16	Sunderland	26	4	13	9	22	36	-14	25
17	Queens Park Rangers	26	6	4	16	27	45	-18	22
18	Burnley	26	4	10	12	25	44	-19	22
19	Aston Villa	26	5	7	14	13	36	-23	22
20	Leicester City	26	4	6	16	24	42	-18	18

 

Also, in 2015/16, by this point of the season we'd won 3 games, and one of those was on the first day of the season against Bournemouth. So even though we were only 9 points off safety (which, even for terrible teams, isn't an unattainable task - see Southampton and Watford), our wins were so infrequent that it looked impossible.

This season, we've won more often, and even though we've rolled over against dross like Bournemouth and Southampton, we've not rolled over in other recent games (Leicester, Leicester, Spurs), so us winning a few games is far from unthinkable.

In January we picked up 7 points from league games. People are talking like doing that again is impossible, just because of our last 2 results, but it's foolish to only consider such recent form.

[Bugzy1991]

35 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Really? This season is miles better than 16/17 imo when we were just a mid table championship club going on long winless runs playing awful football. Oh and we spent 40m+ just on strikers to do that.

I've enjoyed this season more than many of our recent premier league ones which isn't a high bar I admit, certainly up to December and since then we've hit problems and our performances have declined bar the odd game.

I do think we all did get carried away after the euphoria of Wembley. Not just us the paying customers but the experts who make the decisions actually did if you play back Purslow's interview the day after the game on YT.

That said we kept Grealish, got in Mings and with Heaton and McGinn there was experienced core to really build around. We've played this season one striker, one experienced CB and arguably another CM short all season and that has its limits I'm afraid with results.

I enjoyed this season quite a bit until the last 3 fixtures. 

 

Weve had some great moments against top sides where we should have done better in last 10 minutes. If we could have held out more over 10 minutes this season would have been fantastic. So I won't say it's been all miserable.

But the last 3 fixtures where reality is setting in has been depressing.

Edited February 26, 2020 by Bugzy1991

[vreitti]

Pool and Leicester away are highly unlikely to yield any points. Chelsea, Arsenal, Manure, Wolves and Everton are all pushing for UCL/EL positions. All have shown very good form lately,  so they're all difficult. Even 1-2 draws from these games would be a positive.

Palace, Newcastle, Sheffield U and Wet Spam one could argue are all winnable games. Two of them being away games makes it more difficult though. I'm definitely down and have an overly negative view at the moment, but I feel it's warranted given the many totally lackluster performances we've witnessed this season. 

We need to improve big time, there's no two ways about it.