If you'd told me just over a week ago that we could lose to Southampton and Spurs, and STILL not be in the bottom 3, I'd have said you were off your rocker. I guess the thing we keep missing - as we look closely at the issues with our own team - is that although we've been putting in some rubbish performances (alongside a few good ones), the teams around us are also churning out rubbish on a weekly basis. To stay up, we don't need to be great, we don't even need to be 'good' - we've only got to be slightly less rubbish than three of the five teams around us over the next 11 games. I still think we can do that!
Lets just imagine we survive by the skin of our teeth this season - what the hell are we going to do differently which leads to us actually competing next season?
We'd probably need to sign two or three £20-40m players and keep what we have.
Quote from: Ugo on February 25, 2020, 12:26:13 PMQuote from: themossman on February 25, 2020, 08:55:40 AMSpam are a shit team for sure. My specific concerns are that they still look more likely to nick a result against big teams than us and that if it comes down to a last day head to head theyve got more bottle across the team. I hope Im wrong obviously.Id say the opposite is true.We have run Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal very close this season and arguably should have picked up points from all three of those games. We also did manage to pick up points at Old Trafford. It is against the lesser teams where we have performed poorly.Id also be interested to hear who and why you think West Ham have more bottle and not just because of the last two games played by both teams.Is it Villa running them close, or them 'lowering' themselves as they know that a lesser performance would be adequate. It's certainly possible the close call was down to Villa being good, but not necessarily...
Quote from: themossman on February 25, 2020, 08:55:40 AMSpam are a shit team for sure. My specific concerns are that they still look more likely to nick a result against big teams than us and that if it comes down to a last day head to head theyve got more bottle across the team. I hope Im wrong obviously.Id say the opposite is true.We have run Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal very close this season and arguably should have picked up points from all three of those games. We also did manage to pick up points at Old Trafford. It is against the lesser teams where we have performed poorly.Id also be interested to hear who and why you think West Ham have more bottle and not just because of the last two games played by both teams.
Spam are a shit team for sure. My specific concerns are that they still look more likely to nick a result against big teams than us and that if it comes down to a last day head to head theyve got more bottle across the team. I hope Im wrong obviously.
Quote from: JJ-AV on February 25, 2020, 08:51:55 PMWe'd probably need to sign two or three £20-40m players and keep what we have.I think a few need to be moved on. Jota for starters.
I can envisage that we might produce a few good results, even against some of the top sides.What I can't see is our putting a string of results together. The current squad can't play Dean Smith's preferred style at this level consistently. It's going to be close, which may of us fully expected.
Quote from: adrenachrome on February 26, 2020, 12:35:57 AMI can envisage that we might produce a few good results, even against some of the top sides.What I can't see is our putting a string of results together. The current squad can't play Dean Smith's preferred style at this level consistently. It's going to be close, which may of us fully expected. We don't really need that much of a run. We could stay up with runs of 1 win in 3 if we also draw a game in that run. Another 12 points and it's not certain we'd stay up but I'd be pretty confident looking at the runs in likes of Bournemouth have.