So ..... Down At The Bottom . !!!

pieandabovril · 13-01-2015, 10:49

Did anyone see the Leicester/Villa game on MOTD? Villa looked really poor and could have lost heavily.They will be lucky to stay up,and unless Hull start scoring,they will be in big trouble as well.Add QPR to those two and they are my tips for the drop this year.As for the Baggies,if Pulis can pull off a couple of decent transfers,then I think he can keep us up!

aries22 · 13-01-2015, 16:12

pieandbovril, Hull are now reported to have Jelavic out for up to six weeks with injury, so they might have trouble scoring goals, and let's hope Villa continue to be useless!

tidy · 13-01-2015, 16:42

Talking of Jelavic and Hull. I just wonder how happy Shane Long is... Whistle

Went to better himself and ended up warming the bench at Saints. Saints have played Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea last 3 games and Shane got the last 10 mins v Arsenal when the game was safe at 2-0.

Will he be pleased that he is 3rd in the league but not playing or would he rather have been in the starting 11 most weeks somewhere else? I can imagine he would be a Pulis type of player.

What are his chances should Southampton qualify for the CL?

I know most people won't care but I'm bored.... Angry

drewks · 13-01-2015, 17:01

(13-01-2015, 16:42)tidy Wrote: Talking of Jelavic and Hull. I just wonder how happy Shane Long is... Went to better himself and ended up warming the bench at Saints. Saints have played Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea last 3 games and Shane got the last 10 mins v Arsenal when the game was safe at 2-0.

Will he be pleased that he is 3rd in the league but not playing or would he rather have been in the starting 11 most weeks somewhere else? I can imagine he would be a Pulis type of player.

What are his chances should Southampton qualify for the CL?

I know most people won't care but I'm bored....

I always liked Long.
Let's start another 'Loan Target' rumour..... Whistle

wba_1996 · 13-01-2015, 17:11

(12-01-2015, 18:52)Luke_East_Baggie Wrote: It's a fair assessment tidy!

10 wins and 8-10 draws seems just about fine to keep us up, So that leaves another 5 wins and 3-5 draws left.

When we have 17 games left to play, and 8 of those are:

Arsenal
Chelsea
Man united
Liverpool
Tottenham
Southampton
Everton (away)
Newcastle (away)

I'd say at a push all of those games are potentially write offs - maybe the odd draw. It leaves us with 9 games to get 5 wins and 1-2 draws (thats worse case we draw 2 of the above 8 and lose 6)

It just makes those games against those around us, huge. We can only afford to lose 2 out of 9 at an absolute maximum. Even if we go and draw against Tottenham, Everton, and United, it means nothing if we then go and lose to a Burnley. or Leicester.

I am averagely confident we will stay up - because there is 3 worse teams than us, but I'd hate to be a Newcastle of a few seasons ago, and think we should have enough, and end up back in the champ. 2 wins in 13 (BEFORE HULL!) needs to drastically improve, and we cannot afford for it not to soon!

One of the major benefits of TP is that none of those games will be seen as write-offs. Under Ai we would have lost them all, there is no way TP will allow the players to see those games as anything but winnable.

6 points from those games would be excellent, 4 would be acceptable.

talkSAFT · 13-01-2015, 17:14

We've missed Shane this season. Wonder if Koeman would swap for Vic & Noah? (We'd still want another upfront).

Luke_East_Baggie · 13-01-2015, 17:34

Yep, that is the major pull for me with TP as you (and Ska'd) said - those almost write offs games (Everton, Spurs, Liverpool etc) I would fully expect us to lose under AI.

Under Pulis, Even if he didn't do anything, teams think "Pulis teams are hard to beat" and our mentality as fans as well as players going in there will probably be more resolute and confident of getting something. I'd expect TP to be worth 2-3 points ADDITIONAL to those that AI would achieve in the same set of games.

aries22 · 13-01-2015, 17:51

Luke, never mind the 2-3 points additional, I'd expect TP to give us Premier League football again next season instead of the Championship football Irvine would have guaranteed us.

**Ska'dForLife-WBA** · 13-01-2015, 18:24

Villa fans planning to keep the Holte End empty for the first ten minutes of their next home game as a protest.

Seriously, is anyone likely to notice? Whistle

**St Charles Owl** · 13-01-2015, 18:49

(13-01-2015, 18:24)Ska Wrote: Villa fans planning to keep the Holte End empty for the first ten minutes of their next home game as a protest.

Seriously, is anyone likely to notice?

As a protest against what???