[Archived] The Relegation Thread

[RevidgeBlue]

I'm not sure we've won a game this season that didn't involve massive amounts of luck. The statistics in every game we win shows the opposition hammered us in everything but the scoreline. You don't get enough of those wins over a season to stay up.

Hmmm....... I think we deserved a bit of luck yesterday after absolutely battering Newcastle and somehow contriving to lose. We've also come away empty handed numerous times this season from games we deserved something from. What's that old saying? It's better to be a lucky manager than a good one. Kean certainly doesn't come into the former category regardless of his shortcomings.

[Mattyblue]

I don't understand this 'luck' thing, it's loser talk.

Missing two penalties against Everton is not unlucky, neither is dominating a game and not scoring any goals.

[RevidgeBlue]

I don't understand this 'luck' thing, it's loser talk.

Missing two penalties against Everton is not unlucky, neither is dominating a game and not scoring any goals.

Agreed.

Completely agree that you make your own luck. But there will usually over the course of the season be occasions when you should get a result but dont and others where you don't play particularly well and get the three points.

How do you classify that? It's probably not that far wide of the mark to call it lucky and unlucky.

[Mercer]

I'll stick with my predictions.

Wigan have a knack of winning games when they really need to and they were pretty impressive at Bolton yesterday (from a friend who supports Bolton). Yes, it's Rovers last home fixture, however, I wouldn't put a bent nine bob note on Rovers winning. Martinez is a good manager and tactically aware. Whelan is a real football man and no fool and has more sense in his little finger than, IMO, our owners in Pune.

As far QPR, yes dire in the first half but we did have a run of the ball and if you take their 2nd half performance, add Cisse and the influence of Hughes and his team then I think they will shade it over Wolves, Bolton & Rovers by a couple of points.

IMV, Kean's naivete and lack of tactical nous will cost Rovers dearly.

[imy9]

I'll stick with my predictions.

Wigan have a knack of winning games when they really need to and they were pretty impressive at Bolton yesterday (from a friend who supports Bolton). Yes, it's Rovers last home fixture, however, I wouldn't put a bent nine bob note on Rovers winning. Martinez is a good manager and tactically aware. Whelan is a real football man and no fool and has more sense in his little finger than, IMO, our owners in Pune.

As far QPR, yes dire in the first half but we did have a run of the ball and if you take their 2nd half performance, add Cisse and the influence of Hughes and his team then I think they will shade it over Wolves, Bolton & Rovers by a couple of points.

IMV, Kean's naivete and lack of tactical nous will cost Rovers dearly.

Perceptions hey? Martinez has a win record of 23% and Kean 26%, Martinez is a over hyped manager who has struggled badly at Wigan, he wins the odd game here and there against a decent side and it masks his dire record.

[Tom]

Rovers have a bad run in and will take one of the spots I think, QPR are by no means safe as their run in is a bad one as well

[Parsonblue]

No chance!!!

Why does Mercerman think rovers will go down???

Could it be that we have been in the bottom three for the majority of the season? Could it be that we lack quality in all the key areas? Could it be that Wolves and Bolton have already won at Ewood Park? I can think of any number of reasons chaddy, not least a manager who looks increasingly out of his depth.

[alexanders]

But what is a bad run in Tom?

We have beaten United away and drawn Liverpool away. We have lost at home against Bolton and West Brom.

Its really difficult to guess how the season will end.

I think we will win at home against Norwich and Wigan. In the other matches everything can happen.

[Mercer]

Clubs that usually emerge from sticky spells can generally be found to be united from top to bottom with all pulling in the right direction.

This is certainly not the case at Rovers where, possibly, even Kean is speculated as being 'out of the loop' - that might be construed as a good thing, however, if he does not have a free hand in team selection, then that does not augur well.

[Rover_Shaun]

Failing to beat Norwich at home on April 21st will relegate us.

It will leave us 4 points off safety with only 1 match left that we have any hope of winning or even making a draw in.

[RevidgeBlue]

Form tends to go increasingly out of the window as the end of the season approaches anyway and it becomes as much a test of testicular fortitude as of ability.

I think Wigan and Wolves will go. I expect QPR to just about scrape out of it and I think the final spot could come down to us or Bolton. I keep thinking Bolton shouldn't be down there and expecting them to find a bit of form and sail off into the sunset but they haven't managed it so far.

If Yakubu stays fit and we are still scoring goals we have a fighting chance. The temporary return of a fully committed Samba might just tip the balance in our favour.

[Mercer]

Failing to beat Norwich at home on April 21st will relegate us.

It will leave us 4 points off safety with only 1 match left that we have any hope of winning or even making a draw in.

We have 13 matches left with 5 clearly tough fixtures, Home L'pool & United and Away City, Spurs & Chelsea.

I think we will do well to accumulate another 10 points and 31 points will not be enough.

[Rover_Shaun]

The other 4 teams aren't exactly setting a points blaze. That's why it will go to April 21st

[John]

Think people are forgetting that fact - others teams have been doing dire as well - Coyle for example has a similar, or worse, record than Kean.

[Waggy76]

I think all five at the bottom are equally as poor, it's reflected in how tight the bottom of the table looks at this moment in time, it's also why we have an outside chance of staying up.

That is an excellent point , what upsets me is if Venkys had been responsible owners and employed a proper manager we would be up around West Brom or even higher...I think the players are not really good enough but a proper manager probably wouldn't have bought the dross Kean did !!!!!

As it stands , 3 from 5 for the drop .. key now is to get Samba to play , with him playing we could just do it ...Makes Nelsen leaving rather silly doesn't it ?,we really need leaders and we ain;t got any ...(possibly Robbo)

Form tends to go increasingly out of the window as the end of the season approaches anyway and it becomes as much a test of testicular fortitude as of ability.

I think Wigan and Wolves will go. I expect QPR to just about scrape out of it and I think the final spot could come down to us or Bolton. I keep thinking Bolton shouldn't be down there and expecting them to find a bit of form and sail off into the sunset but they haven't managed it so far.

If Yakubu stays fit and we are still scoring goals we have a fighting chance. The temporary return of a fully committed Samba might just tip the balance in our favour.

I agree with the above comments , Chelsea last day of season may not be as daunting as some think ....That could be a club in serious turmoil and meltdown by then..

[rigger]

We have 13 matches left with 5 clearly tough fixtures, Home L'pool & United and Away City, Spurs & Chelsea.

I think we will do well to accumulate another 10 points and 31 points will not be enough.

I think all four games in March are winable

[Tom]

One thing, most people presumed QPR are autmotically safe due to Mark Hughes but he has to have a quick effect, so far that isn't obvious and they have a bad run in.

[Puffsan]

Agere with Tom M. Qpr haven't really had the new manager effect, and even though they have spent some cash their team isn't great. I thin wigan Bolton and qpr will get relegated. It very rarely that all three teams who got Promoted to the pl stay up (has it ever happened?) and Norwich and Swansea looks safe. Mark Hughes is not Jesus, he can't do miracles. He has to rely on the 11 men on the field doing a good job.

[joey_big_nose]

We have 13 matches left with 5 clearly tough fixtures, Home L'pool & United and Away City, Spurs & Chelsea.

I think we will do well to accumulate another 10 points and 31 points will not be enough.

I bet you a tenner right now that we will get more than 10 points between now and the end of the season.

8 winnable games. I reckon we can take 14 points or so from that. 4 wins 2 draws.

Would 35 points keep us up?

[purplegrover]

If (and I say IF) by some miracle, given the shambles that is the owners, and the amateur that is the manager, we manage to stay up, it will not be because we were good enough to stay up.

It will be because we were slightly less crap than the crappest 3 of what are 5 really poor 5 teams.

The gulf between the bottom teams and the top is getting bigger every year. Soon I dread to thing that the league will be like Spain or Italy. a handful of cashed up big money juggernauts, and the rest just scrabbling around and fighting in the mud to survive.

[Stuart]

The gulf between the bottom teams and the top is getting bigger every year. Soon I dread to thing that the league will be like Spain or Italy. a handful of cashed up big money juggernauts, and the rest just scrabbling around and fighting in the mud to survive.

We're already there, pg.

[Rover_Shaun]

8 winnable games. I reckon we can take 14 points or so from that. 4 wins 2 draws.

Let me know how we did in the previous 16 or so winnable games?

[krypton1980]

I bet you a tenner right now that we will get more than 10 points between now and the end of the season.

8 winnable games. I reckon we can take 14 points or so from that. 4 wins 2 draws.

Would 35 points keep us up?

So which are your winnable games?

Rovers (currently on 21 points)

• Manchester City away
  
• Aston Villa home
  
• Wolverhampton Wndrs away
  
• Sunderland home
  
• Bolton Wanderers away
  
• Manchester United home
  
• West Bromwich Albion away
  
• Liverpool home
  
• Swansea City away
  
• Norwich City home
  
• Tottenham Hotspur away
  
• Wigan Athletic home
  
• Chelsea away
  

IMO i think somewhere around 36 points might be enough - but will we get that many?

I can only see us beating Norwich and Wigan at home, and possibly Wolves away - draws against Sunderland and Villa.

Remember Kean only has a 20% win ratio!

It will go down to the last game of the season & we could not have asked for a worse fixture on the last day - Chelsea will probably need to win to get a champions league spot and we will need to win to guarantee survival (anything else will need our relegation rivals to get worse results than us!

I think that Villa and WBA will be safe this season and both will get to the magic 40 point mark, as for the rest of us Wolves will go down unless they sack Mick (but if they keep him will come back up next season),take your pick from Wigan , QPR, Bolton and Rovers - we are all as bad as each other and all pick up results when least expected. Could be that all four are level on points come the last day of the season and it will be down to goal difference.

Remaining fixtures

Wigan (currently on 19 points)

• Aston Villa home
  
• Swansea City home
  
• Norwich City away
  
• West Bromwich Albion home
  
• Liverpool away
  
• Stoke City home
  
• Chelsea away
  
• Manchester United home
  
• Arsenal away
  
• Fulham away
  
• Newcastle United home
  
• Blackburn Rovers away
  
• Wolverhampton Wndrs home
  

Bolton (currently on 20 points)

• Chelsea away
  
• Manchester City away
  
• Queens Park Rangers home
  
• Aston Villa away
  
• Blackburn Rovers home
  
• Wolverhampton Wndrs away
  
• Fulham home
  
• Newcastle United away
  
• Tottenham Hotspur home
  
• Swansea City home
  
• Sunderland away
  
• West Bromwich Albion home
  
• Stoke City away
  

Wolves (currently on 21 points)

• Newcastle United away
  
• Fulham away
  
• Blackburn Rovers home
  
• Manchester United home
  
• Norwich City away
  
• Bolton Wanderers home
  
• Stoke City away
  
• Arsenal home
  
• Sunderland away
  
• Manchester City home
  
• Swansea City away
  
• Everton home
  
• Wigan Athletic away
  

QPR (currently on 21 points)

• Fulham home
  
• Everton home
  
• Bolton Wanderers away
  
• Liverpool home
  
• Sunderland away
  
• Arsenal home
  
• Manchester United away
  
• Swansea City home
  
• West Bromwich Albion away
  
• Tottenham Hotspur home
  
• Chelsea away
  
• Stoke City home
  
• Manchester City away
  

Aston Villa (currently on 28 points)

• Wigan Athletic away
  
• Blackburn Rovers away
  
• Fulham home
  
• Bolton Wanderers home
  
• Arsenal away
  
• Chelsea home
  
• Liverpool away
  
• Stoke City home
  
• Manchester United away
  
• Sunderland home
  
• West Bromwich Albion away
  
• Tottenham Hotspur home
  
• Norwich City away
  

West Brom (currently on 29 points)

• Sunderland home
  
• Chelsea home
  
• Manchester United away
  
• Wigan Athletic away
  
• Newcastle United home
  
• Everton away
  
• Blackburn Rovers home
  
• Manchester City away
  
• Queens Park Rangers home
  
• Liverpool away
  
• Aston Villa home
  
• Bolton Wanderers away
  
• Arsenal home
  

[Kamy100]

Good post Krypton. I also think that 36 points will be enough this season, for me we have to win the 4 home games against Villa, Sunderland, Norwich and Wigan that will take us to 33 points, and not lose to Bolton and Wolves, even 2 draws would take us to 35 points, and hopefully we can pick up another point from one of our other games.

It is going to be tough for us to get out of this situation, particularly with a manager who is tactically "clueless" (the second half against QPR confirmed that to me), but at least we are still in there fighting, I had given up all hope after the West Brom and Bolton defeats, but my gut feeling is that with Kean incharge we won't get the required points and it'll be us, Wigan and Wolves who go down. I'd be delighted if I am proved wrong.

[47er]

Good post Krypton. I also think that 36 points will be enough this season, for me we have to win the 4 home games against Villa, Sunderland, Norwich and Wigan that will take us to 33 points, and not lose to Bolton and Wolves, even 2 draws would take us to 35 points, and hopefully we can pick up another point from one of our other games.

It is going to be tough for us to get out of this situation, particularly with a manager who is tactically "clueless" (the second half against QPR confirmed that to me), but at least we are still in there fighting, I had given up all hope after the West Brom and Bolton defeats, but my gut feeling is that with Kean incharge we won't get the required points and it'll be us, Wigan and Wolves who go down. I'd be delighted if I am proved wrong.

I see us getting 14 points from those last games giving us 35. And I'm not confident about that!

Down to the wire (again)!