PL place target for the rest of the season

[Furey1878]

7th could well still be on the cards, think we've been too bad thus far though, and no doubt will have more tough periods throughout the season. I reckon we'll finish around 9th.

 

[Baines' left foot]

Top 7 with this squad minimum. Around 50 points would have got it last season and see no reason we can't get more than that.

Why minimum 7th? Our squad is infinitely worse than any of the current top 6. We’re so far behind it’s embarrassing.

 

[Black Belt Jones]

Its 7th for me. The reality is as bad as the start was, with the current players we have, and a January window to get a CB, LB, and a genuine striker, there is enough talent on this team. 1 win this weekend potentially vaults us to 9th-10th. While there still likely leave us 8 points behind 7th, 8 points with decent managing can be made up over 23 matches.

Think that's very optimistic but I guess not wildly so - those statistics are not unreasonable. Just can't square it with this team of whoppers who have done everything wrong, suddenly starting to do most things right. Shipping goals like they are flat out going out of style - I expect Allardyce to sort this but it will take time.

End of the day there are a lot of ordinary sides in the premiership, so out-competing the bottom 13 teams doesn't take miracles.

 

[Agent Blue]

I'm so looking forward to the window. See the back of some of the cowardly beauts who've let everyone down so badly and got us in this mess
Give them away, pay clubs to take them, I don't care, it's not my dosh.

Now that's a target.

This.
Those 'professionals' that downed tools at a time when the club needed them to dig deep should be first out of the door in January.
Sniderlin, Mirallas, Baines, Williams.
Klaasen just too lightweight for prem.
Jagielka should be binned for being anonymous when we badly needed our captain to grow a pair of balls he seemed to just stand back and say nothing.
Getting these people out of the club is just as important as getting new ones in.

 

[davek]

What he did with Bolton was an achievement alone.
He's a solid manager.
He's not who I wanted at our club. He's not who should have got the job.

But we got ourselves in a position - both on and off the pitch - where he quickly became the only option.

It's just delusional to think otherwise.

It's a crap position to be in and one we should never have been in. But we are, and we're still in it. Hopefully, come Christmas, we're safely clear and can start to look up, instead of down.

Read that back to yourself mate. You;re saying that this club can only survive as a PL outfit with Sam Allardyce as manager.

The feller who's just stepped down as caretaker got us 5 places up the league. No one would hand the reins to Unsworth though.

Allardyce's face last night said it all: you could almost read what was passing through his mind: "WTF do this lot want me here for?".

 

[NCLBlue]

I think it's always going to be a poor season finishing below 7th regardless of the start we have had. We are 13th and have been dross all season.

I would be satisfied with at least a cup run and a top half finish providing we show significant improvement.

Would be ecstatic if we were to finish top 7, good cup run, keep Ross, good derby showings and make some good additions in January and bring the excitement back. Don't want to end up just avoiding the drop and still getting battered off top 6 clubs.

 

[ClausThomsen]

12-8

There's a lot of fairly poor sides in the Premier League and we should be looking to be above the majority of them and improving on the current position. Getting 7th is an outside possibility but it's as much down to other teams sliding as it is us getting back on track.

The loading of the poll with comments such as (last season's level) is way off the mark as last seasons manager started on the same points as every other team in the league, had 38 full games, transfer window and wasn't picking up the pieces of a terrible opening 14 games of the season.

 

[ProZ]

Top 8 will be sound with me. We are not getting a cup.

 

[BlueToff]

Read that back to yourself mate. You;re saying that this club can only survive as a PL outfit with Sam Allardyce as manager.

The feller who's just stepped down as caretaker got us 5 places up the league. No one would hand the reins to Unsworth though.

Allardyce's face last night said it all: you could almost read what was passing through his mind: "WTF do this lot want me here for?".

No, you've put words in my mouth.

I mean what I said.

We needed a manager. That much was clear. Unsworth didn't have a great audition. We lost five of his eight games in charge, and while that was by far all of his fault, but I won't brush over it and pretend it didn't happen. He made some mistakes but the squad was shown once again to be full of craphouses, in the main. And off-the-field matters didn't help.

We needed a manager who could organise us and stop us conceded an average of two-goals per-league game. That wasn't Unsy.

What we did long was leave it so late and let it go on for so long that our only realistic option quickly became Big Sam.

That's what I said.

I didn't say he's our only hope of survival, but you can't tell me that Unsworth would have given us a better chance. He wouldn't.

 

[Abertonian]

There's a fresh start to the season starting from today. We stand at 13th. There are 24 games to be played - so just under 2/3rds of the season left.

We find ourselves still with a squad who have underperformed, but who have somehow in the last 5 games dragged us 5 places up the table.

Confidence has been rocked and we're still shaky, and we have tough games to come. But we have a few players on the verge of a return to first team action and we have a chance in the January window to add an attacker and defenders to the squad.

What should be our PL target this season?

8 to 10th and a decent run (QTRs or later) in the FA Cup.

 

[ProZ]

If he wants the job next year. 60 points.

To be honest mate I think top 7 and a derby double would do it.

 

[bluestevon]

There's a fresh start to the season starting from today. We stand at 13th. There are 24 games to be played - so just under 2/3rds of the season left.

We find ourselves still with a squad who have underperformed, but who have somehow in the last 5 games dragged us 5 places up the table.

Confidence has been rocked and we're still shaky, and we have tough games to come. But we have a few players on the verge of a return to first team action and we have a chance in the January window to add an attacker and defenders to the squad.

What should be our PL target this season?

7th this season mate, and the FA Cup - that should be the target we aim for anyway

 

[davek]

No, you've put words in my mouth.

I mean what I said.

We needed a manager. That much was clear. Unsworth didn't have a great audition. We lost five of his eight games in charge, and while that was by far all of his fault, but I won't brush over it and pretend it didn't happen. He made some mistakes but the squad was shown once again to be full of craphouses, in the main. And off-the-field matters didn't help.

We needed a manager who could organise us and stop us conceded an average of two-goals per-league game. That wasn't Unsy.

What we did long was leave it so late and let it go on for so long that our only realistic option quickly became Big Sam.

That's what I said.

I didn't say he's our only hope of survival, but you can't tell me that Unsworth would have given us a better chance. He wouldn't.

Unsworth lost two of the 5 PL games. They were the only games he was being auditioned on. Allardyce wont be judged by our board if we go out of the FA Cup early, so let's not pretend the EL was anything other than a hindrance to DU.

We needed a manager who can set up a back four. Allardyce - believe it or not - isn't the only manager in world football capable of doing that.

You'd be on foirmer ground if you stated that Allardyce provides a big front that shields the players. He takes all the pressure on himself and presents a point gained here and there as major steps forward and generally gets an air of positivity about the place.

He's a dog of a manager though.

Hopefully being here will inspire him to something better.,

 

[Eggs]

...I think @davek is laying the foundation to think anything less than top half will be unacceptable. He is basing that on the assumption that Unsworth got us to 13th so this is at least where we’d finish if change wasn’t made. I would beg to differ, indeed I think there’s an argument that last night’s performance was on the back of Allardyce’s appointment. Had that not happened, I have my doubts last night would’ve happened.

I was seeing nothing to suggest Unsworth was turning our season around. Sunday was as bad as it gets.

 

[davek]

8 to 10th and a decent run (QTRs or later) in the FA Cup.

I'd accept that.