PL place target for the rest of the season

[BlueToff]

Those sides probably won't have anywhere near the same spending power come January though. One thing BFS can do is get a decent centre half in usually and organise a defence. He does that with us and we will be fine. Don't forget we are averaging 2 goals a game being conceded which is pathetic and can be rectified quite easily by someone like BFS as he has done it with far worse squads and budgets than he has at his disposal here.

Which is exactly why I see the sense in the Big Sam appointment mate, even though it should never have come to this.

Sort our defence out, I do think we'll be fine. I'm not doom-mongering, but we aren't exactly sitting pretty either.

 

[flibbyflob]

I don't think any of those teams are in a "far" worse position and I wouldn't want to risk premiership survival on that.

Palace, West Ham and Swansea aren't in a worse position?

Are you on drugs? They would rip your arm off for the 15 points we have already and despite being terrible we have 7 points in our last 4 games and have a side visiting us at the weekend who have lost their last 3 games and who haven't scored a goal away from home since the opening day of the season.

Just because we have got in a manager that not many people wanted the doom merchants are having a field day. Yes we have been crap this season but the shithouses put a shift in last night, do that often enough and we will climb away from danger in no time as the league is very poor.

 

[Barnfred 55]

And yet only 8 out of the 20 teams in the league have scored more goals than us. Why? Because we're better than most of the teams in this league, as I've been saying for ages. We've been playing like a drain but still beating teams, because despite what loads of people want you to believe, we have better players.

Which is exactly why we didn't need the knee jerk decision to appoint Allardyce and co.

God I'm in danger of doing a @Davek here. Now I understand how it was for you with Koeman

 

[TraffordBlue]

Immediate concern is staying up. After that we should be targeting 8th realistically as I can't see us catching Burnley up with the points gap even if we do turn things around, and with us being unable to strengthen in January.

12th-8th I voted.

 

[Lanolin]

But your post kind of implied that we'd been doing it regularly. We haven't. That was my point.

We haven't won any of our Euro group games.

We've won four PL games.

Our form has not been of a mid-table side. Had we lost last night, we were in the bottom three.

Fortunately we won.

I'm sorry. There's some serious revisionism going on here.

We are five points above 18th. I purely want us to get a solid defensive structure to build from, because as you say we have got quality players in attack.

However, conceding 20 goals in our last eight games (since Koeman was sacked) is dreadful.

Care to explain why we're in midtable then mate? I'll wait.

 

[TraffordBlue]

that’s because of the manager we’ve just employed

So nothing to do with the negligent transfer window involving Koeman, Walsh and Moshiri? Nothing to do with Koeman or Unsworth playing unbalanced sides or the players being spineless? The managers making so many poor decisions costing us even a chance of getting results in games which is why we're out of Europe, our of the League Cup and our season is over barring our aim of staying in the league?

Yeah, all down to the manager we've just employed.

 

[degsy]

Erm, 1 game at a time lids
Lets not get carried away - one way or another

 

[TraffordBlue]

And yet only 8 out of the 20 teams in the league have scored more goals than us. Why? Because we're better than most of the teams in this league, as I've been saying for ages. We've been playing like a drain but still beating teams, because despite what loads of people want you to believe, we have better players.

We're not though. One win against a pathetic West Ham side and loads are suddenly getting way ahead of themselves, deluding themselves that we're on the right path and will just start returning to winning ways regularly soon. We've just been absolutely destroyed by 2 average to awful teams in Atalanta and Southampton. Have you just chosen to ignore our defence? We have no left back cover until January either and an ageing defence that more teams will ruthlessly punish over December. We look vulnerable defending every set piece against any sort of tall physical opposition and any counter attack could result in a goal. Pickford has to bail us out 2-3 times minimum a game just to keep the score down half the time.

Have you missed our relegation form away record? We cannot win away it's as simple as that. We have 4 away games in December and I can see us failing to win any of them.

It's not all doom and gloom, and i'm not being pessimistic for the sake of it either, just judging us on the reality. We should improve in January and when some players return but it's not all going to fall in to place. 8th would be a great achievement from the position we're in and I don't expect us to get it to be honest but may revise that opinion after the transfer window.

 

[flibbyflob]

Erm, 1 game at a time lids
Lets not get carried away - one way or another

I am not carried away at all, just seen us put in lots of desperate performances to get a 2nd manager the sack within a couple of years and then as soon as we get a new manager the shithouses actually try for a change. This squad is rotten but they have ability when they want to and I think for a time like we saw last season they will actually show that and we will pull clear of trouble and move up the league.

What happens to the squad after that is huge but for another day.

 

[COYBL25]

There's no way for this season to be "acceptable" now

We just need to get it over with and retain our Premiership status, with big axes getting wielded in the summer in the playing squad, coaching staff and boardroom

This.

It's been nothing short of a disaster so far.

Finish as high up as we can, hopefully a run in the FA cup and then start building again in the Summer.

Also put Kenwright and Elstone out to grass in the process.

 

[JLW]

So nothing to do with the negligent transfer window involving Koeman, Walsh and Moshiri? Nothing to do with Koeman or Unsworth playing unbalanced sides or the players being spineless? The managers making so many poor decisions costing us even a chance of getting results in games which is why we're out of Europe, our of the League Cup and our season is over barring our aim of staying in the league?

Yeah, all down to the manager we've just employed.

It is down to the all the above you’ve stated of course it is! What I’m saying is Allardyce won’t push us on, because simply he’s not a very good manager and his stats prove it

 

[Yarrgh]

Top/ Sky 6 are too strong to allow us to make up the points dropped. We can overtake everyone else if we are set up to have a solid rugged defence and develop an effective attack which doesn't compromise that defence. 7th is possible, probably difficult if someone above us keeps on having good results, but readily achievable. 7th is therefore acceptable. If any of that top 6 implodes though, we need to be there like vultures to pick on their bones and get into Europe.

9th would be my bare bones minimum requirement however, and there'd have to be some hefty mitigation if we finished any lower for our new manager still be in a job come September 2018.

 

[BlueToff]

Care to explain why we're in midtable then mate? I'll wait.

Because we managed to beat an awful West Ham side and rise three places, due to the sides around us not winning.

We fail to beat Huddersfield on Saturday and the teams below/around us pick up even one or two points, and we're back to 16th.

It's that close.

Any of the teams from Leicester downwards are currently in danger.

 

[Lanolin]

We're not though. One win against a pathetic West Ham side and loads are suddenly getting way ahead of themselves, deluding themselves that we're on the right path and will just start returning to winning ways regularly soon. We've just been absolutely destroyed by 2 average to awful teams in Atalanta and Southampton. Have you just chosen to ignore our defence? We have no left back cover until January either and an ageing defence that more teams will ruthlessly punish over December. We look vulnerable defending every set piece against any sort of tall physical opposition and any counter attack could result in a goal. Pickford has to bail us out 2-3 times minimum a game just to keep the score down half the time.

Have you missed our relegation form away record? We cannot win away it's as simple as that. We have 4 away games in December and I can see us failing to win any of them.

It's not all doom and gloom, and i'm not being pessimistic for the sake of it either, just judging us on the reality. We should improve in January and when some players return but it's not all going to fall in to place. 8th would be a great achievement from the position we're in and I don't expect us to get it to be honest but may revise that opinion after the transfer window.

I'm not ignoring anything, and I'm not getting carried away by anything. I'm getting a bit fed up of this to be honest, any hint of positivity and people have to jump on you to remind you that we're awful.

I know we are not a great side, I've been saying it for ages, long before many of the people on here were, and in fact I was getting called a bedwetter for most of the summer because I kept pointing out that we had some major issues in the side which needed addressing. Suddenly, the same people who kept calling me a bedwetter are telling me we're horrific and are going down. Meanwhile, my stance hasn't changed, we're a side which could finish 7th/8th, but as you rightly say our away form has remained very poor, so we may struggle to do that and so 9th might be more like it.

The post you've replied to was in response to someone saying our attack is awful. I think it's pretty pertinent to point out that it's actually better than most of our competitors don't you? Somebody yesterday was adamantly telling me that Palace have a better attack than us - they were really quite insistent on it - and yet they've scored less than half as many goals. Now I've got somebody telling me our form isn't that of a midtable side, when we're 13th in the table and 9th in the form table. Weird that isn't it? Almost as if people aren't actually dealing in facts, just doing a load of woe is me hand wringing about how we're doomed without actually taking any notice of what's in front of them.

 

[BlueToff]

It is down to the all the above you’ve stated of course it is! What I’m saying is Allardyce won’t push us on, because simply he’s not a very good manager and his stats prove it

Well, there's huge debate about that.

Whatever he managed to mess it up with, he didn't get the England job for been rubbish.

Is he a great manager? No. Is he good at certain aspects - including setting up a team to defend in an organised way and building from there? Certainly.

And that's exactly what this team needs.

Now, Allardyce isn't the only manager who can do that. Definitely not.

But, because our search went on for so long and was so hap-hazard - which is the issue - he's ended up as the only feasible option.