after ten years in the prem we are relying on three teams being worse than us!!

This was once a quality forum....

Wet Spam, Southampton Everton all on a longer run in the Prem than us - it’s just part of life if you’re not living in billionaires row. Every so often you get it right as Brentford Fulham Brighton are this season - and we have a few times over the last ten years - but that won’t last.

Spot on

“This is a crisis, a large crisis.... in fact if you have a moment, it’s a 12 storey crisis, magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24 hour portage , and an enormous sign on the roof saying “This , is a large crisis” - Edmund Blackadder

We lack identity as a team and it’s unclear what we are trying to achieve.
Under Pulis we were very competitive , trying to win individual battles around the field, keeping it tight and looking to threaten on set pieces.
Under Allardyce we were direct, trying to hit Benteke as quickly as possible and getting Zaha and Townsend close to him to threaten the opposition.
Under Hodgson we blocked the spaces, defended deep and looked to counter attack when opportunities presented themselves.

In each case, whether you agreed with the tactics or not, you could understand the objectives and purpose.

I’m not clear what we are trying to achieve presently and suggest the team lack a clear identity.
There is vague talk about playing ‘between the lines’ and we often retain possession, but to my eyes with often little purpose.
We are providing little threat to the opposition so our approach is clearly ineffective,at least in an attacking sense.
We no longer have the pace in the team to offer a viable counterattacking threat and we longer have the competitive warrior spirit of the past.
With this in mind I would question whether the current squad has either the identity or the stomach for a relegation battle.
My hope is that we’ll somehow muster the three or so wins and a few draws to escape, but if we do fall into the bottom 3 in the next few weeks I can’t help question if we would have the fight to climb out.

We’re reaping what we’ve sewn.

We have a 4th choice manager, we have a chairman and DOF that have winged it for years and got away with it. We will whimper out of the division with our tail between our legs…and that is exactly what we deserve tbh. I just hope the stay back in the championship isn’t 10 years like last time, but this current team won’t get us out very quickly…actually maybe it would but it would be league one ala Charlton.

I've just done the stats on the new 9 team relegation group. Games V each other. It's quite interesting in that we are top having played the least games. Backs up the fact that we have played nearly all of the top teams already and that this mini league will be what matters.

............P........Pts....Pts/game
Palace......8.........16.......2
Leicester...10........16.......1.6
Wolves......11........16.......1.45
Everton.....12........15.......1.25
Forest......12........15.......1.25
Bourne......10........14.......1.4
West ham....11........14.......1.27
Leeds.......10........12.......1.2
South.......12........11.......0.92

It is a double edge sword for between teams in this mini league. A win and its all smiles. A draw if you are above the team you play again smiles not so if you are the team below. A defeat and its a very sad face.

Southampton, Everton and forest only have 4 mini league games to play whilst we have 8.

5 of our mini league games are at home. We could play as bad as Leeds have and still get the required points.