Who thinks we can get out of this mess?

[OttawaSaint]

We are in a real mess but looking at the table, Man United in 7th are only 5pts ahead of us.

 

Who here thinks we can right the ship in time for when we play weaker teams that we can get the points necessary to survive relegation?

 

Who thinks we’re ****ed?

 

I think it’ll come down to whether we can overcome this drubbing and restore a bit of unity. We need to at least show some spirit in these 2 games vs City and then who knows.

[DuncanRG]

I do.

[Batman]

I think so. But if we do, only delaying the inevitable .

 

No future in this league with this owner/setup

[sadoldgit]

We are not miles adrift but it all depends on how we deal with that defeat. We can only hope that it will galvanise the squad and they dig in and show some backbone.

[Saints foreva]

Next three home games will tell us a lot - Everton, Watford and Norwich.

[nta786]

I think so. But if we do, only delaying the inevitable .

 

No future in this league with this owner/setup

 

Yep agree with this. Even Sunderland stayed up when they lost 8-0 to us

[Lighthouse]

Did anyone else used to watch the Inbetweeners?

 

There was one episode, I think at the end of the series, where Will sh*ts his pants in an exam in front of the whole school. He then walks out cheerfully and says to his mates, "things can only get better from now on. I’ve just sh*t my pants in front of the whole school, it can’t possibly get any worse than that."

 

That’s basically how I feel now. Nothing Saints do from here on can shock or upset me. I don’t know if we have the mettle to turn this around but if we do it will be a genuine pleasant surprise, rather than just relief.

[Useful Idiot]

I think it mostly depends upon whether the players care about trying to win games. It genuinely looks as if most of them genuinely don't give a toss about being humiliated on a football pitch. The majority of the group seem toxic and weak-willed with no desire to fight for the team or to hold any pride in being 'professional' sportsmen who look to push themselves to do their best.

 

Combined with a general lack of talent in the squad I think it would take a small miracle for us to turn this around.

[Whitey Grandad]

Yeah, sure, of course we can

 

One freak result doesn’t really affect our chances all that much.

[ErwinK1961]

Did anyone else used to watch the Inbetweeners?

 

There was one episode, I think at the end of the series, where Will sh*ts his pants in an exam in front of the whole school. He then walks out cheerfully and says to his mates, "things can only get better from now on. I’ve just sh*t my pants in front of the whole school, it can’t possibly get any worse than that."

 

That’s basically how I feel now. Nothing Saints do from here on can shock or upset me. I don’t know if we have the mettle to turn this around but if we do it will be a genuine pleasant surprise, rather than just relief.

 

I thought it was a fart sir, I thought it was safe.

[Patrick Bateman]

I no longer care. Saints don't represent me, nor does the premier league.

[Nordic Saint]

The bookies.

 

We are only 4th favourites for relegation behind Norwich, Watford & Newcastle. 16th or 17th is definitely achievable, like it was in 1997 when we lost 7-1 to Everton but still finished 16th. The results against the 3 favourites ahead of us in the relegation odds are going to be critical.

[Nordic Saint]

The drubbing has well and truly exposed the players. No one can justifiably have an ego after that. We are no longer sustainable which leaves Gao with 2 choices...Invest in Jan and give RH proper backing (Financially and coaching staff) or sell up. We will look back on the defeat as the best thing to happen to us. Perfect timing.

 

I used to believe in the miracle of the January transfer window but when we sign players like Carrillo, it only seems to make our problems worse. We urgently need another head of recruitment like Paul Mitchell or more money will be wasted in January.

[Red]

]The drubbing has well and truly exposed the players[/b]. No one can justifiably have an ego after that. We are no longer sustainable which leaves Gao with 2 choices...Invest in Jan and give RH proper backing (Financially and coaching staff) or sell up. We will look back on the defeat as the best thing to happen to us. Perfect timing.

 

That's a fair point - I think a 1 or 2 nil defeat would have been excused, but not this. Do have to say that whilst most of the players were utter rank, Ralph has to take a lot of blame too - why have 7 defenders in a home game? Why drop Ings who was possibly the only player who could hold his head up. Why stay with 5 at the back at 5-0 down? Could go on, but lacking the will. Two days on and the pain is getting worse - normally at this stage I would have got over it!

[OttawaSaint]

Hopefully this really brings the players together in an us against the world mentality, other players will probably be giving them stick during our subsequent games. If they have any pride they’ll get ****ing stuck in and double their effort level.

[way down south]

They donated ONE days wage so they must be ticked off. i think citeh need to watch their backs. also i see we've become the butt end of jokes from other leagues as well, how do the players and staff feel about themselves after that? it must take huge b*lls to show up infront of the fans, unless they're some mechanical beings who don't have feelings and emotions, they must be sh*tting themselves thinking about what might happen on tuesday.

[Morse]

Not a chance. We dont have good enough players, and thus we do have are spineless. See you all in the Championship for better times.

[Saints foreva]

Not a chance. We dont have good enough players, and thus we do have are spineless. See you all in the Championship for better times.

 

See Sunderland for better times. That's where we're heading under Gao.

[SNSUN]

I look at the team and defensively (and I include central midfield in that) we are devoid of much quality. You could argue McCarthy should be first choice GK but even he's far from perfect, and you could argue Cedric and Bertrand as full backs are mid-table quality. But then comes the Centre Backs, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Danso, Stephens. Are there even two half decent ones in there, let alone 3? It's no wonder we appear to be after a centre back in January, as long as it's not shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Then there's defensive midfield. Again Romeu is probably a mid-table defensive midfielder, but that's it. Why we didn't keep Reed and give him a shot this season I'll never know, we're hardly blessed with defensive midfielders.

 

I actually think our attack is half decent, especially with Djenepo to come back, although it is our complete incompetence in defence that means the likes of Boufal and Adams are being sacrificed presently. Effectively a mid-table Saints team could be:

 

McCarthy

 

Cedric

-------

-------

Bertrand

 

Romeu

--------

 

Djenepo

Boufal

Redmond

 

Ings

 

which shows the glaring absences of quality from the defence.

 

Can we turn it around? Yes we can beat teams around us at the bottom of the table, if we can sort the defence out and actually attack teams, which is our strength. But my God do we need to strengthen big time in January. Can we afford to? Well that's the question. The only 'pro' from Friday's thrashing is that it occurred fairly early into the season with a chance to change things one way or another.

[doddisalegend]

See Sunderland for better times. That's where we're heading under Gao.

I imagine the Sunderland fans enjoyed last season more than we did play off finals and a cup final seems more fun than scraping survival in the PL.

 

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[angelman]

I no longer care. Saints don't represent me, nor does the premier league.

 

I'm afraid as time goes by, I'm more and more with you on this, esp re the PL.

[Doctoroncall]

The drubbing has well and truly exposed the players. No one can justifiably have an ego after that. We are no longer sustainable which leaves Gao with 2 choices...Invest in Jan and give RH proper backing (Financially and coaching staff) or sell up. We will look back on the defeat as the best thing to happen to us. Perfect timing.

 

We used to be good at prioritising the coaching and recruitment so we could compete above our means. Unless we get back to that, it’ll be relegation.

 

Does Ralph have a good plan on how to play which the players buy into, or will there either be a compromise or a don’t pick me I can’t/will not play that way?

[qwertyell]

We've won two games - both against 10 men - which we could quite easily have lost (Brighton dominated us until their sending off, Sheffield United would have had a penalty if this weekend's version of VAR had been in play).

 

Unless we can play 8-10 more games 10 v 11, I don't see a lot of hope. We haven't looked a good team in any match this season, apart from against a League One minnow. And even they had chances.

 

Can't defend. Midfield can't pass forwards or track back. Very little quality chance creation. Throw in a feeble mentality and a squad that apparently don't give a hoot, and it all adds up to a pile of crap.

 

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[Nordic Saint]

I imagine the Sunderland fans enjoyed last season more than we did play off finals and a cup final seems more fun than scraping survival in the PL.

 

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No, they didn't. They were very unhappy that they didn't manage to get promoted and aren't any happier this season.

[Nordic Saint]

No, they didn't. They were very unhappy that they didn't manage to get promoted and aren't any happier this season.

 

Just had another look at the Sunderland messageboards and their main interest nowadays seems to be in how Newcastle are doing in the Premier League, a bit like Pompey fans with us.

[angelman]

I think so. But if we do, only delaying the inevitable .

 

No future in this league with this owner/setup

 

Have to agree that as things stand, it will just be kicking the can down the road.

[Saint_Tony]

Gone already. There's no bottle or leaders in the team, and our centre backs just aren't good enough whatever the combination.

 

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[norwaysaint]

I agree with most here. Of course we can survive, but will we survive because our problems have been meaningfully addressed, or will we survive because we patched things up, got a few lucky results or because someone was even worse than us? There's not much to celebrate if we survive and nothing has really improved.

[norwaysaint]

Just had another look at the Sunderland messageboards and their main interest nowadays seems to be in how Newcastle are doing in the Premier League, a bit like Pompey fans with us.

 

Let's not sneer at that too much though. Even at our peak in this PL run, a huge proportion of content in this forum was just obsession over Portsmouth and how they were getting on. It's our greatest compliment to them that no matter how far below us they got, they were always just as important to many of our fans.

[Nordic Saint]

Let's not sneer at that too much though. Even at our peak in this PL run, a huge proportion of content in this forum was just obsession over Portsmouth and how they were getting on. It's our greatest compliment to them that no matter how far below us they got, they were always just as important to many of our fans.

 

I'm not sneering. No club of our size wants to be outside the top flight, especially when it means they are a league or two below their local rivals. Sunderland and Portsmouth fans are understandably very unhappy about it.

[Nordic Saint]

Is Klarer any good? Can he do worse? Not v City but after that?

 

I have to own up that I was one of his biggest fans but, like all of our U23s, he seems to have lost his way lately as the U23s have suffered a series of poor results, the latest being a 3-0 defeat to Leicester. I think the malaise running through the club and the poor coaching setup affects all of our players at every level.

[tajjuk]

We haven't looked a good team in any match this season

 

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Not sure that is true, we were the better team against Utd and would have won without our sending off IMO, we were decent away to Wolves and were the better team (they had 4 shots all game), we were good against Liverpool and should have done more.

 

 

What gives me hope that we can get out of this is the following -

 

1. As mentioned above we are only 5 points off 7th, the rest of the league is a much or muchness and I don't think anyone in the bottom half (aside Spurs who have lost their way a little) is that good.

 

2. It's one game, you don't lose points for losing a game badly, it just 3 points not won, and we are nowhere near adrift.

 

3. You hope that it is the bottom point for these players, the complete kick up the behind they need AND an awakening call for board/owner, it;s probably wishful thinking but I am hoping that in future years we might look back at this game as a turning point that helped re-start our club, back the manager, get in some new scouting and coaching blood to help him, get players in that fit they style.

 

4. The fixtures, we have played Liverpool, Spurs, Wolves, Leicester, Man Utd, Chelsea, Burnley away (never an easy fixture) and are soon to play Man City.

 

We still have to play two games vs Watford, Newcastle, Everton, Norwich, Villa, West Ham, Crystal Palace and home games vs Burnley, Brighton and Sheff Utd.

 

That is plenty of winnable games if we get our crap together.

 

IIRC there was some extensive super stats prediction model for this season that had us not winning our first 6 games or something and being bottom by December but ultimately finishing 15th I think, we are actually doing slightly better than that prediction.

 

The team has not been great and that game was a massive low, but fixtures have not been kind either.

 

As I said in another thread, West Ham have 13 points, 5 more than us, however look at their games since losing 5-0 to City on the first day -

 

Brighton (A) draw

Watford (A) win

Norwich (H) win

Villa (A) draw

Man Utd (H) win

Bournemouth (A) draw

Crystal Palace (H) loss

Everton (A) loss

Sheff Utd (H) draw

 

If we'd had those 9 fixtures would we be happy with 13 pts? I am not sure we would.

 

They have only played two of the top 6 (one of which is the out of form Utd), and haven't played Leicester, played all 3 promoted sides, struggling Watford, struggling Everton.

[daveygwyatt]

Short term I think we can stay up, but it's only a matter of time unless big changes are made. Sadly I've no faith in owners or people running the club day to day to make it happen.

[tajjuk]

Also further question, has Danso actually played centre-back yet?

 

Is it not worth giving Vokins a go at left back presuming Bertrand is now banned for 3 games? He surely can't be worse than playing people out of position there?

[Saint J 77]

Unfortunately the only way I can see Southampton FC moving forward again is under new ownership. I don’t see that happening in the near future because the Chinese Ownership, Chairman Gao, the Chinese government or whoever really owns Southampton football club, will not sell us on the cheap. We are locked into a deal with a very suspect Chinese sponsorship deal for 3 years so I guess we are stuck with Gao until then. The only way we will ever move forward is allowing this seemingly inevitable downward spiral run its course. Probably ending up with us falling down the leagues again. Our value will inevitably decrease and then maybe someone who actually cares might have enough money to buy us and try to get us back up the leagues again. My real concern is that Gao might not even sell no matter how far we fall and we end up out of business. When Saints were taken over by Markus Liebherr we really did hit the jackpot of decent owners. Our rise from the ashes was helped by stability behind the scenes. It spurred the players on to great performances because they could clearly see the club was going in the right direction. When we were taken over by Gao we really lucked out. It’s sad to see all the good work undone but it’s obvious the running of the club is now effecting the team, they probably see better than anyone that the club is heading in the wrong direction again and will take something drastic to stop the rot now.

[Nordic Saint]

Can be hard to tell, depends how good his teammates are. Surprised he hasn't had a chance given how poor everyone is though. But then Danso only got to play LB didn't he.

 

I just don't understand the playing 3 CBs when we don't even have 2 good ones. We have 1 potentially alright one in Bednarek and that's it.

 

True. Klarer is still only 19. What I've noticed with a few of our Academy players is that their form often suffers because of physical development changes they are going through. He looked confident, composed, strong and athletic until this season but lately he's looked a bit Bambi like. That could just be because he is developing physically but being in a poor team can't help. Danso is 2 years older than him and still a lot of people think he isn't ready yet to figure in our central defence.

 

As for Bednarek, would he have got in the team, when we had Fonte, van Dijk, Alderweireld or Lovren? He may be the best of a very poor bunch but ideally we should be looking for better.

[ALWAYS_SFC]

Not sure but obviously I hope so

[oldsaint]

as usual the same old suspect stating its not as bad as it seem . Rubbish every team needs leaders and structure poor players in a well organised system look good ,

good players in a poor system look poor. RH is not capable of setting out a system that allows our limited squad a chance to compete and stay compact in a game.

He has had more than enough time to show his management ability and I am afraid it not looking good. What are you all expecting is going to happen we lost 9-0 the worse defeat in Premier history against Leicester not Liverpool ,Man U or City .A decent manager should be able to setup a side to defend and attack and compete if you do not want more of the Friday night experience man up and face the facts , unless drastic changes are made soon we are in for a long disappointing season.

Stop fantasising things will get better (WHY SHOULD THEY) if no changes are made maybe .Concentrate on a balance team with a system that allows the players to compete we will not beat the better teams but may win a few against equal quality sides. Stop defending as a priority as we do not have the quality of player to achieve a shut out and lets scores some goals for a change and get us supporters some cheer

[Jack]

I just don't think we've got the minerals. As mentioned above, our 2 wins were against 10 men and still not convincing by any means. At the start of the season people were pointing at giving Liverpool a game and drawing against United, but it's still a case of losing when we should draw and drawing when we should win. Every side that comes to SMS is going to see us as weak and have a go, and we haven't got it in us to overcome that. Just no fight or bottle.

[S-Clarke]

Losing 0-9 just tells me that our squad isn't good enough for this level, that's been the case for the last couple of years really. Relegation is inevenitable without serious, serious, serious investment and movement in this squad - that won't happen, so relegation it is.

[Toussaint]

I think we have had it, I've never thought that is the past, even when it looked completely hopeless as I always thought we had enough to pull ourselves out. We always had team spirit and the collective Saints spirit, that has all evaporated. I can't see a redeeming feature in our current set up. I said it after the Chelsea game, I feel it more so now.

[Gordon Mockles]

I can't see it. Who we will attract in January? This should have all been sorted out in pre-season. Not left to the last min and a panic loan brought in. Unbearable negligence.

 

How many times can the club go back on it's word also? This season was when Ralph was meant to build the squad he wanted. Instead, our main defensive signing, Danso (who should walk straight into the lineup if he was an improvement to the squad) rarely starts and then not in his favoured position. It begs the question, why sign him? Was this the extent of the fabled rebuilding? Will the club keep blaming Reed for Gao's chronic lack of under-investment?!

 

Then we have the Telegraph article saying what the Echo said 12 months ago about appointing a DOF. Media pacifying as happens continually yet nothing ever happens to prove the words and promises genuine. More hollow words. When will people judge this dynasty by their actions? We will die nasty if things continue and I fear we have already gone too far. We will struggle to attract players of any worth in Jan IF we delve in the market. Gao will likely not invest and his model of self-sustaining is unsuitable. Unless he realises the loss (150 million) he may face from the lack of television revenue, etc.

 

Bit late to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted mind!!

[hypochondriac]

I don't think anyone would be surprised if we go down now. The only upside is we didn't go down last year so we had an extra year to get some of these idiots off the wage bill.

[Micky]

Yep. Really don't think we're in that much of a mess, Ralph just needs to quickly realise who he can rely on and who he needs to set aside.

 

Attack wise he needs to show faith in Boufal and get Djenepo back, then it should be fairly exciting. Defence wise, well he was left in a mess by previous management.

 

The only real hope is Bednarek with a new signing in a back 4, and let them play together. Messing around with back 4s and 5s is making it worse. I've never seen a really good defence that wasn't the same set up each week.

 

I don't rate McCarthy much but he needs to play until Gunn improves too. And JWP needs dropping. I like him, but he's one of those players who needs the team to be on half decent form. He goes missing too much.

 

McCarthy

Cedric SIGNING Bednarek Bertrand

Romeu Højbjerg

Djenepo Boufal

Ings Redmond

 

Stick to the same formation. It's quite attacking, we'll get overrun in some games, it relies on our CMs playing well, but it at least gets our best players on the pitch and gets us scoring goals. Personally I'd love to give Wanyama a shot at reviving his career. We need someone like that and he's still not old. But I doubt we will. If Romeu and Hojberg keep fcking up play Slattery.

 

Either way, points wise it's not dire. We've played some really good teams at home and there are plenty of winnable fixtures left. There's also a lot of very average sides in the league. Think Ralph needs to learn from it, keep us up and then ship out more people and hopefully have some funds for next summer.

 

Keeper signing important IMO, Not a position to play a youngster unless they're exceptional. Gunn is fine as back up and learning, but we need a reliable keeper. That isn't McCarthy.

 

This is pretty much a fair and balanced view and I'm hoping that you are correct. I think it all depends now on how much the players confidence has been damaged, 0 - 9 is one hell of a "you are shyte" statement and very hard to shrug off. Also agree with Batman though, unless we address this situation properly (either in Jan or at the end of the season), in the long term, we are only going one way.

[WALK DMC]

We have two issues:

 

1) Short Term - The first ambition has to be staying up this season. I'm assuming that we can't get any quality renforcements in January, as we don't have loads of spare cash and it is notoriously difficult in that transfer window. Regardless, I think that while it is difficult, we can turn it around enough to get to 17th or above. But I wouldn't put a lot of money on it.

 

2) Longer term - so we survive, but what then ? I think we need two centre halfs plus a midfielder with some mobility/pace and leadership capabilities at a minimum to get further up the table. Will we be able to sell any of the usual suspects for decent cash ? e.g. Hoedt/Carrillo/Lemina/Forster etc. The answer is we've already tried and the answer is almost certainly No. We have three senior players whose contract expires in 2020 - Long, Yoshida & Cedric. While that will free up some of the wage bill, we'll probably need to replace Cedric with cash so the savings will be limited.

 

In summary, even if Ralph works miracles and keeps us up we still have long term structural problems which will either take another 2-3 years to resolve and/or an injection of capital (which under current ownership is unlikely). This is more concerning than the fact that we don't currently have a single premiership quality centre-half (Unlike some here, I'm not a fan of Bednarek who is very slow and has very variable distribution).

 

We're in big trouble for a few years. I think Ralph knows this, but what to do ........

[sadoldgit]

I can't see it. Who we will attract in January? This should have all been sorted out in pre-season. Not left to the last min and a panic loan brought in. Unbearable negligence.

 

How many times can the club go back on it's word also? This season was when Ralph was meant to build the squad he wanted. Instead, our main defensive signing, Danso (who should walk straight into the lineup if he was an improvement to the squad) rarely starts and then not in his favoured position. It begs the question, why sign him? Was this the extent of the fabled rebuilding? Will the club keep blaming Reed for Gao's chronic lack of under-investment?!

 

Then we have the Telegraph article saying what the Echo said 12 months ago about appointing a DOF. Media pacifying as happens continually yet nothing ever happens to prove the words and promises genuine. More hollow words. When will people judge this dynasty by their actions? We will die nasty if things continue and I fear we have already gone too far. We will struggle to attract players of any worth in Jan IF we delve in the market. Gao will likely not invest and his model of self-sustaining is unsuitable. Unless he realises the loss (150 million) he may face from the lack of television revenue, etc.

 

Bit late to shut the barn door after the horse has bolted mind!!

 

Did the club go back on its word? We were told several times of the need to sell in order to buy. Our issue over the summer was the problem we had in offloading a number of players and how long that took.

[ally_uk]

Can only see relegation myself whole club needs a overhaul..Anyone players wise who isn't commited needs to be sold same as the players who are continuously offering nothing.

 

Coaches need to be brought in and we need to ditch Kelvin Davis I think he sides with the players and adds to the toxicity....plus as a coach he is crap look at our goalkeepers.....

 

Bertrand hasn't offered anything for the last few seasons always looks.miserable when I see him sell!

 

Redmond,Ings,Djenpo, Boufal, Romeu, Adams, McCarthy, Bednerek.

 

For me are the future the rest I couldn't care less about they offer nothing... Demote players to U23 sell the rest and change the transfer policy to allow experienced incomings.

[qwertyell]

Also further question, has Danso actually played centre-back yet?

 

Is it not worth giving Vokins a go at left back presuming Bertrand is now banned for 3 games? He surely can't be worse than playing people out of position there?

Away to Fulham in the league cup (won 1-0). It was during the period where Hasenhuttl was playing left back lucky dip - Danso was LB the game before, but against Fulham, bizarrely, it was Hojbjerg's turn.

 

Danso also got moved into a back three briefly during the Bournemouth game, where he was having a nightmare at RB.

 

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[bpsaint]

The only way I see us getting out of it this year is if by some miracle we manage to bring in AT LEAST 6 players in the January window that have Premier League experience, and are players we don’t only bring in with one eye on what profit they can return.

 

Couple that with limping along and getting enough points to remain in touching distance of the team in 17th between now and January, then maybe, just maybe we’ll have a chance.

[Rory Peepa]

Not sure that is true, we were the better team against Utd and would have won without our sending off IMO, we were decent away to Wolves and were the better team (they had 4 shots all game), we were good against Liverpool and should have done more.

 

 

What gives me hope that we can get out of this is the following -

 

1. As mentioned above we are only 5 points off 7th, the rest of the league is a much or muchness and I don't think anyone in the bottom half (aside Spurs who have lost their way a little) is that good.

 

2. It's one game, you don't lose points for losing a game badly, it just 3 points not won, and we are nowhere near adrift.

 

3. You hope that it is the bottom point for these players, the complete kick up the behind they need AND an awakening call for board/owner, it;s probably wishful thinking but I am hoping that in future years we might look back at this game as a turning point that helped re-start our club, back the manager, get in some new scouting and coaching blood to help him, get players in that fit they style.

 

4. The fixtures, we have played Liverpool, Spurs, Wolves, Leicester, Man Utd, Chelsea, Burnley away (never an easy fixture) and are soon to play Man City.

 

We still have to play two games vs Watford, Newcastle, Everton, Norwich, Villa, West Ham, Crystal Palace and home games vs Burnley, Brighton and Sheff Utd.

 

That is plenty of winnable games if we get our crap together.

 

IIRC there was some extensive super stats prediction model for this season that had us not winning our first 6 games or something and being bottom by December but ultimately finishing 15th I think, we are actually doing slightly better than that prediction.

 

The team has not been great and that game was a massive low, but fixtures have not been kind either.

 

As I said in another thread, West Ham have 13 points, 5 more than us, however look at their games since losing 5-0 to City on the first day -

 

Brighton (A) draw

Watford (A) win

Norwich (H) win

Villa (A) draw

Man Utd (H) win

Bournemouth (A) draw

Crystal Palace (H) loss

Everton (A) loss

Sheff Utd (H) draw

 

If we'd had those 9 fixtures would we be happy with 13 pts? I am not sure we would.

 

They have only played two of the top 6 (one of which is the out of form Utd), and haven't played Leicester, played all 3 promoted sides, struggling Watford, struggling Everton.

 

You make some very good points here and there is a sense of calm to your post. I don’t think we’d be happy with 13 points from WHU’s fixtures either. However i think we’d have fewer. They ain’t great but they’re better than us. Agree completely that the next home games are key. November 30th on looks doable but no easy games in this league. Well, apart from playing is at home

 

 

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