Anyone starting to look nervously at the table?

[Toussaint]

1 minute ago, Trout-Tickler said:

Our trip to Anfield in May should be a nailed on away win given their form!

Regardless of their defensive absentees you’d think Liverpool would still have the ability to outscore teams given the players they have. Not sure what’s gone so badly wrong there.

[BotleySaint]

1 minute ago, Toussaint said:

Regardless of their defensive absentees you’d think Liverpool would still have the ability to outscore teams given the players they have. Not sure what’s gone so badly wrong there.

The players believed their own hype. No appetite for more success. 

[CB Fry]

18 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

I'm not saying we should be terrified of relegation, i'm just saying that maybe after 1 win in 10 games we shouldnt be getting cocky and smug about things. 

It's not cocky and smug to say we are not going to get relegated. It was obvious we wouldn't be.

What is absolutely insane on this forum is the swooning and drooling over Fulham who have now won four whole matches this season.

Lets fucking see next season if we are on 23 points after 27 games, and in the bottom three all season how many of this forum's Fulham megafan club have the same faith and belief in us.

Clue: they won't.

[Victor]

4 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

Regardless of their defensive absentees you’d think Liverpool would still have the ability to outscore teams given the players they have. Not sure what’s gone so badly wrong there.

Clear to see what's gone wrong, it's why has it gone wrong.  Who cares? It is simply a joy to behold.

[nta786]

33 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

Even if Fulham managed a 7 point swing, Brighton and Newcastle are shit. It would require all 3 of those clubs to overtake us for us to go down.

We should be looking towards the only 2 points that separates us from 11th place rather than below us.

I wouldn’t say shit that’s being harsh- let’s not forget we failed to beat 9-man Newcastle not so long ago. 

I agree though with our first 11 fit we should be definitely looking upwards but maintaining some humility would be good. We play Brighton next week and I don’t think the result is a foregone conclusion at all.

[BallBoy]

I think the odds on us going down are still slim. Too many poor teams have to do worse than us and I do think we have started to turn the corner.

Nevertheless, the Fulham result today still feels like a real kick in the guts.

[jawillwill]

I don't think we'll go down. In fact I'm almost certain any talk of potential relegation will be ridiculous this time next month.

Having said that, I don't think we are out of the woods just yet. It's not that unlikely that after the next round of matches we'll only be 4-5 points above the drop zone and the game against Brighton is hugely important. It's not exactly insurmountable and I don't really get when some people think it's so crazy to point that out given there's still 11 games left to play.

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, BallBoy said:

Nevertheless, the Fulham result today still feels like a real kick in the guts.

An extreme reaction to a team that was 10 (now 7 points) behind us.

[Lighthouse]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

Indeed, we're still only 7 points ahead with Fulham winning today, it's only a 3 game swing. 

That one win moves us 2 points further away from Burnley and Newcastle and 3 further ahead of Brighton. It’ll take 2/3 games for all of them to get back to where they were before yesterday, relative to Saints. ALL FOUR of them need to suddenly become much better and games are fast running out.

 

We need one win, one draw and nine defeats from our remaining 11 fixtures to basically guarantee survival. Even Saints will achieve that.

[sfc4prem]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

That one win moves us 2 points further away from Burnley and Newcastle and 3 further ahead of Brighton. It’ll take 2/3 games for all of them to get back to where they were before yesterday, relative to Saints. ALL FOUR of them need to suddenly become much better and games are fast running out.

 

We need one win, one draw and nine defeats from our remaining 11 fixtures to basically guarantee survival. Even Saints will achieve that.

Its exactly this, isn't it. We have the ability to get much more than the bare minimum needed to stay up, even considering how threadbare our squad is after a couple of injuries.

[saints-cris]

Can see why some would be casting a small look over the shoulder, but facts are we have the points on the board.

 

We’ve got 33 points with 11 games to go. We could quite literally repeat the same form we have over the last 10 games (which would be beyond unlikely) and still get to 37/38 points.

Not worried. 

 

[bpsaint]

Think people are being harsh on Fulham and slightly patronising basing their form over the season. The form table for the last 6 games paints a very different picture of them and it really wouldn’t have been bedwetting to say with our recent form coupled with a match against Fulham to go could have easily seen them catch us.

Nothing surprises me any more as a Saints fan, I’m concerned that a Brighton side who have been so so unlucky in front of goal recently might finally click next weekend and give us something to worry about.

[JRM]

1 hour ago, bpsaint said:

Think people are being harsh on Fulham and slightly patronising basing their form over the season. The form table for the last 6 games paints a very different picture of them and it really wouldn’t have been bedwetting to say with our recent form coupled with a match against Fulham to go could have easily seen them catch us.

Nothing surprises me any more as a Saints fan, I’m concerned that a Brighton side who have been so so unlucky in front of goal recently might finally click next weekend and give us something to worry about.

Never mind the last 6, if you took the last 19 games I'm pretty confident they'd be a good few points above us. 

The team I think will go are Newcastle, poor run, injuries, manager bust ups, but they did beat us so might be able to scrap a couple more wins. 

Brighton baffle me, they seem to play well and miss a ton of chances every game. 

[Teddeer]

2 hours ago, Toussaint said:

Regardless of their defensive absentees you’d think Liverpool would still have the ability to outscore teams given the players they have. Not sure what’s gone so badly wrong there.

Today was a very good time to play Liverpool at Anfield especially with the side Klopp selected.

[Give it to Ron]

1 point behind Palace and we have them at home

[InvictaSaint]

[austsaint]

6 hours ago, CB Fry said:

It's not cocky and smug to say we are not going to get relegated. It was obvious we wouldn't be.

What is absolutely insane on this forum is the swooning and drooling over Fulham who have now won four whole matches this season.

Lets fucking see next season if we are on 23 points after 27 games, and in the bottom three all season how many of this forum's Fulham megafan club have the same faith and belief in us.

Clue: they won't.

I think you're missing the point some people are making.    No one's drooling over Fulham, and not many are fearing relegation, just that in the last 9 games or so, they are one of the Clubs who are in better form and playing a better style of Football than SFC.    That of itself is fairly deflating, given the early season form and results.

[Heisenberg]

So 10 games left...

Our last 10 has seen us L8 D1 W1 (4 points)

Worst case we repeat this horrendous form and end season on 37 points.

 

[Sunglasses Ron]

Still looking very unlikely to go down, but only point of caution is that our gap from the bottom three has eroded from 19 points after Liverpool at home to 7 now. But with our favorable fixtures, and some tough ones for the likes of Newcastle, you'd have to say we're in close thread territory.

[VectisSaint]

Noted in interview before the Citeh match (Tuesday?) that Ralph said that we were in a relegation fight and that Fulham were looking good (words to that effect). So to return to the original post, Ralph is certainly looking nervously over his shoulder. I am confident we won't get relegated, but anyone who isn't aware of the possibility that it could happen is just bullshitting or dense. I don't think one or two of our hard of thinking posters actually understand the difference between being aware of the possibility and thinking we will be relegated, from past experience some certainly don't have any understanding of "what if" and can only deal with facts and hard evidence.

[Lighthouse]

3 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

Noted in interview before the Citeh match (Tuesday?) that Ralph said that we were in a relegation fight and that Fulham were looking good (words to that effect). So to return to the original post, Ralph is certainly looking nervously over his shoulder. I am confident we won't get relegated, but anyone who isn't aware of the possibility that it could happen is just bullshitting or dense. I don't think one or two of our hard of thinking posters actually understand the difference between being aware of the possibility and thinking we will be relegated, from past experience some certainly don't have any understanding of "what if" and can only deal with facts and hard evidence.

Standard manager speak for not getting complacent. He will continue saying that until it is mathematically certain, as will every manager in the bottom half.

[VectisSaint]

4 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

Standard manager speak for not getting complacent. He will continue saying that until it is mathematically certain, as will every manager in the bottom half.

I would agree with you to some extent, but if you listened to what he actually said, you would realise that he was being more specific than "standard manager speak" especially with regard to the Fulham references. Still I only put it out there for illustration of the point the original poster made, the hard of thinking on here can't see it, but that's par for the course for some of them.

[saintjimbo83]

Sunday is another massive game and I hope resting so many players pays off. If we win on Sunday then we will be ok and start looking upwards instead of nervously looking over our shoulder.

If we lose on Sunday, then we are right in the mix for relegation. Fulham have been on a charge since we played them over the Christmas period and I would say they would stay up. If Newcastle have no forwards and look goal shy (even though they beat us) and Brighton play well and lose most game with their right back being their best player too in Lampety. Burnley will always get out of trouble.

[Diabolus Ex Machina]

Ten games left of which only 3 are against teams in the top half and only one of the traditional 'big 6' (Liverpool, West Ham, Leicester) and 4 teams below us (Burnley, Brighton, Fulham, West Brom) with a 7 point gap already between us and that 3rd relegation slot. You'd think 6 more points would make us safe but I honestly can't see enough of those teams below us taking enough points to leap frog us anyway as despite our poor recent form I think we've got enough in us to pick up wins. Newcastle especially seem to have a rough run-in where if they lose any of the 6-pointers with the other teams down there then they may not recover.

[SaintBobby]

4 hours ago, Diabolus Ex Machina said:

Ten games left of which only 3 are against teams in the top half and only one of the traditional 'big 6' (Liverpool, West Ham, Leicester) and 4 teams below us (Burnley, Brighton, Fulham, West Brom) with a 7 point gap already between us and that 3rd relegation slot. You'd think 6 more points would make us safe but I honestly can't see enough of those teams below us taking enough points to leap frog us anyway as despite our poor recent form I think we've got enough in us to pick up wins. Newcastle especially seem to have a rough run-in where if they lose any of the 6-pointers with the other teams down there then they may not recover.

That's maybe right, but I think probably just 2 or 3 more points could be enough tbh. I'd say the bottom two are down and the 3rd bottom team will quite probably be on 35 or fewer points. Obviously dont want to cut it that close though. So, bag a few points, breathe out and try a miracle in the cup!

[Maggie May]

13 hours ago, Diabolus Ex Machina said:

Ten games left of which only 3 are against teams in the top half and only one of the traditional 'big 6' (Liverpool, West Ham, Leicester) and 4 teams below us (Burnley, Brighton, Fulham, West Brom) with a 7 point gap already between us and that 3rd relegation slot. You'd think 6 more points would make us safe but I honestly can't see enough of those teams below us taking enough points to leap frog us anyway as despite our poor recent form I think we've got enough in us to pick up wins. Newcastle especially seem to have a rough run-in where if they lose any of the 6-pointers with the other teams down there then they may not recover.

You can’t rely on other teams to lose their tough fixtures and we’ve looked terrible and lost against teams supposedly worse than us, including Newcastle. I’m not sure why there are so many on here that confident we are safe.

[Sunglasses Ron]

25 minutes ago, Maggie May said:

You can’t rely on other teams to lose their tough fixtures and we’ve looked terrible and lost against teams supposedly worse than us, including Newcastle. I’m not sure why there are so many on here that confident we are safe.

Maybe because we're 70-1 to go down with the bookies? Still work to be done but they are supremely confident that it's a formality...

[Toadhall Saint]

58 minutes ago, Maggie May said:

You can’t rely on other teams to lose their tough fixtures and we’ve looked terrible and lost against teams supposedly worse than us, including Newcastle. I’m not sure why there are so many on here that confident we are safe.

CB Fry will be along soon to explain.

[CB Fry]

10 minutes ago, Maggie May said:

You can’t rely on other teams to lose their tough fixtures and we’ve looked terrible and lost against teams supposedly worse than us, including Newcastle. I’m not sure why there are so many on here that confident we are safe.

You don't "need to rely on other teams to lose their tough fixtures" when you're already seven points clear.

We can stay up without winning again and with the kind of form a relegated side would deliver: three points in ten matches maybe.

If you genuinely genuinely don't think we can do that when we've got 33 points on the board already, why do you genuinely believe that teams with fewer points - Brighton, Newcastle, Burnley, Fulham - can all overtake us. All of them.

Why do you have so much faith in them and not us?

[CB Fry]

21 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

CB Fry will be along soon to explain.

Ha!

[Toadhall Saint]

4 hours ago, CB Fry said:

You don't "need to rely on other teams to lose their tough fixtures" when you're already seven points clear.

We can stay up without winning again and with the kind of form a relegated side would deliver: three points in ten matches maybe.

If you genuinely genuinely don't think we can do that when we've got 33 points on the board already, why do you genuinely believe that teams with fewer points - Brighton, Newcastle, Burnley, Fulham - can all overtake us. All of them.

Why do you have so much faith in them and not us?

Thanks 👍

[Super_Uwe]

Beat Brighton and we are basically safe.

You can argue whether we have ever been in that much trouble anyway, but we really, REALLY needed that win at Bramall Lane. Desperately needed to stop the rot.

3 more points this weekend and we can then really look forward to the Cherries game.

 

[Mystic Force]

Since our free fall was arrested by victory in Sheffield I am not nervous, before I was mildly concerned. What I am worried about is how we will get ready for next year, because I would not like the start of next year to look like the second half of this season.

[Baird of the land]

I still find myself thinking with a good run we could get into top 10 given way the likes of Villa are stuttering. Clearly we'll lose to Brighton and kill that silly optimism of mine.

[washsaint]

I started this thread very much tongue in cheek.  However, I am starting to get somewhat worried.

We are spineless, have no heart and a manager that cannot adapt.  We are, rightly, bottom of the form table and Hassenhuttl trying to be clever against City has completely backfired.

A very winnable set of games starting with Sheff Utd and we  still screw it up

[Heisenberg]

Bump

[Micky]

Unfortunately for us the players will not realise that they are in a relegation battle until its too late and they are down. 

[Super_Uwe]

On 12/03/2021 at 14:52, Super_Uwe said:

Beat Brighton and we are basically safe.

You can argue whether we have ever been in that much trouble anyway, but we really, REALLY needed that win at Bramall Lane. Desperately needed to stop the rot.

3 more points this weekend and we can then really look forward to the Cherries game.

 

Sorry everyone, my fault...

[SuperSAINT]

Never been sure why people have been so arsey about the question posed — Yep! Have been looking at the bottom half of the table for a few a weeks & still am. 

[aintforever]

We are looking like that classic side that gets sucked in to the battle at the end of the season. Should stumble over the line given the fixtures we’ve got.

[stknowle]

Still not nervous but if we cock up the next 3 matches I will be. As for next season, all I'll say is the 3 that come up better be Sheffield United bad.

[Jeremy Corbyn]

Just now, aintforever said:

We are looking like that classic side that gets sucked in to the battle at the end of the season. Should stumble over the line given the fixtures we’ve got.

Not sure tbh, we've been horrendous over the last 3 or 4 months, we only looks competent against Sheff Utd. I'm really not sure we will win 2 more games, which we'll need.

[JRM]

We might stumble over the line, but if the season went on much longer we'd be nailed on relegation candidates 

[Lighthouse]

We’ll splutter, dribble and stumble our way to another 4/5 points and that’ll keep us up.

[Micky]

2 hours ago, Lighthouse said:

We’ll splutter, dribble and stumble our way to another 4/5 points and that’ll keep us up.

Having seen our last two capitulations, I am much less confident that these players will manage to keep us up.  Have a look at our remaining games and see where our next points are realistically coming from.  Other teams are digging in and trying at least.  Not rolling over as soon as things go wrong. 

[Teddeer]

On current form can only seeing us scraping another 3 points from 3 scrappy draws. Not sure who we are going to beat after watching today's horror show. We can only hope Danny Ings comes back firing after the international break but I won't be holding my breath.  Ralph and the players look like rabbits caught in headlights. When you do not even mark opponents at throw-ins you know something basic is seriously lacking. It's a worry.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

We should be worried. Brighton are a team renowned for having a soft under belly but they completely dominated us in that game. Our only league victory since January 4th was against one of the worst teams ever to grace the division, yet we didn't even look that comfortable in that match. Next up in the league is Burnley. A team you really don't want to play if you are having problems. The game against them last year here was terrible. 

[Matthew Le God]

8 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

We should be worried. Brighton are a team renowned for having a soft under belly but they completely dominated us in that game. Our only league victory since January 4th was against one of the worst teams ever to grace the division, yet we didn't even look that comfortable in that match. Next up in the league is Burnley. A team you really don't want to play if you are having problems. The game against them last year here was terrible. 

No they didn't. We were in control as 60% of the possession shows but lacked creativity and struggled to break them down.

[S-Clarke]

I thought I'd have a look on the Fulham forums on their views of this weekend, unsurprisngly they were rooting for us to win. They seem to feel that this weekend may have been the one that's done it for them. They don't even seem to have us in the equation.

We've still got something in us to scrape at least another 4 points from our remaining games. That'll be enough, and that would still be truly abject form wise. Those points on the board early doors are like a blessing now. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

3 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

No they didn't. We were in control as 60% of the possession shows but lacked creativity and struggled to break them down.

Because most of that "possession" was us passing along the back four, passing to the midfield for them to pass back to the back four. They dominated us, Brighton.