Relegation

[benali-shorts]

Really not implausible 

[LGTL]

It’s probably the only way rid of these absolute cunts that own us. 

[S-Clarke]

I wouldn't say so for this season, but next season - absolutely. I reckon we'll be right down there.

[benali-shorts]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

I wouldn't say so for this season, but next season - absolutely. I reckon we'll be right down there.

9 points off relegation, no win in 7, rookie coach with loser back room staff? Ideal recipe for a collapse? 

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, LGTL said:

It’s probably the only way rid of these absolute cunts that own us. 

Why would that mean they leave?

[die Mannyschaft]

Saints are so bad at defending its unbelievable. Add to that the negative side to side we play instead of getting ball in final third and you have a relegation recipe. With no out and out goal scorer or tactics to get ball into forward how are going to get points.

We need points quickly and players in window. Are we capable of getting 50 points? All other teams are getting better, players back will buy in window but Saints doing nothing just going backwards like our football. 

[benjii]

2 hours ago, LGTL said:

It’s probably the only way rid of these absolute cunts that own us. 

Would take administration, I think.

[badgerx16]

On a rolling 6 game form table, only Sheff Weds are worse than us. We have 3 points, they have 2.

Edited Sunday at 18:56 by badgerx16

[Osvaldorama]

Pretty crazy to even mention it, but yeah it’s fair to ask the question now. 
 

Genuinely don’t see 3 worse teams than us.  Sheffield U and Norwich changed manager and look better.
 

Oxford beat us, we didn’t perform against the skates… Without the new manager bounce that we had for a few games, we’d already be down there. 

So yeah, the whole club is toxic and broken. It could happen unless we sign some good players that give a shit in Jan. 

[Saint86]

5 hours ago, die Mannyschaft said:

Saints are so bad at defending its unbelievable. Add to that the negative side to side we play instead of getting ball in final third and you have a relegation recipe. With no out and out goal scorer or tactics to get ball into forward how are going to get points.

We need points quickly and players in window. Are we capable of getting 50 points? All other teams are getting better, players back will buy in window but Saints doing nothing just going backwards like our football. 

We've been outplayed by most of the teams we've faced under Eckert, with the exception of Wednesday (who are a car crash), and injury ravaged Charlton (former league 1 side), and Leicester (who i suspect would have been right in that game without 10men). So yes, as it stands, we are bad enough to be looking over our shoulder.

At his worst, this guy is another Southgate - his tactics are to hit it to a couple of dribblers / fast players to try and run at the opposition side on the counter, and then to try and park the bus and try to sit deep and defend whatever he's got. Originally i was saying he failed his only real challenge (Millwall) and wasn't convincing vs the likes of Brum and WBA etc... but actually its so bad now that you can look at it objectively and say the likes of Oxford and Norwich were relatively untroubled by us. If we keep him much longer and something doesn't radically change, we could certainly slide right back into the mire. We're lucky perhaps that Sheffield Wednesday are taking one of the three spots for certain this year.

Form wise, we are comfortably a bottom 3 side at the moment - and that includes losses to Norwich and oxford - and we're certainly a long way off promotion contention playing like this.

Worth noting, that our lucky stint of wins under eckert included WBA, and then before he got the job we also lost to Blackburn and failed to beat portsmouth or swansea (3 of those were home games vs sides below us - will we get better results away? or worse?).

Next 3 matches are Hull (h), Sheffield Utd (h), skates (a) and stoke (a)... a promotion side would be looking at those targeting no losses and a minimum of 2 wins... who is confident we'll get more than 3-4 points playing as we are?

As bad as we are, you'd still think we should be fine.... but....

Edited Monday at 00:20 by Saint86

[Pamplemousse]

Our home form will make sure we'll be fine. Mid table at least.

[Gloucester Saint]

22 minutes ago, Pamplemousse said:

Our home form will make sure we'll be fine. Mid table at least.

On paper it should do but we said this in 07/08 and the home form suddenly dried up as well until Pearson came in. God, can you imagine what Nigel would make of Rasmus and SR?!

On balance I think you are right with keeper and ST upgrades on loan plus change of manager. 14th-17th finish.

[sadoldgit]

We are exactly where we deserve to be and without an inspired transfer window this January I can’t see that changing very much.

[benali-shorts]

45 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

 

On balance I think you are right with keeper and ST upgrades on loan plus change of manager. 14th-17th finish.

Living the SR dream.....

[Forester]

Nobody, including anyone being paid to play or manage, should be dismissing relegation as a possibility.  That isn’t to say it is the most likely outcome, but a summary of reasons why this needs to be seen as a credible risk.  Warning, read through the gaps in your fingers:

- As has been pointed out, we have no wins in the last six, including defeats against two of the bottom three.  And the lack of character on display especially at Oxford and Middlesbrough is a huge concern.  So poor form and getting worse.

- Having played 26 games, we have just eight wins.  Additionally, four of those came in a five game spell when we had an “interim manager”, when elevated levels of energy are often a feature (numerous examples to cite, a recent one being O’Neill at Celtic).  And so under a permanent manager, it is four wins in 21.  We have 20 remaining fixture.

- history suggests that 50 points is needed to avoid relegation.  However this year Sheff Wednesday (even ignoring the deduction) look set to accumulate an unusually low total.  And equally, it looks like the top six will accumulate less points than recent seasons.  And so, therefore, it’s a mathematical likelihood that a higher total than 50 may be needed as points are more evenly distributed.

- Ignoring Sheff Wed who are down, every one of the eight clubs trying to catch us are yet to play us a second time. You can spin that as “easier fixture list”, but given we aren’t currently on the drop zone the onus is on others to take points off us.  The opportunity for that exists.  Two of the sides (Sheff Utd and Norwich) are greatly improved since changing managers and coukd be argued to be in a false position based on table since October.

- Most fans would say, and data backs this up, that Saints’ most effective players this season in terms of actual results gained are Armstrong, Azaz and Scienza.  That isn’t to say they are in form now, but that when points have been picked up it’s often been down to them.  Not one of them has been injured for more than a week.  What if that changes?  If one or two of them pick up hamstring injuries at some point they will probably miss eight of the 20 games.

- the club have said that we should expect a quiet window.  And so there is no communicated plan to strengthen the outfield squad.  Others will spend and gamble.

So we may need to win five and draw four or five of the remaining 20 games just to finish fourth bottom.  None of this is scaremongering, it’s just being dispassionate and looking at the situation.

 

Edited Monday at 15:49 by Forester

[Football Special]

21 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

On a rolling 6 game form table, only Sheff Weds are worse than us. We have 3 points, they have 2.

Need to stick that on the Tifo for Northam stand to display next home game 

[swannymere]

11 points off third.

[kitch]

We are not going to get relegated this season, that's just nuts.

Next season? Who knows, but this season it's nailed-on mid/lower half mediocrity.

[kitch]

7 hours ago, sadoldgit said:

We are exactly where we deserve to be and without an inspired transfer window this January I can’t see that changing very much.

I used to think this, but aside from goalie and possibly a left back, I think that squad is good enough. It's proved it recently.

It's the brains, the tactics and the people at the wheel that seem to be the problem.

[badgerx16]

51 minutes ago, swannymere said:

11 points off third.

11 points off 23rd.

[bugenhagen]

55 minutes ago, swannymere said:

11 points off third.

Well, we are not picking up points anymore, are we?

The gap up is increasing, but the gap down is slowly creeping up on us...

[Dr Who?]

We won’t go down, but we could quite easily finish with nothing to play for. We will pick up enough points at home to the other tosh sides over the rest of the season. 

[IFHP]

We ain’t going down this season, we will get enough points to stay up . Obviously helped by the fact there are only 2 relegation places this season . But that’s the same for small clubs like Portsmouth and Oxford- 1 of them may also stay up. 

[Hussar Saint]

I don't think we'll go down this season, we'll scrape enough results to stay out of any real trouble. But of course that won't be acceptable and if these incompetent b'stards Sport Republic don't take that as a HUGE kick up the arris and go all out to invest in a proper manager with playing AND managerial experience and give him access to a proper serious squad with talent, height, strength and bollocks, then relegation will absolutely be a possibility next time. 

I won't hold my breath.

[die Mannyschaft]

My predictions for rest of season 

Unless there is a massive change in tactics and or transfer window can't see more than 46 points.

13 Points total 46 Points 20th
Doncaster Rovers (a) 3-1 L FA Cup
Hull City (h) 1-1 D
Sheffield United (h) 0-0 D
Portsmouth (a) 4-1 L
Stoke City (a) 0-2 L
Watford (h) 0-0 D
Leicester City (a) 3-0 L
Charlton Athletic (h) 2-2 D
QPR (h) 1-2 L
Sheffield Wednesday (a) 0-1 L
Norwich City (h) 1-1 D
West Brom (a) 0-3 L
Coventry City (a) 1-4 L
Oxford United (h) 1-0 W
Ipswich Town (h) 2-3 L
Wrexham (a) 0-2 L
Derby County (h) 1-1 D
Swansea City (a) 2-2 D
Bristol City (h) 1-2 L
Blackburn Rovers (h) 2-1 W
Preston North End (a) 0-3 L

[Baird of the land]

It’s unlikely, just as it’s unlikely we’ll make the playoffs.(both similar points apart).

[Dr Who?]

3 hours ago, die Mannyschaft said:

My predictions for rest of season 

Unless there is a massive change in tactics and or transfer window can't see more than 46 points.

13 Points total 46 Points 20th
Doncaster Rovers (a) 3-1 L FA Cup
Hull City (h) 1-1 D
Sheffield United (h) 0-0 D
Portsmouth (a) 4-1 L
Stoke City (a) 0-2 L
Watford (h) 0-0 D
Leicester City (a) 3-0 L
Charlton Athletic (h) 2-2 D
QPR (h) 1-2 L
Sheffield Wednesday (a) 0-1 L
Norwich City (h) 1-1 D
West Brom (a) 0-3 L
Coventry City (a) 1-4 L
Oxford United (h) 1-0 W
Ipswich Town (h) 2-3 L
Wrexham (a) 0-2 L
Derby County (h) 1-1 D
Swansea City (a) 2-2 D
Bristol City (h) 1-2 L
Blackburn Rovers (h) 2-1 W
Preston North End (a) 0-3 L

Ok I will bite. This is bollox. You think we are not going to win another game for 14 games? Come on you know that is not going to happen. Yes we are a little bit crap, but every team wins every now and then. Not much point predicting every game in the championship, as it is so random. We will win a few, but not enough I fear for anything but mid table. Like Oxford will not win enough to stay up! I do agree that we will lose at FP though. They will be so up for it, and our lot will not be able to handle it mentally! 

[CB Fry]

3 hours ago, die Mannyschaft said:

My predictions for rest of season 

Unless there is a massive change in tactics and or transfer window can't see more than 46 points.

13 Points total 46 Points 20th
Doncaster Rovers (a) 3-1 L FA Cup
Hull City (h) 1-1 D
Sheffield United (h) 0-0 D
Portsmouth (a) 4-1 L
Stoke City (a) 0-2 L
Watford (h) 0-0 D
Leicester City (a) 3-0 L
Charlton Athletic (h) 2-2 D
QPR (h) 1-2 L
Sheffield Wednesday (a) 0-1 L
Norwich City (h) 1-1 D
West Brom (a) 0-3 L
Coventry City (a) 1-4 L
Oxford United (h) 1-0 W
Ipswich Town (h) 2-3 L
Wrexham (a) 0-2 L
Derby County (h) 1-1 D
Swansea City (a) 2-2 D
Bristol City (h) 1-2 L
Blackburn Rovers (h) 2-1 W
Preston North End (a) 0-3 L

Obvious troll is obvious.

[Pamplemousse]

We'll beat Sheff Wed

We'll beat Blackburn, Charlton, Oxford, Norwich, QPR at home.

And once we've signed a new keeper we'll pick up a few jammy wins just like Leicester did tonight.