The hardest Championship ever?

[Hjl]

Totally agree with Bodacious Benny , but Hjl what's your thoughts on Colback? I take it you think like a lot of others and he's that bad you completely forgot about him !

Lol i forgot he existed. Make him the tea lady.

[Hjl]

Totally agree with Bodacious Benny , but Hjl what's your thoughts on Colback? I take it you think like a lot of others and he's that bad you completely forgot about him !

Lol i forgot he existed. Make him the tea lady.

I got complained at too much for saying most of our team should be put on the bench / replaced. So I'll try making Colback the player manager and captain.

[Holystone...]

He's the reason Leicester's defense looked alright, and without him they have reverted to being utterly s****. I'm not comparing the two whatsoever.

...
I agree but why mention him in a Dummet/Simpson themed line of discussion ?

[Colly]

You asked why Danny Simpson had looked good.

[ALF]

'Why did Danny Simpson look good?'
'He had N'Golo Kante covering his arse'
'What's that got to do with Simpson?'

[Holystone...]

Dummett had Colo in the past . Ha ha

[daib0]

Latest projections of final table, if form shown so far this season overall is kept up:

Newcastle 98

Brighton 96
--------------------------------------------
Huddersfield 91

Reading 86

Leeds Utd 82

Sheff Wed 82
-------------------------------------------
Norwich 73


But of course, this just goes on whole of season form, and is not rewarding teams currently on great runs like Huddersfield and Norwich.

So it’s still all to play for!

[Perseus]

How many points? 29 games played.

I think 97 pts will ensure promotion.

If Huddersfield mimic Burnley last season in the 15 remaining games, they will get 98

If Newcastle mimic Middlesbro' last season it will be 96

If Brighton do the same as last season it will be 96

If Reading mimic their 2010-11 season it will be 94

That's the corresponding records in the last 15 games of the season.

Realistically Burnley, Middlesbro and Reading all enjoyed injury free runs and even given above average luck the corresponding teams won't get so lucky again.

It could very well be the hardest yet.

[Holystone...]

One thing about relying on luck is always runs out .

[Deleted User]

it's Huddersfield that worries me, in the last few weeks they've convincingly beat Brighton and beat Leeds - both teams walked over Huddersfield at the start of the season, they also beat QPR that we struggled to do - they're on fire at the moment and won both of their 6 pointers. They have Reading on 21st and us a couple of weeks after so they are getting all of their 6 pointers at the right time, form wise.

[HowayTheLads]

Hopefully they put out a strong side against Man City and see their momentum stopped a wee bit.

[Yacob]

However difficult it is, we'd be in the flight of our lives in the PL next season if we go up. We're a long long way from even looking at being a top half side (assuming we go up) and 17th will be our aim next season. Desperately need to add quality in key areas, traditionally there used to always be a few sides in the PL that you could identify as the ones that 'should' go down. Those days are over and literally half the league could realistically see themselves as relegation candidates on any given season.

I agree whole heartedly. Just look at Leicester this season. On paper they are miles better than we are and they are in a relegation battle.

Honestly next season scares me a lot more than this one does. We are going to need to spend a lot in the summer and replace most of our team if we want to do ok.

lets look at our starting 11

Darlow (replace)
Yedlin (keep) Lascelles (keep) Clark (replace) Dummett (replace)
Ritchie (keep just) Hayden (replace) Shelvey (keep) Goufran (replace)
Perez (replace)
Gayle (replace)

so by my reckoning thats 7 replacements in just our starting 11 needed.

then if you look at the bench

Ameobi (replace)
Sterry (replace)
Lazaar (replace)
Sels (replace)
Haidara (keep)
Barlasar (replace)
Hanely (replace)
Mitro (replace )

I don't agree. You can't replace that many players in one summer. It has to be a slow process. If we bring in five or six good players, we will have more than enough to stay up. Look at Burnley. They have an average team, but are well drilled and pick up results. Rafa will have us doing something similar and we can grow a lot quicker due to having a world class manager and being a bigger club. I think we will be comfortable of relegation next year, even if we only make a few additions.

Gouffran, Dummett need to be replaced and we need a better number ten. Aside from that, our team will improve and is more than good enough to stay up.

[ALF]

I agree whole heartedly. Just look at Leicester this season. On paper they are miles better than we are and they are in a relegation battle.

Honestly next season scares me a lot more than this one does. We are going to need to spend a lot in the summer and replace most of our team if we want to do ok.

lets look at our starting 11

Darlow (replace)
Yedlin (keep) Lascelles (keep) Clark (replace) Dummett (replace)
Ritchie (keep just) Hayden (replace) Shelvey (keep) Goufran (replace)
Perez (replace)
Gayle (replace)

so by my reckoning thats 7 replacements in just our starting 11 needed.

then if you look at the bench

Ameobi (replace)
Sterry (replace)
Lazaar (replace)
Sels (replace)
Haidara (keep)
Barlasar (replace)
Hanely (replace)
Mitro (replace )

I don't agree. You can't replace that many players in one summer. It has to be a slow process. If we bring in five or six good players, we will have more than enough to stay up. Look at Burnley. They have an average team, but are well drilled and pick up results. Rafa will have us doing something similar and we can grow a lot quicker due to having a world class manager and being a bigger club. I think we will be comfortable of relegation next year, even if we only make a few additions.

Gouffran, Dummett need to be replaced and we need a better number ten. Aside from that, our team will improve and is more than good enough to stay up.

If we need the team to be well drilled and tough to beat next season then Dummett seems like a perfect choice at LB. We need a new number 10, Diame and Perez aren't consistent enough.

[beatski]

what are you basing the Barlaser decision on?

[bodacious benny]

what are you basing the Barlaser decision on?

He's developing quite nicely for me on FIFA.

[Colly]

I don't agree. You can't replace that many players in one summer. It has to be a slow process. If we bring in five or six good players, we will have more than enough to stay up. Look at Burnley. They have an average team, but are well drilled and pick up results. Rafa will have us doing something similar and we can grow a lot quicker due to having a world class manager and being a bigger club. I think we will be comfortable of relegation next year, even if we only make a few additions.

Gouffran, Dummett need to be replaced and we need a better number ten. Aside from that, our team will improve and is more than good enough to stay up.

If we need the team to be well drilled and tough to beat next season then Dummett seems like a perfect choice at LB. We need a new number 10, Diame and Perez aren't consistent enough.

It just seems daft to me that people are saying replace Dummett when clearly we actually need to be replacing Haidara, Gamez etc, then letting Dummett and new left back fight for the position. It always feels like we're not allowed two left backs in the squad at the same time, and we usually get punished for it.

[ALF]

If we need the team to be well drilled and tough to beat next season then Dummett seems like a perfect choice at LB. We need a new number 10, Diame and Perez aren't consistent enough.

It just seems daft to me that people are saying replace Dummett when clearly we actually need to be replacing Haidara, Gamez etc, then letting Dummett and new left back fight for the position. It always feels like we're not allowed two left backs in the squad at the same time, and we usually get punished for it.

Agreed. Dummett is a great player to have in the squad, as first choice or even as back up if an improvement becomes available. Even to this day I still see people say Haidara is a really good player, he's literally shown nothing in 4 years. Gamez looks like a terrible signing. 31 years old, injury prone and looked poor when he's played. We need another LB to compete with Dummett, Lazaar was meant to be that player but that's not looking likely as yet so we'll need another in the summer.

[bodacious benny]

Yeah I've no issue keeping Dummet as a squad player.

Ideally I'd love us to sign someone like Gibbs for LB (out of contract at Arsenal this summer) if we go up but it'd probably unlikely. Could see him replacing Baines at Everton.

[Hjl]

Yeah I've no issue keeping Dummet as a squad player.

Ideally I'd love us to sign someone like Gibbs for LB (out of contract at Arsenal this summer) if we go up but it'd probably unlikely. Could see him replacing Baines at Everton.

It would be nice to have an attacking left back. Dummet is basically another center back just stuck on the wing. His crossing, passing, pace and shooting are all poor. He is tall and can tackle. It's pretty obvious he's just a failed center back, atleast in my opinion.

[Colly]

If you ask Jamie Carragher that's true of all fullbacks. He's pretty quick though for a defender and his passing isn't bad at all, I won't argue that he's not a defensively minded fullback though.