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Harry53

How do we escape relegation?

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We have discussed many options about what might happen to finish or not the season, and it seems highly likely games will be played out.

So i was thinking about how do we take this opportunity to escape the drop. Daniel hasn't really changed his pattern of play and likes to stick to his beliefs. It worked well In the Championship but we haven't really punished teams this season when we should have. 

So despite playing very attractive technical football i feel that now is the time to make a change. 

Daniel likes his midfield to contribute goals in addition to what Teemu can do, but it's not quite happened. Would fans think it's time to play another striker with Teemu behind, let's say Adam Ida? He is strong, tall, fast and knows how to score. 

I am sure Daniel and his team have been doing plenty of analysing but should he change our approach in order to make the final effort to escape the drop? 

What would you do? 

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I think our best hope is just that we come back fitter than some other teams, Pukki rediscovers his goal touch and one or two other sides are perhaps not motivated.

In these circumstances some strange results are not beyond possibility nor is a team putting a run together to get themselves out of trouble. Our form going into the postponement was not bad and had Pukki not lost his goal touch would have been a lot better as we could easily have had 6 or 7 extra points over recent months had he not missed sitters in various games.

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11 minutes ago, Crafty Canary said:

Other than the season being declared null and void I’m afraid we shall be back in the Championship next season. 

Null and void looking less likely I would say. 

Edited by Graham Paddons Beard

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There was a school of thought on Sky earlier that behind closed doors matches will suit the more technical teams as the more industrial game relies on fan support - whether that is true or not will be interesting.    

As for us, first, have to agree with JS that Teemu has to find the net again and go no further back than the half-way line.   Buendia (as one of the 3) but needs to be given a free role behind Pukki and let Cantwell and poss Rupp do the wide defensive work or change to 3-5-2.    Godfrey would give us more energy and pace in the centre of midfield, I'd make that change for Tettey.  

We don't have strength in depth (only about 14 trusted starters now) so if games come thick and fast, we're at a disadvantage.   Avoiding the drop, we can do it! 

OTBC

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4 minutes ago, ricardo said:

It remains the only viable alternative to completing the season on the pitch and has already been adopted as the de-facto solution at non league level by the FA itself.

http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/apr/09/laurence-jones-fa-council-grassroots-decision-090420

That is an excellently worded and argued statement, laying out why they made the decision they did, and why the alternatives were rejected. I can't disagree with any of it, let's see if common sense is contagious.

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We have to try something different, for the life of me I can not understand the reluctance of putting Godfrey as CM. We now have Klose back for competition.

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Teams who have little to play for who are traditionally 'on the beach' at this stage of the season from here on in will be even moreso in these conditions... will their hearts really be in it amidst safety concerns ,playing in empty stadiums etc?. We've got to make sure we are at it and if there's a sniff of any clubs or players not really fancying it ,we take full advantage.

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We should have Klose back if games to resume- if that is the case then I'd love to see us try playing with a back 3. It would allow Aarons and Lewis to push forward and provide width and also help with the fact our central midfield is quite soft.

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I have a slightly different perspective on this which has a tad more optimism. We may start playing again but with a distinct possibility that we have to stop again and then end the season. This being the case if we get going again we need to throw the kitchen sink at it in the first 4  or 5 games and try and get out of the bottom 3 at that stage which will leave us in a good position if they then pull the plug. lets be fair if we resume and we cannot get early points on the board we dont deserve to stay up

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Teemu's drop in form coincided with his toe problem and may have been part of the reason for his problems. 

It will be interesting if we do start playing again because coaching staff from all clubs will have been doing very little other than study dvds of their remaining opponents. So although we've had time to work out other teams weaknesses, they will have had the same opportunity to look at ours. We can probably expect a lot of close games as a result. 

I'm usually quite pessimistic but I don't think we're down yet and looking at the fixtures I don't fancy the chances of Brighton and Bournemouth 

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34 minutes ago, Yorkshire Canary said:

I have a slightly different perspective on this which has a tad more optimism. We may start playing again but with a distinct possibility that we have to stop again and then end the season. This being the case if we get going again we need to throw the kitchen sink at it in the first 4  or 5 games and try and get out of the bottom 3 at that stage which will leave us in a good position if they then pull the plug. lets be fair if we resume and we cannot get early points on the board we dont deserve to stay up

I'm with you here. Even before lockdown I had us to win 3 of our next 4 matches (and even had hoped for a draw at Arsenal). I'm 100% sure Farke would have targeted these matches.  Our 5th match was Watford away. Interesting.

 

Ps. @dylanisabaddog I had also looked at those nearest to us and fixtures. I honestly felt we could overtake those two teams when I was trying to plot possible future results (erring towards best case scenarios of course)

PPS. I am not an alias account for LDC who, bless him, also often has positivity about us in the face of difficulty

Edited by sonyc
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8 minutes ago, sonyc said:

I'm with you here. Even before lockdown I had us to win 3 of our next 4 matches (and even had hoped for a draw at Arsenal). I'm 100% sure Farke would have targeted these matches.  Our 5th match was Watford away. Interesting.

 

Ps. @dylanisabaddog I had also looked at those nearest to us and fixtures. I honestly felt we could overtake those two teams when I was trying to plot possible future results (erring towards best case scenarios of course)

PPS. I am not a clone account for LDC who, bless him, also often has positivity about us in the face of difficulty

It was finding the third victim that was a problem for me😕 I hope it's Villa or West Ham 😂

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So no one would look to play 2 strikers? I really think Adam could add something to our game, even as a sub at 70 minutes. 

Putting Ben inn CM could well work. I do feel that on the evidence of this season's results it's time to try something else. 

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1 hour ago, Yorkshire Canary said:

I have a slightly different perspective on this which has a tad more optimism. We may start playing again but with a distinct possibility that we have to stop again and then end the season. This being the case if we get going again we need to throw the kitchen sink at it in the first 4  or 5 games and try and get out of the bottom 3 at that stage which will leave us in a good position if they then pull the plug. lets be fair if we resume and we cannot get early points on the board we dont deserve to stay up

...when you're 6 pts adrift with only 9 left...I would hopevthat we wouldnt have much alternative but to go all out to win games to get out if the bottom 3..especially with the next few fixtures

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My opinion was that we had a chance prior to the lockdown as performances including that FA cup match had improved and, I felt there was a slight possibility we could close that 6 (7 if you add the 10 extra goals needed) point gap.

However, looking at the games left for all 6 teams, I believe Bournmouth may be the ones to push on which obviously causes an issue. At the same time I think the hammers are done for if we restart this. A team with an abundance of pre-madonnas who may nit fancy upping their game?

I looked at the remaining fixtures in groups of 3 for us. The first group includes two home games against relatively safe teams. Get 6 points and nothing less from those and we may get the required momentum to succeed.

The second group includes 3 relegation rivals, anything could happen. 

The final group includes two teams who may seriously be on the beach and Burnley at home.

As said before, we have a punchers chance, but that chance, in my opinion is now more difficult due to the suspension and the lack of partisan home fans for us.

 

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Im afraid we are DOOOMMMMEEEDDD, though after this fiasco within the premier ie  money before health  -I prefer to be back in the championship  

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Maybe the season will yet be declared null and void.

The opposition will not generally be playing all out based on the teams we have to play and the situation.

Score headed goals - 1 all season is not good enough. Stop conceding them.

Play Mario Vrancic. Bar Martin Peters the best special awareness player to have worn a  Norwich shirt.

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9 games, 9 cup finals and we need to treat each game as such. We will need to hit the ground running and probably win 3 out of the first 4, other way round and we'll be relying on wave 2 of the virus.

Hopefully Todd and Emi will have their heads right and are up for it as they are match winners. Giving them an almost free role means keeping 2 x CBs and a very solid midfield. Not sure how far away Byram is but he could be important as he can defend and gets further forward than Lewis.

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2 hours ago, Yorkshire Canary said:

I have a slightly different perspective on this which has a tad more optimism. We may start playing again but with a distinct possibility that we have to stop again and then end the season. This being the case if we get going again we need to throw the kitchen sink at it in the first 4  or 5 games and try and get out of the bottom 3 at that stage which will leave us in a good position if they then pull the plug. lets be fair if we resume and we cannot get early points on the board we dont deserve to stay up

If we get out of the bottom three after four or five games we'd need to find Champions League form.

21 points from 29 games so far suggests we might just fall short. 🙄

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If they do get restarted (and I'm still of the view that's a big if) it's going to be fascinating to see how individuals and teams react to playing in empty stadiums with the spectre of the virus hanging over them.

Some individuals and teams will really struggle. I can also see the opposite - some teams I think will adapt quickly and really make the most of this situation.

If we can be one of those sides that adapts quickly, make the most of having players back fit and rested and turn in some of the form that saw us beat Man City and brush aside Newcastle with relative ease, I don't see why we can't get ourselves out of this slump.

There's a lot that needs to go our way in order for that to happen though!

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It's really tough to say. If football restarts, there are many changes that have to be taken into consideration.

Aside from dealing with games behind closed doors, there will be rule changes such as more subs, no VAR and possibly even rules regarding contact and distance between players at set pieces or during tackles- which would benefit us considering we're arguably the least physical side in the division.

There's also another unknown in that we don't know what players (both from our squad and others) will be unavailable due to having medical conditions themselves or close family members with them. There may even be players who simply don't feel comfortable playing, and these things put together mean that some teams could field teams with players that haven't played together much, or at all, before. 

Games will also be played every three or four days, which increases the risk of injuries and player fatigue, so rotation may be more commonplace (although Farke is generally a coach who likes to keep an unchanged side as much as possible).

When you combine all these things together, it becomes impossible to second guess which team and which tactics to play until we know more about the circumstances.

These games will be a lot different from regular Premier League matches for a variety of reasons so it could just be a case of who adapts to these new conditions the fastest, rather than which team has the better players or the better tactics. 

Edited by Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man

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1 hour ago, Capt. Pants said:

9 games, 9 cup finals and we need to treat each game as such. We will need to hit the ground running and probably win 3 out of the first 4, other way round and we'll be relying on wave 2 of the virus.

Hopefully Todd and Emi will have their heads right and are up for it as they are match winners. Giving them an almost free role means keeping 2 x CBs and a very solid midfield. Not sure how far away Byram is but he could be important as he can defend and gets further forward than Lewis.

We have three hone games in the first four don’t we?

knowing how this has gone they will no doubt say they need to re-order the fixtures to make sure everyone plays alternate home and away games!

 

 

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Not sure when the Southampton game has been re-arranged for. Nonetheless we are playing against the bottom 7. We will know our fate pretty quickly.

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In the circumstances I don't care whether we can avoid relegation or not. It's just not that important to me.

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This is my honest opinion.

I think we will stay up with 6 wins out of 9. When we seem to have a virtually fully fit squad we turn on the gas and play some fantastic football which some teams dont know how to handle. 

The table does lie as we certainly arent the worst team in the league. I do recall someone saying no VAR so the table must adjust accordingly. We would be 2 points from safety and not even bottom. Cant just change rules as we go along, integrity? 

Look at some of the stats this season and it will show you we certainly arent a side thats struggling. Look at our injury crisis 1st half of season playing midfielders in defence i think any team would struggle in this league.

We have just been very very unlucky this season and its about time we had something go our way.

 

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It’s already been said that VAR will continue to be used. Uefa have the option for leagues not to use it but the PL have said it will be 

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