Three worse sides than us?

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Earlier in the season posters had us relegated because they couldn''t find three worse sides than us. Now  we''ve played over half the teams after 10 games what do people think?

 

I would say QPR, West Ham, Stoke and Villa definitely looked worse than us. And after playing them twice Spurs didn''t really look better than us[:O]

 

 

[Chunky Norwich 0]

Ipswich are definitely one of them. And Leeds. And Wolves. Happy days!

[kingsway 101]

From what I''ve seen so far, if we get lucky with injuries and suspensions, play the best formations and at top form we have more than enough to stay up!

 

Yesterdays battling win was exactly the sort we need to get at least 8-9 more times and we''ll be safe!

[super canary 0]

reading and southampton are down

[smooth 114]

We are in the bottom 6 teams in this league, west ham and qpr will buy themselves to a few victories.

The big key is injuries, last year we were fortunate. So far the key players that we mentioned on the ''spine of the team'' thread is key. If we suffer injuries to key players we will struggle in that mini league. You have to take advantage of these teams who are struggling... As did at home to Newcastle last season. We need to put some daylight between ourselves and reading. So next weekend will be a massive game... We had that chance against Blackburn last year when we could have gone 10 points clear of them. We didn''t take it, we need to shatter there confidence.

But it will be very tough this season and we will be in that bottom six, the aim is to finish top and to try and be top of it and leaving the bottom three adrift as early as we can.

[paul moy 235]

If we carry on as we are there must surely be at least six teams worse than us. [<:o)]

[Renskay 38]

I think I''d add Reading, Southampton and even Sunderland to that list aswell

[ImDrunky 0]

All the teams below NCFC I would say are all worse than us and I think we will keep them under us all season.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

We haven''t played them yet Ren. Was just wondering what the thoughts were after seeing the first 10 opponents?

 

 

[paul moy 235]

[quote user="super canary"]reading and southampton are down[/quote]

Reading are a good attacking force and score at will so could spring a few surprises and I certainly would not write them off against QPR today.  Both of those teams could be lining up a few transfer window signings to strengthen as they have money to spend, so it''s far too early to write teams off. 

[Zak Van Burger 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

 

I would say QPR, West Ham, Stoke and Villa definitely looked worse than us.

 

 

[/quote]I agree and would like to add that having identified four teams who do empirically appear to be worse than us from those we''ve already played it''s pertinent to point out that three other teams we haven''t yet played currently languish in the bottom five of the table.  Could it be that just being worse than us isn''t even enough to get you relegated this year? Reading, Soton and Sunderland are all poor enough to keep dire teams like Stoke and Villa out the bottom three, Sunderland being on a spectacularly poor run of form at the moment could be in real trouble by jan.

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

We have had an excellent 2 weeks or so and got ourselves into a much better position. We are looking like a hard side to beat but we had 2 defenders limp off yesterday. We have the potential to pull away from the bottom 3 but it is far too early to be confident and there will be many twists and turns , unexpected defeats and wins for us and others. The end of November will give a better feel only one more home game Man Utd and 3 very tricky away fixtures Reading, Everton and southampton. If we get 3 points from those 4 i will be happy that we can kick on, there is also the potential to get zero and have 10 pts from 14 games. fingers crossed and lots of hope and optimism but far too early to be confident

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

The last four games where we were the masters of four other Premiership teams has meant that  I have totally lost my inferiority complex.

 

Continue in this current vein and we will have achieved our lucrative aim for this particular season.

 

Chris Hughton has done a very good job by managing to overcome the worst possible starts in a quietly calculated manner. He seems to have the Midas touch in the transfer market and his thinking football has finally got through to the players.

 

I no longer think worse teams than us, more better teams, and we have beaten two of those in this run, Spurs and Liverpool. That ''aint bad.

[ricardo 8,034]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

The last four games where we were the masters of four other Premiership teams has meant that  I have totally lost my inferiority complex.

 

Continue in this current vein and we will have achieved our lucrative aim for this particular season.

 

Chris Hughton has done a very good job by managing to overcome the worst possible starts in a quietly calculated manner. He seems to have the Midas touch in the transfer market and his thinking football has finally got through to the players.

 

I no longer think worse teams than us, more better teams, and we have beaten two of those in this run, Spurs and Liverpool. That ''aint bad.

[/quote]In what alternate universe did we beat Liverpool?

[Branston Pickle 4,150]

We will certainly go on both positive and negative runs this season - this is inevitable in the top league, when you have a run of games against Arse, Chelsea, Liverpool one minute and Villa, Stoke the next. The thing to do is not go too far ott when either happen.

It is interesting looking at the bottom of the league - there''s already a 5 point gap between the bottom three and the rest right now. Ok, none of them have played yet this weekend, but those sides must be starting to feel a bit of pressure as we''ve now seen a quarter of the season gone. Tonnes of time to go, but there are certainly plenty of sides in more trouble than us right now.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

In what alternate universe did we beat Liverpool?

 

Arsenal. So sorry.

 

Happy now?

[ricardo 8,034]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

In what alternate universe did we beat Liverpool?

 

Arsenal. So sorry.

 

Happy now?

[/quote]Ecstatic[;)]

[Bws Cat 0]

The word I would use ricardo would be ''Delicious''

[Thirsty Lizard 3,215]

As one or two have pointed out already staying relatively free from injuries is really important.

Just imagine if you were a Sunderland fan right now - how much would you be praying that Stephen Fletcher doesn''t get injured?

[Zak Van Burger 0]

After watching the first 45 mins of qpr vs reading I''m of the opinion that if both teams are sufficiently poor then no league points should be awarded.

[Salopian 1]

We cannot judge which teams are better or worse, unless we stipulate at what point in time.

 

We seem to have emerged from our early season traumas, - luck seems to be running our way - deflections, ref decisions, etc., and the priod of squad adjustment seems to be almost complete.

 

Lady luck was unkind to us, but I have no way of knowing how she has been for the teams below us. I can only say that I think we are stronger than we were as a squad at this time last year - the effective squad is larger, -  we were able to put out virtually two complete teams last week. I think that we have skill were we did not last year - Tettey, Bassong, even Turner, for eample, and some players have improved - Ruddy and Johnson for example. QPR have bought still more players over the summer and may get them playing together.

 

It doesn''t help to say that other teams will sign players in January, because we also have the opportunity to sign players, and I believe that there will be money to buy. Over the summer CH made some excellent signings, as we are gradually becoming aware. I hope that he is in the process of identifying targets already.

 

The one area of weakness I fear is that we are not scoring enough goals. As in previous years, the strikers are providing no more goals collectively than the midfield and defence. Holt is playing as well as ever, up front and back defending, although 3 goals in over a quarter of a season is not as good as he achieved , per match, as he did last season. What if he were injured for a spell, or suspended? Goals from the strikers would dry up, and we would have a hard battle on our hands. I''m sure that CH is aware of this problem - he mentions so regularly our failure to convert chnaces into goals.

We have cover in most team positions, - last week we saw Bunn as an excellent cover for Ruddy, but we have no real cover for Holt.

[BroadstairsR 2,273]

[quote user="Zak Burger"]After watching the first 45 mins of qpr vs reading I''m of the opinion that if both teams are sufficiently poor then no league points should be awarded.
[/quote]

 

1-1 now just right.

 

The player with the blue scrubbing brush on his head just equalised for QPR.

 

Just right as we wouldn''t want Reading to approach next week''s game with an away win under their belt.

[Making Plans 957]

Injuries or no injuries I think we''ve got a good enough squad to survive. I can''t see all 3 of QPR, Reading & Southampton getting out of the bottom 3 all season - one of them might but the law of averages says at least two of them won''t.So that leaves one relegation slot from either (in relegation probability order) - Reading, Stoke, Villa, Sunderland, Wigan, Norwich, Swansea, WBA, West Ham.

[ricardo 8,034]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]

[quote user="Zak Burger"]After watching the first 45 mins of qpr vs reading I''m of the opinion that if both teams are sufficiently poor then no league points should be awarded. [/quote]

 

1-1 now just right.

 

The player with the blue scrubbing brush on his head just equalised for QPR.

 

Just right as we wouldn''t want Reading to approach next week''s game with an away win under their belt.

[/quote]Ended 1-1 just what the doctor ordered.A point or better next week make for another good weekend.

[nutty nigel 7,902]

[quote user="Salopian"]

We cannot judge which teams are better or worse, unless we stipulate at what point in time.

 

[/quote]

 

That''s why I asked the question referring to the games we had played Sal. To make my judgement I stipulated the time the players walked off the pitch for each game. My conclusions were that we are better than QPR, West Ham, Stoke and Villa while not being worse than Spurs. I know we beat Arsenal but I think overall they were better than us on the day but we defended really well to win the game.

 

 

 

 

[Redders Right Foot 22]

I Think QPR are proof that you can''t always buy your way to safety. I predicted during the beginning of the season they''d be down in the scrap to stay up, although I didn''t see it being this bad for them after 10 games.

big-ish names, big egos, many players hadn''t played together at all before coming, basically brand new XI. I can''t see QPR and Soton buying their way out of it in jan.

[norfolkbroadslim 225]

The simple fact remains that we are one of the worst 6 or 7 teams in the league.  A little run with a lot of luck in no way guarantees survival.  The likes of Reading, QPR, Southampton, will all have their little runs and bits of luck throughout the season, make no mistake of that.

 

Injuries to any combination of Tettey, Bassong, Hoolahan and Holt would be a massive blow.  The two who would hit us the hardest would be Bassong and Holt.  Take Bassong out of defence and we look like shipping a rugby score and take Holt out and we look really limp and in-effective up front.

 

Yes, injuries would hurt other teams, make no mistake.  But we have a few critical arears where just one injury, we look like a totally different animal.

 

 

[nutty nigel 7,902]

I get that some posters want to be negative and some positive and I have no wish to moderate the forum. I was just wondering if anybody else had seen more than three worse sides than us in the 10 games we''ve played so far.

 

 

[norfolkbroadslim 225]

What conclusions can one draw from a one-off game though? 

 

Ask Fulham fans to name three worse sides than them and we would probably be bottom of that list.  Ask Liverpool fans the same and we would probably fair no better.

 

West Ham were worse than us at CR, but look where they are in the league and they took a point off Man City yesterday......

[ZLF 335]

All the teams in this league can have a good day. We were shocking against Liverpool but have been unbeaten since

Villa were bereft of capability against us then go to sunderland and win well

Its a topsy turvey league capable of changing in a month - Wigan can look like a top six or a bottom 2 team. Stoke are unattractive but will pick up points.

We have several tough months ahead of us and the bottom 10 will change positions

Have I seen three teams I can say with certainty are worse than us? No. But I can think QPR, Soton, Stoke, Sunderland, Villa, Reading, Wigan Us and Sunderland will have good and bad runs.

I think we will beat three of these but we have to continue to work hard perform and improve and we will be safe.