Fail to win Saturday and we deserve to go

[pete 371]

WBA only needed to hold out for 30 seconds on Saturday for 3 points couldn''t hold on to 2 goal lead. Albion are poor and if we don''t beat them on Saturday honestly we deserve to go down.

Our home record is very good should win fairly easily but do the players want it as they did against Sunderland. The early goal was important if we can do again should beat Albion.

Win will probably be enough to keep us up and leave WBA in real trouble.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

It is indeed a must win. One thing that works in our favour is the WBA Sunderland fixture in which at least one of them has to drop points at least! That represents all the more reason why we need to make a gap between us and West Brom. Hopefully West Ham can do us a favour and beat Sunderland tonight.

If that happens and Sunderland lose their next four after (Spurs, Man City, Everton, Chelsea with only Everton at home) then they will have four games left to pick up the points.

A win for us against WBA would put us 10 clear of them and 6 clear of WBA. Sunderland would need a minor miracle to get the 10 points required and it would include WBA dropping at least two points to them. That would leave WBA 5 points to make up on us from their other 5 games (Spurs, Man City, West Ham, Arsenal and Stoke).

I think we all need to become West Ham fans!

[Guest]

I''m predicting a win. But I can''t see it being easy. Against Sunderland, only a freak wonder goal from Tettey ensured our win was relatively comfortable.

After the Swansea debacle, Hughton is likely to punish our creative players like Wes and Howson, making it all the more difficult to control the game and get ahead. Cloggers like Johnson, Tettey and Gutierrez will probably fill the midfield to win back the balls they give away. Only Hughton picks the team he should have selected for the game before. As a result he punishes himself and the team twice.

As for deserving to go down, I think that could apply to half a dozen teams. Right now it''s about who has the mettle to fight out those final few points for survival.

Away from home we certainly don''t have the steel. Fulham will beat us. Only our home form can save us now. That may require scraping something from the Arsenal or Liverpool games. Deep breath!

[pete 371]

Need to put out same team as Sunderland except maybe Hoops for RVW.

[K Lo 246]

[quote user="Jimmy Smith"]It is indeed a must win. One thing that works in our favour is the WBA Sunderland fixture in which at least one of them has to drop points at least! That represents all the more reason why we need to make a gap between us and West Brom. Hopefully West Ham can do us a favour and beat Sunderland tonight.

If that happens and Sunderland lose their next four after (Spurs, Man City, Everton, Chelsea with only Everton at home) then they will have four games left to pick up the points.

A win for us against WBA would put us 10 clear of them and 6 clear of WBA. Sunderland would need a minor miracle to get the 10 points required and it would include WBA dropping at least two points to them. That would leave WBA 5 points to make up on us from their other 5 games (Spurs, Man City, West Ham, Arsenal and Stoke).

I think we all need to become West Ham fans![/quote]"Sunderland would need a minor miracle to get"We all said that about Coventry in errr, 1985 !!

[mrs miggins 0]

I honestly don''t see this logic of ''if we lose this game we DESERVE to go down.'' They call it a season for a reason (that rhymes). If we end up in the bottom three by the end of it then we deserve to go down, if other teams finish in the bottom three then they deserve to go down. The teams who have lost to WBA; do they deserve to go down?

[Dubai Mark 0]

mm thats exactly how I see it too......over the complete season its the total number of points that means you stay up or go down, you get enough and you stay up and deserve to do so....simple really :-)

[Yellow Bird 0]

I said before the Sunderland game, if we lost, we would go down. I''m saying the same this week. Hughton has a habit of pulling off a win when it''s backs against the wall, but after our shower of s*** at Swansea, its hard to think we can get back on track for this one. I always miss football in the summer, but I can''t wait for this season to be over and we are safe. It''s been a roller coaster ride to say the least. (More dips than highs, tho!)

[ROBFLECK 134]

I expect a very dour game tbh... two teams need a result. Oh god how I would like this season to be over!!!

I hope CH plays our most creative players, but you know how tactically adept our manager is :-(

I would play Hooper from the start no doubt!!! Maybe bringing in Gutierrez wouldn''t be the worst move, he''s a worker and we could use that kind of attitude on the pitch!

[ron obvious 1,711]

Well said Mrs. M.

[BOO 0]

Mrs M deconstructs a cliche OP with the skill of a consultant brain surgeon, this is why I read the Pink Un.

[Tumbleweed 106]

I know exactly what the poster means when talking about deserving to go down if we fail to beat West Brom, and it is trite to take a literal interpretation of that- it is a sentiment and not an assertion of fact.

I am hoping for the same team as against Sunderland with Hooper instead of RvW. In fact I would drop RvW completely, it hasn''t worked and it is unlikely to now and we may as well admit it. Stick Becchio on the bench and let him have 30 minutes if we are still level or 1 up.

My fear is that one of the rivals for that relegation place will pull a Palace like surprise, we look a million miles from being able to get a point or two in the final 4 games. I still think we''ll need a point at Fulham to have a reasonable chance of surviving.

[BOO 0]

Tumbleweed wrote the following post at 01/04/2014 9:16 AM:

I know exactly what the poster means when talking about deserving to go down if we fail to beat West Brom, and it is trite to take a literal interpretation of that- it is a sentiment and not an assertion of fact.

Indeed.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

[quote user="mrs miggins"]I honestly don''t see this logic of ''if we lose this game we DESERVE to go down.'' They call it a season for a reason (that rhymes). If we end up in the bottom three by the end of it then we deserve to go down, if other teams finish in the bottom three then they deserve to go down. The teams who have lost to WBA; do they deserve to go down?[/quote]

It''s relative to all seasons though, many people thought Blackpool were unlucky to go down, as were West Ham on 42 points when Bolton pipped them. If we stay up on 32 points, it will be more because there were 3 worse teams than us rather than us being good enough to sustain premiership football.

If we have a season like this again, we''ll be relegated.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

[quote user="Tumbleweed"]I know exactly what the poster means when talking about deserving to go down if we fail to beat West Brom, and it is trite to take a literal interpretation of that- it is a sentiment and not an assertion of fact.

I am hoping for the same team as against Sunderland with Hooper instead of RvW. In fact I would drop RvW completely, it hasn''t worked and it is unlikely to now and we may as well admit it. Stick Becchio on the bench and let him have 30 minutes if we are still level or 1 up.

My fear is that one of the rivals for that relegation place will pull a Palace like surprise, we look a million miles from being able to get a point or two in the final 4 games. I still think we''ll need a point at Fulham to have a reasonable chance of surviving.[/quote]

Perhaps we could pull that surprise? We did well versus Man City and Spurs.

[Wiz 0]

I fear CH will stick with RVW up front when he clearly is struggling to cope with the task.

[lake district canary 4,830]

[quote user="Jimbo Canary"]I fear CH will stick with RVW up front when he clearly is struggling to cope with the task.[/quote]

RVW is not clearly struggling.  He contributes very well every time he is on the pitch and works hard and has good movement off the ball.   As usual on Saturday, when in good positions he was ignored - as happens time and time again with our strikers.  There has imo to be more emphasis on putting early crosses in, before a defence has time to organise properly.  Beckham was a past master at this, whipping balls in from not far inside the opponents half, into spaces for forwards to attack.   That is still the most frustrating thing for me, watching forwards run into spaces or trying to find positions only to wait while wide players fail to deliver.   Sometimes they can cut in of course, but at other times the early ball in is the better option.  Better to lose the ball with an attempt at a cross, than just tamely losing it in midfield with the  poor pass, which - at least away from home - seems to be the norm.  

[Tetteys Jig 851]

The RVW I saw was on his heels every time there was a chance to get between two defenders when we had the ball in good positions.

As much as you try to defend him, he''s clearly struggling. He was bought to score goals and he has one, 21 or so hours ago! If he had done the ''Heskey'' role or Sidibe or whatever big support striker you want to compare the role to, i''d be more forgiving, but he hasn''t, aside from a decent work rate trying to win the ball back in the opponents half, i''ve seen nothing to convince me that he''s capable of leading our line.

Regarding Hooper, at least he''s getting there to miss the chances. He was scoring them earlier this season and i''d be far more confident seeing him and Elmander try and score for us again versus WBA.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 2,035]

I wouldnt say we deserve to go down if we don''t win on Saturday in isolation as our home record this season is by and large pretty decent. Our utterly diabolical away record of 12 defeats in 16 games means that a huge amount of pressure is put on these hom games to get the points, so if we aren''t able to pull a win off againstWBA for whatever reason, that won''t be why we deserve to go down, the away record and our mentality going into away games all season will be to blame.

[MancCanary 0]

[quote user="pete"]WBA only needed to hold out for 30 seconds on Saturday for 3 points couldn''t hold on to 2 goal lead. Albion are poor and if we don''t beat them on Saturday honestly we deserve to go down.

Our home record is very good should win fairly easily but do the players want it as they did against Sunderland. The early goal was important if we can do again should beat Albion.

Win will probably be enough to keep us up and leave WBA in real trouble.[/quote]

To be pedantic, we could lose to West Brom, but then beat Man U for example, and still get 36 or 37 points or whatever we need to stay up. Beating West Brom isn''t what determines whether we deserve to stay up or not - the points on the board come 5pm on the final day do. Again, I''m being pedantic, but still!

I think it''ll be a great game though.. Although not brilliant, we are a much much better team at home, and we actually pass it a bit. I hope he sticks with the creative players for this one and not drops them as Pete suggests he might above. And Hooper with Elmander close to him upfront is the only change i''d make.

[PurpleCanary 6,385]

[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

I wouldnt say we deserve to go down if we don''t win on Saturday in isolation as our home record this season is by and large pretty decent. Our utterly diabolical away record of 12 defeats in 16 games means that a huge amount of pressure is put on these hom games to get the points, so if we aren''t able to pull a win off againstWBA for whatever reason, that won''t be why we deserve to go down, the away record and our mentality going into away games all season will be to blame.

[/quote]This has probably been pointed out before, but I hadn''t realised it. In not one away game this season have we come from behind to get a result. Not even a draw, let alone a win. That may go some way to explaining why all spirit (or what was there) seems to go out of the team once they concede the first goal.