Our next 8 (league) games

City (H): L
Palace (A): D
Arsenal (A): D
Palace (H): W
Leeds (A): W
Leicester (H): W
Brentford (H): W
Liverpool (A): L

I'd be happy with 14-15 points from that. Anything over that and we'd have done really well. Ideally we beat the sides we're expected to beat (Palace 2x, Leeds, Brentford, Leicester) and that's 15 points right there. Some draws + one win against City / Pool / Arsenal would be amazing.
 
Bastian said:
Just listened to Damien Delaney talking about Palace's average runnings stats, which are 20th for the league. 101km per match. Surprising that.
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Hate listening to this guy, the biggest ABU there is. Had to back peddle when it was pointed out to him when Casemiro is on 200k pw not the 300k odd he was suggesting. Said his contract is shocking and we will be lucky to get another 18 months out of him. Unsurprising take on WW loan, obviously had no alternative apart from mentioning Haland. God I'd love to see us beat City and Arsenal now to see what he has to say. Never has anything good to say about us.

Sorry OP for going off topic, I'd be disappointed if we only get 15 points from those 8 games.
 
Volumiza said:
Regardless of the thread, I am really looking forward to the City game. First City game in a few years where we've actually got a functioning team with a quality midfield and solid defence. I think it will be a good game.
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I'm a little worried about our midfield for the City game, Bruno and Ericksen leave us very open there and we could find ourselves two down very quickly if we are not tight in midfield. I still have PTSD from the last game against them.
 
Elcabron said:
I'm a little worried about our midfield for the City game, Bruno and Ericksen leave us very open there and we could find ourselves two down very quickly if we are not tight in midfield. I still have PTSD from the last game against them.
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If I was ETH I’d be tempted to play Fred + Casemiro. Fred will give us energy against a side that love to keep the ball. Be useless playing Eriksen against these as we seen in the first game against them.
 
Rest Eriksen on Palace and Leicester, do similar thing with Cas or even Varane and team should sustain some energy for further hunt for high place in the table. McTominay & Fred will have to finally zip it and show some consistency as squad players.

Anything near 20 points will probably require Martial adding some goals to the tally (Can't drop every responsibility on Rashford, every match)... especially with winter window slowly looking like another wasted time on nothing.
 
Rozay said:
Well I’ve just today renewed my illegal satellite subscription for another year so I’m strapped in and ready to go.

We absolutely have to get Sancho back and preferably in some decent sort of form during this spell.
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IPTV FTW
 
DJ_21 said:
If I was ETH I’d be tempted to play Fred + Casemiro. Fred will give us energy against a side that love to keep the ball. Be useless playing Eriksen against these as we seen in the first game against them.
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Yeah think that's a sensible approach because their midfield is too powerful for Eriksen to impact things from the start
 
Van Piorsing said:
Rest Eriksen on Palace and Leicester, do similar thing with Cas or even Varane and team should sustain some energy for further hunt for high place in the table. McTominay & Fred will have to finally zip it and show some consistency as squad players.

Anything near 20 points will probably require Martial adding some goals to the tally (Can't drop every responsibility on Rashford, every match)... especially with winter window slowly looking like another wasted time on nothing.
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Zero depth in attacking areas,no wonder we are hunting around for a loan striker. I don't blame Sancho for what's happened but frustrating he isn't there to call on,also Greenwood's behaviour has really left us in absolute dire straits up front.

Hard to make a prediction on points but think it's unlikely we drop less than 8 with City,Arsenal and scousers coming up.
 
DJ_21 said:
If I was ETH I’d be tempted to play Fred + Casemiro. Fred will give us energy against a side that love to keep the ball. Be useless playing Eriksen against these as we seen in the first game against them.
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Or maybe Mctominay, you can never be sure what you will get from either though.
 
croadyman said:
Zero depth in attacking areas,no wonder we are hunting around for a loan striker. I don't blame Sancho for what's happened but frustrating he isn't there to call on,also Greenwood's behaviour has really left us in absolute dire straits up front.

Hard to make a prediction on points but think it's unlikely we drop less than 8 with City,Arsenal and scousers coming up.
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If team won't trip on Palace, Leeds or Leicester, the sustained chances for something bigger than top 4 should be still on the table. Signing no player at all, but getting no injuries during these 8 games could be also somewhat positive.

Still if Ten Hag gets his exact striker of choice this week or next, the chances could rise to surprising effect. Still that loan needs to click almost immediately to have some impact.
 
Regardless of potential results, I’m looking forward to all of them, which to me is the stark difference from last season(s).

Results really depend on injuries and ETH’s propensity to rotate here, no point in looking past the next couple of games.
 
Van Piorsing said:
If team won't trip on Palace, Leeds or Leicester, the sustained chances for something bigger than top 4 should be still on the table. Signing no player at all, but getting no injuries during these 8 games could be also somewhat positive.

Still if Ten Hag gets his exact striker of choice this week or next, the chances could rise to surprising effect. Still that loan needs to click almost immediately to have some impact.
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Sadly I think it's already moved on to next week as no chance we get the deal sorted by midday on Friday. We will definitely pick up injuries in that period but pray its to none of the key players.
 
Elcabron said:
Or maybe Mctominay, you can never be sure what you will get from either though.
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True. I think Fred edges it for me though. Think he’s a bit better at pressing high up the pitch. Although mctominay is probably better at arriving in the box.
 
JustinC00 said:
We handed them their only loss in the league so far and that was before Casemiro was embedded into the squad.
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Yes but they look far more settled and drilled than us and I honestly can't get my hopes up after witnessing a gazillion false dawns. We shit our pants at the emirates anyways.
 
georgipep said:
Rashford, Martial and Casemiro, unknown severity of either. All 3 are crucial for our play though.
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Even if it isn’t serious, Rest them v palace. Play Fred Mctominay Eriksen/Bruno in midfield. Garnacho, weghorst, Antony upfront. We can’t afford them to get injured now especially Casemiro and Rashford.
 
kaku06 said:
Even if it isn’t serious, Rest them v palace. Play Fred Mctominay Eriksen/Bruno in midfield. Garnacho, weghorst, Antony upfront. We can’t afford them to get injured now especially Casemiro and Rashford.
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I really hope Casemiro is fine. Also, injured Martial puts us in a very dangerous position.

Say we start as you suggested, who subs the attackers? Elanga and Pellistri?

We really need Sancho back.
 
georgipep said:
I really hope Casemiro is fine. Also, injured Martial puts us in a very dangerous position.

Say we start as you suggested, who subs the attackers? Elanga and Pellistri?

We really need Sancho back.
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If it isn’t serious for martial and Rashford then bring them off the bench if needed. If it’s risky to play them then put Bruno on the right like today and shuffle with Garnacho, Antony, weghorst for the remaining positions.
 
kaku06 said:
If it isn’t serious for martial and Rashford then bring them off the bench if needed. If it’s risky to play them then put Bruno on the right like today and shuffle with Garnacho, Antony, weghorst for the remaining positions.
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That's probably the best we can hope for.
 
Teja said:
City (H): L
Palace (A): D
Arsenal (A): D
Forest (A) League Cup
Reading (H) FA
Forest (H) League Cup
Palace (H): W
Leeds (A): W
Barca (A) Europa
Leicester (H): W
Barca (H) Europa
Brentford (H): W
Liverpool (A): L

I'd be happy with 14-15 points from that. Anything over that and we'd have done really well. Ideally we beat the sides we're expected to beat (Palace 2x, Leeds, Brentford, Leicester) and that's 15 points right there. Some draws + one win against City / Pool / Arsenal would be amazing.
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Good effort to list out all 8 games, but it is tunnel vision if you don't list all the other fixtures side by side. League Cup has to be our top priority now, although we shouldn't field a weaken side against Arsenal. Assuming our B team will carry on with Reading and go as far as they can, the Palace game can be tricky considering tiredness.

I am not so sure about our Europa priority now, particularly if we can reach League Cup final, and move up to #2 spot.
 
Cup competitions are a nice break from the league at this point (and hopefully we rest a few players) but other than Liverpool and maybe Leeds away i'm not seeing too many problems with the other games with our home record as it is this season.
 
Is it confirmed that the postponed League game against Leeds is now scheduled for the midweek after the Palace home game in Feb? We’ll be playing midweek every single week in the foreseeable future, can’t imagine that being good for the players or the results.
 
We've got a very easy league run to the end of the season.

Tough games are Liverpool, Brighton, Newcastle, Spurs, west Ham away. Chelsea only tough home game. The remaining 12 games are all easy on paper. Great position to be in, but can see some sloppy results in the league as we take our eyes off of it due to a big gap to 5th and focus on cups. Obviously don't have the squad for multiple competitions yet, but I'm not worried about losing top 4 at all.

6 very winnable games leading up to the Barca game. Then Leicester sandwiched between the 2 ties.
 
So, 4 points out of 9. We really should have got a draw yesterday. Would have been a great result.
 
Our last 3 games were overall of a poor standard so it doesn’t look good for the remaining fixtures. The fixture pile up isn’t over yet. I hate being such a pessimist
 
wangyu said:
Our last 3 games were overall of a poor standard so it doesn’t look good for the remaining fixtures. The fixture pile up isn’t over yet. I hate being such a pessimist
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I would say you are being realistic because we don't have the midfield and attack for this fixture congestion. More importantly our present attack needs to have more goal output.
 
wangyu said:
Our last 3 games were overall of a poor standard so it doesn’t look good for the remaining fixtures. The fixture pile up isn’t over yet. I hate being such a pessimist
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Dont be a pessimist then.
 
I know we got completely outplayed yesterday and we didn't show much going forward against Palace, but it really feels like 3 points dropped over the last two fixtures.
 
Ole'sattheWheel said:
At the moment we're full of confidence and getting plaudits from everyone, however our next 8 league games occur over the span of 7 weeks, amongst an FA cup tie, a league cup tie, and Barcelona H&A in the EL - an extra 4 games.

The league games are:

City (H): Little needs to be said about this game.
Palace (A): Bogey team, beat them once in our last 4 meetings and Selhurst park has never been an easy game for us
Arsenal (A): They have our number at the emirates of late and are flying league leaders.
Palace (H): Again, bogey team
Leeds (A): We tend to smash these since their return to PL, but they have all the ingredients to be game raisers v us, especially at bellend road. I'd be surprised if this was a walk in the park
Leicester (H): On paper the easiest team on this list however, we've only beat them once in our last 4 meetings & is sandwiched between Barca games
Brentford (H): This season's giant slayers. Leathered us 4-0 at their ground earlier in the season
Liverpool (A): Liverpool at Anfield

What are our expectations for this run of games? If we get 15 points, I would say that's a fantastic return. 11-13 would be acceptable. 10 or lower would be disappointing
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4 out of 9 so far.

I reckon we can do another 11 from the 15 at best. Even with Liverpool's current form getting the double on them at Anfield is a stretch. Brentford and Leeds make me nervous. Palace and Leicester should be okay.
 
You can look at it another way I suppose, we came out even against the two outstanding teams in the league this season. We are where we are because as TH said a few weeks ago, some right shitty players at this level have been bought since Fergie.
When you got to resort to McTom to replace Casemiro and we have 2 free players playing for us you can see our strength in depth is poor. WB has had a reprieve for putting in some half decent performances, when really TH wanted a new RB to come in.
If at the beginning of the year somebody said you could be in top 4 easily by end of Jan, you would have snapped their hand off. We have come on quite a bit in 6 months, so imagine where we could be this time next year with new owners bankrolling TH vision.
 
Winning the league this season was always pie in the sky, right now 3rd looks achievable, at the start of the season I would have been more than satisfied, especially given that our overall play and performances have significantly improved.

I can see us getting 13 points if players stay available, away draw at pool
 
December_16 said:
Is it confirmed that the postponed League game against Leeds is now scheduled for the midweek after the Palace home game in Feb? We’ll be playing midweek every single week in the foreseeable future, can’t imagine that being good for the players or the results.
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Depends if either of us are involved in replay
 
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