Relegation fight

[joellufcprice]

This season looks like it is shaping up not only to be a fractured and fragmented one with all these stupid breaks and stoppages but an incredibly close one down the lower end of the table (Man City are going to win the league at a canter) and I reckon any one of around 10 sides could be in the dogfight with it coming down to the wire for many.

So far we have seen teams ordinarily you'd expect to struggle pick up points, ones most of us would have hoped to made a slow start in likes of:
Bournemouth 12
Fulham 12
Brentford 11

Then you have ones beneath us who you'd expect to have done ok and generally do ok in:
Leicester 4
Wolves 6
Villa 8

So the usual dogfight for those you'd expect to struggle is not quite what it might have been as they've picked up points early in the season, meaning what will most likely be a very close season. With any of these in the fight:

Forest (Could still turn it round but the disrupted season will massively hamper their team gelling at any point)
Bournemouth (Still pretty weak squad but started well picking up points)
Fulham (Same as Bournemouth but Mitrovic really stepped up)
Southampton (Look crap other than when they play us)
Villa (All that money and still they look fairly average, couldn't beat us even with 10 and playing like Burnley)
Everton (They'll probably grind out points but could still be down there)
Palace (Potential, they're really only an injury or two away from a weak starting 11)
Leicester (Lost a lot of key players, Vardy is an old man and not the get out of jail free card he once was, some players have downed tools for them waiting for moves)
Leeds (Who knows, thought we'd be ok but have looked pretty beatable recently against average sides)
Brentford (Unlikely but again, they had a shocking run last year and were only saved by Eriksen joining)

So who knows really, I don't think we will go down as I think the style we play will beat enough teams but I think it is going to be one of those seasons where nothing will feel safe till very close to the end meaning no good players will join us as we will look like relegation contenders so be hard to improve upon the following year.
Wolves (Don't see it, but they aren't doing well so far)

[LeedsFTW]

Personally I am finding Leeds to be quite depressing this season.

I genuinely think we have a stronger squad with more potential than compared to last season. However I am currently far from convinced by Jesse.

To date I only recall one game where I honestly thought we played well the whole match and that was against Chelsea. Apart from that I don't think he has done anything else that any other manager could not have achieved with Leeds.

I despair because I am looking at tbe table wondering where we are going to pick up those ***** wins and truthfully at this time, I don't see many.

I really hope I am proved wrong and soon.

[norfolk white]

To be honest, draws against Southampton, Everton and villa are games iwas convinced we'd win, 6 extra points in those and we'd not even be having these conversations.....so yeah, pretty depressing.

[Billyni]

Taking of a striker and putting on a winger who has only played with a few youngsters whilst there is an international striker sitting on the bench, was the final straw for me.
Maarching on out.
We stayed up last season more by good luck than by good guidance. We don’t have Bumley to bail us out this season.
He is just a wannabe mb.

[alfinyalcabo]

Well,TBF you was never going to be in a challenging for a top 6 spot,so its something to look forward to.Keeps the interest going. Anyway,the Chumpionship league is far better than the Premier league should things take a turn for the worst.
No te preocupes amigos .👌

[UbiqueLUFC33]

We may have been pretty poor lately, but I've just watched the Forest Villa game and what a steaming pile of turgid ****e that was. If we can somehow find a striker who actually knows which part of the pitch the goal is located in then even we have a chance of beating Forest.

[Monaco_Totty]

The squad is alleged to be on a learning curve according to JM.
So it’s a representation of the relationship between of how well we practice (Learning) and how well we play (Performance) then.

In football we're told learning is affected and determined by several factors & it requires careful monitoring to offset players performance plateauing.

Plateauing i read is when the body starts to feel the effects of such a physical sport & when many players lose some of their pace & muscular power - hence the strict logical age recruitment remit orders Orta follows.

For me the rate of performance is SLOWING for 'some' & maybe 'some' have reached their potential or are past their best ?

Easy to blame poor coaching for poor results as with 'learning curves' players are sensitive to temporary variables like levels of fatigue on the days of training, their confidence/mood & ultimately their motivation.

Great coaches feed knowledge to players & make sure players learn/improve every day I've read.
The greatest coaches always state in their biographies that they are in the game to improve all players under their tenure which is a recurring theme when reading about Mr Bielsa for sure & wow he sure did polish up some average players.

I feel we have the basis of a group of very talented players who now need to learn how to PERFORM as part of a team & for 'some' more as individuals - fine lines but crucial for this JM squad now being assembled & come November we will see how many are still climbing that 'learning curve' & who's being picked & who aint !

I want to see all the strikers in action now as potential requires performance.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

The squad is alleged to be on a learning curve according to JM.
So it’s a representation of the relationship between of how well we practice (Learning) and how well we play (Performance) then.

In football we're told learning is affected and determined by several factors & it requires careful monitoring to offset players performance plateauing.

Plateauing i read is when the body starts to feel the effects of such a physical sport & when many players lose some of their pace & muscular power - hence the strict logical age recruitment remit orders Orta follows.

For me the rate of performance is SLOWING for 'some' & maybe 'some' have reached their potential or are past their best ?

Easy to blame poor coaching for poor results as with 'learning curves' players are sensitive to temporary variables like levels of fatigue on the days of training, their confidence/mood & ultimately their motivation.

Great coaches feed knowledge to players & make sure players learn/improve every day I've read.
The greatest coaches always state in their biographies that they are in the game to improve all players under their tenure which is a recurring theme when reading about Mr Bielsa for sure & wow he sure did polish up some average players.

I feel we have the basis of a group of very talented players who now need to learn how to PERFORM as part of a team & for 'some' more as individuals - fine lines but crucial for this JM squad now being assembled & come November we will see how many are still climbing that 'learning curve' & who's being picked & who aint !

I want to see all the strikers in action now as potential requires performance.

Not sure about JM but he does have a few things to his credit

He kept us up last year

At times we have played some decent stuff including first half v Palace

Seems a positive person which runs off on the squad

We press hard but don’t time waste or get involved with any nonsense

Not his fault Bambi missed his chances

On the more negative side

He seems slow to make subs despite what he says in the press conferences

Not sure how much tactical flexibility he has to respond to changing games (Palace second half)

Doesn’t seem to use the youngsters much

Fear his tactics are very vulnerable to the better teams counter attack

The Arsenal game will be a very good test of where we are at as they are flying. If we get a chance we have to take it but defensively we may struggle against their width and rotation up front.

[spaldy]

Hard to argue with many of Joel's points.

FWIW, my thoughts. we seem to be cursed with the syndrome of players having play time granted on favoritism or their performance on the practice pitch. Never mind that some of our squad plays for national teams and are key players. The curse is strongest at the striker, left back and wind positions. Barrring injury those positions are never changed. Rapha doesn't even get a chance if injuries had not occurred. Alioski, although erratic, plays only because we didn't have anyone else and is let go for peanuts. we then sign a Barca failure for 3 times what Alioski made. Bamford and Rodrigo miss shots that I could hit and we have an Italy National, Perkins and Joffy sitting the bench. Sinistera shows signs of brilliance but will sit a lot. Cooper is just too slow but we have to play Strujik at LB and Llorente looks lost at times. Our roster is good enough for mid table but we don't play the right players at the right time.

With that negativity over with we do have a very good Midfield. Aaronson, Adams and Roca are very solid. Harrison is working toward a big time payday transfer and Meslier is one of the best young keepers in the league. Koch is solid. Strujik is another really solid player although not fast enough for wing back.

I think we will be OK only because some teams are so poor. Forest, Wolves, Villa, Everton and Southhampton. I think Bournemouth will have a bounce affect like we did 2 years ago and Fulham can score goals so they will survive. Leicester is old and WH seem tired like we were last year.

We've always done well against Arsenal since promotion so won't be surprised if they struggle against us. I think the gunners end up pushing Citeh a bit and ending up second. The problem with Citeh is they aren't going to lose points during the season so they'll end up second. I think Chelsea end up third. Liverpool is already toast for the league. They are finding out just how important Mane was to them.

We will end up 15th

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Don’t think Sinisterra will sit a lot he is clearly our best player by some distance with lots of potential to improve further.

Aaronson is probably next in the pecking order or Adams.

Wonder how influenced JM is by his player leadership group.