Jobyfox

Hmmm... I see different points totals quoted for runs of form and was wondering whether people pick 6 games, 5 games or 18 games or whatever to tell a narrative that they want to convey (i.e. state it in our favour). So I picked 12 games The reason I picked 12 is because I wanted to do it from the Leeds loss, which coincided with our worst mini run of form. Since then we've gained 26 points and Southampton 28 points. My point? None whatsoever I'm just trying to reassure myself that the Saints won't have enough games to catch us

Why in a row? Surely they just need 14 more points than us between now and the end of the season

Well that's good timing then ...

To be honest I don't care what Millwall do as I don't support them

I’m always usually one to say that both cup competitions are important. Ultimately trophies won are what any team is measured by. Being in the stadium when two league cups and the PL trophy were lifted and watching on telly as the FA Cup was lifted are the highlights of my supporting life. HOWEVER. The next game comes after a really heavy period of football. We’re fortunate to get through it, so far, without any run of injuries. It seems that only a significant number of injuries in our squad is the thing that would stop our push for promotion from here. Let’s protect some players and heavily rotate for the next game. I still want to win the game and I think our 2nd string are capable against Millwall. It also gives some of the squad players a game and gets them ready for the point when they’ll be needed. So a cup run is still to our advantage. If, however, we rotate and lose I’ll still think it was the right decision. We can reassess if we were to find ourselves in the QF further down the line

And then he goes on to say … that we shouldn’t judge too quickly 🤣

Anyone know what Norwich are doing?

To be honest. So many games in quick succession we just have to get through it with as many points as possible. We can’t reasonably expect high quality performances with the physical and mental energy that’s been expended. Regroup after this game and hopefully EM will have a bit of time to work with the players who we’ll need to rely upon during the AFCON

Don’t be silly. We need him to fire!!

So we’re down to our 4th choice striker and our 2nd choice midfield. This will be a good test of our squad. Hopefully Vardy is back soon or Cannon fires quickly. Also a shame that Praet seems to be a waste of a squad place at the moment.

When he went from 4th or 5th choice to 1st choice under Rodgers it was part of my epiphany that we really needed an urgent change of direction

Hmmm…. the quality they turned out to be I’d say good luck with that

It’s going well, so far, isn’t it? It could so easily have gone the wrong way if Jesse Marsch had been appointed or we’d been 20 points behind and currently in the playoffs. We’re still not certain of the end result if injuries were to hit us badly. Accepting relegation to plan for a rebuild is a bit like blowing your house up because you need a new kitchen. Anyway. Happy New Year to you

Errr…. we sacked Rodgers before we were down. My scenario could have transpired with a converted penalty by Maddison or even no Everton goal in their last game of the season

^^^^ I might have been answering the wrong poster there, but I still enjoyed my rant

This is precisely what irritates me when this conversation comes around. When we do well following a relegation people come out of the woodwork talking about “blessings in disguise” and “getting the club back”. They forget about the whole jeopardy that relegation brings. Turn one way and you’re straight back up. Turn the other and you fail in the playoff lottery, lose revenues, get stuck in the Championship and become one of the litany of clubs like West Brom, Sunderland, Sheff Wed, Watford or Norwich. Just bobbing around in the division hoping that this is the year they happen upon the magic formula to get them out the league. You could get stuck for a generation. If relegation does prove to be a “blessing in disguise” with Maresca coming in and a new trajectory. It’s still a fairly irrelevant conversation. You’d never plan it as a strategy. You’d never gamble the clubs existence in the way described above. I’d much rather a history where we sacked Rodgers earlier, stayed in the Premier League, appointment Maresca and started our rebuild from a position of strength. We were an established Premier League club. We didn’t need relegation to force a reset. To think anything else is a hangover of the small club mentality we’ve grown up with being historically a yo-yo team. (And I don’t even hate Rodgers like some do and blame the club for not acting earlier, to some extent, when it was obvious that he was presiding over a terminal decline)

Agree with this. I started watching under Brian Hamilton. Despite the Filbert Street passion we were a nothing club going nowhere. Little restored the hope and the excitement. The Wembley trips started then, followed by O’Neill and the League Cups. I really think it was the higher profile that we gained then that ultimately helped us following administration. Just as our PL win and FA Cup give us a much higher profile now

… or a couple of poor seasons and he’ll end up at Watford

Sending Ward to them straight after Thomas would be class 1 trolling

The poster who annoyingly beat me to it award

Good try, but you’re too late for a nomination as Mr/Mrs Miserable

That’s not a particularly high bar when there are probably more than 40,000 registered football clubs in England

I think you’re right. 2 points a game is normal automatic promotion form. Leeds would have 50 if that were the case this season, but would still be 4th. Before the last two games they’d almost be a model of (normal) form required. Unfortunately for them, and the rest of the division, we’re currently averaging 2.48 points per game. We’re the outlier - not them

The way modern teams play he could become a RWB quite successfully