Sunbury Fox

Poor old VK must have made hundreds of overlapping runs this season, and been ignored pretty much every time by Mavididi, in favour of a safe pass back into CM on most occasions. I realise VK is hardly Marcelo but he has fizzed in some decent balls from the byline when given the chance.

There is definitely a lot of revisionism going on about 14/15. I remember people completely writing us off after a dismal 0-0 draw at home to Hull, which I think was just a couple of games before the West Ham home game that triggered the great escape. Either way, looking at our remaining fixtures this season it is hard to see where the points are coming from to save us, unless the points total required is unprecedentedly low. We have 8 home games left, 4 of which are against Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle and an improving Man U. Hard to see any points from those 4. The remaining 4 games are Fulham, Brentford, Ipswich and Southampton, all of which we have to win, given our tragic away form. Even in the unlikely event we manage that, then that would leave us on 26 points, meaning we are probably going to need a couple of away wins. Our remaining away games are against Tottenham, Everton, West Ham, Chelsea, Man City, Brighton, Wolves, Forest and Bournemouth. Of those, the only realistic opportunities for wins are Everton and Wolves. Then we could look to get something from West Ham and maybe Brighton, who may be marooned in mid table by the time we play them. So, all in all, we probably have 6-8 good opportunities for points until the end of the season. Based on historical points totals needed for survival, even 8 wins from those games might only just be enough. That said, Forest would have stayed up with only 28 points last season, so if a similarly low total is needed to survive this season, we might only need 4 wins and 2 draws.

The bit in bold is surely the result of better management and coaching, though ie something which is in the control of the manager and hence something Ruud should be credited for? Getting general play and structure right was the necessary first step - and as a result we are conceding far fewer shots on our goal, and we are making more high quality chances in games. The key thing now is, can we get better players in key positions to help improve our performance in both boxes? This is unlikely, sadly, given the financial constraints. But let's hope that Ruud can find some cheap gems. Agree with you that the squad has never been good enough to finish above 17th, especially given the continued absences of Mads, Ricardo, Ndidi and Fatawu.

Cooper definitely had to go, even if Ruud goes on to lose the next 17 matches. The players and fans were simply not having Cooper and the team had no structure or clear patterns of play. As for Ruud, I think we should persevere even if the results continue to be less than we would hope for. Looking at the run of 6 defeats, 3 were against clubs currently participating in the UCL, whilst the 4th was against a club likely to finish in the top 4 this season. The Wolves defeat was largely due to reasons we don't need to go back over, and as for last night we more than matched Palace on the whole. I was pretty hacked off straight after the game yesterday, but having slept on it I seriously don't think we are miles off it in terms of general play between the boxes and team structure. We lost last night because our finishing was a lot worse than theirs and there were individual errors by defenders. This stems not from the manager but from the fact that the defenders we currently have are not PL standard and our only PL standard striker is 38. Unless Ruud is given funds to bring in better players, not sure what else he can do. You can see that Ruud has the backing of the players and the fans, and the football is good to watch on the whole, putting the results aside. I hope he stays even if we go down (which seems likely) - let's try to build some stability, continue to embed a clear style of playing, and allow Ruud to reshape the squad in line with his vision. Continually swapping managers leads to squads that are unbalanced and made up of a hotch potch of players.

I do think injuries have had a massive impact on our performances since Cooper left. Given the lack of quality in the squad overall, having Mads, Ricardo, Abdul and Wilf unavailable has been a fatal blow in my view.

Yeah, it is our wage bill that has crippled us. Our net spend is still pretty low compared to many clubs. Even Bournemouth and Brentford have a higher record signing than us.

Playing a bottom 6 team at home and we still lose pretty easily. There's no chance we'll get enough points from the remaining games to stay up. The quality of the team is just not up to standard. I do think the players are trying their best but they're simply not good enough, sadly. The fact we have fewer points than Luton at the same stage last season says everything you need to know about where we are at.

We might get 1 as these are more open and attacking than Palace but we will concede at least 3, probably more. Just want this season finished as I'm just sick of losing week after week.

Just worried that we'll play well but they'll poach a goal from nowhere and win 1-0.

With Faes and Vesty at CB, Bouba and Winks in CM, and the 3 behind the striker, we have lots of good technical players in the team, which hopefully means we can control possession more effectively. Here's hoping anyway!

Think that's a decent line up, but that will probably mean it all goes horribly wrong! The subs bench is horrific, though!

Can you believe his winning goal was almost 17 years ago?! https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=d439ec360ff152bca1ae85395c01ae7eddc2f0a33951b7c7e0175d8cda2b81bcJmltdHM9MTczNjg5OTIwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=055bfed1-f1ea-6c57-30f7-ed66f0896d8a&psq=barry+hayles+winner+v+Crystal+Palace&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL2Zvb3RiYWxsLzIwMDgvamFuLzI5L21hdGNoLmNyeXN0YWxwYWxhY2U&ntb=1

Need someone to step up with a Barry Hayle moment tonight. [One for the older members of the forum]

Have a horrible feeling that he'll start Ayew again ahead of Facundo. Really hope I'm wrong, though.

Any comparisons to our 15/16 team are utterly ridiculous. Prime Vardy v Chris F'ing Wood Kanté v Ryan Yates Mahrez v Elanga I could go on.

Interesting to see that Fulham outshot West Ham 22 to 4. Very clinical from the Hammers.

Hopefully that's the last point Forest get this season apart from in the matches they have left against Everton and Ipswich.

Fearing the same.

Fair enough but would never wish that lot good luck myself.

This is getting seriously worrying now.

Thinking about next season, if, as seems likely, we’re in the Championship, does anyone know what sanctions the EFL can look to impose? Will they have to wait for the 24-25 year accounts to be lodged ie until this time next year? Or will they have a legal basis to slap us with retrospective sanctions from the start of the season on the back of previous compliance failures?

But some media outlets are claiming this could still end in a points deduction. I don’t see how that is the case myself, but do others know more about the potential implications of this ‘arbitration’?

You always seem well-informed on finance stuff. Is your understanding that the £ for Barnes, Castagne, KDH and Enzo falls into the June 2023-June 2024 financial period? But not the £ for Maddison?

Nketiah is the obvious one.

Thought that sake was in the FY before this one but I may be wrong.