The Race For 7th

[Deleted member 13260]

We had 5 early in the season and even up to Christmas Vicario had the most CS in the Prem.
Pickford and Everton have the most and they only have 8.

Last 2 games were annoying for sure but with the Back 4 together, we are going to pick them up again soon

We have fielded our first choice back 4 in 12 games so far - excluding the Chelsea game as the goals came after our defenders left the field of play.

4 clean sheets and 13 goals conceded. Conceding close to a goal per game is comparable with City, Liverpool and Woolwich.

 

[Perryman]

View: https://x.com/BeGriffis/status/1755349935539487046?s=20

So Liverpool are going to get 18 pts from the next 15 games. They are currently top of the league.
doesn’t make a lot of sense . These things are normally rubbish. You can expect what you like, you will usually be wrong.
Who expected Villa 1-3 Chelsea.

 

[Richard Arlison]

We have fielded our first choice back 4 in 12 games so far - excluding the Chelsea game as the goals came after our defenders left the field of play.

4 clean sheets and 13 goals conceded. Conceding close to a goal per game is comparable with City, Liverpool and Woolwich.

Right, that's what I mean when I say let's see what it looks like at the end of Feb.

 

[Starks]

We have fielded our first choice back 4 in 12 games so far - excluding the Chelsea game as the goals came after our defenders left the field of play.

4 clean sheets and 13 goals conceded. Conceding close to a goal per game is comparable with City, Liverpool and Woolwich.

Exactly.

Why people try and force some strange arrative is just odd to me.

The facts are, with our strongest back four, we concede on average a goal a game. And a cleansheet in a third of those games. Which is on par with teams who haven't had anywhere near the problems we've had.

Our best back four has completed 11 games together in the league. In strictly games completed, we've conceded 12 goals with a quarter of those coming against two teams above us. 6 of them coming from set pieces and as you say kept 4 cleansheets.

But it also helps having a fully fit midfield infront of them too.

 

[Murphy]

You can't say 141 year history. I would give you 43 years going back to 1981 when it changed from 2 points to 3 for a win.

Should we get 72 points, 3 of those 4 seasons would be in the last 8 years.
Says a lot about Levy's ownership to me, though some would hate to hear that because you don't get trophies for growing significantly as a club.

But going back to 15/16 season our point totals have been;
70 - 86 - 77 - 71 - 59 - 62 - 71 - 60

I don't think 72 could be seen as incredible honestly give its only 1-2 points more than 3 of those seasons. It's a decent tally, but we are better than that.

We had Kane for all of those seasons. 72 points in a post Kane era is incredible.

 

[Deleted member 13260]

We had Kane for all of those seasons. 72 points in a post Kane era is incredible.

At the start of the season I was arguing on here that we can score 70 goals in the league without Kane.
Something we haven't done since Falco was our top scorer 85/86 season.

Kane was a fantastic player for us, but I have to recognise he played in some very good sides too.
Had someone else been playing up front for us, whilst they likely wouldn't have returned Kane numbers, I do think there are a lot of strikers that could have returned 15-20+ goals.

Richarlison is kinda proving that at the moment. Yes Kane was good, but he wasn't the sole reason we got 70 odd points. Nor would we finish bottom half or even relegated without him like some liked to suggest.

 

[Airfixx]

He was injured when we beat Palace.
Sent off during the Chelsea game so didn't miss it as such, then missed Wolves through suspension.

Otherwise he missed the Everton home game we won but played in every other game.

It was just 1 game he missed during our crisis. Felt like more because of how crippled our back line was.

Didn't he also get a ban for 5 yellows........?

 

[nicoclaesen]

It'd be the 4th best points total in the club's 141 year history in a season where we've lost our best ever goalscorer and had to deal with months of injuries and missing players.

That's quite frankly incredible when you consider most people before the season started would have been happy with just seeing a vision in place in a year of transition.

80+ would quite frankly be a miracle.

I remember people saying back at the start they’d be happy with seeing a vision in place and playing good football. What a lot of pish that was
Folk melting on here because we draw! Melting because we are 5th. Melting because we are 7 pts off top. Melting because Dragusin looks too aggressive! Melting because Romero is a supposed liability.

Some on here will never be happy!!

We are having a very good season and with everyone back it will get better.

 

[Deleted member 13260]

Didn't he also get a ban for 5 yellows........?

Yeh that was the Everton game we won at home.

 

[Starks]

I remember people saying back at the start they’d be happy with seeing a vision in place and playing good football. What a lot of pish that was
Folk melting on here because we draw! Melting because we are 5th. Melting because we are 7 pts off top. Melting because Dragusin looks too aggressive! Melting because Romero is a supposed liability.

Some on here will never be happy!!

We are having a very good season and with everyone back it will get better.

And the biggest thing?

We are 6 months in. It only gets better.

 

[Matt1882]

We have fielded our first choice back 4 in 12 games so far - excluding the Chelsea game as the goals came after our defenders left the field of play.

4 clean sheets and 13 goals conceded. Conceding close to a goal per game is comparable with City, Liverpool and Woolwich.

That's why Liverpool and City are top 2 and we're not. We've scored almost as many as them.

 

[Richard Arlison]

That's why Liverpool and City are top 2 and we're not. We've scored almost as many as them.

Because we lost almost our entire MF and back 4 and they didn't?

 

[Airfixx]

You can't say 141 year history. I would give you 43 years going back to 1981 when it changed from 2 points to 3 for a win.

Should we get 72 points, 3 of those 4 seasons would be in the last 8 years.
Says a lot about Levy's ownership to me, though some would hate to hear that because you don't get trophies for growing significantly as a club.

But going back to 15/16 season our point totals have been;
70 - 86 - 77 - 71 - 59 - 62 - 71 - 60

I don't think 72 could be seen as incredible honestly give its only 1-2 points more than 3 of those seasons. It's a decent tally, but we are better than that.

Also Starks .....

72 points would be our joined 6th best points tally of all time.

(FWIW : 5 out of the top 12 are under ENIC.... )

 

[Matt1882]

Because we lost almost our entire MF and back 4 and they didn't?

Yep.
The point is that we're now doing the right stuff at the front end as we're scoring almost as many as the top 2 teams. We just need to tighten (back) up at the back.

As of now, the only players missing aren't starters. Or even backups really.
Need to crack back on, and, if we're still leaking then it's a bit of a worry.

 

[Richard Arlison]

Yep.
The point is that we're now doing the right stuff at the front end as we're scoring almost as many as the top 2 teams. We just need to tighten (back) up at the back.

As of now, the only players missing aren't starters. Or even backups really.
Need to crack back on, and, if we're still leaking then it's a bit of a worry.

Yeah that's fair.

 

[Airfixx]

We're gonna need to learn how to keep clean sheets PDQ if we want to get top 4, lets be serious.
Idea's of 2.5ppg for the next ten games is pie in the sky with how porous we currently are.

So you think it's gonna take 82 points for top 4? ....Or did you just pluck 2.5ppg out of your bum?

 

[Matt1882]

At the start of the season I was arguing on here that we can score 70 goals in the league without Kane.
Something we haven't done since Falco was our top scorer 85/86 season.

Kane was a fantastic player for us, but I have to recognise he played in some very good sides too.
Had someone else been playing up front for us, whilst they likely wouldn't have returned Kane numbers, I do think there are a lot of strikers that could have returned 15-20+ goals.

Richarlison is kinda proving that at the moment. Yes Kane was good, but he wasn't the sole reason we got 70 odd points. Nor would we finish bottom half or even relegated without him like some liked to suggest.

I think that's revisionism.
Kane made an awful lot of goals from nothing.

 

[Get in!]

I remember people saying back at the start they’d be happy with seeing a vision in place and playing good football. What a lot of pish that was
Folk melting on here because we draw! Melting because we are 5th. Melting because we are 7 pts off top. Melting because Dragusin looks too aggressive! Melting because Romero is a supposed liability.

Some on here will never be happy!!

We are having a very good season and with everyone back it will get better.

I don't think it's melting. I think there is some pent up frustration at how our season got derailed after that Chelsea game in a season where we can focus exclusively on the league. And having shown we have the quality to mount a title challenge.

We keep our cool in the Chelsea game and we'd have a less depleted squad in the following games. And with a less depleted squad Chelsea, Wolves, Villa, Spam could easily have been 3-pointers, but let's just say we only got half of those points. That would have us -1 from the top and dropping 2 points at Everton wouldn't have irked people as much.

 

[Fish Supper]

We'll have gained points on Villa and the Gooners come Sunday evening.

 

[bonaspur23]

So Liverpool are going to get 18 pts from the next 15 games. They are currently top of the league.
doesn’t make a lot of sense . These things are normally rubbish. You can expect what you like, you will usually be wrong.
Who expected Villa 1-3 Chelsea.

No, that’s not what he’s saying. According to the module, which who knows if it’s good or not, Liverpool should have 42 points based on whatever he’s measuring, and that would extrapolate out to 69 based on 38 games. Liverpool are +9 against the model and clearly aren’t going to end up finishing -9 in the remaining matches to end up with 69 points.

If you wanted to use the module to predict where Liverpool would finish, it would say they’ll gain 27 points (69-42). So add that to their current 51 and it’s 78. However, Liverpool have significantly outperformed the module, so decent chance they continue to outperform it and finish with more.