PL Relegation Battle

[DannyMan2006]

I think Martinez is a good boss but he has taken a bit of a risk by going with players he knows from the lower leagues and some young players. I have a feeling that they will be okay though. I certainly hope so as he plays a nice brand of football.

If he can get Bramble and Sharner to play as well as Bruce did I think they will probably be okay.

Bit harsh on at least they try/and do play some decent football. I will be very surprised if burnley go down this season

I actually think burnley maybe ok,

they play decent football and may surprise a few people early doors.

Although it didnt do West brom any favours.

Exactly red g.

Clubs who have players of limited ability and try to play a good brand of football will always struggle. Best such a team can do is hope to suprise opponents for their first year. After that it's curtains.

Like it or not, but the Stoke/Bolton/Blackburn way of playing is the one that gets results. Chris Samba up fornt is not pretty, but it's better than getting relegated if you're a Blackburn fan.

Burnley will go straight back down. Wigan will probably follow unless Jason Scotland and Hugo Rodallega adjust.

[dww]

Exactly red g.

Clubs who have players of limited ability and try to play a good brand of football will always struggle. Best such a team can do is hope to suprise opponents for their first year. After that it's curtains.

Like it or not, but the Stoke/Bolton/Blackburn way of playing is the one that gets results. Chris Samba up fornt is not pretty, but it's better than getting relegated if you're a Blackburn fan.

Burnley will go straight back down. Wigan will probably follow unless Jason Scotland and Hugo Rodallega adjust.

But then the teams like Wigan and Reading at least short term had success with an attractive brand of football. Financially West Ham are probably in the same bracket as these teams too. Fulham have done the same for years too.

Obviously you have to have the right players but I don't know the likes of Gomez well enough to say whether or not he is good enough but I will be interested to see.

You have to be able to defend for certain in the PL which was basically West Brom's problem - they couldn't do it in the Championship and they didn't try and change philosophy at all or bring in significantly better players to play that way.

[red g]

But then the teams like Wigan and Reading at least short term had success with an attractive brand of football. Financially West Ham are probably in the same bracket as these teams too. Fulham have done the same for years too.

Obviously you have to have the right players but I don't know the likes of Gomez well enough to say whether or not he is good enough but I will be interested to see.

You have to be able to defend for certain in the PL which was basically West Brom's problem - they couldn't do it in the Championship and they didn't try and change philosophy at all or bring in significantly better players to play that way.

i thought west broms problem was they couldnt score......or defend!!
they averaged scoring less than a goal a game and let in far to many.

You need goalscorers in this league.......there are many opportunities for the lower teams to nick points or wins but if they havent someone who can score they dont really have a chance,

Hull and Blackburn were both nearly as Bad in defence but they had guys who could create and score opportunities.

[dww]

i thought west broms problem was they couldnt score......or defend!!
they averaged scoring less than a goal a game and let in far to many.

You need goalscorers in this league.......there are many opportunities for the lower teams to nick points or wins but if they havent someone who can score they dont really have a chance,

Hull and Blackburn were both nearly as Bad in defence but they had guys who could create and score opportunities.

West Brom also lacked cutting edge but I always felt if they kept themselves in games they would have got more chances. As it was opponents knew they could get at them. I guess in the end they went down because they weren't good enough overall.

Obviously you do need to score goals but the definition at the bottom of the table of a goalscorer has often been the likes of Davies with 9-10 goals in a season.

Hull were good in defence early season and Blackburn were good at both ends at various points in the season although rarely both from my recollection.

[DannyMan2006]

But then the teams like Wigan and Reading at least short term had success with an attractive brand of football. Financially West Ham are probably in the same bracket as these teams too. Fulham have done the same for years too.

Obviously you have to have the right players but I don't know the likes of Gomez well enough to say whether or not he is good enough but I will be interested to see.

You have to be able to defend for certain in the PL which was basically West Brom's problem - they couldn't do it in the Championship and they didn't try and change philosophy at all or bring in significantly better players to play that way.

West Ham have far better players than Wigan and Reading ever had. Fulham too, who also had plenty of money when they first came into the league. Since that time Fulham have eventually established themselves and built up a decent squad along the way.

The key to staying in the premier league is to scrap all the way until you aquire players good enough to play a different brand of football. Burnley have nowhere near the quality of player needed. I'll be interested to see how Coyle plays it, because if they try and out pass teams like Spurs and Arsenal they'll get smashed.

Wigan on the other hand have been in the premiership a while and have a decent squad of players. I think if it all goes wrong they could maybe revert back to hoof ball with Scotland as the target man. But the limited quality they had has since left the club. They started to plummet when they lost Palacious, since the end of the season they've lost their three other decent players from last year in Cattermole, Valencia and even Zaki. The replacements seemed good players in the Championship, but they are not of the level they have lost.

[lickedlollipop]

if brown won't be such a cunt that used to be, hull could stay.

[red g]

West Ham have far better players than Wigan and Reading ever had. Fulham too, who also had plenty of money when they first came into the league. Since that time Fulham have eventually established themselves and built up a decent squad along the way.

The key to staying in the premier league is to scrap all the way until you aquire players good enough to play a different brand of football. Burnley have nowhere near the quality of player needed. I'll be interested to see how Coyle plays it,

because if they try and out pass teams like Spurs and Arsenal they'll get smashed.
Wigan on the other hand have been in the premiership a while and have a decent squad of players. I think if it all goes wrong they could maybe revert back to hoof ball with Scotland as the target man. But the limited quality they had has since left the club. They started to plummet when they lost Palacious, since the end of the season they've lost their three other decent players from last year in Cattermole, Valencia and even Zaki. The replacements seemed good players in the Championship, but they are not of the level they have lost.

They did pretty well against a full strength spurs.....and beat an arsenal team of some of the best youth in the world ever

I cant see Wigan playing hoofball, not martinez style at all, they do have a half decent defence though.

Will be interesting to see how wolves get on....in Kightly and banks they have 2 players who were superb last year and will be interesting to see if they step up to the plate.

[dww]

West Ham have far better players than Wigan and Reading ever had. Fulham too, who also had plenty of money when they first came into the league. Since that time Fulham have eventually established themselves and built up a decent squad along the way.

The key to staying in the premier league is to scrap all the way until you aquire players good enough to play a different brand of football. Burnley have nowhere near the quality of player needed. I'll be interested to see how Coyle plays it, because if they try and out pass teams like Spurs and Arsenal they'll get smashed.

Wigan on the other hand have been in the premiership a while and have a decent squad of players. I think if it all goes wrong they could maybe revert back to hoof ball with Scotland as the target man. But the limited quality they had has since left the club. They started to plummet when they lost Palacious, since the end of the season they've lost their three other decent players from last year in Cattermole, Valencia and even Zaki. The replacements seemed good players in the Championship, but they are not of the level they have lost.

Zaki only played half a season at most (in terms of actually trying) and a lot of his goals were penalties. Not sure he is as big a loss as is made out. The other ones I take your point but I'll reserve judgments on the players coming in. I certainly agree Wigan will struggle but if their aim is survival I think they will do it.

Burnley will have problem no matter what they do. They didn't come up with enough depth even for the PL, let alone quality. I think their cup run last year has robbed them of the surprise element too.

I was meaning more recently with Fulham, particularly when Hodgson took over a team designed for route one nonsense and pretty quickly improved them by making them play football. West Ham too were improved by playing better football. I know they had a few better players but many had injury problems and they used a lot of young players. I'd argue the fact that Wigan and Reading did well playing good football with far worse players than West Ham is actually a point in favour of my argument that playing decent football is a valid way of attempting to stay in the PL.

For me you need discipline and organisation which a lot of teams like West Brom and certainly Newcastle, Sunderland, Derby and a number of other teams who went down recently lacked no matter what style of play is adopted.

[DannyMan2006]

Zaki only played half a season at most (in terms of actually trying) and a lot of his goals were penalties. Not sure he is as big a loss as is made out. The other ones I take your point but I'll reserve judgments on the players coming in. I certainly agree Wigan will struggle but if their aim is survival I think they will do it.

Burnley will have problem no matter what they do. They didn't come up with enough depth even for the PL, let alone quality. I think their cup run last year has robbed them of the surprise element too.

I was meaning more recently with Fulham, particularly when Hodgson took over a team designed for route one nonsense and pretty quickly improved them by making them play football. West Ham too were improved by playing better football. I know they had a few better players but many had injury problems and they used a lot of young players. I'd argue the fact that Wigan and Reading did well playing good football with far worse players than West Ham is actually a point in favour of my argument that playing decent football is a valid way of attempting to stay in the PL.

For me you need discipline and organisation which a lot of teams like West Brom and certainly Newcastle, Sunderland, Derby and a number of other teams who went down recently lacked no matter what style of play is adopted.

When Zaki went of the boil so did Wigan, whether he was a big factor or it was all down to the loss of Palacious is another matter. But up until Xmas everyone was raving about him and there was more to him than just scoring penalties.

Fulham, I again say had decent enough players. The fact they were doing so badly doesn't mean they had bad players who can't play football. In Jimmy Bullard and Danny Murphy they could play no other way and in those two had very good passers of the ball.

West Ham had a very talented squad that was under achieving. Zola simply came in and adapted a brand of football that the club have always played, from the senior team down to the youth team. As their squad has plenty of homegrown talent, and good talent at that already drilled in playing premier league football, they were able to adapt.

Reading and Ipswich have done well in the past and played good football, but only lasted one year.

Put simply, my point is this. A team with good players will get the best results by playing good football. A team with average to poor players will get the best results by playing a kick and rush game. I don't like it, but that's the way it is.

[lickedlollipop]

Bullard signed for Hull in January iirc (but he is injured atm) ^^

[-V-]

Btw did anybody see any of the Paul Hart press conference yesterday?

The reporter asked him if he would take 17th place at the end of the season if offered it?

Hart replied "errr is that outside the bottom 3? I should really start looking at these tables"

[Chris]

I will be absolutely amazed if Hull stay up, Negredo or not. Once they were found out / confidence went they were ****ing awful and it looked like there was/is no team spirit at all, or more probably they dont want to play for that idiot in charge anymore. I dont think they can just flick a switch and everything will be fine again. I cant see them topping 25 points this season, starting with a 4 goal plus whooping tomorrow

[Craig_H]

Btw did anybody see any of the Paul Hart press conference yesterday?

The reporter asked him if he would take 17th place at the end of the season if offered it?

Hart replied "errr is that outside the bottom 3? I should really start looking at these tables"

[S-RED]

Btw did anybody see any of the Paul Hart press conference yesterday?

The reporter asked him if he would take 17th place at the end of the season if offered it?

Hart replied "errr is that outside the bottom 3? I should really start looking at these tables"

I saw that, he looked Punch drunk even before the season has started........

[Rafael Benítez Maudes]

stoke,portsmouth, burnley or hull.

still time to bring in players

so i might change my mind.