Five Festive Games to decide whether we stay up or go down? | Vital Football

Five Festive Games to decide whether we stay up or go down?

L

ldgavfc

Vital Squad Member
So after a hit and miss start to the season, we come into the run of fixtures that will more than likely define our season.

We probably deserve more points than we have based on our performances overall, but the table doesn't lie and we are in serious trouble.

The next five games are all against teams that will be around us come the end of the season and I am including Sheffield in this.

Claim all 15 points and we stay up. Lose more than two of the next five and we are down. Simple as that really.

The Leicester game is the first of the Dean Smith era in which I think managerial decisions rather than mistakes or lack of quality from playing staff was the reason for the loss. The team selection was horrible, the substitutions were terrible, the decision to leave an injured Mings on was terrible. It was a game we should have been competitive in but we rolled over without much fuss.

I want to see good management, good team selections, good play, clean sheets and goals in the next five. We are too good to be scrapping with the likes of Everton down there.
 
ldgavfc said:
So after a hit and miss start to the season, we come into the run of fixtures that will more than likely define our season.

We probably deserve more points than we have based on our performances overall, but the table doesn't lie and we are in serious trouble.

The next five games are all against teams that will be around us come the end of the season and I am including Sheffield in this.

Claim all 15 points and we stay up. Lose more than two of the next five and we are down. Simple as that really.

The Leicester game is the first of the Dean Smith era in which I think managerial decisions rather than mistakes or lack of quality from playing staff was the reason for the loss. The team selection was horrible, the substitutions were terrible, the decision to leave an injured Mings on was terrible. It was a game we should have been competitive in but we rolled over without much fuss.

I want to see good management, good team selections, good play, clean sheets and goals in the next five. We are too good to be scrapping with the likes of Everton down there.
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Agree with much of that, but I would suggest that it's Everton who are too good to be scrapping down there with the likes of us!

And I don't think we're down if we fail to take more than 6 points from the next few matches, but it will leave us in a massive hole that a January transfer window might not be able to get us out of.

The Southampton/Norwich/Watford games are huge though, and if we can get something from Sheffield and Burnely, it will go a good way to safety.
 
Sorry but that's cobblers and typical sensationalism that some regularly use. The outcome of our season will not be decided in December or any earlier.
Clearly winning all 5 games would go a long way to helping us stay up, but if we did end up losing 2 or 3 it would not mean we are already relegated.
We clearly need another forward or 2 in January and getting the right players in could make a huge difference to us. I'd also like to see us use an alternative formation a bit more, so that we don't get over run in midfield when opponents put another man in the middle.
 
I've said something similar in the Leics game thread. Until reinforcements come in Jan (hopefully, gulp) then these next 5 games are critical. I'd like to see 7-9 pts from these or its going to get really uncomfortable.
 
I think it is a pivotal month, the confidence could soar with some good wins v the teams around and below us. These are, once again, the games we can measure ourselves by.

I think this winter period is crucial. We can either see some wins and then self belief and less pressure, or we can see the confidence melt away.

I'll go with the former.
 
"Claim all 15 points and we stay up. Lose more than two of the next five and we are down. Simple as that really."
I agree with some of what you say, but the above re losing two of the games and we are down is simply not true.
We have another 22 games as of today with plenty of points on offer.
 
5 games is a bit too far to look ahead; I'd rather take the next 4, those until the end of the year. It's simple; get 7 points out of those we'll be on a point a game and will stay up. Get more and we can make life a bit more comfortable and regain contact with the centre of the table (a gap is beginning to develop). Get less, and there's a good chance we'll be in the relegation zone and have a bigger mountain to climb.

Unless we're going off the rails, 7 points out of those matches we ought to get. It'll be tough to get anything out of Sheffield U, but that match alone will be a good indication of whether we can recover from the dire Leicester performance or whether cracks are beginning to appear.
 
garygaryshaw said:
Sorry but that's cobblers and typical sensationalism that some regularly use. The outcome of our season will not be decided in December or any earlier.
Clearly winning all 5 games would go a long way to helping us stay up, but if we did end up losing 2 or 3 it would not mean we are already relegated.
We clearly need another forward or 2 in January and getting the right players in could make a huge difference to us. I'd also like to see us use an alternative formation a bit more, so that we don't get over run in midfield when opponents put another man in the middle.
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And past evidence, both from Villa and Brentford is that Dean Smith teams tend to go on runs of consecutive wins.... I won't be counting chickens this season until something is mathematically certain.
There will be ebbs and flows as the season continues, and if you look at the big picture we have, for the most part, lost to the teams in the top half, drawn with the teams in the middle and beaten the teams near the bottom. If that trend continues we will end up.... somewhere near the bottom of the middle...:whist::whist:
 
gmvillan said:
And past evidence, both from Villa and Brentford is that Dean Smith teams tend to go on runs of consecutive wins.... I won't be counting chickens this season until something is mathematically certain.
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Some said Brucie was a streaky manager, maybe Deano is the same :throw:
 
If that trend continues we will end up.... somewhere near the bottom of the
middle...:whist::whist:
And that will do nicely thank you.
 
The Fear said:
If we go on a run now, with these 'more manageable' games, we could be top ten. Crazy league!
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I hope we are firmly ensconced in the warm bosom of mid-table by the end of February. The run of games through March and April isn't great. We don't want to get to May needing a lot of points to stay up.
 
BodyButter said:
I hope we are firmly ensconced in the warm bosom of mid-table by the end of February. The run of games through March and April isn't great. We don't want to get to May needing a lot of points to stay up.
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Well mid-table is currently occupied by the likes of Sean Dyche and Roy Hodgson. I don't think they have warm bosoms to be fair... o_O
 
BodyButter said:
It will if we win a few of these in a row.
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I remember Boxing Days always being a happy occasion in the gmv household...we used to always put the Villa score up on the living room window with that spray snow that came in the aerosol cans... but then I'm old....
 
ldgavfc said:
Claim all 15 points and we stay up. Lose more than two of the next five and we are down. Simple as that really. .
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No doubting the next 5 games are important, as is any game we play against teams 'on our level', but I think that statement is massively OTT.

Nobody is ever down in December.

We need to average a point a game to stay up. So after these 5 games that 21 played so 21 points is OK.

2 wins from the next 5 gets us there. Anything else is a bonus.

But even if we only win 1 of the next 5 there's still 17 games and plenty of points to play for

Down in December? :unsure:
 
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