Five Teams Playing Survival Football with 27 games to go (Guardian Article)

[Steeeeeeeeeed]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/09/premier-league-top-five-bottom-five-great-divide

Quite interesting stats there I thought. Could a team really stay up with only 22 points (?)

It does feel like this season the big teams are further out on their own than ever for sure.

[davew]

I doubt it very much, not all of the bottom 5 or 6 are going to continue losing every match, the relegation points cut off mark will largely depend on what happens in all of the 6 pointer matches (so called). At the moment I see no sign of us getting anywhere near 22 points with the way our squad are playing and I really am not sure how the next transfer window will help us. If we sign any more players that have more quality than those that a lot of money was wasted in the last window, any such players probably won't be signed until the last day of the window. If we get rid of the players who simply aren't good enough to play in the PL, we will probably need another 8 players to replace them, so more disruption and no time to correct the situation to stay up. Sadly I fear we are over 90% certain to be relegated, but I remain 10% optimistic that we might stay up!

[Statto]

There is clearly a divide between top and bottom and there are only a limited number of possible explanations for that: (a) the top teams being exceptionally good these days, or (b) the bottom teams being exceptionally poor.

The Guardian have concluded it's (b): "There is no getting away from just how poor the standard is in the lower reaches of the Premier League this season"

That doesn't surprise me because it gives them a chance to talk negatively about one of the UK's best exports, the Premier League (the headline is "Premier League the most competitive in the world? You must be joking") and this is after all, exactly what the Guardian love doing - talking about how much worse the UK is than every other country in every way. No doubt if the author had been given a few more column inches he'd have used it to blame Brexit.

However my personal view is it shows how exceptionally good the top PL teams are nowadays. Rule Britannia. :wine:

[MJG]

The top 14 are really leaving the bottom six away. Our form while appalling has to also be looked at compared to others.
Six teams in their last six games have only got five points or less. Three of them including us haven't won a game.
I've shown on the stats thread more than once how this is happening over a longer period.
We have the six big teams breaking away and where as when we left the PL last time you could argue their were 14 similar teams, now there are maybe another half dozen or so who would not get relegated and then the rest. The money is spreading down the league making the middling teams of the past that much better than the teams who are coming up.

[filham]

Hard to see how we are going to improve, the players we  signed in the summer  had  good reputations, if we buy in January it is likely to be more of the same and will just mean more money down the same drain.


Jocanovic has to get this lot performing and earning points but he seems a long way from achieving that right now.

A new coach must be a big temptation for the Chairman.

[RaySmith]

Reading this thread made me wonder how this Fulham squad,  with Slav as manager, would do if suddenly transposed to the Championship tomorrow.
I think they might start doing pretty well, and we would be saying how good they were.

Such is the difference now between  the Championship and the Prem.

[Marinelloguthrie]

Look how good tiganas team was with decent experience but we quickly became a very ordinary premier team.

Haven't wolves lost 3 on the bounce?

[hovewhite]

No one's immune to defeat it seems as wolves have shown, as for pionts to stay up think it might be 30 even,the question is have Fulham the bottle to get 25 pionts more and who are those pionts coming from?

[Woolly Mammoth]

If this same team suddenly found its self in the Championship it would still struggle. Because there is no team ethic, no spirit, no desire, no appetite, no leadership, no heartbeat, it does not compete, the level of application and commitment and workrate is mediocre, and because of the money we have spent, every team would be after our scalp and we would still struggle to keep a clean sheet.
You must remember this team has a soft underbelly, they do not fancy a scrap, too much in their comfort zone, and every other club knows this from Hartlepool to Rotherham to Huddersfield to Cardiff and to Liverpool. So like a Shark that sniffs blood they will all go for our juggler vein, and who wouldn't.
Now tomorrow at Anfield, Fulham could go some way to answer that accusation.
Because if I was a Fulham player and read some of the stuff that has been written in the media, and I had anything about me, I would summon my team mates, and Jok would be invited, and I would read them the riot act, and ask them where is their pride, where is there dignity, where is their loyalty and comradeship towards their team mates, if any of them cannot find the guts and energy to go toe to toe with the opponent and at least go down fighting, then I wouldn't want to play in the same team, and they should be completely ashamed of themselves, I would tell them to their faces, that if they cannot do that, then don't bother to turn up.
No more excuses for any individual player or this team, no more excuses for Jok and his coaches.
They all have to perform tomorrow one way or another.
It does not matter what level you play at, if you do not compete for 50/50 balls or even 40/60 balls and work your your nuts off, you will always come second.
It's one thing to lose if your just not good enough but give 100%, but it's a completely different issue if you Surrender without a fight, like this current Fulham team are doing every week, nobody likes gutless players and that includes their own supporters.
So anyone who is still wearing rose tinted glasses and is deluded enough to think that what we have had to watch this season is acceptable.
Just look at the League Table, not only are we rock bottom on points and goal difference, but we are rock bottom on courage, and hunger and competitiveness, and team spirit.
So it's time to do something about it Fulham, and start now.
Otherwise we will be going back down quicker than we came up.

[davew]

Well said Woolly!!

[YankeeJim]

On the plus side we are in a six team league and only need to finish 3rd for automatic "staypromotion".

The Prem is becoming like Scotland. They traditionally have a two team league and readily fail in Europe. There has to be some limits imposed on the top five, either via a salary cap or limits on players under contract. Otherwise it will in the future be as boring as this season has been. There is something wrong when the bottom six probably don't have a player that could start with the top six.