Relegation

[WindyCity]

We can't rest on our laurels as a club and we can't go into next season being confident we'll stay up, we need to approach it with all the competitive spirit we approached the first half of the season.  There are very fine margins between doing well or being a solid mid table team vs being a high achiever or a relegation candidate in this league.

The questions that need to be asked is why we dropped off so significantly in that period?

Excellent post General.  It's true, can't rest on laurels, and must do our best to retain our top players AND add some quality, maybe 1-2 that might even be starters.  Great point about fine margins.  Witness all of our good performances against top clubs this season, coming up short by one goal margins.  Would be nice to turn those around into points this new season coming.  I do think there are some reasons for the second half drop off in quality of play, which includes suspensions, injuries, and players playing favoring injury (Mitrovic).  And even though the results second half were disappointing, let's not forget that the lads played hard and determined in spite of those injuries and suspensions and came up that odd goal short in many of the losses. 

Looking forward to summer activity and the start of new season.  I don't think FFC will ever be so loaded, so deep that they can take a night off and still win games.  Every game will be a challenge regardless the competition.  And that's a good thing, I think, as MS and the boys should know they have to play their very best to realize desired results.

[Thailand Mick]

Despite our 10th position finish we are 6th favourites for relegation at 10/3.

Strangely Everton 7/2
C.Palace 5/1
Wolves 5/2
West Ham 11/1

All rate better higher than us.
Do the bookies know something we don't?

Our second half of season form isn't the best when contrasted to a lot of teams.

From Feb 19th till the end of the season we only won 4 out of 14 matches (2 draws, 8 losses), and all of those were against relegation threatened teams. So we did drop off significantly in the second half of the season.

If you had that form over the entire season, mirroring those results, you'd have 9-11 wins, which is the same as Bournemouth had in 15th, and they got a total of 39 points, which is only 5 points off getting relegated.

We can't rest on our laurels as a club and we can't go into next season being confident we'll stay up, we need to approach it with all the competitive spirit we approached the first half of the season.

There are very fine margins between doing well or being a solid mid table team vs being a high achiever or a relegation candidate in this league.

Everton came 10th in 2020-2021 and then that was followed by coming 16th and 17th, staying up by the skin of their teeth by 4 points and then two points this season on the last day of the season.

The questions that need to be asked is why we dropped off so significantly in that period?

Had managers got used to our tactics and figured out our players?

Did injuries and suspensions cause that much of a drop off in our performances, eg is our squad not very strong? Mitro out for 8 games, Palhinha out for periods due to suspensions, Ream and Pereira (Ream was our best CB last season)..

Or did the World Cup take its toll?

It'll be just as important to understand the cause of the drop off as it will be to iterate and develop new tactics in the off season as it will be to tie down players to new contracts and strengthen the squad with new signings who can offer us something different.

This will be the first real test for Silva and in particular the Khan's to see how well they've planned a long term and effective strategy to grow the club and team properly.

The one thing that I've noticed is that we started to revert somewhat to type re marco's historical approach to management.

What set us aside earlier in the season was that we didn't seem to compromise our defensive ability for attacking results, we were strong in both areas and we got some great results.

In the second half of the season that started to shift.

In our last ten games we won 4, drew 1 and lost 5 games, scoring 16 and conceding 14.

We clearly need to get that balance back and it is just as important as anything in this league.

when you break down the results we were amazingly consistent throughout the season, 6 teams we lost to both first half of the season and second half. 5 teams we beat first half and second half and Wolves we drew both. That leaves 7 other teams, Everton we drew and then won and Palace we won and then drew which evens it's self out. The other 3 wins we didn't repeat were all home wins against villa who vastly improved when Emery took over, Brentford who had a fantastic home record and Chelsea. The 2 draws at home we didn't match away were Liverpool awarded a very soft penalty and 2 great saves and the most disappointing for me Bournemouth.

[KentFulham]

To be fair, our form in the last 12 matches is not far off relegation form. We entered the 1st half of the season strong,  but we finished with a wimper.

[toshes mate]

My grandmother always told me her apple pies were good. Just occasionally they were really good.  And very occasionally they were truly excellent. I think FFC had an almost excellent season with the cup fiasco taking a little shine off of what might have been. I have already said I believe Marco and his team can produce an even better pie for 23/24.

It matters not how you do it when you just do.

[Blawarmy]

We were pretty safe with a few matches to go.  We were hardly hammered in the games we lost either. Plus Mitro wasn't available.  Marco will strengthen us. Once again I'm looking forward to proving them all wrong.

[FFC In Oz]

We were pretty safe with a few matches to go.  We were hardly hammered in the games we lost either. Plus Mitro wasn't available.  Marco will strengthen us. Once again I'm looking forward to proving them all wrong.

I was hopeful of achieving safety but was expecting a few thumpings along the way.

Arsenal and Newcastle at home were probably the two that stand out.  Brentford away I think the scoreline flattered us somewhat.

[Londonfranky]

The premiership has always been the same, one bad season and you could be relegated,apart from the top 7 teams, who really thought at the start of last season that Leeds,Leicester and Southampton would go down, or that all 3 promoted teams would stay up, I thought we would stay up last season, but not do as well as we did, the thing is that we have to start the season well, because the two previous relegation seasons we were practically down by October,I think it all depends on transfers,incoming and outgoing, all the major transfers last season started well, and we need the same to happen this season, as long as we don't lose to many of our better players I think we'll be fine