As I say, I don’t think many would do as good (or better) than Dyche has but I think he’s a safety first guy. I get that, against much of the league, but there are games (like tonight) where you simply have to be more aggressive and play to win rather than not lose.
we are one paced and one dimensional - that is not the managers fault
You can't suddenly turn our wide men into Andrei Kanchelskis
Maybe that’s a condemnation of the league rather than the team, but not looking second best against e.g. a really poor Palace side who were facing a terrible set of circumstances doesn’t fill me with huge confidence that we’re heading in the right direction.
I think Dyche is doing as well as just about anyone would in the circumstances but he’s at least the equal of Moyes at his most dour when it comes to being pragmatic. That probably makes sense against much of the league but we should have taken the game to Palace, tonight, and it’s a bit disappointing that both his selection and tactics set us up so passively. Two points lost rather than one gained.
We might (perversely) welcome a second PL charge as it would likely drag Forest down to at least where we currently sit. Hopefully it won’t be much worse than net neutral for us (e.g. they suspend five points from the first charge which they then deduct due to the second charge). I’d take five points per team per each charge, for instance (which would lift us a place and drop Forest to 17th).
other than Wolves were we were soundly and deservedly beaten then most of the other games could have gone either way
We've created good chances in all those games apart from City where Haaland takes his only 2 chances but missed half a dozen easier ones v Chelsea
You can (rightly) say we’re mid table with those ten points back, but our form has been poor for a while (accepting we’ve had a tough run of games, tbf). We might get some points back but we’ll likely lose (at least) as many via the second charge.
Which leaves us exactly where we are and up against Luton and Forest for that final relegation spot. On current form I’m hard pressed to say we look better than either.
Long couple of months ahead.
We haven’t won a league game since before Christmas, and I know we have played some difficult games in that time, but we haven’t looked very likely to win any games either.
I don’t think we’re going to see a turnaround in form from our strikers, it goes against all the evidence I can see. DCL is a shadow of himself in all departments, and Beto is so raw that if he was a steak he’d be eating grass and being milked.
So I think it’s going down to the wire and if we keep doing that we won’t get away with it forever.
The only big danger we have of being relegated IMO is if we get fuck all back from the appeal AND get another points deduction.
As said above: if we ver get Calvert-Lewin or Beto and Doucoure scoring again in sufficient quantity we'll get out of this with a few points to spare.
Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
...as many would have it.
If we had an attacker who could do what they're paid to do we'd be near safety right now.
I was referring to where we are.
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