By Simon Leyland
We are not out of the woods yet – part 3
The table below sets out our remaining 11 league games with the figures in brackets the points that we picked up in the reverse fixtures already played earlier in the season.
If we were to replicate those then we would collect another nine points to take us up to 36. Might that be enough? I would not have thought so, so we must do better. At least 10 would probably be needed, or possibly more.
Six or seven points in our next three games would go a long way to dispelling our relegation fears, whereas three points or less would leave us still in the fight for survival.
If we could win the remaining games against teams in the bottom nine then that would be extremely helpful. But that’s easier said than done. And how will our continued dalliance with events in Europe influence things? It will mean eight games in 25 days in the month of April!
5/4 Home v Newcastle (1)
8/4 Away v Fulham (3)
16/4 Home v Arsenal (0)
23/4 Away v Bournemouth (3)
26/4 Home v Liverpool (0)
29/4 Away v Palace (0)
3/5 Away v Man City (0)
7/5 Home v Man Utd (0)
13/5 Away v Brentford (0)
20/5 Home v Leeds (1)
28/5 Away v Leicester (0)
I have a funny feeling that the last game of the season against struggling Leicester will be yet another “cup final”
I still prefer Soucek to any of the others mentioned. Not so great going forward but how would we have fared defensively without him? Benrahma has to play- he gets defences in a panic- they line up against him sometimes threefold but there needs to be at least 3 others (Bowen, Ings, Paqueta?) in the box to be effective. I also hate this sideways , backwards play- it only ups the stats. We’ll end up with over 40 points and safe.
I commented before Southampton that 39 points must be the target, which now equates to 4 wins. We can hope to pick up draws, but we have to play the top four plus Brentford, Fulham and Liverpool so that will be tough. We play 4 teams around us, 3 of which away, so we need to be on it. To that end, surely now Moyes will look to creative talent? On Sunday, Soucek was woeful. To get the best out of Paqueta’s quick passing we need ball players, like Lanzini, Cornet, Benrahma, Fornals and even Downes. Ping it and move and stop the walking side-back stuff which just makes it dead easy for the opponents. We need Antonio or Scamacca for their individual attributes plus height in the box, but Ings is a good additional option for poaching. Let’s do it on the front foot please, our current play is embarrassing..
We need to beat Bournemouth, Leeds and Leicester pickup a point at least against Fulham and Palace. The rest dont matter.