[Albion] 10 games to go, can we get European qualification again?

[Uh_huh_him]

Our run in is the hardest - West Ham's is comparable.
We probably need to beat United/Chelsea/Newcastle ( or at least don't lose)

Also we need to hope that either City or Liverpool win the cup.

 

[Mackenzie]

I think we have a chance although my gut feeling is that we’ll narrowly miss out as our run in looks pretty tough.

 

[nordicgod]

I reckon we will be lucky to finish this season with 50 points , other seasons we would have been well happy with this , at least we were safe with 10 games to go , hopefully next season will be good after a wonderful summer recruitment and sending Fergie off for shooting practise

 

[Milano]

Impossible to tell with Albion. We KNOW that we are capable of beating United, Arsenal & Chelsea at home, we KNOW we are capable of getting something at Liverpool and Newcastle away. Whether we will or not...

The positive about playing others in the top 10 at home is that our crowd tend to be far more 'up for it' in these games. City match now under lights, I expect Chelsea likely to be too. There will be an extra edge to the Chelsea and Villa home games in particular. We need to recreate the Roma atmosphere for the run in.

 

[nicko31]

Our run in is the hardest - West Ham's is comparable.
We probably need to beat United/Chelsea/Newcastle ( or at least don't lose)

Also we need to hope that either City or Liverpool win the cup.

The later is highly probable, highly likely it will go to the wire

 

[bhafc99]

Our run in is the hardest

Confirmed by this analysis from Opta…

 

[Milano]

Surprised to see that Chelsea have away matches, I thought the rule this season was that they only played at home?

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

No.

Because the useless clown is going to play Steele in the next 2 games.

And continue to coach them to f*** around at the back with it.

 

[el punal]

League position is slightly flattering. But never say never

How can our league position be flattering? It’s the one thing that measures how good or bad a team are. Sheffield Utd are crap. Why? Simply because they’ve lost more games than any other team, okay chuck in Burnley too. Arsenal and Liverpool are the opposite. There’s that old saying that ‘the table doesn’t lie’ - it doesnt.

Sure, you can come up with excuses, in our case too many injuries and too many games played but that’s the nature of the beast. We now have a two week welcome break to rest weary limbs (that goes for us fans too!) and hopefully have more players back from injury.

How we fare in the next ten games? Who knows but I sincerely hope that after our great showing against Roma on Thursday we continue in the same vein.

 

[Lenny Rider]

Does 8th get into Europe this year if either of City or Arsenal win the CL?

 

[Hugo Rune]

It's a big ask but I think 8th is achievable. I am not getting hung up on it though. We'll give it a go and let the chips fall where they may.

We must start scoring again for this to happen.

Ferguson is a shadow of his pre-illness self and can’t be expected to get the numbers we need. Welbeck is our best ever all-round striker but his finishing can be Maupay-like with 4 point blank headers against Roma left unconverted. Our specialist natural finisher is busy destroying the Bundesliga (and will surely score for the Germany next week) so can’t help.

We need Joao Pedro back and Enciso to start hitting the target quickly. Adingra needs to step-up and Fati should really be helping out too.

If this happens, 8th is within our grasp. But if we continue with our current proficiency in front of goal, I’d be happy with 10th.

Edit: And nothing to do with Steele as claimed by the site idiot.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Does 8th get into Europe this year if either of City or Arsenal win the CL?

No. For 8th to get a European spot it would require England being one of the top two ranked nations on UEFA co-efficients this season, which would give a 5th Champions League spot next season. The Fa Cup would need to be won by a top 7 side as well.

Although winning the Champions League would help in boosting the co-efficient score, on its own it isn’t enough to make it happen.

 

[TottonSeagull]

Hoping for a top half finish. No hope of Europe with our run in and injuries!

 

[Mr Bridger]

No I don’t think so. A good top 10 finish will do me.
Regroup, a couple of Stella signings over the summer, RDZ commits to another year and we go all guns blazing for next year on all fronts.

 

[Zeberdi]

We'll need to win 5 of our 10 (very hard) matches to have a chance.

If we play like we did last night and get Pedro back I think we can do it. We need to make sure we beat Burnley plus at least one of Brentford and Bournemouth. Then we need to pull off some wins at home - Villa, Chelsea and Man United are huge games.

Agreed.

Looking back, we’ve not beaten Chelsea in our league or cup matches this season (or summer friendly) - we’ve only lost by one goal deficits though and they have not progressed much up the table since then so IMO that’s very doable. We beat Man U in September 3:1 without March or Pervis (although Man U have settled down from a rocky start to the season, they do play a style that suits us), I think that is also very doable. Best not to mention Villa, they are having an exceptional season anyway despite the drumming we got from them.

Cherries, Bees and Clarets are all in the bottom half of the table for a reason but we need work in two areas: When we press high with our defensive pivots and FB’s we leave vulnerable space behind the ball which teams like these 3 have routinely exploited. Playing Roma at home match, it seemed to me RDZ has made a tweak to his system here and kept our FBs and Gross behind the ball when we pressed high in the final third - we got back much quicker therefore to defend against counterattacks and ended up with a clean sheet.

The second area is not being clinical enough in our finishing - part of that IMO is is not being panicked into taking wasted, hail Mary shots and crossing later or earlier - Adingra’s decision making still needs some work. We also need to make more use of Buonanotte and Ferguson in the central attack areas more - both of them struggled to get into the game on Thursday, despite them regularly carving out some space off the ball.

Pedro and Milner should be back by end of March and unless we have any more injuries, we’ll be in even better shape than we are now.

If we can get on top of all that, we stand a good chance of a 7th place finish. So I vote a qualified ‘yes’.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

We must start scoring again for this to happen.

Ferguson is a shadow of his pre-illness self and can’t be expected to get the numbers we need. Welbeck is our best ever all-round striker but his finishing can be Maupay-like with 4 point blank headers against Roma left unconverted. Our specialist natural finisher is busy destroying the Bundesliga (and will surely score for the Germany next week) so can’t help.

We need Joao Pedro back and Enciso to start hitting the target quickly. Adingra needs to step-up and Fati should really be helping out too.

If this happens, 8th is within our grasp. But if we continue with our current proficiency in front of goal, I’d be happy with 10th.

Edit: And nothing to do with Steele as claimed by the site idiot.

Nailed it. Only other thing I’d add is Estupinan also needing to rediscover his 22-23 form.

A clean sheet against a hapless Forest and a Roma side who had no need to score a goal shouldn’t trick us into thinking we can grind our way to enough points.

We have to start firing as an attacking unit as we will continue to leak goals.

Unfortunately, I think it’ll end up being Chelsea and Newcastle. Their run-ins are far easier. If we’re going to do it, I think we need to beat both of them. Tall order.

 

[Bozza]

No. For 8th to get a European spot it would require England being one of the top two ranked nations on UEFA co-efficients this season, which would give a 5th Champions League spot next season. The Fa Cup would need to be won by a top 7 side as well.

Although winning the Champions League would help in boosting the co-efficient score, on its own it isn’t enough to make it happen.

Indeed. However, although England currently sits third in the rankings behind Italy and Germany, we are highly likely to finish above Germany in the "coefficient table" and get the bonus Champions League spot.

 

[Frankie]

I really liked the team spirit shown v Roma (H) and the win v Forest showed we can grind out results if we have to,I think 6th is a big ask but 7th is a distinct possibility,the break will hopefully get a few back up to 100% and Pedro may also be starting to train again with the team, hopefully Hinshelwood will be back on the grass soon and young Barco will have had a bit more time to settle in.
It's unlikely Karou or Solly will make the run in but I think we can definitely finish top 7,and this may have a bearing on the future of RDZ ultimately.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

Like she says, it’s free, so nothing lost

 

[Exilegull]

Believe in a good finish but too many hard fixtures. Just missing out would be my guess.