[Albion] Early days - but who do you think will be the bottom 3 sides in May?

[Beanstalk]

[MENTION=1890]blue-shifted[/MENTION] has 7 teams 36 points or under.

I think the predictions may need a rethink. Southampton on 45 too...blimey.

09/10 West Ham stayed up with 35, but not since then has a team stayed in the league with less than 36.

I think that Cardiff and one other (Huddersfield imo) will be well adrift of the rest which will imply that it'll require closer to 40 to stay up than the usual 36.

 

[Taybha]

Brighton are one of 6 clubs who will be in the mix come may , but they're not going to finish bottom i predict a 42 point finish for us , the bottom spot honour will go to West Ham as they're a total shambles and need a complete makeover top to bottom , Fulham will spend again in january bringing in 2 more defensive players and a Striker which will see them safe on 44 points , Cardiff will be on or around the 37 point mark probably just keeping them up , Burnley have not really strengthened at all and they will struggle this season with a finish of 35 points which i reckon will be the drop zone point , Newcastle will be fine they will spend big time in january and end up on 43 points , so the other candidate i think will be Huddersfield who will really struggle this season and end up on 33 points .

So
Brighton 42
Wolves 40
Cardiff 37
Burnley 35
Huddersfield 33
West Ham 31

Obviously this isn't the real final table , ok

 

[Albion in the north]

Cardiff - it seems a bit lazy to pick them, but the Warnock style of football isn't good enough for this league. Their possession and passing stats for last season were one of the worst in the Championship, they will be punished for mistakes so often that better teams are guaranteed to outscore them.

Burnley - As others have pointed out, last season they got lots of marginal wins with hard work and dogged defending - all credit to them for doing it. But that pendulum can quite easily swing the other way and I think it's going to this season. They rely heavily on Steven Defour in midfield and he's injured at the moment which is partly why they're in such bad form. They've also failed to strengthen at all, I think Dyche is going to really struggle to turn it around

Southampton - I think I'm slightly biased here because I really dislike Mark Hughes, but the fact that he's such a useless lying sheep-headed c**t will put them in or around the bottom 3. Trying to be rational, Hughes cannot organise a defence properly and he's rubbish in the transfer market. They'll leak a lot of goals this year, although they might have enough quality at the other end to get them out of it.

Huddersfield, Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham, West Ham will all be in the mix and I wouldn't be surprised to see any of them in the bottom 3.

Not disagreeing that Burnley will struggle but Defour missed most of last season with injury

 

[LamieRobertson]

......and after ten games last season that would have meant West Ham and Palarse for the drop, wouldn't it

It’s just my opinion that you would get a better feel for things after say ten games

 

[GT49er]

That depends if you chose them wouldn’t it

You suggested (as I understood it) that after ten games it would be a better time to start making predictions, presumably as there would be more evidence to go on by then. After ten games last season, IIRC, both Palarse and West Ham were looking dead and buried, but both survived.

 

[Mackenzie]

Hopefully not us:

18th Newcastle
19th Fulham
20th Cardiff

 

[The Maharajah of Sydney]

18 - Burnley
19 - Newcastle
20 - West Ham

 

[Simster]

You suggested (as I understood it) that after ten games it would be a better time to start making predictions, presumably as there would be more evidence to go on by then. After ten games last season, IIRC, both Palarse and West Ham were looking dead and buried, but both survived.

I think his point stands - the NSC NigeIs were all saying their performances (post De Boer) were much better than results suggested, and West Ham were never "dead and buried". After 10 games, they were 16th:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...ndings-week-11-fixtures-after-week-10-results

 

[Jackthelad]

I think Wolves will finish top half of the table I don't see them anywhere near relegation. Cardiff and Burnley are certs for me probably Hudds get the final relegation spot, I'd love to see West Ham go down though.

 

[Simster]

I think Wolves will finish top half of the table I don't see them anywhere near relegation. Cardiff and Burnley are certs for me probably Hudds get the final relegation spot, I'd love to see West Ham go down though.

I really can't see how anyone can consider Burnley as "certs". They might go down of course, and alright they've started badly, but they were good enough to qualify for Europe a few months ago. Now that they are out, they are going to be more focused on the league anyway. The only certs IMO are Cardiff - they need a good start and so far it's been predictably dreadful for them.

I genuinely see West Ham as relegation candidates. It's quite clear that is a clueless organisation - they constantly rearrange the deck chairs by shipping in either overrated players or overpaid players & managers with nothing to prove. Neither of these types of people are what they need in order to progress, so long may it continue.


I don't think we will be anywhere near the bottom 3, we will be more like Bournemouth and Watford once our new signings are bedded in.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Totally agree about Burnley. I know their European journey is now over, but it's amazing how a poor run can become habit forming at this level. They won so many games by a single goal last season, it wouldn't take much for their form to flip to close defeats.

My picks would be

Cardiff
Huddersfield
Burnley
Newcastle
West Ham

Cardiff and Hudderfield for me too and then think the third will come from one of the other three you mentioned.

Cardiff, Huddersfield and one of those other three or the Albion

 

[Ernest]

As long as it's not us I don't really care although Cardiff and Huddersfield are nailed on to be in it. We seem to have got lucky again this season, last season we had WBA and Swansea imploding with stupid managerial changes which gave us a lot less to do and this season Cardiff and Huddersfield just don't have the fire power to trouble too many teams which leaves only one place to fall into

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Newcastle have a better squad than us. Shelvey, Ritchie, lascelles and probably Kenedy would walk into our team.

I don't think that's true at all, tbh. Not that those four are not all decent players - they clearly are, but walk in?

Lascelles and Dunk would be a tidy pair - I'll grant you that.
Kennedy over March, I accept many would - though unconvinced Chris Hughton would. Kennedy over Izquierdo, though?

But...

Not a chance I'd break up Propper and Stephens to accommodate Shelvey, and only a lunatic would start Ritchie over Knockaert (or Alireza)

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Not a chance I'd break up Propper and Stephens to accommodate Shelvey,

I think you probably should though

 

[worthingseagull123]

West Ham

Other two places any two from 12

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I think you probably should though

'think'
'probably'

That's not 'walk in' then, is it?

 

[scamander]

some very accurate comments on here concerning Burnley. Last season was a huge achievement but it's worth remembering how tight it all was. We finished 21 points ahead of Swansea, that's the same number of points we finished behind Liverpool who were 4th.

I'm not fully sold on the notion that the European matches were that much of a difference maker, doubtless they allowed for less time to focus on specific matches but we could have also drawn momentum from them. Many times early in a season you'll hear managers and fans say how their team was 'rusty' or 'off the pace', you could argue that the extra matches gave us an early advantage as we were match sharp that bit quicker.

The danger as those have pointed out is that we accrued points last season by the odd goal, that's a risky way to do it. Over the summer we didn't recruit in the areas many fans hoped we would, Defour cannot be relied upon as the sole creative source. We need at least one more winger.

Anyway, the break has come at a good time so fingers crossed for the games after it.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Think the Newcastle story has some more to run, so no more investment for Rafa.

Burnley
Fulham
West ham
--------------------------
Newcastle
Huddersfield
Cardiff

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

'think'
'probably'

That's not 'walk in' then, is it?

Did Dwayne say 'walk-in'? He's on my ignore so I didn't read it, but anyway, I try not to be too definite with my opinions on here

 

[LlcoolJ]

Did Dwayne say 'walk-in'? He's on my ignore so I didn't read it, but anyway, I try not to be too definite with my opinions on here

Ha ha. Hadn't noticed it was dwayne who posted that. He's not a Brighton fan. All he ever posts is how shit we are.