[Football] Europe <> Relegation

[Greg Bobkin]

Couple weeks back was enjoying reading discussion of some very outside chance of Euro places. Now....

.... is anyone slightly concerned about sliding into a relegation battle?

Our games in March look challenging to say the least

No. I was never thinking about Europe because I still think 10th in the table is misleading.

Having said that, given that results haven't come in 'easier' games, I say bring on the 'challenging' ones and we'll probably get something out of them

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If three wins in last 21 games is improving, what is your definition of getting worse? Improvement is a delusion. We might just squeak more points than last season but with 9 games left against teams above us, it is by no means a given.

Home games are becoming a shit show; Potter says 'performance-wise I thought we were OK'. Really? One shot on target today, one shot on target (long ranger from Duffy) last week. Is this really OK? An improvement on what?

I have absolutely no idea where you got your stats of one shot on target from. I use a couple of apps and both say 7 shots on target and 2 off target.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Couldn’t agree more but the clubmen on here will always make excuses for it

Clubmen?

As opposed to what, exactly?

This is a discussion forum for Brighton fans. If you’re not a ‘club man’, why are you even here?

 

[Baldseagull]

Who'd have thunk waiting till AFTER Burnley and Villa + to a lesser extent Utd, was the way to go.

We could also wait until the season is over completely, so we know for a fact. Bet you were the only kid that could sleep on Christmas eve, expecting Father Christmas to either miss your house entirely or just lay a turd in your stocking.

 

[Baldseagull]

I have absolutely no idea where you got your stats of one shot on target from. I use a couple of apps and both say 7 shots on target and 2 off target.

BBC has us as 12 shots, one on target, which fits with with my recollection. Maupays soft effort was the only one on target I can recall, I am more surprised that we had 12 in total.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

BBC has us as 12 shots, one on target, which fits with with my recollection. Maupays soft effort was the only one on target I can recall, I am more surprised that we had 12 in total.

The BBC are notoriously inaccurate with their stats, as stated by several posters including one who works for the BBC.

 

[Baldseagull]

The BBC are notoriously inaccurate with their stats, as stated by several posters including one who works for the BBC.

Maybe, but whoever supplies the stats for your apps is worse, no way we had as many 7 shots on target, not even in the last 2 games combined.

Understat have us at 1/12
Sky Sports have us at 1/12
BBC have at us 1/12
I can only recall one shot Martinez had to stop, I just can't recall 11 others.

 

[warmleyseagull]

I think that on the whole we have improved since last year. to focus only on our wins is a bit disingenuous as we have picked up a lot of points from draws this season. (Same as a few weeks ago when people were lauding how few games we had lost. )

around the same time last year we were sitting 16th on 26 points. Compared to 10th this year on 33 points. This is an improvement.

I am still confident that we will finish higher and on more points than last year. If we don't I am happy to reevaluate my position on this.

I agree that we were not 'Okay' nor were we last week. The fact is that we are in a poor run of form at the moment. It happens. Hopefully, it won't last long and we can go back to picking up points (one at a time).

My point is that we are neither as good as people were making us out to be a month or so ago, nor are we as bad as people are making us out to be now.

To me, we are a lower midtable team playing some nice football and getting mixed results. This is an improvement on previous seasons when we have been a team in and around the relegation battle.

We continue to be a promising (and improving team) who need to solve the final part of the puzzle and score more goals. If we can do this then something really special may well happen.

Difficult to disagree with this; and I suppose if we end up 15th with 42 points it is technically an improvement, but hardly a statistically significant one. We have been luckier this season IMO (can't quantify this but just feels like we are not getting games like Man U home, Palace home and WBA away that we had last season) that explains most if not all of the 7 points improvement (and, though I haven't looked it up, suspect this seasons last 12 games are more challenging than last season's).

 

[warmleyseagull]

I have absolutely no idea where you got your stats of one shot on target from. I use a couple of apps and both say 7 shots on target and 2 off target.

BBC as other have said. Fits with my recollection.

 

[Jeremiah]

If we do look like getting involved in the relegation battle I would expect us to pull our fingers out for the last few games. Nothing motivates players like losing money and a bit of fame.

 

[Surrey Phil]

We are safe this season. We’re just having a bad run (we always do at some stage in a season). We struggle against teams sticking a lot of players behind the ball esp at home which both Burnley and Villa did. We tend to play better against the better sides, so no need to panic!

 

[portslade seagull]

I have absolutely no idea where you got your stats of one shot on target from. I use a couple of apps and both say 7 shots on target and 2 off target.

I was at the match and it was 1 shot on target the rest were wide and over the bar, would've liked it to be 7 though as it would indicate we were more attacking

 

[dazzer6666]

BBC has us as 12 shots, one on target, which fits with with my recollection. Maupays soft effort was the only one on target I can recall, I am more surprised that we had 12 in total.

Genuinely struggling to think of any other saves Martinez had to make. One sounds right to me

Whoscored data shows 12 shots, 1 on target, as does the EPL page

 

[Swansman]

Genuinely struggling to think of any other saves Martinez had to make. One sounds right to me

Whoscored data shows 12 shots, 1 on target, as does the EPL page

View attachment 145559

View attachment 145561

Ali Macs shot touched the crossbar as well?

Not that it counts as "on target" in official match statistics but it is quite literally on target..

 

[dazzer6666]

Ali Macs shot touched the crossbar as well?

Not that it counts as "on target" in official match statistics but it is quite literally on target..

Actually the woodwork is quite literally off target

 

[Swansman]

Actually the woodwork is quite literally off target

Well sort of... but its also actually a shot on goal. Just not any valuable part of the goal.

 

[Icy Gull]

Our shooting was shit and there seemed a reluctance from players to have a go, they just moved it on and passed the responsibility. March spending long enough for me to hobble from one end of the pitch to the other before he crossed the ball was infuriating. In fairness he did put in a peach of a cross early in the game.

Quite a few players lost their heads as they were cynically chopped down by Villa’s thugs and were given zero protection from the ref in most cases. That’s how I saw it anyway. We ended up playing with real fear.

Two of the worst performances of the season on the bounce and both 3pm kick offs (nearly in yesterday’s case)

Onwards and upwards

 

[Baldseagull]

Ali Macs shot touched the crossbar as well?

Not that it counts as "on target" in official match statistics but it is quite literally on target..

The target is the area in between the goal posts and under the crossbar, I can't believe I have just written that.

 

[Baldseagull]

Our shooting was shit and there seemed a reluctance from players to have a go, they just moved it on and passed the responsibility. March spending long enough for me to hobble from one end of the pitch to the other before he crossed the ball was infuriating. In fairness he did put in a peach of a cross early in the game.

Quite a few players lost their heads as they were cynically chopped down by Villa’s thugs and were given zero protection from the ref in most cases. That’s how I saw it anyway. We ended up playing with real fear.

Two of the worst performances of the season on the bounce and both 3pm kick offs (nearly in yesterday’s case)

Onwards and upwards

Maybe we struggle to adapt to the unusual Kick Off time of 3PM?

 

[Swansman]

The target is the area in between the goal posts and under the crossbar, I can't believe I have just written that.

Yeah now when you say it I think I've read about it somewhere...