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City v Preston


mozo

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Are we in a direct battle for 6th place?

With 15 games to go, both on 50 points.

Neither will be expected to out perform Forest, Brentford, Leeds or Fulham this season based on displays this far.

Equally, both sides would fancy that over the 15 games, they could beat Cardiff, Swansea et al to 75 or so points.

Preston perhaps have slightly better fixtures to come but still all the top teams to play.

Then we have the final day showdown!

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I feel we should do it. Johnson has to come up with something now that will push us on in these remaining games.

Performances like Birmingham will see us drop out of it. He needs to know what formula will get us winning at home.

Looking at our squad we seem to have a bit of everything.

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15 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

If we lose out to a Preston team

Worse than us last season

Half the fans

Half the finances

Not strengthened in any obvious way

Then that would reflect incredibly badly on Johnson

What about the other 17 managers they’d be finishing above..?

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11 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

If we lose out to a Preston team

Worse than us last season

Half the fans

Half the finances

Not strengthened in any obvious way

Then that would reflect incredibly badly on Johnson

This for me. We are the bigger club with the bigger fanbase and most importantly the superior finances.. none of this guarantees anything granted but as you said it will reflect very badly indeed if they beat us to the play-offs. It will have the board scratching their heads at the reasons why.

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9 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

If we lose out to a Preston team

Worse than us last season

Half the fans

Half the finances

Not strengthened in any obvious way

Then that would reflect incredibly badly on Johnson

Add Brentford to that equation too.

Preston, Brentford and us share the Premier League absentee ‘League of Shame’. 

No play-off place and coming bottom of this mini League, LJ would be on his way. 

He’s got the tools. Now is delivery time.

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25 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

I feel we should do it. Johnson has to come up with something now that will push us on in these remaining games.

Performances like Birmingham will see us drop out of it. He needs to know what formula will get us winning at home.

Looking at our squad we seem to have a bit of everything.

And we all know from bitter experience that he is incapable of coming up with something new.

Our dismal home record will deny us a play off spot yet again.

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20 minutes ago, cidercity1987 said:

If we lose out to a Preston team

Worse than us last season

Half the fans

Half the finances

Not strengthened in any obvious way

Then that would reflect incredibly badly on Johnson

 

4 minutes ago, Bar BS3 said:

What about the other 17 managers they’d be finishing above..?

 

3 minutes ago, bris red said:

This for me. We are the bigger club with the bigger fanbase and most importantly the superior finances.. none of this guarantees anything granted but as you said it will reflect very badly indeed if they beat us to the play-offs. It will have the board scratching their heads at the reasons why.

I think a lot of this boils down to a group of clubs all promoted out of League One over a few seasons, e.g. Wolves, Brentford, Preston, us, Sheffield Utd, Huddersfield, Barnsley and Rotherham.

I’m sure we’ll all have opinions on relative size of club, history, etc, but we’ve seen mixed progress.

1) Wolves, Huddersfield and Sheffield Utd all gone on to Prem.

2) Brentford, Preston and us, steadily progressing

3) Barnsley and Rotherham yo-yo’ ing.

i think most of us accept traditionally bigger teams in Wolves and Sheffield Utd in pot 1 being bigger historically, even if Sheffield Utd’s speedy rise grates with us.  Huddersfield more so.

But I think it will feel like a kick in the teeth if those in pots 2/3 get to the Prem before us, or even play-offs should we not.

I think it is these comparisons that drive debate, rather than competing with Wednesday, Leeds, West Brom, etc.  We perhaps should be a bit thankful that the likes of Stoke, Derby, etc are under-performing.

13 minutes ago, RedRock said:

Add Brentford to that equation too.

Preston, Brentford and us share the Premier League absentee ‘League of Shame’. 

No play-off place and coming bottom of this mini League, LJ would be on his way. 

He’s got the tools. Now is delivery time.

Haha, you type quicker than me!

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13 minutes ago, gordie said:

Personally think we will slip away unless we drastically change our style /formation at home and the Preston game will have nothing riding on it, hope to be proven wrong though

Couldn't agree more, the latest batch of signings will struggle to make an impression as we have no real style of play for them to fit into, I felt really optimistic on Friday at 7.45 a real chance to stamp our mark on the division and we failed miserably. I hope I'm wrong but with the fixtures we have coming up I can certainly see us falling away.

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1 hour ago, weepywall said:

Couldn't agree more, the latest batch of signings will struggle to make an impression as we have no real style of play for them to fit into, I felt really optimistic on Friday at 7.45 a real chance to stamp our mark on the division and we failed miserably. I hope I'm wrong but with the fixtures we have coming up I can certainly see us falling away.

Johnson out 

:protest:

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1 hour ago, RedRock said:

Add Brentford to that equation too.

Preston, Brentford and us share the Premier League absentee ‘League of Shame’. 

No play-off place and coming bottom of this mini League, LJ would be on his way. 

Prepare to be disappointed. Imo, the owner will allow him at least one more year. 

But he's clearly feeling under pressure judging by his ludicrous comments on Friday - implying he doesn't care if we're bored sh1tless by his football ("I'm not Billy Butlin") and that, actually, we should just be grateful he's here at all ("I've had other job offers"). 

Like you say, he's been given the tools and now there's no hiding place.     

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2 minutes ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

 

Like you say, he's been given the tools and now there's no hiding place.     

I disagree. I think there is a hiding place for Lee, and that place goes by the name of "sixth." If he hides there, losing in a two-legged play off semi to someone dead famous what we cannot compete with because they were dead good 40 years ago, like Leeds or Nottm, then he will get a fifth go next season. Then there will be no hiding place, not even "third" and losing in the play off final to someone even more famouserer like World Cup winners West Ham Disunited.  

I've just thought of another hiding place! It's called "seventh" as long as he doesn't hide there following a mind-numbingly tame and timid surrender at home to plucky, 10k crowd Preston on the last day, in front of a 26,000 crowd. 

"Seventh" might be a hiding place if we lose on the last day but manage a shot on goal in both halves in front of 26000 but just lose out to famous Derby County's Wayne Rooney Potato Head FC from the world famous £80m baseball bat ground.

So I make that two hiding places for Lee! But other than that, totally agree....

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2 hours ago, Super said:

I dont think you can rule out Cardiff or Swansea. 4 points is nothing.

I think that's worth further scrutiny...

On last 10 games form, City, Swansea and Cardiff ALL have amassed 15 points.

Let's say we continue our rate of 1.5 ppg, we'll amass an additional 22 points (rounded down), with a total 72.

For Swansea and Cardiff to match that they need 26 points (average 1.7 rounded down).

So that's 8 wins, 2 draws from 15...

Or 7 wins, 5 draws from 15. 

Possible, of course, but tough. And that's relying on both City and Preston not managing better than 7 wins, 1 draw, or 6 wins, 4 draws. 

It will take a serious improvement from the Welsh teams, or Millwall or Wednesday, to manage it. 

Cardiff still have 5 of the top 6 to play plus us in early April. Swansea still have 4 of the top 6 to play, but also play us at home in a late April extravaganza. 

I fear Preston far more. But I also worry about our remaining fixtures. I think it's 10 top half teams and 5 bottom half. And we need to win about 8 of those games!

 

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1 hour ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Prepare to be disappointed. Imo, the owner will allow him at least one more year. 

But he's clearly feeling under pressure judging by his ludicrous comments on Friday - implying he doesn't care if we're bored sh1tless by his football ("I'm not Billy Butlin") and that, actually, we should just be grateful he's here at all ("I've had other job offers"). 

Like you say, he's been given the tools and now there's no hiding place.     

As they say in the building trade "got all the gear but no idea"

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2 hours ago, Merrick's Marvels said:

Prepare to be disappointed. Imo, the owner will allow him at least one more year. 

But he's clearly feeling under pressure judging by his ludicrous comments on Friday - implying he doesn't care if we're bored sh1tless by his football ("I'm not Billy Butlin") and that, actually, we should just be grateful he's here at all ("I've had other job offers"). 

Like you say, he's been given the tools and now there's no hiding place.     

I sincerely hope I won’t be disappointed. It should be Play-offs or bust for LJ.

I fear, however, you maybe correct. 

We must start developing a ruthless culture. We’ve been soft for far too long.

It was interesting watching the piece on BT Sport today viz Chris Wilder. LJ has had every advantage over straight-talking Wilder, yet it is Sheffield United with a culture of steel, fight, determination and a team that have identity, passion, pace and power who are 5th in the Premier League.

 

 

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The tables have turned a bit for us this season in that away from home we have struggled a bit, whereas previously under Alex Neil we'd been very strong on the road. However we'd previously been a bit stale at home and drawing too many, especially against deep blocks, but this season we have been taking teams apart at Deepdale and up to this point we have the best home record in the league.

The task in front of us is to maintain our home form and add a bit more consistency to our away form, which is starting to improve. It's hard to see any of the teams currently between 1st and 5th dropping out of the picture, so there's probably 6th place up for grabs between 3-4 teams.

Sinclair looks like he's going to be a big player for us, but the lack of a centre forward signing yet again has annoyed supporters, and apparently the manager. A 35 year old Nugent is the only CF we've signed this season and the lack of a Hugill type physical and mobile presence is something that's held us back a bit away from home.

This is probably the last year of our current cycle of players. If we don't go up then Pearson, Davies, Browne, Johnson and a couple of others will have 1 year left on their contracts and will most likely join Hugill, Cunningham and Robinson in being sold. It will also be hard to keep hold of Alex Neil for longer, he's already turned down West Brom and Stoke in the past 12 months with huge salaries and transfer budgets on offer. He probably won't turn down a big club in this league for a 3rd time whilst we continue to fail to reinvest the proceeds from players sales sufficiently back into the team and continually fail to pay for and sign a decent striker.

We have some players underneath the first team to come through but it will still be a big rebuilding job in the transfer market, something we struggle to compete in, should we still be in this league next season. I don't expect us to go up but having threatened for a few years now I think we have to at least make the top 6 with this group of players as a statement of intent to show the club is moving forwards. It will get harder to keep players and sign good ones if we continually fall away every season.

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2 hours ago, pnefcok said:

The tables have turned a bit for us this season in that away from home we have struggled a bit, whereas previously under Alex Neil we'd been very strong on the road. However we'd previously been a bit stale at home and drawing too many, especially against deep blocks, but this season we have been taking teams apart at Deepdale and up to this point we have the best home record in the league.

The task in front of us is to maintain our home form and add a bit more consistency to our away form, which is starting to improve. It's hard to see any of the teams currently between 1st and 5th dropping out of the picture, so there's probably 6th place up for grabs between 3-4 teams.

Sinclair looks like he's going to be a big player for us, but the lack of a centre forward signing yet again has annoyed supporters, and apparently the manager. A 35 year old Nugent is the only CF we've signed this season and the lack of a Hugill type physical and mobile presence is something that's held us back a bit away from home.

This is probably the last year of our current cycle of players. If we don't go up then Pearson, Davies, Browne, Johnson and a couple of others will have 1 year left on their contracts and will most likely join Hugill, Cunningham and Robinson in being sold. It will also be hard to keep hold of Alex Neil for longer, he's already turned down West Brom and Stoke in the past 12 months with huge salaries and transfer budgets on offer. He probably won't turn down a big club in this league for a 3rd time whilst we continue to fail to reinvest the proceeds from players sales sufficiently back into the team and continually fail to pay for and sign a decent striker.

We have some players underneath the first team to come through but it will still be a big rebuilding job in the transfer market, something we struggle to compete in, should we still be in this league next season. I don't expect us to go up but having threatened for a few years now I think we have to at least make the top 6 with this group of players as a statement of intent to show the club is moving forwards. It will get harder to keep players and sign good ones if we continually fall away every season.

You sell players as well?!? Wft?! Surely not? You're kidding us on, mate. Come on, tell us straight: your manager never has to sell his best (Bailey was your best defender, right?) or any of his players?

 

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Big night for Us v Preston tonight...

City away at lowly Huddersfield.

Preston away to might West Brom.

If ever there was an opportunity for us to get ourselves back level on points, here it is!

Then on Saturday, both teams travel to London, with City at Millwall and Preston with the slightly trickier game vs Fulham.

Preston are dominant at home, but only average away, whilst City are away day specialists.

So if any of you believe that the season so far is a guide to current fixtures, you'll view the next few days to be crucial in the race for 6th.

Following Saturday we will be on a 10 game countdown to the play offs.

 

 

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