Relegation

Looking at the next 6 games......

Bristol City home
Derby away
Swansea away
West Brom home
Preston away
Fulham home

It's not going to get any easier.

We've got around 11-12 players injured, at least half of whom there's no definitive return date for. The midfield is decimated. 

If the takeover doesn't go through by early Jan then we're in big trouble as Roland obviously isn't going to sanction any signings and spending whilst he's waiting to get out.

I think we will stay up take over or not. If we don't loose any players in Jan. 

2 or 3 midfielders coming back will make a massive difference, even if one of them is Ledley getting fit.  Gallagher and Pratley need some rest and bringing 3 proper adult footballers off the bench during games will also improve things. 

I guess it’s good to talk about it, but I don’t think it’s particularly helpful at this stage of the season, although it seems a potential looming possibility, I’m hoping we are due an upturn in form, Millwall stayed up with 10 wins last season, I think we’ve got 6 already? Stay positive, surely it’s going to turn around 

We all know what present we’d really like for Christmas, and I don’t mean M&S socks!

SDAddick said:

Yeah, our form is relegation, and that start of the season buffer has largely disappeared. It reminds me of the last time we got relegated, we started well and faded badly when injuries hit. We have a far better squad and better manager though.

I think I'll start worrying at the end of January. We'll hopefully have a chance to bring in some reinforcement, plus we SHOULD have a fair few players back by then. Unfortunately not Cullen or JFC I don't think, and we're really, really missing that type of player.

But last time we were also playing terrible football and if I remember rightly losing by 2+ goals. This season we’re mostly playing well and have a more determined bunch and when we do lose it’s by the 1 goal (except Sheff game). 

Injuries are a killer this season, and as someone said earlier, new players are getting injured quicker than injured players are coming back fully fit. 

Im definitely in the concerned camp, although I’ve always been in the glass-half-empty view on life, but still feel if we can somehow get the majority of ours boys back on the pitch by end of January, then we’ll not finish in one of those relegation spots. 

We're not helped by the fact that two of the players we signed, namely Hemed and Kayal, who with 4 starts between them this season, for whatever reason, have not been playing.

I suspect that someone like Gallagher, who is young and wants to play football and prove himself, has more hunger in his belly than a couple of 31/32 year olds who are still getting paid Premier League wages. Equally, it might just be that, because of their age, they are more susceptible to injury and take longer to recover but I do wonder when I see players readily going off to international duty but then being unavailable on their return - or at any time in the near future!

That's not to say we shouldn't sign 30 somethings because Pratley has proven that he still has that hunger and isn't so injury prone. But for every Pratley there's a Kayal, Hemed, Ledley, Parker, Foley, Best, Ward etc etc. And is you are already two down from a small squad to start with then you will be in trouble. 

The final irony is that we took so long and sweated so much to get these two over the line.

I've said from day 1 finishing 21st would be an excellent season. This division is relentless with a full squad let alone a decimated or incomplete one.

Bowyer and Jackson have worked a miracle to keep us out of the bottom 3 for half a season as it is.

I think we have to take some comfort from the fact that, even with injuries, all bar two of our defeats were by the odd goal (and the other two were by two goals) whereas half our defeats when we were last relegated from the Championship were by three or more goals. Equally, as much as every match is a real test, there isn't a team in this division that we can't compete with - we beat Leeds after all. 

I hate threads like this.

It serves no purpose but to engender a fear mentality ...... and it is that fear mentality that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Do you hear Lee Bowyer talking about relegation?
No, of course not. He knows more about the realities of playing the game at this level than anyone on here.

And he knows that fear of relegation will kill the dressing room.
Players become afraid to be creative, afraid to make mistakes and heads will drop when the first goal is conceded.
And that fear will reverberate around the stadium as the anxiety in the crowd creates a negativity that completes a viscious circle.

We know why our results have dropped away. And it would happen to any and every club in the Division if they had lost so many key players at the same time and their squad decimated.

We're not a relegation side. If we were, we would have lost 4-0 yesterday. 
We don't get hammered, all matches are very close and we compete.

And we have that spirit which relegation teams don't have.
Don't kill it.

I think if you just look at wins, draws, loses and points then we’re about where I’d have guessed at the start of the season. If you look at the fact we are without a win in 11 games it appears worse than it is.

It doesn’t matter as we’re about to go on a 17 game winning streak.

Agree with Blackpool72 100%