Next 7 games

[Stretch]

There are no easy games in this division. However, as we get back to full strength, it's starting to look like we will re capture the level of performances that saw us as runaway leaders not that long ago.

In all seriousness, when we are at our best, with our best players fit and firing, who can live with us?

 

[BLADES1988]

Surely we won't sell any assets with a takeover in the pipeline. Why would we bother selling Ndiaye in January to get a bit more cash, if we get promoted what we get for him in summer won't matter that much in the grand scheme of things with all that luvleh TV munneh

 

[wizadry]

We will only sell N'Diaye if 2 things happen
We receive a crazy offer AND we have a replacement lined up who is better.

I’m not saying he’s going or staying but to have a replacement lined up who would be better than Ndiaye would not only cost an absolute fortune but he’d be one hell of a footballer too, this would be not far off impossible to achieve, especially in the January transfer window.

 

[sufcboy95]

13 points will be good return from them games. Plenty of potential banana skins, no more than the next 2

 

[Andy67]

We have to be very careful in the next two. Sad to say but the cup is basically irrelevant this season. We need to emerge from these next two league games without a shit ton of injuries. 3-4 points is fine. Then we have a clean run until the crazy April/May schedule. A loan striker is a must imo. We can't go into April/May praying that Oli is fit. Maybe a midfielder too.

Watford still have to come to the Lane. Blackburn, Norwich and Burnley away. A lot of football to be played yet.

If new board isn’t in place before this window expect sales, unless the new board can convince the Prince they’ll buy and not to sell assets then sell the Prince will. Why is the training pitch unfinished? The takeover is everything at this stage and talk of loans etc is dreamland as who would want to pay their wages. We need a takeover now but at the same time it makes me nervous of who these people are. I genuinely hope this isn’t going to derail us.

 

[HighfieldBlade]

With a Positive Mental Attitude, these are all winnable games. As the old adage goes, take one game at a time. UTB

 

[Boxer Blade]

Every game is 'winnable'

 

[nopigfansintown]

If new board isn’t in place before this window expect sales, unless the new board can convince the Prince they’ll buy and not to sell assets then sell the Prince will. Why is the training pitch unfinished? The takeover is everything at this stage and talk of loans etc is dreamland as who would want to pay their wages. We need a takeover now but at the same time it makes me nervous of who these people are. I genuinely hope this isn’t going to derail us.

If the takeover is in any way a serious prospect (you'd think it is due to Hecky's words) the Prince will likely be contractually obliged not to sell players. Looking at our squad, and the reported wages, our budget is nowhere near what people think it is. Out of the remaining players few had their latest contracts in the prem, and those that did have had substantial wage cuts x2. Our Prem wage bill was already substantially lower than the likes of Burnley and Watford before these cuts.

Our problem imo will come when the squad needs rebuilding next season ( if the Prince is still the owner) when another load of Prem wages are gone and we need rebuilding with new players or these deals renegotiating again (Wes, Sharp, Stevens, Fleck, Norwood, O'Connell, Clark, Mcattee, Khadra, Osborn) are all out of contract.

Basham and a few others signed their latest deal in this league (Ndiaye, Anel, Sharp, Robinson ). Baldock when we were all but relegated (you'd think his deal reflects this)

 

[Andy67]

Most sensible reply I’ve read. Takeover is serious and only if they show they are willing to shove some cash in then the Prince can sell assets as he is the owner. As I see it they’ve made an injection which I pray is one that has gone on making sure players can’t be sold.

 

[Flumps]

Thankfully we've put ourselves in a position where we don't have to concern ourselves too much about what's happening around us. Simply push on and keep the pressure on Burnley. More than capable of coming out of those next 7 without losing.

 

[JJBlade]

It sounds daft but a maximum 21 points from those games could make us virtually uncatchable

I'd imagine 21 points would put us around 18 points clear of third place

It won't happen, because that would mean we'd won 11 games on the bounce and that's practically unheard of, it would also make things easier for us, and of course we don't do that

 

[Carlton Blade]

It sounds daft but a maximum 21 points from those games could make us virtually uncatchable

I'd imagine 21 points would put us around 18 points clear of third place

It won't happen, because that would mean we'd won 11 games on the bounce and that's practically unheard of, it would also make things easier for us, and of course we don't do that

Bloody typical United, not winning 11 games in a row.

Something, something Wigan and Huddersfield.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Blackpool (A) WIN
QPR (A) LOSE
Stoke (H) DRAW
Hull (H) WIN
Reading (A) LOSE
Rotherham (A) DRAW
Swansea (H) WIN

Everything is going so well but United never do things the easy way, so I'm expecting some slip ups especially as (on paper) most of those games are winnable.

Win 3, draw 2, lose 2 = 11 points from 21 points. To be honest even 11 points will keep us in a strong position.

 

[wavy-blade]

We have a lovely cushion, even if we lose the next 3 we’d still be 2nd. I don’t really see much of a threat yet in the chasing pack, but one of them could have an excellent window and things can change. 2pts a game from here gets us over 90 points but I think less than that will be enough. I just hope we don’t do anything stupid in January. Let’s assess the squad after the window closes.

There you go, you said it now big mouth " if we lose our next 3 " ffs

 

[A Storm of Blades]

There you go, you said it now big mouth " if we lose our next 3 " ffs

…we’d still be 2nd

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

35 points to go...... from 21 to play. Just 1.67 points per game needed

4 wins from the next 6 now would be decisive, IMO. Great to get one of the away ones out of the way and won

 

[Torrix1889]

I honestly can't see us losing any of those matches, even though we aren't playing brilliantly at the moment we are doing enough to get the wins. Hang on to most of our squad, (maybe the odd loan out and Khadra returned to sender) and a couple of good additions and we will get stronger.

Blackpool (A) - WON
QPR (A) - WIN, QPR are in an awful rut
Stoke (H) - WIN - Home form should be strong enough to see off an inconsistent Stoke
Hull (H) - WIN - although this is typically one we would screw up!
Reading (A) - DRAW - always a tough place to go
Rotherham (A) - WIN - inconsistent like Stoke, in a rut like QPR
Swansea (H) - DRAW - they will be up for it after we robbed them at their place

That would put us on 64 points after 31 games....

 

[Blade58]

I honestly can't see us losing any of those matches, even though we aren't playing brilliantly at the moment we are doing enough to get the wins. Hang on to most of our squad, (maybe the odd loan out and Khadra returned to sender) and a couple of good additions and we will get stronger.

Blackpool (A) - WON
QPR (A) - WIN, QPR are in an awful rut
Stoke (H) - WIN - Home form should be strong enough to see off an inconsistent Stoke
Hull (H) - WIN - although this is typically one we would screw up!
Reading (A) - DRAW - always a tough place to go
Rotherham (A) - WIN - inconsistent like Stoke, in a rut like QPR
Swansea (H) - DRAW - they will be up for it after we robbed them at their place

That would put us on 64 points after 31 games....

I see Milkers have just lost Ben Wiles for the rest of the season. They are on a roll of winless games. I think their last win was against us ffs

Monday at QPR will be tough despite them being inconsistent.

Stoke will be tough under Alex Neil

 

[dublin 10 blade]

To get to 86 points which looking at the current league table should be enough
Means we need to win 12 more games from our last 21

 

[Houso]

To get to 86 points which looking at the current league table should be enough
Means we need to win 12 more games from our last 21

It's funny that despite an incredible run of form of late, I see the idea of winning 12 from 21 and I go "oh shit, that's gonna be extremely tough."

 

[Gareth Kay]

It's funny that despite an incredible run of form of late, I see the idea of winning 12 from 21 and I go "oh shit, that's gonna be extremely tough."

Or 10 wins, 6 draws and 5 defeats

 

[MJM]

Or 10 wins, 6 draws and 5 defeats

That seems much more like United

 

[PaulHalfway]

If the takeover is in any way a serious prospect (you'd think it is due to Hecky's words) the Prince will likely be contractually obliged not to sell players. Looking at our squad, and the reported wages, our budget is nowhere near what people think it is. Out of the remaining players few had their latest contracts in the prem, and those that did have had substantial wage cuts x2. Our Prem wage bill was already substantially lower than the likes of Burnley and Watford before these cuts.

Our problem imo will come when the squad needs rebuilding next season ( if the Prince is still the owner) when another load of Prem wages are gone and we need rebuilding with new players or these deals renegotiating again (Wes, Sharp, Stevens, Fleck, Norwood, O'Connell, Clark, Mcattee, Khadra, Osborn) are all out of contract.

Basham and a few others signed their latest deal in this league (Ndiaye, Anel, Sharp, Robinson ). Baldock when we were all but relegated (you'd think his deal reflects this)

I don’t believe you would give contracts next season to the majority of those players out of contract in the summer, whichever league we are in next year

 

[Sheffsteel]

QPR (A) - WIN, QPR are in an awful rut

I watched the QPR 0 Luton 3 match last night and it was a totally false unfair score line.
QPR were slightly the better side, they dominated possession, had more shots and more corners
So they can count themselves as unlucky as they deserved at least a draw.

Even the infogol web site shows that based on chances the XG (expected goals) were QPR 1.37 Luton 0.97

QPR are actually a decent team and have now lost their last 4 home matches so are very much due some luck and a favourable result.
We've won our last 5 consecutive away matches and are due some bad luck.

If I was a betting man I bet you could get decent odds on the QPR home win against United.
This is the type of fixture we tend to lose.

I reckon we'll lose 2-0 and QPR will look a good side whilst we look poor.
There'll be carnage amongst some posters on here predicting we'll not be promoted
then we'll bounce back in the next match beating Stoke at home.

The beauty about our lbig ead is that there's no pressure to keep producing promotion form in the 2nd half of the season.
It's highly likely we can get away with producing mid table form, win a few, draw a few, lose a few.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

That seems much more like United

It does

I'll say 11, 5 and 5

88 points seems about right for us

 

[dc_blade]

It does

I'll say 11, 5 and 5

88 points seems about right for us

That’s the number I think definitely gets us there. To get to 88, Watford (for example) would need to win 16 and draw 3 of their remaining 22. It’s 2.3 points per game or the equivalent of a 106 point season.

 

[A Storm of Blades]

Of the chasing pack Watford could be on the highest - 40 points from 25 played. To get to 86 from there would take a carbon copy of Forrest last year - 46 pts from the last 21 games. Not impossible but…

I think 86 does it.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

It's funny that despite an incredible run of form of late, I see the idea of winning 12 from 21 and I go "oh shit, that's gonna be extremely tough."

Or just go 21 wins
Bish , Bash , Bosh jobs a good un
Up as champions
( said at start of last season it’d take 2 seasons to get back up ) this is 2nd season

 

[HeySethUTB]

We’ll win all of them. (I hope)

Talking about other teams stats and data, people are forgetting how we are 11 points clear and how we dominate almost every footballing metric, this is for a reason.

Yeah we’ve lost to Stoke, QPR, Rotherham but having half of your squad out injured or coming back from injury had a huge impact on what return we got. Reading got smashed, Hull were beaten in second gear, and Swansea was the typical poor performance that we always seem to fish out there, totally different playing the ball across the back at bramall lane take last year as a reference.

I’ll say it again, we’re double digits clear of 3rd before the new year, and we’ve done that with one of the biggest injury lists in recent history. Besides I’d rather have those fixtures in comparison to what Burnley have coming up…

Swansea
Coventry
West Brom
Millwall
Norwich
Preston
Watford
Luton

 

[Ndiayewillalwaysloveyou]

Anyone know why even lower league teams play different days over Xmas? (Not on tele) Theres games everyday but the EFL are playing Sunday and Monday. Sure they used to play all the same day. NYD.