Looking up or down the league?

[ForgeBlade]

I'm looking up, always. I'm not optimistic enough to truly believe we'll end up in Europe, but we've shown enough to be confident of survival, so why not aim as high as we possibly can?

 

[ormester]

The fixture list wasn't kind stopping our momentum with man City and Liverpool but February looks a decent month

 

[Grappler]

I'm looking in the same direction as Chris Wilder, and it isn't down........

 

[Niceguyeddie]

The options are stupid ,looking down doesn't mean the bubbles burst we will at some point be amongst the teams who are in the relegation dogfight and judging by the reaction from.the last two games the fans certainly aren't going to get us through that

 

[DerbyDave]

We can lose to West Ham though. It wouldn’t be ideal but it won’t define the season.

Shouldn’t it be WRDCFC? Are the players getting paid this month?!

Piss poor effort mate , but I'll continue to cheer on Sheff U in the Prem regardless

Cheers

 

[CharlotteBlade]

We all knew this tough Xmas and New Years run was coming looking at the fixtures and now we are just coming out the other side of it without getting completely ratted.
We still have Arsenal who I thought looked untouchable against Man U for the first 45mins but they did flake out in the second half, then City at home. But I’m definitely not looking at our club thinking the bubble will burst or thinking we’ll be in the drop zone at the end of the season

 

[CharlotteBlade]

The options are stupid ,looking down doesn't mean the bubbles burst we will at some point be amongst the teams who are in the relegation dogfight and judging by the reaction from.the last two games the fans certainly aren't going to get us through that

Why are you so sure that at some point will we be fight to stay up ?
& what reaction from the fans isn’t going to get us through what ?

 

[Cerberus Blade]

I’m firming in the ‘looking down’ camp. I constantly check the points difference between us and 18th place. When Wolves play Villa, I will want Wolves to win as that makes us safer, rather than thinking about Wolves being just above us. This negative attitude is probably due to a combination of age and experience.

However... when speaking to other Blades I know, and non-Blades too, the talk of avoiding relegation seems to be mostly just me.

I just checked the odds (after the Liverpool game) and we are 66/1 to be relegated and also 66/1 to qualify for the Champions League. That is amazing.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy as a Blade - and NOT because we are doing so well - it’s the whole package. I just need to work on my belief a bit!

UTB

Always in the "looking up" camp me. Whether that's the football league or the escalators on the London Underground.

 

[Niceguyeddie]

Why are you so sure that at some point will we be fight to stay up ?
& what reaction from the fans isn’t going to get us through what ?

Mathematically we are now and if we get through the next few tricky fixtures not picking up any points and the others carry on as they have been we will be included in the group of teams that will be looking over their shoulders
Nothing wrong with that and I'm sure we will pick up enough points but if after two defeats on the bounce this is the attitude then god knows what it will be like after 5 and then our easier run of fixtures suddenly become high pressure with our over expectant fans demanding 3 points off the inferior clubs with vastly superior budgets

 

[John Street West Terrace]

I’m a glass is half full person ... neither outlooks affects anything it just means you smile a lot more in life

 

[Moosie]

Just shows how far we've come in such a short space of time that some fans are looking 'up' in the PL.

The target was avoid relegation, or build for next season to bounce back straight away. The way we've performed this season is way beyond my expectations, but imo every team apart from the 'big 6' will be looking over their shoulders at the start of the season knowing a bad start will suck you into that relegation battle. I know Arsenal and Spurs aren't performing that well this season but their squads are filled with quality that will soon see them climb the table.

4 more wins from 17 and we're safe, that takes us over the magic 40 points. Barring a huge downturn in form that should be achievable in the remaining games we have. We've now played Liverpool twice and at the end of the month we will have played City and Arsenal twice.

There's some teams below us in really poor form below us including Bournemouth, Burnley, West Ham (depending on how Moyes gets on) and Newcastle. Read somewhere that Burnley have only had 10 shots on target since the beginning of November!

 

[CarlMcBlade]

It depends how we bounce back from back to back defeats. Ideally I would have preferred the Man City defeat to follow the one at Anfield as it was a lot more up-lifting.

 

[Blend-it-like-Harris]

Chris Wilder can't understand you looking down, and needs you looking up. Lots of balls needed.

 

[Hamburg Blade]

Up. For Bournemouth to catch us they have to win 3 games more than us over the remainder of the season. They've only won 5 so far, so if we only manage to win 3 for the rest of the season they have to better their form and win 6. Even then, the GD might not be enough. But not just them, all the teams between us and them have to do better than us - position is more important than points difference. Aston Villa need to do similar, winning three more. So many teams need to improve their season whilst we have to flop, it's almost sealed. Anything can happen, of course, otherwise football would be boring, but we don't have a team and manager that will fold like we've had in past years.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Premier League relegation battle assessed: Who is going down?

Half the Premier League still embroiled in a dogfight; only eight points separate Watford in 19th and Arsenal in 10th

www.skysports.com

We are not even included

 

[PokerBlade]

The first target for the season was always hit that 40pt mark. The sooner we do it the sooner we can just enjoy the ride and set the target higher. In that sense, not much has changed for me yet.

The thing that has changed is that before the season started I was looking down the division and wondering how we'd fair against other sides. I looked at the fixtures and tried to pick out where our points might come from and had that feeling that we might be caught more than lacking. Now when I look at the coming fixtures, I know the weaknesses in our side, I've seen the immense quality of individual players other clubs have, but I know we can make a competitive game against anybody.

Take tonight, I can't look at Wham and think "There's an easy win" but I can't look at it without thinking there's a realistic chance we take all the points. And while I can't look at any individual fixture as a banker it's still almost inconceivable to think we don't take at least three wins and a draw overall.

 

[Mumbo]

If we were bottom I’d be looking up.
I don’t know what it’s like to look down.....is it any good?
Do we have a choice in looking up or down or is it just a reflection our personality?
Is looking up any more extreme than looking down?does it influence our happiness or is it a directive of it?
are downers pessimists? and uppers dreamers?

 

[Dkc]

We are nine points clear. We can go on a nine match losing run before we fall into the mire.

That's presuming that the teams in the bottom three also lose their next nine games, which they won't. If we lose our next three the table will look far less comfortable.

 

[Elsecar_Blade]

That's presuming that the teams in the bottom three also lose their next nine games, which they won't. If we lose our next three the table will look far less comfortable.

It works on the statistical average that whoever is 18th is probably picking up a point per game. If 18th pick up, somebody in 15th-17th are probably not so they keep the point per game thing going. We’re eleven clear of the drop zone so it’s likely that it takes eleven games (ish) for 18th place - not the team in 18th but 18th statistically at a point per game - to reel us back in. IMO, statistics say we won’t drop in bottom three until at least the 33rd game now - and that’s if we lose every game until then.

 

[blade67]

It works on the statistical average that whoever is 18th is probably picking up a point per game. If 18th pick up, somebody in 15th-17th are probably not so they keep the point per game thing going. We’re eleven clear of the drop zone so it’s likely that it takes eleven games (ish) for 18th place - not the team in 18th but 18th statistically at a point per game - to reel us back in. IMO, statistics say we won’t drop in bottom three until at least the 33rd game now - and that’s if we lose every game until then.

That's how I am looking at it.

However, Chris Wilder has exactly the best approach and that is to focus on how to collect points from the next game. Keep doing that and see where it takes us. He's not daft you know