Shadow Puppets

10

Well that was a nice surprise. I had this down as a tough draw… possibly our trickiest game in the next few… but barring the first 25 mins we were cool, calm and collected. Excellent second half.

We’ve been very sloppy. It’s basically exactly the kind of game I was worried about. Hopefully we can finish them off early in the second half because it’s going to get very tense late on.

I'm missing something obviously. Who's that?

Not too good a display though. Just the right level of good. A "let's get a draw" level ideally.

I think a good performance and win tomorrow will settle my nerves a bit, but definitely a little more worried about it all.

Aye, it’s very feasible that Liverpool don’t lose any more points with their run in. Unless Spurs turn up on Sunday, or Villa can grab something from Anfield. We’re going to need to get to 72 points I reckon.

I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit worried about Liverpool now. We need to get at least 4 points next 2 games… ideally 6.

1-1

Sounds like Bruno and Joelinton are going to be interviewed on Talksport shortly.

They're not quite out of the race yet, so if they can pick up just enough to get draws with Man Utd and Liverpool, and then collapse again, that would be delightful.

My most negative prediction had us finishing 4th with 69 points, on goal difference above Liverpool. That was with wins vs Southampton and Leicester, draws with Everton, Leeds, Chelsea and Brighton, and a loss against Arsenal. And Liverpool dropping points to West Ham (with a draw) but winning all the rest. I think we can definitely better than prediction.

I thought first half the atmosphere was great. Second half flat, but it’s completely understandable. When the game is effectively finished after 21 mins it’s hard for the crowd not to just sit back and relax.

3 more wins and a couple of draws (potentially even only 2 depending on how Liverpool get on). I reckon 67-68 points will be enough.

Their fixture list is incredibly favourable though to be fair. I’ve predicted them to win 7 and lose 1.

Read too much into things much? ?

I'm predicting a draw and anything else is a bonus. Depends which Spurs show up, and depends on how much momentum we can build early on. If we come out of the blocks and get an early goal, the crowd get going etc, I can see a comfortable win, but my head says Spurs are better than we give them credit for.

Just catching up with this. I agree with what most have said, I think the normal flags should be present every game, and maybe big surfers for 9 or 10 big games during the season. However, for games like Sunday, I really think it's important we get flags or scarves or pieces of paper etc on every seat... like last year's Arsenal game. That game felt the most intimidating to me.

I personally can't see us not winning at least 3 games, but could feasibly win 5 in my opinion, if we show up and perform how we have been. St James' will be rocking for Spurs, Brighton, Arsenal... I could definitely see us winning two of those. Weirdly I'm more concerned about the likes of Southampton and Leicester at home and Everton away. Games where the crowd might not be bang up for it which can sometimes seep down onto the pitch.

He's been pretty conservative with some of our results though. Drawing with Spurs, Brighton, Arsenal and Everton and losing to Chelsea. Rest wins.

It's clearly working a treat ?

Even if we don't beat Spurs it's still infinitely doable. Liverpool just aren't going to get maximum points from their last 8 games. In fact, I'll wager that they'll drop points away at West Ham and potentially at home to Spurs next week.

Just done a predictor where Liverpool win all of their remaining games. They can get a maximum of 71 points. We would still finish above them on 72 points if we manage to achieve... Spurs (h) - W Everton (a) - D Southampton (h) - W Arsenal (h) - D Brighton (h) - D Leeds (a) - W Leicester (h) - W Chelsea (a) - D I mean chances are we may lose one or two of those (or we might even win more), but the chances are Liverpool aren't going to get maximum points either considering yesterday's win was their first in their last 5 games. I do think they've got a relatively easy run in, but there's still teams in there that will at least get a couple of draws.