sushimonster85

Last night changed my thinking in that I now begrudgingly admit that maybe there is something to that PFM thing 'Burnely have been here before, they will be fine' thinking. I still am pretty confident we will survive, but now I do think it will be a team that has sort of been on the outskirts of the battle for an extended time. By brain says there's a strong chance it could be Brentford, especially if we get a positive point at the weekend. Leeds look like they're in the shit, but both they and Burnley have probably the easiest run-in of all the teams down at the bottom. Everton are one of those sides where the prospect of them going down seems impossible/far-fetched (probably how a lot of people felt about us before our first Ashley relegation), but that could go against them. They could end up sleepwalking into relegation, all the while muttering "we'll be fine". They've also got the hardest run-in, take a look at their final few fixtures and its hard to see where the points will come from.

No option/agreed fee. Villa knew if we did well his value would shoot up in the Summer compared to anything they could agree in Jan.

Totally agree. It bugs me when people go on about how Burnley always get themselves out of these situations. Surely them getting themselves into these situations so often says just as much, if not more, than their ability to escape them.

I imagine it will even be before that. All about haggling over the compensation figure at the moment. I imagine this will speed up the more likely our survival in the PL appears.

When it gets to the stage where it's clear the move is only going to happen if the player kicks off/downs tools, I'd rather they didn't come. If they do it at one club they will do it at another. The fact that he seemed to be open to it, but remained professional (same with Carlos) actually put him up higher in my estimation.

This makes sense. Combined with the lads who arrived in Jan that would be around a 10 player turnaround in the space of 6 months. Which under normal circumstances would be crazy, but given the ownership seemingly want to immediately transition from battling relegation to getting into the top half in the space of a season it would be what's needed.

This makes me nervous. I feel like, for as great as our current run has been, in terms of movement up table its only be worth a couple places. Saturday is a chance for that to change. If other results go our way (Leeds losing both their games & Everton losing) a win on Saturday could see us as high as 14th. Just feel like we're overdue a lacklustre performance, and it's going to end up coming in a match where a positive result could actually see us put some daylight between ourselves and the relegation zone.

Love when you go see a band and they play all their big hits from back in the day. Imagine his encore will be trying to somehow pin WBA's issues on 'the mighty Rafa'.

Hope no one was looking forward to the Brentford/Toon match too much. It's been replaced by a 3pm showing of The Mike Dean Experience.

He is clearly out of depth and an absolute liability, but it's not like you can accuse him of not putting the effort in. Plus, he must feel a shit. You know when someone new starts at work and they're instantly better than you are? He is going through that in a very public way!

Honestly, I feel like Dubravka could pick up an injury and there were be a section of us who would be trying to figure out a way for this to get Bruno in the side. There's no rush. The three lads in centre mid are all playing well. If Fraser is missing it will be Murphy out there.

Feel bad for Krafth, but really hoping Manquillo is fit for Saturday. Feel like we have the entire range of full back quality in the squad at the moment: Elite, top tier, sex in fullback form: Trippier Good Premier League level fullback: Targett Decent Premier League/very good championship level fullback: Manquillo Emil Krafth: Emil Krafth

Shut up man, ya plastic

Not going to lie, a bit worried about this game. Obviously they haven't got the same quality as any of our previous 3 opponents, and are on an awful run, but it's that that scares me. For the first time since the Watford game we're going to be playing a side that is setting out to nullify us, rather than the other way round. Feel like we will really need Max to produce something if that's the case.

Put me down as another who will think Burnley will (just barely) get out of it. My three (from 20th to 18th) is Norwich, Watford, and Brentford. Given Everton's run in I actually think there's a pretty good chance they finish 17th. Liverpool's version of the Chronicle (The Echo) has a fixture prediction tool that lets you just predict the result of each of the remaining fixtures, then at the end shows you where your results have everyone finishing. I actually had us on 38 points, which was good for 13th. Just Google 'Echo fixture predictor' if you want to give it a try.

People angry at Shelvey getting an extension? I don't really get it, so long as he is a squad player I am happy for him to still be around next year.

If we do take 6 points from the next 2 games (unlikely but not impossible), there is a good chance we will find ourselves as high as 13th, depending on other results. Which I think would be us pretty much safe given how in the shit the likes of Brentford, Leeds and even Everton would be at that point, not to mention the current bottom 3.

From what I can gather from his role at Brighton, then the FA before that, Dan Ashworth likes to oversee a lot more than just player recruitment. I imagine he will want a scouting and recruitment team set up which reports to him, but will also oversee a bunch of other stuff.

Agree with everyone highlighting the importance of this match. When a team in the relegation zone goes on a good run of form it can take a while for it to be truly reflected in their league position. Feel like this has been true of us. We may have come out of the bottom 3, but a glance at the table still shows us in 17th, just one spot above it which given how we have been playing feels off. That could be rectified on Saturday, if other results go our way a win on Saturday could take us as high as 14th. Assuming Leeds get nothing from Liverpool midweek, then Spurs at the weekend, even a draw with Brentford puts us above Leeds. But yeah, a win at Brentford and I will start to truly look forward to the Summer/next season.

Forget the bigger name signings, or the first trophy, I personally won't feel like we have hit the big time till everyone starts to hate us. That and we start getting a lot of dodgy ref decisions magically start going our way.

Got a feeling we may just sneak a draw tomorrow. Can't see them not scoring, but on the flipside if you look at their options at RB I can't see any of them being able to handle Max. Going to say 1-1 with our goal coming from Max serving one up on a plate for Wood.

Actually think that will be the prompt that gets him into the team. You ideally don't want to change a winning team too much, especially when Joe, Shelvey and Willock have been some of our best performers over that run. We get beat I imagine it will be a good chance to change/freshen things up a bit.

I have a feeling we may be looking at 3 at the back. I don't see him dropping Schar or Burn, but instead adding Lascelles to them. Under Rafa Lascelles always looked much better as part of a back 3 when he had the likes of Fernandez, Lejuene or Schar around him. Reckon it will be 3 at the back with Targett and Murphy as the wing backs. Joelinton and Shelvey in the middle and the usual 3 lads up top.

I think in these early days as he gets used to the PL that would be the case. Willock plays and presses much higher up the pitch, a mistake up there and you have plenty of backup behind you. I think in the mid to long term Bruno will be playing in the role Shelvey currently does.

This has been the way I have looked at it since the start of Jan when things still weren't look too great. Given the resources we were about to (and have since spent) throw at it, and how tight it all was among the bottom 4 you would have to make us favourites to win a 4 team mini-league. Obviously things have started out even better than I expected. Even if our form dips a little now, we have given ourselves enough space to be able to just perform for the rest of the season like a bottom half side and still likely be fine. Only danger is if the bottom absolutely falls out.