The week that will decide Boro's fate?

dibraidio · Post by **dibraidio** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:57 am

Swansea away Sunday 2nd of April
Hull away Wednesday 5th of Arpil
Burnley home Saturday 8th of April

Three absolutely massive games for Boro in one week. Swansea and Hull have both been good at home recently and Boro need to claw back the 5 point gap to catch Swansea or find themselves even further adrift with Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool still to play in their last 6 games.

Burnley play Stoke on the Tuesday so we'll have an extra rest day before our game with Boro.

box_of_frogs · Post by **box_of_frogs** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:09 am

Lose to Swansea, draw with Hull, lose to Burnley (one can hope!). Sounds like a good plan to me!

nil_desperandum · Post by **nil_desperandum** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:14 am

tbh 3 draws would suit us quite well. Points lost all round and prevents any of them from making much progress on us.

Firthy · Post by **Firthy** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:18 am

nil_desperandum wrote:tbh 3 draws would suit us quite well. Points lost all round and prevents any of them from making much progress on us.

Let's be positive here. 2 draws and a win for us would be better

Quickenthetempo · Post by **Quickenthetempo** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:28 am

We have more chance of beating Spurs and United than winning at Boro as daft as it sounds.

box_of_frogs · Post by **box_of_frogs** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:33 am

A bit of positivity going into the final 3rd, and we can easily beat boro. Someone with some creativity to pass it forwards rather than sideways would help. Enter Steven Defour.....

Tall Paul · Post by **Tall Paul** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:40 am

Quickenthetempo wrote:We have more chance of beating Spurs and United than winning at Boro as daft as it sounds.

We really don't. It does sound daft because it isn't true.

dibraidio · Post by **dibraidio** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:45 am

I remember someone, could have been Rafa Benitez, complaining that players need 4 days to recover properly after a game. That means that their players won't have recovered from Swansea when they play Hull and won't have recovered from Hull when they play us.

Lancasterclaret · Post by **Lancasterclaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:46 am

Course, if 'Boro win the two games before they play us, then its a whole new ball game.

All we can do is make sure that we make the home games against Spurs and Stoke count.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 9:58 am

Not really that bothered about Boro or whether they stay up or not. No club's fate will be decided in a week either, no matter who they play.

nil_desperandum · Post by **nil_desperandum** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:02 am

ClaretTony wrote:Not really that bothered about Boro or whether they stay up or not. No club's fate will be decided in a week either, no matter who they play.

I think it will Tony. If Boro don't pick up any points from those 3 games, then their chances of getting anywhere near 35 points will be very slim indeed.

Lancasterclaret · Post by **Lancasterclaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:03 am

Its like when we lost to Leicester last time. We knew that that was probably that.

If 'Boro lose to all three teams around them then they are down and out.

BabylonClaret · Post by **BabylonClaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:11 am

I'd say if they fail to win at least one of them it's probably it.

KefkaClaret · Post by **KefkaClaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:27 am

We won't win at Boro, best we can hope for is a draw

mdd2 · Post by **mdd2** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:48 am

9 points from those games will put the wind up us!!!!

Spijed · Post by **Spijed** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:49 am

mdd2 wrote:9 points from those games will put the wind up us!!!!

But that'll leave Hull & Swansea in a mess!

iluva64 · Post by **iluva64** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:46 pm

You have all missed, they have to also play Sunderland as a rearranged fixture due to playing Arsenal in FA Cup.

They are likely to have a 7 game April month whilst everyone else has 6, plus also an international break. A bit of a fixture pile up I'm thinking will not be great and no appointed manager.

DOOMED

TVC15 · Post by **TVC15** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 12:56 pm

nil_desperandum wrote:I think it will Tony. If Boro don't pick up any points from those 3 games, then their chances of getting anywhere near 35 points will be very slim indeed.

Agree with that - especially when you see Boro`s last 4 fixtures - Liverpool and Chelsea away and Man City and Southampton at home.

On the other hand the last few games in the Premier League can become very distorted as depends on what teams still have to play for and what other competitions they are still going for.

There could easily be a scenario where the Premier League has been won by Chelsea and the likes of Chelsea, United, City, Spurs etc begin to rotate their squad focusing on FA Cup or for United Europa Cup. Or they could all be scrambling with Everton and Arsenal for the remaining champion leagues spots. When you add into this those teams who have nothing to play for and are either "on the beach" or experimenting with youngsters then it really does become impossible to predict and also partly down to luck.

We do our job and get to 37 or 38 points asap and then we can avoid the lottery and stress of it all....as it is just not enjoyable !!!

minnieclaret · Post by **minnieclaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:13 pm

We turned a corner against Boro with the FA Cup win. That followed by Michael Keanes heartbreaker, for them, and our home win this time puts us in a good place.
We will win at the Riverside.

Spijed · Post by **Spijed** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:31 pm

TVC15 wrote:We do our job and get to 37 or 38 points asap and then we can avoid the lottery and stress of it all....as it is just not enjoyable !!!

Yes, we don't want to be needing a win against West Ham to stop up.

Imagine the tension if we are leading 1-0 with ten minutes to go!

Tall Paul · Post by **Tall Paul** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:36 pm

Spijed wrote:Yes, we don't want to be needing a win against West Ham to stop up.

Imagine the tension if we are leading 1-0 with ten minutes to go!

I wonder if West Ham are worrying as much as some of our supporters. They're only a point in front of us and have won just one of their last six, including Saturday's home defeat to Leicester who hadn't won away.

I'm pretty sure there will be nothing significant riding on that final league game.

Spijed · Post by **Spijed** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:43 pm

Tall Paul wrote:I wonder if West Ham are worrying as much as some of our supporters. They're only a point in front of us and have won just one of their last six, including Saturday's home defeat to Leicester who hadn't won away.

I'm pretty sure there will be nothing significant riding on that final league game.

I'm convinced there won't be, but imagine the excitement if there is

1968claret · Post by **1968claret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:50 pm

Spijed wrote:I'm convinced there won't be, but imagine the excitement if there is

Id rather not

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:50 pm

Whilst Boro fans have been busy throwing their towels in these last few weeks, many of them have already decided that Gibson is looking to next season already by appointing Agnew until the end of the season.

nil_desperandum · Post by **nil_desperandum** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:58 pm

Tall Paul wrote:
I'm pretty sure there will be nothing significant riding on that final league game.

Hopefully just a few million!!
If things are as tight as they are at present, a win could lift us say 3 places, or a loss take us the other way. At £1.2 million per league position I'd say that every point counts even if we're safe. (In fact finishing 3rd bottom makes us £2.5 million better off than finishing 20th!)

ElectroClaret · Post by **ElectroClaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:59 pm

We've probably got enough points now.

Boro won't catch us if they play night and day.

Tall Paul · Post by **Tall Paul** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:01 pm

nil_desperandum wrote:Hopefully just a few million!!
If things are as tight as they are at present, a win could lift us say 3 places, or a loss take us the other way. At £1.2 million per league position I'd say that every point counts even if we're safe. (In fact finishing 3rd bottom makes us £2.5 million better off than finishing 20th!)

Well yeah, that's why I said nothing significant. In the scheme of things a few million for an extra place or two is nothing compared to the difference between staying up and going down.

Sidney1st · Post by **Sidney1st** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:01 pm

Valdes falling on his face sums up their end of season run really.

It's a bit like our Beast / Wigan moment.

Spijed · Post by **Spijed** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:02 pm

nil_desperandum wrote:Hopefully just a few million!!
If things are as tight as they are at present, a win could lift us say 3 places, or a loss take us the other way. At £1.2 million per league position I'd say that every point counts even if we're safe. (In fact finishing 3rd bottom makes us £2.5 million better off than finishing 20th!)

Finishing mid-table would go a long way towards paying for our new training complex.

summitclaret · Post by **summitclaret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:24 pm

You are all concerning yourselves with the wrong team. It's Hull that are the threat looking at their home form and fixtures. So Borough not winning against Swansea and even beating hull would be probably be OK.

jurek · Post by **jurek** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:36 pm

Depending on what Boro' can get away at Swansea and Hull might make our game against
them either their very last chance, or if they do well in the previous two
(probably have to win at least one of those) then an absolute must win.
Much will also depend on how we perform at home to Spurs and Stoke.
If we can manage to get two or three points from those games then we'll go to Boro'
knowing we're still a decent number of points above them.

I do think that if Boro' lose those first two then they may be too far behind
even if they managed to beat us.

The ideal scenario is for them to get something from the games with Hull
and Swansea (draws at both) and lose to us. Especially if we could get a few points from our home games.
That would, barring an absolute collapse in our last six games, make us virtually certain of staying up
as we'd have 36/37 points.

Don't wish to be going to the Boro' game having lost to Spurs and Stoke and with Hull having won
their two at home to West Ham and Boro'.

FactualFrank · Post by **FactualFrank** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 2:38 pm

ElectroClaret wrote:We've probably got enough points now.

Boro won't catch us if they play night and day.

One thing I'm confident of and that's that 32 points won't be enough to keep us up. I think 35 will be enough.

Vegas Claret · Post by **Vegas Claret** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:42 pm

I said months ago our only away win would be at Boro just because their fans hate us

Clarets4me · Post by **Clarets4me** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:01 pm

jurek wrote:Depending on what Boro' can get away at Swansea and Hull might make our game against
them either their very last chance, or if they do well in the previous two
(probably have to win at least one of those) then an absolute must win.
Much will also depend on how we perform at home to Spurs and Stoke.
If we can manage to get two or three points from those games then we'll go to Boro'
knowing we're still a decent number of points above them.

I do think that if Boro' lose those first two then they may be too far behind
even if they managed to beat us.

The ideal scenario is for them to get something from the games with Hull
and Swansea (draws at both) and lose to us. Especially if we could get a few points from our home games.
That would, barring an absolute collapse in our last six games, make us virtually certain of staying up
as we'd have 36/37 points.

Don't wish to be going to the Boro' game having lost to Spurs and Stoke and with Hull having won
their two at home to West Ham and Boro'.

Don't think Palace are out of trouble just yet, they have a tough run in !!

Chelsea V Crystal Palace
Southampton V Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace V Arsenal
Crystal Palace V Leicester City
Liverpool V Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace V Tottenham Hotspur
Crystal Palace V Burnley
Manchester City V Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace V Hull City
Manchester United V Crystal Palace

You could make a reasonable case for them not picking up a point in the next six games !!

Spijed · Post by **Spijed** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:17 pm

Clarets4me wrote:Don't think Palace are out of trouble just yet, they have a tough run in !!

Chelsea V Crystal Palace
Southampton V Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace V Arsenal
Crystal Palace V Leicester City
Liverpool V Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace V Tottenham Hotspur
Crystal Palace V Burnley
Manchester City V Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace V Hull City
Manchester United V Crystal Palace

You could make a reasonable case for them not picking up a point in the next six games !!

Apparently Palace beat Watford without having a single shot on target!

nil_desperandum · Post by **nil_desperandum** » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:22 pm

Would expect Palace to beat Arsenal, Burnley (sorry) and Hull at home, and probably pick up a few points elsewhere so they should be well clear of trouble. I'll be surprised if they fail to get 40 points, but should get more than needed anyway.

BFC88 · Post by **BFC88** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:59 am

We just need 38 points as quickly as possible.

As someone posted above i think Hull are the biggest threat looking at the run in. Boro & Sland are doomed.

Man of Kent · Post by **Man of Kent** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 8:50 pm

I've said it before but all we have to do is match the results of those teams below us and we're safe. Simple. If we can't match the results of Hull, Middlesbrough and Sunderland over eight games, we deserve the drop.

IanMcL · Post by **IanMcL** » Tue Mar 21, 2017 9:44 pm

nil_desperandum wrote:tbh 3 draws would suit us quite well. Points lost all round and prevents any of them from making much progress on us.

2 draws and a loss to us feels better.

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