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*Official* English Football Season 2022/23

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Timing the question for me…
I agree. Unless they think that Vieira had completely lost the dressing room and a new face might give them enough a fillip to win some of their remaining games. But they're not actually playing that badly (apart from in the final third), so replacing the manager could go either way.
 

Uppercut

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I have mixed feelings. As I’ve said before I don’t think Palace are particularly bad, they’ve been competitive every time I’ve seen them. Their poor run of form is mostly draws and narrow defeats to good teams.

But I also don’t think Vieira is anything special as a manager. He’s ok, but you could probably find someone better.

If it’s a panic move and they get Tony Pulis in then I hate it. But if they’re using the next few months to do a full search for the best possible replacement then it makes a bit more sense.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
I have mixed feelings. As I’ve said before I don’t think Palace are particularly bad, they’ve been competitive every time I’ve seen them. Their poor run of form is mostly draws and narrow defeats to good teams.

But I also don’t think Vieira is anything special as a manager. He’s ok, but you could probably find someone better.

If it’s a panic move and they get Tony Pulis in then I hate it. But if they’re using the next few months to do a full search for the best possible replacement then it makes a bit more sense.
I think this is all true. In particular, Palace's 0-1 against City isn't looking the worst result after MC scored 13 against decent teams in their next two games, and the other recent results are very much as you described them. Amongst the things that I got wrong recently was predicting that Palace would be way below 12th after their run of tricky fixtures. Well, unless Arsenal put six past them today, they will indeed still be in 12th place, albeit with not a lot of daylight between them and the drop-zone. Now 6-0 could still happen of course, especially post-Vieira. Someone who knows more about these things than me reckoned that after those 0-3 and 0-4 home losses to Fulham and Tottenham, Vieira abandoned the high press and got the team defending deep. To me, especially given how they have approached their recent games, that sounds like modern parlance for parking the bus and hoping to nick something from a set play. Which isn't actually the worst approach when playing against teams who are clearly better than you, and those four draws in the recent sequence of games are now looking very good results indeed.

I wonder whether there had been a falling out between Vieira and the chairman. Apparently PV was disappointed not to have more funds available for the transfer window. To which the chairman would have been perfectly entitled to have pointed out that the manager would have a stronger case if he hadn't wasted money on absolute duds like Edouarde and Mateta. If Hodgson does return, presumably that would only be for the rest of this season. Time will tell whether that's a good call.

Other things I got wrong were writing off Leeds and overstating Wolves' survival credentials. When I cast my eye over the relegation candidates, I did wonder whether Leeds had picked up under their new manager but couldn't really justify that view so I didn't bother saying it. I wish I had now. As for Wolves, a fun fact is that if the teams below them win their games in hand then WW will be in the bottom 3. Admittedly those five teams probably won't win all of their games in hand, otherwise they wouldn't be where they are in the table, but even so. And Wolves must have been genuinely dreadful yesterday. My main concern from a Palace pov is that all the teams below them seem more capable of scoring a few goals than my lot. And that was the case even before their recent run of games. When even Southampton can score 3 (three) against a top 4 side, I get very jealous and I genuinely think that we're in trouble in the run of dog-fights in April and May. Given how many things I got wrong the other day, my best bet is probably to keep predicting that Palace will indeed go down and try and relax.
 

Socerer 01

International Vice-Captain
Conte trying to get sacked is hilarious.
at this point wouldn’t Tottenham have ground to just go after him for gross misconduct or defamation to not pay him anything? something like this is never happening in the real ordinary world we live in without there being severe repercussions
 

Niall

International Coach
Fulham should have that game in the bag before those banter 3 red cards. United losing a lot of steam at the moment and not helped by that abomination Weghorst playing every game and Sancho clearly not up to it. Brighton can surely turn them over in the semi . City murder either in the final obviously.
 

flibbertyjibber

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Fulham chucked that away with a few minutes of madness. Should have been out of sight by then though. Mitrovic may get a lengthy ban for that too
 

Molehill

International Captain
Fulham should have that game in the bag before those banter 3 red cards. United losing a lot of steam at the moment and not helped by that abomination Weghorst playing every game and Sancho clearly not up to it. Brighton can surely turn them over in the semi . City murder either in the final obviously.
United's problem was battling on 4 fronts and not really having the squad to support it. First 11 has been excellent, but scratch below the surface and you start to see the issues. But somehow, they're still in 3 of them having already won 1. I suspect they'll limp to a Champions League spot and their season will have been a success no matter what they do in the other cups.
 

andruid

Cricketer Of The Year
United's problem was battling on 4 fronts and not really having the squad to support it. First 11 has been excellent, but scratch below the surface and you start to see the issues. But somehow, they're still in 3 of them having already won 1. I suspect they'll limp to a Champions League spot and their season will have been a success no matter what they do in the other cups.
I suppose the other way of putting it is with credit in the bank for winning a trophy, Ten Hag can tank both the Europa League and FA Cup runs to keep his best XI fighting for a top four finish?
 

Molehill

International Captain
I suppose the other way of putting it is with credit in the bank for winning a trophy, Ten Hag can tank both the Europa League and FA Cup runs to keep his best XI fighting for a top four finish?
You'd think Top 4 has to be the key aim for the remaining fixtures. Although, Casemiro can only play European fixtures till about the end of April anyway so that will strengthen that team.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
I suppose the other way of putting it is with credit in the bank for winning a trophy, Ten Hag can tank both the Europa League and FA Cup runs to keep his best XI fighting for a top four finish?
Given Spurs are still somehow 4th I don't see Man Utd finishing outside the top 4.

Europa gets you direct entry to Pot 1 anyway.
 

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