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English Premier League 🦁

Little bit of statto time - to demonstrate how you can be sitting in a Euro position and still watching the relegation zone...

At the start of the season I figured 36 points would be enough to stay up. 36 points is 9 wins and 9 draws. Beat the bottom 9 at home, draw with them away - then you can lose to every top half side home and away. Using last season's league to define who are the bottom 9 (other than yourself):

After 10 games:
Brentford are +7
Sunderland +6
Fulham +1
Burnley +1
Everton =
Leeds -1
West Ham -2
Forest -5
Wolves -10

The 'advantage' of looking at the fixtures this way is that it takes out a chunk of the "this team has had an easier run than that team". Brenford, for example, are 5 points behind Sunderland, but actually 1 point better off when fixtures are taken into account.
 
melbcityguy said:
How are Sunderland doing so well?
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How long have you got? 'cos I could write a whole book about this...

Essentially - extremely well managed squad for the last 3 years, actually made a profit in the last couple of seasons in the championship. As a result, once we were promoted we had no expensive dead-wood, so we could go hard with our transfers. Our recruiting hasn't been perfect, but it's been as good as anyone could have hoped. It's almost comical that there are Premier League clubs who have struggled to recruit central defenders this summer - but we've picked up Mukiele, Alderete and Geertuida for a combined 25 million quid.

Our coach is a tactician. Early last season he commented on the Championship schedule being difficult to adjust to, because he didn't have time to work on specific approaches for every game - this season he's been able to spend more time on each opponent. Today was the first time we got it wrong tactically - giving Everton too much respect and being off our game.

On the pitch, we're extremely defensive - with 4 or 5 at the back, and 2 DMs, plus a central midfielder on the left wing, who plays most of the game inside. Very hard to break down. Very calm. It was a shock to see a couple of the lads losing their heads this morning - we haven't done that for a long time.

As an aside, the guy who did most of the work for those 3 years in the championship was Stuart Harvey, and he's been released as we move onto this higher level - I'd say he's the best person any championship club could hire right now.

I'm loving it.
 
great to see your Black Cats back where they belong Ben.
I luv seeing the ol clubs I grew up with watching way way back in the day.
Plus LFC have raided some good ones now and then - sorry but way it goes.
I admired - Phillips and Quinn.
Your academy nurtured Hendo :) as well as Pickford.
Bent should have stayed with you.
Xhaka been a smart buy - the experience and his work rate would inspire.
LeBris is managing well as mentioned.
Who's been your top 3/4 players that are in your best ever ?
 
LFC said:
great to see your Black Cats back where they belong Ben.
I luv seeing the ol clubs I grew up with watching way way back in the day.
Plus LFC have raided some good ones now and then - sorry but way it goes.
I admired - Phillips and Quinn.
Your academy nurtured Hendo :) as well as Pickford.
Bent should have stayed with you.
Xhaka been a smart buy - the experience and his work rate would inspire.
LeBris is managing well as mentioned.
Who's been your top 3/4 players that are in your best ever ?
Click to expand...

Granit Xhaka (f*ck me, the bloke is so professional)
Jermain Defoe (if only we'd got him a couple of years earleir)
Don Hutchison (only one season but he carried us for the whole year)
Kevin Phillips (so many goals)
Lorik Cana (the original Xhaka, but ultimately didn't like the pace of the premier league)

If I can have a sixth... My son's called Niall. No prizes for guessing why.
 
A friend of mine is a Mackem'...


His favourite player is Bobby Kerr aka 'The Little General' Captaned Sunderland to the 1973 FA Cup. One of the most extraordinary FA Cup wins of the 20th Century.
 
Benjamin said:
Granit Xhaka (f*ck me, the bloke is so professional)
Jermain Defoe (if only we'd got him a couple of years earleir)
Don Hutchison (only one season but he carried us for the whole year)
Kevin Phillips (so many goals)
Lorik Cana (the original Xhaka, but ultimately didn't like the pace of the premier league)

If I can have a sixth... My son's called Niall. No prizes for guessing why.
Click to expand...
got to say I disliked Xhaka at Arse but purely why I knew he was a top mid and the kind I like.
He was brilliant at Alonso's Bayer and I know why - he inspires team mates.
Was always going to be top shelf for you guys ! every team needs this style of midfielder.
I was going to mention Niall, good name for your son well done, rippa player !
 
Football us life said:
A friend of mine is a Mackem'...


His favourite player is Bobby Kerr aka 'The Little General' Captaned Sunderland to the 1973 FA Cup. One of the most extraordinary FA Cup wins of the 20th Century.
Click to expand...
I was too young to appreciate Bobby Kerr as a player (although my dad used to take me down to Hartlepool to watch him in his last season) - however, once Bobby became the landlord at our local in the 90s, I got to know him as a very decent bloke. It used to feel a bit special buying rounds from the bloke who lifted the cup. Mick Horswill, who also played in the 73 cup final, was in charge of the bar at the staff club at Nissan, I purchased a few drinks from him too... And my PE teacher (for a year) was Richie Pitt, who also played in the final.

Makes Sunderland sound like a very small place.
 
LFC said:
got to say I disliked Xhaka at Arse but purely why I knew he was a top mid and the kind I like.
He was brilliant at Alonso's Bayer and I know why - he inspires team mates.
Was always going to be top shelf for you guys ! every team needs this style of midfielder.
I was going to mention Niall, good name for your son well done, rippa player !
Click to expand...
Truth be known, I was never that crazy about Niall as a player, when he was playing - too blinded by Kevin Phillips at the time - but when he retired, and we couldn't replace him, he grew on me!! When he became club chairman, I fell in love with the bloke! Wife still claims our boy wasn't named after him - but she only knew the name because I was reading Quinny's autobiographies whilst she was pregnant and she kept seeing the name on the book... To me, that definately means he was named after Niall!
 
Benjamin said:
I was too young to appreciate Bobby Kerr as a player (although my dad used to take me down to Hartlepool to watch him in his last season) - however, once Bobby became the landlord at our local in the 90s, I got to know him as a very decent bloke. It used to feel a bit special buying rounds from the bloke who lifted the cup. Mick Horswill, who also played in the 73 cup final, was in charge of the bar at the staff club at Nissan, I purchased a few drinks from him too... And my PE teacher (for a year) was Richie Pitt, who also played in the final.

Makes Sunderland sound like a very small place.
Click to expand...

Didn't know he played for the monkey hangers....
 
Benjamin said:
Truth be known, I was never that crazy about Niall as a player, when he was playing - too blinded by Kevin Phillips at the time - but when he retired, and we couldn't replace him, he grew on me!! When he became club chairman, I fell in love with the bloke! Wife still claims our boy wasn't named after him - but she only knew the name because I was reading Quinny's autobiographies whilst she was pregnant and she kept seeing the name on the book... To me, that definately means he was named after Niall!
Click to expand...
Yes I neglected typing in Niall.
Great player - Phillips shined more obviously but a great combo - good choice for your boy !
Is he a footballer ? :)
 
LFC said:
Yes I neglected typing in Niall.
Great player - Phillips shined more obviously but a great combo - good choice for your boy !
Is he a footballer ? :)
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No. The interest didn't kick in. International athlete for a mother, football tragic for a father... Sadness abounds. He's a good kid though (well, a good man now). I feel very old.
 
Benjamin said:
Last couple of seasons. A little man on heavy early 80's Division 4 mud pitches... Still class.
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Haha...I remember going to an FA Cup game between Monkey Hangers United and York City in the mid 1980's at Monkey Hanger Park.

Pissing down with rain before the game and mud up to the players ears....

Followed by 4 o'clock North Sea mist, crap floodlights and the players from both sides looking like they were playing in the same brown shyte coloured kit!!

Fuck I miss the old days... 😪
 
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Football us life said:
Haha...I remember going to an FA Cup game between Monkey Hangers United and York City in the mid 1980's at Monkey Hanger Park.

Pissing down with rain before the game and mud up to the players ears....

Followed by 4 o'clock North Sea mist, crap floodlights and the players from both sides looking like they were playing in the same brown shyte coloured kit!!

Fuck I miss the old days... 😪
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Pools really embraced the Monkey Hanger business - they ended up with a mascot called H'angus the Monkey.

Have had some good times at Hartlepool... Probably the best was one of Peter Beardsley's last professional games in England (pre Melbourne Knights) - Hartlepool vs Scarborough (91st vs 92nd in the league). We (Sunderland) had won the Championship (under Peter Reid) the night before, away from home, and about 2500 Sunderland fans decided (independently) that we all had to be at a game that weekend - so half the ground was red and white having a party, whilst the other half were stressing about whether they would be relegated from the league. Beardsley looked like he was wondering what the hell he was doing playing in a 91st vs 92nd game, being laughed at by 2500 mackems - even though he's a Mag, I felt sorry for him.
 
Benjamin said:
Pools really embraced the Monkey Hanger business - they ended up with a mascot called H'angus the Monkey.

Have had some good times at Hartlepool... Probably the best was one of Peter Beardsley's last professional games in England (pre Melbourne Knights) - Hartlepool vs Scarborough (91st vs 92nd in the league). We (Sunderland) had won the Championship (under Peter Reid) the night before, away from home, and about 2500 Sunderland fans decided (independently) that we all had to be at a game that weekend - so half the ground was red and white having a party, whilst the other half were stressing about whether they would be relegated from the league. Beardsley looked like he was wondering what the hell he was doing playing in a 91st vs 92nd game, being laughed at by 2500 mackems - even though he's a Mag, I felt sorry for him.
Click to expand...

Quasi was a great player....

Not only did they end up with a fotoball club mascot called H'Angus the Monkey, said mascot became the towns elected Mayor...

Monkey Hangers 🤣🤣🤣
 
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