Ave_IT":37gbve0m said:Forget everyone else. If we reach 51 points (in fact probably āonlyā 50) then we WILL be safe. We have to average 1.33 points per game over 30 games. Last season MK Dons finished 12th doing exactly that over the full season. So the question is can we be a mid-table team for the rest of the season? Well of course we bloody can. Iām not saying we definitely will ā only a complete moron would āGUARANTEEā any outcome ā but we have competed against the best in the division and shown we are capable of picking up points. Our bad start though means we have no room now for runs of bad form or bad luck so from that perspective the odds are against us but it is certainly is do-able.David_Fisher":37gbve0m said:Knibbsworth":37gbve0m said:We need to match the form of the four teams above us +4 points. Hardly impossible, and we've already turned the corner with 6 points from four games.
The returns of Taylor, Threlkeld and captain Luke will be massive towards maintaining that consistent mid table form.
If we match the 4 teams above us +4 points we still finish in the bottom 4 due to goal difference.
Only Northampton have a worse goal difference.
Incidentally I remember an interview with Alan Curbishley talking about relegation dog-fights a few years ago. He said that fans always worry about scoring more, always desperate for wins so demanding attacking play and calling for a new striker to rescue them. He reckoned that is the wrong approach ā the most important thing for a relegation threatened team is to be solid defensively. If you donāt concede many then you are always in the game with a chance, always able to nick a game or scramble a point. Just saying likeā¦ā¦..
I know this is now a very old post, but this is a great thread, and over Christmas I read my sonās copy of soccernomics, which I found a very interesting read. The authors totally agree with Alan Curbishleyās view, and say it is absolutely statistically proven that any struggling team would do better to invest in one good defender rather than one good striker, because for such teams conceding one fewer goals per game will achieve more points than scoring one more.