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[Albion] 10 games to go, can we get European qualification again?

Can we qualify for Europe again this season?


  • Total voters
    310
  • Poll closed .


Uh_huh_him

Well-known member
Sep 28, 2011
10,696
Our run in is the hardest - West Ham's is comparable.
We probably need to beat United/Chelsea/Newcastle ( or at least don't lose)

Also we need to hope that either City or Liverpool win the cup.
 




Mackenzie

Old Brightonian
Nov 7, 2003
33,558
East Wales
I think we have a chance although my gut feeling is that we’ll narrowly miss out as our run in looks pretty tough.
 


nordicgod

Top banana
Jul 21, 2011
889
polegate
I reckon we will be lucky to finish this season with 50 points , other seasons we would have been well happy with this , at least we were safe with 10 games to go , hopefully next season will be good after a wonderful summer recruitment and sending Fergie off for shooting practise
 


Milano

Well-known member
Aug 15, 2012
3,376
Sussex but not by the sea
Impossible to tell with Albion. We KNOW that we are capable of beating United, Arsenal & Chelsea at home, we KNOW we are capable of getting something at Liverpool and Newcastle away. Whether we will or not...

The positive about playing others in the top 10 at home is that our crowd tend to be far more 'up for it' in these games. City match now under lights, I expect Chelsea likely to be too. There will be an extra edge to the Chelsea and Villa home games in particular. We need to recreate the Roma atmosphere for the run in.
 


nicko31

Well-known member
Jan 7, 2010
17,611
Gods country fortnightly
Our run in is the hardest - West Ham's is comparable.
We probably need to beat United/Chelsea/Newcastle ( or at least don't lose)

Also we need to hope that either City or Liverpool win the cup.
The later is highly probable, highly likely it will go to the wire
 




bhafc99

Well-known member
Oct 14, 2003
7,095
Dubai
Our run in is the hardest
Confirmed by this analysis from Opta…

Screenshot 2024-03-16 at 12.32.35.png
 








el punal

Well-known member
League position is slightly flattering. But never say never
How can our league position be flattering? It’s the one thing that measures how good or bad a team are. Sheffield Utd are crap. Why? Simply because they’ve lost more games than any other team, okay chuck in Burnley too. Arsenal and Liverpool are the opposite. There’s that old saying that ‘the table doesn’t lie’ - it doesnt.

Sure, you can come up with excuses, in our case too many injuries and too many games played but that’s the nature of the beast. We now have a two week welcome break to rest weary limbs (that goes for us fans too!) and hopefully have more players back from injury.

How we fare in the next ten games? Who knows but I sincerely hope that after our great showing against Roma on Thursday we continue in the same vein.
 




Hugo Rune

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 23, 2012
21,631
Brighton
It's a big ask but I think 8th is achievable. I am not getting hung up on it though. We'll give it a go and let the chips fall where they may.
We must start scoring again for this to happen.

Ferguson is a shadow of his pre-illness self and can’t be expected to get the numbers we need. Welbeck is our best ever all-round striker but his finishing can be Maupay-like with 4 point blank headers against Roma left unconverted. Our specialist natural finisher is busy destroying the Bundesliga (and will surely score for the Germany next week) so can’t help.

We need Joao Pedro back and Enciso to start hitting the target quickly. Adingra needs to step-up and Fati should really be helping out too.

If this happens, 8th is within our grasp. But if we continue with our current proficiency in front of goal, I’d be happy with 10th.

Edit: And nothing to do with Steele as claimed by the site idiot.
 




Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

Waxing chumps like candles since ‘75
Oct 4, 2003
11,098
Does 8th get into Europe this year if either of City or Arsenal win the CL?
No. For 8th to get a European spot it would require England being one of the top two ranked nations on UEFA co-efficients this season, which would give a 5th Champions League spot next season. The Fa Cup would need to be won by a top 7 side as well.

Although winning the Champions League would help in boosting the co-efficient score, on its own it isn’t enough to make it happen.
 




Mr Bridger

Sound of the suburbs
Feb 25, 2013
4,446
Earth
No I don’t think so. A good top 10 finish will do me.
Regroup, a couple of Stella signings over the summer, RDZ commits to another year and we go all guns blazing for next year on all fronts.
 




Zeberdi

Brighton born & bred
NSC Patron
Oct 20, 2022
4,877
We'll need to win 5 of our 10 (very hard) matches to have a chance.

If we play like we did last night and get Pedro back I think we can do it. We need to make sure we beat Burnley plus at least one of Brentford and Bournemouth. Then we need to pull off some wins at home - Villa, Chelsea and Man United are huge games.
Agreed.

Looking back, we’ve not beaten Chelsea in our league or cup matches this season (or summer friendly) - we’ve only lost by one goal deficits though and they have not progressed much up the table since then so IMO that’s very doable. We beat Man U in September 3:1 without March or Pervis (although Man U have settled down from a rocky start to the season, they do play a style that suits us), I think that is also very doable. Best not to mention Villa, they are having an exceptional season anyway despite the drumming we got from them.

Cherries, Bees and Clarets are all in the bottom half of the table for a reason but we need work in two areas: When we press high with our defensive pivots and FB’s we leave vulnerable space behind the ball which teams like these 3 have routinely exploited. Playing Roma at home match, it seemed to me RDZ has made a tweak to his system here and kept our FBs and Gross behind the ball when we pressed high in the final third - we got back much quicker therefore to defend against counterattacks and ended up with a clean sheet.

The second area is not being clinical enough in our finishing - part of that IMO is is not being panicked into taking wasted, hail Mary shots and crossing later or earlier - Adingra’s decision making still needs some work. We also need to make more use of Buonanotte and Ferguson in the central attack areas more - both of them struggled to get into the game on Thursday, despite them regularly carving out some space off the ball.

Pedro and Milner should be back by end of March and unless we have any more injuries, we’ll be in even better shape than we are now.

If we can get on top of all that, we stand a good chance of a 7th place finish. So I vote a qualified ‘yes’.
 
Last edited:


Jimmy Grimble

Well-known member
We must start scoring again for this to happen.

Ferguson is a shadow of his pre-illness self and can’t be expected to get the numbers we need. Welbeck is our best ever all-round striker but his finishing can be Maupay-like with 4 point blank headers against Roma left unconverted. Our specialist natural finisher is busy destroying the Bundesliga (and will surely score for the Germany next week) so can’t help.

We need Joao Pedro back and Enciso to start hitting the target quickly. Adingra needs to step-up and Fati should really be helping out too.

If this happens, 8th is within our grasp. But if we continue with our current proficiency in front of goal, I’d be happy with 10th.

Edit: And nothing to do with Steele as claimed by the site idiot.
Nailed it. Only other thing I’d add is Estupinan also needing to rediscover his 22-23 form.

A clean sheet against a hapless Forest and a Roma side who had no need to score a goal shouldn’t trick us into thinking we can grind our way to enough points.

We have to start firing as an attacking unit as we will continue to leak goals.

Unfortunately, I think it’ll end up being Chelsea and Newcastle. Their run-ins are far easier. If we’re going to do it, I think we need to beat both of them. Tall order.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,770
Back in Sussex
No. For 8th to get a European spot it would require England being one of the top two ranked nations on UEFA co-efficients this season, which would give a 5th Champions League spot next season. The Fa Cup would need to be won by a top 7 side as well.

Although winning the Champions League would help in boosting the co-efficient score, on its own it isn’t enough to make it happen.
Indeed. However, although England currently sits third in the rankings behind Italy and Germany, we are highly likely to finish above Germany in the "coefficient table" and get the bonus Champions League spot.
 


Frankie

Put him in the curry
May 23, 2016
4,148
Mid west Wales
I really liked the team spirit shown v Roma (H) and the win v Forest showed we can grind out results if we have to,I think 6th is a big ask but 7th is a distinct possibility,the break will hopefully get a few back up to 100% and Pedro may also be starting to train again with the team, hopefully Hinshelwood will be back on the grass soon and young Barco will have had a bit more time to settle in.
It's unlikely Karou or Solly will make the run in but I think we can definitely finish top 7,and this may have a bearing on the future of RDZ ultimately.
 








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