How can Coventry and Ipswich survive? By playing basic football… | OneFootball

Can you make an argument that the three promoted sides won’t be relegated this season? Just about.

Admittedly at least one will succumb and that seems likely to be play-off winner Hull, which is where I was born. Sob. Spending 23 million quid on two keepers suggests they’re already worried about their defensive abilities; swapping keepers with a flaky Rangers side who couldn’t even come second in a two-horse financial race is not especially positive.

Jack Butland was only in Scotland because he wasn’t Premier League standard and couldn’t get a gig. All other transfers have been to add defenders and midfielders, but they’ve lost two forwards, which puts a lot of pressure on the shown-to-be-not-good enough Oli McBurnie whose previous Premier League performance for Sheffield United in the league of 13 goals in 80 games suggests goals will be difficult. If he can’t get into a Scotland side with generationally poor strikers, that isn’t a good sign. Being behind people like the more-tattoos-than-talent Lyndon Dykes and Che bloody Adams is a red flag.

Sergej Jakirović almost certainly won’t complete the second year of his two-year contract and a season in 19th or 20th seems inevitable. If they’re not giving off the stench of death yet, it seems only a matter of time until City beat them 9-0.

Which leaves Coventry and Ipswich. The Tractor Boys are now managed by the epitome of the ‘I thought he spoke well’ type, Gary O’Neil, the sort of manager who impresses prospective directors when he’s jabbering on Sky in front of the big screen wearing unpleasant trousers. He had good and bad spells at Bournemouth and Wolves, while his six months at Strasbourg was quite successful, only losing eight out of 27. And with a better win ratio than the much-derided Liam Rosenior, who he replaced (incredibly still employed, now at Paris FC).

They’ve had a potentially good transfer window refreshing the team, signing nine who play front, middle and back including Emersonn at centre-forward from Toulouse for 24 million, Issa Diop from Fulham, as well as making the loan permanent for former Boro goalscoring star Chuba Akpom, who has been admittedly sh*te for everyone at a great number of clubs but was great for us under Michael Carrick, so at least he has potential.

Will they do a Sunderland? Probably not but will benefit from implosions at other clubs to finish 17th before going down the following season.

Which leaves Coventry who, with only four in and four out at the moment, might look the most vulnerable. Relying on the players who got you up tends to be a quick way to lose a lot, despite the inevitable claim that they want to preserve last year’s title-winning team spirit. Breaking the club record for a £22.5m goalkeeper, as well as an ex-Burnley winger/forward Loum Tchaouna, doesn’t really thrill. But a central defender from Frankfurt and a defensive midfielder from Brentford could be judicious additions.

And there’s the Frank factor. Is he limited or quite good? We’ll see. He’s certain to get obsequious, greasy, at-times-verging-on-the-homoerotic media coverage. If the former, he’ll be sacked before the sleigh bells but if the latter, which I suspect is nearer the truth, a bottom-half finish is not a complete fantasy. Keeping largely the same squad together does sometimes work, as does not blowing your wad in August but leaving plenty in reserve for January.

The advantage all three have is that there are plenty of teams who’ll be said to be ‘in transition’, the perennial euphemism for being sh*te. The quality of the league as a whole, beyond a couple of teams, isn’t stellar. They might not be relegated but will offer up some wins for the newly promoted.

It’s hard to see Crystal Palace, Fulham, Everton, Spurs, Sunderland and maybe even Bournemouth and Brentford being watertight enough not to concede frequently and even the top sides like Liverpool, Chelsea and Villa hardly seem defensively impervious. This all adds to the chances of the promoted three surviving by picking up draws and occasional unexpected wins.

In circumstances where a lot of teams are very inconsistent, the league becomes compressed and that’ll be to the promoted teams’ advantage. All three look less than great up front, all three have reinforced their defence and will probably do more this month.

Last season, Sunderland proved you don’t need a team of superstars to succeed and that well-researched, judicious buys are more important. That makes predicting anything hard because frankly, they’re all signing players we often haven’t heard much about.

The best way to do it – though not the only way – is to be pragmatic and play quite basic football. The long ball is your friend and don’t entertain anything much else. Playing an advanced pressing and passing game will just get you beaten because you’re almost certainly not good enough often enough to pull it off.

Surviving for a second season, after the first where you have had the advantage of being new to often complacent opposition, may be even harder than keeping up initially and requires a different investment strategy. This season just needs to be survived, any thoughts beyond that will just be a distraction. Keep that in mind and they might give themselves a chance.