I agree, this would be an excellent time to divert into an excoriating list of our squad and its failings but the easiest thing to say is most teams at the top could carry one passenger or make up ofr one or two players who are just below the level We have played with 4 and 5 at times. When we put 2 cms to CB and then bring in others in midfield who are not at the level. City simply do not need to do this. they have at worst played a variety of players in aguero's place like jesus or even midfielders, like silva. the level of quality is high enough that it really doesn't matter. If we consider the williams' or jones or milner (who is dead slow) and all of those types the fall off in quality is absolutely massive.
But because VVD was injured, it meant we had to play Gomez / Matip more often. Gomez's injury was an impact injury but no doubt he would have picked up a niggle at some point whereas Matip was down to playing too many minutes. The same happened with Fabinho - playing more minutes increases the risk of injury. Then the same happened to Hendo. As you say, we suffered a lot of injuries but most of these injuries were due to overplaying players which all stemmed from VVD because he was the one player who would have played pretty much every minute of every game.
Warning signs were there ever since football resumed after the first lockdown. You could have put the initial performances down to complacency since we walked the league but it's never really returned to our dominant best. A dip was always inevitable. Not saying we were sh*t since we won the league but we were doing enough to win games and stay on top. Then that all came crashing down due to a disastrous Jan / Feb. Injuries really ruined us but we should have coped better.
The edge had definitely gone. It was obvious even at the time but, as you say, we put it down to anti-climax once the league was won.
Lack of recovery times between games. Frankly this season is a mess, all over Europe, and the authorities got it wrong. I expect the Euros to be dogshit, players will be knacked before it even kicks off, alot will miss out because of injuries and more will get injured in the build up and as the tournament progresses. I think the fans are also exhausted, games pretty much every other day in multipule competitions, its hard to keep track of who is playing and in what.
Yep, that's another factor as well. Reduced recovery time, injury prone players, really bad impact injuries to Jota, VVD and Gomez. We are very unlucky this season but it is what it is.
And I am saying if our level had stayed the same as November we would still be a distant second to city who won 20 odd in a row in all comps. That's not top and was never going to be
We are being linked with Aaron Ramsey as a replacement for Widj, paper crap as usual can't see us going for a 30 yr old flop.
As long as we kept Matip and Gomez fit in defence, and Fabinho and Hendo were still in midfield, I still think we would definitely be challenging. We were literally top come Xmas day if I recall correctly. Our form fell off a cliff once Matip was out injured.
nah, we were already flatering and city were coming like a steam train. the results simply were not consistent enough. Forget christmas. october we lost vvd to everton assualt november crowds are allowed but results are mixed. brighton draw for exmaple. 1-1 after not finishing them off and letting them have a late pen. beat wolves and lecisters well with the crowd of 2k sounding great december draw to fulham, then we get a nice win v spurs who fell apart and palace let every single shot in. theres inconsistency and poor perofrmanc ein fornt of goal as well as ongoing mane and firmino form issues. Look at west brom. we score first 1-0 up. one run form one player who misses target and we panic and fall apart. then newcastle just sat deep and we couldn't score. 0-0 then southmapton, again they get one change off a taa mistake and score a worldie finsh and we can't score. then utd game 0-0 0-1 to brunely who were useless but we panicked again. none of this is releasted to CBs par se. Its more about forwards being bloody awful. we then beat west ham then lose to brighton and never looked like scoring. For me look at it this way after 5 games LFC 3rd on 10 points (2ppg) City 11th on 7 after 10 games: LFC 2nd on 21 points (2ppg). City 11th on 15 it is here that city's small gap and form dips slightly after 15 game: LFC 1st on 32points (still 2ppg) city on 26 points with match in hand. (14 games) city's run has already started over the 5 games after 20 games LFC 4th on 37 points (wobbling badly) City 1st on 41 points with match in hand as well (won all their games) After 25 games: LFC 6th on 40 points, city 1st on 59 points. (won all the games) the reality is weve been on form to get 4th in a normal season 2ppg, thats our best this year. we had a very poor run for 6/7 games. thats put us into 6th from comfornatbly 2nd. forget being first. city's form was ALWAYS going to accelerate them clear. City are currently on 30 games, 71 points. We are on 29 played. 29x2 = 58. Even if we didn't dip at all we should along be just ahead of utd now looking at city cruising. Ifs and buts and maybes are of no use. the only thing imo thats happenes is our form has sumped so much its cost us the CL spot, it was never enough to win the title. All we can do from here is win every league came (fat chance) and try to get 4th.
I said this for two years - periods of domination by us are pie-in-the-sky. What we need to do, and what we'd built ourselves up for, was to be City's main challenger. Not only will that be gone next season (Uniturd and Chelsea will start in those positions), but we'll even be scraping to nudge into the Top Four with three or four other teams as likely as us. The deal is, we're back where we were in 2017, imo, only we won't have CL football. The whine is though that had FSG not been so inflexible in January, and had Jurgen not been equally inflexible regarding formations with what we have, then we could have saved CL football after our position at Christmas.
I was astonished we were 2 ppg at Christmas. That was our high point. As you rightly point out, keeping that up was never going to stop City, but it could have comfortably seen us in 2nd or 3rd.
Yes, imo it would comfortably, I am thinking utd will hit 75 points this year. yes it could be more if they win all the games but could be less. 2ppg = 76 points i think leicester will not even hit that, maybe 72 or 70.
I heard this rumour. Ramsey is a good player but we won't be interested. Age is against him yes, but also his injury history is poor.
Italians have a long history of plastering players they want rid of all over the rags. Ramsey bought his medals. He can sit back and admire them now as hes not going anywhere but to a west ham or some such
After this season I think we'll be far more careful in buying players with poor injury records. I expect more Fekir type things happening for us. Any underlying injury problems could mean we're willing to walk away from a deal Also highly sceptical about any links to players over 25, doesn't match FSG's ideas. Only time we'd go for older is if we really really want them, like VvD, or Thiago who was rated as the best CM in the world. And Ramsay is neither.
Do you know what I would take Kane at LFC you know Top class striker Dirty cheating ****er And great work ethic Let’s get this done please FSG
Harry kane is yesterday's news. We should have mortgaged anfield to get haaland not minamino at the time. Now dortmund have Sanchez, haaland, Bellingham and are still ****. They are far too unbalanced an outfit but have half the top young talent in Europe. Nobody will lay hands on anyone cheap imo. Hopefully jota will be enough to propel us to glory this season. (Whatever.glory looks like)
