I thought I'd have a look at the fixtures of our opponents also going for 5th place and see where we can potentially end up. Spurs Chelsea v Tottenham Tottenham v Blackpool Man City v Tottenham Liverpool v Tottenham Tottenham v Birmingham Everton (unlikely, but always a chance they could nick it) Wigan v Everton Everton v Man City West Brom v Everton Everton v Chelsea Man City Blackburn v Man City Man City v West Ham Everton v Man City Man City v Tottenham Man City v Stoke Bolton v Man City Liverpool Liverpool v Newcastle Fulham v Liverpool Liverpool v Tottenham Aston Villa v Liverpool So if we want to clinch 5th place; that Liverpool v Spurs is obviously going to be the decider. Although if Spurs draw/lose against either Man City or Chelsea, and we beat them at home then we're looking at an easy 5th place. In any case, I think we're in with a real chance of grabbing 5th place off Spurs and depending on the run from Man City we could even sneak in for 4th. Always a chance!
We potentially could pick up 10 points from the next four games without question. However I can only see Spurs picking up 6 points from their five games. That would give Liverpool fifth.
Great thread. All of a sudden we have momentum! I think we have to pretty much win every game to get 5th. I can see difficulty in all our games, but I can see us winning them also. Spurs game is key. At Anfield I do favour us though. Spurs seem to have have run out of steam a bit. I cannot see them beating City and Chelsea. Do not rate our chances of forth. We need City to beat those around us to help us get 5th.
If Chelsea and City beat Spurs which seems very likely,then 5th is ours.After having the worst season that I can remember in god knows how long,that would be remarkable.It would also prove we're not as far behind as some would like us to believe.I still believe we're better than 5th.
The good thing about our fixtures is the teams we are going to play apart from Spurs which are Newcastle, Fulham and Villa don't have anything to play for. They are safe and would only be playing for pride. Spurs have got Chelsea (who still think they have a chance of the title), City (who are going for Champions League football) and Blackpool and Brimingham (who are battling for their lives). They have more difficult games than us. We still need to win our games and hope Spurs drop some points along the way.
We'v got to win our games mate don't forget that. Not a forgone conclusion. I think we are as good as where we are to be honest. Much better than the total tripe served up under Roy which has cost us dearly. But City, United, Chelsea are a decent bit ahead in terms of players imo. I think Spurs just edge us as well, with VDV and Bale. But I reckon will a couple of signings we will be back in the mix next year, if not the year after. The gap between us and the top four is not as big as it was say when Houllier/ Rafa took over. We can bridge the gap. Not convinced Spurs will be there next year, especialy if Harry leaves - probably to Arsenal knowing him.
Nah Boycie Redknapp won't be going to Arsenal if he leaves the Spuds.He will be going to HMS Parkhurst,He's due in court over the summer for tax evasion.That carries a 3 year prison sentence when he's found guilty.
Liverpool won't get 5h place, Arsenal will........................ ----- Good effort. For me it will be: United Chelsea Arsenal City Liverpool Spurs
5th is still possible, but realistically it's out of our hands. Nobody thought Spurs would get 4th last season as they had quite a tough run-in compared to Citeh. Wouldn't write them off just yet. Would be nice though to put all their wums back in their place.
Its not necessarily out of our hands.We'll beat Spurs,as they haven't beaten us at Anfield since 1993.If the game had to have been at No hope lane then maybe.They have just a bad a record against Chelski.I can't see them winning at Anfield with the form we're in at home.
3 tough away games for Spurs, nil points from them. And we'll get 5th. Will the media numpties, slating Liverpool all season then give us some credit? Spurs, Everton and others have had "good" season's, whilst we've had our "worst" in 50 years. The irony of finishing in 5th and qualifying for Europe whilst Spurs and Everton miss out would be satisfying.
To be fair, if you ignore the disastrous start to the season you guys had, finishing in 5th is still an underachievement for a club Liverpool's size and revenue, whilst finishing 7th is arguably an overachievement for Everton, whose revenue is about 1/3 of yours. The top PL clubs on a revenue basis are Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, City, Spurs and Villa in that order, so for Everton to be getting themselves up there is a pretty good achievement, given that they had a pretty **** start to the season too, and a huge injury crisis. I think you've had your fair share of media plaudits for your performance in the second half of the season, which has been outstanding, but Everton and Spurs deserve some as well for how they've done.
Swarbs...If you'd have said to any sensible Liverpool fan in January "you'll finish 5th" they'd have laughed at you. We really where that poor, i went to the Wigan game away 1-0 up after 20 mins, then we sat back and allowed them onto us. The comments from all, i've never heard from a Liverpool crowd in 30 years.I said when Roy was appointed he was the wrong choice, he plays negative, defensive football. If you listened to Everton fans at the start of the season, many felt champions league football was on the cards this year, so have they underachieved? My best mates a BN, he was convinced they'd finish 5th or better.Spurs with the investment 'arrys made, should have looked at 4th as a bare minimum in my opinion.
It's already started: "LFC are without Johnson, Kelly, Agger, Aurelio, Gerrard and Carroll but still totally dominant. Maybe the squad's not so bad after all." - Tony Barrett, The Times
I'm struggling to see the point of your post here. If positions in the league were based on revenue the surely Man Utd would win it every year with no competition. It's also pretty difficult to ignore the start and in fact the whole first half of the season. Finishing 5th would be an achievement compared to how we performed before Xmas. Hodgson was the wrong man for the job and I seem to recall a lot of opposition supporters hoping we would be relegated as at one point we were actually in the bottom 3. I know Everton are your feeder club and there is some sort of love affair going on between Gollum and Bacon Face but this article doesn't mention Everton anywhere so why bring them up?
I don't think Everton have it in them to overtake us. They will have to rely on winning all their games and for us to lose 2 out of remaining 4. I think it's highly unlikely given our fixtures (2 mid table sides, a top 5 candidate and a relegation candidate) and theirs (2 top 4 candidates, a mid table side and a relegation candidate).
If you'd said to any sensible Everton fan in December that they would finish 7th, they'd have laughed at you too. At the time they had 18 points from 17 games and were bang on relegation form. So on that basis, they haven't really underachieved in the second half have they? Personally I thought their season has been quite similar to Liverpools in terms of the early season struggles they have faced. And I do remember some Liverpool fans, Ian Rush and Steven Gerrard included, claiming Hodgson was the right man for Liverpool and would get you back into the CL. So it wasn't only Everton fans who were disappointed by their club's early season form. As for the Spuds, they may have spent quite a lot, but their wages are still around ã40m a year below Liverpools and they have no players on more than ã100k a week basic. So they would be punching above their weight if they got in the CL in my opinion. Have you read this article? Everton are the second club Ze Liverbird mentions in the first post... My point was that I though Molby's comment about the media being "numpties" for praising Spurs and Everton wasn't entirely fair. Liverpool are ahead of Spurs and Everton on pretty much every objective measure - revenue, fans, stadium, brand, attractiveness to players. So whilst 5th place would be an amazing achievement based on your form in the first half of the season, it's not unreasonable for the media to portray this as one of your worst seasons in recent history. And not unreasonable for them to praise Spurs and Everton for achieving what they have done, in my opinion.
At the moment it is like the 110 metre hurdles, and spurs have clipped a hurdle or two at 80 metres and are looking shakey, they are stumbling and looking over their shoulder, not at City ahead of them. Arry put all his eggs into the CL basket when he should have gone for 4th this season
Swarbs, I actually agree with comment about our place after the bad start. Because we should be fourth even after the bad start, if we'd have cracked it in Jan Feb we'd be 4th, we have not put a run of wins together all season and this is why we failed to reach 4th as the teams above us have been so poor, any of the top teams would have won the league this season if they had put in anything like the performances from 2006 2009, that is how the bar has dropped this season, funny thing is though Swarbs matey, almost all teams should be doing better in the top 6 bar spurs maybe, they are where they usually languish and City gflatter to deceive, if they get in a quality coach though they would be trouble for the other teams
