Season Review: 2015-16

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Really satisfying season. The last two years it seemed like we faded out a bit toward the end.

Not that I'm criticizing the team, scheduling quirks and injuries and lack of squad depth played a role. But it's more fun to come back from problems and finish strong when it seemed like Europe was nearly out of reach than to be in the top 4-5 most of the season and then hang on for 7th.

Now to crack the November-December period.

Brilliant season, and hopefully we can take this form into next season. Ideally with one or two key additions to the squad, namely a RB and a goalscoring CM.
 
Indeed. If we had cracked that then Spurs and Arsenal would have had real competition for second or third.

As a minimum. We may well have even been challenging Leicester. We finished 18 points behind them, yet dropped 20 points during that period. And that's without even considering the slow start to the season we had (can any of that be contributed to playing EL qualifying games? Maybe. Hopefully we won't have to risk that again next season though).

As I said earlier this week, that bad week in early March (when we picked up one point from Chelsea, Bmouth and Sunderland over eight days) cost us a shot of top four, and those two bad months in November and December cost us a shot of the title. And that's before you consider that the same two months cost us a shot of top four last season and the season before that.

But another year of Tadic adjusting to the PL. Clasie now knowing what the PL is like. Long showing that he can be more than just a sub. No Fraser out injured. Subject to what goes on over the summer, there's a lot to be hopeful of that we finally wont suffer this Autumn-Winter downturn again next time. Although for now it's about celebrating yet another great season.
 
As a minimum. We may well have even been challenging Leicester. We finished 18 points behind them, yet dropped 20 points during that period. And that's without even considering the slow start to the season we had (can any of that be contributed to playing EL qualifying games? Maybe. Hopefully we won't have to risk that again next season though).

As I said earlier this week, that bad week in early March (when we picked up one point from Chelsea, Bmouth and Sunderland over eight days) cost us a shot of top four, and those two bad months in November and December cost us a shot of the title. And that's before you consider that the same two months cost us a shot of top four last season and the season before that.

But another year of Tadic adjusting to the PL. Clasie now knowing what the PL is like. Long showing that he can be more than just a sub. No Fraser out injured. Subject to what goes on over the summer, there's a lot to be hopeful of that we finally wont suffer this Autumn-Winter downturn again next time. Although for now it's about celebrating yet another great season.

100% agree with you there, including the player assessments. The only thing I would point to is that every team will take a dip in a very competitive league. On the whole, the best teams take the smallest dips in form. The almost total drop out of results in November and December completely changed the season goals. Just turning that poor form into an average return of say, 12 from 24 gave us 8 more points. You know where that would have put us. Iron out just that one poor period entirely and we were challenging Leicester.

Under the radar Saints.
 
Premier League: 5th - (could drop to 6th if United avoid defeat against Bournemouth)
Europa League: Play-Offs - (eliminated by Midtjylland)
FA Cup: 3rd Round - (eliminated by Crystal Palace)
League Cup: Quarter Final - (eliminated by Liverpool)


Points Total: 63pts - (new club record)



That secures a SEVENTH consecutive season of improvement.


Saints under Liebherr ownership:

2009-10 - L1: 7th + JPT winners
2010-11 - L1:
2nd = promoted
2011-12 - CH:
2nd = promoted
2012-13 - PL:
14th
2013-14 - PL: 8th
2014-15 - PL: 7th = Europa
2015-16 - PL:
5th/6th = Europa


DTLW

Sack the Board.
 
We lost 11 games this season. Seven of those were by just one goal.

Thats why I think if Schneiderlin stayed, we'd have been top four. He'd have converted a few of those into draws, and maybe one or two score draws could have been wins. Obviously I'm assuming we'd still have every other midfielder in our squad as well, when in reality, we wouldn't have signed Clasie or Romeu if Schneiderlin had stayed.
 
"Many" is a slight exaggeration. Tintin plus a few, more like.

There were quite a few in the 'give him one or two more games' camp toward the end of that run - that amounts to essentially being ready to get rid.
That was one of the more ridiculous sagas on here this season.
 
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