So long as we can put in a decent challenge I'll be pleased. Anything more than 3/4 points off 4th and it's a disappointing season, even with the positives we've seen with young players establishing themselves as real quality.
I think that when you compare that statement (which I'm not saying is wrong considering where we are currently in the table and who we have left to play) it shows that Pochettino is having a much better season than many of us expected, if we look back at what we were expecting/realistically hoping for at the start of the season.
What I said is pretty much based on what I said at the beginning of the season and what I say at the beginning of most seasons. A good cup run and finishing just short of top 4 has been about par for us in recent seasons(the cup run less so, to be honest). The only thing that changed for me this season was that if we fell much short of that I'd still want us to stick with the manager. It would've been the same whoever the manager was, the merry-go-round had to stop and we couldn't keep drastically switching between philosophies by changing the managers so regularly. Pochettino isn't solely responsible for results and I made that point when we were struggling too, so I don't think talking about a potentially disappointing season is necessarily a criticism of him. Equally if we finished top 4 or had won a trophy I think there are plenty of players that would be due credit as much as the manager. The rest of this season is a tough one to call. We gained 17 points from our first 12 league games and 26 from the following 12. With 12 to go if we could pickup another 26 points it would leave us on a very respectable 70 and like Wenger I'd be surprised if that wasn't enough to put us at least near the top 4. On the plus side, those 12 games where we saw the upturn in results was when we started playing sides who mostly had the same amount of time between games as us(Europa League break) which is what we'll see from now until the end of the season*. On the downside we do only have a small core of players who really seem to fit well into the side at the moment so burn out could well be a factor. Either way I think we should expect improvement next season as the younger players are going to be starting the season as established players and hopefully we'll have more depth in the squad in terms of players that suit the style we want to play with. *Swansea tonight being the only exception but at least that's only a day, rather than the 3/4 days the opposition get when we have the Europa League.
I'd be inclined to call Pochettino's first year a success, regardless of the run in, because we're playing much better football, and he seems a good manager for what seems our medium term plans. But: I would still be disappointed if we did not finish the season strongly. The reason is that I think we have quite a good team, and have been improving overall over the course of the year.
We can play really well, but if other teams keep getting favourable refereeing decisions it may not matter!
With the following exceptions... 22/3 - Man Utd vs Liverpool 4/4 - Arsenal vs Liverpool 18/4 - Chelsea vs Man Utd 26/4 - Arsenal vs Chelsea 9/5 - Chelsea vs Liverpool 16/5 - Man Utd vs Arsenal If one team benefits from favourable refereeing decisions, that means one team is undone by them - so as long as we're keeping pace we could take advantage.
Man Utd's fixture list is rather interesting, isn't it? Arsenal in the FA Cup (H), then us (H), Liverpool (A), Villa (H), City (H), Chelsea (A) and Everton (A). Could be a testing run for van Gaal, especially if they progress in the FA Cup or have replays.
If they do collapse, and it's quite possible that they will, it shouldn't take too much longer before the media remember that Holland were utterly dire to watch at the WC last year barring that one game against Spain - and that's what Van Galling brought with him to Old Trafford.
"If they do collapse, and it's quite possible that they will" Man Utd are not playing that great, but they are getting results. Not a bad trait to have at the business end of the PL season.
Except they're not - they lost to Swansea two weeks ago and lost to Southampton in January, just as they dropped two points to Stoke and Wet Spam in that timeframe. The point is they may be getting results while playing poorly, but look at the teams they're getting results against since January: QPR, Leicester, Burnley, Sunderland - all teams you'd expect them to get wins against regardless of how they played.
And before that we beat Arsenal and Liverpool and drew with Chelsea playing much worse. Funny old game eh
Very true, and that is the exact opposit to how we have been in the past I have enjoyed watching Spurs this season, you are playing well and are exciting when attacking.
I think today's game against QPR will give us an indication of whether we're going to put in a decent run or not until the end of the season. Going away to QPR is never easy but they are a struggling team and we need to impose ourselves on them like we have in other matches if we're to get a result. Looking at the next 5 fixtures, 4 of them are against teams at the bottom scrapping it out and we do tend to have a habit of dropping points against the lower teams in the table. Let's hope we can break that habit and find a way to get points when we should and maybe, just perhaps go to Old Trafford next week with the mindset that United are beatable, considering we did get one over them recently and the fear factor has well and truly gone.
You can analyse the relative merits of the competition and us as much as you like, but it counts for nothing if the refs aren't going to make the right decisions. How would the ManU - Newcastle match have gone if the ref had given that utterly obvious penalty to Newcastle as he should have? It is likely that at the end of the season only a few points will decide who gets 3rd / 4th / 5th so any mistakes like that are going to have a major impact to put it mildly. The basic point is that the last CL places are probably not going to be decided on the merits of the teams but on whether the refs have a good match or not. And for whatever reason, I would suggest that ManU and Liverpool are going to get "better" ref decisions than the rest.
...while losing to City and dropping two points in games against Spurs, Villa and West Brom in that timeframe. Funny how that gets overlooked.
I mentioned on another thread that we’re -3 in pens, while all the other top teams are plus, including Arsenal at +5. No doubt I have my Spurs colored glasses on, but this year seems particularly outrageous in terms of the results gifted to Arsenal and Liverpool. Last time I raised the topic, Spurm mildly criticized what could be termed my conspiracy theory.I’m not so comfortable with it myself, since the ultimate reply to thinking like this is, "If you think it’s fixed, why bother watching?" Nevertheless, if I had to guess what the table would be if every wrong call were changed in retrospect, I’d say we’d be third, 6-10 points ahead of the fifth place team: that the number of mis-awarded points have already been decisive, in other words, barring a big run from someone else and/or a collapse by us. For what it’s worth, Vimhawk, the stats and my own observation indicate it’s Arsenal and Liverpool that have been favored most by the refs this year, rather than Liverpool and Man U. The Fergie factor with the refs was big. It’s the teams at the bottom half of the standings, and those who put men behind the ball, who have hurt our points total this year. We’ve done reasonably well against the top teams, and very well against those in the next group. QPR was nice enough to let us play the first time. I doubt they’re feeling so charitable today.
