All very true Harborough. We're not the only one's with those results, not forgetting, Liverpool lost to Fulham, Chelsea lost to WBA and Man U to Sheffield United. As stated we've had some unexpected great results against Liverpool, Manchester City and United. I hope results go for us in Sunday but my hopes aren't high. If we'd been offered 5th for 2 consecutive sessions and the FA Cup, 2 years ago we'd have been ecstatic. It's just unfortunate and frustrating that we've been top 4 for all of both seasons, except for the last day. That's where people feel the disappointment. You can't not. Even though a mere 10 years ago we just wanted promotion. There's still hope for the season on Sunday, the greatest achievement is our name is finally on the FA Cup.
Agree it’s easy to look at our own results and say where it went wrong. I’ve seen Everton fans bemoaning that if their home form has been better they’d have been 3rd. Really? Each club can point to certain games, well other than Sheff Utd who have been so bad they had no hope and I say that lovingly to them as they are my local side now and I have lots of Blades supporting mates. Tbh I’m relaxed about it now to the point I’m quite excited for Europa and our chances in that. I’ve even tried to tell myself that I’m just trying to convince myself of this to soften the disappointment but genuinely I keep coming back to the fact that from a supporter perspective, Europa provides the better experience and a chance to go further. The issues with missing top 4 were the ‘bottlers’ tag which with winning the cup has proven that wrong and also, we have been relatively consistent this season and won’t have fallen short by going from world beaters to ****e over night! The other point was the financial benefit to the club (not that this is an issue for fans) but looking at the transfer talk, it seems we will be doing some good business regardless (Soumare, Edouard etc) so feeling relaxed about it. It is injuries that have done for us though, have we fielded a full side since end of 2019? Bad injuries too to Ricardo, Barnes and JJ and even Soyuncu, Castagne x2, Ndidi and Fofana have spend months rather than weeks out this season. Definitely there should be a behind the scenes review of this as I agree it seems to have escalated since Rennie left.
I don't know why Praet isn't getting selected over Perez, hes been weak in that No10 role since Maddisons been injured, but at least Praets still making the Belgium squad, so i can't see him pushing for a move away. As long as we're winning on Sunday, it will put pressure on Liverpool and Chelsea, lets hope we go ahead early to make them sweat. Its a shame we've not held on this season to keep it in our own hands, but regardless, its not going to hurt as much as last year as we have improved from last season. 5th 62pts to 5th 66(at least)pts and a cup is good progression, the right signings could see us battle again next season.
I’ve got a sneaking feeling Villa might do us a favour on Sunday, but I’ve got another feeling we won’t beat Spurs! ☹️
What are the chances of us winning 1-0 in the 92nd minute, Chelsea or Liverpool drawing, before a dodgy VAR penalty for Kane to score his usual goal against us!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wes Morgan is to retire at the end of the season. Fuchs and James will also leave. James has been so unfortunate with injuries but made a terrific contribution to our promotion team and the escape team. Hope he can have a good career elsewhere. Wes has arguably been our greatest captain, from Championship to Champions League. A Premier League and FA Cup winner. Immense and immortal. Fuchs too, came to finish his career, escape relegation and hoped for mid table. Again, Premier League and FA Cup winner, with European campaigns thrown in. The most special years of his career, according to the man himself. The boys have served us exceptionally well.
I'm glass half empty on the final day results and expecting them to go totally against us. However, I am completely OK with that, and this season. I thought I'd never see another one like 2015/16, but the winning the FA Cup felt pretty damn good!
Poor end to our season today. But can't be disappointed with the team after delivering the FA Cup last week. More than happy to see what we can do in next season's Europa League. If we get a good run in that (injuries allowing) then we can be more ambitious about the Champions League. The game was up for us when Fofana went off. Wilf did well at centre half but we missed him in midfield. But I can't help wondering why, with 20 minutes left on the clock and leading in a match that would have taken us into the CL but getting cut to ribbons down the centre of the pitch, why, ooh why, did we not take Nacho off (he was having a mare) and put Choudhury in front of the back 4 and try and close the game down?
Season ended as it has gone all through, stuffed up by an injury that affected the whole side (with Ndidi having to move and losing him in midfield). I saw yesterday that only Schmeichel and Tielemans have played over 30 of the league games which tells its own story.... Really frustrating though that Chelsea lost and the door was open. I, like many, had come to peace with it being over ahead of yesterday but all that hope was built up again. Definitely a lot to work on over the summer, set pieces at both ends need to be better. We also seem to look like we’ll concede most times we are attacked so we need to work on being tighter at the back as we have the personnel. Attacking wise I think it comes down to getting Barnes back and recruitment. At least we won the important one!
What a fabulous season. So many highs and amazing wins topped off by the Cup Final. So many critical injuries that lead to the what ifs but for me we built on last year and topped all off with the FA Cup. Hopefully only media talk about Tielemans leaving. To me he looks totally involved with the club and I would love it if Kasper stepped aside and we had Youri as skipper. Let the transfer talk begin.
Agree 100% ... some of Brenda's decisions on subs are baffling at times... Choudhry is very quick as well as aggressive and combative ... ... disappointing end as you say ... but the Cup more than compensates ... plus, even with worse injuries than last season we improved our points total ... would have finished 3rd with that total last season ...
Who is the youngish dark haired guy who is always next to Rodgers on the touchline? He seems pretty involved with making decisions about substitutions, but I don't know what his role is.
There's been lots of talk on here about being satisfied with the outcome of the season - a FA Cup and improved points tally over last season - and how we will improve next season by strengthening the squad. But I still can't get it out of my head that we had the game in the palm of our hands and threw it away. Sunday's failure to cement that top 4 spot wasn't all down to failings on the pitch. It was, in my opinion, also down to a huge failing on the part of the management. Yes we'd had to shuffle the defence and midfield to cope with the loss of Fofana, but the players had done their bit by getting to 75 minutes and having the lead. What was the manager's plan for coping with the introduction of fresh legs from Spurs and the ease by which they continually hit us down the centre of the pitch? Personally I didn't see any plan. It seemed to be a case of hanging on and then introduce Perez to nick a winner if Spurs did manage to equalise. If that was their plan, then I think most of us can see the obvious flaw. Smarter tacticians would have tried to close the game down and secure what we had. But that didn't happen. The players' efforts came to nothing, and that must stick in the craw of those that suffered the same fate last season. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are seriously questioning Rodgers' ability. He might be a great coach and man manager, and he has done wonders in that area for this club. But, if we are to take this next step up and stop being 'little Leicester' then we have to have a manager in whom the players can have confidence to make the right decisions on the pitch. Without that, we won't push on from where we are, and we may well start to lose players we desperately need to keep.