here's the latest table: 13 Newcastle United 37 11 8 18 45 67 -22 41 14 Southampton......... 37 9 13 15 48 59 -11 40 15 Fulham................. 37 10 10 17 47 60 -13 40 16 Aston Villa............ 37 10 10 17 45 67 -22 40 17 Sunderland............ 37 9 12 16 41 53 -12 39 18 Wigan Athletic....... 36 9 8 19 44 67 -23 35 Newcastle are only safe as Villa and wigan play each other and there is no way for both to win. Fulhams meteoric race to the bottom continues as the lazy malaise that is berbaflop being their best player continues to affect them. Tuesday: Arsenal vs Wigan Sunday: Southampton vs Stoke City Swansea vs Fulham tottenham v sunderland Wigan V Villa Tomorrow is a huge day for Wigan, they are FA cup Champions but we've seen birmingham win a cup and be relegated and wigan know full well the game v the swans was THE game to win. I think arsenal must win so It'll be interesting. I also think villa are safe as i cannot see sundelrand even get a draw v tottenham on the last day when spurs are going for 4th. It really is down to sunderland or wigan in my mind now and the answer i think will come tomorrow.
I want Wigan to win because a) I hate Arsenal and b) it will make the final day even more interesting ...
Well I don't want tottenham near top 4 so they get asset stripped out of our own self interest. In that respect i think if arsenal crawl to 4th as a last hurrah then fall apart next year i'll be happy. In case anyone not looking yet again 70points = top 4 and this year as there's a fight on for it it's going to be 72-3 points that takes it. thats 12 point lfc needed to make up and how many did we bloody throw away recently???? Annoying in the extreme at times. west hamm 0-0, any tap in would have done as allardyce only wanted that draw. reading 0-0... terrible southampton 1-3.. we were awful, borught kids on a road trip. west brom lost 2-0 i make that... wow 10 points right there and then before mentioning a very stale 0-0 v everton that would make the 12. All I see is lost opportunity each and every time we miserable fail to beat these awful crap, lower half teams that we should be trashing home and away if the effort and attitude is right.
in deed. the consistent theme despite what rodgers say (and its gone on 5 years or more) is sides parking the bus know they'll get a result. We also have these "blips" where if we are lazy ro take a game for granted... and travelling to southampton with kids rubs off on players... Well all i'm saying is when i see this and compare to what we can do I am not one for the give anyone time mentality. Rodgers has his sighter, i fully expect much higher levels of performance epsecially home and away v the bottom 10 sides. 10x 3 x 2 = 60 points. add say 5 more wins at home to that and thats your 75 points!
We have the chance of getting past 60 points in the league this season which is the best points tally since Rafa left. A lot of people will be expecting Top 4 next season but I will be expecting a better challenge for Top 4. There is a lot of competition and our squad isn't strong enough IMO - we'll reach roughly 60 points this season therefore a target of 70 points* is what we should be aiming for next season. *This season, we could end on 61 points. That would be a 9 point improvement on last season, so naturally a 9-10 point improvement next season should be realistic.
I agree with your top four/challenge comment. I want to see us make a realistic challenge but that does not mean I expect us to get top four Not so much with your improvement in points though. The higher up the table a team goes, the harder it is to improve. However, I do expect an improvement on 58-61pts next season
I fully expect us to be there. you are wither there or you are nowehre. this season we are no where. I expect to take the cups SERIOUSLY and a top 4 run. nothing less. not if anther 20-50 mil is spent cos frankly if we sell who we are meant to and add 20mil we could have that suarez or no. this league is trash, beat the bottom half consistently and be hard to beat yourself and top 4 is easy. god sake, bale is hauling spurs there on his own, remove him and they'd be down with us...... dodgy looking midfield, weak CBs and no forward! seriously look at thier set up! Adebayor and defoe is their sum total of options and go missing regularly, their midfield had huddlestone yesterday.. DONKEY. Dawson and caulker were back in as well. We need to stop bigging that lot up and see we can compete if we had the bottle and compete now. this is why i want to hear no more about transitions. get on with it now.
Really? 3 of the top 4 virtually pick themselves & next season will be no different - United, City & Chelsea (with Mourinho back to boot) will all be there yet again. That only leaves 1 place, with Arsenal, Spurs, Everton & you lot, chasing it. Attaining a top 4 slot in this division is far from 'easy', it's far harder now than it's been since the inception of the PL.
Sounds all well and good mito, but if Bale is the only reason Spurs are in the running how come we're so far off the pace when Suarez has been equally influential and scored more? I think it's much more complicated than that and while I'll hope for dramatic improvement next year, I'll demand no more than steady progress.
Agree about the top three and then the rest but with Moyes moving on, do you think Everton will be included in the chasing pack next season?
Far too early to say mate, as we've no idea who our manager will be & what his squad will look like (as I'm certain there'll be at least 1 high profile exit this summer). But it would be wrong to assume that just because Moyes has gone, that we're automatically going to slide backwards. The right manager could spend well & have us moving forwards, just like Laudrup has done at Swansea.
I'd agree with this to a point. While all reds would lie to see you slide a bit (not too far- just enough to give us something to laugh at), it could go the other way with the right manager. He'll have to be some kind of genius though, with Scrooge in charge of the kitty. Laudrup has done well enough with the Swans, but doesn't really have the resources to make them any more than a solid mid-table team imo.
Ironically, had he chosen to stay, this would have been the season where Moyes actually had a decent budget to play with. The sale of Fellaini, combined with the massive hike in TV revenue for next season, will see us having the funds available to bring in some quality. Moyes leaves behind a team that is far better than the budget it was assembled with should have allowed. Therefore the incoming manager has a good platform to start from. The key will be who he brings in, as you lot have seen first hand how that can go spectacularly wrong. Interesting times ahead.
Fair shout What would you think to Rafa becoming your new manager? his wife and kids still live in Liverpool too. A new manager coming in and having a pot of money could work against him too though. People will look at what Moyes did on a shoe string and expect much better from a guy with money to spend.
