I would say definitely most likely us or Arsenal now... But not out of the question that given the right (wrong for us ) circumstances: Forest, Chelsea, and City are all in with a chance.
Definitely not over. Anything can happen, I still feel this squad is a bit of an unknown quantity in terms of successfully closing out a title bid, but I'm a lot more confident about scoring more points than Arsenal/Forest rather than Man City's 2023/24 side though.
arsenal are the only rival. I am thinking that their current form wont be where they end up. cuurently they are tracking to 76 points. I think 82 to 85 is where they end up. I cant see them topping that unless perfection happens. we are tracking to 92 but simply dont see us doing as well as the first half as sides get real in the run in. Id put us between 82 (disasterous) and 88 (my best case now) 82 would represent 36 points from 19 which is still arsenal level form currently but a 10 point drop off from our current form. I feel that our next games are season defining and need utter focus and work rate. forest a brentford a ipswich h bournemouth A wolves h 15 points there would be what champions do. I dont see us doing it, but imo these are the games where 1-0 will do and grind this titke out. we wont with trent and not will salah in front of the rb. we wont with jones. not v team who can see getting tight works
Absolutely this. Not here to hit the panic button, but let's be realistic - this side is not on the same planet as the 2019 team, and probably not in the same solar system as the 2020 team. Hell, they're not even as good (yet) as the 2022 team. This is not to slag them off - I genuinely thought that had Klopp not decided to walk then this would be the season that Klopp would be in a good position to make a final tilt at his 2nd title: the fact we have a new manager and that we didn't spend **** all in the summer window meant, or so I thought, that getting top 4 and a run at the CL (and a domestic cup) was the reasonable target for this year. The fact that City imploded is what makes it different. Oh, how this could have happened in 2019 or 2020... So, is this team good enough now to win the league against Arsenal, Chelsea, and Forest with the lead it has? Yes - but not yet, and not definitely. Had we won all our league games in Jan (the 2020 team would have done that) it would have been all over by February: we've already dropped 2 points, and possibly another 4-6 could be dropped in this month alone if we spend too much focus on the LC semi and the FA Cup. Tbf, Arsenal and Chelsea will drop points too (and even City themselves won't put together a run of 19 wins in their old stylie). IF we win this league (we still should) it won't be over until April at the earliest. Tbf, we would have taken that back in the summer.
With you up till there - we know the problem with Mo defending, but IMO the big problem yesterday was that none of Gravy, Jones (anonymous) or Macca (who otherwise played sound) were covering Trent. Even Ibu was overrun on his first game back by playing two positions at the same time. In a 4-2-3-1 there should be more cover for Trent at RB, but hopefully that will only be a problem in domestic cup and dead rubber CL games for the rest of this month with Bradders back.
I do think their formation got us a bit. Normally tas would tuck in become a 4 in middle and we’d outnumber them. Because of their formation they had 2 midfielders and 2 10s so they actually ended up outnumbering us when they had the ball. TAA didn’t know whether to push on Dalot or drop in with Fernandes and let Konate come across and cover. In theory someone needed to follow Bruno back into midfield as it ended up being our 3 v their 4 and they always had an easy out so we couldn’t press and keep them under pressure at the back. added that when Onana got the ball Dalot was always an easy out ball because TAA wasn’t pushing up fully. I think maybe a full fit Konate, TAA pushes up and Konate sweeps that gap behind and allows us to be more aggressive but tactically I think uniteds formation for the better of us
Mo is 100% not tracking back like he did a couple years ago. His numbers are top notch at his job but the defending part not so much as teams have their left full just piling down on trent. We have in theory 3 players nominally on the right. Salah, gravenberch and trent. One has to manage midfield on his own as slot is sending macallister forward now. One doesn't track. One wanders off anywhere he feels like If we put bradley in it won't fix it all. I think we need to just look at the balance of play again especially when leading and enable gravenberch with support to come back out right and help trent. Or Szoboszlai or whatever. Trent though, I'd be subbing off when leading now. Get back to the 80minute trudge off or even earlier if he won't sign anything
If he'd have been subbed at halftime, then neither of the crosses for their goal are getting made. But I understand Slot not wanting to throw Bradders back in after just coming back, but he left it too late, IMO. He could have avoided the 2nd goal by just subbing trend for the last 15 minutes. I even thought of putting Endo on when we got the 2nd to shore things up. That said, we could and should have got a 3rd and buried it before they got their 2nd.
Vvd header was the big one. Was unfortunately just on the stretch, anywhere else than at the keeper and it’s a goal.
It was really hard get much more on that one for sure. Almost needed a glance rather than full contact.
Game in 2 weeks looking huge now. Whether you think going to fall away or not, Forest will go 3 points behind us if they beat us in the next game. Already beaten us home, arguably the toughest game of the season so far coming up and we’ve hit a bit of iffy form with 3 draws in the last month. Anything less than a win just opens up the door for Arsenal to also gain.
When we are the chasers, we generally go with the "whilst it's still mathematically possible, we won't give up", why is it any different when leading?
Some of us do that... And others (I won't name names) claim it's all over and done with, no chance to come back, the moment we fall a point behind.
It's down to removing the distractions from the players minds and focus on delivering maximum each game. It really doesn't matter thst much if it's forest or Brentford or wolves or Bournemouth next. They are all 3 points and every individual game needs focus. That's what champions do. Yes beating forest away impacts the title race direct Yes beating forest would be revenge. No it's not more than a 3 point game. The best sides win the games week after week. Our players largely know how to do it. Slot knows how to do it. They have to show it.
As a title threat... They're a dark horse, but certainly not out of the running. As a threat for dropping points... Absolutely. They're in dangerous form.
