Denis' cuff
Full Member
generally, a fair point, but odd that you should pick the one time inthe past 30 years that United failed to win a title for 7 years after being champions, choosing to ignore the multiple, consecutive double titles and triple titles. More to the point, United would have won 7 on the trot were it not for the Drogba offside title and the City/QPR stopped playing title which we lost by 1point and goal difference, respectively. Not exactly a major drop off from the previous seasons efforts. So regal, you have a list of four beyond Uniteds serial winning era. United also competed on both PL and European fronts on nearly all titles, whereas both Liverpool and Chelsea threw in the towel on the title to save their focus for a single minded crack at the CL winsIt's partly on him and it's partly on the players. Some of them have let their heads drop and this started when the first lockdown ended. You could see that the levels had dropped a bit.
There are several factors at play but I would love to know whether he is instructing players to try these hopeless long diagonal crosses into the oppositions box. They're always hit high as well so players like Salah and Mane don't have a chance. Shaqiri did this several times tonight and Henderson does it all the time. Does my head in and never results in a goal.
I still maintain that this drop off was bound to happen after the last two seasons. It happened to City last year and now it's happening to us. This drop off has come all at once leading to a horrific run of form we're currently in.
Interestingly this seems to be a common occurrence when reigning champions try to defend their crown:
12/13 - Champions: Manchester United / 13/14 - 7th
13/14 - Champions: Manchester City / 14/1- - 2nd (8 points off of champions Chelsea).
14/15 - Champions: Chelsea / 15/16 - 10th
15/16 - Champions: Leicester / 16/17 - 12th
16/17 Champions: Chelsea / 17/18 - 5th (30 points behind City)
Then City retained it but fell off massively in 19/20, finishing 18 points behind us.
Now we're looking like we're going to finish way off the pace this season.
Of course, the game’s frenetic pace and stresses will see that Fergie’s achievements won’t be repeated in the PL and Liverpool’s unsustainable (suspicious) energies will not be maintained. Remains to be seen if their bubble has burst at both player and managerial level. Even City, with unlimited resources struggle to make consecutive titles. Since Uniteds domination there has been a fair turnover of champions, despite every August, people assume the incumbents will walk it again. They don’t, often, which also supports just how difficult it is to maintain the standard. Something that even most reds never appreciated when Fergie ruled.
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