No Sancho, no Top 4... Really?

frookydinho

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I think its about closing the gap between us and the top 2. We have a very good team, very talented players who have great potential. We want to build on that and the only way is to improve your team/your options. Like Ole has said players bought have to come and help the team step forward. Sancho does this. VdB is an excellent signing, but if Sancho doesn't happen then we should bring forward next year's plans now and come back for Sancho next year. Bring in a centre back/left back. If we can do that, an attacking loan on top of that would be a very good summer.
 

Bilbo

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I think you're in for a huge shock. Says everything about the state of the club when people are happy with scraping top 4 each season, the frustrating thing is with the correct few players added we would be title challengers This season.

But it seems the club and some fans accepts the mediocrity of finishing top 4.
Have you read this forum much lately? It doesn't read like the fans are accepting of the situation
 

Alvaro Maestre

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Let's be honest , top 3 was accomplished mostly because of the COVID break . We have no squad depth and when the squad starts to get tired the B team is not good enough to keep us afloat . I don't expect top 4 this season.
 

Smores

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What? Without a squad, we don’t win the treble or double in 2008.

They not just there for numbers. You need people coming off the bench or starting when someone is injured ready to make a impact. Not just do nothing ffs. And yes, I wouldn’t be confident if James or Lingard started against any team because both are devoid of any quality.
Let's not shift topic and baselining against a treble season is absurd. This is about giving our players a rest or wrongly not doing so, now we've always used squad players beneath game changer level to do just that, I'm sure you can recall them.

If you want to argue we need more game changers to come on then yes we most definitely do for a title challenge. That does not remove the fact that our manager should use our squad more to rest players in easy games, either starting or off the bench.

If you think our best starting 11 minus Greenwood or Rashford and replaced with James/Lingard severely harms our chances of winning against fodder you must have a very low opinion of Ole.
 

romufc

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Let's be honest , top 3 was accomplished mostly because of the COVID break . We have no squad depth and when the squad starts to get tired the B team is not good enough to keep us afloat . I don't expect top 4 this season.
1. Our form picked up prior to the Covid Break.
2. Every club had the same thing, how is it advantage to one club over another?
 

reddevilz007

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One injury to either greenwood, martial and rashford, and we’re fighting for the 4th. Not to mention, the front 3 wont be able to maintain their performance until the very end of season, especially if we do somewhat well in CL.

no squad depth
 

hobbers

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No signings - no more improvement. No closing the gap to pool and city. Possibility of chelsea arsenal and spurs all gaining ground on us.

We have no depth up front. If rashford or martial got a longer term injury what in fecks name would we do? Rely on James or lingard or mata or ighalo? Yeah nah
 

bosnian_red

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1. Our form picked up prior to the Covid Break.
2. Every club had the same thing, how is it advantage to one club over another?
We had no depth, had the 3 month break to get our players back and then had a 1 month run of games where we avoided big injuries but were on our last legs, while Leicester had a big injury problem with their little depth causing them to drop further and lose out, on the last game of the season where it could've gone either way. We won't have a 3 month break when 2 key players get big injuries this season. We need depth to cover for the small amount of injuries we had last year, as it really wasn't a crisis. It was only a crisis because we had nobody to cover, which just means we weren't prepared.
 

AltiUn

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This season should start infinitely better as long as all 3 of VdB, Pogba and Fernandes aren't injured at the same time. That Pogba injury followed by the Martial one really derailed the start of our season.

I'm concerned about our depth up front because neither Martial or Rashford have a spotless record, so far we're looking at back ups of James - Ighalo - Lingard(?) which doesn't fill me to the brim with confidence if we have any long lay offs. We need some kind of quality attacking depth if we want to make top 4. I'm still of the opinion we're one of the better starting XIs in the league, but a few of the chasing pack have undeniably improved.
 

ghagua

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Our problem from what I saw last year was that when our forwards go cold, they all go cold at the same time. We desperately need good quality backups to come in and change a game. We do have Ighalo, but him coming on with 2 minutes to go is not going to get the job done.

Also, our players are still avoiding going into the opposition box like a plague. That game against Villa in pre-season friendly showed exactly the same issue we had last season. Chances went begging from all the crosses, but no one in the box to finish them off.
 

romufc

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We had no depth, had the 3 month break to get our players back and then had a 1 month run of games where we avoided big injuries but were on our last legs, while Leicester had a big injury problem with their little depth causing them to drop further and lose out, on the last game of the season where it could've gone either way. We won't have a 3 month break when 2 key players get big injuries this season. We need depth to cover for the small amount of injuries we had last year, as it really wasn't a crisis. It was only a crisis because we had nobody to cover, which just means we weren't prepared.
Again, our form was better prior to lockdown. Spurs had 3 months to get their players back, likewise all other teams.

Leicester's form was dipping prior to lockdown, and I can flip this the other way, Leicester were in that position because they had no major injuries.

Why is it that injuries are only a problem for us? when other teams get them its bad luck to them and we are lucky they got injured?
 

KW2006

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Our main enemies for the 4th position would be Arsenal, Spurs and Everton. On paper our starting-11 are stronger than them, but squad depth is lacking.
 

DRM

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Do you blame him when you look at the alternatives besides Ighalo in attacking areas?
Even more the reason for us to have bought forwards. If Sancho has been priced out, why didn't we have any alternatives??
 

lex talionis

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We should never be satisfied that we’re good enough with the squad we have, which in fact as of today just isn’t good enough to be a realistic PL trophy winner. Yes, we have Bruno for a full season now, Pogba should be good for a full season and KDB is a great acquisition. But Sancho would take us to a new level that at least I believe would pay commercial dividends for the club. (I’m not convinced the Glazers give a crap about trophies except insofar as they are incidental to bagging a few extra quid.)

If we were to close out the transfer window with the squad as it is today, we’re not going to be happy with where we are at the end of the season.
 

RkkMan

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I think everyone needs to chill on the notion that the prospects of the team in the coming season are negative if we don't get Sancho.

Last season was no doubt a lucky escape but you have to remember the context: the likes of Pereira and Lingard were among the most played players last season and that damn well isn't happening this time round. Fred will be a squad player, likewise McTominay and James. Greenwood will be starting games rather than taking 6 months to be eased in like last year and Bruno will be here the whole season. Hopefully Pogba, Martial and Rashford will be more resilient as well.

Above all, I think what we have to remember is that the best elements of our best starting XI/squad are almost all very young, or are yet to hit their individual peaks, and who will naturally improve in their consistency and decision-making as they progress. They've had one season together starting consistently and we saw the marked improvement by the end of that season and it'll be a similar story this year as well, except it'll start from a much better base line than last year.

I think we'll improve on last year irrespective of whether Sancho comes, but the margin of our improvement would increase significantly if Sancho came. That is why the inertia surrounding the deal is so frustrating to me. He could be a further catalyst to the progression of this young and very exciting team that Ole is building here, just like Bruno was, and if we didn't get him, it would be a massive missed opportunity. However, if we don't get him, it doesn't mean that the team is a write-off. This team we have right now is very exciting even without Sancho.

With the squad as is, I'd have us comfortably 4th, challenging Chelsea for 3rd.

With Sancho, I'd have us easily 3rd and with luck giving 2nd a run for its money.

Irrespective however, I'd have us playing CL footy next season.
There`s a difference between being positive and fooling yourself/being indenial. We had this very same giddy attitude in 2018 and we dropped down to 6th from 2nd. Our depth beyond our front 3 is Championship level and games are coming thick and fast again don`t think any of them will be free from injuries all season or maintain the same level of form week in week out playing in the CL and PL and in the PL we cant afford to rotate that much as we have 8 very tough teams to face where we cant rotate in City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton, Wolves and Leeds and you still have teams like Burnley, Leicester, Palace and Sheffield etc who can cause upsets if we even try to play our weak teams plus of course the CL which is always a tough competition you really think the very same starting 11 without solid depth can deal playing every 3-5 days in games of such high level intensity without dip in form/injuries? Cmon be realistic
Factor in all of our rivals around us have strengthened and in Arsenal`s case high on confidence after winning 2 trophies back to back. Whilst our form had been good since Bruno came in we`ve been bang average at best since Southampton and unless we can somehow get cocaine somewhere to give us the same energy levels we will go back to that form again at some point this season with our depth being as bang average as it is. Top 4 will be an uphill battle dont fool yourself it will take a seriously perfect storm ala Leicester for us to comfortably get top 4 and be in touching distance with Chelsea.
 

MZX7

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I think everyone needs to chill on the notion that the prospects of the team in the coming season are negative if we don't get Sancho.

Last season was no doubt a lucky escape but you have to remember the context: the likes of Pereira and Lingard were among the most played players last season and that damn well isn't happening this time round. Fred will be a squad player, likewise McTominay and James. Greenwood will be starting games rather than taking 6 months to be eased in like last year and Bruno will be here the whole season. Hopefully Pogba, Martial and Rashford will be more resilient as well.

Above all, I think what we have to remember is that the best elements of our best starting XI/squad are almost all very young, or are yet to hit their individual peaks, and who will naturally improve in their consistency and decision-making as they progress. They've had one season together starting consistently and we saw the marked improvement by the end of that season and it'll be a similar story this year as well, except it'll start from a much better base line than last year.

I think we'll improve on last year irrespective of whether Sancho comes, but the margin of our improvement would increase significantly if Sancho came. That is why the inertia surrounding the deal is so frustrating to me. He could be a further catalyst to the progression of this young and very exciting team that Ole is building here, just like Bruno was, and if we didn't get him, it would be a massive missed opportunity. However, if we don't get him, it doesn't mean that the team is a write-off. This team we have right now is very exciting even without Sancho.

With the squad as is, I'd have us comfortably 4th, challenging Chelsea for 3rd.

With Sancho, I'd have us easily 3rd and with luck giving 2nd a run for its money.

Irrespective however, I'd have us playing CL footy next season.
You clearly seem to be forgetting the depth of the Squad required for this congested schedule and for Champions League matches. A few injuries to some of our reliable Starting XI and we'll be staring at the bottom of a barrel. Our second choices are that poor.

Can you imagine what would happen if our team goes through what Spurs did last season with injuries to key players at crucial times?

Also, with the likes of Arsenal,Chelsea,Spurs, Leicester and even Wolves battling for Top 4, no a comfortable 4th spot finish is definitely not guaranteed without a few more reinforcements.
 

dannyrhinos89

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Our main enemies for the 4th position would be Arsenal, Spurs and Everton. On paper our starting-11 are stronger than them, but squad depth is lacking.
and Leicester and wolves Will be there too, Literally 6 teams including us fighting for 4th place.
 

El Zoido

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Oh I didn't know we were arsenal and top 4 was seen as a good season?

I thought we were Manchester United and winning the title was the goal every year.



We'll cling to top 4 without him but the outside chance of even a title challenge is dead without a player of his quality.
Top four is the goal now since we need to ride this sh*t out until the Glazers are gone. We’re not a title-competing club anymore, only the most delusional of our fans think that. It’s like Villa fans thinking they should still be winning the CL because they won the European Cup in 1982. Guess what, that was 40 years ago. Just because we were successful at something years ago doesn’t mean we have a right to it.

Man Utd will soon be a decade without competing for the title, that’s not who we are any more and not who we’ve been for a long time. Just saying we are doesn’t make it true. The goal is to stay up near top 4 to keep things ticking over until the Glazers are gone. We’ll never win it with them in charge because it’s clear they have no interest in making this a successful club outside of revenue generation. But I guarantee Ole will be the one to pay for their lack of investment, and the fans will be calling for his head before the end of October.
 

Tel074

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Oh I didn't know we were arsenal and top 4 was seen as a good season?

I thought we were Manchester United and winning the title was the goal every year.



We'll cling to top 4 without him but the outside chance of even a title challenge is dead without a player of his quality.

We haven't had a goal of winning the title in a long long time
 

MZX7

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We should never be satisfied that we’re good enough with the squad we have, which in fact as of today just isn’t good enough to be a realistic PL trophy winner. Yes, we have Bruno for a full season now, Pogba should be good for a full season and KDB is a great acquisition. But Sancho would take us to a new level that at least I believe would pay commercial dividends for the club. (I’m not convinced the Glazers give a crap about trophies except insofar as they are incidental to bagging a few extra quid.)

If we were to close out the transfer window with the squad as it is today, we’re not going to be happy with where we are at the end of the season.
When did we buy DeBruyne???
 

Chief123

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Spurs have all but signed Reguilon and Bale on loan, whereas every report says unless Sancho throws a strop, he isn't going anywhere (and thats assuming we pay what we refused to pay before August 10th when Dortmund was actually willing to listen). We aren't signing Sancho.

But if you look at the front 3, Spurs can choose between Kane, Son, Lucas, Bergwijn and soon to be Bale. I dont rate Bale much, but as depth he is better than James and Ighalo. They also have Bergwijn as a squad player who would likely walk into our starting 11 on the right (or at the very least, rotate with our front 3). They also have the Europa League where its easier to rotate than for us being in the Champions League.

Then look at their fullbacks. Doherty, Reguilon, Aurier and Davies. Much more quality on the ball, more attacking quality equaling more suited to bigger clubs. Good backups for both sides, while we have good defensive fullbacks starting, a 20 year old Williams as first backup to both sides and then random trash behind that. We have no fullback depth.

Like I've said, all we have is midfield depth, and then a bunch of injury prone players as CB depth. Left back, right back, right wing, left wing, striker... all positions that you generally need to rotate more to maintain freshness, especially the way we play, is literally unusable depth. Its just a shockingly bad position to be in. You take out Son and Kane for Spurs, they can still start a front 3 of Bergwijn, Lucas and soon to be Bale. Take out Martial and Rashford and our front 3 becomes Ighalo, James and Greenwood. Take out Aubameyang and Lacazette from Arsenal and they still have Willian, Pepe and Nketiah, Martinelli or Saka.

Its so painfully obvious that we're going to have an injury crisis. Only it won't be an injury crisis in terms of numbers, it'll be a crisis due to a lack of planning. Last season we similarly had a "crisis" when Martial and Pogba got injured. 2 players shouldn't throw you in a crisis. Its just a lack of planning. Injuries will happen, but they'll happen more frequently and more severely if you don't have depth to rotate your players, and then going further they'll have a bigger impact as those exact players you avoided playing to rest a starter here and there now has to play multiple games from the start.
I still think our squad is stronger in depth than Spurs and Arsenal.

But the most important point is out of the whole Arsenal team, only Aubamayeng threatens to get into our team.

From Spurs, only Son does. (I prefer Martial to Kane due to our style).

You honestly think Bergwijn walks into our starting eleven? Not a chance.

At the end of the day the core first team is what will get you to achieve anything. Ours is significantly better than the other two. An injury to their key players is much more critical than to them than it is to us.
 

Amadaeus

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Some people have little faith in Ole.

This squad post lockdown was on top of the league. We have a very strong 11. Best attack, world class midfield and one of the strongest defense in Europe. We strengthened with a top class player in DVDB, and our young team will only get better. Yet people think we won’t make top four?

This is one of many reason to why Ole needs to go. If we are trophyless again and don’t reach the bare minimum of third, Ole needs to be sacked.
I think everyone needs to chill on the notion that the prospects of the team in the coming season are negative if we don't get Sancho.

Last season was no doubt a lucky escape but you have to remember the context: the likes of Pereira and Lingard were among the most played players last season and that damn well isn't happening this time round. Fred will be a squad player, likewise McTominay and James. Greenwood will be starting games rather than taking 6 months to be eased in like last year and Bruno will be here the whole season. Hopefully Pogba, Martial and Rashford will be more resilient as well.

Above all, I think what we have to remember is that the best elements of our best starting XI/squad are almost all very young, or are yet to hit their individual peaks, and who will naturally improve in their consistency and decision-making as they progress. They've had one season together starting consistently and we saw the marked improvement by the end of that season and it'll be a similar story this year as well, except it'll start from a much better base line than last year.

I think we'll improve on last year irrespective of whether Sancho comes, but the margin of our improvement would increase significantly if Sancho came. That is why the inertia surrounding the deal is so frustrating to me. He could be a further catalyst to the progression of this young and very exciting team that Ole is building here, just like Bruno was, and if we didn't get him, it would be a massive missed opportunity. However, if we don't get him, it doesn't mean that the team is a write-off. This team we have right now is very exciting even without Sancho.

With the squad as is, I'd have us comfortably 4th, challenging Chelsea for 3rd.

With Sancho, I'd have us easily 3rd and with luck giving 2nd a run for its money.

Irrespective however, I'd have us playing CL footy next season.
 

RkkMan

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Some people have little faith in Ole.

This squad post lockdown was on top of the league. We have a very strong 11. Best attack, world class midfield and one of the strongest defense in Europe. We strengthened with a top class player in DVDB, and our young team will only get better. Yet people think we won’t make top four?

This is one of many reason to why Ole needs to go. If we are trophyless again and don’t reach the bear minimum of third, Ole needs to be sacked.
Almost any manager will struggle under the current circumstances. Like you said we have a strong starting 11 but the depth of the team as a whole is bang average and without a quality attacker we`ll struggle to cope playing the same 11 week in week out factoring in we now have CL football and having to face 8 tough teams we can`t rotate against in City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Wolves, Everton and Leeds and the likes of Burnley, Sheffield, Palace, Leicester etc who can cause upsets and majority of these teams have strengthened whilst we`ve stagnated and we`re expected to close the gap on the top 2 and be in touching distance with Chelsea. No amount of Johan Cruyff esque coaching can make us finish top 4 comfortably even Klopp will struggle
 

He'sRaldo

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We probably have about the 2nd or 3rd best 11 in the league with very few holes in our first 11.

However we don't have the best backups, which means that we'll need to throw the cups. But if we do, we can certainly challenge for the title with our 11.

With that said, on the balance of things we have a very good first 16. Truth be told our only real problem is depth on the wings, but aside from that we have quality depth as well.
 

Cassidy

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Yes we definitely don’t have depth in certain areas. But we are in the same boat as the ones who threaten us for top 4. I just feel our boat has less leaks than the likes of Spurs and Arsenal.
Neither do I. The point was more that top 4 wouldnt be a guarantee. We would certainly have competition
 

ghagua

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I think everyone needs to chill on the notion that the prospects of the team in the coming season are negative if we don't get Sancho.

Last season was no doubt a lucky escape but you have to remember the context: the likes of Pereira and Lingard were among the most played players last season and that damn well isn't happening this time round. Fred will be a squad player, likewise McTominay and James. Greenwood will be starting games rather than taking 6 months to be eased in like last year and Bruno will be here the whole season. Hopefully Pogba, Martial and Rashford will be more resilient as well.

Above all, I think what we have to remember is that the best elements of our best starting XI/squad are almost all very young, or are yet to hit their individual peaks, and who will naturally improve in their consistency and decision-making as they progress. They've had one season together starting consistently and we saw the marked improvement by the end of that season and it'll be a similar story this year as well, except it'll start from a much better base line than last year.

I think we'll improve on last year irrespective of whether Sancho comes, but the margin of our improvement would increase significantly if Sancho came. That is why the inertia surrounding the deal is so frustrating to me. He could be a further catalyst to the progression of this young and very exciting team that Ole is building here, just like Bruno was, and if we didn't get him, it would be a massive missed opportunity. However, if we don't get him, it doesn't mean that the team is a write-off. This team we have right now is very exciting even without Sancho.

With the squad as is, I'd have us comfortably 4th, challenging Chelsea for 3rd.

With Sancho, I'd have us easily 3rd and with luck giving 2nd a run for its money.

Irrespective however, I'd have us playing CL footy next season.
You are saying this so much certainty, but what IF injuries strike again. We're down to using those players all over again with no backups coming in. Injuries cannot be predicted, with such a long schedule, injuries are bound to happen. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that they do not all come at the same time.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Some people have little faith in Ole.

This squad post lockdown was on top of the league. We have a very strong 11. Best attack, world class midfield and one of the strongest defense in Europe. We strengthened with a top class player in DVDB, and our young team will only get better. Yet people think we won’t make top four?

This is one of many reason to why Ole needs to go. If we are trophyless again and don’t reach the bare minimum of third, Ole needs to be sacked.
I don't often agree with you, but on this you are bang on. I defended Ole all season last year and for good reason, there were a number of large mitigating factors which made our season more difficult, but behind all that we showed excellent progress and our players have developed brilliantly. We are now at the stage regardless of signings where our expectations of this team have to increase. We have players who are maturing into their roles (Martial, Rashford etc.) and proven quality (Bruno, Pogba, Maguire etc.) and as a result, we have to expect the natural evolution of this team and management is upwards. I would expect a top 3/4 finish as we stand, and any extra signings should simply speed up our evolution and make us genuine title challenges which I really don't think is an unrealistic expectation. Arsenal and Spurs shouldn't be the worry, they are far weaker teams and if Ole fails to beat them then we have to ask some serious questions. Chelsea are being hyped but I suspect they wont be up to much challenging. City will strong but haven't really addressed their weaknesses and Liverpool have to do it all over again for a third season in a row. There is everything to play for this season and Ole will know that.
 

Andycoleno9

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When did we become new Arsenal? There are more and more threads and posts where 4th place is set as something positive and normal.
 

RkkMan

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I don't often agree with you, but on this you are bang on. I defended Ole all season last year and for good reason, there were a number of large mitigating factors which made our season more difficult, but behind all that we showed excellent progress and our players have developed brilliantly. We are now at the stage regardless of signings where our expectations of this team have to increase. We have players who are maturing into their roles (Martial, Rashford etc.) and proven quality (Bruno, Pogba, Maguire etc.) and as a result, we have to expect the natural evolution of this team and management is upwards. I would expect a top 3/4 finish as we stand, and any extra signings should simply speed up our evolution and make us genuine title challenges which I really don't think is an unrealistic expectation. Arsenal and Spurs shouldn't be the worry, they are far weaker teams and if Ole fails to beat them then we have to ask some serious questions. Chelsea are being hyped but I suspect they wont be up to much challenging. City will strong but haven't really addressed their weaknesses and Liverpool have to do it all over again for a third season in a row. There is everything to play for this season and Ole will know that.
Our players have not matured to the level you are talking about. We are hardly at Liverpool 17/18 or 18/19 levels where you could see the team was extremely formidable with a defined style of play, very high levels of fitness and extremely hungry we are a country mile away from that level our form since Southampton has been bang average the moment fatigue kicked in and games will come in thick and fast again this season especially with CL football wishful thinking to imagine we will maintain the same level of intensity week in week out without strong squad depth.
If there is one thing you should know about the PL is never underestimate teams Arsenal are high on confidence after winning 2 trophies in a row having made 2 buys and set to make at least one more and Spurs are about to add Reguilon and Bale after 2 additions plus Jose will have a point to prove naive to think nobody can catch us
 

AshRK

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If we don't have any injuries then yes we can do wonders but it's highly unlikely we will have zero injuries. This is why it was important to strengthen our depth. The likes of Jones Rojo Periera are just bodies who are not good enough. Smalling doesn't want to be here and we have mata, lingard who are average. Then we have injured players like Tuanzebe, Shaw and Bailly. Overall we have missed an opportunity to strengthen our squad. Could have easily fixed some holes and sold of some of our duds.
 

TrustInJanuzaj

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Our players have not matured to the level you are talking about. We are hardly at Liverpool 17/18 or 18/19 levels where you could see the team was extremely formidable with a defined style of play, very high levels of fitness and extremely hungry we are a country mile away from that level our form since Southampton has been bang average the moment fatigue kicked in and games will come in thick and fast again this season especially with CL football wishful thinking to imagine we will maintain the same level of intensity week in week out without strong squad depth.
If there is one thing you should know about the PL is never underestimate teams Arsenal are high on confidence after winning 2 trophies in a row having made 2 buys and set to make at least one more and Spurs are about to add Reguilon and Bale after 2 additions plus Jose will have a point to prove naive to think nobody can catch us
I think we are at exactly that stage and you say we aren't formidable yet we had title-winning form in the second half of the season. We can go on and on but I think you are massively underestimating this Utd team.
 

RkkMan

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I think we are at exactly that stage and you say we aren't formidable yet we had title-winning form in the second half of the season. We can go on and on but I think you are massively underestimating this Utd team.
Can you honestly look at the team and say we have a clear defined style of play or our form was down to reliance on luck(penalties for example) and individual brilliance? Liverpool 2017-2019 had very good players but one could clearly see how orchestrated their pressing game was and thats the sort of thing thats sustainable that will help you win titles. This is where I probably agree Ole has question marks but if we dont succeed this season it should not be his fault as beyond our starting 11 which is solid but still has holes at LB, CB, DM and RW our depth is simply not good enough to sustain us for 4 competitions without serious downturn in results somewhere
 

Mihai

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I think there's still a good chance we drop out of the top 4 next season irrespective of whether we get Sancho or not. However, if he comes and continues the form he's showing at BVB the chance of us dropping is a lot lower.
 

Giggsy13

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Spurs and Arsenal are going to be better. We can not underestimate what Everton is capable of doing with a world class manager in Ancelotti with there potentially very smart and shrewd signings. We barely nicked top 4, so to suggest we’re going to easily achieve the same position is incredibly naive. Signing Sancho completely changes the narrative and outlook though.
 

Andersons Dietician

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I think it’ll be a fight but the team is certainly good enough to get in the top 4 with or without Sancho. It’s just very thin of quality and one long term injury and it could be a disaster.

Don‘t know what Chelsea will be like but I’ll say 3rd for them and 4th will be contested between United, Arsenal,Wolves,Everton, Spurs and Leiscter.

Think the issue was this was the season we are supposed to close the gap further between us and the top 2 and without Sancho it just feels like we are standing still as VDB although a great player is back up to Pogba and Bruno.
 

jackal&hyde

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and Leicester and wolves Will be there too, Literally 6 teams including us fighting for 4th place.
Jesus Christ! We had literally 0 creative players for half the season and when we did, with Pogba and Bruno, we were the best and undefeated team in the league after lock down (and a bit before).

Where the Hell is all this negativity coming from?
 

bosnian_red

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Again, our form was better prior to lockdown. Spurs had 3 months to get their players back, likewise all other teams.

Leicester's form was dipping prior to lockdown, and I can flip this the other way, Leicester were in that position because they had no major injuries.

Why is it that injuries are only a problem for us? when other teams get them its bad luck to them and we are lucky they got injured?
Because we are bigger, stronger clubs than them and should be prepared for injuries as we are in multiple competitions. Leicester only had the premier league, only being in 1 competition generally means less injuries. The covid break just came at a perfect time for us to get everyone fit, where it wasn't quite the same for others. Came at a good time for Spurs too, thats why they picked up the 3rd or 4th most points after the break (we were 2nd behind City).
 

romufc

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Because we are bigger, stronger clubs than them and should be prepared for injuries as we are in multiple competitions. Leicester only had the premier league, only being in 1 competition generally means less injuries. The covid break just came at a perfect time for us to get everyone fit, where it wasn't quite the same for others. Came at a good time for Spurs too, thats why they picked up the 3rd or 4th most points after the break (we were 2nd behind City).
Yes, we are bigger and stronger which is why we finished ahead of them. We didn't only catch up to Leicester though did we? We also caught up to Chelsea.

Well you can be prepared for injury but you are forgetting it was a transition season for us last. And no one can really prepare for Pogba being injured for most of the season can they?

You expect injuries yes, but we did get bad ones to our key players in Martial, Rashford and Pogba.

Any team, even Bayerm, Barca, Real, Liverpool would struggle without their 3 best players for large parts of the season.

City struggled with Laporte injured
If Salah misses 8 months, Liverpool struggle
If Messi misses 8 months Barca struggle
If Lewandowski misses 8 months they struggle
 

Pennywise

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The fact top 4 is the aim is embarrassing to be honest. The glazers ambitions are now accepted by the fans. It's utterly pathetic