Thanks Mr. Obvious! What do you want him to do, post the whole schedule?
No easy games, et cetera
The Title Race 2013/14
- Thread starter Buchan
- Start date
No easy games, et cetera
Mourinho football is winning football.
Is that all you want? It's certainly not my idea of good football when the manager is more entertaining than what goes on on the pitch.
Grinded is fine. Ground is better, but grinded is fine.
Winning > Style, IMO.
Yeah. Style is a silver lining - even a potential point of pride - when you're not winning. But it ain't a substitute. Football isn't dancing, it's serious business.
That said, I don't think old Maureen has got his team where he wants it to be. They look...suspect to me. But then again every bloody team in the upper half looks suspect. Not least ourselves. So feck knows. Half of the competition look like they flatter to deceive, the other half like they could run out of flow any minute now.
I fear that City will grab it in the end. Which is the worst case scenario, really. Liverpool aren't going to, that's not going to happen. I'm not writing them off as far as top four goes, though. And that would be a great season for them. Chelsea are to be preferred over City, but like I said, I don't think Maureen has them where he wants. He'll need a signing or two, I think, and he won't get them in January. And then there's Arsenal - who are to be preferred over both City and Chelsea, obviously. I just don't see it, though. I can't help but think they're still too light somehow. There's a lack of meat somewhere on that Arsenal frame - up front most likely, Giroud ain't the business. He's not bad at all, but he ain't the business.
Of the starting line-ups out there City's is easily the one I'd least like to come up against. Damn 'em to hell. But that's the truth. Still, the league is a squad game, a matter of getting the balance right, coping with injuries and all the rest. I'm not convinced Pellegrini has the full command of his squad, as it were. And that's the key. Having a squad - and commanding it. That's what Fergie did better than any other manager in history. He was the Mozart of squad management over the course of a full season.
Almost the same. Can't really differ between any of the games the teams have to play.
Just saw this in the Storeytime thread and thought it was quite relevant to this.
Crazy how City have to face everyone bar Chelsea away. No wonder they've been having such a fun time.
Yes, no difference between Liverpool's and City's.
Well, all teams have 6-7 games against the "top" teams left, so...
Of course, we've just passed the half way mark so everyone has to play every team once more. The point is comparing number of home games vs number of away, Liverpool's fixtures are obviously preferable to City's.
It's very possible and normally likely that the team that wins also plays good football with style. Mourinho chooses to completely ignore style more than any other top manager in the game.
Mourinho knows when he is satisfied with a point, and he is head and shoulders the best manager in world football to go out and get it. Its unfair to claim that they play this way all of the time though
I have a feeling we'll be the only team to come away from the Etihad with anything this season.
You've been having feelings for awhile Rob, lay down and have a fecking rest.
At this point everyone will be delighted if you do.
How do your 'feelings' usually work out?
Good, I had several feelings we would get something from Arsenal and a big feeling we will finish second. Depends if my feeling we will get Falcao is right or not.
It'll be Sunderland or West Brom or some such.
So, can we finally accept it's over?
Never mind the title, at the rate we're going, we won't be anywhere close to forth spot.
We weren't in it weeks ago. The top 4 look damn damn hard to reach now though.
Well, I sort of expected it. It was a delusion that we were making progress. We were just a bit lucky in the previous games. We've won just 6 points from possible 27 points against the better teams in the league (Arsenal to Soton). That's incredible. So much for challenging for the title. I'm afraid we won't be able to finish above Everon and Liverpool either.
The title is going elsewhere this year, but we're still in with a great shout of Champions League football. We'll make a few signings in the next few weeks, which should give us all a lift.
It's been over since the two back-to-back defeats to Everton and Newcastle. Top 4 is genuinely looking unlikely aswell.
Move this to the Football Forum now.
Top 4 looks very difficult IMO. I tipped Liverpool to make it a few weeks ago based on the fact that they have more goals in their team than us and nothing has changed. We don't look like we can break down the better sides.
If Liverpool had started the way we did in the first 20 minutes today they'd have scored.
I thought there'd be a chance with Chelsea considering they looked similarly limited in attack like us but they look like they've improved. Plus they have Jose.
If Liverpool had started the way we did in the first 20 minutes today they'd have scored.
I thought there'd be a chance with Chelsea considering they looked similarly limited in attack like us but they look like they've improved. Plus they have Jose.
Yep, it's over. It's January and it's 100% over. No matter what we do, we won't be catching City or Chelsea. Or Arsenal now. All we can hope for is that we catch the teams battling for fourth. That's not over, but it's going to need a massive spending spree.
At last! I agree, I think you could finish anywhere from 3rd to 6th.
I don't think we'll finish top 4 this year.
Chelsea and City are guaranteed to be amongst the four. Arsenal and Liverpool both have much, much superior goal differences and when we meet the top four teams, I don't expect us taking many points of them.
The fact that we have to resort to panic buys to finish forth is depressing.Liverpool also have Suarez who is virtually Ronaldo-esque in terms of his influence and ability. RvP has the capability of doing similar with us like last season but he has not showed it so far and I'm not sure he will either...
title's been gone for a while now, and unless there is a minor miracle of confidence or a few average players suddenly become world beaters, then 4th is going to be one hell of an achievement considering. I don't think Moyes is going to be able to buy the sort of player/s he needs in January. Any serious re-building will have to be done in the summer.
I'm surprised it's taken you till today, to realise that United winning the league this season was a pipe dream.
Can any Liverpool fans tell us if they're likely to sign anyone in January? We'll be properly fecked if they strengthen and we blunder our way through January with fellatio.
Change title of the thread to Race for 4th.
That performance from 2-0 down will always give you a chance.
unfortunate i disagree.
City, Chelsea and Arsenal have better squads than we have, look to be in form, focused and efficient thus very consistent. They gather points with ease. Liverpool, despite having inferior squad are better as a unit, play better and don't drop silly points.
Then we have Spurs - very good squad, more than capable of finishing above us.
So....the title challenge is over and CL football is not likely at the moment.
so yeah buying players now doesn't make sense at all.
We're dreaming if we think we're having any say in this year's title race. It's in our nature to attempt the impossible but realistically our focus shouldn't be anywhere but that 4th spot. Whenever we meet the teams above us we struggle beyond belief.
All we can do is accumulate points, stay in touching distance and sneak in ahead of someone at the finish.
All we can do is accumulate points, stay in touching distance and sneak in ahead of someone at the finish.
We're looking at potentially 3 or 4 players: a full back, a Centre midfielder and one or two wingers. Montoya, Fernando, M'vila, Rakitic, Cabaye, Salah and Tello have all been linked heavily. Salah is pretty much done.