The people talking about Liverpool seem to be discounting that they'll be without Salah and Mane for a month in 2022 due to AFCON
Title race/top 4 race
- Thread starter Andycoleno9
- Start date
It was a difficult game away from home, first time after 18 months in St.Mary's with fans! 2nd game of the season! Our strongest 11 isn't up to speed yet. These are valid "excuses" for Ole, but he didn't say it.
People overreacting, and like you said, there is always 2 sides of the supporters + trolls who will always disrespecting Ole.
I always believe a happy and stable squad will win something, Ole has done that first and foremost.
They'll miss a maximum of 4 games each assuming Egypt and Senegal go all the way and meet in the final. During that time their fixtures are Brentford and Leicester at home, Burnley and Crystal Palace away.
Leicester might be a tough game, but it is at Anfield....
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The premier league have saw to that and ensured Liverpool have been given Crystal Palace and Brentford in this month. On top of the other two games being Fa cup matches so basically they’ll miss two league games against cannon fodder.
Strange that…
just kidding Liverpool fans
That's all fine, but it kind of returns me to what I wrote about how difficult it is to have a discussion about real concerns and issues in individual games. Because there's one lot who just treat that as confirmation it's all gone to shite, and another who tends to see anything critical as a veiled criticism of OGS. I''m not arguing there's equivalence, the last position is a lot more understandable than the first, but you know, you're jumping to Ole's defence in your reply despite the fact my post didn't contain a single word of criticism against him.
So for the record, I'm not seeing the Southampton game as indicative either of OGS qualities as a manager, or as a sign our season will go badly. I'm just pointing out that if we're going to be a contender this season, we have to get to grips with some of the issues that surfaced in that game.
Gotta disagree on this, buddy.
Chelsea appear to have a revolving door when it comes to managers and also players. The pressure to win trophies at that club is high and they don't seem like a happy bunch. They win trophies.
Under Jose, the players weren't particularly happy. They won 2 trophies.
Under Fergie, there was a lot of pressure to perform and win. When we didn't win Fergie came down like a tonne of bricks on some of our players, so happiness wasn't high on Fergie's agenda. Fergie won a lot of trophies.
Ole has had a happy squad for the last 2.5 years. He has won nothing.
Then people shouldn't write off Ole just yet.
Klopp didn't win anything in his first 3 seasons, after he signed his marquee signings he won something. We came close, and points accumulation rising for each season under Ole.
I believe he can show the world, that managers can have breakthroughs, people don't want to believe it, but anything can happen in football.
With Ronaldo we gotta win the league now.
Dunno, with mcfred/matic (they wouldn’t play at norwich) it’s like playing in 9
dunno if you can win the title playing in 9, even with ronaldo, varane, sancho
dunno if you can win the title playing in 9, even with ronaldo, varane, sancho
Good comparisons with Klopp. Ole has done what has been expected of him so far. But as you can see Klopp took Liverpool up miles the following season after getting his squad together and that is where Ole is now. He has the squad so I expect big thingsThen people shouldn't write off Ole just yet.
Klopp didn't win anything in his first 3 seasons, after he signed his marquee signings he won something. We came close, and points accumulation rising for each season under Ole.
I believe he can show the world, that managers can have breakthroughs, people don't want to believe it, but anything can happen in football.
Of course, we are expecting big things this season.
People can't write him off just because of a draw.
I can see us closer to 90 points, than to 80 points. Not sure if that's enough to win the title, but it's up there.
I think Liverpool finishes 4th, but after that, is anybody's guess. Without a striker i think Man City will suffer, even though Pep likes to play with a false 9.
Chelsea are the team to beat.
I think Liverpool finishes 4th, but after that, is anybody's guess. Without a striker i think Man City will suffer, even though Pep likes to play with a false 9.
Chelsea are the team to beat.
This might be called knee-jerk but we're not gonna finish top 4 easily this season.
We'd be lucky to finish 4th.
As this is the United forum thread - can the thread title be updated, to just the top 4 race?
We'll have a title race thread in the footy forum. Say no to megathreads
We'll have a title race thread in the footy forum. Say no to megathreads
Haha
I still don't think there will be an actual title race at all - for there to be one then Liverpool need to hit a rough patch immediately basically; if they open up a lead now then it won't matter what happens with AFCON, they won't be caught by anyone.
For us the challenge still is finishing fourth as we're unlikely to finish above Chelsea or City in their battle for second, but I'm now feeling less confident about the ease we'll have of finishing fourth.
Long, long season ahead for us.
For us the challenge still is finishing fourth as we're unlikely to finish above Chelsea or City in their battle for second, but I'm now feeling less confident about the ease we'll have of finishing fourth.
Long, long season ahead for us.
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Why can't you people comprehend the difference between Klopp taking that piss poor Liverpool and turning it into what it is today and Ole taking a top 4 club, admittedly with some problems, and making it a top 4 club? Might also be good to look at the money spent and the fact that Klopp's side generally have a clear football that they'd like to play and it is often very pleasing on the eyes, unlike Ole's... whatever football he is playing.Then people shouldn't write off Ole just yet.
Klopp didn't win anything in his first 3 seasons, after he signed his marquee signings he won something. We came close, and points accumulation rising for each season under Ole.
I believe he can show the world, that managers can have breakthroughs, people don't want to believe it, but anything can happen in football.
Be patient. Maybe soon enough those stupid comparisons will stop
Prob win all the hard games.
We need a top 4 thread only like previous seasons. We shouldn't be clouding this thread with title challengers and the egg spoon sack race of falling over and saying after you sir, no please after you chase for top 4 that we have each season.
Why do we consistently get less recovery time between games compared to others? This week City and Liverpool played on Tuesday, their next game is tomorrow. We played Wednesday and then the earliest possible game of the weekend. Surely this isn't helping us with these shit performances.
That's what our squad is for.
If Arsenal manage to beat Brighton later then they will only be 2 points behind us, having already played Chelsea, City and Spurs.
We might have to brace ourselves for a top 4 scrap, forget the title.
We might have to brace ourselves for a top 4 scrap, forget the title.
Liverpool are winning it, I’m pretty sure of that. Expect them to beat city tomorrow.
We’re doing our best to be out of it before we even play any of the challengers. Our opening 7 fixtures were pretty comfortable on paper, we’ve not played well for an entire game yet and dropped 7 pts already.
Fergie teams never started strong. No team can maintain top form for an entire season, there are always ups and downs. Fergie teams would peak around and after Christmas and really kick on from there. That is when the teams that started strong would start to lag and we would reel them in. Was the same every year.
More likely 2 games against teams Liverpool should beat.
Did teams regularly get to 90 points when Fergie was here?
Arsenal didn’t beat Brighton. Are we suddenly sound for the top 4 now? Why are so many people making posts like this after 7 games? Mental.
I suggest you take a look at United seasons post 05/06. Fergie said it himself in his autobiography that he had to change his method to start strong as well, or get left behind, as Mourinho changed the game with the way his team started.
Looking at the first 10 games from 06/07 to 12/13:
In 06/07, 8 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss
In 07/08, 7 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss
In 08/09, 6 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss
In 09/10, 7 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses
In 10/11, 5 wins, 5 draws
In 11/12, 7 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss
In 12/13. 8 wins, 2 losses.
Because Arsenal were in the dog house after the first 3 games, yet they were in that position before the game and it highlighted how bad us dropping points to eminently winnable games has been. We got a grand total of 7 points against last season top 4,2 against Leicester, 2 against Arsenal, 3 against Spurs. It's not as if our big game record recently has given any confidence of us being able to make up for those silly dropped points with the run of fixtures coming up.
This is the kind of stuff that ties into the thread made about ‘The United Way’. The PL is so different now - it’s not better or worse it just is what it is - but you simply can’t compare it or draw parallels to old teams.
Winner will have 90+ points this year, we have to be in the race.
So Klopp spent significantly less and finished with more points in his 2nd and 3rd seasons than Ole is what you're saying. He got them to the CL Final in his 3rd season too, so we should expect the same from Ole...Then people shouldn't write off Ole just yet.
Klopp didn't win anything in his first 3 seasons, after he signed his marquee signings he won something. We came close, and points accumulation rising for each season under Ole.
I believe he can show the world, that managers can have breakthroughs, people don't want to believe it, but anything can happen in football.
Also the comparison with Klopp isn't right as he was very successful at Dortmund before joining Liverpool, he was a very sought after manager. We still don't know what level of a manager Ole is but it was already proven Klopp was an excellent one, his spell at Dortmund eclipses Ole at Cardiff and Molde.
And Liverpool finished 6th the season before Klopp's joined while United had finished 2nd before Ole joined.
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So, are we smarter now? I am not for sure. I can't remember when was the season where i could not give to one team slight edge for title.
If i must then it would be 34%:33%:33% between Chelsea/City/Pool.
But for top 4, we are not clean favorites as i thought. Arsenal finding a form worries me a bit
If i must then it would be 34%:33%:33% between Chelsea/City/Pool.
But for top 4, we are not clean favorites as i thought. Arsenal finding a form worries me a bit
Long way to go but looks like we have a fight on our hands for top four. Especially with Ole still at the wheel..
It'll be nip and tuck all the way till May.
It'll be nip and tuck all the way till May.
6 points behind West Ham and a resurgent Arsenal with Stamford Bridge tomorrow and Arsenal at home next week.
I think we're fecking fecked for top 4.
I think we're fecking fecked for top 4.
No chance.
Long way to go yet, and Arsenal are up and down, they have little strength in their squad.
West Ham will struggle soon too, they will be caught between trying in Europe or putting too four first, again, their depth is lacking.
We need to be within touching distance (3 to 6 points) come January. I think by then we should be much more organized and drop less points.
It’s not like Utd are chasing City, Chelsea or the scousers, who will only drop a handful of points until the end of the season.
Teams like West Ham, Arsenal and Leicester will always drop points when the pressure is on. If Utd can go on a wining run of 6 or 7 games, the table will look a lot different.
Every season it seems like one of the big 4 will miss out, and in the end it all seems to pan out.
I’m a bit worried about the news that Rangnick won’t be in place until after Arsenal. If Arsenal win at OT on Thurs and United lose again tomorrow, it is all but done for top four this season. We would be nine points behind Arsenal and very likely seven or nine behind West Ham too. Good luck overturning that with 24 games to play with a very inconsistent side.
Nine points in 24 matches seems more than doable.