What percentage of games are you willing to write off if we play good football?

[tjb]

(a) Lots of people will disagree. Attractiveness is subjective and a lot of people don't really like Pep's emphasis on technical tiki taka either and would easily prefer the chaos that gengenpressing creates. This is worth a thread / poll of its own if you're willing to write it up. I wanted to create one but was too lazy to put in the effort it takes to contrast both styles.

(b) Given we are fundamentally incapable of pressing, someone like Ragnick drilling that into the squad will allow us to transition into a more balanced game in the future if we want. We don't have to play like Bielsa or Hasenhuttl. Nagelsmann strikes a good balance. Tuchel's another example - He's influenced by Ragnick but his pragmatic brand of football is his own invention.

Thanks for saying this. It's a very arrogant notion that people have starting promoting. Unless it's Tika taka or total football it's not attractive. Tbh I didn't find Pep's teams outside of 2014 to 2016 Bayern and 2018 City to be attractive. Long balls are not horrible to watch, 442 is still a formation that can work. For me, it's just weird.

 

[Oranges038]

18 more wins would take us to 71 points.
We hit 74 points for 2nd last season!

So unless you think this would be the highest points needed for 4th ever, then we certainly won't need "at least" 18 wins!

If all the teams above including West Ham maintain their points average then at a minimum 71 points is needed.

Go back a few of years 74, 75, 76 points were what finished in 4th.

 

[Abraxas]

I'd accept getting into the top 4. I think that's the remit. Ultimately it's about results. It simply is, interesting football is useless to us if it culminates in nothing. It's also very important in the short term as it lays the foundation for the next manager to have those funds and CL football.

However, clearly for long-term success you do need a structure to fall back on, and ideally it should be good to watch. So it's not really a case of developing one without the other or what do we compromise in pursuit of one or the other. We simply have to get better at producing results and performing well as that's been a real failing.

 

[Hammondo]

Maybe but I think anymore and we dont make top 4. At the mo we are 6 points behind so can we afford to lose more than another 3 to finish top 4? I dont think so.

I think all our competitors for 4th will have bad patches

 

[BigRon1985]

Winning with style is always the aim but right now I'd take just being competitive again. We have no divine right to win trophies inc Top 4 but battling for them on all fronts till the end of the season would be a start...........