Seasons expectations
Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2019 7:31 amSo, we are 8 games into the PL season and we have had a couple of rounds of the CL. The league table is starting to take shape and at this stage it’s usually a good indication of how the season will evolve. There will be odd exceptions of course, but in the main those near the top and bottom at this stage are invariably in those areas come May
Obviously the 8 point gap is what it is but have we had a bad start to the season? Or have the dippers just exceeded all expectations? Or maybe the truth lies somewhere in between. We were robbed against Spurs. At Norwich it was just one of those games where everything they did came off and it just didn’t click for us, another day and we nick it. Wolves was a horror show and we got deservedly beat. So by my reckoning that’s one game where we have been poor. We are scoring for fun and indeed equalled a 125 year old record for the most goals at the start of the season. But we do have issues in front, strange as that may seem to fans of other clubs. Our finishing has not been as sharp as it could be and it cost us against Spurs and Norwich because if we had taken our chances we’d have won regardless of VAR and Norwich getting lucky.
Are we focused enough? Is the pressure of trying for a hat trick of PL titles taking its toll? Is our injury list hampering us more than we give credit for? Was player recruitment in the summer sufficient? Probably an element of all of those things and more. Team selection has been baffling at times. Certain players do not perform well together. Young lads like Foden and Garcia can’t get on the field when others in their respective positions aren’t performing at all well.
Before the season started I thought we’d win it. Then injuries to Sane and then Laporte started to swing it. The introduction of VAR has been shambolic, designed and implemented to give certain teams an advantage. At this stage of the season I make the dippers slight favourites now. An eight point gap is by no means insurmountable given we have come back from similar positions in far less time twice previously. But I do think we have to get at least a win and a draw, if not two wins v the dippers to claw it back. On current form I see that as unlikely because equally, the dippers will know a win for them at Anfield in November puts them further ahead. So, would a second place if that’s what transpires be a poor season? For me, no it wouldn’t. You can’t win the title every season.
This then leads us onto the cups. The Treble last season was amazing. Unprecedented. I think this season we need to probably put just as much focus in the two domestic cup competitions as the PL as they are probably our best bet for a pot. The draw for the league cup has opened up nicely again and we need to make sure we give 100% in this. We are the holders after all and don’t want to give it up. I just can’t see us winning the CL, I really don’t, so we don’t want to be in a position where we bin off a domestic pot to go all out for glory elsewhere and fall short and end up with nothing. I am of an age where we were shite for most of my life, living in the shadow of first the dippers, then the rags. Well now it’s different. I want us to win as much as we can because firstly, you can never have enough days out at Wembley and winning pots and secondly, we don’t know when our cycle of success will dry up. Because it will.
So to summarise, what are folks thoughts on the season and what their hopes are and what will May bring.
I simply hope for a pot or two whichever one it it. I’d like to see Foden get game time in preparation for next season when we will no longer have Silva. I’d love to win the PL obviously but if we don’t then I’m ok with that
Obviously the 8 point gap is what it is but have we had a bad start to the season? Or have the dippers just exceeded all expectations? Or maybe the truth lies somewhere in between. We were robbed against Spurs. At Norwich it was just one of those games where everything they did came off and it just didn’t click for us, another day and we nick it. Wolves was a horror show and we got deservedly beat. So by my reckoning that’s one game where we have been poor. We are scoring for fun and indeed equalled a 125 year old record for the most goals at the start of the season. But we do have issues in front, strange as that may seem to fans of other clubs. Our finishing has not been as sharp as it could be and it cost us against Spurs and Norwich because if we had taken our chances we’d have won regardless of VAR and Norwich getting lucky.
Are we focused enough? Is the pressure of trying for a hat trick of PL titles taking its toll? Is our injury list hampering us more than we give credit for? Was player recruitment in the summer sufficient? Probably an element of all of those things and more. Team selection has been baffling at times. Certain players do not perform well together. Young lads like Foden and Garcia can’t get on the field when others in their respective positions aren’t performing at all well.
Before the season started I thought we’d win it. Then injuries to Sane and then Laporte started to swing it. The introduction of VAR has been shambolic, designed and implemented to give certain teams an advantage. At this stage of the season I make the dippers slight favourites now. An eight point gap is by no means insurmountable given we have come back from similar positions in far less time twice previously. But I do think we have to get at least a win and a draw, if not two wins v the dippers to claw it back. On current form I see that as unlikely because equally, the dippers will know a win for them at Anfield in November puts them further ahead. So, would a second place if that’s what transpires be a poor season? For me, no it wouldn’t. You can’t win the title every season.
This then leads us onto the cups. The Treble last season was amazing. Unprecedented. I think this season we need to probably put just as much focus in the two domestic cup competitions as the PL as they are probably our best bet for a pot. The draw for the league cup has opened up nicely again and we need to make sure we give 100% in this. We are the holders after all and don’t want to give it up. I just can’t see us winning the CL, I really don’t, so we don’t want to be in a position where we bin off a domestic pot to go all out for glory elsewhere and fall short and end up with nothing. I am of an age where we were shite for most of my life, living in the shadow of first the dippers, then the rags. Well now it’s different. I want us to win as much as we can because firstly, you can never have enough days out at Wembley and winning pots and secondly, we don’t know when our cycle of success will dry up. Because it will.
So to summarise, what are folks thoughts on the season and what their hopes are and what will May bring.
I simply hope for a pot or two whichever one it it. I’d like to see Foden get game time in preparation for next season when we will no longer have Silva. I’d love to win the PL obviously but if we don’t then I’m ok with that