Top 4 race / race abandoned (or maybe not) / Leicester & Chelsea in the process of bottling it

passing-wind said:
I said it against Liverpool away, we are not performing well and this season has shades of the one where Mourinho finished second. It's interesting to see what will happen because if we continue in such an inconsistent manner I'm almost certain that Ole will be relieved of his job if we finish outside of Europe. The team needs to pick up the performances.
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Yeh I would agree with you. It’s far from certain we turn it around. I certainly think the teams below is will be watching with glee seeing our levels so poor. I still think we should make it though.
 
Given our record in big games this is going to end up very close, expect we will be much closer to 4th and 5th place teams after the Chelsea and City games.

Not convinced we will break 70 point barrier by much and gap between our points tally from same stage last season will tumble.
 
1 win in 5.

Chelsea and City coming up and we haven't won a game against the big 6/7 in the league in all season.

We'll be 5th/6th by mid-March.
 
Roboc7 said:
Given our record in big games this is going to end up very close, expect we will be much closer to 4th and 5th place teams after the Chelsea and City games.

Not convinced we will break 70 point barrier by much and gap between our points tally from same stage last season will tumble.
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You might be right and honestly I think that could be considered a sackable offence. After now poor we were in the first half of the season while still getting results, you’d expect it to click at some stage in a season and start getting wins while playing well. No team ever hits their targets without having a really good period of football. Even Mourinho had that for us.
 
Our horrendous start to the season was always going to come back and bite us. One more bad patch and we’re right back in a battle for fourth, as we’re seeing now. Need to win against Newcastle and at least draw with Chelsea or else we’re in free fall. I say this every week after a poor result, mind, and we just drop more unnecessary points the next week, or so it seems.
 
We'll do well to keep Chelsea at bay in the coming weeks.

Going to be a mega top 4 battle with United, Leicester, Liverpool, Chelsea. Hoping we can have a strong finish like last year and make top 4. Was never convinced we were in a title challenge. People on here saying Pep needs a rebuild then they go on a 14 game winning run or whatever it is, I've lost count. We're not even capable yet of a comfortable 2nd or 3rd, the same issues are there in spades.
 
It's a bit tragic to see us scrabbling around in this race. But its probably about right, we've been poor far too often, and its costing us. It's going to be nervy and we've only ourselves to blame.
 
If I had to guess now I think Liverpool will get their act together and then it will be another close call with us Leicester and Chelsea.
 
Chelsea were meant to be out of it a couple of weeks ago and now they will be 4 points behind us by tomorrow evening. It's sickening see them act so decisively all the fecking time and reap the rewards from it while we dither and make the same mistakes over and over again.
 
Shane88 said:
1 win in 5.

Chelsea and City coming up and we haven't won a game against the big 6/7 in the league in all season.

We'll be 5th/6th by mid-March.
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Or we win one of those games and kick on. After we play them we only have Liverpool and Tottenham left to play from the old top 6.

Even if we lose both games there would still be 11 games to get us in the UCL. I don’t like how tight it’s going to get but in reality we are a team that is closer to a top 4 scrap then a title run in
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
1) Manchester City
2) Leicester
3) Liverpool
4) Chelsea
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The same Leicester who are in good form but have a thin squad that will likely tire towards the end (Ala last season).

I get it. We’re in a poor vein of form but am I the only one to expect it to pick up soon?
 
Fancy us for it at this moment in time. We're in a good position even if our form isn't particularly good. It's not like the teams behind us have good form either.

Don't particularly fancy Liverpool, West Ham, Villa, Everton or Spurs to finish above us. Suppose Chelsea might go on a run but I like us for fourth even so.

City , Leicester, United and one of Chelsea or Liverpool to make up the top 4 at this point is what I'd tentaively go for.
 
Newcastle, West ham, Chelsea, City and Leicester next. There's every chance that if we contribute to more lackluster performances that we will be outside the top 4. Ole's comments about now not settling for 2nd seems to be brought on by a reminder his job is on the line if the European position isn't secured end of the 38 game period.
 
passing-wind said:
Newcastle, West ham, Chelsea, City and Leicester next. There's every chance that if we contribute to more lackluster performances that we will be outside the top 4. Ole's comments about now not settling for 2nd seems to be brought on by a reminder his job is on the line if the European position isn't secured end of the 38 game period.
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Make or break. Even if we only get 7 points from that we’re in a good position to get top 4. About time this team stood up to be counted
 
Big games are coming a bit soon for us. Tuchel is still experimenting with formations and personnel but the improvement cannot be understated. We would be absolutely nowhere near top 4 if we continued as we were. Changes were made at the perfect time.
 
passing-wind said:
Newcastle, West ham, Chelsea, City and Leicester next. There's every chance that if we contribute to more lackluster performances that we will be outside the top 4. Ole's comments about now not settling for 2nd seems to be brought on by a reminder his job is on the line if the European position isn't secured end of the 38 game period.
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Cant see it, everybody is dropping points around us. I cant even pretend to say which other 3 teams would keep us out of the top 4.
Could be a boring last 10 odd games for us
 
passing-wind said:
Newcastle, West ham, Chelsea, City and Leicester next. There's every chance that if we contribute to more lackluster performances that we will be outside the top 4. Ole's comments about now not settling for 2nd seems to be brought on by a reminder his job is on the line if the European position isn't secured end of the 38 game period.
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I don't even look at the fixtures any more. If we can't beat Sheff Utd and WBA, all the games will be tough from now on.
 
Meh, if we dont make top 4 then we're simply not good enough and Ole would likely be out on his ear.
And the carousel continues.
 
MayosNoun said:
Big games are coming a bit soon for us. Tuchel is still experimenting with formations and personnel but the improvement cannot be understated. We would be absolutely nowhere near top 4 if we continued as we were. Changes were made at the perfect time.
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Don't be too quick. Might as well be a new manager bounce.
 
We need an on it Pogba, and a few of our players to come into form desperately.

It'll be woefully inept to miss out on the top four, there's no excuse good enough unless Bruno gets injured and missed a massive chunk of the remaining games. We should not be battling for top 4 like it looks like we're going to be.
 
NK86 said:
Don't be too quick. Might as well be a new manager bounce.
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Of course, however when we appointed Tuchel, it gave him scope to identify the players he wants to keep. We were on a downward trajectory so it was almost a free hit from now until the summer to get used to the squad and plan for next season. The new manager bounce is a bonus at the moment and if he somehow makes top 4, it has been a massive success. Next season is where he will be judged more though.
 
Judas said:
We need an on it Pogba, and a few of our players to come into form desperately.

It'll be woefully inept to miss out on the top four, there's no excuse good enough unless Bruno gets injured and missed a massive chunk of the remaining games. We should not be battling for top 4 like it looks like we're going to be.
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Even if Bruno got injured it'd be a woefully inept and a sackable offense. One player shouldn't determine rather we finish 4th in the league after spending the obscene amount of money we have.
 
We've got one win in five and are now on the same points as Leicester. Chelsea have won three in a row and will move to within four points of us if/when they beat Newcastle at the Bridge tonight. Liverpool are still in the mix and may yet get their act together. In fact if the teams behind us win their game(s) in hand, there would be just five points separating 2nd and 8th in the table.

We have Chelsea away three days after the Sociedad 2nd leg - that looks like a very big game for us. Then it's City away, Moyes' West Ham at OT, followed by Leicester away. We really need to find some form now, or we could easily plummet down the table after that little run. I'm sure that Mourinho would love to put the final boot into our top 4 chances away at Spurs on 10 April. We've simply got to start winning games again.
 
Shark said:
Even if Bruno got injured it'd be a woefully inept and a sackable offense. One player shouldn't determine rather we finish 4th in the league after spending the obscene amount of money we have.
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Unpopular opinion maybe but I think you may be surprised if Pogba and VDB got a run of games together.

Like with us Kante is our best midfielder on paper but Jorginho and Kovacic simply work better together wouldn't be surprised if something similar would happen with you in that situation especially in the bigger games.
 
Dancfc said:
Unpopular opinion maybe but I think you may be surprised if Pogba and VDB got a run of games together.

Like with us Kante is our best midfielder on paper but Jorginho and Kovacic simply work better together wouldn't be surprised if something similar would happen with you in that situation especially in the bigger games.
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I know what you're saying, but Pogba just gets forgotten because of how often he's injured. Last season we "upgraded" from Lingard or Pereira to Bruno... because Pogba was injured all year so didn't have a role anyway. And then we're dependent on Bruno as Pogba is rarely fit. If Pogba was regularly available (like during our run between October-January), there is way less dependence on Bruno or worry if he doesn't start, as we still have that creative force or world class attacking mid with Pogba. It brings the best out of both. He just can't seem to stay fit though unfortunately.
 
Shark said:
Even if Bruno got injured it'd be a woefully inept and a sackable offense. One player shouldn't determine rather we finish 4th in the league after spending the obscene amount of money we have.
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One player shouldn't I totally agree, but in all likelihood it would, and it's not good enough. It just shows how far away we are from City really.

Dancfc said:
Unpopular opinion maybe but I think you may be surprised if Pogba and VDB got a run of games together.

Like with us Kante is our best midfielder on paper but Jorginho and Kovacic simply work better together wouldn't be surprised if something similar would happen with you in that situation especially in the bigger games.
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It's not unpopular opinion, more so something that none of us really think about, due to the growing lack of belief in VDB. It's hard for many of us to picture him making any sort of impact right now, because he's just not been at the races so far. Might come good in the future, he's clearly got the talent.
 
We went through half a season beating everyone bar the other top 6 sides + Leicester and Palace.

We've started the second half of the season not beating Sheffield United, Everton and West Brom... we're going to have to both get our finger out a bit and start putting away these teams, as well as actually beating one or two of the other big sides (as well as our customary 0-0 draws)
 
Tuchel has Chelsea playing a slightly cruder version of the City game. They are doing very well at it. If not a win against the next opponent, United might sink far.
 
copen1945 said:
Tuchel has Chelsea playing a slightly cruder version of the City game. They are doing very well at it. If not a win against the next opponent, United might sink far.
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I mean you could in general describe Tuchel as "more pragmatic Guardiola" and it wouldn't be far from the truth. Tuchel likes good possession based football but there is also always a very pragmatic streak in his teams/football.
 
Just seen Leicester's injury problems. Wow! They have some decent fixtures coming up but they need to win them before the tougher games come.

A point against Chelsea for us is a decent result considering we're 6 and 7 points ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool who play each other next game. You'd have to be pretty pessimistic to think we'll feck this up, although we do play City next week .
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
1) Manchester City
2) Leicester
3) Liverpool
4) Chelsea
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I thought it was nailed on to be this a month or 2 ago but now not so sure. Think it's going to be City, United, Leicester (if they don't mess it up again) and Chelsea. Though there's going to be a scrap between Chelsea/Liverpool/West Ham/Everton and even Spurs if they get their act together for that 4th spot.
 
Winzaghi said:
I thought it was nailed on to be this a month or 2 ago but now not so sure. Think it's going to be City, United, Leicester (if they don't mess it up again) and Chelsea. Though there's going to be a scrap between Chelsea/Liverpool/West Ham/Everton and even Spurs if they get their act together for that 4th spot.
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IF Villa win their two games in hand then they'd also be in the mix. Hopefully Grealish can be fit for the run in.
 
The number of draws we got whilst dominating will be our killer. Points that should not had been dropped. Until that irons out, we will always be in danger or dropping out of the top four. It should have had been more comfortable if we had beaten the likes of Everton or West Brom in the past weeks.
 
Feeling far from shore that we get in the top four, but I prefer our position this year compered to last year.
We had a really good run at the end of last year and if we want top four I belive we need to match that ore even do better in points...
 
United look pretty secure now. Whether people like it or not, simply not being part of an almighty CL qualification scrap does represent good progress. We can leave it to the rest to sweat about their participation.
 
Winzaghi said:
I thought it was nailed on to be this a month or 2 ago but now not so sure. Think it's going to be City, United, Leicester (if they don't mess it up again) and Chelsea. Though there's going to be a scrap between Chelsea/Liverpool/West Ham/Everton and even Spurs if they get their act together for that 4th spot.
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Can see Leicester missing out again. The next few weeks without Maddison & Barnes will be tough for them. Think the last 3 games of the season vs Utd, Chelsea & Spurs will ultimately be there downfall.
 
Think we will finish second tbh.
Everyone bar City is dropping points.
I guess it is progress from last season but i cant help looking back at the failed time under Mourinho where we came 2nd with 82 points. If it was failure then it really should be now too, especially as we won 2 trophies too.
 
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