by LFC2007 » Thu May 13, 2010 8:05 pm
The higher points have been higher, the lower ones lower. That's the difference between the two in my eyes. I always held higher hopes that we could make the final step under Rafa, principally because our phenomenal progress in Europe in those first three seasons (combined with his La Liga pedigree, why would we not see a domestic transformation of our own?) but also because we ticked along in the league at a steady rate and successfully rebuilt an aging squad that had been littered with Diaos and Dioufs. With that squad and with the rise of Chelsea, I never thought it reasonable to expect any manager to make serious inroads into our league form initially. But, eventually we did make progress of sorts. In 07/08 we remained in the title race for a little longer than previous seasons before consolidating by making "concrete" progress in 08/09 with a proper title challenge - and though frustrating in the end, we did well; draws against the likes of Hull, Fulham, Wigan and Stoke were balanced out by some unusually good results against the top four sides (if our level was much higher and the manager simply 'flunked' it, I'm a banana). The problem, I think, is that that "concrete" progress masked some serious underlying weaknesses in the squad. The key elements were there; Reina, Agger (Hyypia), Carra, Alonso, Masch, Gerrard, Torres....balanced out wide by decent players in Arbeloa, Aurelio, Riera, Benayoun, and Kuyt - for his productivity alone. Behind that lay a shadow layer; Lucas, Babel, Ngog, Keane, Skrtel (to a lesser extent because he has been known to have been useful), Dossena, Insua, Degen and the like. Susceptible is the word. A loss to the spine - in particular Alonso, and a series of injuries - to Agger, Aurelio, Torres, Gerrard - or an off-season - would leave us with serious problems, and so it proved, and emphatically so. Exacerbated by mismanagement, last season's "concrete" progress (08/09 I mean here) became woefully exposed. The squad's "normal" level as it were is of course - in my opinion at least - notably higher than 7th place suggests, but not as close to that 2nd place finish would have had us believe. To do an Arsenal perhaps wouldn't have been beyond our means. To do a Man U or a Chelsea with the squad in the state it's in? Do me a lemon.
