by 48-1119859832 » Sat May 06, 2006 7:40 pm
I can see where you coming from but records mean little when you aren't winning trophies, left, right and centre? Of course you could say that records show progress and they do. However they are irrelevant, the only thing that matters is the team winning trophies on a consistent basis, records and clean sheets are nice but they aren't the be and end all of things.
As for your comments regarding key player injuries, I don't see it as too much of a big deal, as long as we don't lose Reina, Alonso and Sissoko to Pompey we should be fine come cup final day. And I doubt we will suddenly see four or five injuries to key players against Pompey, they aren't Blackbrun you know.
I don't see how their can be additional incentives to the Pompey game other than finishing 2nd. Sure we are on a role, confidence is high and we want to keep the momentum going, that's for sure. But the test of a truly great team and the mark of a truly great team and one that is in Champion mode is a team that is able to keep a long winning streak or unbeaten streak, lose and then bounce back at the next game.
Sure losing to Pompey would somewhat tarnish the end of what's been a great story of progress and we can all have a different perspective of where this club is heading and sure we'd have to playing some qualifying games just after the World Cup which could affect our players in the middle or latter stages of our season. And sure it would end our fantastic run, it would end up the momentum but if we are truly as good as we think we are and truly believe we've made progress than we should be able to pick ourselves up against the Hammers and beat them, if not than Benitez needs to work more on the squads mentality and sell of the "weakest links" (so to speak).