DrPepe wrote:bigmick wrote:Bad Bob wrote:With all that said, I still find it strange Mick that you seem a little pessimistic about our chances of improving on this season next year. Indeed, we've had a lot of the rub of the green but we've also had some bad luck along the way. More importantly, we've had the experience of a challenge and we've learned some important lessons. With that reality in mind and with the expectation that we'll improve our transfer record this summer over last, I can't see any reason why we shouldn't be optimistic going into next year. You seem intent on seeing this season as our best chance blown rather than as a vital stepping stone to future glory and I can't quite fathom why that needs be so?
Bob I can't help the pessimism mate, I think it's more realsim. I think we'll be right up there again for sure provided Rafa continues on his curve, but I think it's a big ask.
Look, if we win our last couple of matches (which I think we will) and the Mancs win theirs (ditto) we are going to finsih six points back. It's been a brilliant effort and all that, but we'd be six points back once all the shouting had finished.
Now, that's six points back when we beat them Home and Away. If they'd beat us Home and Away, we'd be EIGHTEEN points back. Even if one of the game had been a draw, we'd be NINE points back. Now in the Home game it was 1-1 and we got the goal, in the away game it was 1-1 and we got the goal. We were behind in BOTH matches. BOTH matches could have gone either way, and I think if anyone denies that they are delusional. I think it's reasonable to assume we might not win against them Home and Away next season, which gives us a mountain to climb in terms of making up ground, particularly if Chelsea and Arsenal manage to improve (which as I've said many times I think they will).
It might be worth considering how we've gone in the last couple of seasons in big four match ups in the Champions League, our supposed trump card. We've met big four teams three times, we've avoided the most formidable out of them and yet we've still lost two ties and won just the one. Tight matches yes, but we've gone out two out of three all the same. It would be a mistake IMHo to assume 14 points out of 18 is anything like normal against other big four teams.
If it seems like I am obsessive about the view that we have just had an absolutely golden, gilt edged chance to win the league, a gift in many ways, it's probably because I am absolutely convinced that this is the case. It will IMHO be MUCH harder to win the league next season assuming more normal big four match up results and improvement to Chelsea and Arsenal that it was this.
Like I say, if Rafa can keep us up there and keep building, I hope people have a bit of patience now. I would like to win A trophy though sometime soon though. Or get to a final or something, or a semi.
i agree with bigmick on this one - we 're unlikely to be half as good as we have been this season against the big4
in fact when you take away those results , we've actually been unusually bad this season against the lower teams (worse than last season...)
so on balance i think we'll improve against the dross (possibly we'll have better players and we'll defo have to have a better attitude to beating those teams), but probably not do as well against the top4
After all the margin for improvement is greater and easier against the lower teams - therefore i think we'll overall do better next season
Spot on and I too agree with Mick on this one. We're definitely unlikely to repeat our amazing run of results against the other members of the Big Four anytime soon. We're just all too evenly matched for that and its more likely that we'll share the spoils in those head to heads a lot more next time out. But, I do think we can and will do much better against the other 16 teams in the league...so much so that we'll have as great a chance to win it next year as we had this. Why will we do better? Because the lads and Rafa will have learned a harsh lesson this year: that drawing too many games in the first 2/3 of the season can leave you agonizingly short of the holy grail no matter how well you play during the run in. I have complete faith that the lads and the manager will have learned that lesson well and will not make the same mistakes next season...and that can make all the difference.