redshade » Wed Dec 26, 2018 10:50 pm wrote:Do you guys feel this is the strongest we've been for a title shot??
I'm talking about squad quality.
08/09 and 13/14 were good teams but i feel this one is almost the full package.
13/14 had a superb forward line (Suarez, Coutinho, Sturridge and Sterling) but the defence was weak as pi$$, it just shows you how good that forward line was when a team who conceded 50 goals in a 38 games nearly won the title.
08/09 for me is still the best team we've had since the 80's, a midfield consisting of Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano (all in their mid 20's) is as good as anything we've had in our history imo, Torres was in the form of his career back then too, they were just unlucky to come up against a United side with a forward line of Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez and although we beat them home and away that season they just had the edge in terms of consistency.
In many ways 08/09 reminds me of some of the titles we won in the mid 80's, Everton were probably the better side at the point in time but our experience and know how (gained over many years of winning and challenging for titles) somehow got us over the line, I think United's experience and know how got them over the line in 08/09 when we were probably the better side (which is saying something when they had a 25 year old Ronaldo in their ranks).
Although the 13/14 and 08/09 teams contained some great individual players neither of them could be described as truly great teams because the epithet 'great' only really applies to title winning teams. This current team that we have is halfway there to being a great team.