Race for the Top 4 - 2018/19

[Hakkz]

I was one of those who predicted 2nd and I stand by that. I believe City will be the top one and we will be fighting it out with the Pool - who will have finally discovered how beneficial a one-season wonder is - and Chelsea, who surely have to either improve their centre forwards or get rid of David Luiz. Given the returns from injuries to key players we are starting to benefit from, and a squad with real quality, I am struggling to see worse than 2nd. And 1st is by no means out of the question. Especially if we keep getting into better form and refuse to swallow our pride and accept the necessity of agreeing with the Liverpool love-in in the media.

That's RAWK-level.

https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

 

[worcestersauce]

Think the main issue is it’s a shit league , apart from us losing to Watford I don’t think any other team in the top 5 has dropped 3 points to anyone outside the top 5

Watford were 4th when we played them so technically they have. We were poor against Liverpool and against Watford two set pieces did for us on the day because we are struggling to score as we should and that is our problem at the moment and that will change.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I was one of those who predicted 2nd and I stand by that. I believe City will be the top one and we will be fighting it out with the Pool - who will have finally discovered how beneficial a one-season wonder is - and Chelsea, who surely have to either improve their centre forwards or get rid of David Luiz. Given the returns from injuries to key players we are starting to benefit from, and a squad with real quality, I am struggling to see worse than 2nd. And 1st is by no means out of the question. Especially if we keep getting into better form and refuse to swallow our pride and accept the necessity of agreeing with the Liverpool love-in in the media.

Having watched every game this year, with my eyes, and having engaged my brain, I find it absolutely impossible to agree with anything written here.

Was it the media's love-in with Liverpool that caused them to comfortably run the game against us at home?

And these players we'll welcome back from injury - presumably you're expecting them to come back all guns blazing? It wasn't so long ago that we had live evidence of their form, which if you cast your mind back, you could generously describe as 'mixed'.

This is the way I see this season, and I don't think it's controversial.

Tier 1 in the league is comprised of City, largely on another level
Tier 1a has Liverpool and Chelsea in
Tier 2 has Arsenal, us and Utd (you can't write that squad off) in, in terms of form, in that order

Things can change rapidly (positive or negative), especially in groups 1a and 2 (City's depth, and the quality of Guardiola's coaching are too much for anyone else IMO): Injuries, team's 'clicking', 'star player' form, January transfer window etc....

...so the fact that we're there or there abouts is something to take a lot of hope from, and if we buy well in January (I'll give you all a minute while you laugh hysterically, then cry, then say - f*cking hell it's painful being a Spurs fan) then who knows...

....But right now we're in a three way fight for 4th, and to suggest below 2nd is tough to imagine, I literally have no idea where you've got that outside of blind faith

 

[nicdic]

Having watched every game this year, with my eyes, and having engaged my brain, I find it absolutely impossible to agree with anything written here.

Was it the media's love-in with Liverpool that caused them to comfortably run the game against us at home?

And these players we'll welcome back from injury - presumably you're expecting them to come back all guns blazing? It wasn't so long ago that we had live evidence of their form, which if you cast your mind back, you could generously describe as 'mixed'.

This is the way I see this season, and I don't think it's controversial.

Tier 1 in the league is comprised of City, largely on another level
Tier 1a has Liverpool and Chelsea in
Tier 2 has Arsenal, us and Utd (you can't write that squad off) in, in terms of form, in that order

Things can change rapidly (positive or negative), especially in groups 1a and 2 (City's depth, and the quality of Guardiola's coaching are too much for anyone else IMO): Injuries, team's 'clicking', 'star player' form, January transfer window etc....

...so the fact that we're there or there abouts is something to take a lot of hope from, and if we buy well in January (I'll give you all a minute while you laugh hysterically, then cry, then say - f*cking hell it's painful being a Spurs fan) then who knows...

....But right now we're in a three way fight for 4th, and to suggest below 2nd is tough to imagine, I literally have no idea where you've got that outside of blind faith

Reality is, that City, Liverpool, Chelsea and ourselves are all playing worse than the results suggest. Only one team is being told that's a bad thing.

 

[teok]

I was one of those who predicted 2nd and I stand by that. I believe City will be the top one and we will be fighting it out with the Pool - who will have finally discovered how beneficial a one-season wonder is - and Chelsea, who surely have to either improve their centre forwards or get rid of David Luiz. Given the returns from injuries to key players we are starting to benefit from, and a squad with real quality, I am struggling to see worse than 2nd. And 1st is by no means out of the question. Especially if we keep getting into better form and refuse to swallow our pride and accept the necessity of agreeing with the Liverpool love-in in the media.

 

[SpursDave88]

Having watched every game this year, with my eyes, and having engaged my brain, I find it absolutely impossible to agree with anything written here.

Was it the media's love-in with Liverpool that caused them to comfortably run the game against us at home?

And these players we'll welcome back from injury - presumably you're expecting them to come back all guns blazing? It wasn't so long ago that we had live evidence of their form, which if you cast your mind back, you could generously describe as 'mixed'.

This is the way I see this season, and I don't think it's controversial.

Tier 1 in the league is comprised of City, largely on another level
Tier 1a has Liverpool and Chelsea in
Tier 2 has Arsenal, us and Utd (you can't write that squad off) in, in terms of form, in that order

Things can change rapidly (positive or negative), especially in groups 1a and 2 (City's depth, and the quality of Guardiola's coaching are too much for anyone else IMO): Injuries, team's 'clicking', 'star player' form, January transfer window etc....

...so the fact that we're there or there abouts is something to take a lot of hope from, and if we buy well in January (I'll give you all a minute while you laugh hysterically, then cry, then say - f*cking hell it's painful being a Spurs fan) then who knows...

....But right now we're in a three way fight for 4th, and to suggest below 2nd is tough to imagine, I literally have no idea where you've got that outside of blind faith

Agree with most of this - form needs to dramatically improve - the players need to turn into their 2016 selves sharpish to give us a shot at the title.

 

[DiscoD1882]

If we continue to play badly and win. the only thing that is going to stop us winning the league is goal difference. which is terrible. We know we probably wont beat City or Liverpool. But we can beat both the London scumbags. its then down to both Liverpool and City to drop off.

im going to stick with my original prediction of 3rd. with a chance of 2nd.

 

[TheAmerican]

Has anyone thought that our squad is limiting our performances? The reason we've been average in almost every game is because the midfield isn't good enough. It's good that we're winning but even with a mostly fit team we weren't turning in amazing performances. We lack that player who can raise our level up to where Chelsea, city and Liverpool are. Sure, it's gotten worse with the injuries but Dembele and Eriksen weren't unplayable at the beginning of the season when they were fit. Having them back should still get us past 14 teams but it won't help us against the top 3. It also looks like we aren't going to have a lot of these players for the big matches coming up so the current team is about all we've got for the time being, and I can't see the performances lifting with that 11. City and Chelsea will steamroll over a midfield of Winks, Sissoko and Dier and those guys lack the creative element to hurt these teams the other way. If we want to improve we need better players

Add to that the fact that Dier has been awful this season. There must be something wrong with Wanyama as Eric should have been dropped some time ago.

 

[TheAmerican]

If we continue to play badly and win. the only thing that is going to stop us winning the league is goal difference. which is terrible. We know we probably wont beat City or Liverpool. But we can beat both the London scumbags. its then down to both Liverpool and City to drop off.

im going to stick with my original prediction of 3rd. with a chance of 2nd.

Continuing to play badly and continuing to win are discordant. It really just won't continue.

 

[DiscoD1882]

Continuing to play badly and continuing to win are discordant. It really just won't continue.

8 games and counting.....well, apart from the two we lost...

 

[newbie]

Has anyone thought that our squad is limiting our performances? The reason we've been average in almost every game is because the midfield isn't good enough. It's good that we're winning but even with a mostly fit team we weren't turning in amazing performances. We lack that player who can raise our level up to where Chelsea, city and Liverpool are. Sure, it's gotten worse with the injuries but Dembele and Eriksen weren't unplayable at the beginning of the season when they were fit. Having them back should still get us past 14 teams but it won't help us against the top 3. It also looks like we aren't going to have a lot of these players for the big matches coming up so the current team is about all we've got for the time being, and I can't see the performances lifting with that 11. City and Chelsea will steamroll over a midfield of Winks, Sissoko and Dier and those guys lack the creative element to hurt these teams the other way. If we want to improve we need better players

we are always slow starters under poch, Eriksen always starts slowly. Wink is a very good player give him a run of games and will prove it, If Chelsea, or Liverpool had our injuries / players coming back from a long time out and had to play our starting 11 would we not steam roller them? City have a very strong squad.

 

[DiscoD1882]

Continuing to play badly and continuing to win are discordant. It really just won't continue.

also Manure played attrociously all last season and finished second.

 

[TheAmerican]

also Manure played attrociously all last season and finished second.

They had the second best defense in the league behind city. While they didn't play attractive football, they were organized.

 

[tevezito]

....But right now we're in a three way fight for 4th, and to suggest below 2nd is tough to imagine, I literally have no idea where you've got that outside of blind faith

If you've read the page or two before my offering (with your eyes) then hopefully you'll have realised it was a satire on a previous post and the thread as a whole.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

If you've read the page or two before my offering (with your eyes) then hopefully you'll have realised it was a satire on a previous post and the thread as a whole.

No I didn’t. Therefore I’m a moron. Sorry

 

[Lighty64]

I'll get in there before anyone else, the PL have a vendetta against us

2 games at 5:30 and another at 7:45 on a bloody Saturday in November

in December another bloody 7:45 on a Saturday night (when I've a party to attend) then they haven't selected what might be our opening fixture for the NWHL v Burnley for TV (and i'll be away in the sun) then on the 23rd we have Everton on the box, and then 3 days later us and Everton, the only teams to get 3 days off to the Boxing Day fixture, another 3 days till the fixture on 29th, and then the new years day fixture. so that's 4 games in 9 days for both us and Everton, and some teams getting 12 (Man C and Liverpool)

 

[coys200]

Salah injured.

 

[Lighty64]

Salah injured.

said on twitter that it's not too serious so might miss 1 game (hopefully more)

 

[coys200]

At least their front 3 have trekked all over Africa this week and play x2 games can’t do them many favours.

 

[Giovanni]

I agree although they are playing huddersfield afterall. I think pool can afford to leave all 3 out and still wun that fixture.