The Race for the Title, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or even 6th Thread.

[Dov67]

Matches vs. Newcastle, West Ham, Palace and Liverpool mean that we don't have what it takes to really be considered any more than an extreme outlier for the title. Which is fine, it means that we are where we thought we wold be, firmly being back within top 4.

Do Liverpool’s matches against Villa and Fulham for example mean they don’t have what it takes this season??

Still angry about the 4 points pissed away against newcastle and West Ham, to say nothing of tonight, but had we won it wouldn’t have meant we are going to win the league, and that we lost doesn’t mean we cannot win the league.

Everyone needs to calm down and the players need to channel that anger and disappointment against Leicester.

 

[13VanDerBale13]

Every game is a potential banana skin. I just feel with our set up that we’re better equipped to exploit Leicester and Wolves whereas I always feel we’ll struggle against the likes of Burnley, Palace and West Brom due to their defensive approach.

Keep the faith

You can put Wolves alongside the others because I’m sure they’ll be just as defensive, as for the Leicester game I just hope we can continue to be clinical on the counter (if we play that way) because they have the players to punish us if we don’t.

 

[yankspurs]

I am heartbroken. I was secretly convinced we were actually going to win the league. It was all set up for us. This is devastating. Im gutted.

 

[Oscar22]

This is the bit I find bizarre about our mentality as a fan base.

People on here will watch us play Liverpool at Anfield and lose and say “these are the sort of games we should be winning if we want to compete for titles.” However if we play a team such as a West Brom, a Sheffield Utd, a Burnley or a Palace and don’t get a win.. the same fans will come out and say “these are the games we have to win if we want to win titles”. So essentially if we want to win a title... we should just beat everyone. Too simplistic, when was the last time it happened?!

Yes there are seasons like the last one when Liverpool and Man City steamrolled most teams, but as a fan base, we act like we’re the only team that drops points and has disappointing results. It also seems that other teams have similar results but don’t get the same reaction. We drew 1-1 against Palace, and of course immediately we had “these are the games...” out in force, yet an hour or two later, Liverpool only draw with Fulham. No one came out and said Liverpool won’t win the title because of the result, but us drawing with Palace (a tougher game than Fulham in my eyes) suddenly WILL cause you to not stand a chance in a title race.

Titles are won through consistency. It’s really not that difficult to understand, whoever gets the most points after 38 games wins. So basically whoever drops the least amount of points will be winning, however for some of us it seems that we have to win the games against the top 6 as they are direct competitors, but also the bottom 6, because they’re the ‘poor teams’ that the title Challengers should be beating, and then we might as well throw the mid table sides in there as well.

I just wish some people could have a bit of perspective. We’ve played Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, and Man City. From those games we’ve taken 10 points. Who wouldn’t have taken those results if offered at the start of the season?! We’ve conceded three goals in those games. So no, we aren’t likely to beat all of those sides But consistently taking good amounts of points from them are how things are won.

You also have to compare some of the other results we’ve had with those teams as well. Ok so we drew late on to Newcastle (wrongly), and drew with Palace and West Ham. But Liverpool have drawn with Fulham, got thumped by Villa and have had a few other results they would have wanted more from. Man City drew with West Brom, we beat them.

It just isn’t as simple as looking at games we play and saying “we should have won that if we wanted to win something” there will be games that we lose, there will be games that don’t go our way, but we’ve been grinding out points, we’ve only lost twice. We’ve beaten Southampton and Burnley, another tricky couple of games.

Just for once try having a bit of faith some of you. If someone had offered us second in the table at this point, having only lost twice with one of those being Liverpool away and having already played the teams mentioned above - can any of you actually honestly say you wouldn’t have taken it?

Just, believe a bit!

 

[cjbyid]

If palace turn up on Saturday the likes of Zaha & Eze will cause problems to that Liverpool defence. Hopefully they get something.

Result needed on Sunday for us to get back on track.

 

[RikkiRocket]

I am heartbroken. I was secretly convinced we were actually going to win the league. It was all set up for us. This is devastating. Im gutted.

You said Trump was gonna win re-election as well ?

 

[SUIYHA]

Sad to say it - but I think the reality we need to accept is that Liverpool are just better than us at the moment.

The only way we can win the title is if they implode by running their key players into the ground through overplaying them into injury - or if we sign someone top class in January which I don't expect to happen.

Has still been fun being top of the league for a few weeks though.

 

[Cochise]

Liverpool are for sure the best team in the country. I'd put a few more above us too tbh, but if we stay solid and get back to scoring goals then we will keep ourselves in the top pack.

I have a bigger issue with the draw with Palace than today's result. Today was the hardest game of the season, Palace was a match where we showed that we didn't know how to add to a lead without counter attacking. As scathing as that sounds, we gave up all the attacking impetus as soon as we went ahead and only rediscovered it after they equalised.

That needs to be sorted out.

 

[beats1]

Sad to say it - but I think the reality we need to accept is that Liverpool are just better than us at the moment.

The only way we can win the title is if they implode by running their key players into the ground through overplaying them into injury - or if we sign someone top class in January which I don't expect to happen.

Has still been fun being top of the league for a few weeks though.

They have lost their key players, well their defensive ones

 

[TH1239]

There is no way you are going to win the title with two players scoring over 80% of your goals. The complete lack of any contribution from the right forward position is going to continue to cost this team points and make getting top 4 a challenge. Either Lamela gets back fit ASAP and gets a long run in the team, or Bale gets a series of starts in the league to find form. Continuing with Bergwijn and Lucas, while asking Kane and Son to go score another 40+ goals between them isn't sustainable. These two are players who go through dry patches and if there is no one there to pick up the slack, we'll start dropping points in much easier matches than this on paper.

 

[beats1]

The truth is everyone wants to blame Bergwijn

But other than Son, Kane and Lo Celso, we seem to have 2 types of players at the moment:
The ones who cant pass
or
The ones who are never expecting the pass

We cant do simple passes at the moment and struggle with the high press

Meanwhile Toby and Dier are doing their best Gerrard Hollywood pass impression

 

[Mr Pink]

Leicester game huge now. If we take three points, that's 11 from 18 in that really tough run, which is pretty good.

Fail to win and it's only 8/9 points.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

but in your original post @BringBack_leGin you stated that we were on top at the start of all 3 games. scoring 2 goals on the counter doesn't equal on top

I don’t see playing in the counter and being on the front foot as being mutually exclusive.

 

[Serpico]

Maybe were all missing the point here. Leading the PL brings brings its pressure in every game you play and possibly thats showing in our performances (maybe we are trying too hard). Chasing Liverpool may suit us and unlike the run against LC we are better equipped to take Liverpool on as the season progresses. Theres a long way to go and lots of points to play for. We are in a good place and just need that something to move us to the next level. What that something is maybe removing the pressure of being PL leaders.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

This may have already been said but due to everyone else around us failing to win their games, yesterday’s defeat was a bit of a free pass.

If we can keep pace with Liverpool and make sure that 3 point gap doesn’t widen, we have a chance on 28th January to put things right. We have some very winnable games until then and Liverpool are not the same team away from home as the team we played yesterday.

The title is definitely not gone but we need to string some results together again and rebuild our momentum.

 

[Monkey boy]

I can’t see us taking maximum points from our next 3 games. Our players look knackered which is probably to be expected given the run of games we’ve had to play.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

I can’t see us taking maximum points from our next 3 games. Our players look knackered which is probably to be expected given the run of games we’ve had to play.

I’m sure our opponents are probably saying the same thing with regards to their players. Leicester is particular who were awful last night. We have the luxury of a big squad

 

[Monkey boy]

I’m sure our opponents are probably saying the same thing with regards to their players. Leicester is particular who were awful last night. We have the luxury of a big squad

yes but I would argue that the run of fixtures against big teams has taken far more of a toll on our lads. Agreed that we have a big squad but it doesn’t seem that Jose wants to use it. We are in serious danger of another injury to Kane or Son due to the volume of minutes they have amassed but I don’t see any game at the moment that we can rest them in.

 

[Bablu37]

9 of Liverpool's starting 11 last night started in the Champions League final just over a year ago. That team beat us, in a neutral ground. We lost at Anfield, with fans, at a ground that they've gone 64 games unbeaten in the PL and only 1 team has avoided defeat since the start of last season (which was post lockdown once the title was all but done). Its disappointing we lost when we had the opportunity to take the lead, but the title was never being won or lost there last night. Perspective

 

[jonnyrotten]

If palace turn up on Saturday the likes of Zaha & Eze will cause problems to that Liverpool defence. Hopefully they get something.

Result needed on Sunday for us to get back on track.

I doubt crystal palace will put in three great performances back to back, they haven't been that consistent in years. Reverting to no fans will probably have a negative effect on them too.