There’s logic to it only being an issue when you lose though isn’t there? Chasing a game rather than seeing out a comfortable lead must involve different levels of necessary effort. It’s nuanced, but matching them for energy until the game is won seems a decent start, and lacking this season.
Yes - it might be 17 defeats, most of them heartbreaking and/or infuriating but it’s also been 25 or so wins. Though tbh I think something’s broken when this much goes wrong at a big club and they can still qualify for the CL, potentially with games to spare. Chelsea could even make it in from 6th
It’s also to do with population density and economies of scale. Bin collection, roads, lighting for example, are all cheaper per household if there are 25k people per square mile as in westminster than 40 per square mile on Shetland isles. Also westminster has areas of extreme deprivation.
Ultimately it appears that some time in the summer a plan to dominate the PL was drawn up with Hughes, Edwards, the other 5 SDs and presumably tbf Slot.
That plan appears to have been to spend 3 years’ budget on a smaller squad, play a low intensity 442 and not replace the set piece coach.
And they’re at Chelsea next. Although maybe we want them to win that. Do we? I don’t know.
Either way incredible that you can lose 10 games and be 3 points off 3rd with 6 to play.
A £100m 3-team 6 game mini-league between us, Villa and Chelsea to avoid finishing last, and we have a 4 point head start. Potentially with fresh legs and options at rb, in midfield and up front for the first time all season. Even this season it would be criminal to fail.
Won 2 lost 4 of our games against those opponents this season (plus another two mitigated defeats to Palace in other comps). Barring a miracle we’ll be playing one game a week from Sunday, and we’ll potentially have 4/5 senior options on the bench. Legs should be ok, all about heads.
105 from Chelsea is pretty desperate especially as they have the youngest, biggest squad in the league, were chasing for the whole second half and had no midweek game.
Other teams are suffering - look at the PL teams in the CL - but the ones with the biggest squads are suffering least. We’ve been unlucky with big injuries but arsenal and city padded their squads to mitigate that risk
Fixing it in pre-season won’t be easy in a World Cup summer. I think that’s mainly a challenge for recruitment, and replacing Mo is the obvious place to start. But assuming we’re in the CL, the FSG small squad model is starting to look way out of date.
Maybe it will re-engage a voting populous with science? Or contribute to further acceleration in energy storage technology? Would be good to know more about what the mission objectives are and how they benefit anyone.
Steve Nicol and Alan Kennedy in the mix but it was a problem position for a couple of decades until Robbo.
We need as many options as possible, but until the cost/time of build and waste disposal issues with nuclear are solved it just can’t compete. It’s also politically difficult as it’s unpopular locally, needs big investment now but doesn’t deliver until 3 parliamentary cycles later.
Yep it’s hard enough being 5 yards slower all over the pitch bar rwb. Ball has to stick. Feels like PSG have several more levels when they want them
But what’s amazing is Trump *can* use that forbidden language, and much worse, about other people - even other political candidates or Presidents - with impunity.
I guess another way of looking at it is that a big club that’s struggling in 5th place in their national league is pretty much who PSG might expect to be facing in the last 8
Ok some of those are Europa/UEFA but that list makes this look like a very tough draw for a QF.
Excellent! We should cruise to an approx. 4-1 aggregate win then. Just as long as we match their intensity, convert our chances and don’t do anything daft or unlucky at the back.
We’ll have 3 keepers, 8 defenders (inc. Kostas), 6 midfielders (inc Harv), 4 attackers (inc Rio). That’s 21. Anyone we sell from that will need replacing, and there are big quality/depth questions but I don’t see anything close to 8.
If we don’t get CL we don’t need as big a squad though. There’s some mitigation. But either way we won’t be signing 8 players this summer.
Steady. We’ve just triggered Ali’s extension and we’re not going to sell Szoboszlai or Van Dijk. If the plan is 442 then the extent of the summer plan depends on whether we’re in the CL or only playing one game a week.
That would be madness timing-wise.
I read we cooled our interest because it was clear he wanted City. The big wages, guaranteed trophies and the racist abuse at anfield probably didn’t help. But either way we can’t say the players we needed weren’t out there.
I think more like Semenyo decided against signing for us, but the issue was replacing Diaz with a player like Isak rather than a player like Semenyo.
The off the ball setup still looks way off to me. A high but half-arsed press from Mo, Wirtz, Hugo and oddly Grav, and then when they walk past that they encounter no resistance until the edge of the box.
I think it was also a time where, despite Richard Keys, there was still hope for the Premier League.
Ok fair, he can but you need the whole team to buy in. Kane? Bellingham?
Depressing as it was I think Southgateball might have been the most expedient tactic
I don’t think the England players can learn transition either.
It’s pretty hard to envisage any way we could beat Fulham at home and Everton away between/after those games, let alone PSG’s stable of elite sprinters themselves over 2 legs. But at least we have a nice easy trip to the Etihad first.
