7 games left. Need at most 4 wins to confirm the league. Looked jaded at the moment. Trent and Alisson both still missing makes a big difference. Would very much like to hit 90+ points so 6 wins or 5 wins and 2 draws from remaining 7 games please. Hopefully Salah gets back on track and gets 3 goals and 3 assists to break a new record of 50 g/a in PL season.
Fulham result was not what we wanted and the performances aren't exactly inspiring over the last 5 games. But one game a week to go, no international breaks, nearly fully fit squad. And even after losing yesterday, we need less points to win the league (11) that we did on Friday (13). On the Reds.
It does sting a little seeing Arsenal down to play Real tonight and us out of it but being honest with ourselves I think we were always going out of this tournament at some stage when you see the levels of fatigue that we're seeing in the squad now but it's always disappointing to not see us playing the latter stages.
I just really hope lessons are learned because it looks like we have gone through at least three seasons of this and the penny hasn't dropped yet. No amount of physical conditioning can get a tight core of players through 4 competitions of success, over 9 months, with two games a week for large chunks of that.
Not to be condascending to anybody, but going by the usual logic that I apply in situations like this, ie. the chances of me recognising an issue that Jurgen Klopp or Arne Slot,plus their incredibly knowledgable staff haven't recognised, I honestly don't think this is a case of anybody learning any lessons. At any given time,we're only in possession of a fraction of the information available to them,and whats far more likely is that decisions taken both in terms of transfers and squad rotation, were considered as the best course of action for managers who have to weigh up results and future transfer moves. And even looking at it from the most basic viewpoint,we're 11 points clear in the league with 7 to play,only went out of the CL on penos, and got to a cup final. There has to be trade offs, and imo, Slot has gotten his bang on.
Klopp rotated the squad nearly every week last season. Basically a different team for the Europa league games and we still hit a wall around this time. just throwing this out there but when Salah goes quiet generally so does the team. I work with an Egyptian girl and she was talking about the affects of Ramadan. I maybe have a look later when I get a chance but I wonder what the correlation between Ramadan and Salah’s form suffering
Also worth noting we've won 4 of our last 5 league games, and we're the form team in the league over the last 10,with 23 from 30 points.
4 wins on the bounce before Fulham, which equalled the best run we have had all season. Arsenal have only won 3 in a row, Fulham and Brentford, who have had good seasons have only won 2 in a row. Man Utd's longest winning streak is 1 (One). That all backs up what I've been saying, the league is as hard as it's ever been, with the exception of the bottom 3 there are no easy games. Dropping points isn't necessarily a sign of fatigue, it's perfectly normal. The only game I think we looked tired was the cup final. That was straight after penos against PSG and up against a fresh side built to run, they were the worst possible opposition in my opinion.
With the lads contracts getting sorted how does our summer business shape up now? I think we need a CB, LB, back up RB (at a stretch 2 players could cover this positions), another DM, creative CM and a striker. Outgoings Trent, Kelleher, Kostas, Nunez and one other surprise maybe Harvey or Diaz. No idea about Chiesa Squad GK Alisson, New fella Defenders Bradley, Gomez, Konate, Quansah, VVD, Robbo, new player, new player, new player Midfield Endo, Grav, Mac, Szob, Jones, Elliott, new player, new player Attackers Salah, Jota, Diaz, Gakpo, new player
Amazingly there does not seem to be a thread created "Where will we finish 24/25 season". That shows how low expectations were and the pressure was completely off. What an achievement by the players and by Slot. We're gonna win the league!!!
This I presume is the only logical date I presume? The fact it's a bank holiday as well would mean it would be earlier start time than previous parades as most would be off school and work?
I'm quite confident now after Arsenal dropping points last night. I don't think they have the bottle to go the rest of the season unbeaten
Well if you want to be really technical about it, it is still possible for us to lose all our remaining five games, and for Arsenal to win all their remaining 4 games, and for us to still win the league on goal difference! (we have +10 GD on them, if all remaining games were won or lost by 1 goal, we'd still have +1 on them )
Let's hope this isn't how we win the league but I'm comforted to know there's a technical route to victory without another point with arsenal winning all of theirs.