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

[Mr Pink]

Wow...didn't expect that today.

 

[DiVaio]

Oh it's the good old "they are just lucky and there's a conspiracy with penalties" argument I see. Maybe trying to attack on the ground and dribbling just maybe leads to more penalties than route one style? Or Bruno Fernandes and Vardy are evil magicians. And what easy scheadule did they have?

I said easier. Next 5 matches they are playing Southampton, United, Chelsea, Newcastle and Palace. We are playing against Wolves, Villa, Leeds, Fulham and Sheffield.
They already had 8 penalties this season(most of the league) and only one against. With having negative non-penalty expected goals difference, and most of them happening in crucial phase of the game, yes, they are heavily dependent on them.

And actually there isn't any correlation between shots/creating shot actions from dribbling/touches in penalty area and amount of given penalties.

 

[spursfan1991]

We drew too many games and they won many games. Draws are useless and losses are overrated IMO. We can lose a few more but also get some more wins and we may still be on track.

That's pretty much what happened in Poch's final full season with us.

 

[PrettyColors]

We drew too many games and they won many games. Draws are useless and losses are overrated IMO. We can lose a few more but also get some more wins and we may still be on track.

2 “hard fought” draws and a win is worth less than a shit performance and two wins.

 

[GutBucket]

I said easier. Next 5 matches they are playing Southampton, United, Chelsea, Newcastle and Palace. We are playing against Wolves, Villa, Leeds, Fulham and Sheffield.
They already had 8 penalties this season(most of the league) and only one against. With having negative non-penalty expected goals difference, and most of them happening in crucial phase of the game, yes, they are heavily dependent on them.

And actually there isn't any correlation between shots/creating shot actions from dribbling/touches in penalty area and amount of given penalties.

Well Pogba dribbling in our penalty area definitely had some correlation with us giving a penalty to them. What's your source on that? I mean I could be wrong, but I'm definitely scared that likes of Zaha, Mane, Salah, Traore, Jota etc. will get a penalty when we play them.

 

[TH1239]

We can still push for honors this season, but we desperately need contribution from others besides Kane and Son. The issue right now in the league is that no player besides Kane or Son has more than 1 goal this season. Just looking back to recent season output in league matches:

2015-2016: 9 players with 3 goals or more (only two players with more than 8 goals, but the goals were really widely distributed that season when we pushed for the title; much more so that this season, thus far).
2016-2017: 4 players with 8 goals or more
2017-2018: 4 players with 9 goals or more
2018-2019: 4 players with 8 goals or more
2019-2020: 3 players with 8 goals or more
2020-2021: 2 players who have scored more than 1 goal (though their output has been historically great in a short time span).

You'd expect Kane and Son to score at least 40 goals between them this season, but to push for a place at the top of the table, we're going to need 2-3 others to chip in another 5+ goals. The talent is there. Bale, Lo Celso, Dele, Lamela, Ndombele, Bergwijn, Moura, Vinicius are all very capable. Getting Lamela back could be a game-changer, as he can score, create, and press in ways the others can't. I'd think about playing him as a #10, dropping Sissoko, and going for something like the below (with Sissoko coming in against the top teams and Bale coming out).

Lloris

Aurier Alderweireld Dier Reguilon

PEH Ndombele

Lamela

Bale Kane Son
​

Top four is still very doable and getting back to CL would be a great achievement. There are a lot of player sales that can generate money for 2-3 really quality signings next summer to allow a true title push next season with a full stadium.

 

[Teddy Klinsmann]

On the back of 2 poor results, the best teams come out fighting and find a way to win. We didn’t look like doing any of that today. So poor.

 

[Doctor Dinkey]

Trouble is with Jose’s style of football, as others have pointed out, is that when the results dry up, it becomes quickly unjustifiable, and things can fall apart. We need a couple of results pronto to lift the team and stop things going sour. I would settle right now for top 4 and the League Cup tbh.

 

[Monkey boy]

Wow...didn't expect that today.

really? I fully expected it and called it a week ago. In my opinion things will get worse before it gets better too as I think wolves will turn us over.

 

[cjbyid]

Top 4 and a trophy is our target and always has been.

Any talk of winning the league, absolutely no chance. We're miles away from that.

 

[DiVaio]

Well Pogba dribbling in our penalty area definitely had some correlation with us giving a penalty to them. What's your source on that? I mean I could be wrong, but I'm definitely scared that likes of Zaha, Mane, Salah, Traore, Jota etc. will get a penalty when we play them.

And right now they get 1 penalty per 36 touches in penalty area(not including stats from today, would be even lower).

They have much better ratio for attempted dribbles/penalty kicks than everyone else too.

 

[Riandor]

We‘ve gone from 1st to 5th.
This league is so tight that our good form in the big games has been completely undone in the space of a week.

Frigging draws costing us.

 

[kaz Hirai]

Race for 6th with Everton

 

[TheTanguy]

Not really going anywhere in the league. It's a relatively weak league this season so we might have just enough to finish in the top 4/5. Need at least 3 spot on signings if we want to have any chance of challenging next season.

 

[Mr Pink]

really? I fully expected it and called it a week ago. In my opinion things will get worse before it gets better too as I think wolves will turn us over.

Right when we beat Wolves i want you to admit you were a fucking drama queen.

 

[Monkey boy]

Right when we beat Wolves i want you to admit you were a fucking drama queen.

thats a bit of an angry response to a rather innocuous post? All I was saying is that we’ve seen enough times over the years that bouncing back from disappointment isn’t our strong point. Look at the reaction last year after we got hammered by Bayern. Leicester and wolves are bloody tough games so to me it’s no surprise that we lost today.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

The problem is, out of the teams that currently make up the top 8, the other 7 teams all play better football than us. And so do Wolves, Villa and even Leeds. Yet we have better players than most of those teams barring Liverpool, City and Chelsea. So while our results were good for the most part up until a week ago our football really wasn't. We don't know how to play possession football. I don't see us climbing back up the league until we start trying to actually play football for 90 mins.

 

[stormfly]

I can’t believe how average we are at home. To achieve anything you need to make your home ground a fortress like we did in our last season at the old WHL.

 

[13VanDerBale13]

We don't have enough goal scorers to challenge, out put from our RW & midfield needs to be more or we will continue to struggle when Kane & Son are quiet

 

[Monkey boy]

We don't have enough goal scorers to challenge, out put from our RW & midfield needs to be more or we will continue to struggle when Kane & Son are quiet

both in danger of being run in to the ground too