The battle for 3rd place

I'm not sure why so many on here are confident we will achieve top 4 (this was my guess at the start of the season by the way).

Our home form in the league has been abysmal (7 draws, 8 wins and 1 loss), the kind of results Mark Hughes was sacked for eventually and scoring only 27 goals at home is atrocious for the attacking forwards and midfielders we have.

I'm not confident we will win all of our remaining 3 home games, not with the way the whole team seems to have lost it's drive and creativity, we seem to just plod along in lots of games with sideways passing and slow tempo build ups and find it impossible to break down teams who only come to defend at home.

For me even top 4 is a serious doubt, if we drop out of the top 4, then as far as I'm concerned Pep is definitely not as good as I thought he was, a team of this quality, even with all it's current faults, should not be struggling to achieve a top 4 place this season. Therefore the blame has to be with the manager himself.
 
Eaglechief said:
I'm not sure why so many on here are confident we will achieve top 4 (this was my guess at the start of the season by the way).

Our home form in the league has been abysmal (7 draws, 8 wins and 1 loss), the kind of results Mark Hughes was sacked for eventually and scoring only 27 goals at home is atrocious for the attacking forwards and midfielders we have.

I'm not confident we will win all of our remaining 3 home games, not with the way the whole team seems to have lost it's drive and creativity, we seem to just plod along in lots of games with sideways passing and slow tempo build ups and find it impossible to break down teams who only come to defend at home.

For me even top 4 is a serious doubt, if we drop out of the top 4, then as far as I'm concerned Pep is definitely not as good as I thought he was, a team of this quality, even with all it's current faults, should not be struggling to achieve a top 4 place this season. Therefore the blame has to be with the manager himself.
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Because we are 4th, and there are only 4 games to go and they are much easier than Utd's games who also have the Europa League. We also have Kompany back now, and Jesus. That should make us stronger. I know we struggled today, but it was the 3rd game in 8 days. We now have time to recover and regroup. Whilst we might not win all our remaining games, I think we will pick up more points than Utd, and Arsenal are 6 points behind even if they have a game in hand.
 
Eaglechief said:
I'm not sure why so many on here are confident we will achieve top 4 (this was my guess at the start of the season by the way).
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Just a reminder that we're currently 4th, and haven't really dropped out of the top 4 all season.
 
chaddblue said:
They were shit yesterday against Burnley. Hopefully they're already on the beach
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They've also beaten bin dippers away, Chelsea away and Arsenal. We all know how teams love to turn up all of a sudden when they play us. Remember boro? The team that struggles to score goals? We let them score 2 goals...Palace are more dangerous going forward and zaha and benteke have picked up a bit of form...I wouldn't be surprised if we dropped points, we're wank!
 
IWasHere said:
They've also beaten bin dippers away, Chelsea away and Arsenal. We all know how teams love to turn up all of a sudden when they play us. Remember boro? The team that struggles to score goals? We let them score 2 goals...Palace are more dangerous going forward and zaha and benteke have picked up a bit of form...I wouldn't be surprised if we dropped points, we're wank!
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Appreciate all that mate but all those results happened when they were desperate for points. Palace now have got nothing to play for... makes a big difference.
 
IWasHere said:
It's amazing how we're not confident in beating a team that's 16th.....at home!
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they have beaten a few of the top 6 in the last few games including chelsea........they will be tough

leicester always do a number on us....they are et up perfectly to soak up the 85% possession that we will have and use the other 15% to punish us...esp if we play a back three!
 
simon23 said:
they have beaten a few of the top 6 in the last few games including chelsea........they will be tough

leicester always do a number on us....they are et up perfectly to soak up the 85% possession that we will have and use the other 15% to punish us...esp if we play a back three!
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Yup. One long ball to vardy and we're in trouble.
 
Worrying times when we require a dive from Sane to rescue a point at Boro, pep said in post match that the next 4 games will determine if we deserve a champions league spot or not, if we can't win the next 3 at home then we deserve all the shit and criticism that a Europa league spot is gonna bring, tired of the excuses and disinterested play, I've felt for a long while that we have too many out of contract players that don't give a shit where we are next year in key positions (fb) and ultimately if we miss out that will be the reason
 
IWasHere said:
That could mean they'll play with more freedom.
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How have Palace got nothing to play for? Swansea are 3rd bottom and can close to within 3 points of them with 2 games left if they win next weekend and we win. They are not safe.
 
SWP's back said:
Replacing Hart wasn't the mistake as his season in Italy is showing, replacing him with Bravo as opposed to another keeper is proving to be a mistake in hindsight.
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Hindsight is imperfect, because it is impossible to replicate what has happened to Hart in Italy with what he would have faced in England. He is certainly not the sweeper that Bravo is, but he is a significantly better keeper given our experience of both.
 
Eaglechief said:
I'm not sure why so many on here are confident we will achieve top 4 (this was my guess at the start of the season by the way).

Our home form in the league has been abysmal (7 draws, 8 wins and 1 loss), the kind of results Mark Hughes was sacked for eventually and scoring only 27 goals at home is atrocious for the attacking forwards and midfielders we have.
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You're a cheery little fellow.

Doesn't it also reduce the TV money pot as it goes five ways rather than four?
 
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ChicagoBlue said:
Hindsight is imperfect, because it is impossible to replicate what has happened to Hart in Italy with what he would have faced in England. He is certainly not the sweeper that Bravo is, but he is a significantly better keeper given our experience of both.
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Both have had fairly poor seasons for whatever reason. Maybe they haven't settled in a new league/country, maybe they are both in decline or they just don't suit the league they are playing in. Both clearly have been very good goalkeepers for many years now but have struggled recently. I suspect neither is what we really need as first choice keeper and hopefully we'll be after a new one in the Summer as Caballero will be out of contract and I guess we'll be selling at least one of Hart/Bravo.
 
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