The Top Five Race 2024-25 (poll added)

Will we make the top 5?

  • Total voters
    1,364
  • Poll closed .
Bluearmy said:
Not for a while yet… Depends on how various countries teams do in Europe. However its looking favourable, would take an absolute disaster from all English teams to not happen I believe. A win over Madrid would help enormously!! :)
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It’s pretty much all but confirmed. It would take something special for it not to go to the English association.
 
Marvin. said:
We are unlikely to add a new Gundog / Kova when we have Rodri and Gonzalez. O'Reilly, Bobb, Macatee and Echeverri are good prospects too
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I think we buy another midfielder for sure. Still think McAtee is nailed on leave, Echeverri looks very promising from what I’ve seen of this tournament but needs to develop physically.

I’d love to keep O’Reilly but honestly think he’ll push for a move especially if clubs from Germany come in for him.
 
Stoned Rose said:
We will mate.

O’Reilly will go on loan. McAtee will either go on loan or be sold, imo.
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I hope not. Next season with Rodri/Gonzales/Kova/Foden/Echiverri/Mcatee is potentially a great mix of age/experience. Hoping the penny has dropped with Pep and he gives more minutes to our youngsters when games are won (as he did yesterday but hasn't always done in the past with Palmer for example).
 
Gareth Barry Conlon said:
Obviously 2nd is better than anything lower but I'd take 5th now if it means we get CL next year and I guess more importantly we start to look like a decent side with our newer younger players all part of it.

KDB and Gundo etc might be around next season but it's clear now we are in a big transition and we might need to focus on the future at the expense of some points in the run in.

Yeah. Hopefully all the top 8 sides keep beating each other and it should open up for us.
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If we gather 4 or 5 points from the next three games, and taking into account something of a resurgence yesterday I would think 3rd is absolutely nailed on. So barring any shocks next month from the Tribunal we won't have to sweat on whether 5th will get us into the CL.
 
Good results for us in Europe last night. Both Milan and Atalanta were eliminated. Meaning Italy will struggle to reach the English coefficients. Spain might catch us, but it would take a crazy turnaround for Italy/Portugal etc to also catch us.
 
Stoned Rose said:
We will mate.

O’Reilly will go on loan. McAtee will either go on loan or be sold, imo.
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What we do in the Summer should depend on how we rate Rodri's recovery, and the development of players like Echeverri, Savinho, Gonzalez, Marmoush. If they largely develop, then we have rebuilt City and can bring through O'Reilly and Macatee.
 
Might be a tad too confident but that Newcastle performance has given me lots of confidence for T4. It should be fairly straightforward, on paper our games post Forest are quite nice

Lots of teams in and around us play each other too

I want to go through tonight, of course I do - but I think going out the CL will only help our chances too.
 
Shazza458 said:
Might be a tad too confident but that Newcastle performance has given me lots of confidence for T4. It should be fairly straightforward, on paper our games post Forest are quite nice

Lots of teams in and around us play each other too

I want to go through tonight, of course I do - but I think going out the CL will only help our chances too.
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I agree with you entirely.

I would also add that I think the other teams around us are too inconsistent to finish above us. We're inconsistent, but the January signings should be enough to get us over the line.

I'm not particularly bothered about going through tonight. If we go out I think we have a very realistic chance of winning the Cup + qualifying for the Champions League next season. Looking over our entire history, that would still constitute as a successful season (although it wouldn't feel like it given our recent success).
 
HELP WANTED: If you have legs, can play technical football for 90 min and press.. apply within to MCFC!!

Whoever thought we had a top midfield..
is seeing who we have tonight in the Real Game and it's been that way vs good midfields like PSG.

WE NEED FOUR MIDFIELDERS MINIMUM

Gundo, Bernardo, KDB, Kova need replacing with younger guys who're fast enough to keep up with top teams!

Sad but it is what it is. I just hope the front office realize it.. and aren't in any illusion of how bad our squad really is.
 
Manchester33 said:
Good results for us in Europe last night. Both Milan and Atalanta were eliminated. Meaning Italy will struggle to reach the English coefficients. Spain might catch us, but it would take a crazy turnaround for Italy/Portugal etc to also catch us.
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Juventus gone last night as well
 
Just had a look back over the season and we are definitely in a much better place than we were over Christmas. If you look at this season in blocks of 13 (or 14 games), the picture right now is prettier than it was. We've played 40 games in all competitions, so have split them into three groups.

(Including the Community Shield).

First 13: P13 W9 D4 L0
Next 13: P13 W3 D2 L8
Next 14: P13 W8 D2 L4

We have 13 games left in the league. If we go the rest of the PL season with a record of 8 wins, 2 draws, and 3 defeats, that's 70 points and definitely enough for at least 5th, and probably 4th. Teams who've finished 4th in the last 20 years have achieved (going backwards):

68 pts (Villa), 71 pts (Newcastle), 71 pts (Spurs), 67 pts (Chelsea), 66 pts (Chelsea), 71 pts (Spurs), 75 pts (Liverpool), 76 pts (Liverpool), 66 pts (Man City), 70 pts (Man United), 79 pts (Arsenal), 73 pts (Arsenal), 68 pts (Arsenal), 70 pts (Spurs), 72 pts (Arsenal), 76 pts (Liverpool), 68 pts (Arsenal), 67 pts (Arsenal), 61 pts (Everton), 60 pts (Liverpool).

Since 2004, 70 points has been enough for 4th place on 11 out of 20 occasions. It's been enough for 5th place on 17 out of 20 occasions. Given that Atalanta and Juventus both crashed out of Europe with us this week, it's looking very likely that 5th place will be enough for us to secure Champions League football again next season.

We have 13 league games left. Let's see where those eight wins could come from. I've bolded the games we should expect to win and the games in italics are the ones in which a win isn't beyond us if we play well. Only five games bolded, but seven games are in italics. Forest away is the only one I've got absolutely nailed on for a defeat.

Liverpool (H), Spurs (A), Forest (A), Brighton (H), Leicester (H), United (A), Palace (H), Everton (A), Villa (H), Wolves (H), Southampton (A), Bournemouth (H), Fulham (A).

D, D, L, W, W, D, W, D, W, W, W, D, D. That's P13 W6 D4 L3. That would leave us on 68 points. Probably enough for 5th at least, and hopefully enough for 4th. If we can just improve performances a little bit some of those D games could become a couple of Ws and nudge us up to 70 points or thereabouts.
 
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Done a predictor thing.

Said our games would be:

2-2 vs Liverpool
1-1 vs Spurs
0-2 vs Forest
2-1 vs Brighton
3-0 vs Leicester
2-2 vs United
3-1 vs Palace
2-2 vs Everton
2-1 vs Villa
3-1 vs Wolves
3-1 vs Southampton
2-2 vs Bournemouth
2-2 vs Fulham

Finishing the season with W6 D6 L1. 24 points.

1740061838150.png
 
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youngbob said:
Just had a look back over the season and we are definitely in a much better place than we were over Christmas. If you look at this season in blocks of 13 (or 14 games), the picture right now is prettier than it was. We've played 40 games in all competitions, so have split them into three groups.

(Including the Community Shield).

First 13: P13 W9 D4 L0
Next 13: P13 W3 D2 L8
Next 14: P13 W8 D2 L4

We have 13 games left in the league. If we go the rest of the PL season with a record of 8 wins, 2 draws, and 3 defeats, that's 70 points and definitely enough for at least 5th, and probably 4th. Teams who've finished 4th in the last 20 years have achieved (going backwards):

68 pts (Villa), 71 pts (Newcastle), 71 pts (Spurs), 67 pts (Chelsea), 66 pts (Chelsea), 71 pts (Spurs), 75 pts (Liverpool), 76 pts (Liverpool), 66 pts (Man City), 70 pts (Man United), 79 pts (Arsenal), 73 pts (Arsenal), 68 pts (Arsenal), 70 pts (Spurs), 72 pts (Arsenal), 76 pts (Liverpool), 68 pts (Arsenal), 67 pts (Arsenal), 61 pts (Everton), 60 pts (Liverpool).

Since 2004, 70 points has been enough for 4th place on 11 out of 20 occasions. It's been enough for 5th place on 17 out of 20 occasions. Given that Atalanta and Juventus both crashed out of Europe with us this week, it's looking very likely that 5th place will be enough for us to secure Champions League football again next season.

We have 13 league games left. Let's see where those eight wins could come from. I've bolded the games we should expect to win and the games in italics are the ones in which a win isn't beyond us if we play well. Only five games bolded, but seven games are in italics. Forest away is the only one I've got absolutely nailed on for a defeat.

Liverpool (H), Spurs (A), Forest (A), Brighton (H), Leicester (H), United (A), Palace (H), Everton (A), Villa (H), Wolves (H), Southampton (A), Bournemouth (H), Fulham (A).

D, L, L, W, W, D, W, D, W, W, W, D, D. That's P13 W6 D4 L3. That would leave us on 67 points. Probably enough for 5th at least, and hopefully enough for 4th. If we can just improve performances a little bit some of those D games could become a couple of Ws and nudge us up to 70 points or thereabouts.
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Result wise in the league we fell off a cliff from the beginning of November to Boxing Day - W1D2L6 for 5 points from 9 games - matching Leicester and Southampton in relegation form. How we beat Forest is a mystery :)

Since 29 December we are at W5D1L1 for 16 from 7 games and 3rd behind Arsenal and Liverpool for that timescale ie comfortable Top 4 form and including 2 great wins over Top 4 or 5 rivals against Newcastle and Chelsea.

I've already written off the next 2 Liverpool and Spurs (obviously hope I'm very wrong) but have total optimism and confidence we then start to fly to comfortably secure top 4.

Dropping upto 6 midweek champions league games going forward is huge for us in terms of fitness, recovery and match preparation.

But MOST important in my mind is that Pep is about to start the largest block of coaching time in his career. 12 league games only + FA Cup in the 14 weeks left until the end of the season. Giving him so much opportunity to integrate the new and young players. perfect.

AND then, with an eye on next season, he has another 3 to 4 week training camp in the States with the Club World Cup.

The future is very bright IMO.
 
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