Hopes for the rest of the season

[Alcatraz]

Yes, we've had a poor year injuries-wise but really and truly laporte is the key one. Which begs the question, why? Yes he is the best of the best but if we are happy to point fingers at the dippers for being totally reliant on VVD then we have to look at ourselves and wonder why we are so reliant on Eric. Pep has said that dinho was going to be playing CB whether Eric was injured or not so it's one key injury in defence that has completely snookered our season. Unusually poor planning from pep considering how successfully he rebuilt us after the 16/17 season. Losing Vinnie immeasurable. When you couple that with getting rid of Danilo (who did a job) and directly replacing him with a £60m right back who never plays you have to ask why wasn't that invested in another top quality CB?

We can't win the league every year, that's totally true but the nature of this season's capitulation is unacceptable imo and things have to be addressed. In the short term we have to get someone out to bring someone in due to the homegrown rule so January isn't going to be the shopping spree some people are hoping for. Silva, ota, possibly dinho, bravo leaving in June mean it will be a massive summer so we just have to get on with it and try to guarantee CL qualification as early as possible (which we will do, realistically)

And please, none of this "remember when we were shit" posts, we are a different club then with different revenue, players, owners and expectations. When you set expectations as a club, they have to be met or supporters have every right to question what's going on

 

[Veteran Blue]

It can still be one of the greatest seasons in the club’s history. A cup treble should be the target.

 

[Alcatraz]

You make an interesting observation here - we brought in Cancelo, an attacking FB, but I haven’t seen anything from him to justify that decision. So many clubs tells you something....and Danilo was much more versatile.
Ok Laporte and Sane....injuries happen but Stones has gone missing before, look back at his Everton days. Mendy has done well to get back from his injuries, but he is a wing back not a defender. For me, he had a really good game vs Leicester, last night the opposite.
Pep is stubborn, we all know that, and he will not move Fern back into midfield where he should be.
Bravo looked as though he didn’t want to be out there, no confidence and that feeds through the team.
Finally, Jesus was a miss last night as it forced Aguero into the line up....but Sterling & Mahrez did nothing to take the pressure off the defence constantly giving the ball away....and so it goes on.....

 

[MeatHunterrr]

You are dreaming mate. If I hear this one more fucking time.

We are maxed out at 17 foreign spots. We couldn't buy even if we wanted to and they were available.

Which English players would you suggest will be available?

Players we currently hold aren't suddenly going to uproot themselves in January.

Laporte will solve plenty of the issues, he's not going to need three months to get up to speed.

I see people talk about making £100m bids for a near 30-year-old Koulibaly?

They obviously don't watch him much, as he's a left-sided centre-half. You know, where Laporte already plays.

We had more than enough cover in central defence when Vinny left, as the only player we targeted was Maguire.

They didn't envisage Stones regressing at such an alarming rate or Laporte being injured for half a season.

That's just bad luck. You don't buy for the sake of it.

Van Dijk was out for ten months with an Achilles injury at Southampton, if he were to suffer an injury the Liverpool defence would look just as ropey as ours.

They could have binned Otamendi off as he wanted to go in the summer and replaced him with top CB. So i don't completely buy that. We don't necessarily need 4 CBs with Garcia coming through. The issue is the quality of the three senior CBs.

 

[Dr Jacoby]

2nd place, one trophy (minimum) and victories against Liverpool and United in the league.

 

[Dr Jacoby]

You are dreaming mate. If I hear this one more fucking time.

We are maxed out at 17 foreign spots. We couldn't buy even if we wanted to and they were available.

Which English players would you suggest will be available?

Players we currently hold aren't suddenly going to uproot themselves in January.

Laporte will solve plenty of the issues, he's not going to need three months to get up to speed.

I see people talk about making £100m bids for a near 30-year-old Koulibaly?

They obviously don't watch him much, as he's a left-sided centre-half. You know, where Laporte already plays.

We had more than enough cover in central defence when Vinny left, as the only player we targeted was Maguire.

They didn't envisage Stones regressing at such an alarming rate or Laporte being injured for half a season.

That's just bad luck. You don't buy for the sake of it.

Van Dijk was out for ten months with an Achilles injury at Southampton, if he were to suffer an injury the Liverpool defence would look just as ropey as ours.

We could have won every game this season and richards30 would still want us to sign 5 players in January.

 

[TINY]

Just the MCFC Trophy in March please, just want my annual trip down

 

[TINY]

Haha. I'm just sick of all the Monday-morning quarter-backing.

It's as if the last two years just happened by chance, with no planning whatsoever.

Mendy has had two bad knee injuries, Laporte has missed half a season, Stones has lost focus.

Silva and Fern have ripened quicker than anticipated, but absolutely earned the right to be given the benefit of the doubt.

We also can't legislate for some of the officiating or brain farts that happen to all players.

We have dominated for so long, people can't accept that even a five per cent drop in standards means a regression.

It makes our achievements of the last two seasons all the more incredible.

We are having to accept our medicine at present but we can count ourselves very lucky that unlike the majority of other clubs, we have an owner and a manager who can administer a cure and will NEVER settle for second best.

This season can still be incredible and some of our fanbase have been all too quick to write off Pep and this group of players.

Stop talking sense you moron!! This is FM, £200m for Mbappe, £180m for Messi and £100m for Koulibaly please

 

[willipp]

Beat united in the SF of the league cup and enjoy another day and trophy at wembley.
Potentially win the FA Cup
Beat the scousers when they come to our place
Beat the darlings of UEFA and have a good run in the CL
Finsh 2nd in the PL

We do that and its still an unbelievable season.

 

[waspish]

and that’s a question that should be asked ???
Our players look slow & have zero energy plus injuries. Why is that ? In my view it has to be down to training routines.

The players out always get injured stones, Mendy, Aguero. The big loss was laporte but we all knew we had no vinny replacement
So that’s down to club stupidity.

I agree injuries have been a factor but also a lack of depth in key positions & playing players out of position have not helped. Just screams lack of planning to me sadly

So the last two years was we knackered?