Simple, it’s called ‘not putting the ball in the net’. The number of missed chances when on top in games has been criminal.
True as far as it goes, but I actually see the key problem as having been at the other end. I know that the forum is divided on this point. We always, year in year out, need a lot of chances, and score a lot of goals. We're currently on 76 goals for. We could easily —
easily — make it to 90 and beyond in the last eight matches. Which is more than honourable. Do you realise that we've scored
ten goals more than the dippers, but still lost 7 matches? Against their 1. To my mind, you have the key right there. It's the stupid, stupid goals that we've been leaking, which have cost us very dear. Also being astonishingly profligate with penalty misses, that I'll grant you. We can talk about not replacing Vin (with who, by the way?), we can talk about the disaster of Aymeric's injury (which nobody could have foreseen, not even Pep), all that's been talked about at great length on this forum. We can talk about the whys and wherefores. But the fact is our defence has been very shaky — the two Wolves games showed how much, to cite just those, although Norwich also is a disgraceful result, in retrospect — and that's what cost us the title, even more than missing chances at the other end. I'm aware that the two matches against Tottenham should have been 6 points in the bag with something to spare. True, we missed a shed load of chances in both of them, and overran Tottenham for most of both matches. But we also leaked four goals.
By the end of the 2011-12 season, we had conceded 29 goals. The defence was rock solid. By the end of the 2013-14 season, we had conceded 37. By the end of the Centurions season we had conceded 27. Last season we conceded 23 (which is mad, although it has to be said the dippers conceded one fewer). This season, with eight matches still to go,
we've already conceded 31.
With the emergence of Eric Garcia who I believe is the real deal, (he's young, but he's got an old head on his shoulders) and the return of Aymeric Laporte, hopefully, we can look forward to a brighter future next season, in defence. We need another top class central defender, for sure, and we can just pray that John Stones will find the form that has deserted him (he was
bloody good during the Centurions season, people need reminding of that, but it's true that he never looks reliable these days). We also need Mendy to finally get clear of his injury problems, because Zin is not really more than a stop gap full back, if the truth be told. (Angeliño just doesn't seem to cut it, unfortunately, and anyway, haven't Leipzig got an option to buy?) A big if about Mendy, admittedly. I'm somewhat less worried about the other side.