OK, let's be realistic

[Blue Maverick]

Top players will want to play in the CL not the Thursday Night Trophy.

So they miss one season that’s very short sighted of them, if you have a great manager they must be able to see that, I’m sick to death of this obsession with it, Christ ot would just be like City to go and win the club World Cup and be the best team for the next 4 years, that’s how stupid these competitions are. The premier league is the measure of a team not some shite knockout competition, let’s say Real Madrid don’t make the next round or fail to qualify next season would players seriously not go there? In fact the Madrid qualify every year cause their league is shit it’s guaranteed, if only players could see this.

 

[KS55]

You can finish in the top four and still sign duds, you can finish outside the top four and still sign players that improve the team.

I think our recent record eg 4 in a row will ensure that top players will still come, but not if it takes us too long to get back near the top.

 

[Jazzyblue]

I’m still happy. This is just a natural, very overdue, dip.

By rights we didn’t have the squad to win the league in 2022-23. I thought we were lacking in depth in midfield, but almost every single player stayed fit and were all bang in form from February onwards. Until De Bruyne went off in the CL final, Rodri, Gundo and De Bruyne didn’t miss a beat for months and performed at a level I’ve not seen from many other midfields ever before in the sport. If Rodri and De Bruyne had been out like they have in the last 18 months between them, we probably wouldn’t have won a thing that season, such was the lack of midfield depth. Yet they stayed fit and we did something special and won the PL, FA Cup and CL.

By rights we didn’t have the squad to break the record fourth league title in a row last season. We had a small squad still, smaller than 2022-23, yet we won the Super Cup, Club World Cup and did break that record and won the PL.

We’ve done better than our depth in quality should have in the last two seasons. David Silva and then Fernandinho leaving left our midfield very thin on the ground, especially last season n’all losing Gündoğan. If we’d won the PL in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and then not again for the last two seasons, I wouldn’t have been surprised. But we did win the PL and have actually won two trebles, or six trophies over the two seasons.

Now the drop off has come and it’s been very long in the pipeline and completely expected for me. It’s come as no surprise at all. However, I’m happy as Larry still because we will learn a lot from this season as a club and will hopefully rectify things on what we’ve learnt.

It’s true. The weaknesses have been visible for a while. The world was saying we were invincible, we knew we weren’t. One weakness is that Pep is so used to being right he’s slow to fix when he’s wrong. We are open in midfield, off target at the top and slow in defence. But if anyone can sort it, he can.

 

[oakiecokie]

So they miss one season that’s very short sighted of them, if you have a great manager they must be able to see that, I’m sick to death of this obsession with it, Christ ot would just be like City to go and win the club World Cup and be the best team for the next 4 years, that’s how stupid these competitions are. The premier league is the measure of a team not some shite knockout competition, let’s say Real Madrid don’t make the next round or fail to qualify next season would players seriously not go there? In fact the Madrid qualify every year cause their league is shit it’s guaranteed, if only players could see this.

Can they be certain only one season ? Of course not and as we know footballers can be very fickle and at times not too bright upstairs.