The battle for 4th place

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YaYa's Left Peg said:
Hahaha.... thanks for at least attempting to cheer me up. I really hope you are right, but I'm not as optimistic as you re our ability to resurrect ourselves.

Leicester, and to a lesser extent spurs, are exceptions to the rule, emerging from the ashes of a freakish season. Next season, we will not only have to contend with these two, but also a resurgent Liverpool who will buy players even more suited to Klopp's style, Rags who will go big again in the transfer market and may even have a decent manager in charge, Arsenal who will do an Arsenal and take up a top 4 spot, a re-invigorated Chelsea under Conte's guiding hand, and the likes of West Ham who will benefit greatly from their move to the Olympic Stadium. This is without the possibility of another 'Leicester' emerging next season!

The only bright light on the horizon is that Pep will be our manager, and he is without doubt one of the best in the business. However, as good as he is, he is no miracle worker, which is what I think we will need if we drop out of the top 4.
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Nothing wrong with competition.

If other sides improve & become better than us, then it's our job to improve & become better than them. I don't see that as a disaster personally, it's just football. If we were out of the top 4 for years & couldn't afford to compete it would be a disaster. But even then we see the rags a couple of points behind us now, with a nutcase manager & a bunch of shite signings on the edge of the CL due to using their kids. We have loads, better than theirs. So even if we missed the cut several times & lost a fortune we could still possibly find a way back. Imo a team moving forward heading towards the top is far less a disaster & far better to support, than a team full of stars underperforming & going backwards, which is what we have had for the past two years.
 
YaYa's Left Peg said:
Hahaha.... thanks for at least attempting to cheer me up. I really hope you are right, but I'm not as optimistic as you re our ability to resurrect ourselves.

Leicester, and to a lesser extent spurs, are exceptions to the rule, emerging from the ashes of a freakish season. Next season, we will not only have to contend with these two, but also a resurgent Liverpool who will buy players even more suited to Klopp's style, Rags who will go big again in the transfer market and may even have a decent manager in charge, Arsenal who will do an Arsenal and take up a top 4 spot, a re-invigorated Chelsea under Conte's guiding hand, and the likes of West Ham who will benefit greatly from their move to the Olympic Stadium. This is without the possibility of another 'Leicester' emerging next season!

The only bright light on the horizon is that Pep will be our manager, and he is without doubt one of the best in the business. However, as good as he is, he is no miracle worker, which is what I think we will need if we drop out of the top 4.
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There are lots of bright lights on the horizon if you look for them. I've found avoiding the media has really helped because, as is well-documented on here, they thrive on sensationalism and love to hype to the nth degree anything bad that happens to us. In the cold light of day, without the background noise, we're well set for many years to come. The rest is on our hands. If we're good enough we'll succeed. If we aren't, we won't. It really is that simple and, as fans, all we can do is support and hope for the best. To re-work a line from a film "Failure smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back".
 
YaYa's Left Peg said:
We should be able to cope no matter what team we put out - but only if the manager has a clear set of tactics and formations, and sets his training regime accordingly.

You look at Klopp - he put half the youth team out against Bournemouth, but they played the same way and got a result. Again last night, they played with a fluency that suggests that the players understand what they need to do.

Pellegrini has had three years to get his ideas across, and taken us backwards!!! The CL run has papered over some huge cracks, and imo completely taken the focus away from the bread and butter of the PL. That is unacceptable.

Given our record against the top 8 this season, I think it is inevitable that we will miss out on top 4, to be replaced by the Rags and/or Liverpool. And for what - a semi-final in a cup competition (and no, I don't think we can win it - it would surprise me if we are still in it after the first leg of the semi, but that's just my opinion)?

And to those saying it wouldn't be too bad to not be in CL - you have got to be joking. For the stage the club is at, it would be a complete disaster. But don't worry about that Pellers old chap - you charming man!
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Sadly the more I think about it the more I have to agree with these critical posts. However, I still think we can just about make 4th spot despite the generally poor performance of our manager over the last two seasons. However, his legacy will largely be judged on the outcome of the Madrid tie. We have been somewhat fortunate with the draw this year and hey we probably deserved that luck. Now we face a serious opponent for the first time this season really and I hope I am wrong but we are likely to be found out if not next Tuesday then the following week. Then we may have to win our last two games to get back in the competition. This could go down to the last day and we could either finish 3rd or 5th depending on results.
 
Just ran the predictor and got this
3rd Arsenal 71 pts
4th City 69
5th United 69
6th Pool 67
7th WHU 62
 
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