The Title Race - 2023/24

[xgorton]

Six draws would be decent enough, better still 2 draws versus Arsenal and 4 losses

Like I said some of those are cup games.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

Liverpool having to go to Villa in the penultimate match could be tasty.

4 points before we've even hit the Christmas stretch is fuck all all things considered.

 

[Frankie lad]

Liverpool are not a great side by any stretch, and never looked like scoring until Palace went down to 10 men.

They're scraping wins at the moment, and some people say that's a good trait, but I actually don't see them improving anymore, and those wins will start becoming draws and defeats as the season goes on.

Salah is off to AFCON in a month and he'll be a huge miss for them, they don't have the same threat from any of their other forwards.

Still think if we can get our shit together and start winning games, we'll soon be back in pole position.

Agree.
Salah is our Kev.
Wasn’t impressed with them when they played us and don't watch their other games.
It’s interesting this season.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

Agree.
Salah is our Kev.
Wasn’t impressed with them when they played us and don't watch their other games.
It’s interesting this season.

It's making for an interesting season but I think the truth of it is everyone has dropped off this season except Villa. The overall quality of the league is as high as it has ever been, but there's no one close to where we have been in previous years, where Liverpool were a few years ago or even where Arsenal were this time last year. A lot of those players have played a lot of football in the last 3 years. If we can put even a 1/4 of a season getting anywhere close to where we have been in the past under Pep I think we will win it quite comfortably.

 

[Gigant]

It might sound strange, but it seems that the main reason for frequent falls in the game, during the match itself and losing the lead, as well as the lack of consistency in the game, is actually that we don't have enough ball possession this season, unlike all previous seasons. The consequence of this is that we don't have control, i.e., we 'lose ourselves,' our identity, and our style, from which all other problems arise.

I love Alvarez a lot, both as a player and as a character, but it seems that he is the biggest problem in our possession; we lack that extra midfielder we always had to make things super stable

Pep era:

we average;

2016/17 597.5 passes per game , our opponents 255 (short ppg)
2017/18 743.2 ppg , opponents 230 (short ppg)
2018/19 699.3 ppg , opp. 270 sppg
2019/20 692.8 ppg opp. 294 sppg
2020/21 675 ppg .opp- 333 sppg
2021/22 687.7 ppg . opp- 271 sppg
2022/23 659.8 ppg . opp- 306 sppg
2023/24 629.3 ppg opp. 359 sppg

Statistically speaking, Pep's first season was the worst, but the current one is not much better. We simply allow other teams too much possession of the ball, which is frightening. In fact, except for the 20/21 season, it was the only case where we were not leaders in both categories - the most passes per game against opponents and the fewest passes conceded in a match. In all other seasons, we were absolute leaders in these statistics

Thank you, Dinho, Delph, Yaya, Gundogan, Silva, KDB. We miss you, guys

 

[Frankie lad]

It's making for an interesting season but I think the truth of it is everyone has dropped off this season except Villa. The overall quality of the league is as high as it has ever been, but there's no one close to where we have been in previous years, where Liverpool were a few years ago or even where Arsenal were this time last year. A lot of those players have played a lot of football in the last 3 years. If we can put even a 1/4 of a season getting anywhere close to where we have been in the past under Pep I think we will win it quite comfortably.

I actually bore a lot of people telling them I called this with top 6/7 all knocking lumps out of each other unfortunately City are part of it and I thought we would be sailing serenely above it all.
Nothing wrong with our players desire/hunger as I see it.I really think Pep will be relishing this but he has to be praying that chances are turned into goals more than of late and Rodri stays fit.

 

[Frankie lad]

It might sound strange, but it seems that the main reason for frequent falls in the game, during the match itself and losing the lead, as well as the lack of consistency in the game, is actually that we don't have enough ball possession this season, unlike all previous seasons. The consequence of this is that we don't have control, i.e., we 'lose ourselves,' our identity, and our style, from which all other problems arise.

I love Alvarez a lot, both as a player and as a character, but it seems that he is the biggest problem in our possession; we lack that extra midfielder we always had to make things super stable

Pep era:

we average;

2016/17 597.5 passes per game , our opponents 255 (short ppg)
2017/18 743.2 ppg , opponents 230 (short ppg)
2018/19 699.3 ppg , opp. 270 sppg
2019/20 692.8 ppg opp. 294 sppg
2020/21 675 ppg .opp- 333 sppg
2021/22 687.7 ppg . opp- 271 sppg
2022/23 659.8 ppg . opp- 306 sppg
2023/24 629.3 ppg opp. 359 sppg

Statistically speaking, Pep's first season was the worst, but the current one is not much better. We simply allow other teams too much possession of the ball, which is frightening. In fact, except for the 20/21 season, it was the only case where we were not leaders in both categories - the most passes per game against opponents and the fewest passes conceded in a match. In all other seasons, we were absolute leaders in these statistics

Thank you, Dinho, Delph, Yaya, Gundogan, Silva, KDB. We miss you, guys

That bottom line is the issue.
Delph aside top notch,world class players that could not only keep the ball but play defence killing balls all day long and they could and can score.
God forbid when Kev goes how do you even start to try and replace that bloke?
Think teams are pressing more these days and taking chances so retaining that % of play might be something we cant enjoy as much.

 

[TrentGrisham]

Too many easy missed chances in multiple games which have cost us points, he’s earned some slack but needs to step up again

Underperforming his xG by a concerning rate on the season thus far.

 

[Frankie lad]

View attachment 100909
Underperforming his xG by a concerning rate on the season thus far.

Crikey pal I’ve moved my daughter out of her house today..10 hours hard graft and so copious wine tonight so I’ll take a look at those figures in the clearness of Sunday morning:-)))

 

[Vic]

That bottom line is the issue.
Delph aside top notch,world class players that could not only keep the ball but play defence killing balls all day long and they could and can score.
God forbid when Kev goes how do you even start to try and replace that bloke?
Think teams are pressing more these days and taking chances so retaining that % of play might be something we cant enjoy as much.

I think there's a cyclic problem. Opponents press more, and we beat the press but don't have the shark team feel to take advantage, and the ball goes back and we have to beat the same players we took out by beating the press. So teams are less fearful of our speed of attack (and counter-attack) so are less reluctant to press us at our end. They're more inclined to "have a go" than park the bus and rely on counter attack.

(We used to bang the ball forward at pace, and the receiving player seemed to know whether to play it back, hold it, or turn to face goal. So many times now we're shouting turn with it, but it goes back.)