The Title Race - 2024/25

How many points to win the league?


  • Total voters
    301
  • Poll closed .
Some of this has to be down to poor recruitment. Honestly if we’d gone the extra few million for Rice when we made that weird one off £90m bid, we’d all be sat here now saying we’ll win the title easily. He’d have stepped in to do Rodri’s job now and when Rodri was available would have been far more effective than Nunes, an aging Gundo or even Kovacic. Plus Arses would be weaker.

Even Guimaraes would have been a good signing. If we baulk at top fees it makes Pep’s job harder. We’re still good because of his genius but why make it harder for him. We can’t possibly be skint, yet we’re not even top 5 for spending; even the likes of West Ham have outspent us. Not that I want their level of signings, but if we’d dropped £100m+ on one of Rice or Guimaraes instead of worrying about what the dickheads in the rag cartel would say we’d be pissing the league this season.
The same Rice who with his team down to ten men away from home just kept hoofing the ball into touch in the manner of a non league centre half. If I’m paying circa £100m for a midfielder I want a guy with a bit of backbone who can take some responsibility in difficult situations and put his foot on the ball and show a bit of calm and leadership.

Not some overrated clown who wellies the ball away every time it comes near him and waves his arms at his own fans asking for support when he’s within 40 yards of them
 
Ferna and David were 30+ in 2019. Gundo was 29.

The big difference is Rodri is out. Before his injury, I'd take this midfield over previous versions. Now, anyone who is not completely daft realizes it won't be easy to replace Rodri. Colossus of a player.

But there are potential surprises. We have several young players that can make big progress this season: Gvardiol, Lewis, Savinho, Bobb, Doku, Nunes, McAtee. Foden and Haaland are only 24, they can get better, too. Imagine that.

When we estimate the quality of the squad, we assume the young players will remain at the same level throughout the season. But it's enough 2-3 from them to be fantastic to make us highly competitive: say, Gvardiol, Savinho and Doku. Lewis, too.
Decent points but no way i’d take our midfield trio over the 100 points team. We had prime KDB, a sublime Silva and an unbelievable Fernandinho. The best 3 the league has ever seen in my opinion.
 
There isn’t any evidence to support Liverpool as serious title contenders thus far. They finished 9 points off it last year and didn’t add to their squad in a meaningful way while likely downgrading their coaching.

Furthermore, they have had a very soft schedule to start the year where they managed to lose to Nottingham Forest. They haven’t been tested schedule wise the way City and Arsenal have. They have a difficult stretch coming up that will likely expose some of their weaknesses. They have to play Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa, and Brighton in a row plus European matches thrown in.

In fact the Opta Analyst model only gives them a 11 percent chance of winning the league
Indeed. The next set of fixtures will tell us where the dippers are at.
 
There isn’t any evidence to support Liverpool as serious title contenders thus far. They finished 9 points off it last year and didn’t add to their squad in a meaningful way while likely downgrading their coaching.

Furthermore, they have had a very soft schedule to start the year where they managed to lose to Nottingham Forest. They haven’t been tested schedule wise the way City and Arsenal have. They have a difficult stretch coming up that will likely expose some of their weaknesses. They have to play Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa, and Brighton in a row plus European matches thrown in.

In fact the Opta Analyst model only gives them a 11 percent chance of winning the league
"There isn’t any evidence to support Liverpool as serious title contenders thus far. They finished 9 points off it last year and didn’t add to their squad in a meaningful way while likely downgrading their coaching."

Who says they have downgraded their coaching?

Klopp or the idiots suggesting that a manager than won one PL title out of 9 was the greatest manager that ever lived>?
 
Guaranteed Loss? Chin up !

It's amazing how people keep writing that, mechanically. Unless you believe in a malicious god who writes these things down on tablets of stone for eternity, there is no such thing.
In the recent past we smashed them at Anfield in 2020 (yes, they had won the title by then, but a guaranteed loss means unconditionally that); then smashed them again there in 2021; going further back, Mahrez should have given us all three points in 2018 (God knows why he was even taking the penalty in the first place) but we got a draw; and just last year, we drew there, having taken the lead!
I won't even begin on the Etihad. In the league, you've got to go back to that disastrous final season under Pellegrini, 2015, when the midfield of Yaya and Fernando went completely missing and they whacked us 4-1.
There are no more bogey teams for City, but I suppose people like the bogeyman stories at night. It gives them a frisson. Yes, there are teams we can certainly lose to. Liverpool are one of them. (So are Fulham, incidentally, we could have lost to them quite easily… so that just shows). This City team fears no-one. With good reason. Respect — yes. Fear — no. There was a narrative that we couldn't win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Then we had to do it. And we did it.
 
It's amazing how people keep writing that, mechanically. Unless you believe in a malicious god who writes these things down on tablets of stone for eternity, there is no such thing.
In the recent past we smashed them at Anfield in 2020 (yes, they had won the title by then, but a guaranteed loss means unconditionally that); then smashed them again there in 2021; going further back, Mahrez should have given us all three points in 2018 (God knows why he was even taking the penalty in the first place) but we got a draw; and just last year, we drew there, having taken the lead!
I won't even begin on the Etihad. In the league, you've got to go back to that disastrous final season under Pellegrini, 2015, when the midfield of Yaya and Fernando went completely missing and they whacked us 4-1.
There are no more bogey teams for City, but I suppose people like the bogeyman stories at night. It gives them a frisson. Yes, there are teams we can certainly lose to. Liverpool are one of them. (So are Fulham, incidentally, we could have lost to them quite easily… so that just shows). This City team fears no-one. With good reason. Respect — yes. Fear — no. There was a narrative that we couldn't win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Then we had to do it. And we did it.
We've won at anfield what, twice in 45 years? If there is one place we shit the bed at more than others, its there. We've had some decent performances there over the last 7/8 years, but we still usually manage to find a way to fuck it up there.
 

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