The Title Race - 2024/25

How many points to win the league?

  • Total voters
    301
  • Poll closed .
youngbob said:
(Caveated by a potentially serious Rodri injury).

I've never been more convinced that we're at least going to finish above Arsenal. Whether it's enough to finish above Slot's Liverpool is another matter. But all Arsenal do is complain and complain and complain. It's like they prefer feeling aggrieved over just getting the fucking job done. We lost our best player on 17 mins yesterday and had to put up with their "dark arts" while trailing 2-1. Our lads got their heads down and plugged away until we got the goal we needed, Arsenal just rolled around and wasted time. And they've done nothing but cry and moan and whine ever since full-time. They have such a defeatist mentality it's unreal. We potentially lose Rodri for the season and we know our lads will try their hardest to fill the gap while he's not there; Arsenal lose Odegaard for a few weeks and get a couple of red cards and it's immediately panic stations, "How can we compete?", corrupt FA, Arteta's veins exploding etc. There's a major gap in mentality. Rodri was right to call it out.
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Slot's Liverpool?
What about Rooney's Plymouth??
 
alexmcity said:
KDB missed about 18 league games but Bernardo replaced him successfully and was absolutely fantastic. We don't have now a player who can be close to Rodri's quality at DM. Maybe Bernardo is the closest thing in terms of press resistance, running, passing etc, with the obvious deficits in physicality, though. Stones and Akanji have the physical attributes but lack other things. We need to buy a DM in January.
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Necessity is the mother of invention. Kovacic looked pretty darned good in the first few games. He is no Rodri but who is? Titles are generally won by 3-4 players stepping up to elite level + no major weaknesses elsewhere. Haaland looks at that level. Foden we know is capable despite an iffy start to this season. Maybe Bernardo will grab things again. Or Grealish? We have a lot of players who could take this as an opportunity to make this season their's.
 
lasereyes said:
Necessity is the mother of invention. Kovacic looked pretty darned good in the first few games. He is no Rodri but who is? Titles are generally won by 3-4 players stepping up to elite level + no major weaknesses elsewhere. Haaland looks at that level. Foden we know is capable despite an iffy start to this season. Maybe Bernardo will grab things again. Or Grealish? We have a lot of players who could take this as an opportunity to make this season their's.
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I really hope Haaland stays fit. If we lose him we are fucked.

Kovacic is ok but nowhere near Rodri’s level. We will be fine without him in most games but not in the very big ones and also in CL. He will be a big miss in that if out for season. Hopefully he won’t be.
 
Millwallawayveteran1988 said:
I really hope Haaland stays fit. If we lose him we are fucked.

Kovacic is ok but nowhere near Rodri’s level. We will be fine without him in most games but not in the very big ones and also in CL. He will be a big miss in that if out for season. Hopefully he won’t be.
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Have to agree with Haaland staying fit because not signing cover is a monumental fuck up and it will cost us as will Rodri being injured aswell because you cannot sugar coat losing the best defensive mid by a country mile for a season and it not have an effect but what annoys me more is we already knew Rodri was carrying an injury as he went off in the euro final and yet we still didn’t act .
 
Squad looks very light with injuries to key players, Ake, Bobb, KDB, Rodri all out for long time/ possibly all season, Foden with some weird virus and several players not good enough in the squad Carson, Nunes etc. and jury possibly out on a few others. We are an injury to Haaland away from missing out on top 4

I can only forsee many more injuries with such a threadbare squad and so many games, sorry to be so doom and gloom, we may need to recall some loanees and need 3 world class players in January Sales. DM, CM & Striker
 
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lasereyes said:
Necessity is the mother of invention. Kovacic looked pretty darned good in the first few games. He is no Rodri but who is? Titles are generally won by 3-4 players stepping up to elite level + no major weaknesses elsewhere. Haaland looks at that level. Foden we know is capable despite an iffy start to this season. Maybe Bernardo will grab things again. Or Grealish? We have a lot of players who could take this as an opportunity to make this season their's.
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Please say Nunes will step it up!
 
MadchesterCity said:
Squad looks very light with injuries to key players, Ake, Bobb, KDB, Rodri all out for long time/ possibly all season, Foden with some weird virus and several players not good enough in the squad Carson, Nunes etc. and jury possibly out on a few others. We are an injury to Haaland away from missing out on top 4

I can only forsee many more injuries with such a threadbare squad and so many games, sorry to be so doom and gloom, we need 3 world class players in January Sales.
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Agreed, you make some good points

Without spending possibly up to a quarter of a billion pounds on 3 stellar signings in January I can see us being nearer to the relegation zone than the top 4 and if Haaland gets injured I think we’ll probably be relegated
 
hateutd said:
Rodry our for the rest of the season,KdB Ake and Bobb injured... Hallo darkness my old friend...
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We definitely need nunes, grealish, doku to step up massively. I think if they bought 1 more squad player the impact wouldn't have been as huge.

The issues we've had with Calvin, João, Sergio are such a shame. If Calvin was what he appeared to be we would be okay.
 
City still outright favourites at 7/5 with Arsenal at 7/4 and Dippers at 6/1.
 
bridgeno1 said:
City still outright favourites at 7/5 with Arsenal at 7/4 and Dippers at 6/1.
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I've kept an eye on it.
Before we played Arsenal on Sunday we were 8/11, then 4/5 after the game and yesterday as Rodri news came through we drifted out to evens, 11/10 and 11/8 this morning.

Arsenal have gone from 2/1 to 6/4

Liverpool have gone from 13/2 to 11/2

Funnily the rags have gone from 50/1 to 66/1. I suppose they'd benefit more from a Bournemouth or Palace player getting injured these days.

Liverpool will be happy with the last few days. All the drama and fall out from our game, Rodri injury, people starting to tip up Arsenal now. They're sitting quietly.
 
Going to sound like Sybil Fawlty stating the bleeding obvious (anyone?) but it's even more important to win the 'easy' home games. We have to accept without Rodri we're going to struggle in games against Liverpool, Tottenham. Newcastle and the like both home and away. We really can't afford games like we had against Palace last year just before Christmas when we chucked a 2-0 lead away.
 
It will certainly be a tough test without Rodri. We're never as dominant without him. We were levels above Arsenal before he went off. He is always there making things happen outside the box, creating passing triangles and enabling everyone else to pass and move and any out ball is hoovered up by him with his physicality and height. That's where Kovacic or Rico just aren't physically able to do the same job. Pep could unearth something, so I would never write us off but without Rodri I would say it's going to be Pep's biggest challenge to win the league this season. And he fucking loves a challenge.
 
with Alvarez gone and the bad news of Rodri thats a total package of 19 goals and 17 assist just in PL last season. them two basically scored 20%+ of our PL goals or have almost 30% of the total assists we were credited with. (guess we dont get some when it comes from opponent, or pens, free kick goals, own goals etc., we scored 96, but have been credited with 94 goals and 69 assists as a team)

the top4 players in order for G+A were Haaland, Foden,JA, Rodders last season (PL only)
ga.JPG

Kovacic unfortunately aint high on these numbers, 1 goal all last season in PL, so if he is a Rodders replacement now, others will need to raise their numbers even more. Gundo can rack up useful numbers depending where he plays, if an 8, often arriving into the box, and end of crosses, passes, or even false 9, if more of a 6, setting tempo from deeper then not so much.

Doku, Grealish, Savinho, Bobb, they all need end product, no excuses, in ratio with their playing minutes. Grealish likely to play more than that 1000 minutes only last season, it needs to be at least 10+ in G+A total from. Doku had 3+8, albeit 4-5 assists of those were in one game for him maybe Bournemouth we beat 6-1, and then bit dry 2nd half of the season for him, but now after bedded in, want him to be closer to 15 in total, that rawness has to turn into end product more this season. happy with Savinho so far, has an eye for an assists, just bedding in, he can hit those Mahrez type numbers eventually from right wing which were very useful from Mahrez. Bernardo imo will play further away from the box this season, bit deeper imo centrally with Savinho taking up lot of minutes on the right (and then Bobb), wont likely hit the 15 from last season.

overall it needs a big effort even just to replace in G/A what is now out with JA and Rodders and possibly bit of a drop from Foden-Bernardo..

we need more way of scoring when Haaland fires blank or marked out or injured.

defenders chipping in with some long shot goals and from set pieces will come handy but happens rarely. even these flipper goals Stones just scored could help a lot.
 
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