Even if we finish 5th and go out of the FA Cup to Bournemouth, in the semis or lose in the final, it’ll still be a good season considering the circumstances.
I expected a drop-off this season. Watching the documentary about last season, you could see that there was a drop-off from the treble season even then. But Pep wrote these words on a wall in the CFA and last season was all about breaking that record, even though you could see we were already starting to slide.
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We only won 3 games out of 10 against the other teams in the top six and 8 games out of 18 against the teams in the top half as a whole, last season. We were nothing like we were the year before against Madrid in the CL nor United in the FA Cup final.
But we did get that record fourth league title in a row over the line! And I think it took so much out of us after the treble the season before, that there’s been a massive comedown this season, and there would have been even if everyone had stayed fit this season.
However, we couldn’t be any further away from everyone having stayed fit this season:
Bobb missed 44 games all comps / 29 PL
Rodri 42 all / 27 PL
Aké 27 all / 19 PL
Stones 24 all / 18 PL
Grealish 19 all / 13 PL
Doku 18 all / 9 PL
Dias 16 all / 11 PL
Ederson 16 all / 10 PL
De Bruyne 15 all / 9 PL (and of the 30 games he has played, he’s not started in 13 of them)
Akanji 14 all / 9 PL
Foden 6 all / 5 PL (only started 2 of our first 10 games and has been off it all season)
Look at De Bruyne, Gündoğan, Kovačić and Bernardo Silva’s quality compared to the past, their legs have gone and they look like they’ve come to their end. When we once had all of those in their prime, minus Kovačić but plus David Silva and Fernandinho… as well as Rodri!
With these having taken a slide as they get to the end of their careers, and losing the likes of Mahrez and Palmer recently too, our output in creativity has nose dived massively. We have no proper naturally creative players in the squad who are playing regularly and will have a long future here anymore.
This needs urgently addressing!
Rodri deservedly won the Ballon d’Or, he’s been our best player for probably all of our previous three seasons to this one, and we’ve seen him for just 156 minutes all season.
Look at Savinho, Doku, Lewis, Nunes, Ortega-Moreno, McAtee, Simpson-Pusey, Reis, Khusanov, Marmoush and Nico (less so O’Reilly, Mubana and Braithwaite but they have featured in Cup games) who have had to deputise or be bought to plug gaps this season… they’re all either young, new signings - and either or both means inexperienced - or they’re back-ups. This means the quality and experience of who’s playing regularly is nowhere near our usual standard.
Look at the team who faced Brighton the other day: only Dias, Gündoğan and Haaland started the game who were part of our best team just 20 months ago.
There’s been no continuity at the back. No Ederson (and even when he has played he’s not been at his brilliant best from previous seasons, despite 3 assists) for much of the season is huge to the way we play, Aké Stones Dias and Akanji all being injured a lot, and our so-called club captain Walker deserting his team mid-season.
At Brighton and Sporting away, our back six was Ortega-Moreno, Lewis, Walker, Simpson-Pusey, Gvardiol and Kovačić. If everyone was fit, only Gvardiol would get in that back 6 and that’s over half the team.
Plus I do think the dragging on of the 115 charges case is impacting everyone at the club and in the stands. Everyone just wants it over with now. It’s tiring!
All of that would impact any team. Put that sort of thing on us in 2017-18 and we wouldn’t have got 100 points, in 2018-19 and we wouldn’t have won the domestic quadruple, in 2022-23 and we wouldn’t have won the treble, and that in any of our four league titles in a row seasons and we wouldn’t have won them.
So, any sort of positive achievement this season represents a good season in my eyes.
