Would it have been the quad if not a post World Cup year?

[keith's curle]

I was wondering at the start of the season how the World Cup would affect our season. We have a deep pool of talent, but the highest number from any one club to be in the finals. Added to which we didn't get a full pre-season with the squad, and some players came back quite late.
Everything seemed OK player selection/tactics etc wise, so maybe the pre-season wasn't as big an issue as I feared, but I was always conscious that we may just get a bit leggy at the latter stages of the season. Obviously this depended on cup runs and I hadn't been expecting to be domestic treble winners and CL quarter finalists, but there were definitely others out there with the same fears as evidenced by the topic coming up often, especially in pre-match threads.
Like many others, I can't help thinking that it's likely that the number of injuries, their repetition, the time taken for recovery, and the slight drop off in performance/change of style (delete as you think appropriate) was down to not enough of a break last summer.
Do you agree? Could you see signs of weariness creeping in? Was it nothing to do with the World Cup and just normal, or maybe to do with a couple of key injuries?

 

[SebastianBlue]

It would have been the quintuple if Kev had been match fit for exactly three more games this season: Spurs away (CL), Spurs home (CL), CL final.

 

[keith's curle]

It would have been the quintuple if Kev had been match fit for exactly three more games this season: Spurs away (CL), Spurs home (CL), CL final.

Yes, and I suppose that's the essence of my question; if the likes of KDB had had a break last summer instead of the World Cup would it have made that slight difference and we'd be on for the quad (quintuple, if you prefer).

 

[Marvin]

We'll never know. Perhaps going out of the CL was a blessing as it allowed us to focus on the league and FA Cup.

We saw the impact of a fit Kevin de Bruyne yesterday.

 

[Corky]

Same for everyone.

 

[adrianr]

The biggest what if for me will always be De Bruyne. We literally had our best player of the previous season constantly bouncing between injury and building match fitness. Fully fit and firing Kev all season? Who knows. I still think too much has to align. We should absolutely be eyeing the League / CL / FA Cup treble, though I never, ever want to see us go for the CL at the expense of the league.

 

[Chi-town blues]

Still some can’t count numbers. 1,2,3,4 or would’ve been 1,2,3,4,5
Spot the difference.

 

[East Level 2]

It might have included the CL had we not had to take maximum points from the PL since the end of January. That was partially due to Liverpool sacking both domestic cups early on meaning they'll play about half a dozen games less than City.
As for starting KDB at WHL: the guy was on the bench so was fit. Bringing him and Sane on with two minutes left, ten minutes after Spurs scored was an act of lunacy by Pep. It's not as though we were looking like scoring. I know they weren't either, but they managed to.

 

[SebastianBlue]

Still some can’t count numbers. 1,2,3,4 or would’ve been 1,2,3,4,5
Spot the difference.

So, a quintuple, then? ;-)

It might have included the CL had we not had to take maximum points from the PL since the end of January. That was partially due to Liverpool sacking both domestic cups early on meaning they'll play about half a dozen games less than City.
As for starting KDB at WHL: the guy was on the bench so was fit. Bringing him and Sane on with two minutes left, ten minutes after Spurs scored was an act of lunacy by Pep. It's not as though we were looking like scoring. I know they weren't either, but they managed to.

Exactly why I said “match fit”.

He was very good against Spurs at home, but even then was still just off his best, and had he been match fit for the away leg we would be playing on 1 June (and I think there is a strong argument we would be favourites).

 

[prestonibbo_mcfc]

We'd have still had VAR to contend with.