We didn’t finish top 4 (2021/22)

Hard to see right now but at some stage we’ll win 4 or 5 in a row and firmly slot into 5th.

I think we should change the title of the thread to “Will we finish in the top 4 next season?” cause this season is gone as far as I am concerned. I don’t see where our next win is coming from in the league, so talks of top 4 are beyond a joke.

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Might actually give us opportunity to reset and sort our shit out

Is it really a myth though?

It helps no doubt, but we’ll show next season a lot more goes into winning a title other than simply having no European commitments to deal with.

We are only 7 points back of 4th right? I imagine we could make it but we’d have to hope that a couple teams really have a bad stretch in the final two thirds of the season.

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I think top 4 is still very possible - maybe a 30-40 percent chance but we need to hit our stride this month starting with Brighton if we’re gonna have a chance

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The answer to the thread title is FUCK NO

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Seeing as how all our competitors are as bad us and dropping points I wouldn’t say its impossible. However we really need to get a good coach in from yesterday.

I just want to say one thing about our defence, I know Luiz, Sokratis and Holding aren’t world class or even great defenders but they are all more than capable of getting us into the top four. Leicester city and Sheffield Utd both have the 1st and 3rd best defensive records in the league.

I bet most people couldn’t name Sheff Utds back three of the top of their heads with the exception of 35 year old Phil Jagielka, and do you know who Leicester centre back partnership are? Johnny fucking Evans and Soyuncu. Now my point is Evans isn’t better than Luiz or Sokratis, but he plays in a team that knows how to defend and they have proper cover in the form of Ndidi who plays as an old school DM, (a position which for some reason Emery and idiots on reddit feel don’t fit into the modern the game.)

Our defensive problems are not just down to our defenders. The rest of the team and coach and coaching stuff are just as culpable. This is why we really need a Top manager to come in and address this problem on the squad level, otherswise just buying defenders won’t change anything.

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Chelsea is suddenly vulnerable if they miss Abraham for too long… LC can have a bad stretch and are vulnerable to injuries too… obv its possible and now with Emery gone, at least we have a chance. I reckon we are still favorites for between 5-7th.

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this is my main hope lol the fact that all the others are constantly fucking up. It’s as if the race is on between the lot of us to stop fucking up first.

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Yea if last year’s top four debacle taught us anything it’s that it’s not over til it’s over.

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2 points a game from this point on gives us 67 points, is that enough for top 4 ? Unlikely.

Highly unlikely I’d say. But still possible due to shitness.

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Definitely possible.

I see another 2016 style season, Liverpool aside.

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I’ve mainly liked that post because it’s mildly complimentary to Liverpool and thats likey to trigger @DavidHillier

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:pensive::pensive:

I was thinking why our defence always looks disorganized especially when we are attacking the opposition’s goal.
The gap between our defensive back line and midfield players is to big and that’s why we are constantly under attacking pressure when players run at our goal with space.
What if we were to put in a sweeping line of two players between our defence and midfield. That is play a 3-2-3-2 formation.
Three in the back line defence
Two in sweeper line
Three in midfield
Two forward.
All players would have zones to work in and move forward to the next zone forward on attack and back into their zone on defense. Ok I accept nothing is perfect but it seems to me this would give zone cover which would make every player realise his job.
I’m sure there are plenty of you who can find fault with this, but it may help.

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We play a very high line and leave 2 defenders and Leno, maybe one midfielder as the only people in our entire half when we attack. Defenders like that always look like absolute idiots all the time, doesn’t matter if it is at Real Madrid or here. Thing is that if you want to play like that you need defenders that are good at that and that’s rare and they’re expensive and they still look like idiots all the time. You also need coaching on it.

That’s the price you pay for over loading attack and shrinking the other team’s passing space on counters. What you need is defenders who are fast paced, good in passing and and good one on one for example, while if you want to defend as a 10 man unit most of the game you don’t need pace, passing or one on one decision making, just height, physicality and positioning and a clear manager/coach, they’ll look alright and organised etc. But you lose a lot going forward.

We’re trying to do the first thing but with average defenders and poor coaching I think lol and that’s why you get that scenario you describe where when we’re under attack there is a gap betweem the lines and the defenders at the back look like they’re drunk when they’re supposed to just defend their box. we’re supposed to have the ball, our tactic is out of it’s element when we don’t.

*tactics is? grammar? Halp. Is it an uncountable lol

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The answer is: not with our defence.
There are teams who are struggling to score and as soon as they play us, it’s like an invitation to end your goal drought.

Even at home against poor sides we are allowing opposition sides to have twenty or more shots in almost every game.

It wasn’t that long ago, at this time of the season, we used to be asking: can we still win the PL title?
But not any more.

How long will it be until we are asking if we can qualify for the Europa League places?

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