Topic: The Title Race 2023/24- Jurgen's Last Dance

[KC7]

It's still baffling to me how so many people were so sure that we were fine if we dropped points because there was no way that Arsenal/City were going to finish out the season without dropping any.  The recent history of this league says otherwise and it has been proven once again.  Maybe it'll change when Pep leaves City but right now, when you get to first in the table, every game is a must win.

Yep. A target sharpens the focus. Gives players something to aim for. And having a specific target drives players on.

For example, if you need to win a game by four clear goals, as we did vs Barca, that adds an extra bit of impetus to your play.

Same applies when the finish line is in sight, the calculations are clear and you have to win games.


Never like this presumptuous "we have seven cup finals". Sure I wasnt alone in thinking we have one cup final, and hopefully we win that so we then have another one and so on. We were nowhere near solid enough, midfield especially, where we are flaky defensively, to expect to go on a sustained run. Arsenal who cough up few chances with the opposition rarely getting in their box, they have the solidity to expect to go on a run, runs that we rightfully expected from us between 2018 and 2022 when we were at it.

With such a ropey midfield, and one that Klopp was clearly never happy with given the constant chopping and changing in there, something that didn't happen between 2018 and the 2022, we have probably exceeded our expectations with roughly 80 points and a Cup.

Posters can point to individual games, but the bigger picture is we have been solid/comfortable in maybe only 5 games all season. Crystal Palace for instance, they can consider themselves very unfortunate not to have done the double over us as they dominated for 75 minutes at their place before the soft sending off changed the game, and they then dominated again in the first half at Anfield when Jurgen started the lad who Atalanta had targeted less than 72 hours prior. Palace are a bottom half side but the athleticism they have in midfield really contrasted with our lack of it. Just a real bad match up for us.

[Pistolero]

10th March: 1-1 Vs City

17th March: 3-4 Vs Utd


Should've won both games....but that week derailed the season....and we didnt recover

[meady1981]

We looked pretty ropey home to Brighton and Sheffield Utd. They could have both taken points off us. Should have beaten Luton and Brighton away. We jussssst about got away with it at Forest by the finest of margins. And Palace. Couldn’t beat Utd at home. We dropped points all over the place and picked up pretty cheap ones on occasions. The point is, over the season we were never truly in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed it, but we were never in it. Not seriously anyway. Arsenal are a level above us at the moment, they’ve looked like champions. And they looked better than us in the league both times we’ve played. Don’t give a shit about the other team.

[LFCEmpire]

We looked pretty ropey home to Brighton and Sheffield Utd. They could have both taken points off us. Should have beaten Luton and Brighton away. We jussssst about got away with it at Forest by the finest of margins. And Palace. Couldn’t beat Utd at home. We dropped points all over the place and picked up pretty cheap ones on occasions. The point is, over the season we were never truly in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed it, but we were never in it. Not seriously anyway. Arsenal are a level above us at the moment, they’ve looked like champions. And they looked better than us in the league both times we’ve played. Don’t give a shit about the other team.

Yeah I tend to agree with this analysis of the season.

Regarding the highlighted bit... nobody gives a shit about the other team.

[TheShanklyGates]

It's still baffling to me how so many people were so sure that we were fine if we dropped points because there was no way that Arsenal/City were going to finish out the season without dropping any.  The recent history of this league says otherwise and it has been proven once again.  Maybe it'll change when Pep leaves City but right now, when you get to first in the table, every game is a must win. 

Yep. There is no such thing as good draws in title races any more - you have to be pretty much perfect and sometimes even that isn't enough.

'Normal' title races with twists and turns are a thing of the past.

10th March: 1-1 Vs City

17th March: 3-4 Vs Utd


Should've won both games....but that week derailed the season....and we didnt recover

Agreed. Draws against title rivals aren't good enough and I think the cup game at Old Trafford destroyed our confidence.

[killer-heels]

In terms of the run in next season, fans will make the same mistake in thinking that City wont win all the games they need to win. It will be the same thing of “oh they havent won that many games in a row” that we will always hear.

If City win the league this season then it will illustrate once again that the only way you win this league is you blow them away with your start of season form, like we did and like Arsenal did last season albeit arsenal dropped off a cliff.

You are not beating City in a run in.

[Barneylfc∗]

We looked pretty ropey home to Brighton and Sheffield Utd. They could have both taken points off us. Should have beaten Luton and Brighton away. We jussssst about got away with it at Forest by the finest of margins. And Palace. Couldn’t beat Utd at home. We dropped points all over the place and picked up pretty cheap ones on occasions. The point is, over the season we were never truly in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed it, but we were never in it. Not seriously anyway. Arsenal are a level above us at the moment, they’ve looked like champions. And they looked better than us in the league both times we’ve played. Don’t give a shit about the other team.

Every team drops points unexpectedly or wins a game at the death that they barely deserved to win. That's part and parcel of football and should be accepted.

Other things shouldn't be part and parcel of football and shouldn't be accepted.

[meady1981]

Every team drops points unexpectedly or wins a game at the death that they barely deserved to win. That's part and parcel of football and should be accepted.

Other things shouldn't be part and parcel of football and shouldn't be accepted.

Sure, but it just felt like most games we played it was an option that we could drop them. Compared to Arsenal. 

[jepovic]

We looked pretty ropey home to Brighton and Sheffield Utd. They could have both taken points off us. Should have beaten Luton and Brighton away. We jussssst about got away with it at Forest by the finest of margins. And Palace. Couldn’t beat Utd at home. We dropped points all over the place and picked up pretty cheap ones on occasions. The point is, over the season we were never truly in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed it, but we were never in it. Not seriously anyway. Arsenal are a level above us at the moment, they’ve looked like champions. And they looked better than us in the league both times we’ve played. Don’t give a shit about the other team.

Yeah, we were riding our look for a long time, with some late comebacks. Very entertaining and impressive, but we seldom had that robustness that champions typically exhibit. It's hard to rely on overtime winners to win titles.

I was hoping that we would find that next level in the spring with some key players returning from injury, but instead we got worse and lost the plot.

Overall, third was close to my expectations before the season.

That said, it's a pretty weak year for PL. I'm not all that impressed by Arsenal and City, and none of them are as good as the PL winners the last 5 years or so.

[Fromola]

Every team drops points unexpectedly or wins a game at the death that they barely deserved to win. That's part and parcel of football and should be accepted.

Other things shouldn't be part and parcel of football and shouldn't be accepted.

Yes, but not every week. It can't be the norm to go behind every week and sleepwalk for half an hour at the start, or to need injury time goals. You need to have the ability to win late, win without playing well, but you can't carry it for a whole season as a routine.

[jillcwhomever]

Yes, but not every week. It can't be the norm to go behind every week and sleepwalk for half an hour at the start, or to need injury time goals. You need to have the ability to win late, win without playing well, but you can't carry it for a whole season as a routine.

That was when we were having to change our defence virtually every week, as we had injured players and then other players coming back into the team who lacked their usual rhythm.

[KC7]

Our issues were nothing to do with the defence.

Can count on one hand the number of big errors Virgil and Quansah combined made all season. They've both had excellent seasons. When we were top there was talk of Virgil as POTY, and Quansah YPOTY. Gomez has also been really good when he came in. Konate's distribution has been off, but hes still a top class CB

The issue, as it has been for two seasons, is the lack of protection infront of them. We are pissweak in midfield, flaky as fuck. We had an elite DM two years ago.

In Istanbul when we conceded three in the first half, Hyypia and Carragher, who in the knockout rounds had been watertight, as they had a DM infront of them, were now helpless with no protection infront of them. Opposing midfielders and forwards freely running at the backline means disaster, don't care who is in the defence. We don't stop the danger at source any more, which Arsenal do having spent big on their midfield, so the opposition are rarely in their penalty area.

Prior to the Villa game, we have won 1 game against the top 10 away from home all season, and that a complete smash and grab at Newcastle who for 75 minutes ran all over our unathletic excuse for a midfield. We've had a glaring weakness in the team for two seasons, one that completely wrecked the 22-23 season, and one we have only half--heartedly addressed last summer with that midfield rebuild.
 

[elkun]

totally agree with what was said above. What I don't think has helped is Dominik's form. Out of nowhere it suddenly disappeared completely. Alexis had a period where he got us through with certain results. but when his form diminished a little. no one has taken over. i believe if dominik had his form from the beginning of the season through the whole season. then we could have gotten even more out of it.

[lionel_messias]

100% correct.

Our midfield can be played through.

We have to also acknowledge that when in his pomp, Fabinho was elite and
incredible as a defensive "6", where we had gadget legs we now have legs akimbo.