Where will we finish?

[El Rojo]

2 minutes ago, No2 said:

That's after the event, everyone had City and ourselves as the top 2, Chelsea as 3rd with an outside shot at 1st depending on the new signings settled. That left Utd and Spurs in a battle for 4th, you could include Leicester in that fight but as massive outsiders.

 

As per below they're were 7 clubs the bookies expected to finish above them and they some how omitted the October champions too.

Premier League top four odds

• 4/11 - Man Utd
• 8/13 - Chelsea
• 11/4 - Tottenham
• 3/1 - Arsenal
• 13/2 - Wolves
• 7/1 - Leicester

It didn't quite transpire, but at the season's start I would have had them fighting for fourth with Chelsea or Man United. Those Arsenal odds are bizarrely short. 

[No2]

14 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

It didn't quite transpire, but at the season's start I would have had them fighting for fourth with Chelsea or Man United. Those Arsenal odds are bizarrely short. 

Strange alright but they had just won the community shield. Aubameyang had just re-signed and Willian could still run.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

1 hour ago, Manny said:

I found myself thinking about this the other day, so since I'm bored in a meeting I've had a look at taking away the top half's starting pair from October, then their third choice in January. In short, I don't think I'd rate the chances of any of them so much as making the top four, with the possible exception of City (and only because they signed Dias - bearing in mind he signed after the season started):

• Man City - lose Dias and Stones in October, then Laporte in January. Leaves them with Garcia and Ake as their main partnership. They'd be decent, but not running-away-with-the-title good. Without Dias, they'd be looking at a Garcia and Fernandinho partnership and that's not a title winning CB pair.
• Man Utd - lose Maguire and Lindelof in October, then Bailly in January. Leaves them with Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe, or Tuanzebe and Matic if we ignore the potato-faced Duncan Edwards. Either way, they'd be miles off.
• Chelsea - lose Rudiger and Silva in October, then Christensen in January. Leaves them with Azpilicueta and Mbuyama, and they play a back three. Miles off.
• Leicester - lose Soyuncu and Evans in October, then Fofana in January. Leaves them with 367 year-old Wes Morgan and Daniel Amartey. They were over-reliant on Fofana in reality and finished fifth so they'd be miles off as well.
• West Ham - lose Ogbonna and Dawson in October, then Balbuena in January. Leaves them with Frederik Alves (who?) and probably Mark Noble fitting in back there. They'd probably get relegated.
• Tottenham - lose Aldeweireld and Dier in October, then Sanchez in January. Leaves them with Tanganga and Rodon. Not actually a bad pair of prospects but hard to see them holding down a charge for the CL places given they couldn't do it without their main players.
• Arsenal - lose Luiz and Gabriel in October, then Pablo Mari in January. Leaves them with Holding and Chambers - and we've all seen how that pans out.
• Everton (stop laughing at the back) - lose Mina and Keane in October, then Holgate in January. Leaves them with Godfrey and probably someone like Doucoure filling in. Probably do better than they did.

Considering we didn't have a fourth choice, and the fifth choice weakened our midfield, we've done spectacularly well in my opinion. And the rest of the league should have a fucking word with themselves.

Excellent post (which I've nicked for the purpose of starting arguments on Facebook).

[SasaS]

10 hours ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

I don't even know who the fourth, fifth and sixth-choice CBs at other clubs are, but I'm going to stick my neck out and say that any of those clubs would struggle to pick up 26 from 30 points if those were the only CBs available.

 

It really is an incredible achievement.

Don't know what was more incredible, finshing third after losing six home games on the spin, or Code winning the most knowledgable forumite award.

[Bjornebye]

14 minutes ago, SasaS said:

Don't know what was more incredible, finshing third after losing six home games on the spin, or Code winning the most knowledgable forumite award.

I think Strontz might have something to say about this 

[VladimirIlyich]

9 hours ago, No2 said:

At the start of the season they would have been grouped with Everton,  Arsenal and maybe Wolves as a club that could finish 6th. Anything beyond that was above expectations, to finish 5th and win the FA Cup with the injuries they had is well above par for them. Just like winning the league in 2014 would have been perceived a miracle in August 2013, starting brilliantly but  dropping off doesn't make it a failure. 

Rodgers has a history of it though. It's becoming a pattern to his managerial career,and most importantly to the clubs he manages,it costs them a hell of a lot of money.

[SasaS]

4 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Rodgers has a history of it though. It's becoming a pattern to his managerial career,and most importantly to the clubs he manages,it costs them a hell of a lot of money.

That is hardly fair. All these clubs would have been more than happy if you offered them where they finished at the start of the season.

[Code]

8 hours ago, SasaS said:

Don't know what was more incredible, finshing third after losing six home games on the spin, or Code winning the most knowledgable forumite award.

One was a given wasnt it?

[No2]

17 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Rodgers has a history of it though. It's becoming a pattern to his managerial career,and most importantly to the clubs he manages,it costs them a hell of a lot of money.

King Kenny has a saying, don't worry about the table, look at it after 38 games and see where you end up. The pattern you speak of could be described as a series or collapses or a series of over achievements, depending on what point in time you view it from. To finish with Chelsea, Utd and Spurs is really bad luck, if they picked up 3 points from them 3 games in a 6 week period after Christmas nobody would have bat an eyelid, it would be par for the course. 

[VladimirIlyich]

On 27/05/2021 at 21:46, No2 said:

King Kenny has a saying, don't worry about the table, look at it after 38 games and see where you end up. The pattern you speak of could be described as a series or collapses or a series of over achievements, depending on what point in time you view it from. To finish with Chelsea, Utd and Spurs is really bad luck, if they picked up 3 points from them 3 games in a 6 week period after Christmas nobody would have bat an eyelid, it would be par for the course. 

They had it in their own hands for months. I'm also not having the 'small club' thing with Leicester as they were Champions 5/6 years ago and have had a significant investment since the Asian businessman,and later his son,took over. They blew it.

[Bjornebye]

2 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

They had it in their own hands for months. I'm also not having the 'small club' thing with Leicester as they were Champions 5/6 years ago and have had a significant investment since the Asian businessman,and later his son,took over. They blew it.

Yeah that dry bumming off Newcastle at home in the last few games did them in. 

[TheDrowningMan]

3 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

They had it in their own hands for months. I'm also not having the 'small club' thing with Leicester as they were Champions 5/6 years ago and have had a significant investment since the Asian businessman,and later his son,took over. They blew it.

Yeah, exactly. They were gifted a win against Solskjaer’s C team and also dropped points against Newcastle and Southampton in their last five games. It was a monumental fuck-up on their part.

[s(k)aturation]

On 20/05/2021 at 07:16, Code said:

We are now favourites for 3rd. 

In Code we trust.

 

 

[sir roger]

Shit poll this , wont let me have a guess

[VladimirIlyich]

3 hours ago, sir roger said:

Shit poll this , wont let me have a guess

I still reckon 5th.