League aims now

[Guest Raddy]

i think we'll get 5th.

[The-Sir]

1st.

[RED Tezza]

as others have said lets not place any undue expectations on the team but carry on doing what we are doing quietly and confidently moving up the table and winning games this builds consistency. Tonights result at Villa offers hope and Hope springs eternal and all that but lets just win our games.

 

The Mancs are due a slip we need to be in a position to capitalise and who knows where a run will take us. unfortunately i feel the two cup games have come at the wrong time but if we win those and continue momentum for the last part of the season anything is acheivable.

 

Realistically 2nd is in our sights now.

[Guest Raddy]

5th, and no trophies.

 

dic will sack rafa and appoint some other houllier clone to bore the shit out of us.

[The-Sir]

Are you on the white lightning again?

[Guest Raddy]

night.

['Kaka]

Just trying to think of the difficult away games we have left, and even the likes of Pompey and the Barcodes are winnable. And we took full points at both grounds last season. Tough games at home though.

[Cath]

I'll be disappointed if we don't clinch 3rd now given our form and position. If we can beat Chelsea at Anfield then the gap will be 5pts. That would really put the pressure on them. Also they are rushing Terry back. They is no way he should be back that soon after a back injury. He will either break down again or play with injections for the rest of the season.

[Hermes]

3rd and 75 points, which is what I predicted last summer.

 

Next season Rafa has to realise that the season starts in August. He has to pick his strongest team and not "rest" players in August/September like this season as if we were the only team who had players at the World Cup. He also needs to take the game to the opposition home and away and not wait until the title is gone before he does it.

 

Oh, and spend at least £30m nett on first team players not the mediocrity he's been buying. Then we have a chance.

[Wool Woolsson]

Shit, I mostly agree with Hermes (particularly season beginning in August).

 

 

Shoot me now.

[Hermes]

1st.

I was standing next to Johnny Ball last night

 

Was Zoe standing the other side of you.................the prick being in between the balls of course. :tease:

[El Rojo]

Wouldn't define it in terms of points or positions. Rafa has had an abysmal record against United, Chelsea and Arsenal (a bit less so) in the league. At least 7 points from those three home fixtures would be a huge boost looking towards next season.

 

Thing is, at Anfield, with our defence solid again, we're well capable of it.

[Hermes]

Wouldn't define it in terms of points or positions.

 

I wish you were chairman of the Premiership, winning number 19 would be a lot easier. ;)

[Redexile]

What do you all think is now a realistic aim for the season considering where we are and how we're playing? Personally, I think second is just about achievable, but unlikely; third should be nailed on, though. Hermes talked about 75 points being respectable, elsewhere, and from where we are now with 40 points and 16 matches remaining, that would be decent - especially when the shite first third of the season is taken into account.

 

However, can we do better than that? With 48 points to play for, how many can we get? A non-Red mate said to me today that he thought we'd lose at least another 2 or 3 despite our improvements. That's 9 defeats in a season! Anyone think we can remain unbeaten in the league from this point on? There are no genuinely tough away fixtures left and we look nigh on unbeatable at home (although I'll believe it when we've played the big three and the BS).

 

So, predictions please. I'm going for a wildly optimistic second and 80 points.

 

there's not a lot of daylight between second and third and between third , fourth and fifth right now so we just need to keep things going one game at a time.But if Pennant can carry on where he left off against Bolton and Gonzo can do a little bit on the other side then we can definitely have a good run at 2nd. The cup games are a bit worrying in the sense that they can crowd things up a little tho'.

[El Rojo]

I wish you were chairman of the Premiership, winning number 19 would be a lot easier. ;)

:tease:

 

Smartarse. Nah, you know what I mean - don't care if it's second or third once it's a huge shift in performance from the first half of the season and an immediate end to the capitulation against Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal.

 

And No. 6 please.

[Bert]

My issue is that no matter how well we play for the rest of this season, there will be at least a few games where we go behind and I am yet to see any kind of evidence that we can cope with that.

 

Dont give shit that we should have been ahead against Blackburn by half time. The fact remains that we then started panicking and were unable to drag ourselves back into it as we have been every time we've been behind this season and unfortunately (in my opinion) Rafa doesnt like to throw extra forward players on to get us back into it like Mourinho does.

 

I think we'll do well until the end of the season but can still see us losing a few games which in my opinion will stop us getting into the top 2

[Dirk]

Chelsea have quite a tough run in Spurs, West Ham, United, Newcastle, Bolton, Arsenal and Everton.

[Original202]

I'd love us to finish 2nd but 3rd will have to do.

 

We could get a maximum of 88 points and we're obviously not going to win all of our remaining games so I think 75 points might be a bit of a push but it's achievable.

 

I think finishing 3rd almost rules us out of the title race already for 2007/08 though. Having to play the qualifiers for the champions league really fucks things up. Look at Man Utd this season, they could just go out there and get off to a great start without any other distractions. Meanwhile we had one eye on Haifa which was definitely a distraction and it also meant more fucking about with the team. I'd much rather us not have to worry about this next summer. A good start 9for once) is vital.

 

2nd place has probably gone as Chelsea will be a different side once Terry returns but it'd be nice to see us take points off Man Utd and Chelsea in the next few months. Something we will need to start doing if we're ever to win the league. Although saying that, we'd be in a superb position if we hadn't dropped points against Sheff Utd, Boro, Portsmouth and Blackburn...

 

The summer will be another big one for Rafa. Time to buy quality rather than quantity.

[Paul]

Next season Rafa has to realise that the season starts in August. He has to pick his strongest team and not "rest" players in August/September like this season as if we were the only team who had players at the World Cup. He also needs to take the game to the opposition home and away and not wait until the title is gone before he does it.

 

Oh, and spend at least £30m nett on first team players not the mediocrity he's been buying. Then we have a chance.

 

Agree with all of that.

 

I also agree with Brownie and others that our form and results are far from stable. I would be more surprised if we really did have a great finish to the season than I would if we had further stumbles. I suppose I'm just trying to generate a bit of excitement about the league campaign, specifically, rather than the cup competitions (all of which could easily go tits up at the next hurdle - or not, of course).

 

It is really irking me that we had such a poor start as Chelsea and Arsenal are having the wobbles I predicted. I still think United will drop points, too. This would be shaping up to be the best league season in years if we'd made it a genuine three horse race. I suppose, points and positions aside, we need to continue to bed in the new boys. That, plus two top quality players in the summer, would give us the best chance of success next season.

[Thants]

Was Zoe standing the other side of you.................the prick being in between the balls of course. :tease:

Thanks!! Actually it was patsy palmer. Not sure the joke works now.:party:

[Guest Raddy]

i'd love to know who the 30 mill worth of mediocrity is we've bought.

 

you also have to wonder if herpes has actually watched us at all this season, or he would have seen that we have taken the game to every single team we have played against, home or away. whether we were good enough is certainly up for debate.

 

great having an agenda though innit...

[El Rojo]

i'd love to know who the 30 mill worth of mediocrity is we've bought.

 

you also have to wonder if herpes has actually watched us at all this season, or he would have seen that we have taken the game to every single team we have played against, home or away. whether we were good enough is certainly up for debate.

 

great having an agenda though innit...

 

That's not quite true. For me, the peformances against United, Arsenal and maybe Everton were cowardly and embarrassing.

[Guest Raddy]

you watched different games to me then, especially againast everton where, imo, we dominated the game and were very unlucky not to get something out of it.

 

and we had the better of the first 20 minutes against both the mancs and arsenal and took the game to them, but once we conceded after yet more sloppy defending, there was only going to be one winner.

[Momo Is A Beast]

we have the squad, now we need some real quality in there, another centre back, left and right backs, 2 more wingers (even if gonzo and pennant play amazingly well) and another striker. I think God may go/retire at the end of the season, this could possibly be big Sami's last year as well.

 

Lets hope the money is there. I'd like 2nd so we avoid the qualifiers, but I personally think 3rd is the most realistic place.

[coop]

This is the second season running that we have had a shite start and picked it up as the season progresses.

 

Rafa is no numpty, surely he can see that rotation is the key the getting a winning start but playing your best team from the 1st match onwards is.

 

I honestly believe that Chelsea will not catch the mancs. There is loads of in house fighting going off and you can see its all going to explode in their faces.

 

This leaves Man United to win the league. I can not for the fucking life of me understand how a team which consists of Fletcher and O'Shea can get anywhere near the title.

 

Its all 'ifs' and 'buts' but it really was our year this year to step forward and move on to the next level which was the title. We only have ourselves blame and the sight of Neville lifting the trophy is enough to make you spew.

 

Next season we have to start with our strongest eleven and rest players when either the game is won or we have confidence from winning and therefore making changes is always easier.