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The Run-in...

braineclipse said:
And Rose hadn't really played full back before he got the chance there...?

People were complaining about Bentaleb's positioning last season, now a year later he's looking much better. I think Mason can improve too. He's hard working, fairly disciplined, clearly motivated to do well. Pocehttino seems like a good man to work on stuff like that on the training ground. I think there's a lot of potential for improvement in Mason.

I agree that Bentaleb looks the better prospect, by some distance. But I think Mason looks like a useful player in the role he's currently being used in. Just like he did earlier this season.
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Bentalebs positioning is still poor and he still fails to track players he's marking, almost cost us on set pieces yesterday, but his all round game is better than Masons which is why I'd always select him over him. We simply CANNOT have these two in midfield when both their positional sense defensively is dreadful.
 
Mumorn said:
Bentalebs positioning is still poor and he still fails to track players he's marking, almost cost us on set pieces yesterday, but his all round game is better than Masons which is why I'd always select him over him. We simply CANNOT have these two in midfield when both their positional sense defensively is dreadful.
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Bentaleb's positional sense is dreadful? Not buying that...

We haven't been defending well as a unit recently. I don't think it's fair to single out the two deep midfielders for that, just like it's not really fair to single out defenders. We have to get our pressing back into shape to where it was earlier in the season, and that starts with the front 4.
 
About Mason, I remeber his " thermal map " against Arsenal. He was a truely beast and coexisted in the whole field. This beside his quick passes is his best attributes. Yes we can make upgrade to him but in our current squad he is auto play for me.
 
Can we close this thread? We're not going to get top 4 now and I'm unconvinced that I want a top 6 thread.
 
Mason is a poor version of Bentaleb, and bentaleb is inconsistent himself. We need either a more defensive midfielder to free bentaleb to be more expressive, or a more creative midfielder to support the attack.

I genuinely believe it's our midfield pair that is resposibile for our atrocious defensive record.
 
GrimsbyYid said:
Mason is a poor version of Bentaleb, and bentaleb is inconsistent himself. We need either a more defensive midfielder to free bentaleb to be more expressive, or a more creative midfielder to support the attack.

I genuinely believe it's our midfield pair that is resposibile for our atrocious defensive record.
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Not the huge amount of mistakes the defenders make? Watch MOTD from last night and see Walker's part in FOUR goals in the past two games. Were Mason and Bentaleb responsible for what Walker did on Leicester's 3rd and Verts bottling it? You seem to have it in for these two youngsters.
 
This is the first full season for both Bentaleb and Mason. I think it's a bit early to say that they can't play as a pair. They need to improve at some things, but that might happen if we just back them and allow them to develop together. It might not, but it's not like our recent centre-mid signings have worked out very well, so I'd sooner take the gamble of continuing to play these two.
 
It's a shame that it was Manure who won today; any lingering hopes of 4th would appear over, which is a shame because it would have been nice to have kept as much motivation as possible.

For betting reasons i need us to finish at least 6th, so i wanted the team to aim high to at least achieve that. Hopefully Soton can slip up somewhere (and we can stop shipping goals!)
 
glorygloryeze said:
It's a shame that it was Manure who won today; any lingering hopes of 4th would appear over, which is a shame because it would have been nice to have kept as much motivation as possible.

For betting reasons i need us to finish at least 6th, so i wanted the team to aim high to at least achieve that. Hopefully Soton can slip up somewhere (and we can stop shipping goals!)
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Not the time to give up quite yet. Still a lot of points left to play for and both good and bad runs happen.

I don't think anyone would be popping the champagne claiming that it was already over if it was us sitting in 4th with 6pts + GD lead. United have Villa next, but then City (H), Chelsea (A) and Everton (A) in quick succession. If we can get the results on the board over the next month...
 
alekaras said:
Win our last 8 games and we're in. It's doable if we fix our defensive woes. Believe!
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Agreed though I think its unlikely that we'll finish top 4 given that Man U seem to be coming into a bit of form. That said there's no reason why we cant win all 4 of our leage games in April and in that time Utd have a very tough run so potentially if we play well we could be within a 1 point of so of them going into May. If we dont hit some form we'll be too far adrift but also wouldnt deserve to finish 4th
 
Man Yoo still have Emirates Marketing Project, Chelski and le'Arse to play. The problem is they have done us and Liverpool in consecutive weeks. They are hitting form at the right time.
 
Man Utd to me are just as capable of hosting Villa and losing then going on to beat Chelsea and City.
 
AdamB said:
Agreed though I think its unlikely that we'll finish top 4 given that Man U seem to be coming into a bit of form. That said there's no reason why we cant win all 4 of our leage games in April and in that time Utd have a very tough run so potentially if we play well we could be within a 1 point of so of them going into May. If we dont hit some form we'll be too far adrift but also wouldnt deserve to finish 4th
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So this year your saying that 77 points will still finish out of top 4. That would have to be the highest point total not making CL in the PL era by a wide margin.
 
I think we would need 73pts.. Need to win all the games apart from Soton and Emirates Marketing Project and will need 2 draws or 1 win against either team
 
If the teams we want to get ahead of keep gathering points at the same rate they have they'll end up with:

Arsenal: 76
Manchester United: 75
Liverpool 68
Southampton: 67

United arguably have a tougher run coming up than the games they've had so far, but they also look like a team coming into some form.

73 looks perhaps the absolute least we could get away with given our goal difference. Meaning we would need another 20 points from the 8 remaining games, 6 wins and 2 draws like imcalling says.
 
It's not over til its over. Arsenal do Liverpool next game, we get 3 points we could be in fifth just like that. Add in Utd having some big games left and us only having one (City), i don't see why it can't happen. ( I say this every single season but hey!) COYS
 
The_Midlands_Yid said:
It's not over til its over. Arsenal do Liverpool next game, we get 3 points we could be in fifth just like that. Add in Utd having some big games left and us only having one (City), i don't see why it can't happen. ( I say this every single season but hey!) COYS
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If Arsenal and Liverpool draw next round and we win.... We move past Liverpool and just 5 behind Arsenal. Liverpool win and we win and we stay one point behind Liverpool, but only 4 behind Arsenal.

Definitely still hope, if we string a proper run together we'll be there or thereabouts fighting for it.
 
We're entering the ifs and buts part of the season. The time of shattered hopes and broken dreams.

I'm predicting four wins, three losses and a draw.
 
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