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googbye top 4

Harry_Perkins said:
Why? Last season we lost to Arsenal who reduced the gap to 9 points. The momentum was with them. This season, WE beat Arsenal to open up a 7 point gap. The momentum SHOULD have been with us AND we are later into the season. Instead we pick up 4 points in the next 4 games. It is really devastating stuff. I note the one year we did make the CL we came from behind when the pressure was off us. Something isn't right.
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Last season we were clearly a better side than we are this season. And the gap was bigger. And it was in our own hands going into the second last game of the season. And Redknapp didnt give a brick from January onwards. And we signed Ryan Nelsen and Louis Saha in Januray. And our tactics were "fudging run around a bit." And We didnt have our best defender out for the whole season. And we didnt have our best central midfielder out for half a season. And this year Bale hasn't disappeared for 4 months due to a tactically inept manager.
 
Harry_Perkins said:
Why? Last season we lost to Arsenal who reduced the gap to 9 points. The momentum was with them. This season, WE beat Arsenal to open up a 7 point gap. The momentum SHOULD have been with us AND we are later into the season. Instead we pick up 4 points in the next 4 games. It is really devastating stuff. I note the one year we did make the CL we came from behind when the pressure was off us. Something isn't right.
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The main difference for me is that last year we made top four. The disappointment was not getting 3rd, which is a bit absurd really considering that would have been an amazing achievement! This year we probably won't even get top four. The gaps between the times at respective times of the season mean little to me though, as that can be down to who you have played and who you have left to play.

But hey, we beat City and don't lose to Chelsea and we still very much in contention. But we lose against City and Chelsea then we're too far behind with too few games to make up the ground.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Last season we were clearly a better side than we are this season. And the gap was bigger. And it was in our own hands going into the second last game of the season. And Redknapp didnt give a brick from January onwards. And we signed Ryan Nelsen and Louis Saha in Januray. And our tactics were "fudging run around a bit." And We didnt have our best defender out for the whole season. And we didnt have our best central midfielder out for half a season. And this year Bale hasn't disappeared for 4 months due to a tactically inept manager.
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But the opposition were also stronger don't forget. I think Arsenal's team last year was better than ours, but that was mainly down to Van Persie. This season we are the better side, but that is mainly down to Bale. To be honest, we've been poor for weeks haven't we? Just that Bale has dug us out of it and we can't rely on that forever.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Last season we were clearly a better side than we are this season. And the gap was bigger. And it was in our own hands going into the second last game of the season. And Redknapp didnt give a brick from January onwards. And we signed Ryan Nelsen and Louis Saha in Januray. And our tactics were "fudging run around a bit." And We didnt have our best defender out for the whole season. And we didnt have our best central midfielder out for half a season. And this year Bale hasn't disappeared for 4 months due to a tactically inept manager.
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Also King and Sandro missed large chunks of last season too didn't they?
 
Sandro this season was better than he was last season. Parker, we all see how much he has declined.
 
Jordinho said:
Sandro this season was better than he was last season. Parker, we all see how much he has declined.
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Your perception. Mine is different. I thought Sandro was fantastic last year, and should have replaced Parker last year. But this year for me Sandro lacked composure and seemed like a bull in the china shop too often. But I think that is down to the way AVB is playing the central midfield because Parker doesn't look as good this year either because he, like Sandro, is trying to do much. It needs to be Dembele doing their roles, but I don't think Dembele is that sort of player either.
 
Old Bill said:
But the opposition were also stronger don't forget. I think Arsenal's team last year was better than ours, but that was mainly down to Van Persie. This season we are the better side, but that is mainly down to Bale. To be honest, we've been poor for weeks haven't we? Just that Bale has dug us out of it and we can't rely on that forever.
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Not in a million years is a centre midfield of Parker and Dembele better than Cazorla and Wheelchair, which is what both teams have had available in recent weeks.

Last year we had King, Kaboul, Modric, Sandro and van der Vaart in the side for large chunks. Harry even had Sandro on the bemch as an option playing Modric and Parker.

There is absolutely no way we are anything like as good as last years side. Plus we disgraced ourselves in Europe and concentrated everything on the league.

We aren't a better side than Arsenal this year. How many have Walcott, Giroud, Podolski, Cazorla etc scored? Al more than Defoe i'd wager. Who is our third highest scorer? No idea ... Dempsey??

We aren't a better side than Arsenal. Plus they have a philospohy that runs through the squad. We still don't have any like for like replacements for our main players.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Not in a million years is a centre midfield of Parker and Dembele better than Cazorla and Wheelchair, which is what both teams have had available in recent weeks.

Last year we had King, Kaboul, Modric, Sandro and van der Vaart in the side for large chunks. Harry even had Sandro on the bemch as an option playing Modric and Parker.

There is absolutely no way we are anything like as good as last years side. Plus we disgraced ourselves in Europe and concentrated everything on the league.

We aren't a better side than Arsenal this year. How many have Walcott, Giroud, Podolski, Cazorla etc scored? Al more than Defoe i'd wager. Who is our third highest scorer? No idea ... Dempsey??

We aren't a better side than Arsenal. Plus they have a philospohy that runs through the squad. We still don't have any like for like replacements for our main players.
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We won't agree on this for sure.

Lloris is better than Friedel
Walker is a year more experienced and better than the Walker of last year.
Dawson was our best defender last year, and is again this year. I don't think he has improved or got worse.
Vertonghen is better than the King of last year.
Ekotto is the same as last year
Lennon is the same as last year
Parker and Sandro are both worse than last year, but are being asked to play different roles
Dembele is clearly weaker than Modric
Bale is a different case as he isn't in the same role. I love Rafael but I think it's clear that Bale is better than Rafael playing the same role.
Whoever plays left wing is weaker than Bale of last year.
Striking situation is same as last year.

I think we are at least equal, but the teams around us are worse. You can't lost a great player like Van Persie and be as good as last year. Arsenal are 20% inferior to the Arsenal of last year.
 
Old Bill said:
We won't agree on this for sure.

Lloris is better than Friedel
Walker is a year more experienced and better than the Walker of last year.
Dawson was our best defender last year, and is again this year. I don't think he has improved or got worse.
Vertonghen is better than the King of last year.
Ekotto is the same as last year
Lennon is the same as last year
Parker and Sandro are both worse than last year, but are being asked to play different roles
Dembele is clearly weaker than Modric
Bale is a different case as he isn't in the same role. I love Rafael but I think it's clear that Bale is better than Rafael playing the same role.
Whoever plays left wing is weaker than Bale of last year.
Striking situation is same as last year.

I think we are at least equal, but the teams around us are worse. You can't lost a great player like Van Persie and be as good as last year. Arsenal are 20% inferior to the Arsenal of last year.
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There is no point in continuing the debate. I disagree 100%.
 
Old Bill said:
Parker and Sandro are both worse than last year, but are being asked to play different roles
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Sandro worse this year when he played over the year before, sorry not a chance in hell !!!

He was awesome this year until the unfortunate injury
 
Old Bill said:
We won't agree on this for sure.

Lloris is better than Friedel
Walker is a year more experienced and better than the Walker of last year.
Dawson was our best defender last year, and is again this year. I don't think he has improved or got worse.
Vertonghen is better than the King of last year.
Ekotto is the same as last year
Lennon is the same as last year
Parker and Sandro are both worse than last year, but are being asked to play different roles
Dembele is clearly weaker than Modric
Bale is a different case as he isn't in the same role. I love Rafael but I think it's clear that Bale is better than Rafael playing the same role.
Whoever plays left wing is weaker than Bale of last year.
Striking situation is same as last year.

I think we are at least equal, but the teams around us are worse. You can't lost a great player like Van Persie and be as good as last year. Arsenal are 20% inferior to the Arsenal of last year.
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Walker has not been better this year, not even close.

Dawson our best defender last year? Is this serious? He played about 10 games last year. Kaboul was our best defender last year and is better than Dawson full stop.

I love Benny but he's not as good as last year. Injuries and inconsistency in starts not helping that.

Parker is worse. How is Sandro? How is it a different role? It's exactly the same.

I don't know who you think you're fooling with the username TMK.
 
markysimmo said:
Sandro worse this year when he played over the year before, sorry not a chance in hell !!!

He was awesome this year until the unfortunate injury
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I thought he was playing well this year, but his ball retention and lack of creativity hurt us at times. But he is there to defend and he was defending too high up the pitch at times but I think he is under instruction. We've only lost two leagues games since he was injured though, so I don't think his injury has been a deciding factor in why we will struggle to get top four.
 
Old Bill said:
People were complaining last season about how laboured our attack was.
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No they weren't. People were upset that we lacked any tactics that could help us break down teams.

Bottom line (imo): last year we played to less than the sum of our parts, this year we are playing to more.
 
Armchair Expert said:
No they weren't. People were upset that we lacked any tactics that could help us break down teams.

Bottom line (imo): last year we played to less than the sum of our parts, this year we are playing to more.
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I've heard that all season, but the bottom line is, we still rely on individual brilliance from Bale or Lennon.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Last season we were clearly a better side than we are this season
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This is true but has nothing to do with the lost of leads over our main rivals. Whichever way it is spun, it has happened again. This time after we'd beat those near rivals and with the opposition running out of road. Fact is, we have gone from a 7 point lead into a 5 point deficit in just a few weeks. So even if we'd had a 12 point lead, it would be gone.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Last season we were clearly a better side than we are this season. And the gap was bigger. And it was in our own hands going into the second last game of the season. And Redknapp didnt give a brick from January onwards. And we signed Ryan Nelsen and Louis Saha in Januray. And our tactics were "fudging run around a bit." And We didnt have our best defender out for the whole season. And we didnt have our best central midfielder out for half a season. And this year Bale hasn't disappeared for 4 months due to a tactically inept manager.
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And this year Arsenal are also worse than last season. For the first time in about 20 years, we have a world class player and a match winner and they don't.

Not excusing last season's collapse, but this season should still be viewed as a collapse if we don't get top 4.
 
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