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Other games thread 5-7 April 2025

With those two wins that we're both expecting, we'd need 5 points from 15, IF the Arse win all of their remaining 7 matches. And I genuinely don't understand why you fear so many teams that are so clearly not as good as we are...
Because we looks shaky as fuck atm, there's where my worry stems from.
 
Kvara is a special, special player. We should have moved heaven and earth to sign him in January.
You wot m8?

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To be honest, I can see the concerns. Our key players aren’t performing and we don’t have any obvious replacements to do any better on the bench. We really need to rediscover some kind of form.
 
PSGs third goal should see them through to hopefully demolish Arsenal in the semis.
I'll feel marginally better about going out in the last 16 if PSG make the final/win it.
 
No, 2 worldie free kicks hasn't gone to my head. I'm just a realist when it comes to our squad. We played psg and they played psv. And? You play what's in front of you.

Madrid aren't that good this year, hence why we beat them 2-0 as well. Difference is, in current form I don't think we would have.

If our squads so fucking good why are we reliant on one player? We're more reliant on Salah than arsenal is in saka.

Our drop off recently when our best player is fit, is as bad as their drop off when they didn't have a striker and their best player.

I Think a lot of arsenal players are overrated, but equally I think a lot of ours are overrated.

I've said it a lot recently, that this summer I'd take the knife deep to our squad. There's players there starting, not on merit, but on cost.

I’m going to say this quietly - we aren’t as reliant on Salah as people make out.

27 goals in the league, but 9 of those are penalties, so that’s 18 non-penalty goals.

Diaz and Gakpo who have been sharing the load on the left also have 18 non-penalty goals between them.

Also, if your arguyis their squads better than ours based on comparing us in poor form versus them in what could best be described as variable form then that’s not a solid argument.

Arsenal aren’t shit, neither are we - I don’t think there's much between us, but they’re certainly not a “better” squad - there isn’t that many of their players I’d take over ours in the same position.
 
It isn't that we are dependent on Salah for me, it's that he HAS to play for reasons, and when he's not on form he is a net negative at times.
Agreed... I do think that the players are so used to simply defaulting to MO, that it's become 2nd nature to them now, and that is very different from the team being 'built around him'. I honestly think that, for this reason, many - not all, but many - of the goals he scores would be scored by others if he was out long term, similarly to how the midfield often picked up their performances when Stevie G was out, knowing that they had more to do.

I'm not saying we wouldn't miss him... That'd be ridiculous. But I do think we'd make up a lot of the lost goals elsewhere.
 
Yeah, I'm all too happy to say that we've been the best performing team in the league this year. The league table says so. But I'm looking at the trajectory of both teams and the mitigating factors (their injuries vs ours).

If we win the league, I just don't want us to get complacent in the summer (again) and think this team is actually one of the great teams. It's not. Klopps 2019 team was better in nearly every area. We can be better. And while I don't see City immediately coming back into form next season, it means we have a chance to win 2 titles in a row and get to 21. The only team I see up there getting better next season competing with us is Arsenal (that's if we ourselves don't have a big fall off).

What trajectory are you looking at?

We’ll see an increase in last seasons points total while Arsenal will see a drop off.

And I also disagree with some of your player rating comparisons - I’d have Gakpo and Diaz rated higher than Martinelli, wouldn’t have Harvertz higher than Jota and I think you’re under-rating Gravy,

So it boils down to Odegaard being a little bit better than Dom, and us needing a LB.
 
And we've not spent anything like it since.

In the upcoming summer if we signed players of the quality of:

Kerkez 40m
Isak 100m
Cunha/Kudus/Bowen 60m
Frimpong 40m
Huijsen 50m

I think we probably win the league.

But you just know we'll be looking for cheaper alternatives in all positions.
We've done this before. There was a fascinating piece in one of the online commentaries recently on how our transfer policy enables us to pay high salaries yet still remain within PSR - I'll see if I can find it and start a new thread.

That aside I think you need to go back and look at our transfer history (which I posted not long ago) and anyone on this conspiracy theory that our bid for Ceicedo wasn't genuine needs to give their head a shake. It's a ridiculous theory, just think of what had to have been involved there for that to be so.

Under FSG a big transfer season (ca. €150m spent - regardless of where the money comes from it's still being spent) is followed up by one or two much lower seasons to balance the books. When you add in the turmoil last season with Klopp et al leaving then there were obvious reasons not only why we hardly spent but for why top players would reconsider moving here. We are in a MUCH better situation in that regard now.
 
What trajectory are you looking at?

We’ll see an increase in last seasons points total while Arsenal will see a drop off.

And I also disagree with some of your player rating comparisons - I’d have Gakpo and Diaz rated higher than Martinelli, wouldn’t have Harvertz higher than Jota and I think you’re under-rating Gravy,

So it boils down to Odegaard being a little bit better than Dom, and us needing a LB.
Mainly the gaps in their squad vs the gaps in ours, and the age profiles. I reckon they'll want to get in a sub GK, DM (Zubi), LW and CF. Everywhere else is covered for the next 3-4 years.

Our world class players are aging and the gaps in our team/squad are soon going to be: LB, RB, CB, DM, LW, RW, CF. Just a lot more uncertainty.

In terms of points total and progress. Yes, our trajectory has been unexpectedly positive, but unless we have the much promised "Big" summer, where Arne is backed, then I don't see us maintaining this. And I see us slipping back into a top 3/4 race again next season.

In terms of my ratings. Gakpo G/A wise is better than Diaz/Martinelli, but performance wise it's much of a muchness for me. I think Jota has good finishing, but his all round game isn't great. Whereas Havertz has an all round game, but poor finishing. I have Havertz higher based on his fitness record prior to this season which was immaculate. I can not simply trust Jota and his fitness record gets points knocked off him (especially as it takes him 4-6 weeks to show any form post injury). I love Gravy, but he's only shown us half a season of great form. Over the last few weeks he's really not stepped up when we needed him. Kind of gone back into his shell. I'm not seeing the early season Gravy who was doing no touch turns and driving through midfields like a young Vieira. I need to see him get back to that level next year again before I can rate him higher otherwise he just had a purple patch. Odegaard has better technique and ability vs Dom, especially as an AM playing between the lines. However his form has been pretty average this year admittedly.
 
Mainly the gaps in their squad vs the gaps in ours, and the age profiles. I reckon they'll want to get in a sub GK, DM (Zubi), LW and CF. Everywhere else is covered for the next 3-4 years.

Our world class players are aging and the gaps in our team/squad are soon going to be: LB, RB, CB, DM, LW, RW, CF. Just a lot more uncertainty.

In terms of points total and progress. Yes, our trajectory has been unexpectedly positive, but unless we have the much promised "Big" summer, where Arne is backed, then I don't see us maintaining this. And I see us slipping back into a top 3/4 race again next season.
This is another of the half glass full scenarios much of this forum seems to now be addicted to. Most teams will bring in 2-3 first teamers per season. From your list for us that is :

LB : now
RB : mature backup to Bradley (see the Bradders vs Trent thread, no need to re-do it here)
CB : VvD may no longer be in his prime but he's still better than 99% of CBs so even if that slowly drops off over the next couple of years there is no immediate need to replace him (97%, 95%). New LCB in 2027/8. Youngster (22-23 yrs old) to join the 'CB squad' this Summer.
DM : Que? No change for 2025/6. Endo gone for 2026/27
LW : Diaz and Gakpo (both double figure goalscoring wingers with positional flexibility). No change unless Diaz forces an exit but it won't be to Barca since they have the Golden Balls favourite (Raphina) playing there and Fati as backup.
RW : 2026/7 and a backup (22-23 yo) this Summer.
CF : see new thread. Maybe Nunez and Jota go this Summer.

Evolution not revolution and I see no issues with age bar having good backups and rotating more often.

Again see the new thread but this Summer is higlhy likely to be a 'Big Transfer Season' for us and for sure Slot will be backed.
 
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