THEY look like they’d given up. Heads had gone. Fate was accepted.
The tactics, the choices, the set up and the changes — all that will be assessed here, there and elsewhere in the hours and days to come. The manager, the owner and the transfer policy; you can bet your bottom dollar they will all be back under the spotlight again, too.
And Blackburn Rovers away on Wednesday — a fixture that did for Roy Hodgson — now looks like a game that is huge for Brendan Rodgers. His own words about spending over £100m and expecting to challenge for the league — aimed at Spurs — are now coming back to haunt him again as fifth place starts to look like the best Liverpool can hope for.
Fail to make top four after a record transfer spend and lose to a Championship side in the FA Cup? There would be a lot more to the story should that unpalatable scenario become reality but those bare facts wouldn’t sit well with many fans — especially those that have clearly never warmed to Rodgers, of which there are a significant minority.
It would also lead to the inevitable public analysis via the media. Transfers, the record in Europe, all will be laid bare. And Rodgers will know all too well that once people load the chamber with bullets FSG have history for pulling the trigger. Make no mistake, the FA Cup match at Ewood Park is massive.
The worry now — beyond who can play at the back now that Emre Can has joined Martin Skrtel on the suspended list and Kolo Toure is clearly way off the pace — is that players turn down their performances a notch, even subconsciously. Have they lost faith in what they’re doing? Because among the many concerns about Liverpool’s last two performances is the mentality of the side. More, who is there to change it? To demand a difference? To make it happen by sheer force of will.
Right now, we’re not seeing a side backing itself. We’re not seeing a side clenching a first, snapping into challenges and playing like it was in a cup final. We’re seeing basic mistakes and a lack of leadership. A team letting it happen. In seven games against the four teams above Liverpool, the Reds have won once this season. There’s a nous issue, a cutting edge issue and a goals issue. There’s an issue in a lack of players that put their arms around the rest — literally and metaphorically — and force performances to up a notch when the going gets tough.
Those same players use their experience to take time out when things are going wrong. They stop opposition momentum, recognise things are going wrong, manage the situation on the pitch without necessarily looking to the sidelines. There hasn’t been enough of that from Liverpool all season, and in the last two games in particular.
Against United, it took Steven Gerrard to throw in a big tackle and add to his stamp collection to lift Liverpool into something approaching a performance. By then it was too late. You still can’t excuse what the captain did, but the frustration that led to it is easy to understand. He’s watching a team that he’s poured his heart and soul into for over two decades lie down and think of England at home to our arch rivals. How would you feel? Chances are, had Steven been on the bench today and come on at half time, he would have done exactly the same thing again. I know I wanted to smash into something after watching that.
Today was a cup final — modern football says so. Massive for Champions League qualification. That embarrassing 4-1 defeat means that top four – barring a sporting collapse of Devon Loch proportions from those above – has gone. The bookies say 5-1 now for the Reds to gatecrash the party. Those above are all odds-on. Meanwhile, Chelsea away still sits ominously on the fixture list for Liverpool.
It would be lovely to spin the fairytale story of the Mighty Reds pulling their socks up one last time and making it happen from now on in but is that really a realistic prospect based on the last two performances?
Everyone at Liverpool will have recognised the importance of today’s game. The same goes for Arsenal. And this time it seems the lads with the Liver Birds upon their chest couldn’t deal with the pressure while Arsene Wenger’s side very much could.
A mistake from Joe Allen presented Arsenal with a chance after 23 seconds. Within three minutes Lucas Leiva had given the ball away and Simon Mignolet had to save from Santi Cazorla. Then the goalkeeper is called into action again, saving from Aaron Ramsey after a Kolo Toure mistake. Liverpool were napping, Arsenal awake.
We must recognise Arsenal’s quality. Hail their recent form, their best at The Emirates since they moved there. And note their tactics, too, the high pressing that has repeatedly done for Liverpool in recent games carried out to the letter.
But many of the problems today are basics and of Liverpool’s own making, on and off the pitch. The team looks like a bag of nerves, not a side champing at the bit, not a team ready to smash and grab a top four place and make an up and down season a surprising success. The confidence that coursed through the side in that uplifting 13-game run has evaporated. Problems are being heaped upon problems.
Like the Anfield game against Manchester United, you willed Liverpool to fly out of the traps today, to get on the front foot, to get in faces and fight for a platform to play. Instead, it was the déjà vu of a collective showing bordering on indifference at times. Manchester United and Arsenal are good sides with quality players. That very fact seems to have given Liverpool the jitters when it matters. Last season’s ‘we don’t give a fuck’ attitude is long gone.
Before today’s game began, Brendan Rodgers spoke of the “bitter disappointment” of not just the result against United but the performance.
He surely asked for better, demanded more. What he got was a group of players that couldn’t work out how to get out of their own half for six minutes. A side that, nine minutes in, had managed just 26% of possession.
The Reds were deep, reactive, fighting fires. How a goal didn’t come in that early spell was largely down to Mignolet’s reactions. In front of him was chaos.
Against United, it was 34 minutes before Liverpool laid a glove on the opposition, Adam Lallana steering the ball wide after the best move of the match for the Reds.
So maybe we can take some consolation from the fact that Liverpool showed something a little earlier in London today. A better spell for the Reds around 15 minutes saw Liverpool finally string some passes together, with Coutinho and Sterling at last giving Arsenal something to think about.
Sterling had a shot blocked and then came Markovic’s nightmare one-on-one moment.
What was telling in that time was how much Arsenal dropped. Liverpool forced them back. The Gunners were worried for a time. They *could* be breached. It’s within the power of these players to force a game so why aren’t they doing it more?
The team move on half an hour, when Coutinho found Sterling but his cross was overhit for Henderson, was a great passage of play with only the final ball — again — missing.
Eight minutes of madness followed — poor defending, stupid fouls, questionable goalkeeping — and the game was over. Arsenal dug deep and willed a change. Liverpool watched on and let it happen.
It’s harder to be critical about the second half – the game was over after all. And yet it still managed to royally piss me off. Ah yes, conserving energy for the last seven aren’t they? Saving themselves for Blackburn?
Sorry, what? I want Liverpool to have an identity as a team that fights. That scraps for every ball, strangles the life out of other teams and the game before them.
Three-nil down at half time in front of the watching world? You should be running through the dressing room wall to get back out there and show what you’re made of. And yet come the second half whistle Liverpool were very much *in* the traps. Again. Where’s the spirit? Where’s the itch to say ‘we’re Liverpool, this doesn’t happen to us’?
What happened in the second half of note that made you jump up and shout ‘YES!’, that’s the Liverpool I know and love? All I witnessed was a few half-arsed efforts from distance, mostly delivered with poor technique. Shrug of the shoulders stuff. We’ve been bossed, lads. See you in the Europa.
For the all the talk of the last week or so, Sterling led by example this time. He kept going, kept trying and won the penalty that was just about converted by Henderson.
But it wasn’t enough. Nowhere near enough. It lacked bollocks. It was too easy. Arsenal were great. They nailed it. But we handed them the hammer and put ourselves in a vice. Emre Can was the cherry on the shit cake. Ridiculous.
Carry on like this between now and May and the next thing getting nailed will be the managerial coffin of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool Football Club.
The questions are back and answers need to be found. Fast.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
People are saying if we sack Rodgers, who would FSG put in charge? Some other unproven, cheap manager. The argument is correct: we can’t trust FSG to show any ambition IF they did sack Rodgers.
But that doesn’t mean Rodgers record against the top 4, his European record and transfer choices like Lovren, Allen and Lallana shouldn’t be critically looked at. He’s a symptom of FSG’s ownership: cheap.
Doesn’t Rodgers contract run until 2018? How much would they have to buy him out for? My guess is he’ll get one more year. After tying Basel at home, I thought next year is the real tell. How will they spend the Gerrard and Johnson money coming off the books? Will Can and the rest improve in year 2?
Brendan Rodgers is making us the new Arsenal. But without 4th place.
Spot on Gareth. A gutless, spineless, shameful performance.
The thing is, this team is capable of much better. Think back to the game against Man City.
‘but is that really a realistic prospect based on the last two performances?’
I’d argue it goes back to the last three Gareth, Swansea being a very lucky win.
Including the Swansea game (and spells of the games immediately preceding it), it looks like sides have figured out how to play us with our new system.
Last season we blew teams away with the Gerrard ‘quarter-back’ role, the interchange and movement upfront and high tempo pressing. Then, over the summer, teams seemed to learn how to combat that (sit on Gerrard and be just as high tempo) and we looked clueless for the first 3 months of the season.
Then, almost by fluke really, Rodgers stumbles upon this 3 at the back system and we’re off and flying again. Now it seems, again opponents have found a way to combat our system.
The big questions now, I think, are:
1. Can Rodgers come up with a new system again, a plan ‘C’, if you like, and
2. How long will it take him? Because if he thinks he’s gonna get another 20 games and half a season (like the first half of this season), then I predict he’ll be disappointed. Kenny went for far less than the season we’ve had so far (good run included).
Agree 100% about the Blackburn game’s importance now. Will Rodgers have a ‘Mark Robbins’ to save him?!
That’s right he fluked it (again)! How often before it no longer a fluke – cretin!
How long? Maybe if he gets a system that works for longer than 3-6 months before being found out then spending an age to cone up with sonething different during which our whole season goes up in flames.
I don’t see other managers systems getting found out every few months, especially after spending so much, do you?
i have to agree here particularly with regards to other managers, we seem to have to change our system whilst others continue with more or less a settled plan. What happened to the high press, the lightning starts, taking the game to teams and trying to blow them away. I’m not expecting miracles , but the least we should expect is a level of commitment and a regular style and pattern of play.
Christ – he was lambasted early season for not changing things!
Consistency people, consistency.
Sick of ‘agendas’
Pcred247 yes he was lambasted early season and rightly so, you did watch the first half of the season??
Rodgers deserves the plaudits when we play well and equally criticism when we don’t. We each have our opinion, doesn’t mean it’s an agenda.
I am one if the sizeable minority who have never rated him. Last yr thought it was the get it Luis tactic that made the yr. This season even the 13 game run had some terrible performances were we got lucky (think Leicester at home Swansea away) but I can’t see any improvement from his 1st season. A team to use the old saying reflects it’s manager well I think ours does all front nothing to back it up and also like our manager who hasn’t won anything the team hasn’t that winners mentality. Give me a proven winner any day.
One last thing I really wished he would of proved me wrong but I can only see us stagnating with him.
Genuine Question : where is this top secret hiding place that some of the posters use when Liverpool win and/or play well?
Genuine Question: how many times in the last 10 months have Liverpool played well?
Quite a few times. But I doubt your selective memory will allow you to remember them.
Further, I think you and I will have very different definitions of playing well. I’ve pointed out to you in the past how your analysis is usually results and narrative based, quite like the media, and not process based. Never received a reply to continue the discussion / debate.
So tell me about all these times we’ve put in a good performance in these last 10 months. I can think of 1, maybe 2, quality 90 minute performances.
And the last part is bollocks. I gave my predictions early in the season when most thought everything was rosey and Ive been proven correct.
We’ve missed more than Luis Suarez’ goals this season: he was our leader on the pitch – a frenzy of energy and desire. It felt like the first time we’d had a leader since 09/10, when we had leaders all over the pitch.
I completely agree Paul. Exactly what Robbo is describing was missing was Luis Suarez last season. Sterling spoke about it in the week. The natural assumption is it’s Gerrard that’s missing. For me, it’s a Suarez. As a fan I wanted to give 100% in the singing when he played. The players were the same on the pitch. That’s exactly what’s missing.
Seems like a lifetime ago since we had a “man for the big occasion”. Someone who takes the game by the scruff of the neck and says, no lads, are we fuck losing today.
I’ve just watched Cheslea vs Stoke, where Charlie Adam has scored an absolute belter from another postal code. Eden Hazard was not impressed. In fact it looked to have pissed him off royaly. Second half Eden Hazard took the game by the scruff of the neck and said, nah you’re alright lads, we’re winning this game. He basically ran the second half and everyone else followed suit.
Who in this current Liverpool side can we say can take a game by the scruff of the neck and own it? I’m struggling. Do we have a single “world class” player? I don’t think we do. Yet.
Summer of 2014 we got it horribly wrong. We didn’t learn from the mistakes made by Spurs. Quantity over quality. It hurts me to say it, but we need to learn from Chelseas success in the transfer market. Granted, we will have to pay more because im assuming we are going into the next transfer window out of the champions league. They identified last season they needed a goalscorer, and someone good enough to give him the ball at will. In comes Costa and Fabregas. Job done. No fuss. Identify the problem, go big, problem solved.
Work needs to start now on getting 3 World Class players in the first week of the transfer window. Go big or fuck off. For once break the bank. Sturridge and Sterling aren’t bad players, they just look uninspired. Suarez brought the very best out of both of them because he demanded it. Gerrard brought the very best out of players in his pomp.
Lots of work to do in Summer 2015 for FSG and the transfer committee.
Somehow I told you so doesn’t quite cover it.
I’ll now accept apologies. You know who you are. Form an orderly que behind Brownie.
You are indeed a footballing genius, we bow down before your greatness and beg forgiveness Jose, sorry Chris…..
I’m confused Chris.
What did you tell us so? All I hear from you is bollocks….
Yes, its total bollocks that we won’t get top 4 this season.
Total bollocks Rodgers playing Lovren 19 times in a row mostly in place of Sakho was a disgrace.
Total bollocks that using Balotelli up front on his own was a waste of time.
Total bollocks that our performances when on that unbeaten run weren’t that great and we’d get found out against any good side.
Total bollocks that Rodgers’ record in Europe is an embarrassment.
Total bollocks that last season was mainly down to Suarez.
Total bollocks that Gerrard’s legs have gone and he shouldn’t have been in the team let aline at DM for so long.
Yes mate, I’ve been way off the mark with all of these things since August. All of them proven to be total bollocks.
Glad you are coming around.
Accept that its not all total bollocks is it. Its been spot on. Ive been right all along. Hence the need for this pathetic attempt at a come back.
Fuck me, there you are. The pub bore with a messiah complex. We thought (hoped) you’d run off to Syria to join Isis so rare have been your appearances recently. Why would that be I wonder? Then two bad results in a row and you post more comments in 24hrs then you have in previous 2 months. You’re nothing if not transparent, are you?
I see from your other comments that amongst the observations for which you demand our collective genuflection are the following breathtaking feats of analytical genius:
Balotelli should not play up front on his own
Lovren should have been dropped before he was
Our performance during the recent good run were not uniformly world-class
Gerrard is not the player he was
Verily, is there a footballing deity in our midst.
As for top 4, some thought we would and some thought we wouldn’t and some weren’t sure. I don’t recall any commenters on here suggesting they’d sacrifice their first born if we didn’t make top 4, so what’s your point, caller?
“I’ll now accept apologies”
You’re what, 12?
If you look at 10 out of the last 16 threads, I’ve posted. So what are you talking about my lack of appearences you ignoramous?
You still think Gerrard has the legs and/or is good enough to play for Liverpool? Ydc.
You’ve been sussed, bubba. LFC do well, you’re hiding under your rock. LFC do bad, you’re all over this site like a does of the clap.
And if there’s one thing these last two games have amply demonstrated, it’s that Gerrard is still more than good enough for this particular Liverpool side, which is why outside of the small coterie of Gerrard haters (i.e. goons like you), almost every other fans, journalist and pundit has said exactly that these parts two weeks.
What have you used to decide that only a minority of supporters don’t have faith in Rodgers? If you conducted an exit poll after a game you might find that it might be the opposite.
It amazes me that regularly this season the Echo and TAW have correctly castigated unacceptable performances home and away, domestic and European. Players and been criticized, team selections and in game management questioned, anger at the way Liverpool’s have simply capitulated, yet Rodgers and his backroom staff appear to have no connection with what happens. It’s as if they are immune from blame. For me the three of them: Rodgers, Pascoe and Marsh are way out of their depth and floundering.
I can only speculate, but for Sterling to choose to come out and say that money is not an issue but trophies is, indicates that he for one realises that under these 3, and FSG’s peculiar player recruitment model, then Liverpool are far from getting back to anything like their feared position under Rafa.
It took one chant from the Kop to effectively remove Hodgson, I wonder how long Rodgers has before he too asks for whom the bell tolls?
I have had little time for Rodgers, not only because I think he is inept tactically, but also because he always badmouths players. His comments about Balotelli not being with the squad may we’ll be true (and I am no fan of Balo) but there is a snideness about his way of expressing it. Not for the firdt time. He is ace at shifting the blame. He didn’t spend a quarter of a billion on marginal players, it was the transfer committee. He merely had the final say…
This is the same nonsense spouted against Rafa (despite some revisionists).
Both Rodgers and Rafa nearly won us the prize we all crave yet you would think the 90s & 00s didn’t happen and it is their fault we no longer the dominant force. Rodgers took over a club that finished 8th the previous season!!
The club was in disarray before Rodgers now we have genuine hope again. Whilst the last two games disappointing it was the first half of the season did for us as new players, systems bedded in.
Be patient see what happens over the summer and ultimately next season. It’s coming!
No it wasn’t. It was in disarray before Dalglish returned. He steadied the ship (without Gerrard for a considerable spell) finished 8th, won a cup and gave Chelsea a fright in the Cup Final showing with a team that refused to lie down. Certainly he spent badly, but he it was who bought Suarez. And was his spending as bad as his successors? We look like finishing not much better than 8th, with nothing to show for a gross quarter of a billion expenditure. We MAY win the FA cup, but that is no indicator of quality.
Kenny’s time will always be defined by the players he signed, sadly, particularly Andy Carroll. He got us playing great football when he took over from Hodgson only to blow it all when he signed a big, lumbering oaf totally unsuited to pass and move.
Come off it Kevin,
The club was in a bad state when Brendan got the job,
A total collapse in league form after sneaking a league cup win over Cardiff and we had players like Adam/Spearing & Downing getting loads of game time,
Suarez wasn’t setting the world on fire under Kenny either,
I still think we are a top class goalkeeper & Striker away from being a really decent side,
Whatever happens this season he deserves next year surely and personally I just cannot stand the thought of a fuckin new project with all the upheaval that brings.
Suarez was out for 8 games mid-season. Gerrard was missing for much of the season. Lucas was out for much of the season. Adam, Spearing and Downing compare favourably with Lovren, Lallana, Sahin, etc. and you made an interesting admission – ‘total collapse in league form…’ Yet we finished 8th and fought like buggery against Chelsea in the Cup Final where the lumbering ox gave Terry diarrhoea and was robbed of an equaliser. Stole a final against Cardiff? As opposed to which of Brendan’s triumphs? I ask you – how does 8th, a Cup, an honourable loss in the FA Cup Final and ghe sack compare to where we aee now? And don’t fall back on the ‘where we you when we were winning’ aka known as the Nazi argument. I was here, marvelling at the genius of Susrez but lamenting the tactical wasteland that watched 3-0 and 2-0 leads disappear without a clue about defending them. That’s where.
And NOBODY ever accused the Dalglish squads of being gutless and lying down. For what it’s worth u thought the game had passed Kenny by a bit, but his second coming compares more than favourably with the first coming of the current Messiah. Plus he had, and has, dignity.
Be patient you plead and I totally agree but in modern day footie its not what people want to hear,
The same lot who were quite happy to replace Rafa with you know who are the same lot who will be banging the Rodgers out drum really loud if we get beat Wednesday night,
It’s a really young team with that evidently lacks nouse and at times the occasion gets to them,
I really hope the Summer transfer policy is more of a 2/3 experienced proven players rather than the blunderbuss 6/7 potential fingers crossed policy,
We have tons of potential but they need help to realise it,
We need some Gary Mcs & big Samis.
Couldn’t agree more mate. It seems as if there is an unspoken assumption that Rodgers et al are up-and-coming geniuses, that we are honoured to have them and that they are immune from critical commentary..
Agreed with pcred247 above. With time, Rodgers will take LFC far. Last season the team overachieved. This season was always going to be tough with Suarez leaving and Sturridge out. Right now, I think the LFC squad is young, still adapting, in transition, with loads of potential and promise — whose best years are on the not-to-distant horizon. This summer we’ll fill some gaps and the new players from this year will have settled in even more…we’ll be challenging for the title again soon. Plus, the FA cup is still very much within our reach.
“Rodgers will take LFC far”
Are you a psychic or do you just expect us all to piously take your opinion as fact? Rodgers is out of his depth the higher up the chain he goes; his record against the top teams and European record shows that. His capitulation in the Bernabeu before a ball was kicked showed his small club mentality.
He is clearly not a top drawer manager and Liverpool need a top drawer successuful manager to realize our dreams.
Rogers won’t be gone at the end of the season, his self promo will see him in job for another year. Another year of starting with the same tactic as he arrived with, another year of random overpriced buys, of slagging certain players, of fucking other players off because he doesnt need them (when 2 months later its patently obvious he does). Another season of half the support asking for patience. Another season.
As long as he has the players on board and we continue to play good football I’m happy. I am, however, sick of his blaming players, agents, transfer committee etc for his team’s failings.
This is what happens when one team buys a few recognised £35-40m players to complete their team and the other buys potential.
As for the FA cup, if we manage to get through the next two games the likelihood is Arsenal in the final, and on the back of that display that prospect frightens me.
Agreed Gareth,
Let’s hope our transfer policy this Summer is along those lines and don’t forget it was only a few months ago that we tore Arsenal apart.
We did batter them at home but still needed an injury time goal to salvage a point.
Maybe we’re just not as good as we thought, sure we had two or three missing yesterday but take a moment and consider who was missing from Arsenal’s lineup. They have a better squad and will add quality again in the summer whereas I doubt we will or rather can due to league position and finances. Rodgers called us a superpower or powerhouse after Sterling’s interview, that was simply playing to the supporters, unfortunately we are neither and it’s time people accepted that.
At the moment we are basically the arsenal of a few years ago. Buying potential and youth but without the consistent CL qualifications. In the end fan pressure told and they started splashing the cash. Ozil and Sanchez. Big bucks, big time players. Worldies – proven. And, as we are led to believe, their books are well balanced as I believe ours are now. So with the stadium plans in effect and Brendan’s current group being not far off, it’d be nice to take a leaf out of arsenals book this summer. A keeper, a defensive midfielder and a striker – all genuine worldies if we can lure them in. I’d be happy with that.
Luring worldies with a no-name manager and no champions league? When we couldn’t lure them last summer having finished 2nd & big European nights at Anfield to look forward to?
No chance.
Arsenal of when? Haven’t they made CL for like 17 years running now?
We added Couthino & Sturridge when we had no champions league football to offer so it is possible to get decent players in without that lure but obviously its a lot harder,
Arsenal should have a better squad than us as they have had the same excellent manager for yonks and Champs league football to offer every season but yet Wenger still gets abused in train stations by his own fans !!! Unbelievable really or maybe not,
One trophy in ten years they moan whilst never taking into account how tough the competition is out there both at home & abroad,
People use Brendan’s European record to batter him with but Wenger has never won a European trophy and City despite all the oil money & managers they Have thrown at it still look out of there depth,
Peter Cech and two other experienced finished article type signings (along with Origi) and we will be a diff beast next year,
Rafa out , Hodgson in – rem that lot a few years back Ya, well they are still around but not one of the fuckers would own up to being happy when that happened but happy they were,
Chris Mc – come on mate, get a grip,
I always enjoy your posts as I do most everyone’s on this site but your last one about joining a cue?!?
We were all hurting to the bone yesterday and then you give yourself a big backslap and goad a fellow red,
Anyhow happy Easter to all and cheers to the lads on TAW,
Player is just the dogs ………….&
The match review & the Pink is very much needed for some company/solidarity after a defeat.
I have been hurting badly since the autumn, not only because I could see how Rodgers royally fucked everything up but because others didn’t see it or did and ignored it/didn’t say it.
I still don’t think our fans know what missing out on champions league football this season of all seasons means. They don’t grasp the financial realities. We are fucked now. Properly fucked. Cannot possibly challenge for top honours again unless bought by Arab princes.
And its mostly down to Rodgers simply not being good enough.
Alan:
Who would you bring in to replace Rodgers?
I don’t expect you to take my opinion on Rodgers as fact, but I do believe he is the man for the job. By ‘the job’ I am hoping for a title within the next 3-5 years, while making demonstrable progress/experience in Europe. I think we can do it.
Further, I’d argue he can’t possibly be as responsible as you are making him out to be for the 2 recent bad losses (and if you say he is, then he is also responsible for that great run of form preceding the 2 losses).
Again, if you are arguing for Rodgers to get the sack, who are you proposing as a possible replacement?
I’d hope Simeone. He’s shown he can beat Real Madrid consistently, while Atlético brings in less money than we do.
One question regards your 3-5 plan, what happens if we retain between 5th and say 8th for the next 2 seasons? Because at the moment that scenario looks likely
What ifs… What if we win the league next year? Re your 5th-8th plan over the next 2 years — I don’t think there is a good reason to be think that we can’t secure a CL spot next year. (And, if we can pull 18-21 points out of our last 7 games, we are still in it this year). I’m also looking forward to seeing how the next couple transfer windows shape and improve us.
Fair enough, I bow to your positivity chief
Cheers