The TopFourometer™ (2023/24)

[Coffee_Johnny]

49 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

The club know we need another CM. 

Pretty confident we’ll get a purple in the summer. Plus another couple of first teamers. We’ll see out the season fine as we are. We’re already in a final, no other cup distractions, a few formation permeations should it be necessary, could see us with Bruno, Joelinton, Longstaff, Willock, and Anderson for two slots. If necessary, which hopefully it won’t be. 

[Geordie Ahmed]

27 minutes ago, Izakaya said:

This. 

 

CL would be too much too soon for us imo. 

I don't think it could ever be considered too soon

 

If we finish top 4 then that would be immense but if we finish 4th or 6th that would be pretty class too and not quite the disaster some will suggest it is 

[The Prophet]

The Champions League starts again shortly doesn't it? For once I'll be hoping all English sides progress.

[TRon]

9 hours ago, Froggy said:

 

I think a lot of you (not you) are being super harsh on yourselves. It's squad depth. Your style of play requires a strong bench and your bench is poor. 

 

Said it earlier in the season, its only a matter of time before the depth is there. When you're able to bring quality subs on instead of Murphy you'll win games like yesterday. 

 

Gordon going to help massively. He's a good player. 

 

Absolutely. Still gutted mind, a week ago I still thought we had the CL in our grasp, but feels like it's slipping away now. Not that surprising, I'm pretty sure I made the same point as you, our squad just isn't as strong as our competition. We were trying to recruit a midfielder from Chelsea who doesn't even feature much for them and they still told us to fuck off. That is what we are up against.

[Slim]

2 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Absolutely. Still gutted mind, a week ago I still thought we had the CL in our grasp, but feels like it's slipping away now. Not that surprising, I'm pretty sure I made the same point as you, our squad just isn't as strong as our competition. We were trying to recruit a midfielder from Chelsea who doesn't even feature much for them and they still told us to fuck off. That is what we are up against.

Win next week and its no problem.

[TRon]

1 hour ago, Kid Icarus said:

I just keep imagining a time traveller coming back to me at the start of the season to tell me how it's going by February (they don't have their priorities in order, admittedly)

 

They tell me that we're 4th, a point ahead of Spurs with a game in hand, 5 points behind Man City in 2nd, we've only lost once, have the third best goal difference in the league, the fewest goals conceded, 10 consecutive clean sheets in a row, breaking the club record, the 2nd best defence in Europe, we've played all of the top 6 - beating Chelsea at home, Spurs away, drawn against Man City at home, champions elect Arsenal away, Man United away, and lost controversially to Liverpool away. Most of our remaining games against those teams are at home.

 

...and oh yeah, we're in the League Cup final.

 

Our rolling 38 game points tally is only 2 points behind 95/96 with a -2 goal difference, yet we've been regularly playing Bruce-era players.

 

Sometimes you need to step out of the now a little bit. All of the above is insane and although we can always do better, unless you're supporting 08-14 Barcelona, that'll always be the case, there has to be a time when you enjoy the ride I think.

 

 

 

 

Someone needed to write this. I've been a bit down since the Spurs win, but it cheered me up a bit so thanks.

[ilikenewcastle]

Although we've dropped a few points recently, does anyone else feel like our chances of getting top 4 have actually increased since the WC? 

 

I'd say there's now a 1% chance that either Liverpool or Chelsea challenge for it. I think it's only really Spurs and Brighton who can catch us. Spurs will have their ups and downs and we don't know if Brighton can go the distance any more than we can.

[TRon]

Just now, Slim said:

Win next week and its no problem.

 

Agree, and we can do it as well. But just need to keep our feet on the ground a bit and realise we are punching way above our weight class so CL should not be an expectation, but a dream scenario.

[PauloGeordio]

49 minutes ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Pretty confident we’ll get a purple in the summer. Plus another couple of first teamers. We’ll see out the season fine as we are. We’re already in a final, no other cup distractions, a few formation permeations should it be necessary, could see us with Bruno, Joelinton, Longstaff, Willock, and Anderson for two slots. If necessary, which hopefully it won’t be. 

We’re getting Bellingham 

[PauloGeordio]

8 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Agree, and we can do it as well. But just need to keep our feet on the ground a bit and realise we are punching way above our weight class so CL should not be an expectation, but a dream scenario.

Eddie said we should dream 

[Dr Jinx]

Man Utd have some tricky games coming up, 2 games home and away to Leeds without most of their midfield will be interesting.. and then Leicester who seem to have found some form.

 

Spurs have Leicester, West Ham and Chelsea.

 

Can see both sides dropping points along the way here.

 

Wouldn’t read too much into the City result today, they’re not in a good spot currently, something off similar to Liverpool. They’ll drop more points.

 

All eyes on Arsenal to see if yesterday was just a blip or not.

 

If we can get a run going, we’re still right in the mix for top 6, top 4, even top 2 perhaps.

[The Prophet]

Popped on Twitter, yikes.

 

It's gone from...

 

"18 games left, four points clear of 5th. 4th is within our grasp"

 

To...

 

"17 games left, a point clear of 5th. We aren't finishing 4th, we might not even finish top six and I've pissed the bed again, noooo"

 

Absolute basket cases.

 

[Superior Acuña]

14 minutes ago, ilikenewcastle said:

Although we've dropped a few points recently, does anyone else feel like our chances of getting top 4 have actually increased since the WC? 

 

I'd say there's now a 1% chance that either Liverpool or Chelsea challenge for it. I think it's only really Spurs and Brighton who can catch us. Spurs will have their ups and downs and we don't know if Brighton can go the distance any more than we can.

 

Yes. We're six further games into the season and still in the top 4.

 

At the break:

 

1 ahead of spurs, same game's played.

4 ahead of ManU, 1 more game played

8 ahead of Liverpool, 1 more played

9 ahead of Chelsea, 1 more played.

 

Now:

1 ahead of spurs, 1 fewer played

2 behind manu, same played

11 ahead of Liverpool, 1 more played

10 ahead of Chelsea, same played.

 

Only worse in relation to ManU (but there's two places up for grabs between these teams), and we've less left to go.

(Might've lost on Brighton/Brentford/Fulham - I didn't check.)

 

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Superior Acuña

[Beth]

We won't finish 4th if Longstaff and Willock are playing every week till the end of the season, they're simply not of the required standard.

 

I think 99.9% of us would take a league cup win over a top 4 finish anyway.

[PauloGeordio]

5 minutes ago, Beth said:

We won't finish 4th if Longstaff and Willock are playing every week till the end of the season, they're simply not of the required standard.

 

I think 99.9% of us would take a league cup win over a top 4 finish anyway.

Agreed, although I want both 

[Coffee_Johnny]

35 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Absolutely. Still gutted mind, a week ago I still thought we had the CL in our grasp, but feels like it's slipping away now. Not that surprising, I'm pretty sure I made the same point as you, our squad just isn't as strong as our competition. We were trying to recruit a midfielder from Chelsea who doesn't even feature much for them and they still told us to fuck off. That is what we are up against.

Wouldn’t be too gutted, hasn’t gone yet. Still fancy us to finish above Spurs and 50-50 with Man Utd. Both to play at home (and Brighton). 

[Gawalls]

1 hour ago, Kid Icarus said:

I just keep imagining a time traveller coming back to me at the start of the season to tell me how it's going by February (they don't have their priorities in order, admittedly)

 

They tell me that we're 4th, a point ahead of Spurs with a game in hand, 5 points behind Man City in 2nd, we've only lost once, have the third best goal difference in the league, the fewest goals conceded, 10 consecutive clean sheets in a row, breaking the club record, the 2nd best defence in Europe, we've played all of the top 6 - beating Chelsea at home, Spurs away, drawn against Man City at home, champions elect Arsenal away, Man United away, and lost controversially to Liverpool away. Most of our remaining games against those teams are at home.

 

...and oh yeah, we're in the League Cup final.

 

Our rolling 38 game points tally is only 2 points behind 95/96 with a -2 goal difference, yet we've been regularly playing Bruce-era players.

 

Sometimes you need to step out of the now a little bit. All of the above is insane and although we can always do better, unless you're supporting 08-14 Barcelona, that'll always be the case, there has to be a time when you enjoy the ride I think.

 

 

 

Wish i could give this post a dozen likes.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Coffee_Johnny said:

Wouldn’t be too gutted, hasn’t gone yet. Still fancy us to finish above Spurs and 50-50 with Man Utd. Both to play at home (and Brighton). 

 

Man U are going strong, they have a much bigger squad to cope with injuries. Spurs I really felt might be out of it, but somehow they've found a way to win, and again they have much more strength in depth so should be favourites. I think we needed that 6 points cushion, it's gone in the space of a couple of weeks.

[Coffee_Johnny]

6 minutes ago, TRon said:

 

Man U are going strong, they have a much bigger squad to cope with injuries. Spurs I really felt might be out of it, but somehow they've found a way to win, and again they have much more strength in depth so should be favourites. I think we needed that 6 points cushion, it's gone in the space of a couple of weeks.

Well, let’s enjoy finding out. We’re hard to beat, the hardest to beat of them all it seems.  We’ve not had a full squad to choose from all season, who knows maybe we will now and go on to steamroll a few over the next few games. 

[The Prophet]

 

[BonesJones]

2 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

I just keep imagining a time traveller coming back to me at the start of the season to tell me how it's going by February (they don't have their priorities in order, admittedly)

 

They tell me that we're 4th, a point ahead of Spurs with a game in hand, 5 points behind Man City in 2nd, we've only lost once, have the third best goal difference in the league, the fewest goals conceded, 10 consecutive clean sheets in a row, breaking the club record, the 2nd best defence in Europe, we've played all of the top 6 - beating Chelsea at home, Spurs away, drawn against Man City at home, champions elect Arsenal away, Man United away, and lost controversially to Liverpool away. Most of our remaining games against those teams are at home.

 

...and oh yeah, we're in the League Cup final.

 

Our rolling 38 game points tally is only 2 points behind 95/96 with a -2 goal difference, yet we've been regularly playing Bruce-era players.

 

Sometimes you need to step out of the now a little bit. All of the above is insane and although we can always do better, unless you're supporting 08-14 Barcelona, that'll always be the case, there has to be a time when you enjoy the ride I think.

 

 

 

 

Discussion over.

[Froggy]

1 hour ago, TRon said:

Man U are going strong, they have a much bigger squad to cope with injuries

 

Not if the injuries are in centre midfield.

 

Should also remind you we have Wout Weghorst starting every game for us. 

[LV]

3 hours ago, Kid Icarus said:

I just keep imagining a time traveller coming back to me at the start of the season to tell me how it's going by February (they don't have their priorities in order, admittedly)

 

They tell me that we're 4th, a point ahead of Spurs with a game in hand, 5 points behind Man City in 2nd, we've only lost once, have the third best goal difference in the league, the fewest goals conceded, 10 consecutive clean sheets in a row, breaking the club record, the 2nd best defence in Europe, we've played all of the top 6 - beating Chelsea at home, Spurs away, drawn against Man City at home, champions elect Arsenal away, Man United away, and lost controversially to Liverpool away. Most of our remaining games against those teams are at home.

 

...and oh yeah, we're in the League Cup final.

 

Our rolling 38 game points tally is only 2 points behind 95/96 with a -2 goal difference, yet we've been regularly playing Bruce-era players.

 

Sometimes you need to step out of the now a little bit. All of the above is insane and although we can always do better, unless you're supporting 08-14 Barcelona, that'll always be the case, there has to be a time when you enjoy the ride I think.

 

 

 

Great post 

[andyc35i]

I’m still astounded by the amount of draws. Especially since over half of those games we should’ve taken the points. I really think we are around 8-10 points down of where we deserve to be.

I’m hoping a cup final win will help the charge for a top four finish. Man City used to love winning the League Cup because it takes all the pressure of winning something from the season with half of it left to go.

 

 

[Gallowgate Toon]

There's still a lot to look forward to the rest of the season with the current squad.

 

Isak actually being available and now fit again is really big for us, the unpredictability of what Gordon will bring. Hopefully, we can keep Maxi healthy as he can win us points. Plus, we get to watch Bruno play  a couple of attacking tweaks and I think we'll go on another run as our underlying numbers are generally still so solid.

 

We really need a plan for Isak. We can't have a player that talented just sitting on the bench as we struggle to score, especially when Wilson is seemingly bulletproof. He's the key.