He briefly blew up at Fulham on loan from Shakhtar Donetsk post-invasion, so Tottenham went in for him on a free. He did nothing with them last season, so they sent him on loan, and they’re married to the inflated wages of his free transfer deal through 2028.
City's form has been coming back under the radar. I think they'll be back to their dominating ways next season and they will likely pick up a top class player or two over the summer. Its a given Liverpool will be back and likely stronger as Slot can now buy players he wants that fit his system and sell those that he's had to work with since he adopted Klopp's squad. We are the wild card. We will get a striker. That's for sure. The two other positions that have to be addressed are left wing and holding midfielder. I'd like to keep Partey but its unlikely. Maybe this might be something but Calafiori at LB and MLS as holding midfielder. He's been playing midfield his whole career except this season. Saka was played as a full back at first as well. MLS played where he was needed not where he is best. And even at LB he's better than Ashley Cole in facets except defending. Yeah, I said it...lol and MLS defending is great. At his best Cole was the best in the world. Overall he is close to be being better than Cole. No one will give him that. he goes better forward much better than Cole, he is a better passer, better scorer, I think has more pace. Merino is the one that has to find a place in the side. I don't think Arteta will start him with Partey gone. I think he'll be a bit of utility player like Parlour was many years ago.
I can't see Pools form and injury luck next year being as good as it is this year, they have really only copped injuries to Allison but have a strong back up. Imagine if this year we only lost Raya for periods of time but had Ramsdale to back him up. Thats Liverpools season in a nutshell. Would love to see how they go next year if they lost VVD, MacAllistair and Salah for significant chunks of the year (like we did with Gabriel, Odegaard and Saka), or regularly had issues to 3/4 of their best back 4 and lost their best midfielder to an ACL (likely Gravenbirch) and then lost Salah for a big chunk of the season (Haaland) like City did. Like Leicester in 2015, Pool have had the most charmed run with not only their own injuries and form but everyone elses too. That won't happen next year. Arsenal will reinvest and head to head at full strength this season we were a better side than they are and thats before we upgrade positions, City will come back with a refreshed squad and will be strong but you can never be sure they will be dominant, Chelsea start each season well and at some point for their kids it will click, and you just can't bank on Man U/Spurs being that shit next year as they have been this year. Plus each year we get two teams from 8th or lower on the table that have massive years.
Says a lot about what an unusual season this has been that there are 3 matches going on right now: BHA-NEW, BRE-MU, WHU-TOT... and the only one that's of any concern to us or the top European spots is BHA-NEW. A lot of Arsenal supporters complain about our season, but think about what it's like to be Yanited or Spuds lately.
And yet one of them will probably win Europa. Yeah, no parachute teams this year (which should always have been the rule), but they won't care.
VAR doing it’s job today at Brighton. Two incorrect PK awards by the HR. He was sent to the screen both times and changed his mind. Objectivity rules. ps. It also kept NUFC at 0 points which of course is also the desired outcome.
And there was a third PK shout for NUFC. This time VAR intervene again came to the correct conclusion, which sadly was to finally award a PK. Which Isak calmly buried.
Quansah with several big mistakes today. Perhaps we saw a little glimpse of how this season could have gone a little differently had Liverpool not had such good fortune with injuries to keep players. Starting many second-stringers and after a bit of partying probably, they fall to Chelsea 3-1.
At least the stupid stat of "everytime VVD scores Liverpool win" is now dead and buried and the commentators can't reference it every time he scores or goes close.
Liverpool can 100 percent put together back to back good seasons. 2019 and 2020 they put together back to back 97 and 99 point seasons. The latter more than any other team ever, the former more than any other side except one. The one thing that makes this Liverpool team even more dangerous is Slot is winning with another man's team. Secondly, he is even tempered. Klopps style eventually burns out a team mentally. It happened both in Germany and England. Slot is far more even tempered and seems to have them playing well consistently without the mental strain. In the summer he will buy who he needs for his system. He's retaining Salah. Yes, Trent is a big hit but he's not the whole team. City will be back. Pep won't leave on a low. He'll sort it out. Can't see him having back to back bad seasons and he's starting to turn it around. winning 4 straight, 5 out of the last 6. Quietly turning things around. And likely to end up with the FA cup. We are the wild card. I fully expect City and LFC to do very well, and wouldn't be surprised if either get 90 points. We're tied for the 2nd most draws in the league with 13. Our draws should ideally be 5 or 6 at most. The rest converted to wins. The only defensive stat that is remarkable and hopefully we can maintain is not giving up more than 2 goals in a game and we haven't for many months. The flip side is we should have had way more clean sheets. The defense this season seemed like it would better and some pundits thinking we could challenge Chelsea's record of goals against. I never thought that and I though if we can get lower than 25 we'd be near the top of the league. We lack scoring. 3 teams have scored more and Tottenham is only one less. Scoring more would help the defense.
Im not saying Liverpool can't back up next year, I just think its wild I see people assuming they will do it so easily especially since no one predicted slumps this season from us/City/Spurs/United/Chelsea. All it takes is a Salah injury and Pool drop from 1st to 3rd, and injuries to Salah or VVD see them miss top 4. And stats suggest they won't get the injury run they got this year next year.
Yeah, one of the feelings that underpins this season for me, is one of missed opportunity. The fact that so many typical top-of-the-table rivals fell so badly is just not likely to repeat next season. If we're able to truly challenge next year, it's gonna take some excellent luck me thinks, especially with injuries & form.
Anything can happen as we've seen with City. LFC, top 3 every year since '19 except one year. Slot is obvioulsy smart enough to see that he can't rely on Salah staying fit. They have a lot of fire power. They can beat teams below the top 6 without Salah. They are far from a 1 man team. From what we've seen of Slot he will buy strategically. Even when they fell off last season we couldn't beat them. Put it this way, I'd be more surprised if Liverpool aren't challenging next season. I think the question mark is us. Both City and LFC has shown they can win the thing, we haven't. City won it 4 straight years and I think they just burned out. They'll be back. Its the first time in 5 years they aren't champions and they'll get that hunger again. We are 2 or 3 players short of mid 90s in points asssuming we have a strong mental attitude. We have a fairly solid back line. We need fire power desperately. I'd personally like us to have a solid striker, left winger and DCM as well as someone who can fill in for Odegaard. Those 4 things and we are pretty much there in my humble opinion.
I think we see the points total for champion lower next year as we return to a strong "top 6" and we see a few other teams do what Forest did this year. We just have to make sure we have the right players in and squad depth to cope.