Only really signed up to lurk but these debates are interesting. My two pence worth.
We aren't the same team as last year. We have more depth and we also have more injuries. We have players like Lamela and Rose who are coming back after a great deal of time absent. They cannot and will not perform to the level they were at before injury until that have truly got back into the swing of things, and that's especially true if both also have mental issues for differing reasons (Rsoe with regards to a move and Lamela needing to "feel" right enough to play). We have no Wanyama or Alderweireld, two absolutely key players. We have new players who are trying to bed in. People assume that because Sanchez has hit the ground running that means players like Aurier and Llorente must be shit. It took Lamela three seasons to improve, Sissoko one season to start to improve (and he's still not there yet in my opinion). The new players can't be judged this quickly. We have a Dembele who just can't compete anymore at the same level as he did a few years ago and we have players like Dele and Son who are not displaying the same form as last year, even if they are still contributing.
We had, what? Three more points this time last season? Hardly a crisis. The only real difference is that our poor results mostly came in Europe last year so people just treated the Champion's League as a write off and focused on the league. That is perhaps the way it should be this year as repeated Champion's League qualification should really be the propriety over going all out to win it. This is because right now it is financially beneficial to us with the new stadium coming. I think it would be a much poorer season if we have a decent run in the Champion's League but end up with no trophies and no top four finish than what we have had for the past two years. We also have the added problem of Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea and even the scum it seems in better form as the chasing pack. Competition for top four is harder this year because more points are going to be allocated to the top six sides and not spread around the table as in the past two years. The risk that we will drop out of the top four at stages this season is greater.
The Wembley "hoodoo" is a myth. It is true that Wembley is not like WHL. It will never match up ...and we are essentially playing all our games away this year. But the truth is that our form home and away doesn't reflect Wembley as a problem. We've played poorly and had turgid games both home and away and we've had good results and good performances home and away. The problem lies elsewhere in my opinion.
This brings me to the true issue I think we have. Mentality. Part of this is arrogance, and it is the arrogance of us the fans and also Poch and the players. I'll deal with each in turn.
We as fans have been getting ahead of ourselves for ages now. Over the summer I was listening to fans who would talk as if they expected the league to be won by us this year or next. That we can do it if, variously, we have all our players fit or we sign mega players or rotate effectively whatever else. Our success over the past two years has bread an unhealthy expectation in many fans, whether they are willing to admit it or not. We have had it the best we've had it in decades and a slip behind, especially in two indisputable transitional seasons (because of the stadiums), was always a possibility. Every team has one sooner or later. But now the fans have gotten carried away from themselves and are talking crisis. They are looking to blame everyone from the manager to the players to Levy There must be blame somewhere!
Do you know after the league cup exit to Spam one guy said to me as I was leaving the game that the result didn't matter because it was a meaningless trophy and we were concentrating on winning the league and CL. What? I don't see our trophy cabinet stuffed with league cups won over the PL era so it can't be that meaningless if we have struggled to win it more than twice! Do these kinds of fans realise how damned hard it is to win the league and/or the Champion's League?? That sort of expectation and assumption of "our level" is the sort of talk that comes from fans of the scum, Man U and Liverpool, not us. It really took the biscuit when the home crowd booed the players off after the West Brom result. I felt embarrassed.
That brings me on to Poch. I love the man and I don't think his book did us any harm as the Twitterati are claiming. The timing stank and makes us look silly and small time. Celebrating the great Poch era like he's the new Fergie era was shortsighted when the man has yet to earn us a trophy. But that's as far as it goes. It don't think it has impacted our results at all.
But Poch, as great as he is, is not beyond criticism. In my opinion the real criticism should be reserved for Poch's repeated comments that suggested we were big time and that the PL and CL were our level and the cups were an added luxury but ultimately a bit too small time for us. Well, now that we're sitting in 7th I don't think that kind of arrogance looks so smart. We are unlikely to win the Champion's League this year and we certainly aren't winning the Premier League. We now have to compete for top four, and between getting top four and the league cup and just getting top four I know which I'd prefer. If we don't make top four and don't win the CL Poch is going to look at even bigger wally for that sort of attitude and his comments will come back to haunt him. The reason why I think this was such a mistake is that these sorts of remarks have helped fuel the fan arrogance I talked about above. It has, crucially, also impacted the players. The only games we have lost or drawn where the other side was better on the day have been probably the Scum and Leicester to a lesser degree. I am sure there will be debates over just how good or bad we were against Chelsea and Man United. But the problem is in the games we should have either won or competed the whole game. There is a repeated theme. Burnley, West Brom, Spam, Palace, the Scum away, Leicester first half, Swansea. These are all games where we strolled around as if they were an effort. As if we were took good for them. The big THFC, kings of Europe. In most of these games we've dominated possession, had chances but lack cutting edge and it's always because the players just lack that bit of extra effort that they were putting in last year and are still putting in during European games. I don't buy the idea of a Champion's League hangover as our bad performances don't much conform to that. There is only one explanation. Mentality. The arrogance has gotten to the players.
So while I don't think we are in crisis AT ALL I do think we are at a crossroads and now is a massive test for both the players and also Poch (as a still relatively inexperienced manager). Now is the time for them to show they have the mental strength and character to fight back from a true dip and get back to winning ways. I personally think they have it in them. But I think they need our backing as fans and for us as fans to have reasonable expectations.
All this talk of the wheels coming off and the side breaking up is overreaction I think. We just need to get behind the players and manager and try and get them past this apparent brain fog.
Just my thoughts.
