The race for 4th..

Hatch99

Right, I'll be honest, I think we are playing for 4th for the remainder of the season. All the talk of being title contenders was fine, but if I'm honest, I think we might struggle to get 4th now. If Chelsea continue to struggle, we have a great chance, but if they sort themselves out, and get back in form, we could be fcuked !

If they win tonight at Bolton, which is a tough place to go, we are really up against it. We have Blackburn (a), Bolton(h), Sunderland (a), Blackpool (a) and Arsenal at the lane coming up, while Chelsea have Bolton (a), Sunderland (a), Liverpool (h), Fulham(a) and Birmingham (h). This is a vital stage of the season if we are to hang in there in the chase for 4th.

My worry is how we badly lack a top striker. Pav,Crouch and JD
(he's been injured I know) have all failed to produce at the high level that we need this season. Man Utd have Berbatov in top form, City have Tevez, Arsenal have RVP coming in to form at a vital time, and yet we dont seem to have that striker who can give me the confidence to think, yes he'll score again this week.

VDV and Bale have been priceless this season in the goals they have scored, and it's vital they continue that form to keep us in the hunt.

It's time we broke the bank and made a mega signing, a centre forward of true class. And if we dont, I fear we will miss out on CL football for next year (assuming we dont win it) which would be an awful pity considering the night we have had this season in Europe.

Discuss...

golfball37

We should aim to finish ahead of Man City and ignore Chelsea imo. We are better than City. If we concentrate on this and let the chips fall where they may we'll finish in the top 4.

yiddo59

Think we'll be battling for 4th with the goons! Chelsea will rally and get back into the race but the goons dodgy defence will do for them in the long run. If we get some quality in up front we have a good chance of 4th but then again that should have been done last August.

Hatch99

golfball37 wrote: »

We should aim to finish ahead of Man City and ignore Chelsea imo. We are better than City. QUOTE]

I disagree. Goals win games, and when it comes down to it, city will have better options than we do which will win them more games. It's only natural considering the financial power they hold, such as signing Dzeko.

COCKNEY KEV

i think if we finish 4th we are doing well ,we are short about 4 real quality players and we are still soft at the back and too many mistakes costing us points, but the future is looking good.

everdead.ie

I was wondering if we could try get van nistelroy & money for Pav?
Sorry wrong thread but ya I think we are outsiders for fourth this year but then we were last year as well I think if we can start scoring more we will have a better chance Defoe really should be scoring but it just seems his shots are drawn to the keeper Pav is our best striker IMO but he can't hold the ball up he works better with 2 up front

Hatch99

COCKNEY KEV wrote: »

i think if we finish 4th we are doing well ,we are short about 4 real quality players and we are still soft at the back and too many mistakes costing us points, but the future is looking good.

I think as the season has gone on, we have improved at the back, it's up top were we lack something.

keane=cock

dropping points early in the season has cost us dearly with city really steppin up the pace. i think 4th is the priority really. a cup would be nice too but i cant see us winning the league unless some drastic changes happen at other clubs as in berba breaking both his and rooneys leg in a training accident and something similar at ARSEnal and city. chelsea look like a shot team at the min.

tomo75

I think 4th is well within our reach. I trust Harry - before the end of last season you would have got good odds on us finishing 4th having to get a result against the goons and russians. City blow hot and cold. They will beat utd but get beaten by blackpool. The russians are more worried about the CL. We did miss a good chance against utd the other week but utd have to play the russians twice!

I really think Harry will pull something out of the top drawer. Either by getting the guys we have going again or bringing in somebody to do the job.

Hatch99

Chelsea on such a poor run and here they are going 3 points ahead of us, Im tellin ye, we are severely up against it now.

everdead.ie

Hatch99 wrote: »

Chelsea on such a poor run and here they are going 3 points ahead of us, Im tellin ye, we are severely up against it now.

Ya too many draws should of had wins against a number of teams that would have us so much better off

PVincent

It was said by Harry and a lot of other emminent football pundits , that this season would be about learning to cop with Champs League football and making sure we get back there again. We are halfway thro what so far has been in my long yeras supporting Spurs , one of the most fantastic ever. We have adapted amazingly well to the top table in Europe and that was when we had a bucket load of injuries . We have a bit of a lull just at the moment but I feel confident that we will pull thro this spell of poor games ( altho a clean sheet against Manure is always welcome ) and one good win ,hopefully next weekend in the FA Cup , will set us up again on a decent run of form .

There will be many twists yet... I do feel we are still trying to find a fluid balance with Van the Man in the team. He was so deep at times on Sat that we were compltely out of shape ....we will get it right in time

Bobeagleburger

I think it will be between City and Spurs for the 4th spot.

Chelsea have had their bad spell, I think they will finish stronger. Plus they've had their main men Drogba (malaria) and Lampard (injured) off form or injured.

I think Arsenal will stay with united until the end and I expect city to slip back a bit.

If VdV and Bale stay fit Spurs are in with a great chance, if not it could be a problem.

The CL will play a big part too. A longer run in that may hamper league results imo. The same could be said for the other 3 clubs of course although the others are more experienced in that regard.

It should be a fascinating finish to the season.

Hatch99

PVincent wrote: »

There will be many twists yet...

I agree. Although with Chelse back firing by the looks of this, City spending to beat the maker, and Arsenal scoring for fun, I have my doubts about our hopes of finishing in the top 4.

Let's hope Im wrong, and we sign Suarez this week

Mr. Guappa

It will come down to us and City for 4th again this year. Arsenal will stick on United's tail and Chelsea will bounce back and claim at least 3rd.

An extended Europa League run for City would be great news for us, it is very difficult to follow up a Thursday night European game with a good performance on the Sunday in the League. I can see it coming down to the last 2 or 3 games once again.

RichMc70

After Chelsea's win tonight, this is how it stands

1. Man. Utd. P: 22 Pts: 48
2. Arsenal P: 23 Pts: 46
3. Man. City P: 24 Pts: 45
4. Chelsea P: 23 Pts: 41
5. Spurs P: 23 Pts: 38

Assuming that Chelsea have started to pull themselves out of their bad run, we really need to be improving results if we are to start catching the teams above.

I think we have dropped too many points away from home. So far this season we have dropped points away to West Brom.(2), West Ham(3), Man. Utd.(3), Bolton(3), Birmingham(2), Everton(3) and Newcastle(2). With the exception of Man. Utd. fixture I would have expected us to be at least 6 points better off from the other fixtures, than we currently are.

I think we're going to find it very hard to get Top Four this season.

We won't catch Man. Utd.
Arsenal may have a stutter but not enough for us to catch them.
Man. City may start to falter late on in the season, but possibly too late for us.
Chelsea, I now expect to go on a winning run, which will push them up above Arsenal eventually but not enough to catch Utd.

I'll take the FA Cup and 5th spot.

SuprSi

Just one thing about above - City have played one more game than everyone else. I still think all of the teams in the race are playing better than us at the moment meaning we're going to really struggle. Currently, unless fortunes change, we're going to have to keep winning to stay in the chase, which is unfortunate. A couple of bad results from us, without the same happening to the other teams will mean we could be out of the race pretty quickly.

RichMc70

SuprSi wrote: »

Just one thing about above - City have played one more game than everyone else.

Thanks Si, for pointing out the error. Have amended that now.

mushykeogh

Plenty of twists still to come i reckon. But we really do need to get the finger out now, we need a series of good results over the next five or six weeks.

Were still a good bit short of teams like chelsea and utd. We go to bolton and lose 4 -2, chelsea go there, never look in trouble and ease to a 4 - 0 win.

Hatch99

RichMc70 wrote: »

I'll take the FA Cup and 5th spot.

On a serious note, would you take the FA Cup ahead of 4th ?

SuprSi

Absolutely not. I know cup glory is huge for the team, and winning the FA Cup would be fantastic, but to me the only acceptable result this season is finishing 4th or higher. Anything less, and the team/club has not done enough to keep up with everyone else. I know City have spent big, but they're really the only team that's done anything like that. If we get a decent striker, we have a chance of getting 4th. If we don't, I think we can realistically forget about it because we just don't score enough goals.

I agree with mushy though - there will be plenty of twists. Who would've thought we'd get 4th after losing away to Sunderland last season? Even if we do badly over the next few weeks, we could still have a chance. The difference is we will be relying on other teams losing ground rather than us catching it up, which we don't want.

Hatch99

SuprSi wrote: »

Anything less, and the team/club has not done enough to keep up with everyone else. .

That's my worry, that we have failed to kick on from last seasons great achievement.

SuprSi

Hatch99 wrote: »

That's my worry, that we have failed to kick on from last seasons great achievement.

Exactly. We got into the CL, have done really, really well, probably beyond what anyone expected, but have not done anything to keep us up there. Harry and the players worked wonders last year, but the stakes were raised by City meaning the least Spurs had to do was get a squad capable of matching the other top teams. For the most part this has happened, though without a really top striker it may well never happen. We still have almost a week left but I don't see anything major happening, and as a result I don't think we'll get 4th this season as we haven't bridged the gap between the rest of the top teams.

It's amazing how one player could potentially make the difference, and although Levy isn't a gambler, if he were to gamble on this, with the net result being another season in the CL, it would be worth a fortune.

RichMc70

Hatch99 wrote: »

On a serious note, would you take the FA Cup ahead of 4th ?

As things stand right now, Yes I would.

Of course, I'd love it if we can get fourth spot again, but imo I feel we don't have the goal striking power to gain those additional points to push us into the top four again.

My opinion could change if we sign a top striker before the january window closes.

Hatch99

RichMc70 wrote: »

As things stand right now, Yes I would.

Of course, I'd love it if we can get fourth spot again, but imo I feel we don't have the goal striking power to gain those additional points to push us into the top four again.

My opinion could change if we sign a top striker before the january window closes.

I agree as per my opening post. We have a week to make things happen...

2nd Row Donkey

What a difference a few weeks make. Only a short time ago we had the tabloids singing our praises for pur cavalier approach to CL qualification and our assault on the usual title contenders.

The problem as I see it was that up until mid December we were getting the results by outgunning the opposition. Suddenly the goals dry up and were out of the title race. Granted the defense is better these days. However, we failed to take advantage of our contenders slumps. For me the Chelsea result was the one were we missed out chance to pull away.

Utd and chelsea will hit top gear from now until for the remainder of the season which is only 16 games to go -they've had their 'slump'. We on the other hand are in the middle of our slump now. Lets hope city have theirs during the run in like last years and maybe, just maybe we can sneek fourth.

The best thing that could happen us now would be to beat Milan over the 2 legs, that would give us such a boost and help us kick on in the PL

Hatch99

Picking up on what Rich said in another thread, we need to 100% focus everything we have on getting 4th now. Being honest, i dont think we will get it but **** it, lets give it a right good shot. Fcuk the meelan games, I'd take a beating there if it means we have a better chance on the run in to get 4th.

Yes I think we have fcuked up by not getting a top centre forward and centre half, and I think it will be our downfall, but I'll leave that for another day.

Massive game wed night, badly need to get back on track and 3 points a must to keep in the runnning.

everdead.ie

Thinking maybe we should go 442 with VDV on the left big game.

yiddo59

Hatch99 wrote: »

Picking up on what Rich said in another thread, we need to 100% focus everything we have on getting 4th now. Being honest, i dont think we will get it but **** it, lets give it a right good shot. Fcuk the meelan games, I'd take a beating there if it means we have a better chance on the run in to get 4th.

.

We,ve as much chance of winning the CL as we have of getting 4th.

Hatch99

yiddo59 wrote: »

We,ve as much chance of winning the CL as we have of getting 4th.

You reckon. I disagree. Win 3 or 4 on the bounce now and we are right back in the running for top 4. Do we have the balls to do that, we shall see.

Do I think we have the capability to go through the possible draws, including AC and win the CL, no fcuking chance if Im honest.

yiddo59

Hatch99 wrote: »

You reckon. I disagree. Win 3 or 4 on the bounce now and we are right back in the running for top 4. Do we have the balls to do that, we shall see.

Do I think we have the capability to go through the possible draws, including AC and win the CL, no fcuking chance if Im honest.

As much to do with strikers (or lack of) as with balls I think!