After spending much of the past two weeks wanting to murder strangers due to events of random football pitches several thousand miles away, I'm trying a new approach - It doesn't work 100% of the time, but I'm trying...
Wasn't something like this inevitable this season..? We've been almost flawless (when it mattered) for two entire seasons now, and I always feared that we'd struggle to maintain that level of excellence for a third straight campaign.
Even without the injuries (that have ravaged both our defense AND subsequently our midfield, decimated our normal game plan and drastically changed how we play the game, everywhere on the pitch - they cannot be underestimated), it was likely that a combination of sheer fatigue, both physical and mental, after 2 solid years barely pausing as we hunted down first the European Cup and then the League title, and then the additional challenges that Covid has wrought upon the league (lack of down-time, no real off season, and now games coming thick and fast, relentlessly), would see our hitherto peerless standards slip a bit... With the injuries, that we're still top of the table speaks largely to our mentality (we're still trying, we're just fucking knackered) and to how much better than everybody else we really are. Without the injuries, even exhausted and lacking our usual sharpness, we'd be pissing this league again.
But, the injuries and everything else did happen and we must deal with it... And add to this, VAR is raping us this season - We could reasonably be 9 points better off were VAR used properly / fairly / consistently in our matches so far this season. So, though I won't be surprised if I'm wrong, and I am confident that if any team can do it, it's us, I do fear that, with all that is conspiring against us now, even we may not have enough to get over the line this year. We'll be there or thereabouts in the end, but losing Virgil and Gomez, and therefore Fabinho and Henderson from their natural positions, AND not having Thiago for so long to start the season may prove a bridge too far, even for us.
And if that happens, it won't be because the hunger is gone, or the players don't care anymore... It'll be because several ridiculous, unprecedented and wholly unforeseeable circumstances combined to royally fuck us this season. That's all. No other team could even almost compete, having lost who we've lost this year... Take just ONE crucial player from the starting line ups of any of the next best three or four teams, and they'd all be mid-table, hoping for UEFA Cup competition next year. And we're without FOUR of our best in their starting positions.
So, I'm hoping for the best whilst somewhat expecting the worst... But I'll tell yiz this - I am 100% confident that (assuming we get everybody back for next season), we will fucking destroy everybody again next year. These lads will be angry starting next year, and eager to show what this year should have been.
We're gonna win EVERYTHING next season.
If there is a next season.
Wasn't something like this inevitable this season..? We've been almost flawless (when it mattered) for two entire seasons now, and I always feared that we'd struggle to maintain that level of excellence for a third straight campaign.
Even without the injuries (that have ravaged both our defense AND subsequently our midfield, decimated our normal game plan and drastically changed how we play the game, everywhere on the pitch - they cannot be underestimated), it was likely that a combination of sheer fatigue, both physical and mental, after 2 solid years barely pausing as we hunted down first the European Cup and then the League title, and then the additional challenges that Covid has wrought upon the league (lack of down-time, no real off season, and now games coming thick and fast, relentlessly), would see our hitherto peerless standards slip a bit... With the injuries, that we're still top of the table speaks largely to our mentality (we're still trying, we're just fucking knackered) and to how much better than everybody else we really are. Without the injuries, even exhausted and lacking our usual sharpness, we'd be pissing this league again.
But, the injuries and everything else did happen and we must deal with it... And add to this, VAR is raping us this season - We could reasonably be 9 points better off were VAR used properly / fairly / consistently in our matches so far this season. So, though I won't be surprised if I'm wrong, and I am confident that if any team can do it, it's us, I do fear that, with all that is conspiring against us now, even we may not have enough to get over the line this year. We'll be there or thereabouts in the end, but losing Virgil and Gomez, and therefore Fabinho and Henderson from their natural positions, AND not having Thiago for so long to start the season may prove a bridge too far, even for us.
And if that happens, it won't be because the hunger is gone, or the players don't care anymore... It'll be because several ridiculous, unprecedented and wholly unforeseeable circumstances combined to royally fuck us this season. That's all. No other team could even almost compete, having lost who we've lost this year... Take just ONE crucial player from the starting line ups of any of the next best three or four teams, and they'd all be mid-table, hoping for UEFA Cup competition next year. And we're without FOUR of our best in their starting positions.
So, I'm hoping for the best whilst somewhat expecting the worst... But I'll tell yiz this - I am 100% confident that (assuming we get everybody back for next season), we will fucking destroy everybody again next year. These lads will be angry starting next year, and eager to show what this year should have been.
We're gonna win EVERYTHING next season.
If there is a next season.