Exactly. We focus too much on position, but what we should really be focusing on is to get the most amount of points that we can. We may consider a season where we finish 4th on 67 points as being successful, but is it really as good as a season where we finish 5th on 73?
Hmm. It’s a worse performance and a better outcome
No, it is not ‘as good’. It is better.
Only in neither scenario would we have won something, unless you consider 4th a win.
Really? Even if the underlying numbers indicated that the 73 points should have been 78 and the 67 points should have been 60? And I know I am introducing a new parameter here, but is league position the only thing that tells us how well we did? (outside of winning it, obviously)
We would’ve won ‘Qualification to the champions league‘.
Your position in the table is relative to your opposition in any given season. So you could have more or less points than a earlier and finish in a higher or lower position. The position itself is the only constant. So yes for me 4th and 67 points is a better league result than 5th and 73 points.
This year, however, 73 points may not get us 4th. It may just be good enough for 5th. But if you would argue that it would be equally successful as the 2014/15 season where we got 5th on 64 points.
I do get your thinking and I largely agree with a small caveat that for me the league performance can be better or worse but I'd separate that from the league result if you will. So the performance will vary and a 73 point point season is probably better than a 67 point return but the better result will always be whichever one has you finishing higher.
That may end up being a tough ask. It will all depend on how well our remaining teams do. Even if City win the CL and Pool win the EL, we might still not have enough coefficient points to get a 5th CL team, if everyone else crashes out in this round. Spain and France are closer to us than we are to Germany. Spam getting through against Freiburg (hopefully with 2 wins or a win and a draw) will go a long way to us catching up with them (and I'm hoping they concentrate on EL, given they have little chance of 4th or 5th). If all our teams make it to the next round and PSV gets by Dortmund, then we should be good. Italy looks to be a lock for 1st, I don't see France as being a threat, and Spain have already lost 4 teams. So it'll be between us and Germany.
Been invited along to it. They don't play well when I'm there.
The universe would implode because either Spurs would benefit or Harry Kane win a trophy? It's like football's equivalent of the buttered cat paradox.
The thing is that we are good enough to win every one of our remaining games. Whether that will be enough is another story.
"11 points off top. Game in hand. With City, Liverpool and Woolwich to play… you do the maths."
Edit: obviously the maths don't stack up, but it's a humourous thought