SteveAWOL
Colin Calderwood
Indeed.
Plus his Achilles heal makes it far less likely that one of the continental giants will tap him up.
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Hugo Lloris
- Thread starter charlietheyid
- Start date
Plus his Achilles heal makes it far less likely that one of the continental giants will tap him up.
El Guepardo
Rafael Van Der Vaart
Days like today will encourage Lloris to stay. Now we need to follow that up with three points at the Liberty Stadium next weekend. We need to really pursue top 4, is there a reason that we can't finish top 4 this season? Especially as Chelsea, so far, look to be all over the place.
No reason. Anyone of them could hit a patch like Chelsea have. United are top of the league FFS.
Maltese Falcon
Niko Kranjcar
Yes there is actually... the age of the players...
There is a very good reason why league champions invariably have an average age of around 27 - 29. Because you need experience to achieve consistency, to grind out results when you are not at your best, to summon inner strength when things are going against you.
We have some talented individuals but they WILL be inconsistent. We will have wonderful days like yesterday as well as others like Leicester. To raise expectations beyond this would be totally unrealistic.
Let's not get carried away by one, albeit fantastic, performance.
El Guepardo
Rafael Van Der Vaart
I didn't say that we would win the league.
Maltese Falcon
Niko Kranjcar
You're right but the concept applies equally to top 4, IMO
alekaras
The ITK of IDK
Only one? We have been the better team (and at a minimum haven't been outplayed) in every match this season, including our reserve side against the Scum. That's 9 games. When was the last time we could say that for any 9 game stretch? As @ElGuepardo said, we didn't say we'll win the league, but going by our performance in the first 20% of our games, I wouldn't consider top 4 out of the realm of possibility. Not saying I expect it, but wouldn't be surprised if it happened.
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
Might need to be top 3 next season, as Italy is very close to overtaking England in the co-efficients.
markysimmo
Johnny nice-tits
English teams are pretty pathetic in the CL and have been for a while
NaijaSpurs
Rafael Van Der Vaart
I think you are right, as Alan Hansen said, 'you cannot win anything with kids'.
Also to do with teams not taking the EL seriously/not doing well in the EL
El Guepardo
Rafael Van Der Vaart
We need to take the Europa League more seriously, particularly in the latter stages. If we don't try to win the competition, having qualified from the group, then we may as well play a wholly kids team for the whole competition and admit that we don't care.
thfcsteff
Terry Dyson
Plus mentality comes with experience which can both occur despite youth.
Lost Mango
Allan Nielsen
According to Sky EPL is guaranteed 4 for the 2016/17 Champions League but a repeat of last year's results this year would see a shift to Italy for 2017/18.
CL co-efficients explained
Spur of the moment
Frederic Kanoute
Begs the question, what IS the youngest ever team to win the PL? We know that in the 1950s the Busby Babes won the old Football League with an average age of around 21-22 but the competition was vastly different back then. Nearer to modern times, Fergie's Class of '92 - Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Giggs, the Neville brothers - went on to win the PL in 1994, not sure what the average age of that squad was though.
Just found this article dated 3/8/2015 which tends to support Maltese's argument:
“You can’t win anything with kids"
20 years on... was Alan Hansen right?
'Only five Premier League sides have won the title with an average age under 27 - and no side has achieved that feat for nine years'
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/9930930/you-cant-win-anything-with-kids-premier-league-winners-rarely-feature-many-young-players
El Guepardo
Rafael Van Der Vaart
alekaras
The ITK of IDK
Tell that to the 1995 CL champions Ajax and the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, just to name a couple.
Gazza
Nick Barmby
And what about all of the winners outside of those two teams?
NaijaSpurs
Rafael Van Der Vaart
I presume you you failed to detect the sarcasm in my comments. Alan Hansen made that comment on Match of the Day on the first Saturday of the season when Fergie played a bunch of kids - Beckham, Scholes, Giggs & co and they lost 3:1 to Villa. They went on to win the league that season (and possibly the double if I remember rightly)