79 points for 4th...is this an anomaly?

[zirc]

We had a great season and finished on 72 points this year, which would have been enough for CL qualification in all but one of the last five years and all but two of the previous ten. Yet we came in 7 points off that elusive fourth spot.

My question is, is this season an aberration? Will 70ish points be enough to take 4th in coming years, as in years past, or has the standard at the lower half of the league become so relatively poor that it's going to require 75-80 points for top 4 going forward? If so, what do we need to target such a total?

 

[Fuleco]

There were so much tosh in the league this year.

4 teams stayed up even though they didn't get the required 40 point target.

 

[Lewisefc92]

If we can manage 72 points again next season then I dont think we will be too far off. Looking back at some games this season which we only got a point from it is quite possible for us to reach 80 next season.

 

[weaf]

I think 13th place got 40 points this year! Next season will be interesting, who knows what will happen. You'll have the usual 'stars' of the World Cup making the move to The Premiership..most of them will do sod all.

 

[orchard]

There were so much tosh in the league this year.

4 teams stayed up even though they didn't get the required 40 point target.

The weird thing for me is most this 'tosh' invested substantially at the beginning of the season, no ? A lot of people here expected a lot more competition from the 'lower' Premiership than we got, me included.

 

[Fuleco]

The weird thing for me is most this 'tosh' invested substantially at the beginning of the season, no ? A lot of people here expected a lot more competition from the 'lower' Premiership than we got, me included.

Yeah the three clubs who went down all paid decent money for strikers that scored one goal between them in the league.

 

[orchard]

Yeah the three clubs who went down all paid decent money for strikers that scored one goal between them in the league.

Shocking stat that like. Maybe too much pressure on incumbents, or something. Wolfsnipple looked okay and keen at the start of the season...

 

[zirc]

To be honest with the extra games from Europa league I think we'd do well to maintain our current points total.(especially if we can't keep Lukaku, or replace his 16 goals)

The thing is I don't see any of the current top 4 falling off, aside from Liverpool (but don't think they will be so much worse that they'd be say 10 points worse than last year). Think we really need to target 76+ points next year which much just be a bridge too far considering our finances and squad size.

 

[Fuleco]

Shocking stat that like. Maybe too much pressure on incumbents, or something. Wolfsnipple looked okay and keen at the start of the season...

Scored with his first ever Premier League shot (against us FFS) and never scored again.

Something beautiful about that.

 

[orchard]

Scored with his first ever Premier League shot (against us FFS) and never scored again.

Something beautiful about that.

Jag's doesn't like this stat like...

 

[chicoazul]

Scored with his first ever Premier League shot (against us FFS) and never scored again.

Something beautiful about that.

Everton that.

 

[Ashtonian]

This is the very reason why we cannot be disappointed about this season.

Fact is despite ifs and buts we weren't ever going to finish in the top 4 this season, despite what games you want to go back and change. 79 points for 4th is basically setting standards too high for us in future so we need to rely on the standards dropping again or at least more teams dropping points.

Listen, the team that finished 4th this season was top of the league for months. 79 points also suggests come the final game that the team finishing with them was in the title race at some point (barring a runaway leader all season) so as i have said before we had a champions league season, the bar was sadly set even higher. Plus consider the team who finished there splashed out 40 odd million on a world class player just to maintain that, Chelsea spent 40 million at least in january, liverpool spent 50 million in the summer, city spent whatever they spent and the teams below us came up with 100 million and 67 million respectfully.

So yeah, if these are the standards we have to reach, personally i think we will never match them and that could well be the glass ceiling that we are facing. No matter how well we do, the rich boys all do a little bit better.

We should be proud of the team, and face reality that the money in the league will always keep us at arms length

 

[weaf]

I personally think we will stay in and around the Europa positions. We're comfortably better than eighth and below and unfortunately everyone around us will probably spunk a shed load of money on new players. I'm not saying this with blue tinted specs but the one club who I can see dropping the most is Liverpool.

 

[Blue Cheese]

It's a bit crap that we didn't qualify on that total. It's not going to get any easier, I can't see Utd having another season like this. For what we have spent in comparison finishing 5th is excellent going. the fact we are disappointed not to finish higher shows the progress we made last season under Martinez.

I think the manager has the talent to take us further but we are never going to be able to compete financially. Sometimes I just have faith that Martinez will build a team rather than individuals who cost a bomb. The fact we are debating whether our top scorer would be a good permanent acquisition speaks volumes on how we operate on a financial level.

 

[deipnosophist]

The EPL is a microcosm of real life. The 'middle class' has been eviscerated. The rich have got immeasurably richer, the poor have stayed that way, and the middle class is well on their way to meeting the latter.
Extrapolating my sociological analogy; in the future, expect the top (ie richest ) clubs to be 80 points or over for CL. Expect the majority ('poor') to be 30-45.
It's neo-liberal economics 'trickle down' theory (aka serfdom) in action, unfolding before your eyes