C
Cookachoo
Guest
Not 'suddenly'. There has been significant change in leadership, if not in personnel. Applying the same logic to them as I did with AVB at Spurs, that could either breathe new life into the team or make things worse. All jokes aside I don't feel Liverpool are the 8th best team in the country. That said, I don't feel they are the 4th best team in the country either.
But in my opinion Spurs have now lost; A) Their star striker, B) Their best player, C) Their best defender. They have two strikers on their books, which are Defoe and Dos Santos. They have sold 6 first team players in total and replaced them with just two. It is 19 days to the closing of the transfer window, and on top of all that they have a new manager.
Arsenal look set to lose RVP and Song. Two players their entire system is based around and they relied heavily on last season. Perhaps Walcott too. Cazorla is a very good signing, as is Podolski but neither are like-for-like signings and I don't feel either will win the amount of games RVP/Song did.
I can see both of those having disjointed seasons next year as they look to rebuild. Liverpool themselves were the same after the loss of the likes of Alonso, Mascherano and Torres. This summer, however, Liverpool have lost none of their key players. Agger, Reina, Suarez, Skrtel were all linked with moves away and I was expecting at least 2 of those gone this summer. That doesn't look likely now. Add to that a couple of half-decent new signings. Its been pretty unspectacular.
Its just a hunch based on those facts. Nothing more, nothing less. I could be wrong, I probably will be. But thats why its just a prediction.
EDIT**
I stand by the player by player comparison, I recall that. But I'm hazy on the rest. Downing based on his consecutively strong seasons at Villa, looked a value for money signing at the time. Based on last year, the Reds i associate with don't seem to think there were any standout candidates for player of the year, they were just consistently very poor by their own standards. Downing is no different.
As for them finishing above us, I don't place great importance on it, though I know some do. One of Dalglish' many highlighted downfalls is that post-February, their focus seemed to switch from the league to the cup games as it became clear that was their best chance of getting something from a woeful season.
