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Manchester United

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United have had 8 penalties in the league this season while Leicester have had 10 , city have 7 Liverpool 6 so its a bit of myth this penalty thing , our main problem is our squad depth is not good enough
 
catcherintherye said:
I think I mentioned to you in the autumn I could see this season being very very tight. I haven't looked into it, but I'd imagine the gap between say 2nd to 10th will never have been tighter. I did something around half way through, and basically if you took the 1-4, 1-6 & 1-8 measurements across 25 season it was like 5 occasions where it had been tighter at any of those categories.

Whats happened since, is City have emerged as an elite team. I think we both said, really only City or Liverpool had the sort of run in them City have produced. You kind of get the sense City were a year or 2 ahead of Liverpool in their journey, so it was either going to be like a Liverpool final swansong for this team, or City's next evolution would be a bit quicker. I mean fair is fair, I didn't think we would see an elite team this season, so while I got Liverpool right, I felt we'd only see what City are doing now next season.

What is noteworthy is that that the season hasn't broken into groupings at all. You kind of thought, approaching 10 games left that it would be clear who are challenging for the title, who were top 4, who weregoing for Europa League and who weretrying to hold position inthe top half. Outside of the title challenger (as nobody will get close) they are all melded in together. There have no doubt been some short term factors (injuries for Leicester) but it's always seemed to be, once a team has got themselves into a great position, they haven't quite kicked on. We are probably in that bracket too. So it's made for a really fascinating season.

You rightly pointed out about European games. In fairness aside from City (who also really only kicked in quite a big into that no European game run) none of the sides have really pulled away and put that distance between the "top 6" and "the rest" when they had the European break. What that shows to me, in my view of course, is that actually the reverse may be true, and they may end up having some real fatigue challenges at the back end. Like if you can't make hay while everyone if fatigued, good luck when you get more fatigued and the rest of the league stay fresh.

I do think as I said last time there's a medium term issue here too. The top 6 was being caught before the pandemic, and given it has impacted them disproportionately more than other sides you can see a closing up of the gap. Cotrary to certain reports, I also think fans returning will help the sides outside of the big 6 as a rule, as they tend to rely on fans a little more for home advantage (the chaos of fans is in essence a bit of an equaliser).

So it's certainly interesting, and I wouldn't rule out United grinding to a bit of a halt with the European games being unrelenting, and undoubtedly pressures around the international games growing too.
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Yeah all really fair, I did think Liverpool & City (and probably spurs) would pull away as city have this season & without that it has to be the most stacked race for top 4.

Regarding fans - i'm not so sure, I think you have seen neutralisation of home form this year & I think that (statistically it has too) impact on those who win less games at home; the other part of it is a combination of VAR and fan influence has impacted disproportionally on the traditional big 6, but there is no gaurentee that the return of fans automatically restores that.
 
number4. said:
Yeah all really fair, I did think Liverpool & City (and probably spurs) would pull away as city have this season & without that it has to be the most stacked race for top 4.

Regarding fans - i'm not so sure, I think you have seen neutralisation of home form this year & I think that (statistically it has too) impact on those who win less games at home; the other part of it is a combination of VAR and fan influence has impacted disproportionally on the traditional big 6, but there is no gaurentee that the return of fans automatically restores that.
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And in fairness City have pulled away, but nobody else has really.

I'm not convined on the above mate. I remember when no fans happened and the general consensus was it would be poorer teams affected. I mean there's no easy and fast rule and there are exceptions but overall I think I go with that, especially when you see sides like Sheffield United struggling as they are.

Of course everyone gets an advantage with home fans, and a disadvantage when facing away fans, so it's more a debate about scale compared to the performance levels. I look at some teams, like say Spurs and Arsenal, or even us, and you could sya "oh well fans make it better" butmaybe if we are playing that badly fans just compound the poor performance?

Either way, the general trajectory outside of City is now very clearly to the league becoming more condensed. For 5 other sides, who are gambling on 3 CL places available, this is a bit of a disaster if 1-2 of those spots are take up.
 

catcherintherye said:
And in fairness City have pulled away, but nobody else has really.

I'm not convined on the above mate. I remember when no fans happened and the general consensus was it would be poorer teams affected. I mean there's no easy and fast rule and there are exceptions but overall I think I go with that, especially when you see sides like Sheffield United struggling as they are.

Of course everyone gets an advantage with home fans, and a disadvantage when facing away fans, so it's more a debate about scale compared to the performance levels. I look at some teams, like say Spurs and Arsenal, or even us, and you could sya "oh well fans make it better" butmaybe if we are playing that badly fans just compound the poor performance?

Either way, the general trajectory outside of City is now very clearly to the league becoming more condensed. For 5 other sides, who are gambling on 3 CL places available, this is a bit of a disaster if 1-2 of those spots are take up.
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I suppose my argument is one of simple probability - the better the team, the more they have the ball on the opposition third. This means there are just more chances for a crowd to influence a ref

It's the old fergie in the 90s argument, they got more pens than anyone else, primarily because they were attacking the opposition more.
 

Just before they beat us 3-1, AFTV were telling us to “Take one for the team, please loose this match so Ole is still at the wheel, we can then have a nice international break and then give them a horrible Christmas”.

Yet he still is!. The guy is clueless and has only won a league title which is the same strength as League 1. He got Cardiff relegated in last place in 2014, the last time that happened until then was 1934 in Division 3 (South). Cardiff had to apply for re-election to the league.

In a historical perspective, Franklin D. Roosevelt was in his first year as U.S. President and Elvis wasn’t even born yet.
 
number4. said:
I suppose my argument is one of simple probability - the better the team, the more they have the ball on the opposition third. This means there are just more chances for a crowd to influence a ref

It's the old fergie in the 90s argument, they got more pens than anyone else, primarily because they were attacking the opposition more.
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But they've still got more penalties.

The argument I suppose is more, the better team wil win with or without crowd. Sometimes if an opponent has a crowd, the randomness can affect play. It's a curveball.
 
anxiouswarrior said:
United have had 8 penalties in the league this season while Leicester have had 10 , city have 7 Liverpool 6 so its a bit of myth this penalty thing , our main problem is our squad depth is not good enough
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Some fans (at the moment and for the last 50 years) are somewhat precious (RS and United).

Imagine only being 2nd in the League and in penalties given. I'd hate that.

BTW, as Liam would sing 'Stop crying your heart out'.

www.bbc.co.uk

Manchester United borrow £60m to help deal with financial impact of coronavirus

Manchester United borrowed £60m to help cushion the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, their second-quarter figures show.
www.bbc.co.uk
 

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