Last week I wrote an article talking about the objectives for this season, and what our expectations as fans were. The article started like this…
‘As you all know, we are rapidly approaching the end of February. We are currently 3rd in the league with 13 games to go, and we are still involved in 2 cup competitions. For all the recent talk about whether Mauricio Pochettino is the right man to lead us to trophies (I personally believe that he still is), ultimately results are what he will be judged on. On the back of a rather successful league campaign last year, but with a long trophy drought still ongoing, MP has the backing of most THFC fans, but pressure is mounting on him to deliver a trophy sooner rather than later. Accepting that we probably can’t win the 3 competitions we’re still in, we technically have 4 distinct objectives left to chase this year: finishing in the top 4, winning the Premier League, winning the Europa League and winning the FA Cup.’
The article went on to list the merits and downsides of all 4 objectives, and asked your opinion on what we should prioritise. A week later, a lot of that discussion has been settled, as we now only have 2 competitions to focus on, and at worse a very manageable workload of 15 games left.
There really isn’t any need to pick and choose now. However, on the back of a convincing thrashing of Stoke, I suppose the question still stands: what would be considered an acceptable finish to the season, given where we are?
My personal opinion is that we have little to no chance of catching Chelsea, and we shouldn’t try. There is no point in going for wins at all costs against top 4 rivals now. I would be quite happy to revert to being difficult to beat against direct rivals, take the draws (even if that implies not improving our record against top 6 teams – a worthless statistic taken out of context for me) and try to go for wins against smaller teams.
This should help us consolidate a top 4 finish and hopefully secure CL football next year. I also believe that there is no real advantage in finishing 2nd over 3rd, as neither deliver a trophy nor both mean direct CL qualification.
If anything, finishing above Arsenal would be nice (wherever that may be), but I think MP needs to think about the bigger picture now and leave emotion out of it. He needs to take a page out of Mourinho’s book (who, for all of his detractors, has already won the first trophy available to him at Man U), and be very tactical about what objectives he is going to chase. It may not be romantic for the average fan, but ultimately it is probably what is best for the club in the long term.
In parallel, the FA Cup represents our best chance at a trophy and should be taken very seriously from now on. I believe we are serious contenders for it, and we should make a proper run at it now. So there you have it: a good season for me would be a top 4 finish, and an FA Cup triumph would make this season fantastic.
What are your thoughts/expectations?
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