I'm making a note of your dire prediction Martin. You seem to have slipped back into your former self based on performances in our last 2 games which coincidentally, came once Man City took the last CL slot making there very little to play for. Maybe the lads just never wanted to play in the Europa and neither did the manager. Graham Souness on Sky today reminded viewers that once Liverpool won the title in Bob P's last season with 8 games to go they didn't win another. Today was a meaningless game. Players have mentally switched off.
By that logic you could say our great run in April was down to nothing else than us being out of pretty much everything. I know my judgement was hard in my post above but there's really no other way of putting it. If Lucas is our player of the season then there is no hope. Don't get me wrong. I rate him as a squad player, as the John O'Shea of Liverpool (altho not as versatile). That's one thing. A totally different thing is buildning our midfield around him. Time and a again he fails to show up, time and again he fails to win us back the midfield thereby giving us a chance to get back into the squad. Given he's played every single game (or pretty much so) for the past 2 and a half seasons I don't think asking him to step forward is to ask too much. Again, I don't mind him getting 10-15 games/season to give better players a rest, but if we're gonna build the team around him then there's no hope in sight for a long time.
I think it's a good thing to give the youngsters a run out when there's nothing really to play for. But with points at stake when we're still in it, i.e. before the end of October, we can't afford the naiviety of Flanagan yesterday. The one young player I am indeed impressed by and who I think made more progression in 3 months than Lucas did in 3 years is Spearing. I really appreciate his attitude and will to keep it simple yet contributing to our pass'n move footy.
Aurelio was a tad tounge in cheek, but given his display yesterday I'd keep him for quite some time. Unfortunately he's made of glass so can't be kept for that reason. But yesterday I'd say his performance was the best an LB had this season.
The final quarter of the season is always the best if you go back a decade or so. I don't mean to take anything away from the brilliant and great work Kenny's done but it needs to be kept in mind we also need to be up for it on a cold and rainy/snowy december evening away at WBA or Sunderland. I don't think there's any realistic evidence to expect us to finish higher than 6th next season. I don't say that out of negativity but rather based on a thorough analysis of how good, or poor, we really are.
My expectations next season won't be about position, but rather in the hope we'll see a team, a unit, a collective take form. A collective that relies on each other and refuse to take defeat lightly. Nothing would please me more than to see compusure and resolve emerge as our new trademark.
My pre-close season prediction would then be something like this:
1 United/City
2 United/City
3 Chelsea
4 Spurs
5 Arsenal
6 Liverpool