7
Good post.
I am not sure how progress is ever measured, other than finishing higher,, which we will, or by acquiring more points.
Agree that the training ground seems to be yielding very little, which might of course be players not listening to instruction.
I don't think Postecoglou is laid back at all. He is just being him. I don't care too much about the personality, Mourinho and Conte aside, but I do care when about one thing.
Since Christmad it feels that we have to rely on moments of brilliance as opposed to just dominating a game, whoever we are facing.
It's also a fact we don't have one player who is consistently very good. Not one. Whether that is Postecoglou, system or me being unfair I don't know.
Yesterday was always going to lose scars if we lost, but to it's the manner of the goals we conceded that is a very big worry.
5th will see Postecoglou comfortably into next season. Anything less and who knows..
There's nothing wrong whatsoever with 5th place, in isolation.
If we'd had a poor start and then surged up the league to finish 5th, that would be grand.
What's happened though is that we had a storming start (
before the squad had had time to fully get to grips with Ange's demands!)
Had an understandable dip in the aftermath of the Chelsea game, then meandered through the remainder of the season hovering around 5th. We only remain there due to that strong start, the reality is that if the season were to continue the chasing pack would catch us and we'd drop down.
That's irrelevant in the immediate term, we'd have to hit the disaster button to drop below 5th prior to the end of the season (though still mathematically possible I think).
So we'll finish 5th. That's fine, I don't care about being in CL next season, I'd be content enough having a good crack at Europa as long as we take it seriously, with the aim of CL qualification, or ideally more than just that, the following year.
Problem is, form carries over. Remember Ramos and 2p8g? We looked pretty good his first season, played some good stuff, battered Woolwich on the way to winning the CC against Chelsea. Then switched off entirely, sleepwalked over the line to finish the season, and sleepwalked straight into the next season. Yes the Keane/Berbatov sales were mitigating factors, but the whole team was dreadful, not like we were playing well and just lacked cutting edge up top.
For an example in the other direction see Leicester, relegation fodder one season, finished strong though and stayed up, carried right on into the next season and didn't stop.
Trajectory matters, and ours is concerning.