I've said many times in recent weeks that people shouldn't get carried away with visions of glory, talk of winning the league or storming through the cups. I even predicted we would go out pretty much where we did in the FA Cup and where it seems we might go out of this. But people don't listen and once again set their hopes far too high and then feel crushed when defeats like this come along. When I urged caution a few weeks ago people rounded on me, one even telling me that I was talking shit for suggesting Poch is right when he says we should just take things game by game rather than getting carried away, yet here we are going through a rough patch during the latter half of the of the season and the usual subjects sit around crushed at a bad result. I just don't understand why people can't learn to be cautious and limit their celebrations for games won or the trophy when/if we actually win the thing, instead of celebrating winning competitions in their mind before we've crossed the finish line.
Anyhow, there's lots to consider right now:-
- Poch's teams have always drifted off late season. Anyone who has observed any of them before us knows this. Therefore it was always a possibility we might struggle a bit in the business end of the season and people should have prepared themselves for it.
- Because of the above, it made sense that with so much on the line in the league, we have to make a tough choice when it comes to rotating the squad. I think it was right that Poch try and rest some of the players that we need in the league, and really the squad depth should have been enough to still give them a better performance than we did. The only question I would raise, that was mentioned above, is whether or not we shouldn't fielded as a strong a side as we did in the group stages if Poch is now worried about tiredness (which is, of course, pure speculation)?
- Statistically teams who compete for the title are far more likely to go out of the cups than win cups. That's always been the case.
- In spite of the above, we are still 2nd. We have a game coming up that we are more likely to win than not and we're still the strongest in the league that we've been in 30 years. However it's done, if we get Champion's League football this season that would be a massive achievement. Poch would meet the expectations placed on his predecessors and, let's face it, the majority of us would have a finish that most of us didn't think likely at the start of the season. We have far, far more chance of CL through the league now than we do through the EL. It is right that Poch treats that as a priority and the counter argument to him playing too strong a side in the early stages against weaker opposition is that back then we did not know we'd be fighting for the league come March.
- Most importantly, we aren't out of this competition yet. Dortmund are the strongest team in this, but they aren't Barca and we aren't Villa. We can still give them a game at our place. Let's have hope. It is possible to still beat them and this team is capable of a comeback, however unlikely it might seems right now. Let's not treat ourselves as out until we actually are.