Premier League 19/20 Season

Looked like relegation battle was over 24 hours ago.

Lyons was great at getting a short term burst of very good form out of a mediocre team when he took over as manager anywhere. In the first year or year and a half so after taking over a team, his relentlessly positive, media friendly attitude would get excellent results. His teams would ride a wave of confidence. Offaly won the Leinster title in his first year in 1997 and the National League in 1998. Dublin won the Leinster title in his first year in 2002 and were only stopped by that infamous Ray Cosgrove missed free off the post in the semi-final against Armagh.

Then his teams would suffer an unexpected defeat, and that would be pretty much it. In Offaly's case it was a thumping by Meath in the 1998 Leinster championship.  In Dublin's it was defeat by Laois in 2003. He'd stay on for another year or two, but the team's form would never properly recover from those defeats, and before long the players would end up thinking he was a giant twat and a parting of the ways would become inevitable.

Rodgers had some great runs of form early in his tenure at Liverpool, Celtic and Leicester. He improved those teams beyond all recognition. Liverpool looked like world beaters in 2014 and then you know what happened. And that was basically it. Although Celtic were in a league where winning the title was a given, under him they won the treble and went unbeaten, but by even the end of his second season there were rumblings that all was not well and by the time he left there weren't that many sorry to see the back of him.

And now it's happening again at Leicester. A superb run of form followed by a collapse. I think it was the 4-0 defeat by Liverpool at Christmas that ruined Leicester.

You couldn't say Lyons or Rodgers were terrible managers, because they're not, but they're only good in the short term. I'd guess it's because they are essentially gimmicky in their motivational techniques, sort of Tony Robbins or Deepak Chopra-esque. For a while they're motivational gurus, and then they turn into Alan Partridge.

Bournmouth had looked lost since returning, but the last week or so has given them serious hope. Villa also have brought themselves back into it with a good win yesterday.

The other outcome is that Brighton have now been dragged back into it, although they have remaining fixtures that a five point return wouldn't be a surprise, although I happen to feel they are really treading water in then Premier League. 

A win for West Ham or Watford on Friday, and something for Brighton on Thursday will leave it between Bournemouth, Villa, and one of the London Clubs for the final two spots.

For a club that hadn't won the league in 30 years, records were always going to come secondary once the job was done which was winning the title.

It begs me to ask the question and it's something I really can't get my head around, what is Klopp's obsession with not rotating his squad.

They were at home to Burnley at the weekend and away at Arsenal tonight, why the f**k wouldn't you give your fringe players 90 minutes to actually see how they'll cope as opposed to restoring to what he always does when a key player is missing by shoehorning one of the 13/14 players he only tends to use into an unfamiliar position because he simply doesn't trust the lads beyond that.

Klopp was chasing the 100 points total for sure.

That’s the only reason he was playing his strongest team since the league was won.

I can see him rotating for the next 2 games now that 100 pts can’t be achieved.

 

Win the last two and lift the title to "99 red balloons", finally laying the ghost of Pepe Reina at Sunderland to rest

 

 

 

IMO He had to go for the 100+ pts - it’s a record that will probably never be beaten. 

With no FA cup or champ league it was something else to go for.

In hindsight it would have been better to rotate the squad and I believe he will do that now.