Which team (aside Liverpool) was the most impressive?
Crystal Palace - easy to forget they were on pretty much every list for relegation this season after they released basically their entire starting XI and brought a whole new bunch of guys in. Vieira not only brought it together but made them into a good team which is now one of the most exciting squads for 22/23. The only team outside of the top 8 to finish with positive goal difference.
Which team was the underachiever (Everton doesn’t count)?
Boring answer but Man Utd. They finished 2nd - albeit more down to the injuries every other team had - and added Varane, Sancho and Ronaldo to the squad. They dropped four places and got 16 fewer points.
Best young talent (aside Trent)
Phil Foden - does it require explanation? He’s excellent.
Biggest flop (Maguire doesn’t count)?
Romelu Lukaku - supposed to fire them to the title and deemed the best striker in the world when he made the move. Predictably he has looked lost for most of the season and was booed by his own fans.
Best manager (aside Klopp) Thomas Frank - Could have gone for Graeme Potter, Patrick Vieira or David Moyes here as well.
For me when I watch a side who are unfashionable and comparatively underfunded, its the style of play and performances I pay attention to rather than the pure results. I think at the level they are at the difference between where they are and the next level of challenging for europe is more often a goal scorer, something beyond the ability of a top manager to deliver for a team like Brighton. Without that, but with a top manager doing really impressive work, is a side who gives everyone fits even in games in which they might not get a result. This is what I saw from Brighton this season. In all the games in which we dropped points probably other than the West Ham game, it was that Brighton one where on the balance of the performance it felt like a point earned rather than dropped points.
Ended the season well with 3 wins and 2 draws to get a top half finish. I like what he has done with the integration of young players - Caicedo looks a gem, Moder is really talented and obviously Lamptey was brought in from Chelsea’s youth team and was an immediate star.
Given their finances and reasonable expectations of what they can do, I’d say a 9th place finish is just about Brighton’s equivalent of a CL place. They really can’t do a lot more.
Fuck Bruno Lage. What exactly has he “done”? I have zero respect for any job he’s done at Wolves. If anything I’d call them underachievers. Caught a good patch of form and had a real shot at one of the European places then wilted. Pack it in tight then nick a goal. Revolutionary.
Although I’m sure it was mostly anecdotal, but hilarious pathetic nonetheless, he “helped” Benfica with all his Liverpool notes and scouting prior to our matches with them in CL.
Completely agree start to finish Matty, well said.
I was impressed with how Brentford carried themselves all season.
As for West Ham, I’ve said on here many times I’ve been fascinated by their club down the years. I’m by no means a Moyes apologist but he’s done some job. Them being good is great for the league. Was a bit put off by how they acted after playing us in November but I’m sure it was a big result and they got carried away. I also read a statistic that said they made the fewest changes to their starting XI all season. Amazing they went as far as they did.
And Potter, I mean no disrespect bc he has his fans here, but I’ve never understood the hype. And again, absolutely no disrespect to those that like him.
It’s a very unpopular opinion, but at the peak of his powers at Everton through the mid 2000s he had a team that actually played entertaining football. It was unfashionable at the time because I think the game in the UK was developing a sense of faux sophistication that looked down its nose at hard working, high energy sides, but it’s far more aligned with what we’ve come to appreciate now that good football can be. No side with Osman and Piennar out wide, the likes of Van Der Meyde, Gravenson, McFadden, Arteta more centrally are set up to defend for the sake of defending or to kick you off the park. It was a team put together to work hard and try to score goals when the opportunity presented itself to attack.
Brentford could have been in trouble and might have gotten themselves in a relegation fight but the punt on Eriksen worked wonders for them. They should give the coming season a good fight and hopefully stick on.
I think Dyche didn’t bother figuring out how to properly use him, and when Jackson took charge I think he lost his place to Barnes. He became very frustrated at the end.
We’ve been there a whole bunch of times with Gelhardt. Had him on trial multiple times for a number of years but we never made the move. Just a level below what we were looking for.
I’m not sure Arteta really flopped. Finished 8th the season before, and got them pushing for C/L till the last game, but still got E/L so has to been classed as improvement.
Yes, you can look at their implosion in the final few weeks to say he flopped, but did he really or did he meet the expected target?
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