As the season ticks down, the fixture list starts growing in importance, as we look to build on the points tally we have. But in a title race, we usually play at different times to our rivals, and our rivals will have games in hand on us soon. Sometimes we play before them, sometimes after them. So which do we prefer?
For me, while I see the advantages of playing first, I prefer to play after the rivals, so we know in advance what result we need to get to keep our advantage, or even increase it, rather than waiting to know if the result we got by playing first, is good enough or not.
In the next 2 games, we play second. People will say it puts us under more pressure. But we will still be top of the league going into the next game, and can restore the current points gap by winning, or even build on it if the other result has gone our way. If it has, I believe it takes some of the pressure to win our next game off us, and is a great position to be in, going into our game later on.
The League Cup Final weekend is the time where rivals start having games in hand, as is the case again this year, which is likely to go all the way to Game 37 of the season. When you're in a favourable position, having games in hand over the opposition are invaluable. When you don't have games in hand, you're often sitting waiting for a favour in the opposition's game in hand, which for multiple reasons, usually doesn't happen. As we know from 2014, when we were hoping for a favour from City's home game in hand, after our result at Palace.
So, does anyone else prefer knowing in advance the size of the task in front of us before kick off?
« Last Edit: Jan 26, 2019 03:29:56 pm by lfc across the water »
Logged