One thing that cannot be argued about our first team in previous years is that, from manager to manager, we have not had enough players with the mentality to become Premiership champions.
Passion isn’t enough in a league campaign – at some stage every previous champion has shown the kind of cold-blooded ruthlessness under pressure to get the job done. As well as the level of skill required to get us back to where we belong, we need players with the kind of fight, tenacity, nous, concentration and resilience in order to win the league. This is the difference between champions and also-rans and, for me, is the biggest thing we will miss with the departure of Suarez.
I think in order to get a top 4 place the majority of the team (ie 6/11) have to have that kind of mindset – Arsenal, as an example, had Mertesacker, Sagna, Arteta, Walcott, Ramsey and possibly Wilshere who would fit that mould. Not the best players in the team but didn’t go missing when some of their more talented colleagues did.
I would estimate that 8/11 players with the requisite mentality would give us a fair shot at the title.
Others might come good but have yet to be proven (Migs/Moreno), have tried to force play too much (Gerrard) or let negative emotions affect their form (Sturridge).
Looking at a presumed first 11 I would put Lovren, Sakho, Manquillo, Can, Henderson, Coutinho, Sterling in the category of having the requisite mentality right now. Markovic and Lallana are also possibly in the category but would not be starting in my first 11 at the moment.
With that, I would predict that we will challenge for the title this year and should definitely be finishing in the top 4 despite losing Suarez.
Rodgers, Pellegrini, Mourinho, Van Gaal, Pocchetino are all, in my view, savvy and cold blooded enough to execute a winning plan – I would be interested to know how many of the players you estimate share that mentality.
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