- Aug 26, 2019
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I’d be very happy with a Europa spot. That would be a very good first season in the new project
Still think we will surprise a few people this season, we still have a fairly good squad. Once Bentancur comes back, I see no reason we can't get 4th or 5th. But to do that, we need Bentancur back and still need 1 or 2 more signings.
Yeah, Europa / Europa Conference are actually our best hope of silverware too.Yeah return to European football would be very welcome. Tough to go this season I think but achievable
I think i'd take an EL spot right now. The league is fiercely competitive.Aim has to be CL but EL would be good.
Also will allow the stepwise development of the squad and team to be in one of these in my opinions. But getting top seven will be tough for us this season.Yeah, Europa / Europa Conference are actually our best hope of silverware too.
If City and Arsenal don't run away from the pack then this could actually be one of the most incredible exciting PL seasons possibly ever, there would be a good top 8 or so teams all who on any day can beat each other.There are a lot of wild cards out there. Will Chelsea get back to form, will Liverpool recover, how will Arsenal, Newcastle and Man U deal with CL.
Even City have lost few players, Mahrez Gundogan and now De Bruyne to injury.
We are even more of a wildcard, but without Europe and if things work out with Ange we should be challenging for top 4 imo.
No idea though, probably the most difficult season to predict in a long while.
What was weird was watching the Chlesea Liverpool match, not knowing if both teams are actually good.
Even United were outplayed by Wolves the other day. Us vs United on Saturday will be fascinating.
Man Utd conceded 6 in their first 6 games, including 4 v Brentford but by the end of the season, only 2 teams had conceded less.Appreciate there are issues at other teams in the top 7/8 but we still have huge glaring problems.
The amount of space we afforded Brentford at times will get punished by better teams, our midfield is wide open just like United's was yesterday.
Work in progress and I accept we're in a longer term rebuild. We'll do very well to be top 8 this year IMO.
Very true! Even the Brentford game was a game of two halves really, 1st half we got exposed a lot, 2nd half we controlled the game and possession way way more and only got sucker punched a few times, if most of our games are like 2 halves like the 2nd one then we will probably end up with a half decent defensive record, if most of our games are like 2 versions of the 1st half then we will concede about 100 goals in which case lets hope we bloody sign that RW and Striker we need as we will need to score about 150!Man Utd conceded 6 in their first 6 games, including 4 v Brentford but by the end of the season, only 2 teams had conceded less.
We are in the early stages of playing, pretty much the complete opposite way of last season, so it is hard to judge how are defence will be.
Yea honestly I think 5th will be our highest position this season and we will be somewhere between 5th-8th.
A lot of it will depend on how the rest of our transfer window goes!
IF we can sign another top CB, a RW and a Striker then I'd back us for 5th which will hopefully be a CL place but right now I think:
I'm pretty confident we will finish above Villa and fairly confident we will finish above Brighton especially with them both being in Europe.
- City & Arsenal will be very consistent and too far ahead of us.
- Newcastle & Man.U will be pretty strong but might dip a bit once they start their CL matches.
- Liverpool will be pretty strong.
- Chelsea will be a bit up and down like us but as of now and with their spending power probably edge our squad just.
If Fulham or Brentford get near us then they'll have had incredible seasons or we will have had a stinker again so I'd like to think those types of teams can be ignored in this 'race' this season.
So the Q is really:
-How much will Newcastle & Man.U drop off because of CL footy? (unlikely that it'll be enough for us to catch them in the table)
-Can we be as consistent as Liverpool will be? (unlikely at this point in the project imo)
-How consistent will Chelsea be and can we be better than them?
1) Best case wildest dreams: we sign 3-4 top players in the remainder of the window (CB,CM,RW,ST) find our feet very quickly, the other teams above are hit and miss and we finish anywhere from 3rd-5th and we win the FA Cup.
2) More realistic case: we leave ourselves short in 1-2 areas, the team take a good few games to properly settle into I'm a hipster ball, we aren't as consistent as most of the teams above but play some lovely football, go on some good cup runs, set the foundations for year 2 of the project and finish 6th or 7th.
3) Bad season: we don't sign anyone else of any real significance the rest of this window, our defence gets exposed a lot, we lack the firepower to consistently win games now Kane is gone and we finish anywhere from 8th-10th.
That is how I see it anyway but lots of factors there which can swing it different directions.
Either way I expect it to be a far far far more enjoyable season than any of the previous 3-4 years just hope we can have a strong end to the transfer window and really give Ange a chance to have a really solid first season on all fronts.