Positives and negatives going into the season

[dontcallme]

Of course we are walking slightly into the unknown here. we have a fixture pile-up at the beginning of the season which could result in our first ever CL qualification and a good start at the expense of our potential rivals or find ourselves massively disappointed, ego crushed and playing catch up from the beginning. The England friendly truly is ridiculous and if any player from any team pulled out on the basis of "it's just common sense not to play" then I wouldn't have a go at them.

But what are our positives and negatives going into the season. I don't know but I thought I'd throw some potential plusses and minuses out there.

Positives

1. Stability - we have signed two of our star players on long term contracts and our manager when Liverpool were unexpectedly linked with Harry. This continuation should be good for us.
2. The forgotten - Jenas is back from injury, Keane seems to be on a high after a good spell in Scotland and Dos Santos has lit up the WC and been very good in pre-season. This could be like three new signings who already know the rest of the squad.
3. Confidence - we've finally finished fourth after much hype and disappointment. We beat Liverpool and the richest team in the world to that spot and have kept our players from looking for a move away. We can go into the new season not as under dogs but as a genuine threat to those around us.
4. The World Cup - none of our players played that much at the world cup and should be feeling ready to start the new season.
5. Point to prove - Bentley, Pav, Dos Santos, Palacios, Jenas, Keane, King, Woodgate, Krancjar, Crouch, Kaboul and Hutton all have ability and the need to prove themselves for different reasons. Some are being called finsihed due to injury, some are potentially going to be labelled flops if they don't perform this season and some can look forward to a move to a mid-table Prem club if they don't perform. HR needs to motivate all these players into keeping fit and ready even when not playing.
6. Competition for places - we have four strikers and and least two in every position except in goal. With HR's motivational ability we should hopefully see the best out of the likes of Bale, Lennon and others.
7. The manager - he has done remarkably well since taking over and he's as enthusiastic a manager as I've ever seen at The Lane, he has almost the entire crowds support.

The negatives

1. Balance - we have a balanced team but we are inexperienced and haven't managed to balance the league games with the Europa in the past. If we qualifiy for the CL then are we going to hurt our league aspirations at the expense of competing in Europes top competition?
2. Lack of quality - especially upfront we appear to lack that talisman that most top teams rely on. We can no longer rely on King and Woodgate being fit and Dawson and Bassong have huge potential as a partnership but could struggle at the highest level this season.
3. Too many games - if we start off well we could find ourselves running on empty by February and follow in the footsteps of Arsenal.
4. Competition - Man City are free spending and if Liverpool can keep their stars injury-free then we have tough competition, they have no CL football which could give them a big advantage over us.
5. Inexperienced manager - Yes I know I've put HR as a positive but he is also new to managing a club in the CL and this could be an issue
6. Expectation - high expectations has killed off many managers especially at Spurs. HR came into a team with 2 points from 8 games and because he wasn't a superstar manager he didn't have huge expectations when he first took over, he does now.

So much to be positive about and yet so many potential issues that could destabilise our season.

 

[markiespurs]

Of course we are walking slightly into the unknown here. we have a fixture pile-up at the beginning of the season which could result in our first ever CL qualification and a good start at the expense of our potential rivals or find ourselves massively disappointed, ego crushed and playing catch up from the beginning. The England friendly truly is ridiculous and if any player from any team pulled out on the basis of "it's just common sense not to play" then I wouldn't have a go at them.

But what are our positives and negatives going into the season. I don't know but I thought I'd throw some potential plusses and minuses out there.

Positives

1. Stability - we have signed two of our star players on long term contracts and our manager when Liverpool were unexpectedly linked with Harry. This continuation should be good for us.
2. The forgotten - Jenas is back from injury, Keane seems to be on a high after a good spell in Scotland and Dos Santos has lit up the WC and been very good in pre-season. This could be like three new signings who already know the rest of the squad.
3. Confidence - we've finally finished fourth after much hype and disappointment. We beat Liverpool and the richest team in the world to that spot and have kept our players from looking for a move away. We can go into the new season not as under dogs but as a genuine threat to those around us.
4. The World Cup - none of our players played that much at the world cup and should be feeling ready to start the new season.
5. Point to prove - Bentley, Pav, Dos Santos, Palacios, Jenas, Keane, King, Woodgate, Krancjar, Crouch, Kaboul and Hutton all have ability and the need to prove themselves for different reasons. Some are being called finsihed due to injury, some are potentially going to be labelled flops if they don't perform this season and some can look forward to a move to a mid-table Prem club if they don't perform. HR needs to motivate all these players into keeping fit and ready even when not playing.
6. Competition for places - we have four strikers and and least two in every position except in goal. With HR's motivational ability we should hopefully see the best out of the likes of Bale, Lennon and others.
7. The manager - he has done remarkably well since taking over and he's as enthusiastic a manager as I've ever seen at The Lane, he has almost the entire crowds support.

The negatives

1. Balance - we have a balanced team but we are inexperienced and haven't managed to balance the league games with the Europa in the past. If we qualifiy for the CL then are we going to hurt our league aspirations at the expense of competing in Europes top competition?
2. Lack of quality - especially upfront we appear to lack that talisman that most top teams rely on. We can no longer rely on King and Woodgate being fit and Dawson and Bassong have huge potential as a partnership but could struggle at the highest level this season.
3. Too many games - if we start off well we could find ourselves running on empty by February and follow in the footsteps of Arsenal.
4. Competition - Man City are free spending and if Liverpool can keep their stars injury-free then we have tough competition, they have no CL football which could give them a big advantage over us.
5. Inexperienced manager - Yes I know I've put HR as a positive but he is also new to managing a club in the CL and this could be an issue
6. Expectation - high expectations has killed off many managers especially at Spurs. HR came into a team with 2 points from 8 games and because he wasn't a superstar manager he didn't have huge expectations when he first took over, he does now.

So much to be positive about and yet so many potential issues that could destabilise our season.

I actually think that Man City's riches and the amount they've spent so far this summer has done us a huge favour in lowering many peoples expectations for us this comming season.

 

[daffygremlin]

good post, im dissapointed we havent managed to sign anybody yet, but then again this has been a really quiet transfer window and city arent making it easy on us (cant blame them though) so i cant be to mad really.

 

[Alec_spur]

Sandroooooooooo!

 

[mil1lion]

Some more positives:

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale!

He was pretty much non existent in the first half of last season. We'll have him from the start now.

We also have Kaboul for the whole of the season. Having signed him in January we already have him settled in (the team has changed since he was last here).

Hopefully Kyle Walker will be in the squad aswell. He was on loan for the first half of the season, so we could have him from the start this time.

We also proved we can still do well without key players. Hopefully Modric and Lennon don't miss too many games this time around.

We may have a young squad, but they're 1 year further into their development. So we could see even more from our younger players.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Good post

My main concerns, as you've outlined, are the lack of a striker with genuine presence and quality, and how we'll react to losing King (which I think we will)

Not insurmountable, and I have a feeling some of our kids might well come good this year, but definitely need to be addressed at some point

 

[Mornstar]

I'm not overly bothered about the striker situation. I think we have sufficient quality in Pav, Keane, Crotch and Defoe. Also, I think our midfield this season (with the likes of GDS and Bale) will chip in with a lot more goals than we've seen in the recent past. I for one am feeling very confident ahead of the new season......makes a nice change as I'm normally quite jittery around this time of year.

 

[JerryGarcia]

Man City and Liverpool are in the Europa League so they will have just as many games (maybe more?) as us but will have to play them on thursday nights in obscure locations. I see this as a big advantage for us.