What are your expectations for the season 21/22: The race for any position between 1st and 20th

[BringBack_leGin]

I feel like our season won’t properly start until after the international break when the window closes.

So many issues still to fix, along with players lacking fitness / returning late from tournaments.

We’ll see how it affects our points tally before then.

That’s pretty fair, though even as it’s stands I’d say our squad is significantly better than 2 of our first 3 fixtures and significantly worse than 1, and little that happens in the next 10 days will change that, so I’d expect 6 points.

 

[Kingellesar]

Top six finish would be very good, the key is to get into Europe regardless of what competition.

We seem to say it every season but a trophy, we have a great chance at the conference league if we wanted it. I want it, why shouldn't we, it's a trophy and lets go and be the first to win it.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Which of Villa's signings would slot into our team? Defensively they're not a top 6 club. Leicester's best defender might be out for the season and they might lose Maddison as well.

When it comes to the league Vinicius isn't a huge loss, Gil will probably provide more end product than Lamela, and Kane hasn't left yet. Reinforcing our defense with Romero instantly makes us better.

I'd have Buendia on the right for us easily.

 

[thebenjamin]

Are we actually going to start the season with Son, Lucas and Bergwijn as our starting front 3?

Is that really happening?

 

[Blake Griffin]

We're still better than Arsenal, Villa, Leeds, West Ham, etc.

Blows my mind how pessimistic some folks are. We have a top 6 squad.

how can we still be better than west ham when they were better than us last season?

arsenal finished one point behind, have a more settled squad and added a good player in a position of weakness to it. villa are losing grealish but added good players in buendia, bailey and ings, there's not much between our squad and theirs. leicester are better. the top four are miles ahead.

our squad is piss weak. the defence is a joke and it's going to take more than some rando from bologna to fix it. the midfield on paper looks not too bad but really it's only hojbjerg who you can confidently hang your hat on, it would help if our record signing could actually be bothered to get in shape. the wide options outside of son are varying levels of average/unproven and our best player refuses to even come back to the country. apart from that though we are looking spot on.

 

[SandroClegane]

how can we still be better than west ham when they were better than us last season?

arsenal finished one point behind, have a more settled squad and added a good player in a position of weakness to it. villa are losing grealish but added good players in buendia, bailey and ings, there's not much between our squad and theirs. leicester are better. the top four are miles ahead.

our squad is piss weak. the defence is a joke and it's going to take more than some rando from bologna to fix it. the midfield on paper looks not too bad but really it's only hojbjerg who you can confidently hang your hat on, it would help if our record signing could actually be bothered to get in shape. the wide options outside of son are varying levels of average/unproven and our best player refuses to even come back to the country. apart from that though we are looking spot on.

So you think Buendia, Bailey, and Ings are better than Son, Moura, and Bergwijn (if we're assuming Kane doesn't come back)? I certainly don't. There's not much between our squad and theirs is such a ridiculous statement as most of our starting XI would walk into their team.

West Ham also doesn't have a better squad. Jose's style of play is the reason we didn't make top 4 last season, if we had any sort of progressive manager we easily would've been in UCL.

Also "Some rando from bologna" LOL. Are we just ignoring the fact the Serie A defender of the year is signing imminently?

 

[Blake Griffin]

So you think Buendia, Bailey, and Ings are better than Son, Moura, and Bergwijn (if we're assuming Kane doesn't come back)? I certainly don't. There's not much between our squad and theirs is such a ridiculous statement as most of our starting XI would walk into their team.

West Ham also doesn't have a better squad. Jose's style of play is the reason we didn't make top 4 last season, if we had any sort of progressive manager we easily would've been in UCL.

Also "Some rando from bologna" LOL. Are we just ignoring the fact the Serie A defender of the year is signing imminently?

yes, i think they're better. for a start they actually have a striker amongst their group(actually, they have two) and buendia/bailey won't have to do much to show they're better than lucas and bergwijn. if i was picking a front four from the two sets of players it would be bailey right, son left with buendia behind ings/watkins. obviously kane is much better than either but who knows who we replace him with if he goes, funnily enough ings was at the top of the list for many of our fans, maybe it would have happened if he was playing for sassuolo rather than southampton. ultimately there's not much between the rest of the two squads. lloris and martinez both good, neither set of full backs are particularly great, they have a solid cb pairing, we don't. their midfield is ok, ours is ok+, overall depth we probably edge it.

romero should help but he's no guarantee, he might do great or he might not adapt. tomiyasu is a moderately cheap punt who might be a hidden gem or he might be benjamin stambouli. we've lost three first team players in toby, lamela and bale, i don't have a problem with moving them on but we're still weaker without them. we are a long way off, the fact that we're splitting hairs between our squad and villa's says as much. hopefully we see a lot of movement in the coming weeks as right now it doesn't look great at all.

 

[SandroClegane]

yes, i think they're better. for a start they actually have a striker amongst their group(actually, they have two) and buendia/bailey won't have to do much to show they're better than lucas and bergwijn. if i was picking a front four from the two sets of players it would be bailey right, son left with buendia behind ings/watkins. obviously kane is much better than either but who knows who we replace him with if he goes, funnily enough ings was at the top of the list for many of our fans, maybe it would have happened if he was playing for sassuolo rather than southampton. ultimately there's not much between the rest of the two squads. lloris and martinez both good, neither set of full backs are particularly great, they have a solid cb pairing, we don't. their midfield is ok, ours is ok+, overall depth we probably edge it.

romero should help but he's no guarantee, he might do great or he might not adapt. tomiyasu is a moderately cheap punt who might be a hidden gem or he might be benjamin stambouli. we've lost three first team players in toby, lamela and bale, i don't have a problem with moving them on but we're still weaker without them. we are a long way off, the fact that we're splitting hairs between our squad and villa's says as much. hopefully we see a lot of movement in the coming weeks as right now it doesn't look great at all.

So all Villa's signings will bed in perfectly but none of ours will. Right.

 

[Blake Griffin]

So all Villa's signings will bed in perfectly but none of ours will. Right.

they don't need to bed in perfectly to be better than bergwijn, lucas and our invisible striker.

 

[fish5871]

First half of the season will be rough as new players fit in and the team learns new system.
I am hoping by the second half of the season, we will pick up and by the end of the year be in good shape.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

they don't need to bed in perfectly to be better than bergwijn, lucas and our invisible striker.

Son is still better down the middle than every one of their strikers.

 

[muppetman]

Went for 5th/6th and a pot.

I think it's going to take Nuno a while to get us going which is what will cost us top 4, but I don't think that the squad is quite as awful as many on here do. A bit of organisation in defense and at least one of Lo Celso, Gil or Ndombele finding a bit of spark and we should be better than most but not as good as the usual supsects at the top of the table.

Reorganisation and rebuild this year to push on after.

 

[gaz73]

think we are in trouble after i what i saw vs chelsea, although shouldnt be surprised no new faces in starting 11 and we know already what we have isn't good enough. prob need to wait to see full extent of transfers as to how much overhaul we attempt... but hoping for more than less. Worried that so far only lamela/hart/toby have gone while there are so many other poorer players still there and the current ins wont strengthen us straight away. its going to be a long season - i just hope nuno and the new defense allows us somehow remember how to play football again and are capable of a few forward passes but i won't hold my breath. So far seen nothing to show much improvement and if the club still thinks Son can be a striker option its seriously worrying.... i think Nuno is a decent enough bloke but i dont think it will be pretty. Right now top 8... but could be better or worse depending on in/outs and the outcome of the kane situation...

 

[BringBack_leGin]

All those saying Romero isn’t enough, and I agree that we need more than him, shouldn’t underestimate the impact ones dominant centre back who can step out of defence will have. We’ll be able to play higher up for a start, which means the midfield and attack will have less space to make up when we do get the ball. Equally, someone like Højbjerg will have less ground to cover, and whoever is his centre back partner should also be less exposed.

Ideally we also get a second, but having him there also helps improve those around him.

 

[Doctor Dinkey]

It's hard to see us improving on last year without Kane and Bales goals. We are quite likely to be playing much of the season with Son or Moura up front. I expect we will be tighter at the back but will struggle to score many. 7th or 8th or thereabouts.

 

[ItsBoris]

Top 4 and if lucky, win the EPL
No disrespect to Poch, who laid the foundation but we have been waiting for someone like Nuno and he is going to finish the job.

How can you possibly say that with any confidence so soon? I don't think I've seen anything yet that makes me overflow with optimism.

 

[SonicSarr]

Well, with Rommie and Reggie we now have half a defence. Things are looking up ?

 

[dontcallme]

I just ask we finish above the Arse

So top 15?

 

[spids]

We are nowhere near the top 4. I think 5th would be a fantastic achievement in what will be a transitional season, but we’d need to overhaul Leicester to make that happen and they have bought very well.

 

[chico]

With Kane top 6. Without 7-12.