fishhhandaricecake
Well-Known Member
- Nov 15, 2018
- 19,254
- 48,143
I know we joke but I don't think the majority of us think we are that bad, we just know the reality that we've fallen behind the top 4/5 whereas we used to be top 2/3 team under peak Poch so there is some work to be done to get back up there.
Can we close that gap again? Possibly but very unlikely to do so next season considering the strength of Man.City, Liverpool, Man.U and Chelsea.
With the right recruitment and if our manager overperforms slightly with a re-vamped squad then we should be able to finish 5th ahead of the likes of Leicester, West Ham, Everton, Leeds, Arsenal etc and very slim outside chance of top4 if one of the 4 teams mentioned has an off-season due to injuries etc like Liverpool did this season but if Kane leaves then that is a huge amount of goals and assists to replace so the recruitment needs to be spot on.
Our clear weaknesses are:
RB - need a better 1st choice
CB - need to sign 1 or 2 top CB's
CM - Skippy to come back and could do with signing a top CM like a Sabitzer and moving on Winks and/or Sissoko and we need more from Lo Celso and Ndombele
AM & ST - If Kane goes and Bale doesn't renew then we need to sign a top goalscoring AM, mabye 2 and/or 2 top strikers to ease the burden and spread the goal contributions
Opponents:
Man.City - Best squad and manager in league, miles ahead of us
Liverpool - Very strong squad and manager and with VVD back will be very strong again
Man.U - building consistently under Ole and with a top defender and Sancho or ST they'll be very strong again
Chelsea - Tuchel is a top top manager, they have very strong squad depth and will likely add a top striker, they'll be right up there
I think those 4 are far out of reach for us next season unfortunately, the only one who may drop off would be Man.U if they don't sign a ST or CB and if Ole is found out to be not all that but I still think they'll be pretty strong
Leicester - Rodgers is doing a fine job but Vardy isn't getting any younger and they don't have huge budgets, if we keep Kane or get our signings and manager right we should be able to finish above them in theory
West Ham - They'll have european football to contend with and I don't think they'll overachieve quite so much again next season but Moyes does have them playing to their strengths but they should be catchable
Leeds - Will they push on again next season or drop off as 2nd season in Prem is usually tougher as we saw with Sheff.Utd but Leeds are a massive club with big aspirations and a top top manager with fully bought in squad so i could see them doing well again next year but again we should finish above them in theory
That lot down the road - who knows with them, does Arteta stay (likely), is he the 2nd coming of Pep or not? tbc, will they sort their mess of a squad out or not? Could go either way with them but I'd like to think we'd finish above them again
Everton - depends on who they get as manager, Nuno with lots of decent Mendes inspired signings similar to Jota, Jiminez etc and they could do very well, Conte and they'll be a massive threat but their squad is quite weak as it stands so hopefully we can stay ahead of them
Villa - progressing nicely under Smith and make sensible signings like Cash and Watkins and Bundeia etc but hopefully we keep ahead of them.
So are we as bad as we think?
I don't think we think we are THAT bad but we are definitely in need of strengthening a few key areas and we have the dark cloud of Kane leaving hanging over us and a likely new manager who was fairly average at Roma so will he be able to overperform with the players he's given or not?
It will all depend on:
-Signings we make to strengthen key areas, especially goalscoring attacking and creative threats added if Kane goes
-New Manager and how he gets on
-Opponents: as above I think there are 4 teams we won't be able to catch unless the new manager is our new Poch and hits the ground running and we either keep Kane and make some top signings or we make many top signings whilst moving Kane on.
My prediction would be that we are about 5th based on our squad currently but the sum of all parts working together we could end up anything from 5th to 10th.
COYS.
Can we close that gap again? Possibly but very unlikely to do so next season considering the strength of Man.City, Liverpool, Man.U and Chelsea.
With the right recruitment and if our manager overperforms slightly with a re-vamped squad then we should be able to finish 5th ahead of the likes of Leicester, West Ham, Everton, Leeds, Arsenal etc and very slim outside chance of top4 if one of the 4 teams mentioned has an off-season due to injuries etc like Liverpool did this season but if Kane leaves then that is a huge amount of goals and assists to replace so the recruitment needs to be spot on.
Our clear weaknesses are:
RB - need a better 1st choice
CB - need to sign 1 or 2 top CB's
CM - Skippy to come back and could do with signing a top CM like a Sabitzer and moving on Winks and/or Sissoko and we need more from Lo Celso and Ndombele
AM & ST - If Kane goes and Bale doesn't renew then we need to sign a top goalscoring AM, mabye 2 and/or 2 top strikers to ease the burden and spread the goal contributions
Opponents:
Man.City - Best squad and manager in league, miles ahead of us
Liverpool - Very strong squad and manager and with VVD back will be very strong again
Man.U - building consistently under Ole and with a top defender and Sancho or ST they'll be very strong again
Chelsea - Tuchel is a top top manager, they have very strong squad depth and will likely add a top striker, they'll be right up there
I think those 4 are far out of reach for us next season unfortunately, the only one who may drop off would be Man.U if they don't sign a ST or CB and if Ole is found out to be not all that but I still think they'll be pretty strong
Leicester - Rodgers is doing a fine job but Vardy isn't getting any younger and they don't have huge budgets, if we keep Kane or get our signings and manager right we should be able to finish above them in theory
West Ham - They'll have european football to contend with and I don't think they'll overachieve quite so much again next season but Moyes does have them playing to their strengths but they should be catchable
Leeds - Will they push on again next season or drop off as 2nd season in Prem is usually tougher as we saw with Sheff.Utd but Leeds are a massive club with big aspirations and a top top manager with fully bought in squad so i could see them doing well again next year but again we should finish above them in theory
That lot down the road - who knows with them, does Arteta stay (likely), is he the 2nd coming of Pep or not? tbc, will they sort their mess of a squad out or not? Could go either way with them but I'd like to think we'd finish above them again
Everton - depends on who they get as manager, Nuno with lots of decent Mendes inspired signings similar to Jota, Jiminez etc and they could do very well, Conte and they'll be a massive threat but their squad is quite weak as it stands so hopefully we can stay ahead of them
Villa - progressing nicely under Smith and make sensible signings like Cash and Watkins and Bundeia etc but hopefully we keep ahead of them.
So are we as bad as we think?
I don't think we think we are THAT bad but we are definitely in need of strengthening a few key areas and we have the dark cloud of Kane leaving hanging over us and a likely new manager who was fairly average at Roma so will he be able to overperform with the players he's given or not?
It will all depend on:
-Signings we make to strengthen key areas, especially goalscoring attacking and creative threats added if Kane goes
-New Manager and how he gets on
-Opponents: as above I think there are 4 teams we won't be able to catch unless the new manager is our new Poch and hits the ground running and we either keep Kane and make some top signings or we make many top signings whilst moving Kane on.
My prediction would be that we are about 5th based on our squad currently but the sum of all parts working together we could end up anything from 5th to 10th.
COYS.
