Realistic expectations for 2020-21?

[muppetman]

I'm fairly sure many on here said Jose guarantees a pot, so that's the main target for next season - Europa, League Cup or FA Cup - need to win something.

I can't see us ousting any of the Top 4 but cup competitions are a different beast.

 

[Original # 10]

Europa League win.
Be competitive in all the domestic comps.

 

[Time for Heroes]

To be honest I am willing to accept almost anything but one more season with sissoko as first choice CM will break me.

I would literally rather eat frozen waffles than see a Sissoko Winks CM pairing.

 

[Danfunkel]

Top 4 and ANY trophy.

Then again, if we win the EL we get both....

 

[Steffen]

It would be nice to win a trophy, but top 4 is a must for me. Man United barely got 4th in a year Arsenal and Tottenham where shit most of the season, and Leicester came 5th in what we halfway through the season called a 3 horse race. Solskjær is not a manager who can create a consistently strong team, they will be too fluctuating in their performances to be a strong contender. And Chelsea is turning into Arsenal, buying loads of talent up top, but everyone and their grandma can see that their problems are in defense.

If we can root out our individual mistakes, and get better at defensive set-pieces, Man United and Chelsea should be behind us.

 

[King of Otters]

I'm fairly sure many on here said Jose guarantees a pot, so that's the main target for next season - Europa, League Cup or FA Cup - need to win something.

I can't see us ousting any of the Top 4 but cup competitions are a different beast.

Why? Despite the poor performances, our PPG under Mourinho should have us in the top 4 mix even without any improvement.

 

[muppetman]

Why? Despite the poor performances, our PPG under Mourinho should have us in the top 4 mix even without any improvement.

I think that Liverpool and City are significantly better than us, so I cannot see us catching them, Chelsea have strengthened significantly so ditto.

This only leaves ManU as a reasonable target and I think they are improving from an attacking perspective. If they can either get De Gea back into previous form or replace him then I can see them doing well.

Perhaps it's a stylistc thing but the games I have watched since lockdown haven't given me huge confidence that we are on the cusp of greatness. The PPG is obviously decent but doesn't feel sustainable. I think we will be good enough to compete for a Europa spot with Arsenal, Wolves and Leicester (maybe Everton if they can ever sort themselves out) and have a decent go in the cups.

Who knows - maybe Liverpool will run out of puff, Chelsea implode, ManC get bored of Pep and have a crisis. Perhaps we will purchase a CDM and it will be the missing piece many seem to think.

My feeling is that we were on an upward trajectory for many years, that then stopped and whilst Jose has done a decent job we haven't yet started up again - but who knows?

 

['O Zio]

Top 4 is an absolute must. We need to establish ourselves as a regular CL team to attract the best players so we need to make sure dropping out of it was a one of rather than us reverting back to our old selves IMO

Would be good to get to the latter rounds of Europa as well but not at the expense of a top 4 finish.

The FA cup I'd like to see us go for if we drop out of Europa early

League cup I've never given two shots about really. Don't see why it even exists in the first place. Give the kids a chance IMO.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Qualify for champions league.

 

[Col_M]

Haven't read any of the above posts but....We got Jose in for a reason. MAJOR Silverware. That doesn't include the tinpot trophies unless we finish in the top 4. I want to win the league.

 

[Japhet]

It would be nice to win a trophy, but top 4 is a must for me. Man United barely got 4th in a year Arsenal and Tottenham where shit most of the season, and Leicester came 5th in what we halfway through the season called a 3 horse race. Solskjær is not a manager who can create a consistently strong team, they will be too fluctuating in their performances to be a strong contender. And Chelsea is turning into Arsenal, buying loads of talent up top, but everyone and their grandma can see that their problems are in defense.

If we can root out our individual mistakes, and get better at defensive set-pieces, Man United and Chelsea should be behind us.

I'd wait til the end of the transfer window before making predictions like that. FFP is in the bin for now and I think Chelsea and MU will be looking to recruit in key areas at any cost.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Breaking it down:

- I don't see why, short of major investment (which is unlikely) any team that finished below us this year should finish above us next year, so looking above us
- Top 2 out of sight - end of story I'm afraid
- Man Utd - have upward momentum, a well invested squad, some good young players (including the best young player I've seen in a long time - Greenwood is very special), cash to burn and the lure of the CL. A new GK would save them a ton of points. I'm worried they'll be difficult for us to catch
- Chelsea - adding some very good attackers, their young players will be a season more experienced, and will have money as well. Again, I worry that we won't catch them either
- Leicester - I'm not worried about them

So in terms of the Prem (some of these might be conservative):
- Par is 5th
- 1 in 25 chance of getting in the top 3
- 1 in 7 chance of finishing top 4
- anything below 5th is a failure

In terms of cups:
- no bloody idea I'm afraid

Always at least one of the big teams have an abnormally bad season. It's been Chelsea, United, Liverpool, and this year it was Tottenham. So factor that in, that one will always fail. They very rarely have a good season all of them at once.

 

[TheRevolution]

Top 4 and a trophy. We have a better manager than United and Chelsea, I think they are very catchable.

 

[Locotoro]

Looking at it from today...

If you're a top player like Kane there's only one thing that will keep you positive about our performance and near future and that is top silverware. In order for next season to be considered a success I think we need to finish in the top 4 in the league and win the EL. Any other silverware would be a bonus, anything less and I suspect that won't be enough to keep our top stars

 

[Sophos151]

• We’ll see a lot of 1-0 wins, and no shortage of goalless draws too. Some of them will be creditable defensive efforts against superior teams, others will be the result of turgid attacking play.
• Overall results will be fairly good, and we’ll be in the race for top four, though we won’t necessarily make it.
• We’ll do well in the cups, and put on some lovely counter-attacking displays. We’ll come up against an out-of-form big six rival one day, and hit them for three or four on the break.
• Some team selections will frustrate and confuse fans, with Mourinho excluding a fan favourite for a scapegoat.
• We’ll see at least four academy players make their debuts off the bench, though no more than two will start games.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Haven't read any of the above posts but....We got Jose in for a reason. MAJOR Silverware. That doesn't include the tinpot trophies unless we finish in the top 4. I want to win the league.

Levy doesn't appoint managers to win things. He appoints them to have us in there competing. It's the if you don't shoot you don't score principle.

If you actually mean what you wrote there then you set the bar higher then the club does and are just waiting for him to fail.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Always at least one of the big teams have an abnormally bad season. It's been Chelsea, United, Liverpool, and this year it was Tottenham. So factor that in, that one will always fail. They very rarely have a good season all of them at once.

Totally fair - could equally be us though

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Levy doesn't appoint managers to win things. He appoints them and prays for dumb luck to have us in there competing. It's the if you don't shoot you don't score principle.

If you actually mean what you wrote there then you set the bar higher then the club does and are just waiting for him to fail.

Fixed this a bit to align with reality.

 

[dk-yid]

5th.
We won’t go near top 4 without matching Man U and Chelsea’s spending, which we will never do with Levy in charge.

How many years have we said that and still beat some of our rivals to higher positions?

It wad the same the first year that Chelsea, City, utd had new shiny managers and Liverpool spent a fortune ... That year we were definitely not going to even come close to top 4. We finished second.

Every fucking year its the same nonsense.

 

[JimmyG2]

Play attractive, entertaining quick, creative football and see where it takes us.
Oh just noticed 'realistic' in the thread title.