Why would you say anything else?
Poll Your 21/22 season expectations
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City signing Grealish and Kane
Chelsea signing Haaland
United getting Varane and Sancho
Liverpool? Couting pennies to afford Jarrod Bowen and John McGinn
Chelsea signing Haaland
United getting Varane and Sancho
Liverpool? Couting pennies to afford Jarrod Bowen and John McGinn
***Bowen or McGinn
Silly me.
Even Arsenal seemingly have £100m plus to spend. Thankfully, it's largely on shite
Where's the option for top 4 but not really challenging?
Only 1 of those have transpired though...and it took them 2 windows to do it.
City have been signing Grealish and Kane for a month, and Chelsea Haaland the same...are any really closer to happening?
So in other words, 4th at best?
If we avoid injuries, we'll challenge for the two biggies (but this is our last season to do so, without MAJOR investment in the team).
If we pick up ANY injuries to the spine of the team (Allison, VVD, Fabs, Hendo, Mo), we'll probably make top 4 but be out of the race long before the end.
If we pick up ANY injuries to the spine of the team (Allison, VVD, Fabs, Hendo, Mo), we'll probably make top 4 but be out of the race long before the end.
I don't think we have a question mark or gap against any of the first team (Mane, Jota, Salah, Thiago, Hendo, Fabs, Robbo, VvD, Matip, TAA, Becker : virtually all world class players). There are however some noticeable exceptions in the squad though again some very good players, and just Firmino in the first team (hence I'd start Jota over him now).
No. Because we might finish 3rd. Like the season just gone. We finish third, but weren't close to winning it
The Varane deal is looking imminent. I'll be shocked if City don't sign at least one of them. Chelsea are going all out for a top striker. Whereas our dealings look to be pretty much done barring outgoings.
Well I doubt it will be Haaland. Didn't both club and he himself state he'll stay there another season?
Not much we can do if we can't register anymore non-homegrown?
We had Van Dijk Gomez and Matip out for more than 2/3rds of the season and finished 3rd....
I think losing your 3 senior CB's is a bit worst than losing your DM for the season.
- CB - we're still not sure - at least as fans - whether we're going to get VDV and Gomez back a) on time and b) the same as they were before. Konate, we all have high hopes for but he remains an unknown quantity as yet.
- RB - we have zero cover for TAA. If he gets injured for any length of time, we're fucked.
- LB - Robertson was (finally) showing the toll of having to play constantly last season. Hopefully Tsimikas can step up and prove he's not a total waste of money but again, question mark.
- CM - As things stand, we're looking pretty light in this area. Gini is gone, Hendo and Milner can't really play a couple times a week any more, Jones is still learning on the job and Ox / Keita.
- FW - We are light in this area also and last season out of the "front 3" we were almost solely reliant on Salah for long periods. Was it a blip or something more to be concerned about? Hopefully a blip but at least in Firmino's case, it's was the continuation of a downward trend. He still has great games but less regularly. Mane needs a strong start to the season.
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Agree re: full backs. I really hope we aren't expecting the currently injured CB Gomez to be the back up for RB. Neco can't cut it, that is now pretty nailed on. Holding similar hopes for Tsimikas - i get the feeling he'll at least be trusted once he has VVD back at LCB.
I wonder who was deputising in defence during that time. Also, I wonder who played in midfield and kept us unbeaten during final months of the season? Hmm...his name starts with an "F"
But then Matip stays healthy and he's a good DM!
I'm with Modo in seeing Fabinho as our most important midfielder. I think we would have finished even higher if we'd kept him at DM all season and used Rhys/Nat more often earlier on.. Hindsight is great, although I do recall suggesting this early on as Fabinho in CB was clearly overrun by having fuck all protection ahead of him.
Last time Matip played in that position somewhat consistently was season 11/12 at Schalke.
Fabinho went into CB and we had a terrible spell, Phillips and Kabak/Williams started our last 10 league games where we won 8 and drew 2.....
Are you really suggesting we'd be worst off if we had Van Dijk and Matip with Hendo Thiago and say Ox/Naby in front of them? I'd much rather have that than go through what we did last season.
yes, that's exactly what I suggested
Yes, it was awful for our team when he was at CB. We won something like 8 of our last 10 games. All 8 with him in CM and basically our whole bad streak including those two draws were Fabs at CB.
As I said early ob, it was better to sacrifice Hendo from midfield rather than Fabs... everyone disagreed with me but the stats proved we basically can't play football and Thiago is a liability without Fabs in the middle.
Hearing Van Dijk might be available for the next friendly. But yeah, no guarantees as to his level for the season or further complications
Yep, he’s going to get a handful of minutes on Thursday. JoGo probably won’t. Robbo and Jota are also back.
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