Expectations for season 2023/2024

I expect City to struggle after winning the treble and seeming struggling to keep several key players. Arsenal will be the team to beat for the title while I expect Liverpool and Chelsea to be back in contention. I think we'll do well to end top 3, but are hoping we can challenge for the title if our key players stay fit.
 
simonhch said:
We came third with Weghorst as our main CF, and won a domestic cup and lost another only because of poor keeping. I can’t remember the last time we had a proper reliable CF.
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If not Zlatan you're going back to RVP.
 
City to win the league, though they will miss Gundogan. Arsenal to tank a bit as they tire in the CL knockout stage but still to make top 4. Newcastle might dip, Liverpool revive and Chelsea finish well once they have gelled. Our realistic target is top 4 again, but as we currently lack a first choice keeper, at least one striker, and adequate cover to rotate Casemiro and Bruno, it's impossible right now to say we will make it. Glazers to decide they need another season to assess the potential buyers.
 
A comfortable top 4 finish with an improvement in our performance metrics from previous season - more points, possession, xG, xGA etc.

I'm not really fancying a serious title possibility to be honest, mainly because there's no top class strikers realistically available to us. Any striker we bring in will have a big question mark over them if they're ready or good enough. Mount strikes me as a decent signing but not transformative, Onana should make a big difference. Don't see that being enough to win the league.
 
Paul778 said:
If not Zlatan you're going back to RVP.
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fecking mental that. A club this size to not have had a feared striker for so long. Think of that tradition under Ferguson. Hughes, Cantona, Cole, Yorke, Sheringham, Sollsjaer, Van Nistelrooy, Saha, Rooney, Ronaldo, Tévez, Berbatov, Van Persie……
 
I can’t see us progressing too much further from last year without signing a top striker. We might play a bit better overall though with Mount. But concerningly you can’t expect Liverpool or Chelsea to be remotely bad as last year so I do fear we might find it tough.
 
We'll buy a striker, no question. I guess we'll have more suitable depth if we keep Mejbri, Mainoo and Amad at the club. All of whom can be coached more to suit ETH's setup. With Eriksen now a squad player and getting a keeper to sort out our build up play, we should be able to sustain the tactical requirements much better. There's obviously a lack of cover for Casemiro and we don't know who will be leading the line, but for me building on last season is an obvious expectation and I would like to see the team:

Get above 80 points. We managed 23 wins last season but were pretty awful away in bigger matches. The home form was the biggest plus point.

Have a healthy goal difference, it ended up being +15, but we conceded 43 goals which is third fewest (alongside Arsenal, with City and Newcastle at 33) so we only scored 58 (7th in the league). I would like to see a goal difference of at least twice what we had (Newcastle had +35, Arsenal 45, and City 61).

Fix the away form.

Don't care about the cups, I hope ETH leans to prioritise the League and CL and doesn't do an Ole and run them all into the ground.
 
Title challenge. Don't care that much about CL as long as we get out of the group, but we need to be serious title contenders at least till March or April.
 
Top four with an increase in the overall points and goals tally from previous years. I am not expecting any trophy but a deep run (like a semifinal spot) in a Cup.

I'd be happy with signs of improvement. Obviously, we haven't done enough in the market to win anything.
 
We’re 4th favourites with the bookies

1. Man City
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
4. United
5. Chelsea
6. Newcastle.

Then a big gap to Spurs

Does this seem about fair?
 
rpitroda said:
I can’t see us progressing too much further from last year without signing a top striker. We might play a bit better overall though with Mount. But concerningly you can’t expect Liverpool or Chelsea to be remotely bad as last year so I do fear we might find it tough.
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Why wouldn’t Liverpool be as bad? They still haven’t adequately replaced Mane, Salah and Van Dijk on the wane. Add that to Robertson looking spent and their right back being so bad at being a right back that they now play him in midfield. They’ll need a lot more additions to suggest they’ll be much better.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
We’re 4th favourites with the bookies

1. Man City
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
4. United
5. Chelsea
6. Newcastle.

Then a big gap to Spurs

Does this seem about fair?
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Liverpool above United is purely based on how they did a year ago rather than their current level.
 
I've come to expect very little from us, so...

Top 4, maybe a cup. I don't think we have a chance at winning the league if I'm honest. Would be nice to have a good CL run.
 
acnumber9 said:
Why wouldn’t Liverpool be as bad? They still haven’t adequately replaced Mane, Salah and Van Dijk on the wane. Add that to Robertson looking spent and their right back being so bad at being a right back that they now play him in midfield. They’ll need a lot more additions to suggest they’ll be much better.
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Simply because I don’t believe their performance last year was on par with their “normalised” performance. I think they under-performed. Based on nothing except my gut, so I could well be wrong.
 
rpitroda said:
Simply because I don’t believe their performance last year was on par with their “normalised” performance. I think they under-performed. Based on nothing except my gut, so I could well be wrong.
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Fair enough. Two of their last three seasons have been a relative disaster though. Hard to see their key players getting anything but worse though.
 
Right now this shit is depressing as hell. No idea how can feel confident as we really aren't that much better suited right now for a full grueling season. Need to get the gk and cf spots sorted to have any shot
 
Will wait until the transfer window is over to make an opinion.
 
acnumber9 said:
Fair enough. Two of their last three seasons have been a relative disaster though. Hard to see their key players getting anything but worse though.
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Yeah. I mean I certainly don’t think they’re anywhere near the level of their peak a couple years ago. I don’t think they’ll be challenging City for example. But, we haven’t improved significantly enough for me to feel confident that we are a tier above them. I think they are capable of a season equivalent to what we had last year. If we sign a good striker and get Onana in goal, I would definitely feel more positive that we should be ahead of them, on paper.
 
4th place based on the current transfer window. 3rd or 2nd if we get a decent striker in.
 
With 4 weeks until the season opener, I currently have us fighting for 4th. Think we will get Onana in but I’m not holding out much hope for any other transfer until late in the window, plus the players we are linked with don’t fill me with much confidence we will improve greatly. As of now we have zero strikers bar Martial, who isn’t really a striker or ever fit. We have Mount in to replace Sabitzer and some youth who I’m sure will be mostly loaned out, I can see Maguire, McTominay etc also staying.

The boss must be very frustrated knowing we still have no chance of winning league or CL, just another battle for top 4 to look forward to and a potential league cup if we get a fortunate run again.
 
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Can’t see why we can’t go for the CL. It’s the weakest it’s been for years.
 
Dve said:
I expect City to struggle after winning the treble and seeming struggling to keep several key players. Arsenal will be the team to beat for the title while I expect Liverpool and Chelsea to be back in contention. I think we'll do well to end top 3, but are hoping we can challenge for the title if our key players stay fit.
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I think that’s spot on. I agree entirely.
I don’t think that City losing Gundogan, as example, will cause them big issues, he’s been a good servant to them but only ever got raved about when he was scoring goals.
I’m not saying that he’s not a top class footballer but, from what I saw of it, many of his goals were due to him being at the pointy end of systems of play, his role sometimes being to follow up late into the box and pick up on cut-backs and rebounds or where he’s been involved in obviously practiced set pieces that he’s on the pointy end of by design.
Part of the magic was that they’d only line him up for those roles occasionally so he wasn’t generally thought of as a goal threat and could often capitalise on being unmarked or poorly marked.
IMO they’ll just rotate different top class midfielders into those ‘occasional‘ roles as they’ve been doing for many years.

I recon their problem is that they’ll end up keeping a few players who’re either past their best (some old but very key players there now) or who wanted out but were held to their contracts while many £millions more, that they could have earned ‘if’ go begging in Saudi or what have you.
They’ve had a good run but I think they’ll be creaky this season and I think you’ll be more shiny now that Ten Hag’s had a chance to really get busy with the polish.
 
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Taking Onana as a given, if we can sign Hojlund I think we are a lock for top 4. If we can get a CDM as well, a la Amrabat, we are challenging for second, maybe an outside title contender. If by some miracle Qatar is in on time and spunks a wad on Kane right before the season starts, I think we genuinely contend for the title.
 
Appletonred said:
Top 2, if we sign Harry Kane.
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Top 2 minimum if we bring in Harry, who in all likelihood will be Sir Harry someday.

We are going to bring in Onana and there is no chance that Heaton or Henderson will be our starting keeper, so let's bank on that. Mount is a great addition. Casemiro is wise now to the shitness of PL officiating so we're not going to see him out for months at a time this time around. Martinez has fully bedded in to the PL. Questions about Antony and Sancho are still open, but Rashford is back to top class.

But if we were to bring in Harry -- and he and his wife will have to a conversation about whether remaining a Spurs man and bringing in all the cash that Levy can throw at him is worth winding down his career without every winning a major trophy will be worth wondering for the rest of his life "what if he had manned up?" -- we're in the conversation for the PL title.
 
I’m expecting us to tread water in the league at best and may even finish lower. Might win a domestic cup again and maybe QF or Champions League.

The squad still needs a big overhaul and we simply won’t buy and sell enough players to make big strides forward.
 
Since we are not signing a proper striker, I think all we can do is hope for top 3 finish again. I guess anything can happen in the CL.
 
Thinking that Liverpool will be back fighting for the title. Pathetic bastards!

City will drop off a bit. Arsenal will challenge.

Do not think united are ready yet. With an unknown striker like Rasmus and Onana who will either be a great player or goal leaker, lot of things up in the air.

I am hoping both players turn up and bring united the league or at least a fight.

Also need a midfielder for Casemiro's inevitable 5 match ban when he does something stupid.

Cannot afford to let Liverpool win their 20th.
 
Tough to confidently predict our season until we know what our #9 options are going to be.

But, working on the basis it's going to be someone like Hojlund then, along with Mount and Onana, I'd expect us to increase our points tally from last season. However, as I also expect most of the other 'top' teams to be just as strong or stronger from last season as well, then I think we're going to be in a battle again for those 3rd-6th spots rather than competing for the top 2. Though I would expect us to be in one of the CL spots again by the end of the season.

Hopefully we'll again do well in the cups and add some more silverware - but really not expecting that to be the CL at all. Though a solid run in that would be nice.

That doesn't sound like much real progress, I suppose. But I think that's been slowed down by the takeover / FFP issues, which has limited our ability to add 'elite' upgrades. But the additions of Mount, Onana, and hopefully a more than decent #9 (Hojlund?) would be a solid summer given the circumstances and would hopefully improve our style of play towards what ETH wants.

So I'm hoping for some progress this year - as much in terms of moving even more towards ETH's style of play rather than necessarily in an improved league placing or trophy tally - but I'd probably expect a bigger leap next summer when the ownership issues should be resolved and we can maybe target more elite level additions (probably provided we again can offer CL football at that stage).
 
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As most have stated top 3 and champions league quarters would be awesome.

Our elite European record has been diabolical for over a decade. The fact a club the size of us hasn’t got to a single semi final in over 10 years is a crime.

The resources and money spent is the worst run of any “top club” possibly in the history of football?

I can’t think of anyone worse over 10 years who could spend big bucks.
 
Maybe 10 points and 20 goals more than last season, not sure our league position will be higher than third again though just a smaller gap to the top.

Quarter finals of the CL, going deep in a domestic cup is a bonus.
 
As of right now, our absolute ceiling is 3rd again depending on how the other members of the big 7 (incl. Newcastle now) do. If they all wake up and play to their potential, we are in for a struggle to finish top 4. Team and squad still not good enough to challenge for titles. Lucky draw and we might get to the CL quarters and/or win a cup.

If we can sign a good number 9 (Hojlund, Kolo Muani, Vlahovic) and a DM then our chances of finishing top 4 are strengthened a lot. If not, we're not going to be much better than last year.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
We’re 4th favourites with the bookies

1. Man City
2. Arsenal
3. Liverpool
4. United
5. Chelsea
6. Newcastle.

Then a big gap to Spurs

Does this seem about fair?
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If we're talking right now, well we haven't confirmed a keeper replacement and still lack a striker.
 
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