What are expectations for next season?

The only other thing I’d add as a possible cause for concern for you guys is goal scoring. Prem winners over the last few seasons seem to need to score 85-95 goals. That might be different this season, I’m sure there are examples of teams who have won it with less, but assuming that’s the benchmark, last season

Rashford - 11
Cavani - 10
Sancho - 8
Greenwood - 7
Martial - 4

So there obviously would need to be a considerable uptick in scoring. Not saying it won’t happen, just that it needs to. I don’t think you can rely on Fernandes to always score as many as he did last season, though again, I’m not saying that he won’t be able to, just that it’s not a given.
 
If we signs Varane and a quality CM i expect us to compete for the title until the end. With only Varane and Sancho i dont we will compete at anything other than a cup. A quality CM is vital as Mcfred is close to the worst midfield pairing in PL.
 
Last edited:
VinzentFTW said:
If we signs Varane and a quality CM i expect us to compete for the title until the end. With only Varane and Sancho i dont we will compete at anything other than a cup. A quality CM is vital and Mcfred is close to the worst midfield pairing in PL.
Click to expand...
This
 
The way things are shaping up, Varane and Sancho, add a bit more quality in midfield, the very least we should expect is a title challenge and a trophy.
 
Depending on who do we sign. If we sing Varane and a quality CM/DM on top of Sancho then I expect a title fight and that kind of team should be involved in one. Rashford being out is a problem so Cavani, Sancho, Greendwood and Martial should step up, especially Martial. Greenwood started to lift his form up close to the end of last season and Cavani was really good overall. I hope Sancho will hit the ground early and I can see him communicating nicely with the rest of the team especially strikers.

I dont agree with the poster above about McFred being one of the worst pairings in the league, its a hyperbole but we certainly need an addition there and I hope VDB will have a break out season too.
 
Amadaeus said:
Yes because we know that Spurs are as big a club as Manchester United??? :). I am quite confident that Ole would accomplish that and much more without the resource he has at United. It is like comparing fine wine to Bellhaven Best.

While at psg, Pochettino already won two domestic cup and knocked out two of the best club in Europe in Barcelona and bayern. Ole got knocked out by little old Villarreal, Leipzig, and a team in turkey
Click to expand...

:lol:

Are you even a United fan?
 
Chelsea just won the CL. Liverpool will have VVD back and City won't be any weaker than last season, if they get Kane it's all over. Making top 4 wouldn't be such a bad result.
 
Top 4 is all we can expect with the midfield still in need of big surgery and Ole is going to need time to implement 4-3-3 if the stories are true, plus Sancho and Varane will need time to bed in.
 
DDG
Trippier Varane Maguire Shaw
Fred
Bruno Pogba
Front 3
(Sancho, Rashford, Cavani, Martial, Greenwood)​

in my opinion that team challenges for the title. Ideally we’ll sign a top DM too, but I have faith in Fred/Matic being able to do a job so to speak. Fred benched Fabinho with Brazil, he’s not crap.

This is the first season since 16-17 that I’m going into genuinely excited.

I still worry about the keepers. Maybe sell Hendo to the highest bidder & put in a cheeky bid for Unai Simon? Let them duel it out for club & country.
 
NicolaSacco said:
The only other thing I’d add as a possible cause for concern for you guys is goal scoring. Prem winners over the last few seasons seem to need to score 85-95 goals. That might be different this season, I’m sure there are examples of teams who have won it with less, but assuming that’s the benchmark, last season

Rashford - 11
Cavani - 10
Sancho - 8
Greenwood - 7
Martial - 4

So there obviously would need to be a considerable uptick in scoring. Not saying it won’t happen, just that it needs to. I don’t think you can rely on Fernandes to always score as many as he did last season, though again, I’m not saying that he won’t be able to, just that it’s not a given.
Click to expand...

I've said for about 5 years that a big fault of ours is our inability to create anything (literally anything) from the right side. Its just been so medicore for so long, Sancho is a massive signing for us. He's got the creativity as well as goal threat to cause teams big problems and that will be massive for us in trying to break down parked teams. It means that we have an extra creative spark aside from Pogba and Bruno.

For this season in particular, we're going to need either Greenwood or Martial to step up. We've got Cavani who will hopefully kick on, we've got Sancho who will help with goal scoring and Bruno. I think we have enough. On top of all this, I think going back to a more normal schedule will also help narrow the gap to City. They benefitted the most last season from a condensed schedule as they have such a good squad they could rotate with minimal downgrade compared to the rest of us. Feel like it's going to be a really competitive season.
 
Schmeichel's Cartwheel said:
DDG
Trippier Varane Maguire Shaw
Fred
Bruno Pogba
Front 3
(Sancho, Rashford, Cavani, Martial, Greenwood)​

in my opinion that team challenges for the title. Ideally we’ll sign a top DM too, but I have faith in Fred/Matic being able to do a job so to speak. Fred benched Fabinho with Brazil, he’s not crap.

This is the first season since 16-17 that I’m going into genuinely excited.

I still worry about the keepers. Maybe sell Hendo to the highest bidder & put in a cheeky bid for Unai Simon? Let them duel it out for club & country.
Click to expand...

Been a while bud, but 100% agree with your entire post. The goalkeeping situation is a genuine problem, trying to get De Gea off the books is going to be a big, big issue.
 
At the moment with Sancho signed I expect top four and last 16 of champions league.

Until the Scott, Fred, AWB, Lindelof, Martial, Cavani situated is sorted it's the best I can hope for.

De Gea, Shaw, Maguire, CB, RB, CM, CM, Bruno, Sancho, Rashford, Greenwood.

Hopefully be De Gea, Shaw, Maguire, Varane, Trippier, Rice, Pogba, Rash Haaland Sancho. I'd expect us to be battling on all ends then.
 
RedSky said:
I've said for about 5 years that a big fault of ours is our inability to create anything (literally anything) from the right side. Its just been so medicore for so long, Sancho is a massive signing for us. He's got the creativity as well as goal threat to cause teams big problems and that will be massive for us in trying to break down parked teams. It means that we have an extra creative spark aside from Pogba and Bruno.

For this season in particular, we're going to need either Greenwood or Martial to step up. We've got Cavani who will hopefully kick on, we've got Sancho who will help with goal scoring and Bruno. I think we have enough. On top of all this, I think going back to a more normal schedule will also help narrow the gap to City. They benefitted the most last season from a condensed schedule as they have such a good squad they could rotate with minimal downgrade compared to the rest of us. Feel like it's going to be a really competitive season.
Click to expand...

I agree it should be more competitive, it will be interesting to see who Chelsea and City sign, as they've been quite quiet so far. But yes you're definitely right about the right wing although Sancho will need support from Wan Bissaka, and i don't think that's particularly one of his strengths. I'm a little surprised there's not more talk of Dalot coming back to play in those games where you dominate against a defensive team and rely on your fullbacks to play a more attacking role, if I was Ole i'd be thinking that way. Not sure i quite agree about Cavani 'kicking on', he's 34 and unlikely to be significantly better. Far more likely for me is Greenwood adopting a more central position and playing to his strengths (something i think he doesn't particularly do playing out wide).
 
NicolaSacco said:
I agree it should be more competitive, it will be interesting to see who Chelsea and City sign, as they've been quite quiet so far. But yes you're definitely right about the right wing although Sancho will need support from Wan Bissaka, and i don't think that's particularly one of his strengths. I'm a little surprised there's not more talk of Dalot coming back to play in those games where you dominate against a defensive team and rely on your fullbacks to play a more attacking role, if I was Ole i'd be thinking that way. Not sure i quite agree about Cavani 'kicking on', he's 34 and unlikely to be significantly better. Far more likely for me is Greenwood adopting a more central position and playing to his strengths (something i think he doesn't particularly do playing out wide).
Click to expand...

Cavani was pretty slow at the start of last season, he only really got scoring around winter and onwards. So getting a steady trickle of goals from him throughout the season is important. But agreed about Greenwood, I think he'll step up another gear this year and he'll enjoy playing with Sancho.

AWB is always available on the right side and he's shown he does have quality, it's just consistency he struggles with in the final third. If we add Trippier into the mix then Sancho will have more than enough support. I'd sell Dalot this summer while his stock is high from a semi decent Euros. I don't overly rate him and he's not going to bench either AWB or Shaw, the money would be better used getting reinforcements elsewhere imo.
 
Pexbo said:
It’s impossible to expect us to win the league when you have Pep with that City squad, I do however think we are capable of a proper title challenge next season though and it should be our record against City which decides the title.

This is assuming we get Varane and Trippier
Click to expand...

I don't really buy this. City for me have yet to rescale the heights of their team of 17/18-18/19 - they are obviously stacked but we're hardly some plucky team performing way above our means. City are a very good team with a very good manager but they are not unassailable. Tuchel and Klopp will be aiming for the title, we should also be thinking that way now we've added a number of quality individuals to the team across various positions.

Last year we drew way too many games. City lost the same amount of games as us last season, they lost more than us the season before but finished 15 points ahead of us and it's because we are too risk adverse. Until this changes we aren't going to be able to challenge in my opinion because you need to take risks to ensure you win enough points when so many other teams have similar resources to us.

Hopefully the rumours of a switch to an offensive 433 are true.
 
If we get Varane and Trippier we should be aiming for the title.

Simple as that.
 
I expect better performances throughout and getting closer to the title. I want to see us putting games away a little more convincingly, it felt like we were capable of snatching draws from the hands of victory far too often last season with the way we saw out games and gave the opposition confidence. Then we also did draw too many as well, through an inability to break teams down. I want to see progress with how we're controlling and managing games.

I can't say I expect a title because Pep has shown he can win a ridiculous percentage of games. So I don't think you can judge purely on that, what about if we lose by a few points and they win everything? You have to make some allowance for incredibly good opponents and what they are capable of doing because most teams are just whipping boys for them, we can't control that. It depends on the context as to how we should be judged with respect to the title, but we have to improve ourselves first and foremost.

It would be very nice to win some silverware of some description and that is very feasible. Basically I think my expectations are fair considering last season and what we seem to be on the cusp of adding to the squad.
 
The battle for top 4 will be a tough one again this year, but I think we can keep our noses in front of Leicester/Spurs/Everton et al.

I expect us to finish somewhere between 2nd and 4th.
 
Amadaeus said:
Yes because we know that Spurs are as big a club as Manchester United??? :). I am quite confident that Ole would accomplish that and much more without the resource he has at United. It is like comparing fine wine to Bellhaven Best.

While at psg, Pochettino already won two domestic cup and knocked out two of the best club in Europe in Barcelona and bayern. Ole got knocked out by little old Villarreal, Leipzig, and a team in turkey
Click to expand...
Pochettino couldn't win the league in a one team-league
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I don't really buy this. City for me have yet to rescale the heights of their team of 17/18-18/19 - they are obviously stacked but we're hardly some plucky team performing way above our means. City are a very good team with a very good manager but they are not unassailable. Tuchel and Klopp will be aiming for the title, we should also be thinking that way now we've added a number of quality individuals to the team across various positions.

Last year we drew way too many games. City lost the same amount of games as us last season, they lost more than us the season before but finished 15 points ahead of us and it's because we are too risk adverse. Until this changes we aren't going to be able to challenge in my opinion because you need to take risks to ensure you win enough points when so many other teams have similar resources to us.

Hopefully the rumours of a switch to an offensive 433 are true.
Click to expand...
I don’t think you’re really disagreeing with me though. I haven’t said we can’t beat City, I said that we can’t expect to.
 
Top 4 pl, last 16 cl (maybe semi).

Of we get varane our defence if fit is probably the best in the pl.

Our problems in midfield and attack will hold us back and I think we will need another summer window to be pl challengers
 
I think we need to win something this season for tangible progress. Doesn't have to be the PL or CL but something would be good for everyone involved
 
Cannot take another season of watching Fred and Scott play together.

This has to be sorted, and quick!

Do people actually think we have any hope of champions league or premier league with them two in the middle!
 
Last edited:
What cost us last season was that run starting with Sheffield United. Sancho and Varane help in that respect and should get us 10 to 12 more points. However, if city replicate their 2017/18 run of 100 points, we have no chance. It will have to be similar to this season where 85 to 90 points would clinch the title.
 
Even if we get all the mooted players, its still just about catching up to city's first 11, but not their squad.

A good season would be if not win the league, be in the race for it to the last game, and a cup win of some sort.

Semi-final of the CL would be the minimum too I would think.
 
Just get consistent at home and anything can happen.

We can beat the top teams, but its the dropping points against the teams we should be beating that costs us. I feel like with Sancho, and Varane, we might still lose some of the midfield battles, but we should be able to break teams down and not get caught as easily on the break.
 
I expect us to challenge for the title and be closer to the winner (top 3 is realistic). CL hopefully semi-finals but quarter-finals most likely.
We seem to have a good transfer strategy in place (with the right targets) so if Ole manages to play good football, we could really be a competitive team
 
Pexbo said:
I don’t think you’re really disagreeing with me though. I haven’t said we can’t beat City, I said that we can’t expect to.
Click to expand...

Why not though? We don't know what they will do in the transfer window I suppose but, as it stands, we are the same + Sancho (assuming that is done). We dropped so many stupid points last season, if we stop with the overly cautious approach I expect us to be right up there pushing them barring an injury crisis.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Why not though? We don't know what they will do in the transfer window I suppose but, as it stands, we are the same + Sancho (assuming that is done). We dropped so many stupid points last season, if we stop with the overly cautious approach I expect us to be right up there pushing them barring an injury crisis.
Click to expand...
Statistically we scored more than we should have for the chances we made. There is a good chance that we over performed last season.
 
Hammondo said:
Statistically we scored more than we should have for the chances we made. There is a good chance that we over performed last season.
Click to expand...

That's the big worry with the setup we have, I just hope the rumours about becoming more offensive are true.
 
Title challenge. What City and Pool do is none of our concern. If people think they are that much stronger (which they aren't) we best be beating the other 18 teams.
 
If we sign Varane on top of Sancho, even if we don't sign another midfielder, I think its reasonable to expect a title challenge. Or at least coming much closer. Have to make knockout stages of the Champions League too.
 
Nogbadthebad said:
Even if we get all the mooted players, its still just about catching up to city's first 11, but not their squad.

A good season would be if not win the league, be in the race for it to the last game, and a cup win of some sort.

Semi-final of the CL would be the minimum too I would think.
Click to expand...

Minimum? Maximum you mean!
 
shamans said:
Title challenge. What City and Pool do is none of our concern. If people think they are that much stronger (which they aren't) we best be beating the other 18 teams.
Click to expand...

We could improve and still be battling for 4th, that's the problem.
Chelsea will be a big threat, City obviously, and those who wrote Liverpool off as finished, wilfully ignoring they had to play about 37 different combos at centre back will very likely be disappointed too.
 
If your not challenging for the title by Christmas and your spending the money this summer Ole is gone. For some of you guys that might be preferable but that’s a topic for another thread.

Still I agree with many of you, McFred needs to go if you want to be serious. Can’t think of the last time a team won The league with an average midfield like that.

Being solid is one thing but you need more than that, relying on a bit of World Class play from someone (Bruno/Pogba) to make the difference isn’t going to bring you out on top over 38 games. That’s almost comparable to Gerrards Liverpool teams and the best they ever managed was 2nd.
 
Sandikan said:
We could improve and still be battling for 4th, that's the problem.
Chelsea will be a big threat, City obviously, and those who wrote Liverpool off as finished, wilfully ignoring they had to play about 37 different combos at centre back will very likely be disappointed too.
Click to expand...

If we get the players rumored no excuses to finish 4th.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.