Will we finish above Aston Villa?

Their 3 next games are pretty winnable. If they do their confidence will boost a lot. I would really like to see them doing a Leicester if we aren't going to compete for the title.
 
I think we will. They're the most likely of the 7 clubs above us to fall off. But then again, I fear Chelsea might be slowly trending upwards.

A lot of things can start going right for some clubs and wrong for others, so I would not be surprised if we finished anywhere from 4th to 8th at this point.
 
Yes. If you think about it we’ve won all of our league games bar Palace that we were expected / should have won.
These top class clubs who are showing a lot more than us aren’t as abundant as made out to be when we’re somehow 6 points off top
 
They have better attackers, play better football and have a coach more attuned and suited to the PL.

But I think Europe will stretch them, so not sure.

It’s funny all those that scoffed at the idea of going for Watkins over Højlund in the Summer.
 
cyberman said:
Yes. If you think about it we’ve won all of our league games bar Palace that we were expected / should have won.
These top class clubs who are showing a lot more than us aren’t as abundant as made out to be when we’re somehow 6 points off top
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There's only been 9 games played, how many points off the top should you be?
 
FootballHQ said:
There's only been 9 games played, how many points off the top should you be?
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4 points worse off against the same / equivalent fixtures played last year
That better?
feck, win our next and we’re 3 off City.
But yeah, Villa and similar teams are a power house alright. We have absolutely no scope for improvement. None.
 
It’ll mainly depend on if we can get our forwards performing, if we can’t there’ll be quite a lot of clubs finishing above us.
 
Yes and purely because of squad depth. As good as they are now, how will they play if they lose ole Watkins or moussa dembele or anyone of their back 4?
I think the league is largely a squad depth issue and it is why Arsenal and Newcastle fell off at the tail end of last season

I think we have a large squad but right now, the manager has not shown that he trusts players beyond the starting 11 except if we get injuries. For example, we can and should bench Bruno, Casemiro, and Rashford till they get some form of some sort, (why do we play Bruno or Casemiro or Rashford in league cup games)...I am not sure the manager has the guts to do so though
 
Yes. We get this nonsense every year. People pumping up other clubs with low expectations. The micro analysis for us is a lot different to what takes place for Villa because who the feck cares except their fans. Which means hyperbole tends to come with it.

Can't say that we'll have a great season but confident we'll be better than the likes of them.
 
Who cares? 1st is 1st, second is nowhere, third and beyond is even worse.
 
Hard to tell, could see us finish as high as third and as low as tenth.
 
If the league was the calendar year of 2023 Villa are second only to Man City. Considering they have recruited better, play better football and look to have a plan compared to us recruiting terribly, having no plan and getting worse then yes I think they will finish above us.
 
We'll definitely finish within and including he boundaries of 1st and 20th
 
AltiUn said:
You were much sounder when Villa were shit
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I didn't actually mean it as an insult. I just said with only 27 points in play so far Man. United won't be that far off the main teams as even with your issues back to front you still have quality players who can win games with individual brilliance so with five wins you'll still be in the mix for top 6.

Of course it becomes a different issue after 15-20 games e.g. xmas period as then big points margins can be created in the top half.

We've got Luton at home on Sunday and you've got the Manchester derby so that's where we can start getting a significant lead on teams we want to finish above this season. But then in December we have Man. City and Arsenal at home within 3 days of each other which will be very taxing so points difference could be whittled down again pretty quickly.
 
Red the Bear said:
Hard to tell, could see us finish as high as third and as low as tenth.
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Based on what I've seen so far that would mean finishing above one of Liverpool or Arsenal. I know it's a long old season and Liverpool and Arsenal have flaws but they've both had very good starts to the season. Pretty much win all the time at home and some impressive away results aswell.
 
cyberman said:
Yes. If you think about it we’ve won all of our league games bar Palace that we were expected / should have won.
These top class clubs who are showing a lot more than us aren’t as abundant as made out to be when we’re somehow 6 points off top
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To put it another way, we lost all the games we've played against top 6 sides by two goals, lost the only game we've played against a midtable side and won 5 games against lower half sideall of them by single goal. If you're trying to sell that as anywhere near half-decent, you're not gonna find many takers I think.
 
justsomebloke said:
To put it another way, we lost all the games we've played against top 6 sides by two goals, lost the only game we've played against a midtable side and won 5 games against lower half sideall of them by single goal. If you're trying to sell that as anywhere near half-decent, you're not gonna find many takers I think.
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That’s a grim read.
 
FootballHQ said:
Based on what I've seen so far that would mean finishing above one of Liverpool or Arsenal. I know it's a long old season and Liverpool and Arsenal have flaws but they've both had very good starts to the season. Pretty much win all the time at home and some impressive away results aswell.
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We'll probably finish somewhere in between but I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if either of them had major collapse mid season, Liverpool are rather light in personnel so a injury crisis would hit them particularly hard and arsenal still have question marks around them mentally speaking.

The chances of it happening are pretty low though I admit.
 
justsomebloke said:
To put it another way, we lost all the games we've played against top 6 sides by two goals, lost the only game we've played against a midtable side and won 5 games against lower half sideall of them by single goal. If you're trying to sell that as anywhere near half-decent, you're not gonna find many takers I think.
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Yeah. It we’ve won all our games that we should have won bar Palace, that’s not as easy as it sounds. Plus we really shouldn’t have lost away to Arsenal or Spurs (imo)
This side reminds me of a poorer Liverpool side. The amount of times I’ve watched them do nothing all game only to pop up with a winner is insane.
I have no doubt about our ability to put wins on the board, it’s the style of play that Ten Hag really needs to address. Questions need to be asked If that doesn’t improve when the injured players are back
 
FootballHQ said:
Based on what I've seen so far that would mean finishing above one of Liverpool or Arsenal. I know it's a long old season and Liverpool and Arsenal have flaws but they've both had very good starts to the season. Pretty much win all the time at home and some impressive away results aswell.
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Liverpool have won 2 away games so far this season which includes that freak Newcastle game?!. Nothing impressive at all
 
Sir Alex picked them out at the start of the season just after their heavy defeat to Newcastle. He knows what he’s talking about.

They will have a poor run at some point though, Emery has very good history in European comps so good chance they go deep there and that will stretch them.
 
cyberman said:
Yes. If you think about it we’ve won all of our league games bar Palace that we were expected / should have won.
These top class clubs who are showing a lot more than us aren’t as abundant as made out to be when we’re somehow 6 points off top
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That's a bit of a naive way of looking at it. Realistically we're 6 points off top having had an easier start than City, Arsenal and Liverpool.

We've also failed to beat Brighton and Spurs, who at the time we were expected to beat both. Whilst looking atrocious in all our wins and lucky to get most of them really.

That's my honest assessment, all bias aside.
 
If we do, but we don't finish in top 4, I won't care anyway.
But I doubt they'll be able to maintain their form throughout the entire season.
 
Before the season started I said they’d be a dark horse this season. Wouldn’t surprise me if they break the top 6. The way they are ran and the ambition of these owners there’s no reason why they can’t. As others have said Europe could rumble them a little. Could see Grealish going back there over the next couple of seasons if he doesn’t go abroad. They’re on a good footing
 
Red the Bear said:
We'll probably finish somewhere in between but I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if either of them had major collapse mid season, Liverpool are rather light in personnel so a injury crisis would hit them particularly hard and arsenal still have question marks around them mentally speaking.

The chances of it happening are pretty low though I admit.
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Liverpool last season were abysmal away from home up to pretty much April when they had a belated rally to finish 4th. This season already they've got a point at Chelsea (which will look better as season goes on), a miraculously/flukey win at Newcastle (again they don't lose many at SJP these days) and a point at Brighton which is decent. Even being 10 seconds from getting a draw with 9 men at Spurs was an incredible effort.

They'll win the vast majority of games at Anfield for various reasons as we all know and can put out mix and match 11s in europa so personally I think they'll get past 80 points this season. That's the standard you need for 3rd place this season imo.

One anomaly of fixture list so far is Liverpool and Arsenal have yet to play any of the promoted teams who are basically points sieves home and away so that also has to be factored in.
 
cyberman said:
Liverpool have won 2 away games so far this season which includes that freak Newcastle game?!. Nothing impressive at all
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As I've said just above their run has included Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs and Brighton so far. They'll start winning more away games once they play the bottom half regularly just due to Salah and others in attack.

Man. United won 8 away games last season to finish comfortable top 4 so I'd expect Liverpool to exceed that.

Had to check back and the remarkable statistic there is 23 prem away games under Ten Hag and you've only won an away game by more than one goal twice, 2-0s at Leeds and Forest.
 
FootballHQ said:
As I've said just above their run has included Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs and Brighton so far. They'll start winning more away games once they play the bottom half regularly just due to Salah and others in attack.

Man. United won 8 away games last season to finish comfortable top 4 so I'd expect Liverpool to exceed that.

Had to check back and the remarkable statistic there is 23 prem away games under Ten Hag and you've only won an away game by more than one goal twice, 2-0s at Leeds and Forest.
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And we’ve lost two away games to Spurs and Arsenal. I still don’t see your point
 
cyberman said:
And we’ve lost two away games to Spurs and Arsenal. I still don’t see your point
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When they play Burnley and Sheffield United they'll win those games comfortably...imo.

Their next away is Luton actually. Forest at home next weekend so they win both and Man. United lose to Man. City and then don't beat Fulham and gap between two teams then actually goes to 10 points and that's when it gets difficult to catch up.

Liverpool have had a much harder fixture list compared to Man. United, not sure what's debatable about that looking at who's played who regardless of ref divisions so they'll be pretty happy to already be 5 points clear.
 
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