First game line up?!

comment by morespurs (U15748)
posted 36 minutes ago
Genuine ask: what’s your expected final table position this coming season? You’ve narrowly missed out on CL, do you maybe see yourselves making it?
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Not a chance. Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs will all be stronger next season, while we look likely to make a poor start. Don't bet against Rodgers being fired by Christmas.
Predicting now, I'd put us about tenth, behind Everton, Wolves and Southampton. Although we should have decent potential if we can pick up early enough and I can't see any of those three troubling the top 6.

My predicted table:

Man City
Liverpool
Chelsea
Man Utd (All 4 potentially quite tight in a good race)
Arsenal
Spurs (Clear 5th and 6th in one order or another)
Everton
Wolves (Not convinced they've strengthened enough to push on further than this)
Southampton (Hassenhutl has proven me wrong; I thought he was overrated)
Leicester
Sheffield Utd
West Ham
Leeds (Tough to call, could finish anywhere under the top 6)
Newcastle (Would have had them to really struggle but they look like they've made some solid signings)
Burnley (Would have had them higher but there are rumours of unrest)
Brighton
Aston Villa
Crystal Palace (Call this one a gut feeling; could well be wrong)
Fulham
West Brom (Although I'm pretty convinced we'll mess up against them in the opening match)

Leicester will be up there I think. That table is based partly on what happened last season which was very much one-off like the fact United got into CL. The pandemic break helped them a lot and so did the 5 sub rule. They won games late on after making 5 subs knowing they had deep quality better than most opponents. It won’t happen this season.
Chelsea would find it difficult having to gel five new players even if they are of high quality! Fat Frank to get the sack for me!
Wolves will be stronger again. They lost one player but it’s not about that with them. They have principles and they play hard to win. Nuno is still there for them.
Sheff Utd will probably be replaced by Leeds.
Everton are the dark horse and imo as the season progress, they may click and push up.
All to play for!

Hey morespurs. Sadly I’m with Dunge. We have a threadbare squad with major issues currently so we could make a very bad start.

If that happens it could be a mindset hangover from last season and we scrape up to 10-12th just down to a decent overall squad.

But it doesn’t look good right now.

We're only an injury or two away from the dreaded Ndidi-Mendy-Hamza midfield 3. Heck, even Matty James might be in contention

As for the season ahead, I share the pessimism. Unfortunately we are going backwards, not pushing on. This has been one of the worst pre-seasons I can recall in terms of lack of transfer activity, right at the time we are desperate for numbers as we go into a campaign that will consist of 4 competitions in just 8 months. I don't know what's going on, whether it's lack of funds or Rodgers and Congerton just not getting their targets, but it's been really disconcerting.

Add to that our disastrous end to the season (our form in 2020 as a whole has been lower mid table) and it's hard to see anything but a considerable drop off. I'm predicting 11th but I can see us being towards the bottom for the first half of the year before recovering to a somewhat respectable finish.

Also, as we're in predictions season:

Man City
Chelsea
Liverpool
Man Utd
Arsenal
Wolves
Spurs
Everton
Southampton
Leeds
Leicester
Newcastle
Sheff Utd
Aston Villa
Burnley
Brighton
Fulham
West Ham
Palace
WBA

comment by Merseysidefox (U4842)
posted 4 hours, 59 minutes ago
Hey morespurs. Sadly I’m with Dunge. We have a threadbare squad with major issues currently so we could make a very bad start.

If that happens it could be a mindset hangover from last season and we scrape up to 10-12th just down to a decent overall squad.

But it doesn’t look good right now.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The club is probably is already in the pursuit of new fresh blood. I trawl an awful lot of the footballing sources, and have noticed many times, Leicester being mentioned in a player link. It had made wonder, if we wouldn't be seeing suddenly 1 or 2 players coming through the doors at the club.

It looks like we were chasing champions league players
Which I would imagine is quite a challenge with players wages bonuese ect plus the transfer,

Then we are suddenly in the europa Cup
And are chasing 2 players for each posiition
Some of whom are no 3 on the list at PSG or Man utd
So they also are waiting to see what movements are happening before they make up there minds

Or we are just utter rubbish at buying players 🤷‍♂️

I think we started off chasing Champions League players, and indeed hyper-ambitious targets. It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if there was a list somewhere in the offices with "Suarez, Luis" and "Bale, Gareth" listed on it.

Now we've been turned down by every last one of those, we may be moving onto more realistic targets. Latest rumours are that Dwight McNeil has been spotted at the training ground.

4-7th place finish for me

"Latest rumours are that Dwight McNeil has been spotted at the training ground"

---------------------

I wont believe it until he's seen at Morrisons.