rubberman Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I'm surprisingly not too worried about goals. We only scored 31 last season but shipped 57. We've managed 4 in 4, which while not record-breakingly good, is not record-breakingly bad against a fairly representative set of clubs so far. We've barely played our most creative players, haven't played our strongest line-up and are in the earliest stages of playing together as a squad. Add in a vastly improved defence and we'll be picking up more wins along the way. 10th-12th should be achievable, but not dropping below 14th would be great thanks. (I would like the sky 4 to stop losing to teams that we're likely be in competition with though). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I seroulsy think we'll be challenging Swansea and possibly Southampton and West Ham as being one of the 'best of the rest' teams. If Totthenham have a bad year might we even finish sneak above them. Not sure about Everton and I think Palace are overrated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 (edited) I seroulsy think we'll be challenging Swansea and possibly Southampton and West Ham as being one of the 'best of the rest' teams. If Totthenham have a bad year might we even finish sneak above them. Not sure about Everton and I think Palace are overrated. No chance whatsoever. We're miles away from all of those teams in quality, absolutely miles. We'll finish nearly ten points behind even the closest of those. Edited September 2, 2015 by HanoiVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakid007 Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 10th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I seroulsy think we'll be challenging Swansea and possibly Southampton and West Ham as being one of the 'best of the rest' teams. If Totthenham have a bad year might we even finish sneak above them. Not sure about Everton and I think Palace are overrated. No chance whatsoever. We're miles away from all of those teams in quality, absolutely miles. We'll finish nearly ten points behind even the closest of those. I think we are miles away from Swansea. Watching them against United showed how wide the gulf is between them and us, but hopefully we will improve. Mid table finish would be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 If I compare Swansea and us, with respect to our first XI strengths, I can only see one player we have who is superior to their option (Amavi > Taylor). Even Grealish, who I rate hugely, wouldn't be in a team ahead of Montero, Sigurdsson or Ayew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberman Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 If I compare Swansea and us, with respect to our first XI strengths, I can only see one player we have who is superior to their option (Amavi > Taylor). Even Grealish, who I rate hugely, wouldn't be in a team ahead of Montero, Sigurdsson or Ayew. I think they'd bite your hand off for Grealish. Also Amavi and Traore. But your point still stands that they are ahead of us for now, not by much I don't think though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post maqroll Posted September 2, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted September 2, 2015 No relegation battle and an enjoyable style of play is all I really want this season. We won't be in the top half of the table though. This season is just setting the table. The feast begins next year. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 No relegation battle and an enjoyable style of play is all I really want this season. We won't be in the top half of the table though. This season is just setting the table. The feast begins next year. I tend to agree, but I still think we have it in us to get 9 - 12 th. Watch the players develop and then hopefully next summer we have the money to get 2 or 3 top notch players to push on. I like the way we are going though, signed up our own younger players while getting top young talent. It will almost pay for itself down the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted September 2, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted September 2, 2015 I'd say 9th-13th. The team and squad is better overall and I think that'll shine through. Another striker would have been ideal, but we've improved the midfield to a point that there will be more goals from there. Plus the fact that Bacuna is known to chip in with a few and we will have Lescott and Richards who have both notched a decent amount over the years, and Amavi who likes to get forward. Defensively we look solid now, midfield is a match for anybody IMO and strikers we have options. All this equates to us having goals throughout the team rather than solely reliant on Benteke, we will be comfortable IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fun Factory Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 With our spending and wage bill we should be looking for a comfortable lower mid table finish. If Sherwood can achieve this is a another matter. 12-14th and a decent cup run, I will be happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I stuck my overly optimistic balls on the line before and got them chopped off when things went south. This time I think I've got justification for being optimistic. So I think 7th-9th for the following reasons: 1. I don't think we'll miss Benteke and Delph as much as people think. It's not revisionism on my part, but Benteke was always hit and miss. He'd score the odd wonder goal, and when the team played well, so did he. But for vast amounts of time he'd be marked out of the game by defenders who had learned how to bully him. The times when he took Chris Smalling out and defenders just bounced off him were at the early parts of his time here, before he seemingly got a little bit found out and then was in and out injured. Delph was a little more integral to our midfield but we've replaced him and then some. 2. Everywhere I look in our team, I see goals. The 2 guys at the back in Richards and now Lescott have scored loads from set pieces so we should finally be dangerous there. The midfield has some serious talent in Gueye, Veretout, Grealish, Traore who all have the technique, if not yet the confidence to bang goals in. 3. I'm now not convinced that we did need another proven goalscorer in the transfer window. When you produce lots of chances by getting the ball into the box like Grealish and Traore can do, you don't need someone to do it all on their own, you just need someone to get in the right places. At the moment, that's Sinclair, but it can and will be others. And when a team has to over compensate to stop a certain threat, they leave gaps elsewhere. If you spread the threat, you'll find space. I just hope to see some improvement soon from an understandably slow start. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I admit we needed another proven goal scorer, but I am pretty glad we dodged signing Adebeyor - never doubted his talent, just his state of mind and the circumstances of him not joining us seem pretty out there. Bebatov is a classy player, but he's not the sort of forward we need, and he's looking for one last big pay day. Glad we aren't the cash cow he's milking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 It's not revisionism on my part, but Benteke was always hit and miss. He'd score the odd wonder goal, and when the team played well, so did he. But for vast amounts of time he'd be marked out of the game by defenders who had learned how to bully him. The times when he took Chris Smalling out and defenders just bounced off him were at the early parts of his time here, before he seemingly got a little bit found out and then was in and out injured. Delph was a little more integral to our midfield but we've replaced him and then some. The Benteke cycle as I saw it was this, 1 in 3 games he would do nothing all game but somehow still score a brilliant or important goal. He would sometimes hit a run of unstoppable form that would be sustained for 5-8 games. A few dips in between, but he could always change games. Then he would get injured, after a long time out he would then take about 10+ games to actually get his fitness and sharpness back, in those games he would be offside every run and a virtual statue for the rest of the time who couldn't control the ball. Then the cycle would begin again. I would like to see him play two seasons without injuries, he could be world class. As it stands if he had, played more and had less injuries he would have years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colhint Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I think anywhere between 8th and 14th, because I think our best signing has been Ray Wilkins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 I still hate the title of this thread, even though it's been corrected already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Eighth means that apart from the guaranteed 6, we are only bested by one other team from Swansea, Southampton, Everton, West Ham and Palace. Not a chance in hell IMHO. That's a depressingly realistic way of looking at it. But really we have 12 new first team players, so there is just no way of knowing how the season will go. I'd say we've got about a 1 in 15 chance of finishing anywhere from 6th to 20th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Don't stick your neck out, CF! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillakevBromsgrove Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 After the transfer sagas I now feel we will be eighth to twelfth depending on injuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted September 3, 2015 Share Posted September 3, 2015 Wouldn't say Spurs are a shoo in for top 6 myself. I am excited but I think our own league aside from the top 5 is very competitive and we'd do exceptionally well to finish top 8. Top 10 is realistic though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts