Enda Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 1 hour ago, avfc1982am said: I expect a big improvement across the board, but not sure we will bring in the right players in forward areas to impact the team straight away. Fingers crossed I'm wrong. However, I would say that a 10 point improvement on last year should be the minimum aim for this season. Ten more points (45 total) would have landed us in 13th the last two seasons, and pushing 10th the season before that. We’ll start the season one of the favourites to go down - and for good reason. We need to be a bit more realistic I think. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982am Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 15 minutes ago, Enda said: Ten more points (45 total) would have landed us in 13th the last two seasons, and pushing 10th the season before that. We’ll start the season one of the favourites to go down - and for good reason. We need to be a bit more realistic I think. I agree to a point...You cannot enter the season with low expectations though. I think looking for an improvement in the area of 3 wins on last season isn't insurmountable, with the right additions. If we look at point's dropped, amendments in this area alone would see us bring in close to that quite easily. I don't see how anyone would be comfortable scrapping relegation again. We either learn or we burn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Silvers Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 22 minutes ago, Enda said: Ten more points (45 total) would have landed us in 13th the last two seasons, and pushing 10th the season before that. We’ll start the season one of the favourites to go down - and for good reason. We need to be a bit more realistic I think. I agree and I fear Deano can see that there is much more he can get out of the current squad to achieve at least this. We do need to aim higher though and get at least 3 1st team starters and more strength on the bench to push the obvious few out the door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 1 hour ago, sidcow said: I’m all for eating out to help out. It’s been a brilliant month. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodgyknees Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 44 minutes ago, Enda said: Ten more points (45 total) would have landed us in 13th the last two seasons, and pushing 10th the season before that. We’ll start the season one of the favourites to go down - and for good reason. We need to be a bit more realistic I think. We won’t go down but we will have periods where we look poor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grobs Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 I think we are considerably far off from the likes of Newcastle Brighton, Burnley, Palace. Think it would take a few quality signing and some to get to that level. We were extremely lucky to stay up. If we don't act in this transfer window considerably, we will be favourites for 20th place. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 4 hours ago, grobs said: I think we are considerably far off from the likes of Newcastle Brighton, Burnley, Palace. Think it would take a few quality signing and some to get to that level. We were extremely lucky to stay up. If we don't act in this transfer window considerably, we will be favourites for 20th place. Favourites for 20th? Even if we sign no one surely our squad is better than at the start of last season simply because we have lost no one but had a year of jelling and gaining Premier League experience? We were playing some decent football by the end of last season. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 1 hour ago, LondonLax said: Favourites for 20th? Even if we sign no one surely our squad is better than at the start of last season simply because we have lost no one but had a year of jelling and gaining Premier League experience? We were playing some decent football by the end of last season. The defensive improvements post-lockdown were immense, keep that more consistent and we will be fine. Just need to get rid of the silly defensive mistakes and throwing away leads. Shakespeare will be a great coaching addition for that. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ciggiesnbeer Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 We did look decent. We dont have a rebuild job this year, happily. I was really impressed by the character of the players and staff+ceo under relegation threat.The players actually got better and the staff / manager focused on improving themselves. The CEO didnt make things worse by hinting about managerial changes or throwing the players under the bus, he remained supportive. The manager didnt chop and change or turn on the fans. He accepted the boos and worked harder. We have seen how some players just dont have the character for a relegation scrap, our current ones do, and so does our manager and CEO. Thats not easy and I commend them all for the way they handled it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 6 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said: We did look decent. We dont have a rebuild job this year, happily. I was really impressed by the character of the players and staff+ceo under relegation threat.The players actually got better and the staff / manager focused on improving themselves. The CEO didnt make things worse by hinting about managerial changes or throwing the players under the bus, he remained supportive. The manager didnt chop and change or turn on the fans. He accepted the boos and worked harder. We have seen how some players just dont have the character for a relegation scrap, our current ones do, and so does our manager and CEO. Thats not easy and I commend them all for the way they handled it. Yeah i know. Byt we still ha dto heavily rely on grealish. We can't do this again this season. 4-5 signings and i think we are in a good position 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 We did look decent. The question is will Dean keep playing this pragmatic way or will he go back to his old ways. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 (edited) 41 minutes ago, villalad21 said: We did look decent. The question is will Dean keep playing this pragmatic way or will he go back to his old ways. I think it would be prudent to be fairly pragmatic for starting the season, we don't need to be to Gung Ho about things. Edited September 2, 2020 by Zhan_Zhuang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwi1890 Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 1 hour ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: I think it would be prudent to be fairly pragmatic for starting the season, we don't need to be to Gung Ho about things. As long as we persist with the counter attacking threat we showed towards the end of the season we’ll be fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBlack Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 (edited) Current expectation based on no signings and absolutely no clue as to who we are even interested in leaves me predicting a season of more of the same at present. A season of familiarity with the league, more understanding between the existing players and the improvement shown post lockdown are tempered by the small squad size and increased frequency of games. Our relative squad size of viable first team players compared with others towards the bottom of the league is a worry. Whilst other teams around us may not have strengthened much, I can't see past a season of struggle where it will be a toss up whether we survive or not. 3-4 quality first team signings before the window closes (ideally 2 before the season starts) and I'll revise my expectations. Edited September 2, 2020 by MrBlack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingman Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Have any of our early live Sky/BT games been announced yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted September 2, 2020 Share Posted September 2, 2020 Fingers crossed. Quote Premier League urged to reverse decision to make 160 games unavailable to watch on TV According to the current schedule there will be just 220 Premier League matches available on live TV next season despite the likely lack of fans in stadiums A statement from the Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has pleaded with the Premier League to reconsider their decision to make just 220 of the 380 Premier League matches available for broadcast in the UK next season. Following the end of the nationwide lockdown all 92 of the remaining games of the 2019-20 were shown live over Sky Sports, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and BBC Sport. Despite pilot test events with reduced crowds going ahead in recent weeks, it appears highly unlikely that clubs will be permitted to allow more than a small percentage of their stadium capacity into grounds for the foreseeable future due to the coronavirus crisis For that reason, the DCMS have urged the Premier League to make all games available for TV so that supporters do not miss out on the chance to see their team in action. The statement read: "Our focus is on working with the football authorities, safety and medical experts to get fans back in stadia as quickly as possible. "It is for the Premier League and its broadcast partners to come to an agreement on screening matches, however we urge them to follow the spirit of Project Restart and listen to clubs' loyal fans and consider what can be achieved in the meantime." Brighton's pre-season friendly against Chelsea on Saturday went ahead with 2,500 fans inside the 30,000 capacity Amex Stadium. Arsenal, meanwhile, have announced that they hope to allow a limited amount of fans back to the Emirates Stadium for their Premier League game against Sheffield United on October 3. Speaking about Brighton 's trial v Chelsea, Premier League CEO Richard Masters said: "Brighton and Hove Albion did a fantastic job at their test event for the return of supporters and it was great to see fans in a Premier League stadium for the first time since March. "The success of having 2,500 supporters in the Amex was very encouraging and we are committed to having full stadia as soon as possible, with safety always our priority. We are working hard alongside our clubs, the government and the safety authorities to achieve this. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-urged-reverse-decision-22619509 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villalad21 Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Irish guy predicting us 19th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 2 minutes ago, villalad21 said: Irish guy predicting us 19th How are Leeds instantly nailed on to be 5 places better than us? Baffling. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyjavfc Posted September 3, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted September 3, 2020 1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: How are Leeds instantly nailed on to be 5 places better than us? Baffling. lol Agree, all of the promoted teams will struggle with the step up. Sheffield Utd. really did have a freakish season and I doubt any of the promoted teams will be comfortable like them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 On current squad capacity, I'd have us no higher than 14th. We need to get goals up front to be confident of competing for top 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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