Season 22/23 Target League Position

[TRO]

21 hours ago, messi11 said:

Yeah right now 10th sounds about right! Gonna be tough tho
 

I think its hard to say.....Its all down to the consistency.

so I would say anything between 12th - 8th

We have to tighten up on sloppy goals, and be more clinical the other end.

I am suspecting another 3 players coming in.....so that will have a bearing of where we are likely to finish.

it also depends how long the settling in period, these new players take.

I still don't see Euro places, with what we have so far, despite the signings being encouraging.

[nick76]

7 minutes ago, TRO said:

I think its hard to say.....Its all down to the consistency.

so I would say anything between 12th - 8th

We have to tighten up on sloppy goals, and be more clinical the other end.

I am suspecting another 3 players coming in.....so that will have a bearing of where we are likely to finish.

it also depends how long the settling in period, these new players take.

I still don't see Euro places, with what we have so far, despite the signings being encouraging.

I agree I just dont see us close to Europe based on what we have currently. 

Hopefully some additional signings will give us more of a chance. 

As you say, injuries and settling in for the new players will determine where we end up based on the talent we have currently.  Praying that Kamara hits the ground running, is as good as we think he is and settles really well into the team...he could be a real difference maker, but its really asking and expecting a lot for that to happen quickly.

[picicata]

Unless we make some pretty stunning signings over the next couple of months I would say that 8th is our highest possible. Don't think we will finish below 12th though.

[VillaFaninLondon]

If we break the league down into tiers, with tier 1 being the teams challenging for the title, and tier 5 likely to be near bottom 3, I'd say we're in the middle one:

Tier 1 - Man C, Liverpool, Spurs, 

Tier 2 - Chelsea (maybe tier 1 but new ownership etc I think they'll be fighting for top 4 instead), Man U, Arsenal

Tier 3 - West Ham, Newcastle, Villa, Leicester, Wolves

Tier 4 - Everton (could be tier 3 but reckon they're in for another tough season), Brighton, Palace, Leeds

Tier 5 - Southampton, Brentford(tier 4 if they get Eriksen back), Forest, Fulham, Bournemouth

 

As things stand, I reckon we're more likely to be at the lower end of tier 3. If we want to get to the higher end and challenging to be in tier 2, then we will need to improve on at least two more positions in the first team otherwise somewhere between 9th and 11th is probably our best bet. If we finish below Palace, Brighton or Brentford again then I don't think Gerrard will make it past a second season in all honesty. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

15 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

If we break the league down into tiers, with tier 1 being the teams challenging for the title, and tier 5 likely to be near bottom 3, I'd say we're in the middle one:

Tier 1 - Man C, Liverpool, Spurs, 

Tier 2 - Chelsea (maybe tier 1 but new ownership etc I think they'll be fighting for top 4 instead), Man U, Arsenal

Tier 3 - West Ham, Newcastle, Villa, Leicester, Wolves

Tier 4 - Everton (could be tier 3 but reckon they're in for another tough season), Brighton, Palace, Leeds

Tier 5 - Southampton, Brentford(tier 4 if they get Eriksen back), Forest, Fulham, Bournemouth

 

As things stand, I reckon we're more likely to be at the lower end of tier 3. If we want to get to the higher end and challenging to be in tier 2, then we will need to improve on at least two more positions in the first team otherwise somewhere between 9th and 11th is probably our best bet. If we finish below Palace, Brighton or Brentford again then I don't think Gerrard will make it past a second season in all honesty. 

I think this is pretty much spot on.  Not a massive different between tiers 4 and 5 though as we saw last season with Leeds and Everton nearly relegated. 

[VillaFaninLondon]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think this is pretty much spot on.  Not a massive different between tiers 4 and 5 though as we saw last season with Leeds and Everton nearly relegated. 

Agreed. I'm sure someone in that tier 5 will be the surprise team next season too, maybe Forest, and finish closer to the middle of the table. 

 

Maybe I've been harsh on Brighton who would probably feel they belong in tier 3, but I think Bissouma will be a big loss initially for them and think they'll slip 3-4 places. Palace may also feel they belong in tier 3 but not for me, Gallagher has now gone back to Chelsea and despite everyone saying they had a great season they still only finished three points above us and our season was a disaster from start to finish. 

[OutByEaster?]

38 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Tier 3 - West Ham, Newcastle, Villa, Leicester, Wolves

I think is absolutely our group this season - Palace and Brighton fans will want to try to get into it, but I think you have it absolutely right.

In this group, I think we're rising steadily, Newcastle will push through quickly and bot Leicester and Wolves I think are slightly waning.

Finishing as top team in the Midlands for the first time in twelve years would be a blummin' good start.

 

[Vive_La_Villa]

I think Newcastle massively overachieved. A few decent signings, better coach and a massive feel good factor at home really helped them. I’m interested to see how they do next season.  

[tomav84]

4 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think Newcastle massively overachieved. A few decent signings, better coach and a massive feel good factor at home really helped them. I’m interested to see how they do next season.  

they were always going to have that initial burst. i still find it difficult to give howe credit (mainly because i've slated him for years) and think pretty much any manager would've had similar results and in games i watched anyway, they still weren't that good.

this season will be very interesting. there are still some huge weaknesses in that squad.

[Reivax_Villa]

All the teams are strengthening I can’t see us finishing in European place with this squad.

We need another CB, LB, CM, ST.

This squad will get us in the 10th place.

We are going to need a very tight back line or a high scoring midfield..

Edited June 26, 2022 by Reivax_Villa

[messi11]

Maybe we can squeeze 9th if Kamara turns into the player fifa players say he can become

[VillaChris]

Nice grouping of teams. Only Tier 1 teams are Liverpool and Man. City as even though they're signing well I can't see Spurs getting close to 90 + points which is required to win the league in this current era. Moot point though.

We should certainly be finishing above Wolves imo. They ended last season in terrible form and their spine of Neves-Moutinho-Jimenez is pretty much breaking up now. Neto didn't look great coming back from injury either so they were barely scoring any goals in the run in.

However we could finish above Wolves and still not get top half e.g. 20/21.

We should certainly be mixing it with West Ham and Leicester. Not confident finishing above either though. Leicester had endless injury problems last season, conceded about 350 goals from set pieces and made a european SF.....and still finished 8th. While Maddison and Vardy are still around they're going to be a threat in top half.

West Ham also had a good european run and finished 7th so they've shown with present squad they can challenge in two competitions. We finish 14th despite losing early in both cups. Get the feeling we won't finish above them anytime soon until Rice is sold.

Newcastle is going to be difficult aswell given the way they ended last season.

[fruitvilla]

I think Villa have a reasonable chance of finishing above: Bournemouth, Everton, Palace,  Leicester, Southampton, Leeds, Forest, Fulham, Brentford, Newcastle, Brighton and Wolves. Some of these maybe tricky of course.

So eighth seems a achievable target.

 

[Zhan_Zhuang]

West Ham have had the better of many matches against Villa, they are such a bogey team for us.

Be great if we can get something from them this coming season, they certainly are a team we should be looking to catch.

Leicester are inconsistent and it's possible we can better them and Wolves.

Eighth is up for grabs, unless we are lucky and become a surprise team I think seventh is too much for us.

[GarethRDR]

I'd be delighted with fighting for European football, I'd be happy with 10th and up, I'd be twitchy at 11th/12th, anywhere 13th and below and it's curtains for Gerrard with Purslow on some very thin ice.

[Keyblade]

7 hours ago, Reivax_Villa said:

All the teams are strengthening I can’t see us finishing in European place with this squad.

We need another CB, LB, CM, ST.

This squad will get us in the 10th place.

We are going to need a very tight back line or a high scoring midfield..

What do we need a other CB for? Ming's, Carlos, Konsa, Chambers and Hause as a collective are as good as anything outside the top 4.

Our first XI needs 1 CM and possibly 1 striker depending on how the coaching staff feel about Watkins and Ings. Beyond that a backup LB is all that's needed imo. We have about a month and a half to get those 3 players. We're in a good spot.

[Reivax_Villa]

1 hour ago, Keyblade said:

What do we need a other CB for? Ming's, Carlos, Konsa, Chambers and Hause as a collective are as good as anything outside the top 4.

I think we need an experienced gritty defender with premier league experience to help us see out games.

Mings is not a great CB and that’s what we need unfortunately.

[nick76]

22 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

If we break the league down into tiers, with tier 1 being the teams challenging for the title, and tier 5 likely to be near bottom 3, I'd say we're in the middle one:

Tier 1 - Man C, Liverpool, Spurs, 

Tier 2 - Chelsea (maybe tier 1 but new ownership etc I think they'll be fighting for top 4 instead), Man U, Arsenal

Tier 3 - West Ham, Newcastle, Villa, Leicester, Wolves

Tier 4 - Everton (could be tier 3 but reckon they're in for another tough season), Brighton, Palace, Leeds

Tier 5 - Southampton, Brentford(tier 4 if they get Eriksen back), Forest, Fulham, Bournemouth

 

As things stand, I reckon we're more likely to be at the lower end of tier 3. If we want to get to the higher end and challenging to be in tier 2, then we will need to improve on at least two more positions in the first team otherwise somewhere between 9th and 11th is probably our best bet. If we finish below Palace, Brighton or Brentford again then I don't think Gerrard will make it past a second season in all honesty. 

Spurs arent Tier 1, they are in Tier 2 of that list.  Chelsea faded in the second half of the season and still finished above Spurs by 3 points.  Arsenal were favourities for 4th place until they lost it and then Spurs took over.  Just no way Spurs can be considered Tier 1 over the others.

Tier 3 & 4 Im not sure how you determine that...ambition, owners, league placing, recent history.  For example Brighton finished 6 points and 5 places above us and arguably with a decent striker could've done even better.  West Ham are miles above us on 11 points and last season had European football, I bet they dont consider us in the same catergory.

I think you combine Tier 3 & 4 and it depends on a particular season how each do, sometimes a team does well, sometimes they do poorly.  The difference is that we have more money, but some of the others have consistency finishing higher than us regularly.

[Vive_La_Villa]

I think a lot will depend on our home form. It was really poor last season and hard to pin point why in many games. Are they struggling to break teams down? Is it the pressure from fans ?  

Im sure Villa Park was like a fortress once. Feels like such a long time ago I can’t remember when that was. 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Vive_La_Villa

[Steero113]

23 hours ago, tomav84 said:

they were always going to have that initial burst. i still find it difficult to give howe credit (mainly because i've slated him for years) and think pretty much any manager would've had similar results and in games i watched anyway, they still weren't that good.

this season will be very interesting. there are still some huge weaknesses in that squad.

Really don't like Howe at all, but moving Joelinton into midfield was inspired and was far more of a catalyst for their latter season success than the signings of fatt targett or guimaraes were.