August Optimism Gauge

[limpid]

This poll will be open for the first week of the month

[Xela]

[Zhan_Zhuang]

7-10 for me and feeling optimistic.

Gerrard has bought well and we look cohesive and stronger.

[sne]

Hopefully it clicks, think we have very good potential in the squad but not seen much yet to suggest we are reaching it.

[maqroll]

Why do I have a weird feeling of dread sort of percolating beneath the surface..

[maqroll]

6 hours ago, sne said:

Hopefully it clicks, think we have very good potential in the squad but not seen much yet to suggest we are reaching it.

I think if we are done in the market, this season will be one of just consolidating our mid table position and building on it next summer.

[SuffolkVillan]

Carlos will help the defence, Kamara looks like he will need time to settle. SG doesn't seem to have sorted out a workable system from midfield to forwards. At the moment I can only see 11th as a ceiling. first three games all crucial as next four all very tough. 

bournmouth win  everton win  palace lose whu draw arsenal lose city lose lei lose southampton win leeds win forest draw chelsea lose 

14 pts after 11 games puts us around 13th so not good enough. If this pans out SG comes under a lot of pressure from above in my view.

I hope I'm wrong but I feel this season is going to be just as frustrating as last.

[VillaLion63]

My biggest issue is with the strikers. They didn't perform last season and no signs anything has changed in pre-season. People keep saying to me Ollie Watkins will come good. What ???

Big gamble in my opinion. Could cost Gerrard.

[allani]

Pleased with all our signings.  Pleased to see three or four youth players staking a claim for a place in the match day squad.  Concerned that a midfield with Luiz and McGinn will not be good enough (based on 3 seasons of this being the case) and we are putting a lot of pressure on Kamara to fix everything.  Getting worried about Ollie.  Very concerned that people are getting very carried away expecting us to challenge the top 6-8.  Think we will finish somewhere between 9th (good season) and 12th (meh season).

[NoelVilla]

We should be challenging for Europe with this squad.

[Villatillidie95]

For me we have to really hit the ground running from the first game this saturday, that will determine the course of our season imo. if we beat bournemouth we bring a lot of confidence into everton at home, and then obviously we've got the hammers again at home late on in the month who will be a tougher test but one we have to beat if we want to get higher up the table, we've struggled against them too many times since promotion and need to start winning those games to finish the season strongly.

Going into the Arsenal game at the end of the month with 9 points on the board would be huge, with the players we have signed we are a lot more solid and I am excited to see them run out on August 6th

[zab6359]

An optimistic 8-12 for me happy with our back 5 options and Kamara, still question marks over rest of the midfield and forward line, I think the quality is there it’s just how it is played.

[El Segundo]

Went for 7-10th but think bottom end of that is our level.  The squad is probably capable of 7th or 8th but I've not seen anything to convince me that Gerrard will get the best out of them, or that things will be a whole lot different to the second half of last season.  I hope he does convince me but don't really expect him to. 

[Vancvillan]

[pacbuddies]

With all the money spent we need to be finishing several places higher than Smith's 11th place finish of two seasons ago otherwise Gerrard will have failed.

[Podster]

On 31/07/2022 at 10:56, Zhan_Zhuang said:

7-10 for me and feeling optimistic.

Gerrard has bought well and we look cohesive and stronger.

The players Gerrard bought look good mainly because they are competing against other players in the villa squad whe are below par players. It's the same old pattern of buying in players who are better, but not that much better than what we already have, we need less quantity buying of players who look good sometimes but will never light up the premiership. Better to have paid big bucks for 3 top class players than buy a bag load of players who would barely make the bench for the so called big six. Or is it just that Gerrard is clueless but we have been hypnotised by his name. I honestly dont get what is happening to this great club. 

[Hank Scorpio]

Not looking forward to the Everton game now. Which is quite telling 

[pacbuddies]

9 hours ago, Pissflaps said:

Not looking forward to the Everton game now. Which is quite telling 

Along with Bournemouth, Southampton & Forest, Everton are one of the weakest sides in the league. Anything other than a Villa win next weekend should see Gerrard picking up his P45!

[Ingram85]

If Stevie stays past November then even with a new manager I’m predicting 15th.

If he completely messes up and gets the chop sooner then top half may be achievable.

I definitely wasn’t expecting a euro place lol. Madness. We have the players but they aren’t utilised well enough by those in charge. 

Got a feeling it’s gonna be yet another long old slog of a season. No optimism for this one at all. Again. 

Edited August 7, 2022 by Ingram85

[Hank Scorpio]

I am angry at myself for being so down after 1 game, but you know what, I'm old. I've seen these same mistakes being made time after time.

Yet again we may have a manager who isn't tactically good enough to get the most out of the players we have. We are getting further away from even tiny hint of ever winning anything again. It's tiring, all I want for us to be good and win stuff for a small period of time before I die. It seems as unlikely as ever.