LondonLax Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 If we can sort out the defense a solid top half should be achievable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smetrov Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I really wish Lambert would play his first choice defence in pre season friendlies - this would enable them to get to know each other and gel as a unit. Defence still a big worry for me. 15th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVTuco Posted July 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 21, 2013 Said on first page that if Benteke stays, 14th. No need to change that view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHV Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Having seen some of the defending in pre season and the fact we have conceeded in every game to what can only be decribed as poor opposition I think this season will be exactly the same as last season with us scrapping around the relegation zone for the majority of the time. The midfield for me is still powder puff and really lacks in strength, depth and quality. Vlaar,Okore,Baker and Clark isnt exactly great either. Its going to be a mixture of excitment and torture again with some horrendous hammerings every now and again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Having seen some of the defending in pre season and the fact we have conceeded in every game to what can only be decribed as poor opposition I think this season will be exactly the same as last season with us scrapping around the relegation zone for the majority of the time. The midfield for me is still powder puff and really lacks in strength, depth and quality. Vlaar,Okore,Baker and Clark isnt exactly great either. Its going to be a mixture of excitment and torture again with some horrendous hammerings every now and again. apart from all that, everything is great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 21, 2013 I really wish Lambert would play his first choice defence in pre season friendlies - this would enable them to get to know each other and gel as a unit. Defence still a big worry for me. 15th He can't, with Okore nursing a hamstring injury. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raymond Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 1st. Why not? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdomlahor Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Between 9th-14th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 (edited) I still think we should be aiming at 8th, but more importantly I think a points increase of between 10-15 should be the target. If we manage that, I don't really care where we finish in the league this season. That'd see us on 51-56 points and would be a very attainable figure, given the amount of points we threw away last season Edited July 21, 2013 by P3te 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Still going to struggle unless we see some real quality come in over the next couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I think the three sides coming up are short on quality and looking at the rest of the league so far I don't think teams from 8th downward have really strengthened, west brom have lost Lukaku and I think they'll miss him to the same extent that we would have missed tekkers, anelka may fire he may not, chances are he won't in my opinion. Stoke have to readjust massively to a new manager after a long period of playing under a manager with a very specific way of playing, Fulham will be losing x amount of loan players and they were pretty rubbish from January onwards, as were stoke. Southampton got progressively worse under their new manager and have only signed one player I think. Norwich have strengthened a bit but I believe us to be a better team than them as showed in our 2 wins and 1 draw record against them last year, a lot rides on Van Wolfswinkel firing for them. Swansea are likely to kick on a bit I think. Newcastle and Sunderland I think are both likely candidates to finish below us, Sunderland have the mad hatter in charge and that's just a ticking time bomb as is the situation at Newcastle with Kinnear (and now Harford), Ashley's blatantly trying to get Pardew to resign. So I believe we'll finish either 8th or 9th. All of this can change greatly between now and September 1st but as things stand this is my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poitier Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I reckon 10th with potential to be much worse or a bit better than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TezzRexx Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 We -need- to sort out our defence otherwise we'll have the same problems as last year, play well for most of the game, concede stupid goals. So far, the friendlies haven't done much to change my mind that this season will be different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 So far, the friendlies haven't done much to change my mind that this season will be different. We won't see the "first choice" back 4 til the Shamrock Rovers game though I wouldn't imagine. Clark making mistakes in preseason isn't really that big an issue given that he's going to be 4th choice, for example Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Defence improved throughout the season despite not recording a clean sheet, we stopped getting overrun generally and seemed to tighten up on set pieces massively, I'm not overly concerned that we didn't keep a clean sheet and am sure the sequence will be broken early on in the season. We will concede goals because lambert has the team taking a positive approach to games. The friendlies have little or no relevance for me, players bedding in and no consistent selection with injuries thrown in the mix too so really not worried, plus they are friendlies, the players won't be putting in maximum effort / concentration no matter how much we'd like them to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I'd say around 12th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pembers Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 No reason why we can't aim for top 10, realistically we were only a handful of points off from it last season, it was quite close. And that was with us having lost points through easy to cut out mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Top half finish.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P3te Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I'd say around 12th. That's around a 2-3 point improvement going on previous years. Do you not think we're capable of a bit more than that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bannedfromHandV Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Even Everton depending on their transfer activity (in and out) could be 'catchable' this season, considering they're going to be going through a huge readjustment from moyes-to-Martinez Not unthinkable 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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