Where will we finish this coming season? And what will be your top 6?

[chiefBlueCFC]

On 30/07/2018 at 09:29, chiefBlueCFC said:

1. 'Pool

2. City

3. Chelsea

4. Spurs

5. United

6. Arsenal

 

I think its going to be very tight between all 6, to be honest. Probably about 10-12 points separating 1-6 

After 4 matches, I think this is still pretty accurate. Although, I like 1-3 could finish in any order. A lot depending on how Morata plays as the season goes on. 

[WalterWhiteCFC]

On 04/09/2018 at 06:46, chi blue said:

We are okay for centre backs in my opinion, Christiansen and Ampudu are fine, Luiz is just waiting for a major mess that will cost us, it's bound to be Liverpool game! A bew Centre forward is a must though

Getting by and excelling and not one in the same Christiansen an ampudu are definitely not enough for a world class team looking to win the league 

[TheSage]

I'll be happy with Top 4 and a cup. I don't think we have the firepower to win the league. None of our strikers are prolific goalscorers and I feel we need one to be able to win the league. Will be happy to be proved wrong though. 

[robdog]

I had to add this tweet to this site:

so many people got it all wrong for CFC this season

[Delnino]

On 03/09/2018 at 09:37, Delnino said:

4 from 4.

We're well on the way to winning the PL.

By the end of September we'll have won 7 in 7 beating Cardiff, West Ham and Pool.

5 from 5.

I'm still in the "we'll win the PL" camp.

West Ham have finally woke up and playing against the pi*eys is always a tough game away so hopefully we can win that game.

Its very likely that ourselves and Pool will go into the game at the Bridge with 100% records.

Its the first time in some 100 years that two teams have won their first 5 league games, something has to give.

The fact the media are wan*ing about Pool being the best side in the land makes it sweeter that Chelsea arent being talked about and are still top.

I cant wait for the Pool game as I suspect we'll beat them and make it 7 from 7.

[evissy]

I think we will lose or draw all of our games against City and Pool and will lose some of the games against Utd, Spurs but will be pretty competitive against other opponents from what I've seen so far. I think 2nd, 3rd or fourth. So CL will be in the cards next term. 

[Slojo]

I'll be happy with a top 4 finish, I'm even okay with Sarri not winning a trophy in his first season, give him some time to build.

Our main priorities should be keeping players and completing our transition, making sure the likes of Hazard, Kovacic and Kante stay at all costs. I'm hoping we can see an improvement on the likes of RLC, Barkley, Emerson, Ampadu, Christensen and Hudson-Odoi. I think there are 3 of these players who can make it here and have the potential to do so. 

I'm not going to get caught up in a title race just yet, if we are up there by January then of course I'll definitely be expecting us to finish strong and win the league, but as of now I expect some slip-ups as we still aren't there yet, Sarri needs more time as do the players in this new system. But so far so good. 

[JJP]

Ill judge this better once we've played against Liverpool, if we can play very well and get a point or 3 from the game then we have a good chance of winning the league

 

[CFCholland]

I think we're a striker and a cb short of winning the league. I'd be happy with a top 4 finish and a strong run in at least 1 of the cup competitions, that will hopefully lead to us winning it.

[icecoolguy22]

I'd take a 3rd place finish, think it's realistic based on what happened after 5 games. We will get lose some games, but we are and will be better at finishing off those teams in the bottom half of the league. Let's face it, what costed us last season were those points dropped against teams we were suppose to beat easily, e.g. Palace, West Ham, Watford, Newcastle etc. I'd love to see instant success, but the last 3 Italian Managers who had 'instant' success all gone in the next season, so you know..

[fester]

5 out of 5, but who have we played?  The fixtures computer has been kind to Sarri as far as providing time to bed his tactical approach in.  I'm not being overly negative, as I've said elsewhere Sarriball is going to take time for the squad to adapt to, in the same way that Citeh took a year to adapt to Guardiola's tactics and Liverpool took 18 month to adapt to Klopp.  

Good results so far, but let's wait 'til we play to big guns.  Still think we can get 3rd this year though

[Slojo]

6 minutes ago, fester said:

5 out of 5, but who have we played?  The fixtures computer has been kind to Sarri as far as providing time to bed his tactical approach in.  I'm not being overly negative, as I've said elsewhere Sarriball is going to take time for the squad to adapt to, in the same way that Citeh took a year to adapt to Guardiola's tactics and Liverpool took 18 month to adapt to Klopp.  

Good results so far, but let's wait 'til we play to big guns.  Still think we can get 3rd this year though

Yep agree, top 4 is a must if we want to have any chance of keeping Hazard and Kovacic. 

I thought Kovacic being here for one season was a foregone conclusion right away when I heard there was no buy clause, but after that Instagram post it looks like he might very well stay here. 

[Osgood is Good]

Could not have wished for a better start. Too early for me to make any predictions. I'd prefer to see how we are handling it around the Nov/Dec time.

[Ilya]

Yes - amazing start. Yes - too early to make predictions based on our form so far, need to play more, harder opponents.

But what is lovely to see is that Spurs, Arsenal and Man U - our competition for top 4 (and predicted to finish above us by, say, the Guardian) - are not looking exactly scary, are they? 

So winning PL is fantasy land for now. But top 4 finish - which for me was an optimistic prediction before season started - is now looking reasonably comfortable.

[JMaher94]

If we can get 8 points minimum from the next 4 games then we've done a great job.

[Ilya]

35 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

If we can get 8 points minimum from the next 4 games then we've done a great job.

Well yes, quite. 2 points per game average is enough to be in top 4 most seasons. So us having a run of 2 ppg on the back of a run of 3ppg - would generally speaking be quite decent overall. :))

[atomis]

I just want that top 4........that way we might be able to convince Eden to stay. But still imperative we boost ourselves with good players. We must address our holes and then give it a real go. For now the team must keep adapting......but Sarri should too. This is EPL, a killer of a League with horrible refs........you cant get far if you cant defend, pep and klopp learned that the hard way, I hope we dont have to.

[DaRick]

I think 3rd. 

IMO we have enough firepower to wipe away lesser teams sans any injuries, but against the Top 6 our defence will be a real problem. 

As for the rest of the Top 6...

Edited September 17, 2018 by DaRick

[DaRick]

4 hours ago, fester said:

5 out of 5, but who have we played?  The fixtures computer has been kind to Sarri as far as providing time to bed his tactical approach in.  I'm not being overly negative, as I've said elsewhere Sarriball is going to take time for the squad to adapt to, in the same way that Citeh took a year to adapt to Guardiola's tactics and Liverpool took 18 month to adapt to Klopp.  

Good results so far, but let's wait 'til we play to big guns.  Still think we can get 3rd this year though

Huddersfield (A): 2017/18 - 3 points, 2018/19 - 3 points

Arsenal (H): 2017/18 - 1 point, 2018/19 - 3 points

Newcastle (A): 2017/18 - 0 points, 2018/19 - 3 points

Bournemouth (H): 2017/18 - 0 points, 2018/19 - 3 points

Not counting Cardiff, we've won 8 more points in these corresponding fixtures than last season, plus Bournemouth have been playing quite well this season, so we could easily have dropped a number of points. 

[Andy North]

I've put us down for 4th behind City, Liverpool and either Spurs or Manu. It's far to early to make a sensible prediction though.

I think the pressure of the CL will wear Utd and Spurs down later in the season.

We really haven't played a team of any consequence yet but the Liverpool games will be a good yard stick.

I know we have to get past West Ham but if we can do them and Liverpool we will really be cooking. I'm not convinced our defense can hold out for both of those games.

It's a great start to the season and you can only beat who you play. Before the season started I had concerns as to where the goals were going to come from but I'm happier now. It seems Hazard could have his best ever season for us. There are goals throughout the team.

 

COYB!

[WhiteWall]

22 hours ago, Delnino said:

5 from 5.

I'm still in the "we'll win the PL" camp.

West Ham have finally woke up and playing against the pi*eys is always a tough game away so hopefully we can win that game.

Its very likely that ourselves and Pool will go into the game at the Bridge with 100% records.

Its the first time in some 100 years that two teams have won their first 5 league games, something has to give.

The fact the media are wan*ing about Pool being the best side in the land makes it sweeter that Chelsea arent being talked about and are still top.

I cant wait for the Pool game as I suspect we'll beat them and make it 7 from 7.

I am also crossing fingers for this outcome. But the West Ham game could possibly be tougher. We wll be playing on Thursday night in Greece and then back for a Sunday lunchtime match. Having got their first win they will be fired up for this. We need to come out fast and fighting and keep their defence in disarray. I am hoping MS goes with some of the fringe players for PAOK and keeps the pot bubbling for WHU. I'm not saying demonstrably weaken the team, but the Europa is a league in itself and if we didn't get a win there we still have tiem to recover. Hopefully our fringe players will step up and stake a claim. MS has already got the squad competing to get into his starting eleven.

[Giordano_Bruno]

It's kind of disturbing how many people give dippers so much respect - the same bunch of losers, led by the same sore loser coach.  Not that ours has won anything, but at least the players know what winning is. Also Liverpool above City? Please, just stop it. 

[bisright1]

16 hours ago, Andy North said:

I've put us down for 4th behind City, Liverpool and either Spurs or Manu. It's far to early to make a sensible prediction though.

I think the pressure of the CL will wear Utd and Spurs down later in the season.

We really haven't played a team of any consequence yet but the Liverpool games will be a good yard stick.

I know we have to get past West Ham but if we can do them and Liverpool we will really be cooking. I'm not convinced our defense can hold out for both of those games.

It's a great start to the season and you can only beat who you play. Before the season started I had concerns as to where the goals were going to come from but I'm happier now. It seems Hazard could have his best ever season for us. There are goals throughout the team.

 

COYB!

If Bournemouth and arsenal aren't of consequence then the only difficult teams we ca play will be man city Liverpool United and Tottenham. 

I reckon we have a very good chance of a 85-90 point season. Where that gets us is anyone's guess. 

85 points is beating every team in the bottom 10 home and away and nicking 25 out of 54 points against the top 10.

Easier said than done, but shows how irrelevant beating citeh and Liverpool can be at the end of the season

Edited September 18, 2018 by benjsross

[Delnino]

On 17/09/2018 at 12:38, fester said:

5 out of 5, but who have we played?  The fixtures computer has been kind to Sarri as far as providing time to bed his tactical approach in.  I'm not being overly negative, as I've said elsewhere Sarriball is going to take time for the squad to adapt to, in the same way that Citeh took a year to adapt to Guardiola's tactics and Liverpool took 18 month to adapt to Klopp.  

Good results so far, but let's wait 'til we play to big guns.  Still think we can get 3rd this year though

All of the top 6 have played another top 6 team so far thi sseason, our first 5 games are tougher than Pools too IMO and the fact the media have been fawning over this "great" Liverpool side is sickening, it helps that nearly every ex pro or pundit is a fan or ex Pool player but the bias shown towards them is horrible. 

On 17/09/2018 at 11:52, CFCholland said:

I think we're a striker and a cb short of winning the league. I'd be happy with a top 4 finish and a strong run in at least 1 of the cup competitions, that will hopefully lead to us winning it.?

This, if we had Costa/Drogba and Terry or play Christensen, I think we'd walk this league.

The key to this team is the CF, Morata and Giroud are chalk and cheese but neither will get 20 PL goals a year, Giroud probably suits the formation better as against 90% of sides we'll have 60%+ of the ball and his build up and football brain is more use than Moratas pace and movement.

Throw Costa into this team and I reckon we win 30 games a season.

 

[Argo]

2 hours ago, Delnino said:

This, if we had Costa/Drogba and Terry or play Christensen, I think we'd walk this league.

There's a few good reasons for playing Luiz over Christensen right now, and i'm a massive fan of the Dane.

Firstly due to his creativity from deep (while i'm not convinced Christensen's as bad at that as some are making out, he certainly ain't David on that score) while we are nailing the possession side of Sarri ball we haven't quite got there yet with chances created, due to that (and the fact we have over 70% possession at the minute, limiting time to expose our defense) means DL's creative edge is needed as a weapon.

Another reason is AC hasn't yet played in a back four in his professional career (i could be wrong but i'm fairly certain in Germany it was always a back 3) so will probably need a bit more adaption time that the ones that have.

Lastly is confidence, make no mistake he lost the plot after his mistake vs Barca last year and (although only pre season looked a bit shaky vs Arsenal and Lyon as well) we went from our defense being so much more solid with him in it to much more shaky with him in it. 

I think Sarri is playing the long game with this one.