2 hours ago, floydgator said:

We just finished 3rd due to historically terrible performance by ManU, Tottenham and Arsenal down the stretch and lost a top 5 player in the entire world (and our only offensive threat).  And we won't be able to replace him or any of our other aging and fading starters.  I voted for 6th and I think that is a little optimistic. 

 

Re: Wolves.  Their record against the big 6 suggests that their performance was no fluke.  I think there is a decent chance they (and possible other non-6 clubs) could finish ahead of us.  I think 1 of them will but ManU will be in full meltdown mode.

Man U will try and buy their way out of trouble and they have the budget to do it, to be honest I’ve seen us spend big, win the league, win in Europe, what I’ve never seen is a Frank Lamoard at the helm, and a chance for our our youth players to show what they can do, at this point I don’t care where we finish as long as Roman is willing to spend big next summer.

We have lost 1 player, all be it a brilliant one but I think we will surprise people we have more than enough talent to challenge for top 4, I mean we have 3 World Cup starters and winners, one of whom is the best DM in Europe arguably and the Spain number one in goal, and an abundance of youth talent, it’s nit as dismal as people think.

Its not always about the big name players and spending the most, often it is but look at Ajax it just takes the right formula and just maybe Frank can deliver that. 

Given the circumstances, I would hope that the club have asked Frank to focus on just securing top 4 as it is very important for a number of reasons. 

Obviously a run in all the cups would be great but given the state of our squad, we need to be getting CL so that we can afford to buy and attract high quality players. 

I still remember one season where Wenger played a second string team in a cup from start to finish. I always thought that was a great move. I think they finished runners up in that cup. Probably Carling cup and not FA. 

CL is the only cup we need to put effort in. Players would detest the idea of sacrificing CL. 

If we'd appointed an experienced manager, I would expect us to finish in the top 4. But with Super Frank, I am happy to give him time to work with what we have. Even if that means finishing outside the top 6.

4 hours ago, evissy said:

I still remember one season where Wenger played a second string team in a cup from start to finish. I always thought that was a great move. I think they finished runners up in that cup. Probably Carling cup and not FA. 

CL is the only cup we need to put effort in. Players would detest the idea of sacrificing CL. 

Wenger had a reputation for doing that every season didn't he? He would routinely use the league cup to rotate his starters out and give academy players game time. Probably also why he's never won it. 

On 25/06/2019 at 11:34, JM7 said:

Given the circumstances, I would hope that the club have asked Frank to focus on just securing top 4 as it is very important for a number of reasons. 

Obviously a run in all the cups would be great but given the state of our squad, we need to be getting CL so that we can afford to buy and attract high quality players. 

I don't think it would make any difference what we prioritised. The fact is that our attack in it's current state is worse than the 5 teams ahead of us, so even if we played a second team in all of the cup games, our first 11 are still going to find it very hard to get top 4. Even with Hazard, we were the lowest scoring team in the top 6, just think how much worse we are going to be now that he is gone.

On 25/06/2019 at 06:34, JM7 said:

Given the circumstances, I would hope that the club have asked Frank to focus on just securing top 4 as it is very important for a number of reasons. 

Obviously a run in all the cups would be great but given the state of our squad, we need to be getting CL so that we can afford to buy and attract high quality players. 

I dont think they will have as a rigid requirement top 4 for Frank but I certainly think it will be the clubs target and I know it will be Franks target, it’s not unrealistic UTD and Arsenal are both very average/poor sides by their standards and I think it will take more than one season to fix.  

On 25/06/2019 at 12:02, evissy said:

I still remember one season where Wenger played a second string team in a cup from start to finish. I always thought that was a great move. I think they finished runners up in that cup. Probably Carling cup and not FA. 

CL is the only cup we need to put effort in. Players would detest the idea of sacrificing CL. 

I’ve always admired the way Chelsea take every competition seriously myself. I enjoy it when we win them. 

8 hours ago, Munkworth said:

I’ve always admired the way Chelsea take every competition seriously myself. I enjoy it when we win them. 

Take it seriously with a second string lineup. Every manager always moan about the number of fixtures. Sacrificing CC and gambling FA you can actually do something about it. Everyone knows we are there to win Prem and CL. Maybe not next term but in general. 

I think our team performances might actually improve without Hazard.

He didn't play any part in 11 games last year, and we scored 33 goals in those games, and won 10 and drew 1 of them.

3 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think our team performances might actually improve without Hazard.

He didn't play any part in 11 games last year, and we scored 33 goals in those games, and won 10 and drew 1 of them.

Finally a positive outlook! 

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think our team performances might actually improve without Hazard.?

He didn't play any part in 11 games last year, and we scored 33 goals in those games, and won 10 and drew 1 of them.

How many of those 11 games were in the Europa League group stages or against non-Premier League sides in the domestic cup competitions? 

53 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

How many of those 11 games were in the Europa League group stages or against non-Premier League sides in the domestic cup competitions? 

Admittedly the opposition was sh*t but if we truly couldn't cope without Hazard we would still have struggled regardless, like under Jose for example (the period we did truly rely on him), we rested Hazard for cup games and made a massive meal of most of them (Bradford major example).

There will be games we miss Hazard's magic (for example West Ham at home would have been 0-0 without him) but i also don't think it's the doomsday sentence people think.

Hazard had to come on in Europa games to help change our performance so I don’t see we were better without him.

7 hours ago, Argo said:

Admittedly the opposition was sh*t but if we truly couldn't cope without Hazard we would still have struggled regardless, like under Jose for example (the period we did truly rely on him), we rested Hazard for cup games and made a massive meal of most of them (Bradford major example).

There will be games we miss Hazard's magic (for example West Ham at home would have been 0-0 without him) but i also don't think it's the doomsday sentence people think.

I do think he is the difference between 3rd and 6th though. Unless something remarkable happens next season, I don't see how we get top 4.

17 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think our team performances might actually improve without Hazard.

He didn't play any part in 11 games last year, and we scored 33 goals in those games, and won 10 and drew 1 of them.

I couldn’t be arsed getting booed and jeered but I’ve thought that for a while, his stop and start play kills attacks, his style requires him to be surrounded by top technical players, he’s brilliant and very likeable but I think in the long run it wont hurt us much, hopefully if we get some football people in the hierarchy by the time our ban is over we will replace him well.

17 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

How many of those 11 games were in the Europa League group stages or against non-Premier League sides in the domestic cup competitions? 

All of them were domestic cups or Europa League, but even so, you still have to get the job done, as Manchester United found out at home to Derby County ...

It shows we still have the ability to put the ball in the net without Hazard, which is the primary concern with him leaving ...

4 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

All of them were domestic cups or Europa League, but even so, you still have to get the job done, as Manchester United found out at home to Derby County ...

It shows we still have the ability to put the ball in the net without Hazard, which is the primary concern with him leaving ...

We’re not inept without Hazard but it’s worth contextualising the games he didn’t play in. For a squad as expensively assembled as ours we should be able to beat most opposition with Hazard but let’s not pretend that he wasn’t central to the majority or our best performances and results, the Europa League final as an example.

Yes there’s life after Eden but players are going to have to shoulder a lot more of the burden of scoring and assisting goals because Hazard was directly involved in half our league goals last season.

Willian scoring three league goals isn’t going to cut it this year. So the likes of him, RLC, Barkley, Pulisic, Pedro need to contributing close to double figures to fill the void and we need one of our forwards to emerge with the ability to score at least 15 league goals this year.

18 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

All of them were domestic cups or Europa League, but even so, you still have to get the job done, as Manchester United found out at home to Derby County ...

It shows we still have the ability to put the ball in the net without Hazard, which is the primary concern with him leaving ...

It shows we can score against poor European teams without Hazard. Even Giroud looked like a natural goalscorer. I know there's looking for positives but come on.

Honestly it could be anywhere from 3rd-8th. We can rule out top 2, Super Frank isn't a miracle worker and City and Liverpool are just too far above everyone right now. 

Of course we're severely handicapped because of this ban and our best player in the last 5 years leaving, time for everyone to step up now. 

I'll say 4th behind City, Liverpool and Spurs and above Arsenal and Utd. I also think Everton and Leicester will be dangerous next season and pushing for top 4. Interesting times ahead. 

All thanks to the board for their shortsightedness, we don't even have a transfer window to work with. We can't even bring in a quality striker. Without a striker or Hazard, I'm not particularly confident. Depending who Wolves, Everton and Leicester bring in, could see any or all of those doing better than us. 

Edited July 4, 20197 yr by enigma

1 hour ago, enigma said:

All thanks to the board for their shortsightedness, we don't even have a transfer window to work with. We can't even bring in a quality striker. Without a striker or Hazard, I'm not particularly confident. Depending who Wolves, Everton and Leicester bring in, could see any or all of those doing better than us. 

Why is this the boards fault for shortsightedness?

2 hours ago, enigma said:

All thanks to the board for their shortsightedness, we don't even have a transfer window to work with. We can't even bring in a quality striker. Without a striker or Hazard, I'm not particularly confident. Depending who Wolves, Everton and Leicester bring in, could see any or all of those doing better than us. 

With all due respect, it was the board looking to the future that got us the ban, not their shortsightedness! 

3 hours ago, enigma said:

Depending who Wolves, Everton and Leicester bring in, could see any or all of those doing better than us. 

so we finish 10th this season and win the league the next 

3rd-6th. Lampard can't do magictricks. Hope he wont.