9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Looks more like 6-8 place of late.

Definitely agree 6-8th ,Frank will start having his work cut out now

Our expectations have grown with the good run but I'm sure Frank will have an eye on top 4. We may not make it but hopefully the board haven't been sitting on their hands and are looking to strengthen in the January transfer window. I think we need to go large.

Consistent top 4 if we make the right purchase in the next 2 windows. A top 4 challenger if we fail to strengthen

I'm still going with 6th at pretty much the half way point of the season. We need to be careful though, because I feel like there is just as much of chance of us finishing 8th. Leicester are a surprise this season and will most likely take a top 4 spot. So that leaves us, Tottenham, United, Arsenal and maybe even a surprise like Wolves or Sheff Utd taking the remaining spots.

If we make a few good signings in January, it may be enough to even kick us on for top 4, but I'm not sure we can find anyone in January that will adapt quick enough and give us a significant boost.

I said 6th at the start of the season, a month ago I thought top 4 was a real possibility.

Recent form has made me think 6 is looking more realistic again unless we make a couple of shrewd sigings in January.

After the coming transfer window I think we'll have more of an idea of what we're capable of this season.

4th to 8th was my expectation at the start of the season. From memory I had us finishing 6th.

I will stick with that prediction, but if we can manage 4th it would be a fantastic result considering our difficult circumstances.

On 14/06/2019 at 12:13, chiefBlueCFC said:

Dammit, I said 5th and instantly regret it! I want to change my vote. I think we will manage top 4. Might be a little slow to start the season but as James, CHO (hopefully) and RLC (hopefully) come back from their injuries we will get a foothold on what we are. Obviously we won't win the league, especially with the ban, but there is no reason to believe that we can't finish top 4. Very difficult but very possible as well. I think Frank can get it done as well. I don't think he would get stuck on playing older players just because of who they are and what they have done in the past if they're not doing it anymore (a la Ivanovic in 2015, Alonso for a good portion of last season). I think Frank showed at Derby he is not afraid to follow that mantra "if you're good enough, you're old enough."

On target so far. Just need to get top 4. that is the priority this season. Top 4. top freaking 4. lets get it boys

i was just checking some stats.. we have infact scored the same amount of goals and assists as spurs (35,25) with the same break up -- 21 goals for forwards and 11 goals for midfielders.

https://fbref.com/en/squads/cff3d9bb/Chelsea

https://fbref.com/en/squads/361ca564/Tottenham-Hotspur

this make me believe that this team will get better and a shrewd addition to the team to replace a Pedro/Giroud could be decisive here..

 

I said 6th at the start of the season and I am sticking to it. I didn't expect the competition for 4th to be so average but unfortunately we have to be lumped into that category too. We really could be comfortably in 4th but we have dropped so many poor points in recent weeks. I have to think that one or 2 of the chasing teams will put a run together sooner or later. At the moment I would say United or Wolves look to be the biggest threats.

Im switching from 4th to 3rd - 6th. We are as sh*t as the teams around so at this point it is a lottery depending on several factors such as whether we will spend in january, whether they will spend, whether we will pick up form, whether they will pick up form etc. Even Leicester is starting to drop form so we can finish as high as 3rd or as low as 6th depending on those factors. In a way, it reminds me of last season.

The overall quality of the whole league took a big nose dive and that's the only reason why we're top 4. We have a below average team, 10 years ago we would have been 9th-10th.

We got 40 points now, "we are staying up"

16 hours ago, chi blue said:

We got 40 points now, "we are staying up"

Anything else is always a bonus.

18 hours ago, Gol15 said:

The overall quality of the whole league took a big nose dive and that's the only reason why we're top 4. We have a below average team, 10 years ago we would have been 9th-10th.

I can’t agree with that. The Premiership has a higher quotient of the worlds best players compared with 10 years ago, and elite coaches/ managers.

Liverpool are dominating on a par with the best club sides ever over the past year or so, Man City did similar without copping a Euro trophy recently.

We are not as good man for man as a decade gone by agreed, but unless you think that the standard worldwide has dropped I think your talking rubbish

6 minutes ago, Ewell CFC said:

I can’t agree with that. The Premiership has a higher quotient of the worlds best players compared with 10 years ago, and elite coaches/ managers.

Liverpool are dominating on a par with the best club sides ever over the past year or so, Man City did similar without copping a Euro trophy recently.

We are not as good man for man as a decade gone by agreed, but unless you think that the standard worldwide has dropped I think your talking rubbish

Well I guess you're right but it wasn't that far off from today, our manager was Don Carlo and his biggest rival was Sir Alex Ferguson (both regarded as one of the best managers in football history), the Premier League had probably double the amount of times when teams played Champions League finals during 2000-2010 in comparison to the last decade where part from us playing it in 2011/12 only Livepool played it twice in a row most recently and Spurs once.

I think that part from Liverpool and City most teams look fairly weak in comparison to how they were in the past but then again this is the best Liverpool and Man City that has ever been so some fell and some went up in their standard...So I'm not talking total rubbish just a little bit.

 

 

4 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Well I guess you're right but it wasn't that far off from today, our manager was Don Carlo and his biggest rival was Sir Alex Ferguson (both regarded as one of the best managers in football history), the Premier League had probably double the amount of times when teams played Champions League finals during 2000-2010 in comparison to the last decade where part from us playing it in 2011/12 only Livepool played it twice in a row most recently and Spurs once.

I think that part from Liverpool and City most teams look fairly weak in comparison to how they were in the past but then again this is the best Liverpool and Man City that has ever been so some fell and some went up in their standard...So I'm not talking total rubbish just a little bit.

 

 

I watched some of the United game tonight and that summer up just how poor the Premier League is this season. United are probably are closest challengers for 4th and were abysmal. I think Liverpool would have been run much closer by City had they not picked up key injuries (Laporte and Sane) but then we would likely have had a situation with 2 teams that had almost 100% records. That should not be happening in a competitive league. At the time we broke the points record with 95 that total seemed unbelievable but City broke it comfortably 2 seasons ago. Then last season both City and Liverpool surpassed it. Without the 2 injuries I reckon both City and Liverpool would break our total again this season. The gap between them on the rest grows every season.

 

10 hours ago, forbzy said:

I watched some of the United game tonight and that summer up just how poor the Premier League is this season. United are probably are closest challengers for 4th and were abysmal. I think Liverpool would have been run much closer by City had they not picked up key injuries (Laporte and Sane) but then we would likely have had a situation with 2 teams that had almost 100% records. That should not be happening in a competitive league. At the time we broke the points record with 95 that total seemed unbelievable but City broke it comfortably 2 seasons ago. Then last season both City and Liverpool surpassed it. Without the 2 injuries I reckon both City and Liverpool would break our total again this season. The gap between them on the rest grows every season.

 

Valid points and apologies to Gol15 for the talking rubbish tag. The Premiership has been duopoly's of sorts for most of the last 25 years. Arsenal and Man U was getting a bit Celtic or Rangers until we upset the applecart, then it was either us or Man U for a period, followed by City or Man U again.  A couple of curveballs thrown in with Leicester and us under Conte, then back to another period of dominance split between City and Liverpool.

I think the smaller clubs have generally improved, which is why traditionally big clubs ( other than the current runaway two), seem to come unstuck more frequently than previous seasons. Saying that, I concede that there seems to be some elementary defending mistakes across the board this term.   

Prem has two Prem clubs: Liverpool and City. Then comes Leicester, Chelsea, Tottenham, ManU, Wolves and Arsenal. At this rate the old top 6 is not so visible. We have chance of a lifetime to catch Leicester and keep our distance to the chasing pack... There is as big of a chance to drop down to 7th if form goes extra-bad... What a series this is...

If only we had finished a few more chances, we'd be right behind Leicester if not ahead of them. This season turned out to be a 'transition' season for everybody expect Liverpool.

Apparently we really need to finish in the top four...
 

 

10 hours ago, vhanoi said:

Apparently we really need to finish in the top four...
 

 

IMO if we fail it's not really the end of the world either. But we are in a good position so why not...we can do it.

I think the video indirectly shows that Marina has been doing an amazing job at the club. Hopefully we sign someone to help our attack in the following week.

I think we are good enough to finish in the top 4, but some of that has to do with the competition for the top 4.  I also think that if the City ban goes though we are well good enough to make top 5 so that could be a blessing.  Also next year don't we finally get our first summer to spend the Eden money, along with the cash from the Morata deal being finalized.  I think we'll sell a good chunk of players and have one hell of a "war chest" to go into the market with.  However, other clubs knowing that could inflate prices, so we need to take no sh*te in the market and have several targets lined up.  

Get the defence sorted a top 4 easily, and what i mean is start to defend like Chelsea again.

While we await the inevitable cancellation of this seasons Premier League here are some boring videos that count stuff:

 

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 20206 yr by Gol15