1 hour ago, Argo said:

Would be a total waste.

I mean, he 'can' play there but would totally waste his abilities to dictate play from deeper positions.

For me even him being an 8 would be not ideal, a 6 with a box to box midfielder covering the ground.

As mentioned on another thread I think Maatsen would be a decent option in the number 10 role to start the season. He seemed to do well playing alongside Jackson.

Back in early July I felt a slight improvement would be the best we'd achieve and a ninth place finish would be realistic. But some interesting signings and some decent pre-season run outs and I was starting to think that sixth was looking achievable. But the loss of Nkunku and this three days till the first game (refereed by Anthony Taylor) and still phaffing about trying to sign midfielders, my brief optimism has subsided. Another season with a low goals scored tally beckons, but if we can keep Cucarella out the team, we might not let too many in again. Many draws lie ahead.

After todays game we can definitely go for 2nd place.

6th

Still hoping for 4th

I went for 3rd. Bit worried that there is no alternative to Jackson who is looking battered already

28 minutes ago, ozboy said:

I went for 3rd. Bit worried that there is no alternative to Jackson who is looking battered already

 Yes that would be my worry too. is that we don’t really have a back up for Jackson. Dunno what is the latest on broja and how will he be after that injury 

After seeing James get injured again, I'm going with 8th.

Without Nkunku until the new year and James now out too, I just don't see how it's possible to compete. You can't compete with your best players getting injured all of the time and with 5 players out already, I expect to see many more in the next few months to derail yet another season.

I'm going with 11th...

Our midfield will drag us some way towards Top 4 or so. We still need Jackson to be a hit and Sanchez likewise so it's a bit hairy but anything less than Top 4 have to be seen as unacceptable really. Missing out two years in a row would be really bad so we have to get it done really. 

I mean if this squad isn't good enough to finish higher than 8th to 11th then why did so many want Potter sacked if he (by that logic) was achieving par?

1 hour ago, Argo said:

I mean if this squad isn't good enough to finish higher than 8th to 11th then why did so many want Potter sacked if he (by that logic) was achieving par?

I think we could finish 12th again, but do it in a much more entertaining way under Poch than Potter. Which would be nice.

However, I actually do think (today at least) that we can finish much higher and that 7th is very do-able and given the state of others, 4th is not beyond the realms of possibility. Still concerned about the keeper and another effective striker though.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

I mean if this squad isn't good enough to finish higher than 8th to 11th then why did so many want Potter sacked if he (by that logic) was achieving par?

I was only one upping Scott in the whole doom and gloom narrative. 

We should still be finishing Top 4. Thankfully we don't seem to be incredibly dependent on wingbacks as we have the past few years. 

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I was only one upping Scott in the whole doom and gloom narrative. 

We should still be finishing Top 4. Thankfully we don't seem to be incredibly dependent on wingbacks as we have the past few years. 

Why should we though? City will finish 1st, no doubt about that. Arsenal didn't look great against Forest, but we won't finish ahead of them. I don't see us finishing ahead of Newcastle either, not unless juggling Champions League and Premier League is too much for them. United look bad, but they never really look that good anyway and still finish top 4. Liverpool will be in the mix too, even if they have problems in midfield. Salah alone will win them a lot of points. 

It was going to be hard without the injuries, but when two of our best players gets injured, one of them being the player we expected to have the biggest influence on our goalscoring capabilities this season, then I just don't see how it's possible. The injury problems will keep getting worse too, it's already evidently clear that nothing has improved in that area. 6 players down already, 2 of them being key players, there isn't a single team in the league that wouldn't take a hit from that.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Why should we though? City will finish 1st, no doubt about that. Arsenal didn't look great against Forest, but we won't finish ahead of them. I don't see us finishing ahead of Newcastle either, not unless juggling Champions League and Premier League is too much for them. United look bad, but they never really look that good anyway and still finish top 4. Liverpool will be in the mix too, even if they have problems in midfield. Salah alone will win them a lot of points. 

It was going to be hard without the injuries, but when two of our best players gets injured, one of them being the player we expected to have the biggest influence on our goalscoring capabilities this season, then I just don't see how it's possible. The injury problems will keep getting worse too, it's already evidently clear that nothing has improved in that area. 6 players down already, 2 of them being key players, there isn't a single team in the league that wouldn't take a hit from that.

Indeed, do we expect Pochettino to get us top 4 when he has more players in the treatment room than the training pitch.

Fofana, Reece and Nkunku. 3 key players, the latter by far our best goalscorer.

What if we end up with Betts in goal, Cucurella at left back and Sterling up front because Jackson, Broja, Chilwell and Sanchez all get struck by the curse?

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Why should we though? City will finish 1st, no doubt about that. Arsenal didn't look great against Forest, but we won't finish ahead of them. I don't see us finishing ahead of Newcastle either, not unless juggling Champions League and Premier League is too much for them. United look bad, but they never really look that good anyway and still finish top 4. Liverpool will be in the mix too, even if they have problems in midfield. Salah alone will win them a lot of points. 

It was going to be hard without the injuries, but when two of our best players gets injured, one of them being the player we expected to have the biggest influence on our goalscoring capabilities this season, then I just don't see how it's possible. The injury problems will keep getting worse too, it's already evidently clear that nothing has improved in that area. 6 players down already, 2 of them being key players, there isn't a single team in the league that wouldn't take a hit from that.

Cheez your a gloomy man Mr Harris. Nothing good to say about players, chukky gets a 3 on your game day rating. Me being such an optimist I guess your doom and gloom is refreshing. I don't think Man city are a lock for the title this year especially with De Bruyne injured. United looked terrible frankly and an ageing Casemiro will be a liability for them this season. Arsenal are maybe there maybe not and Newcastle are honest toilers with ability but not a star team.

Anyhow I think it's far too early to know how we will go with a young team that seemingly has a ton of potential. I can agree that we look tight on goal scoring avenues but in every other way I see a team potentially give any other team in the league a good game. We have only played one competitive game and still dominated possession against Liverpool and we have significantly strengthened since then.

Yes injuries are a concern but I think we are prepared for every eventuality except an injury to Jackson.

17 minutes ago, ozboy said:

Cheez your a gloomy man Mr Harris. Nothing good to say about players, chukky gets a 3 on your game day rating. Me being such an optimist I guess your doom and gloom is refreshing. I don't think Man city are a lock for the title this year especially with De Bruyne injured. United looked terrible frankly and an ageing Casemiro will be a liability for them this season. Arsenal are maybe there maybe not and Newcastle are honest toilers with ability but not a star team.

Anyhow I think it's far too early to know how we will go with a young team that seemingly has a ton of potential. I can agree that we look tight on goal scoring avenues but in every other way I see a team potentially give any other team in the league a good game. We have only played one competitive game and still dominated possession against Liverpool and we have significantly strengthened since then.

Yes injuries are a concern but I think we are prepared for every eventuality except an injury to Jackson.

Maybe if things would stop going so sh*t for us, I wouldn't be so gloomy. The injuries have damaged us 3 seasons in a row, especially the last 2, and with 6 injuries already, we are now only a single injury away from being in a crisis in certain areas. Sanchez gets injured, we have no goalie. Gusto gets injured, it's means Disasi is forced to play RB and it means we only have 2 available CB's because 2 of them are out injured and one has only recently got over an injury. If we end up being forced to play Thiago Silva in every game, he will inevitably break down with an injury as well, something that happened last season. If Jackson get's injured, we rely on Broja who is still recovering from an ACL injury, but even that probably won't happen because he will likely be sold or loaned out before the window closes.

We need to remember that we finished 12th last season, we were dreadful and one of the worst teams in the league by the end. Pochettino is a better coach than Potter and Lampard, but he will fair no better if the team is crippled by injuries. It's a gloomy outlook, but unless things start to change, I can't exactly pull myself out of that mindset.

I also stand by my rating for Chukwuemeka against Liverpool, I thought he was rubbish. Most of the others had a good game though and I pointed that out in my ratings.

30 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Maybe if things would stop going so sh*t for us, I wouldn't be so gloomy.

Ah I laughed, thank you for that Scott.

13 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Why should we though? City will finish 1st, no doubt about that. Arsenal didn't look great against Forest, but we won't finish ahead of them. I don't see us finishing ahead of Newcastle either, not unless juggling Champions League and Premier League is too much for them. United look bad, but they never really look that good anyway and still finish top 4. Liverpool will be in the mix too, even if they have problems in midfield. Salah alone will win them a lot of points. 

It was going to be hard without the injuries, but when two of our best players gets injured, one of them being the player we expected to have the biggest influence on our goalscoring capabilities this season, then I just don't see how it's possible. The injury problems will keep getting worse too, it's already evidently clear that nothing has improved in that area. 6 players down already, 2 of them being key players, there isn't a single team in the league that wouldn't take a hit from that.

Let's take it one game at a time. 

I genuinely don't fear any Top 6 side atm (as you put it almost all have weaknesses), and even City is looking a little slow atm given the huge loss of KDB/Gundogan

We win Sunday we put ourselves in a great position to be among the leaders of the pact come November given our schedule. Think during that Nov-Mar period we are going to benefit massively given we had no European football to experience. 

I've always said 8th and even though we had addressed the midfield I still feel a lack of goals will cost us,so it's 6th or 7th for me.

I said 5th but genuinely think anything from 2nd-7th is possible.

I don't doubt we will be solid defensively, even last season I think we had the 3rd best defence statistically until the last few weeks when the arse really fell out the side. It's largely going to come down to whether we can reliably score enough goals, especially against sides that are going to sit in banks of 5/4 and try and pinch goals on the counter.

Games against the top 6 I have a suspicion we'll fare quite well. Call it blind optimism, but I back this squad to outplay most sides that try and play open/expansive football against us.


 

As things stand right now  based on the first two weeks only I think we’ have nothing to fear from ManU, Spuds, Newcastle or Liverpool   Except for injuries we are likely to get better and better as team cohesion and understanding grow. 

After 4 games I reckon those 5 who predicted top spot now woild agree we ain't making up those 8 points on City.

By the beginning of November I believe we will be saying the same about the top 5.

Bottom half, not sure where.  No goals in this side.  We've scored an average of 1.25 goals per game for 65 games now.  If we can't score we won't win games - feels like I'm watching games on repeat.

Edited September 3, 20232 yr by PhilH930

Last season we started OK in terms of points. I think we got 19 from 11 games after Potter's decent start. It was pretty well disastrous from them on and I think we are still suffering a hangover from that run. Hard to see a dramatic improvement in the short term, and I am still not sure where the goals will come from until Nkunku is back. The key will be getting some of these injured players back and avoiding further key injuries. I still think top 6 is possible if that happens, but I suspect we will fall further behind top teams initially as the new players and manager settle. 

On the other hand if we continue in the cycle of losing our key players for long stretches then the league position could look much worse