Will we win the league this season?

One of the rare highlights from last season was the late winner v Villa with Doku finally assisting (when it really mattered in a vital PL game) and Nunes finally contributing (when it really mattered in a vital PL game)

If that combination doubles/trebles then suddenly our post treble transfer policy starts to make sense.

We also need Rodri and Foden to return to their 23/24 peak, plus some of the new signings to hit the ground running
Oh and no injuries, and Van Dijk to starting to creak at Anfield

A lot of "Ifs" but stranger things have happened.
 
If we don’t sign a proper right back, there’s no way we’ll win anything (playing the same system as last season).

Nunes and Lewis defensively aren’t close to the level Walker was at.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
One of the rare highlights from last season was the late winner v Villa with Doku finally assisting (when it really mattered in a vital PL game) and Nunes finally contributing (when it really mattered in a vital PL game)

If that combination doubles/trebles then suddenly our post treble transfer policy starts to make sense.

We also need Rodri and Foden to return to their 23/24 peak, plus some of the new signings to hit the ground running
Oh and no injuries, and Van Dijk to starting to creak at Anfield

A lot of "Ifs" but stranger things have happened.
Click to expand...
Yeah, if our wide attackers don’t massively increase their quality and output, we won’t win the league or much at all for a while.

Sané Sterling Mahrez BSilva or Foden made something happen numerous times a game, never mind once every two months.

That Doku assist to Nunes against Villa is in his locker but it’s so seldomly seen that it’s not impactful enough across the season to win the league. That Savinho instinctive follow-up to slot the ball home against Leicester is so infrequent that it’s nowhere near impactful enough across the season to win the league.

These sort of things need to happen every game from at least one of them.

Doku 3 goals and 6 assists in the PL last season
Savinho 1 goal and 10 assists in the PL last season
Grealish 1 goal and 1 assist in the PL last season
…it’s no wonder we didn’t win anything, take the injury situation across the squad out of it (which was a big enough reason on its own), that^ is simply nowhere near good enough to win the league.

John Stones missed 27 PL games through injury last season and still scored 2 goals (which won us 3 points in injury time - Wolves away to win and Arse at home to draw - without which we’d have finished 5th!). That really does show up how shit the output from our wide players was and there doesn’t just need to be an improvement, there needs to be a monumental improvement from our wide men for us to win the league.

It needs to be at least 9 goals and 13 assists each. And that’s being kind, one of them really needs to be putting up 30+g/a like Sterling used to… and being honest with ourselves that’s not going to happen is it?

With the wide players we have, I find it difficult to see how they’ll make us champions next season. However, let’s say Savinho improves to around 9 goals and 13 assists next season, then makes a similar jump again the season after as he gets older, better and more experienced, then you’re talking.
 
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Manchester33 said:
If we don’t sign a proper right back, there’s no way we’ll win anything (playing the same system as last season).

Nunes and Lewis defensively aren’t close to the level Walker was at.
Click to expand...
I agree with that, I think if we can't get Livramento we should try and get Dumfries. I do feel we need someone defensively sound on that right hand side unless Khusanov fits in on that side.
 
Scaring Europe to Death said:
One of the rare highlights from last season was the late winner v Villa with Doku finally assisting (when it really mattered in a vital PL game) and Nunes finally contributing (when it really mattered in a vital PL game)

If that combination doubles/trebles then suddenly our post treble transfer policy starts to make sense.

We also need Rodri and Foden to return to their 23/24 peak, plus some of the new signings to hit the ground running
Oh and no injuries, and Van Dijk to starting to creak at Anfield

A lot of "Ifs" but stranger things have happened.
Click to expand...
Im pretty sure Rodri will get back to his best or very near it and thats good enough ,not so sure about Foden ,but i really hope he makes another step forward.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Yeah, if our wide attackers don’t massively increase their quality and output, we won’t win the league or much at all for a while.

Sané Sterling Mahrez BSilva or Foden made something happen numerous times a game, never mind once every two months.

That Doku assist to Nunes against Villa is in his locker but it’s so seldomly seen that it’s not impactful enough across the season to win the league. That Savinho instinctive follow-up to slot the ball home against Leicester is so infrequent that it’s nowhere near impactful enough across the season to win the league.

These sort of things need to happen every game from at least one of them.

Doku 3 goals and 6 assists in the PL last season
Savinho 1 goal and 10 assists in the PL last season
Grealish 1 goal and 1 assist in the PL last season
…it’s no wonder we didn’t win anything, take the injury situation across the squad out of it (which was a big enough reason on its own), that^ is simply nowhere near good enough to win the league.

John Stones missed 27 PL games through injury last season and still scored 2 goals (which won us 3 points in injury time - Wolves away to win and Arse at home to draw - without which we’d have finished 5th!). That really does show up how shit the output from our wide players was and there doesn’t just need to be an improvement, there needs to be a monumental improvement from our wide men for us to win the league.

It needs to be at least 9 goals and 13 assists each. And that’s being kind, one of them really needs to be putting up 30+g/a like Sterling used to… and being honest with ourselves that’s not going to happen is it?

With the wide players we have, I find it difficult to see how they’ll make us champions next season. However, let’s say Savinho improves to around 9 goals and 13 assists next season, then makes a similar jump again the season after as he gets older, better and more experienced, then you’re talking.
Click to expand...
A lot of negativity there but hard to argue against really. Not sure Doku will give us that much more and Savinho really needs to push on if he is to improve his metrics. Ifs, buts and maybes.
 
Master-Lotus said:
No chance Ederson will be the no.1 option now. Trafford would only leave if he was to be the no.1 option and he just joined us now. Ortega is leaving which means Eddie will be no.2 choice next season.
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Trafford won't have been promised anything. He will have to earn the no. 1 spot. No way is he better than Eddie...right now...
 
Father Paul said:
A lot of negativity there but hard to argue against really. Not sure Doku will give us that much more and Savinho really needs to push on if he is to improve his metrics. Ifs, buts and maybes.
Click to expand...
Without Kevs sublime passes I feel it might be another difficult season for Haaland. I can see Haaland hanging in a packed area looking for that little bit of space to turn. It's time our wingers drove to the byline more often and put in some crosses or pullbacks before their defence gets organised. Hoping the new boys and Foden can start slide rule passing through a defence for him to run on to. Like you say lots of ifs, buts and maybe's. Its going to be interesting to watch.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Yeah, if our wide attackers don’t massively increase their quality and output, we won’t win the league or much at all for a while.

Sané Sterling Mahrez BSilva or Foden made something happen numerous times a game, never mind once every two months.

That Doku assist to Nunes against Villa is in his locker but it’s so seldomly seen that it’s not impactful enough across the season to win the league. That Savinho instinctive follow-up to slot the ball home against Leicester is so infrequent that it’s nowhere near impactful enough across the season to win the league.

These sort of things need to happen every game from at least one of them.

Doku 3 goals and 6 assists in the PL last season
Savinho 1 goal and 10 assists in the PL last season
Grealish 1 goal and 1 assist in the PL last season
…it’s no wonder we didn’t win anything, take the injury situation across the squad out of it (which was a big enough reason on its own), that^ is simply nowhere near good enough to win the league.

John Stones missed 27 PL games through injury last season and still scored 2 goals (which won us 3 points in injury time - Wolves away to win and Arse at home to draw - without which we’d have finished 5th!). That really does show up how shit the output from our wide players was and there doesn’t just need to be an improvement, there needs to be a monumental improvement from our wide men for us to win the league.

It needs to be at least 9 goals and 13 assists each. And that’s being kind, one of them really needs to be putting up 30+g/a like Sterling used to… and being honest with ourselves that’s not going to happen is it?

With the wide players we have, I find it difficult to see how they’ll make us champions next season. However, let’s say Savinho improves to around 9 goals and 13 assists next season, then makes a similar jump again the season after as he gets older, better and more experienced, then you’re talking.
Click to expand...
It's not just the wide areas where the assist/goal threat has diminished, we severely miss Gundogan's output too. And now we don't have De Bruyne has gone, it's reduced even further. There's going to be quite a lot of pressure on Cherki & Reijnders to hit the ground running which is incredibly difficult as we've seen with other players under Pep.

We really need Doku, Savinho and arguably Silva to really step up and give us more of an attacking outlet and then we need Foden back to his best. It's a big ask but hopefully the disappointment of last season will fuel us
 
If we can replicate the second half of the season, then there's a chance, certainly. Didn't we win the most points from new year's day to the end of the season? It was those three preceding months (oct - dec) that killed us. And don't firget; we'll have Rodri back. Cut out the brainfarts at the back, and we certainly have a chance. That being said, TMM have had a hell of a transfer window. They'll be difficult (not impossible) to finish in front of.
 
DallasMCBlue said:
Trafford won't have been promised anything. He will have to earn the no. 1 spot. No way is he better than Eddie...right now...
Click to expand...
Did Ederson have to earn his spot or simply slotted straight in. He came to us at a similar age to Trafford with much less experience. We can't fuck about chopping between the two, we need to decide who our number 1 is and I would say Trafford has had that conversation too. He could have gone to Newcastle, a CL team and be there number one. I struggle to believe he will be happy to be our number 2 after 4 years or so of starting. It is also a world cup year, you'd think Pickford is number one but there is little competition to that.

Trafford is a better shot stopper, that is without question. Eddie is obviously great with the ball at his feet, on that front whoever came in would be a downgrade but certainly not from a goalkeeping point of view.
 
thegoatsthegoat said:
Did Ederson have to earn his spot or simply slotted straight in. He came to us at a similar age to Trafford with much less experience. We can't fuck about chopping between the two, we need to decide who our number 1 is and I would say Trafford has had that conversation too. He could have gone to Newcastle, a CL team and be there number one. I struggle to believe he will be happy to be our number 2 after 4 years or so of starting. It is also a world cup year, you'd think Pickford is number one but there is little competition to that.

Trafford is a better shot stopper, that is without question. Eddie is obviously great with the ball at his feet, on that front whoever came in would be a downgrade but certainly not from a goalkeeping point of view.
Click to expand...

Ederson was replacing Bravo & Willy.

Trafford is coming in while we have the most accomplished keeper in the history of the club here.
 
HelloCity said:
Ederson was replacing Bravo & Willy.

Trafford is coming in while we have the most accomplished keeper in the history of the club here.
Click to expand...
Hart came back and went in when we had one of the most established keepers of the prem era. We suffered last year relying on the old guard. Have that same level of loyalty and our season will follow the same pattern. Ederson had a stinker of a season and hasn't been great for a while, the stand out goalkeeping moment from the season before was by Ortega. Popping up with assists (which are great) doesn't change the goalkeeping aspect of a goalkeepers game.
 
Imagine we go to Anfield with a back five of

Ederson
Nunes Dias Gvardiol Ait Nouri

It'll be a repeat of last season

If as I'm reading that thats our transfer business done, then I don't think we'll be anywhere near it this season again and that the gap in squads between ourselves and Liverpool/Arsenal has probably widened this summer.

Too many question marks in our squad.

Will Rodri get back to his best and be injury free.
Can any of Savinho/Doku or Bobb contribute a good G/A return
Will Nunes/Lewis/Khusanov or Akanji be a suitable right back
Is Dias done
Can Foden get back in form
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
Yeah, if our wide attackers don’t massively increase their quality and output, we won’t win the league or much at all for a while.

Sané Sterling Mahrez BSilva or Foden made something happen numerous times a game, never mind once every two months.

That Doku assist to Nunes against Villa is in his locker but it’s so seldomly seen that it’s not impactful enough across the season to win the league. That Savinho instinctive follow-up to slot the ball home against Leicester is so infrequent that it’s nowhere near impactful enough across the season to win the league.

These sort of things need to happen every game from at least one of them.

Doku 3 goals and 6 assists in the PL last season
Savinho 1 goal and 10 assists in the PL last season
Grealish 1 goal and 1 assist in the PL last season
…it’s no wonder we didn’t win anything, take the injury situation across the squad out of it (which was a big enough reason on its own), that^ is simply nowhere near good enough to win the league.

John Stones missed 27 PL games through injury last season and still scored 2 goals (which won us 3 points in injury time - Wolves away to win and Arse at home to draw - without which we’d have finished 5th!). That really does show up how shit the output from our wide players was and there doesn’t just need to be an improvement, there needs to be a monumental improvement from our wide men for us to win the league.

It needs to be at least 9 goals and 13 assists each. And that’s being kind, one of them really needs to be putting up 30+g/a like Sterling used to… and being honest with ourselves that’s not going to happen is it?

With the wide players we have, I find it difficult to see how they’ll make us champions next season. However, let’s say Savinho improves to around 9 goals and 13 assists next season, then makes a similar jump again the season after as he gets older, better and more experienced, then you’re talking.
Click to expand...
Just can't see Savinho scoring 18 goals in a season.
 
there is a lot to learn how we did our business after the treble win and last summer.
mainly how not to act in the summer windows...
 
HelloCity said:
Ederson was replacing Bravo & Willy.

Trafford is coming in while we have the most accomplished keeper in the history of the club here.
Click to expand...
Have you heard of Swift and Trautmann?

Arguably Corrigan, Coton, Given, James and a young Nicky Weaver have a shout of being better than Ederson.

And I love Ederson and am made up that he’s staying.

Even when we were shit we had great goalkeepers. Or maybe I should reword that. When we were shit we needed great goalkeepers.
 
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jimharri said:
If we can replicate the second half of the season, then there's a chance, certainly. Didn't we win the most points from new year's day to the end of the season? It was those three preceding months (oct - dec) that killed us. And don't firget; we'll have Rodri back. Cut out the brainfarts at the back, and we certainly have a chance. That being said, TMM have had a hell of a transfer window. They'll be difficult (not impossible) to finish in front of.
Click to expand...

We weren’t great though even then. It was a very tough watch at times.
 
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