Will we win the league this season?

[bumbleblue]

No balls, desire, tempo, urgency or fight in this team at the moment.

 

[Stelea]

With this squad, continued inability to feed Haaland and the same pattern of play as last year, top 4 is very unlikely, never mind winning anything.

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

After yesterday's performance I think we need to accept we're still work in progress. If we can get it together as the season goes on playing good entertaining football and make top 4 I'll take that right now because we're not ready to win the league this season.

 

[Stelea]

My brother was near the dugouts too and he picked up on that. Mentioned how Kolo did a lot of shouting whilst Pep just walked around with his hands in his pockets. Thomas Frank was much more animated, by comparison.

I really think this is a huge 9 days ahead. Pep, Viana and the board need to sit down tomorrow and be honest about the state of this squad. Some ruthless decisions need to be made about a good number of these players.

Yeah great. React with 9 days left when they have had all summer to sort it out. What a mess!

 

[Damanino]

fixture to fixture, first 5 games, total 3 points last season, I think the total this season will tell us a lot. surely has to be much more than 3 points this time but play like vs Spurs and it wont be. I had us beating Wolves then Spurs at home, draw Brighton, beat rags and draw Arsenal (11 points of first 15), but now thats a bit optimistic maybe.
Brighton needs to be win now as a reaction surely has to come from Pep-players.
if we lose to Brighton I doubt we gonna have a win either vs rags or Arse so that is then around 4 maybe 5 points from first 15, somewhere lower half on table at that time with likes of Leeds, Sunderland, quite poor with an ugly gap to others already.

CL also kicks off just before the Arse game, hope its an easier game for us but a shit one for them. as I recall we started last year vs Inter though another Pot1 club, if its the same method this season then it could be
Rags/PSG or Bayern or Real or Barca or Inter or Dortmund/Arsenal set of 3 games in one week, straight after intern. break.

Match	Last season	This season	Diff. Points
Wolves away	Win	Win	-
Spurs home	Loss	Loss	-
Brighton away	Loss	?	?
Rags home	Loss	?	?
Arsenal away	Loss	?	?

 

[GillyCTID]

I feel like we have a lot of quality players compared to other teams. For example, Marmoush is better than Martinelli, Neto or Gakpo. Reijnders is better than Macallister, Zubimendi, even Odegard, and definitely Bentancur.
Ait-Nouri is one of the best if not the best Lb in the league. Haaland is the best striker etc etc..
Defence is probably the only thing we lose compared to Arsenal. AitNouri-Gvardiol-Dias/Stones-Nunes back four is second best in the league just losing to Arsenal. I don’t get it how these young inexperienced other teams defenders are playing so much better than ours. For example Spurs and Chelsea have honestly quite bad defenders yet they keep at least the same amount of clean sheets than we do. We haven’t had a pacey centreback in ages but it has never really been a problem since we always control the ball and tempo. Now everyone is tearing us apart with quick counter attacks. Khusanov is rapid, maybe play him and Gvardiol as centrebacks..
Hard to accept the fact but we are not an unbeatable machinery anymore

 

[TheGhost]

You can only lose a maximum of 5 games in a season and win the league. I can’t see us only losing 4 more from here. But stranger things have happened.

 

[John Wayne]

Yeah great. React with 9 days left when they have had all summer to sort it out. What a mess!

Yep. It is a mess. But not one out of which we cannot get. It's the outgoings that are as much of a mess as incomings. We still don't know for certain about Ederson, Akanji, Gundogan and arguably Ortega as I've seen no links with him to any club. I will say that bringing in more players than anticipated isn't panicking if we'd always had an eye on them (Livramento, MGW). But we can't go through the season without a RB and a midfield so lacking in industry.

 

[christened at st marks]

Not with this system, the balls and attitude is a preseason problem, probably why we are the strongest at the end of the season. Kebab, Rodrygo and Baleba are required for me, 2 of Rodri and Baleba one goes the other stays mmm
I'd try and trade for Livramento, anyone but Gvadiol, Rodri, Haaland, Phil or Bobb.
Cherki, Ait N and Reinders to soon to tell.
Our problem is midfield.

 

[Bluearmy]

Too many personnel changes in 8 months. Was Always gonna be an up and down season (especially early on with a compromised pre season on top of everything else). But the keeper situation doesnt feel right. Even before yesterday. Too soon for Trafford for come to us and be no 1. No specialist right back is not great, especially with how we want our full backs to play. Midfield wide open, got to go Rodri/Nico/Rudolph moving forward. Marmoush is not a left winger and never will be. And Bobb like Savinho before him probably not ready to be a starter for a team that wants to challenge for the title.

Picked the wrong team yesterday. So obvious what was coming from spuds. They do it too us a lot. Transitional season ahead..!!

 

[Boris Yeltsin]

Played 148 times. Won 94 times. Drew 29 times. Lost 25 times. You know your stuff.

How do those stats compare against the time he's been here? It's a steady decline I'm sure. Just you can't see it doesn't mean it ain't happening. We are the Erling haaland team now and if he doesn't play well we don't. Before the team had goals from everywhere and we played as a unit. Drop haaland and play marmoush as a lone striker, like at the end of last season, and we'll go on an unbeaten run. Peps tactics are the problem. The players are there. Its a strong squad.

 

[madloaf]

How do those stats compare against the time he's been here? It's a steady decline I'm sure. Just you can't see it doesn't mean it ain't happening. We are the Erling haaland team now and if he doesn't play well we don't. Before the team had goals from everywhere and we played as a unit. Drop haaland and play marmoush as a lone striker, like at the end of last season, and we'll go on an unbeaten run. Peps tactics are the problem. The players are there. Its a strong squad.

If Peps tactics are the problem, and we can. All agree Haaland is a better striker than marmoush based on historical performance, then isn't the thing that should change the tactics? Not the player?

 

[Buckshaw Blue]

Going be a similar season to last i think

My thoughts exactly and not seen anything from the first 2 games that would make me think any different. 3rd/4th at best and hopefully a cup run. Which wouldn’t be the end of the world.

 

[BlueMoonAcrossThePond]

We rely on our press to win the ball back quickly - it's an essential component of our game and contributes both to our defense and offense. Yet, our press seems no better than it was last year in spite of all the signings. Instead of pressing immediately as a team when the ball turns over, several of our players fail to press in time. They'll join in after a few seconds, but by that time it's way too late. Our delayed press gives the opposition one or more good passing options and enough time on the ball to find them.

Unless we are able to fix the press, I think we're headed for a 4th place finish, possibly lower.

 

[KS55]

The board need to sit down and have a discussion without pep first.

There is a widespread misconception about our board. There are no full time City execs such as Soriano on it. Pep is not on it. It is focussed on the business aspects, not on football.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

I never have and never will understand why all you armchair experts analyse one match and work out our entire season's prospects based on that.

Yes, we were awful today, probably worse than most of the matches we lost last season but Spurs didn't offer that much for all the hype, they were gifted two goals but didn't do much else, so considering how poor we were on the day it doesn't say a lot about them. First goal was a little unfortunate I felt, the second, well the sooner that's forgotten and we move on, the better.

But I saw enough last week to show that we can be real challengers. This is a new set of players playing only their second PL match and against opposition who have always been tough to beat in most recent years, and I rate Thomas Frank very highly too.

Dias has missed a lot of game time and Rodri has just come back from a serious injury so it's ridiculous to judge him after a few minutes of his second match back, especially as Pep has warned it's going to take time. No doubt that's exactly why he didn't put him on earlier.

Even last week you could see we were watching a team that is still getting used to each other yet everybody expects a bunch of players who barely know each other to hit the ground running against Premier League opposition. You should all know by now it rarely happens like that.

Armchairs experts? Lol. Do you know me? I attend every home game and many away games, I am a football coach, I have studied football. Am I a professional elitesl coach? No, but I am not armchair fan.

If you are saying spurs were average then that makes our dire performance even more dire surely?

Regarding the Wolves game, yes we played well in parts, but Wolves are probably going to be whipping boys this season judging by their performance again yesterday, so that's no yardstick to measure us against. Plus, we were hardly amazing throughout that entire game.

Yesterday was worrying because, we looked like a side who didn't know each other, that didn't know what our own manager wanted. And I'm not talking about the new players, I'm talking about players we've had for years. Is that disastrous? probably not in terms of doing reasonably well in the season once we get sorted, but this league now with the improvements other teams have made, time is a luxury we don't have if we want to become champions again.

 

[Moss Side's Finest]

I never have and never will understand why all you armchair experts analyse one match and work out our entire season's prospects based on that.

Yes, we were awful today, probably worse than most of the matches we lost last season but Spurs didn't offer that much for all the hype, they were gifted two goals but didn't do much else, so considering how poor we were on the day it doesn't say a lot about them. First goal was a little unfortunate I felt, the second, well the sooner that's forgotten and we move on, the better.

But I saw enough last week to show that we can be real challengers. This is a new set of players playing only their second PL match and against opposition who have always been tough to beat in most recent years, and I rate Thomas Frank very highly too.

Dias has missed a lot of game time and Rodri has just come back from a serious injury so it's ridiculous to judge him after a few minutes of his second match back, especially as Pep has warned it's going to take time. No doubt that's exactly why he didn't put him on earlier.

Even last week you could see we were watching a team that is still getting used to each other yet everybody expects a bunch of players who barely know each other to hit the ground running against Premier League opposition. You should all know by now it rarely happens like that.

Armchairs experts? Lol. Do you know me? I attend every home game and many away games, I am a foot coach, I have studied football. Am I a professional elitesl coach? No, but I am not armchair fan. If you are saying spurs were average then that makes our dire performance even more dire surely?

Regarding the Wolves game, yes we played well in parts, but Wolves are probably going to be whipping boys this season judging by their performance again yesterday, so that's no yardstick to measure us against. Plus, we were hardly amazing throughout that entire game.

Yesterday was worrying because, we looked like a side who didn't know each other, that didn't know what our own manager wanted. And I'm not talking about the new players, I'm talking about players we've had for years. Is that disastrous? probably not in terms of doing reasonably well in the season once we get sorted, but this league now with the improvements other teams have made, time is a luxury we don't have if we want to become champions again.

They are good players. None of them are world class and it remains to be seen if any of them will ever be world class.

But I agree, I don’t want us to sign galácticos either. However, there’s a middle ground. I would say the current Madrid side are a great example of this. For every Mbappe there’s a Vinicius or Camavinga.

At the end of the day you can’t lose world class players like we have over the last few years and not replace them but expect to still be as good. Today, bar Haaland, we didn’t have any world class players on the pitch. When I look at our treble winning side I’d say we had 4 or maybe 5. That’s the difference.

The players you mention might step into their shoes over time - let’s see - but we will have to be patient as this current side isn’t winning anything significant this season.

If you don't think those players are world class, then we'll have to agree to disagree

 

[bugsyblue]

Armchairs experts? Lol. Do you know me? I attend every home game and many away games, I am a foot coach, I have studied football. Am I a professional elitesl coach? No, but I am not armchair fan. If you are saying spurs were average then that makes our dire performance even more dire surely?

Regarding the Wolves game, yes we played well in parts, but Wolves are probably going to be whipping boys this season judging by their performance again yesterday, so that's no yardstick to measure us against. Plus, we were hardly amazing throughout that entire game.

Yesterday was worrying because, we looked like a side who didn't know each other, that didn't know what our own manager wanted. And I'm not talking about the new players, I'm talking about players we've had for years. Is that disastrous? probably not in terms of doing reasonably well in the season once we get sorted, but this league now with the improvements other teams have made, time is a luxury we don't have if we want to become champions again.

If you don't think those players are world class, then we'll have to agree to disagree

We will have to disagree then my friend. I mean Khusanov has played about five minutes of football... I don't think anyone sane would call him world class.

 

[Revolver]

Liverpool (Champions and quality additions) and Arsenal (Desperation and quality additions) will finish above us.

The rest are much of a muchness. Spurs won’t play us at the Ethiad every week and Chelsea are too inconsistent.

 

[Tier2Blue]

The end of every era has been brought about or caused by badly managing the transitions in the squad which need to happen. Liverpool left this to souness to replace Beardsley etc and he got it wrong. Fergie started the slide and Moyes finished it, Chelsea never replaced drogba etc. its happened to us - over the last 3/4 years the transfer business hasn’t been up to it. You can get a few wrong but when it becomes endemic the tide turns. The balance of the squad can no longer override the weak players brought in. We are in that phase now sadly. We will get top 4/5, put in some good performances but the title is beyond us. The squad no longer has enough winners and leaders to carry through sticky moments. We don’t have a KDB to conjure magic up and inspire others. We have a team of players who look to others to lead.