Armchair Pundit Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 The problem for us is we need to strengthen not only the first eleven, but also the actual depth of the squad itself after years of neglect. Probably explains some of the lesser known or apparently underwhelming signings to some degree. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
et tu brute Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 42 minutes ago, HTT II said: I think City will run away with the league, closely followed by LFC, Spurs will be very strong next season, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd will all flatter to deceive and it will be a toss up between them 3 who finishes 4th with one team capable, outside of them, gatecrashing the top 4, it won’t be us. I think Villa will be very inconsistent and I can see them mid-table come January. If Brighton can sign a true goalscorer they could have a stellar season. Losing Bissouma is a massive loss, I can see Brighton struggling this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 Just now, et tu brute said: Losing Bissouma is a massive loss, I can see Brighton struggling this year. Cucurella close to city as well supposedly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_R Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 hours ago, gazza ladra said: We finished 7 points behind West Ham last season. Say we won the Everton and Chelsea games, which we arguably could/should have won. That’s puts us one point off 7th place. And that’s with a half season of Bruce in charge. Edit: What STM said. It's a bit silly and unrealistic to say "well what if we won these games we dominated?" without on the flip side acknowledging that we maybe should've lost or drawn some games we maybe unfairly snatched. It generally balances itself out and you cannot cherry pick like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 hours ago, ManDoon said: I really think Broja just suffered from a)being young and inconsistent b)Southampton having those weird patches of form. I think he would do well here. The Mitro but mobile comparison is bang on imo Mitro had a track record of regularly scoring. Broja doesn't. He looks like a player when it all clicks. But most of the time when I saw him - it didn't click at all. He didn't look any sort of player in the secod half of the season. Maybe it's better the devil you don't know. But I prefer Hugo E. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 I think we need 3 Bruno signigs to trouble the top 7. Pope Trippier Schar Burn Targett Bruno Shelvey Joelintion Fraser Wilson ASM With Wood, Willock, Krafh, Lascelles, Almiron backing it up. Thoroughly midtable team. Aggresively midtable. One thing I don't like about the Botman deal. Is that defence is already slow. None of the players there are quick for their positions. We need a defender that can run so we can sometimes play a high line. Likewise we need a Joelinton that can play a bit more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
greydos Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 9 minutes ago, The College Dropout said: I think we need 3 Bruno signigs to trouble the top 7. Pope Trippier Schar Burn Targett Bruno Shelvey Joelintion Fraser Wilson ASM With Wood, Willock, Krafh, Lascelles, Almiron backing it up. Thoroughly midtable team. Aggresively midtable. One thing I don't like about the Botman deal. Is that defence is already slow. None of the players there are quick for their positions. We need a defender that can run so we can sometimes play a high line. Likewise we need a Joelinton that can play a bit more. We will have a Joelinton with an Eddie Howe pre-season. Chances are, we'll be seeing a Joelinton who can play a bit more next year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmesy Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 11 minutes ago, The College Dropout said: I think we need 3 Bruno signigs to trouble the top 7. Pope Trippier Schar Burn Targett Bruno Shelvey Joelintion Fraser Wilson ASM With Wood, Willock, Krafh, Lascelles, Almiron backing it up. Thoroughly midtable team. Aggresively midtable. One thing I don't like about the Botman deal. Is that defence is already slow. None of the players there are quick for their positions. We need a defender that can run so we can sometimes play a high line. Likewise we need a Joelinton that can play a bit more. We cannot go into this season with Fraser being a guaranteed starter - i'm not even sure he's PL quality. And Wilson with Wood backup is frightening. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanshithispantz Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 A Joelinton that can play a bit more would cost about £80m, and I cannot think who it would be? If Howe can improve his decision making there's absolutely no reason for us to replace him in the first XI for quite a while. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 minutes ago, Holmesy said: We cannot go into this season with Fraser being a guaranteed starter - i'm not even sure he's PL quality. And Wilson with Wood backup is frightening. We have had a poor window of those things happen imo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ankles Bennett Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 7 minutes ago, Holmesy said: We cannot go into this season with Fraser being a guaranteed starter - i'm not even sure he's PL quality. And Wilson with Wood backup is frightening. Let's not forget that our form from January was top 4 form so I don't agree the current squad is midtable!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonBez comesock Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 hours ago, STM said: We were 7 points off that position last year and we were missing Wilson for most of it. There are countless factors that can dictate where we finish, injuries being one of them but I'd say with a fit Wilson for 75% of the season, we will finish top 8. Its clear that we need a second striker to mitigate for his absence. As we have seen with Bruno, one signing can be transformative. Who that or them signings would be, God knows. One main factor is everyone else is going to strengthen in and around us Look at Villa, Chelsea Arsenal and Spurs they will definitely strengthen Southampton made a few cheeky signings already Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 He goes onto say we want a young CM. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonBez comesock Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 hours ago, Coffee_Johnny said: We would have finished sixth if we had averaged the points per game Howe accumulated in the last 25 games, over the course of the whole season. So we are not far away really. Yeah - that sounds good (however watch everyone else strengthen) can’t stand still Our squad is (ageing) and we have not much strength in depth to sustain a full season push to 8th / 7th Cant standstill Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shearergol Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 minutes ago, Ankles Bennett said: Let's not forget that our form from January was top 4 form so I don't agree the current squad is midtable!! Current team is top 6-8 I think. Current squad is around 12th. Our backup options are awful. Injuries to Bruno and Wilson and we're in the shit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
toontownman Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 1 hour ago, SUPERTOON said: Cucurella close to city as well supposedly Surprised no one has come in for Lamptey. I'd definitely take him here given his versatility. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonBez comesock Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 3 minutes ago, Ankles Bennett said: Let's not forget that our form from January was top 4 form so I don't agree the current squad is midtable!! Top 4 if we carried on the same form (hard to maintain all season) everyone else will strengthen teams will also be learning how we play Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gazza ladra Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 33 minutes ago, Chris_R said: It's a bit silly and unrealistic to say "well what if we won these games we dominated?" without on the flip side acknowledging that we maybe should've lost or drawn some games we maybe unfairly snatched. It generally balances itself out and you cannot cherry pick like that. The point was that even with our terrible start, we could have very easily finished 7th with the current squad. It doesn’t always balance out. The 2011-12 team had nothing but good luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonBez comesock Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 Just now, toontownman said: Surprised no one has come in for Lamptey. I'd definitely take him here given his versatility. Definitely- great player Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 We had a lot of intangibles going our way 2nd half of the season. Momentum after that first win, exciting signings helping the atmosphere, lots of players playing for new contracts, players playing for a future at the club. If we line up with Schar, Shelvey, Burn, Fraser, Wilson all first XI members a lot of that will dissapear. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffee_Johnny Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 (edited) 28 minutes ago, The College Dropout said: Pope Trippier Schar Burn Targett Bruno Shelvey Joelintion Fraser Wilson ASM With Wood, Willock, Krafh, Lascelles, Almiron backing it up. Thoroughly midtable team. Aggresively midtable. Not at all mid-table in terms of last season’s 2022 results. Look where we would have finished if the season started at Xmas (in comparison to actual top 8 finishers). League table below (games played, points accrued since Xmas, followed by average points per game; which is used to determine league position for 2022 games): Liverpool 18, 50, 2.78 Man City 17, 40, 2.35 NUFC…….19, 39, 2.05 Spurs…….20, 38, 1.90 Arsenal….18, 34, 1.89 Chelsea…17, 31, 1.82 Man Utd..19, 27, 1.42 Leicester 20, 27, 1.35 WestHam 18, 22, 1.22 Edited June 24, 2022 by Coffee_Johnny Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jack j Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 1 minute ago, The College Dropout said: We had a lot of intangibles going our way 2nd half of the season. Momentum after that first win, exciting signings helping the atmosphere, lots of players playing for new contracts, players playing for a future at the club. If we line up with Schar, Shelvey, Burn, Fraser, Wilson all first XI members a lot of that will dissapear. I expect all but fraser to start the game v forest Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Butcher Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 2 minutes ago, JonBez comesock said: Definitely- great player About 4ft tall. Easy target at the back post if we play 4 at the back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted June 24, 2022 Share Posted June 24, 2022 1 minute ago, gazza ladra said: The point was that even with our terrible start, we could have very easily finished 7th with the current squad. It doesn’t always balance out. The 2011-12 team had nothing but good luck. 2012 team had a lot more talent and match winners. Give me HBA, Cisse and Ba upfront. I'd take Cabaye and Tiote in midfield with Bruno. Colo & that seasons Krul for sure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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