GWN Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) Good thread . I’ve gone a cautious 9th as we are , I’d be happy with tbh because like a few have said we are 2 players short imho. However if EH can get a tune out of some I thought were beyond hope so I’m hoping he can find an inspiration in Almiron and Joelinton both to score more goals , if he can I’d say we can climb a bit higher . If those two could finish we would have a great team . Keeping Wilson fit is key if those two don’t score enough again and for that I’m sticking with a solid 9th , just great to never mention the R word . Edited August 8, 2022 by GWN Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 Even if we go and finish 7th with 60 points, it means we're going to either draw or lose over half of our games. Just hope on a match to match basis we remember this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montey Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 1 hour ago, GWN said: I’ve gone a cautious 9th as we are , I’d be happy with tbh because like a few have said we are 2 players short imho. I generally agree and was heading towards choosing '9th' too. The thing that had me select '8th' is because we have two transfer windows to consider. If NUFC can get 2 more attacking players in the current transfer window then we could be in with a shot at 7th. But, if we have to wait until the next transfer window to get some additional attacking options (leading to a stronger 2nd half of the season) then we could/would achieve 8th. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stottie Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 I'm going to cheat and not click anything till we play Brighton. That should be more indicative than swatting aside Forest. fwiw, if we give him the 3-3 Brentford game when he had Covid (officially? down as Tindall), Eddie Howe's league record is now P28 W14 D5 L9. 50% wins and 1.68 points per game! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Warthog Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 I've gone 8th, as I think we'll have a few games we ought to win but end up with a draw / narrow loss instead. Throw the odd unexpected victory in there too, as well as the predictable losses. Top 10 will suit me fine though. Anything higher than 8th will be remarkable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
La Parka Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 This thread makes me nervous. I've gone 10th for now. It's very early to predict. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazzy Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 I think we've improved more than one position in the table so I'd say 10th is too low. 6th would be a miracle of sorts, so I've gone for 8th assuming we still have 1 or 2 to come in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahoneys Tache Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 Been supporting since the 74 final spanking. Never been so optimistic. Not fucking creaming my kex, just optimistic. Things are calm and very professional. I think we are going to surprise everybody including ourselves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGuv Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 There is something about this season that is very hard to describe. When we finished 4th under SBR, it certainly didn't feel like it does right now over the summer of 2001; we bough Robert and Bellamy and it changed us into a title chasing side. (I am too young to remember 93-97 so I can't comment). I'm obviously not saying I think we'll finish top 4, the only point I'm (badly) trying to make is this does feel very different. If we can get a striker to compliment Wilson and an out and out winger...I don't see why top 6 isn't achievable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnNUFC Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 In 2011-12 when we finished 5th we won 19 matches but drew 8 and lost 11, 65 points. That's Europa League form and it'll be even less for Conference League. However, the main reason why I think 7th will be our maximum ceiling this season is I can't see who we'd displace in the top 6. Aye, Man Utd are shite but they've a better squad than us still imo. Likewise with West Ham and with Leicester's starting XI. In 2011-12 we finished above Chelsea and Liverpool; I can't see us going above 1 let alone 2 of the big 6 as stands right now. 1 or 2 quality signings though and that may change. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stottie Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 Unless something goes wrong, I can't see us conceding many goals. The main question is whether we can score enough to turn draws into wins. We managed it last season even without Wilson and Trippier, but there were enough single goal victories in there for it to remain a concern. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Decky Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 7th might be possible if we can get another top midfielder and forward in. Right now we're a little light there, especially when injuries start happening. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanji Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 We're going to live and die based on the fitness of Wilson. If he can somehow play 75% of our league games, 6-9th place is doable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaydnNUFC Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 Out of curiosity I looked at Rodgers' early period in charge of Leicester and looked for any kind of similarities as besides last season and this they're kinda what we want emulate in the coming years. Took over from Puel and turned their form around; took 17 points from 30: 5 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses. Then in the summer they signed James Justin, Ayoze Perez, Dennis Praet and made Tielemans' loan permanent. In the first half of 2019-20 they took 39 points from 19 matches which included an 8 match winning streak and the record PL away win. Semi-finalists in the League Cup and got to the 6th Round of the FA Cup. Ended up throwing top 4 away a bit and finished 5th on the last day but still a sort of season we would only dream of this year. However, they already had Vardy, Maddison and Tielemans (kinda) there and Soyuncu wasn't dreadful then. The former 3 names are the type of quality of player we need to be getting in what remains of this window; maybe Maddison himself. Who knows. Only then can we get close to 6th and above imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STM Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 58.5 points is the average you need for 7th, over the last 4 years. That's 1.5 points per game. We finished on 49 points last year, so in theory we need to find 10 points this year. That sounds easy when you consider the 14 games at the start of last season but you also have to assume that we won't go on top 4 form like we did at the back end of the season. I'd also be interested to see what scope there was for transfers in January. Especially if we get a key injury, like ASM/Wilson/ Targett where we have zero depth. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STM Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 From the 14th minute. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 (edited) Competing with the likes of Brighton for 8th should be the aim and would be right based on manager and current squads, but if we pushed 1-2 places higher with West Ham in Europe and Man U the way they are at the minute, it wouldn't be a surprise, unlike the Pardew 5th finish. Edited August 8, 2022 by Optimistic Nut Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowlingcrofty Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 1 minute ago, Optimistic Nut said: Competing with the likes of Brighton for 8th should be the aim and would be right based on manager and current squads, but if we pushed 1-2 places higher with West Ham in Europe and Man U the way they are at the minute, if wouldn't be a surprise, unlike the Pardew 5th finish. Here’s hoping. I also think the lack of players we have going to the World Cup could be a benefit. 6 weeks training with Eddie instead of playing in Qatar has got to be beneficial Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
midds Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 4 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said: Competing with the likes of Brighton for 8th should be the aim and would be right based on manager and current squads, but if we pushed 1-2 places higher with West Ham in Europe and Man U the way they are at the minute, it wouldn't be a surprise, unlike the Pardew 5th finish. I'd agree with that but I think it's inevitable that at some point we're going to get injuries and suspensions. We're going to have to dip into the squad to replace some of the first XI and that's when we'll see a dip in performance and results. That 5th came about mainly because we had a regular supply of goals from Ba in the first 20 games and Cisse took over for the run in. We don't have, or look like, we've go that this season. We need more goals, they might come before September or in January, but they're not there right now. That's the immediate priority and thankfully the club knows it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaztoon Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 7th with no major injuries Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STM Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 2 minutes ago, midds said: I'd agree with that but I think it's inevitable that at some point we're going to get injuries and suspensions. We're going to have to dip into the squad to replace some of the first XI and that's when we'll see a dip in performance and results. That 5th came about mainly because we had a regular supply of goals from Ba in the first 20 games and Cisse took over for the run in. We don't have, or look like, we've go that this season. We need more goals, they might come before September or in January, but they're not there right now. That's the immediate priority and thankfully the club knows it. It's not an exact science though. West Ham and Wolves aren't goal laden sides, in fact they are sides based on a solid defence. We showed last season that the likes of Krafth, Fraser, Wood, Lascelles can dip into the side and we can get results. Admittedly we wouldn't want it for very long. If we have 4/5 players injured then we will suffer but that would go for West Ham etc too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Optimistic Nut Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 9 minutes ago, midds said: I'd agree with that but I think it's inevitable that at some point we're going to get injuries and suspensions. We're going to have to dip into the squad to replace some of the first XI and that's when we'll see a dip in performance and results. That 5th came about mainly because we had a regular supply of goals from Ba in the first 20 games and Cisse took over for the run in. We don't have, or look like, we've go that this season. We need more goals, they might come before September or in January, but they're not there right now. That's the immediate priority and thankfully the club knows it. We also conceded a fair few that season. Only 2 clubs outside the bottom 6 conceded more, and 1 in the bottom 6 conceded fewer. If we knock the goals against column down substantially then we're on for a cracking season and given we've got pretty much a whole new defence the last two windows, it's something we should be looking to achieve too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzza Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 Howe has had a full pre season to get HIS players fit and working a playing method into their system. Last season he had to lift them both mentally and physically half way through the season under a huge amount of pressure. Our current achilles is wilson’s fitness, lack of attacking subs and some quality on the right. IF we do not address the above (wilson sub + right attack) we should reach eighth place, if we do we would be in euro places 100% Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallsendmag Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 I've gone for 8th which seems to be the majority verdict. However if we can bring in another quality attacking player I honestly think 6th is achievable. We're 4th over the last 20 or so games so why not 6th after the next 37? 1. Man City 2. Liverpool 3,4,5 is Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal in whatever order but 6th is definitely up for grabs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted August 8, 2022 Share Posted August 8, 2022 If you look at PPG this calendar year we are actually 3rd. I know it will require a lot to happen between now and the end of the season but we could finish top 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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