2021/22 Expectations

[Vesper 30,085]

2 hours ago, Jas said:

So after winning the Champions League last season, what are we all expecting this time around?

Premier League champions?

Champions League winners?

FA Cup winners?

Carabao Cup winners?

UEFA Super Cup winners?

Club World Cup champions?

UEFA Super Cup winners

Club World Cup champions

top 4

at a minimum

[Tomo 21,751]

10 minutes ago, Vesper said:

erm, what squad under Lampard was 'much superior' to thsi one?

the year he finished 4th this was the squad

 
Kepa   
Willy Caballero 
Antonio Rüdiger  
Kurt Zouma  
Andreas Christensen   
Fikayo Tomori   (rookie season)
Emerson  
Marcos Alonso    
César Azpilicueta    
Reece James  (rookie season)
N'Golo Kanté   (rough time with multiple injuries)
Jorginho   
Mateo Kovacic   
Ruben Loftus-Cheek  (perma wrecked by then, only played 205 league minutes) 
Ross Barkley   
Mason Mount   (rookie season)
Callum Hudson-Odoi   (post injury, and only played 851 league minutes, was a shadow of himself)
Christian Pulisic  
Willian (Ziyech scored only 3 less goals than Willian in 1500 LESS minutes, all comps)    
Pedro   (1 league goal)
Tammy Abraham   
Michy Batshuayi   (1 league goal, was horrid)   
Olivier Giroud    

 

Tuchel has/had (new players, not on Lamps 4th place team)

Gilmour (now loaned out)
Kai Havertz    
Timo Werner   
Ben Chilwell    
Hakim Ziyech   
Edouard Mendy   
Thiago Silva

and all the ones to come this window (if any)

plus a healthy Kante

if you think the 2019/20 side was 'much superior' to last year's or the one we will end up with this season, I do not know what to say

actually

how about

KEPA was the starting keeper in 2019/20

for starters

 

 

 

Sorry I meant to say inferior.

[Vesper 30,085]

1 minute ago, Tomo said:

Sorry I meant to say inferior.

damn, I typed all that shit out for nothing, ffs

😿

 

[Jase 43,479]

46 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Not for me. It would say that we stood still while those around us all improved.

City were already much better than us in the league and will spend massively. United have spent £80m and will spend much more. Leicester were neck and neck with us and have added 3 good players thus far I think. Liverpool will have all their best players back fit and bought a highly rated CB. They finished above us despite having a season from hell. Even Arse are on the verge of making their 2nd and 3rd signings whilst we don’t appear to be close to making even 1. Despite them being hilariously shit last season they finished only 6 points behind us. They should improve considerably.

Even with TT’s brilliance I think the squad we currently have is capable of 3rd or 4th AT BEST. I just don’t think we have the goal scoring firepower to compete over a 38 match season.

[Blue Armour 4,436]

23 minutes ago, Vesper said:

damn, I typed all that shit out for nothing, ffs

😿

 

I was thinking of posting out @Tomo s mistake., but didn't want to be that guy.

Hindsight!

[Pizy 18,849]

Unless people are mighty confident that Werner will score 20 in the league and Kai 10-15, I don’t understand how anyone can predict us to significantly improve our league position with the squad as is. Will they (and Pulisic, and Ziyech, and Mount) improve? Yes. Enough to make up 20 points on City? Not in my opinion.

[Vesper 30,085]

3 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

but didn't want to be that guy.

I am that type of girl though

[Tomo 21,751]

45 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Unless people are mighty confident that Werner will score 20 in the league and Kai 10-15, I don’t understand how anyone can predict us to significantly improve our league position with the squad as is. Will they (and Pulisic, and Ziyech, and Mount) improve? Yes. Enough to make up 20 points on City? Not in my opinion.

I'm fairly confident Kai's numbers will go up. Last season he moved in a pandemic, caught the thing (and unlike most footballers not aysmptomatically) and then returned in the middle of the Lampard meltdown period (who to add insult to injury didn't know what the hell to do with him). He only really had two months fully fit and under Tuchel and he produced his best football.

I think it's next to impossible for him not to improve without all those above obstacles. He will have a (close to) full pre season, will (hopefully) not be struck down by Covid and will have a full season under a manager who clearly knows how to utilise him, I'm not exactly sure how anyone can look at those factors and come to the conclusion he won't have a better season this time round.

Werner is a bit more complex, while I'm not under any illusion he will suddenly become cool as ice infront of goal the sheer law of averages should mean a healthier tally next season. Although not to the same extent as Havertz, Lampard's use of him was a problem.

If we can get a close to sure bet forward fine, but there's not many of them out there, especially as we will likely have to break up a hugely promising system to accommodate said striker (the type of short termism Mou was slated for). For example, two years ago almost everyone on here was adamant Luka Jovic was the striker we needed.

Infact (I've asked this a few times now but no one has yet given me an answer) did any of our even slightly realistic options outside of Haaland score more last season than Werner and Havertz do the year before they signed for us?

Edited July 16, 2021 by Tomo

[Superblue 6,372]

32 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Unless people are mighty confident that Werner will score 20 in the league and Kai 10-15, I don’t understand how anyone can predict us to significantly improve our league position with the squad as is. Will they (and Pulisic, and Ziyech, and Mount) improve? Yes. Enough to make up 20 points on City? Not in my opinion.

Maybe we don't need Werner and Havertz to produce those numbers.

Firstly, I don't think it's completely unrealistic though if that were to happen because both have shown capability of this in previous seasons (albeit not in the Premier League).

But if you didn't include Tammy (who if we didn't buy another striker you'd have to believe Tuchel would retain) then our current other 6 'attackers'  of Werner, Havertz, Pulisic, Mount, CHO and Ziyech scored 24 Premier League goals between them, so 4 on average. I would be dumbfounded if they did not improve quite considerably on those numbers between them all next season. It shouldn't be unrealistic to expect across those 6 players to double that tally to average 8 Premier League goals each. It would only take one or two just to hit double figures to likely reach that let alone expecting someone to hit 15-20 goals minimum.

[NikkiCFC 8,286]

59 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Unless people are mighty confident that Werner will score 20 in the league and Kai 10-15, I don’t understand how anyone can predict us to significantly improve our league position with the squad as is. Will they (and Pulisic, and Ziyech, and Mount) improve? Yes. Enough to make up 20 points on City? Not in my opinion.

Gap on City is just 7 points if you count only TT time.

Timo/Kai have conversation rate of big chances 20-25%. If they go 55-60% which is still nothing special just average the gap is closed.

Our best bet is to have same amazing defense like last season and big part of job is already done.

[Pizy 18,849]

I commend your guys’ optimism but I still think we’d be living very dangerously if we don’t invest in a forward of some sort. What happens if Kai or Timo get a lengthy injury? Without Giroud we’re now very thin up top and I don’t particularly care to see more false 9 or Tammy wandering around like he just learned to walk yesterday.

[Superblue 6,372]

3 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I commend your guys’ optimism but I still think we’d be living very dangerously if we don’t invest in a forward of some sort. What happens if Kai or Timo get a lengthy injury? Without Giroud we’re now very thin up top and I don’t particularly care to see more false 9 or Tammy wandering around like he just learned to walk yesterday.

I agree there is risk attached to it, but beyond Haaland what striker's are out there we could buy that we're all going to be confident will bang in goals consistently?

The striker depth on the market is extremely poor in my opinion. We'd be taking potentially a bigger risk buying a player that isn't one of our top targets and hoping it pays off.