Should we be concerned?

[Jakemoore]

I got chatting with a few mates from work today about the upcoming season. We all support different premier league clubs. Given that I live in London the teams consist of Westham, Arsenal, Spurs & a glory hunting Man City fan who spends more time at Selhurst Park than he does watching the Citizens. 

 

Anyway, someone asked me if I was worried for our lot this season. My response when asked this is generally “nah, we’ll be fine. We’re good enough for top 10” but I couldn’t allow myself to say that as I just don’t believe it this year. 

 

The only argument i can make for positivity is that there are probably 4 worst sides than us. 

 

Without meaning to be too negative, is there anything else to make people believe we won’t get dragged in to a relegation fight this season?! 

 

Not suggestibg we’ll actually go down but I don’t think we’ve improved enough and I’m not at all convinced by Puel. 

 

Someone give me a reason to cheer up and get excited about August 10th! 

[Max Wall]

Can we merge this with 246 other threads please?

[Tuna]

Y.

Edited 30 July 2018 by Tuna

[peach0000]

We just got all our business done early, it's a sign of a well organised club with a man who had a plan in charge. Much prefer it like this than having to panic buy over the next 10 days or so. 

 

The only slightly concerning thing is the lack of a like for like replacement for Mahrez, but maybe Puel has a plan for that. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

we'll be fine, we'll start awfully sack Puel and then the other geezer will stablise us, rinse and repeat

[Trav Le Bleu]

I'm concerned about so many identical paranoia threads.

[Izzy]

[DerbyshireFox]

There’s an element of the unknown this season, and I think we are going to have to be patient (like that’s going to happen!)   There’s a lot to be encouraged about with some talented young players at our disposal, but we do need to add creativity to ease the burden on Maddison, who looks very good so far. A lot of fans were underwhelmed when Claudio came in and that turned out okay!! Let’s just try and enjoy the ride ??

[jim5000]

56 minutes ago, peach0000 said:

We just got all our business done early, it's a sign of a well organised club with a man who had a plan in charge. Much prefer it like this than having to panic buy over the next 10 days or so. 

 

The only slightly concerning thing is the lack of a like for like replacement for Mahrez, but maybe Puel has a plan for that. 

There isn't a like for like replacement for Marhez, certainly not within the calibre of players we can attract. Our only hope is to find a rough diamond like Diabete and turn him into a Mahrez. Puel needs to adapt the team and find creativity in other areas.

[GaelicFox]

Doesn’t concern come with the excitement of being a city fan ? It’s a pretty normal feeling 

[CosbehFox]

I’d be concerned if I myself could actually change it. I can’t. So why would I get concerned about something I can’t alter or change ? 

[Bert]

There’s always going to be positives always going to be negatives. That’s part and parcel of football. Fan base included. 

 

Things could be a hell of a lot worse. We are in the premier league, with good owners, a solid team that will compete. 

 

Just enjoy the ride. 

[coolhandfox]

As long as our key players stay fit, Vardy, Ndidi, Maguire and Kasper, we should be Ok.

 

Add a couple of good buys in the next 2 weeks, we could have a good season.

[davieG]

I don't think we've sorted out the defense I'm not convinced Evans is a good enough step up from Morgan sure he can pass the ball but doesn't seem to put his whole self into the game like Morgan with his blocks and overall strength, he also looks no quicker than Morgan.

 

Pereira is an unknown quantity defending wise.

 

But then in all my years I've never felt confident going into the season or in fact any game.

[UniFox21]

Very few clubs are ever very happy come the end of the window, feel we have enough to do well/okay this year. We could be in worse places: looking at Man Utd and the risks others are taking with the large numbers of signings. Nacho looked strong in his cameo the other day and was really starting to gel last year. Madison is an exciting prospect and him, Gray and Chillwell look a close bunch which hopefully helps on the pitch. A few areas it would be nice to strengthen in, but we still have a week or so left to loan out some of the other players and bring in some new additions.

[norwichfox]

 great thread....just like so many others

[Babylon]

20 minutes ago, davieG said:

I don't think we've sorted out the defense I'm not convinced Evans is a good enough step up from Morgan sure he can pass the ball but doesn't seem to put his whole self into the game like Morgan with his blocks and overall strength, he also looks no quicker than Morgan.

 

Pereira is an unknown quantity defending wise.

 

But then in all my years I've never felt confident going into the season or in fact any game.

CB's tend to do that when their positioning is suspect in the first place, I love Wes for his commitment. But the amount of times he gets dragged about, or pushes up to me show he's not the best with his positioning. Without a Kante / N'didi in front of him he's all over the shop. Evans will hopefully be far better at that meaning he's not having to chuck himself about like a mad man.

[Babylon]

Look at some of the other squads, if you think this lot aren't good enough for a good finish I think you're mad. If we struggle it'll be down to Puel, and if we're struggling he'll just get sacked. Simple as that.

[weller54]

10 hours ago, Tuna said:

Y.

 

Fronts! 

[davieG]

Just now, Babylon said:

CB's tend to do that when their positioning is suspect in the first place, I love Wes for his commitment. But the amount of times he gets dragged about, or pushes up to me show he's not the best with his positioning. Without a Kante / N'didi in front of him he's all over the shop. Evans will hopefully be far better at that meaning he's not having to chuck himself about like a mad man.

I'm not sure I agree with that sure that's part of it but there are plenty of times when we're defending an onslaught like you get from Man City and Liverpool where the whole defence is lined up and the one person you can be sure will put his body in the way of any shots is Morgan plenty just duck or move out of the way. Besides that was just one way of describing my concern that Evans looks like he'd prefer to be somewhere else and is not prepared to put himself out. I think WBA fans were saying the same. Plus as i said he looks so slow in body and thought. Maybe when the real action starts he'll start but as the thread title asks, yes I am concerned.

[Lambert09]

I am definitely concerned. I thought we were at a point where we be making progress yet our squad is clearly worse than last season. Add to that the fact that 2 of the newly promoted teams, look to have done great business. You could argue they will compete with us if not do better than...Palace finished strongly, Southampton, West Ham and Brighton have made good signings, Huddersfield seem to just thrive with Wagner,  this season could be the toughest yet.

 

When I think of the teams I think we will comfortably finish above it seems the list is getting shorter by the week.  I just think we need all the new signings to be hits in order to have a good season, whereas in previous years if they didnt we were already had  a good enough squad to do okay.

Edited 31 July 2018 by Lambert09

[inckley fox]

8 hours ago, Babylon said:

Look at some of the other squads, if you think this lot aren't good enough for a good finish I think you're mad. If we struggle it'll be down to Puel, and if we're struggling he'll just get sacked. Simple as that.

Agree totally, though sides good enough for a good finish still go down. Look at the squad we had going into 2001/02 - with Walker, Flowers, Rowett, Sinclair, Elliott, Impey, W***, Savage, Izzet, Sturridge at our disposal, most thought it should have done a lot better than the Bolton side that turned us over on game one. In that particular example, you can add Taggart, who we never expected to be out for the season, then Piper and Dickov who came into the equation as the season progressed. It seems crazy that that side went down. Equally, look at Pleat's squad for 1988/89 (Walsh, McAllister, Newell) and it should have gone up rather than finishing 15th. Regardless of the quality you have, if it doesn't click with the manager and you have a disproportionate amount of dross clogging up the squad, there's always a risk.

[Cincinnati Fox]

We won’t get relegated but puel won’t last the season 

[SecretPro]

We've got a fair starting 11. 

 

We have an awful squad. 

[CosbehFox]

30 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

I am definitely concerned. I thought we were at a point where we be making progress yet our squad is clearly worse than last season.

 

 

I don’t really get this - we’ve sold Mahrez that’s it, who we lost other than that to make it worse ?