Premier League Thread 2019/20

[Guest MattP]

18 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

As stated above, we were managed by Puel for most of last year and only got Tielemans up and running for a few months. 

 

Rodgers, Tielemans and to a lesser extent Barnes and Perez make us a significantly different team to the one that finished last year not to mention Ricardo, Chilwell, Evans and Maddison are now all settled in to the side. 

 

Meanwhile every one of those three clubs have gone backwards. 

So do you expect us rather than hope we finish above them?

 

I like the optimism but I think it's an huge amount of pressure to put on us. To get near the top four would still be a big accomplishment this season.

 

I'm expecting big things from Tielemans but I've seen loan players go permanent before and change, we can talk about how good some of our players and that's correct - but we also have guys like Kasper, N'Didi, Barnes, Gray etc that will be on the fringe or in our first team that are a mile away from being "top 4" standard yet.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

8 minutes ago, MattP said:

So do you expect us rather than hope we finish above them?

 

I like the optimism but I think it's an huge amount of pressure to put on us. To get near the top four would still be a big accomplishment this season.

 

I'm expecting big things from Tielemans but I've seen loan players go permanent before and change, we can talk about how good some of our players and that's correct - but we also have guys like Kasper, N'Didi, Barnes, Gray etc that will be on the fringe or in our first team that are a mile away from being "top 4" standard yet.

I think this is spot on, it's important to temper expectation as if it goes slightly off track, which it can easily in an environment as competitive as the EPL an element of fans tend to overreact and lose the thread.  Bad luck with injuries and a tough run of fixtures to coincide with it can quickly change the fortunes of a season, purely due to bad luck.

 

My hope for this season were I a paying fan would be to be better entertained week in week out as Rodgers stamps his style of play on the team, further development in your fantastic young players and 12-20 points greater than last season and see where that lands.  Keep doing that bit by bit, progressing each season and you'll stand a chance of being a consistent top 4-6 club rather than getting too overwhelmed with finishing 6 this season.  After all, what is the holy grail that 6th place brings, Europa League football?  A competition that pretty much all EPL clubs with the exception of Arsenal and Chelsea view as an inconvenience.

Edited 16 July 2019 by henrik_62

[Finnegan]

24 minutes ago, MattP said:

So do you expect us rather than hope we finish above them?

 

I like the optimism but I think it's an huge amount of pressure to put on us. To get near the top four would still be a big accomplishment this season.

 

I'm expecting big things from Tielemans but I've seen loan players go permanent before and change, we can talk about how good some of our players and that's correct - but we also have guys like Kasper, N'Didi, Barnes, Gray etc that will be on the fringe or in our first team that are a mile away from being "top 4" standard yet.

 

Like I said, I expect us to compete in a league of essentially six (seven if West ham can actually sort their shit out) teams for 4th, 5th and 6th definitely. 

 

Look, we need to learn to break teams down that are stubbornly parking the bus, we need to start getting goals from the flanks, we need to cut out the idle mistakes at the back. 

 

We're far from the finished product and we could well finish 8th or 9th again. 

 

But I think we've got a better set of weapons currently than the rest of that chasing pack, I'd say only ourselves and Wolves currently actually are starting to play like more than the sum of our parts and I definitely think that this season represents the best opportunity the Prem has had since 15/16 to see an outsider qualify for the CL. 

[Finnegan]

23 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

I think this is spot on, it's important to temper expectation as if it goes slightly off track, which it can easily in an environment as competitive as the EPL an element of fans tend to overreact and lose the thread.  Bad luck with injuries and a tough run of fixtures to coincide with it can quickly change the fortunes of a season, purely due to bad luck.

 

My hope for this season were I a paying fan would be to be better entertained week in week out as Rodgers stamps his style of play on the team, further development in your fantastic young players and 12-20 points greater than last season and see where that lands.  Keep doing that bit by bit, progressing each season and you'll stand a chance of being a consistent top 4-6 club rather than getting too overwhelmed with finishing 6 this season.  After all, what is the holy grail that 6th place brings, Europa League football?  A competition that pretty much all EPL clubs with the exception of Arsenal and Chelsea view as an inconvenience.

 

If we finished 20 points higher last season we'd have finished 3rd / 4th depending on goal difference. 

 

That's with Chelsea having Eden Hazard. 

 

Edited 16 July 2019 by Finnegan

[StanSP]

7 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

£45 m for a fella whose scored 13 and 9 in two Bundesliga seasons. Franfkurt played a blinder. 

 

To give that context Shinji scored 15 and 12 in his last two Bundesliga seasons with Mainz. For a crisp £7 million

 

Firmino with 16 and 7 in his last two Bundesliga seasons....£29 million. 

Huh?

 

Haller scored 15 goals and 9 assists in Bundesliga alone last season (29 apps; 23 of those being starting apps)  

 

He and Jovic were quality for Frankfurt hence their very good season in the league and in Europe (Haller got 5 goals/3 assists in 10 in Europa League; Jovic got 10 & 1 in 15). 

 

Look where Jovic has moved to this summer - he only got 1 extra goal in the league compared to Haller.

 

While all of the assists weren't for Jovic, no-one can deny he had a big impact in goals, either scoring or creating, for Frankfurt last season.

 

[Muzzy_Larsson]

11 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

If we finished 20 points higher last season we'd have finished 3rd / 4th depending on goal difference. 

 

That's with Chelsea having Eden Hazard. 

 

Yeah I get that, that’s why I said 12-20 points as it’s a hard thing to quantify hence the general point about any improvement being good.

[Stadt]

Think of the trajectories of the clubs:

 

Manchester United: Players want out, terrible form at the end of the season. Shit manager. Inconsistent and arsehole players. New signings are more long term signings.

 

Chelsea: Best player left, good manager hounded out. Unable to make signings. Lack of goals and creativity. Good defence but that’s it.

 

Arsenal: Good manager but threadbare squad, abysmal defence, want away captain and no money.

 

Leicester: Huge improvement in manager, good end of season form. Tielemans signed up. Added goals in Perez. Barnes will have a full season. Admittedly losing our 2nd best CB but for a rip off price.

 

There’s no guarantee of anything but all of ‘top 6’ clubs’ fans aside from Chelsea’s because they’re drain pipes aren’t optimistic at all about the upcoming season.

Edited 16 July 2019 by Stadt

[CosbehFox]

18 minutes ago, StanSP said:

Huh?

 

Haller scored 15 goals and 9 assists in Bundesliga alone last season (29 apps; 23 of those being starting apps)  

 

He and Jovic were quality for Frankfurt hence their very good season in the league and in Europe (Haller got 5 goals/3 assists in 10 in Europa League; Jovic got 10 & 1 in 15). 

 

Look where Jovic has moved to this summer - he only got 1 extra goal in the league compared to Haller.

 

While all of the assists weren't for Jovic, no-one can deny he had a big impact in goals, either scoring or creating, for Frankfurt last season.

 

Argument I made was large price based. Frankfurt played a blinder getting £45 million 

[Guest ttfn]

Should be a good season though. The fact we’re even debating whether we, West Ham, Everton or Wolves could get into the top 4/6 is a huge step forward for the league.

 

Unfortunately the Premier League is now split into sub-divisions but the bigger those sub-groups are the more interesting it is for everybody.

 

I’ve heard a lot of people saying that a “par” finish for Lampard in his first year would be top 4 which I suspect is completely delusional. With a new, untested manager, a transfer ban, having lost their best player, their best young player injured until Christmas and Champions League football to contend with I think Lampard would do pretty well to have them finish 6th. 

[StanSP]

2 minutes ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Argument I made was large price based. Frankfurt played a blinder getting £45 million 

I know but the stats to get there were incorrect. 

 

Haller is a decent player. £45m isn't that bad in this kind of transfer market these days. 

 

Agreed we got a bargain in Okazaki given how he turned out for us.

[Corky]

1 hour ago, MattP said:

So do you expect us rather than hope we finish above them?

 

I like the optimism but I think it's an huge amount of pressure to put on us. To get near the top four would still be a big accomplishment this season.

 

I'm expecting big things from Tielemans but I've seen loan players go permanent before and change, we can talk about how good some of our players and that's correct - but we also have guys like Kasper, N'Didi, Barnes, Gray etc that will be on the fringe or in our first team that are a mile away from being "top 4" standard yet.

We're certainly not under the radar this season. I'm all for optimism but we need to give them a chance to settle.

 

We're probably 6th-9th at the moment. Top 4 would be a brilliant effort.

[murphy]

4 hours ago, henrik_62 said:

If people are genuinely of the belief that Pogba wouldn't get a game for Leicester then I'm out, heads have gone!

FWIW and for all his talent, I wouldn't want him and I think Man U would be better off without him too.

 

You acknowledge PP's twattishness but not the affect that it can have on the team.  When a club gets that toxic whiff hanging over it, it is hard to shift, think Sunderland or Hull and now Man Utd.  Pogba is a toxin imo.

 

I don't think that any Leicester fan thinks that Pogba isn't good enough.  For me. it's similar to the Mahrez situation.  Despite his goals and assists, as soon as he got his diva strop going on I wanted him out.  

[Mark_w]

Trippier off to Atletico then, he was first choice for the Spuds wasn't he? Seems like an odd one.

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Mark_w said:

Trippier off to Atletico then, he was first choice for the Spuds wasn't he? Seems like an odd one.

Surplus to requirements- aurier and Kyle Walker Peters ...... assume he was running his contract down aswell ....

Edited 16 July 2019 by st albans fox

[Wymsey]

33 minutes ago, Mark_w said:

Trippier off to Atletico then, he was first choice for the Spuds wasn't he? Seems like an odd one.

Going for £20m apparently; which, on paper, is great value - considering he's pretty decent and, at 28, is hardly passed his prime yet.

[DerbyshireFox]

Everton getting £22.5m for Lookman is phenomenal business by them, especially when they’ve managed to get Andre Gomes permanently for the same price. They and West Ham, like ourselves are doing some cracking business this window. If Haller completes his move and Everton strengthen up front, then the competition for those top six positions this season is going to be fantastic. Arsenal and Manchester United are the most vulnerable. If ourselves and the others meet ‘expectations’ then it could be a messy season for Arsenal and United. I think Chelsea will be okay, yes Hazard has gone but they’ve got some quality and depth in that side, and unlike United and Arsenal, players who know what it takes to win things

[Muzzy_Larsson]

59 minutes ago, Mark_w said:

Trippier off to Atletico then, he was first choice for the Spuds wasn't he? Seems like an odd one.

Had a pretty poor season last year tbh, Atletico is a great move for him mind you.

 

Will be interesting to see where he is in the pecking order though as they already have Vrsaljko and Arias who are both decent RB’s.

Edited 16 July 2019 by henrik_62

[The Bear]

Everton have only signed Gomes, who was there last season any way, Lossl who is just a backup to Pickford, and now Delph. They have also lost Zouma who is their best centre back. 

 

They still need to strengthen more. 

Edited 16 July 2019 by The Bear

[Ric Flair]

Spurs also have told Aurier he can leave as well, must have at least one right back lined up otherwise that's very odd.

[Finnegan]

4 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Everton have only signed Gomes, who was there last season any way, Lossl who is just a backup to Pickford, and now Delph. They have also lost Zouma who is their best centre back. 

 

They still need to strengthen more. 

 

They need a striker just as desperately as Chelsea. 

 

Calvert Lewin shouldn't be leading the line for a club chasing top six. Niasse and Tosun are shit. 

 

They're a quality striker away from being a very, very good team imo. 

[Ric Flair]

2 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

They need a striker just as desperately as Chelsea. 

 

Calvert Lewin shouldn't be leading the line for a club chasing top six. Niasse and Tosun are shit. 

 

They're a quality striker away from being a very, very good team imo. 

Likewise another centre half and possibly a right back. Losing Zouma and then not bringing in someone of equal ability would leave them slightly weaker. Coleman is becoming less effective for them too. Their midfield is very good and there's goals in that team if they find a proper finisher. Yerry Mina seems destined to just bomb there, but like Soyuncu perhaps 2nd season will see him kick on. Lindelof had a similar peculiar first season at Utd and followed it up with a much better one.

[Nicolo Barella]

14 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Everton have only signed Gomes, who was there last season any way, Lossl who is just a backup to Pickford, and now Delph. They have also lost Zouma who is their best centre back. 

 

They still need to strengthen more. 

Speaking of strengthen more, what are you guys doing?? Would have expected you to sign some backups by now, you were linked to Rondon weren't you? Will be a long season if you fluff Europa like Burnley. Hope you don't personally, will be interesting to see you play continental

[Nicolo Barella]

16 minutes ago, The Bear said:

Everton have only signed Gomes, who was there last season any way, Lossl who is just a backup to Pickford, and now Delph. They have also lost Zouma who is their best centre back. 

 

They still need to strengthen more. 

I've read that Brands likes to get his business done late (supported by last season's transfers) so we might see a flurry of late activity from Everton.

[Mehrez]

1 minute ago, Nicolo Barella said:

I've read that Brands likes to get his business done late (supported by last season's transfers) so we might see a flurry of late activity from Everton.

It seems that way, how anyone can think that makes sense to do business that way though is crazy, prices go up and they don’t get any preseason 

[Ric Flair]

10 minutes ago, Mehrez said:

It seems that way, how anyone can think that makes sense to do business that way though is crazy, prices go up and they don’t get any preseason 

I was thinking that, they somehow managed to get a fair few players in at not extortionate prices though. If you look though they target massive clubs for their fringe players who often only get sold later on when they themselves have finally got 1 or 2 key signings across the line.