Premier League 2020/21 Thread

[The Bear]

6 minutes ago, RowlattsFox said:

My concern currently is not whether we're in the Europa League it champions League, the biggest thing is how the league is going to go given our form in 2020. Does Rodgers recognise our problems? I think he does to a point, he has said from day 1 how crucial your wide players are and the need for goals from elsewhere but will be able to change that? He also needs to recognise his own mistakes. 

 

We need a good start to remove any hangovers from this. 

I agree with you there. From the outside looking in, it seems that there could be potential to struggle if you get a bad start or a few VAR decisions go against you early on. You're good enough to turn it around but you're relying heavily on Vardy being as clinical and reliable as he is. Same as Jimenez with us really. We both need more goals from the wide areas. At least you have Maddison who gets you a fair few from CM which helps. 

[RowlattsFox]

The thing that goes in Wolves favour, and for us to an extent, is the price team will have to pay for their players. Jimenez age will put people off and Traore would cost a fortune for what would be impact sub for most. Neves is probably the one who could attract biggest interest.

 

Wolves are a good side but I think they need something else to make that next step. I can't see them losing anyone this summer but players are happy until there is genuine interest from elsewhere. 

Edited 27 July 2020 by RowlattsFox

[That_Dude]

- Liverpool and Man City for the title.

- MU splashing the cash and comfortably sitting third. Don't see them being a challenge for the two above, as long as OGS is at the helm.

- Chelsea could be a real force this season, if they sort out their defense. Their forward line looks devastating, on paper.

- Can see Arsenal and Spurs taking their place in the top 6 back, although there's a lot of unknowns due to the respective managers (a newbie and a seemingly spent force).

 

We'll either fight for the best of the rest (8th-6th) or go straight to a relegation battle, depending on how much we spend this summer and if Rodgers is able to stop the slump.

[Sly]

It gets said every season, “X” will be stronger .......

 

However time has taught us that this isn’t the case. 

 

You don’t need to spend silly money to improve, in terms of quality. Money doesn’t buy success. Money buys you perceived proven quality, or perceived future talent. 

 

The “let’s throw money at it” is a crazy analogy that is spun by Sky / world media, so that they can write stories. 

 

It’s worth remembering, at some point, the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, KDB, Hazard, Ederson, VVD etc were all worth £0.

In reality the game is 11 v 11 on the day. Is our 11, better than the opposition. For large parts of this season, I’d have said that our 11 was the 3rd best in the league. I’d struggle to say that at the end of the season. 
 

 

 

 

[DJ Barry Hammond]

Ah interesting aspect going into next season - as things stand, I don’t see any club going into the season with a new manager.

 

I expect all of the managers in charge at present to be in charge when the season kicks off? 
 

If that was the case... would that have ever happened before? (I certainly doubt that it would have happened in the modern era). 
 

The point on this being, if all PL clubs are going into the season with continuity, I would expect the league to become much tighter in terms of points range, especially within the fight for the best of the rest.

[Leicester_Loyal]

What I find weird is that I never really see any of Wolves played linked away with moves, this may be because obviously I read more LCFC stuff than any other team, but only Traore seems to be linked away, whereas we have Chilwell, Maddison, Cags and even Barnes linked with moves away in the last month or two.

 

As The Bear said, it may be down to Mendes behind the scenes, as he's the agent for them, he has no need to link them to other clubs in order to get wage rises or new contracts etc.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

7 hours ago, pmcla26 said:

Seeing some of the games Wolves have ground out this season have reminded me of us in 2016. Not identical styles but the mentality to throw anything on the line for the cause. 
 

Im the same as you mate, don’t really like their pragmatic approach and can be hard to watch but you have to respect that mental strength that they’ve got as a unit - something we all know we are lacking severely at the minute

Totally agree with this. If we had Wolves mental strength we'd have finished 3rd this season by a mile.

[Stuntman_Mike]

Not a fan of the new ball.

Looks like a griddle after someone's cooked a rare steak on it. 

[Stadt]

15 minutes ago, Stuntman_Mike said:

Not a fan of the new ball.

Looks like a griddle after someone's cooked a rare steak on it. 

I quite liked it until you said that  

[StanSP]

What's this true flight true love crap about as well

 

[North Leeds Fox]

Man City buying ferran torres for 23m euros plus 10m euros extra. That is ridiculous value 

[foxfanazer]

Brighton have pulled off a good deal signing Joel Veltman from Ajax for just £900k. I'd have taken him here

[UniFox21]

Genuinely think the Prem could be boring next year. I can see the usual big 6 reclaiming "their" spaces 

[Ric Flair]

5 hours ago, North Leeds Fox said:

Man City buying ferran torres for 23m euros plus 10m euros extra. That is ridiculous value 

Typical of Man City, great value for a player we heavily scouted before. Shame

[Ric Flair]

5 minutes ago, foxfanazer said:

Brighton have pulled off a good deal signing Joel Veltman from Ajax for just £900k. I'd have taken him here

Bizarre, was his contract up next summer or has he not been playing much for them in recent years? Not a team who tend to sell really cheaply. 

[foxfanazer]

Just now, Ric Flair said:

Bizarre, was his contract up next summer or has he not been playing much for them in recent years? Not a team who tend to sell really cheaply. 

The article just said Brighton activated a clause in his contract for £900k. Bargain! 

[Ric Flair]

Just now, foxfanazer said:

The article just said Brighton activated a clause in his contract for £900k. Bargain! 

Looking at their defensive options surely they are looking to move one on.

 

Dunk

Burn

White

Webster

Duffy

Veltman

Clarke

[StanSP]

45 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

Looking at their defensive options surely they are looking to move one on.

 

Dunk

Burn

White

Webster

Duffy

Veltman

Clarke

Reckon Ben White stays with Leeds. 

Dan Burn plays at LB now for them doesn't he? 

 

[twister]

I see Liverpool dropping off a bit, they have had a long two years and little squad depth.

 

But it will still be them or city, then united who will spend big, then a strong chelsea and arsenal if lampard manages it badly could still sneak in if they get coutinho. Spurs under jose looks a accident waiting to happen still would be surprised if he makes it through next season still there.

 

I think 7th to 10th is where the lads will finish next year wolves and everton will be nearest rivals I think. I do agree it will be a predictable year. In the end so was this one after a great first 7 months, ended with the big teams in the top four, city winning the league cup and chelsea and arsenal in the cup final again.Without fans in the stadiums next year at full capacity and five subs I don't see to many shocks.

 

 

[CosbehFox]

Apparently Bournemouth owe £81 million! in transfer fees 

[CloudFox]

7 hours ago, pmcla26 said:

I imagine Veltman will play right back. Schellotto is going I think and Montoya has been very average for them, could see him going back to Spain on loan. 
 

I still think one might leave Brighton though, rather than White, Dunk might be available to the likes of us and Wolves for cheaper to hold onto White, or Duffy to Everton which has been linked before. 

Doesn't Lamptey play right back for Brighton now?

[casablancas]

40 minutes ago, CloudFox said:

Doesn't Lamptey play right back for Brighton now?

He does and man he look a good. 

[Tom12345]

For next year, we need to recognise the reason for our downfall this year, which was to me mainly because we were found out by the opposition, starting with Norwich on 14 Dec, then Man City and Liverpool in the next two league games. I remember very vividly.  If I can break it down further:

 

- Prior to that point, we could play free flowing football because BR brilliantly used Vardy to stretch out the opposition. During that time, we were still “known” as being a counter attacking team because of “know nothing” pundits. So teams focussed more on neutralising Vardy’s runs by sitting deeper at times and were not minded to press us at our back. This worked well as BR was also trying to build up our possession football and attacks from our midfield players, so our players had more room and time to build up other ways of attacks, while us playing possession football including passing around at the back gave us the occasional space for Vardy to run onto when the opposition gets drawn upfield. We saw how lethal we can be back then.

 

- However, since Norwich (I distinctly remember at the time while watching that game feeling “oh sh*t” if other teams catch this we are in trouble) the opposition learnt that they could neutralise us by simply doing the following: (1) press us at the back especially our CBs and Ndidi and not worry about as much focussing on defending Vardy and our attacking midfield because then we found it very hard to get the ball upfield;  (2) focus on pressing us to force to ball to our left side with Chilwell because while he is good at running with the ball as we have discussed his final ball is often dismal and otherwise he just passes backwards (I am not having a go at Chilwell here - he has strengths and weaknesses and the opposition saw his weaknesses).  The end result is that we ended up passing backwards often. To the naked eyes and pundits who don’t actually watch the games before going on TV commentating, it looked like we have dropped off in form or changed style, but in reality we have not. We have just been found out but unfortunately BR did not see that and insisted on playing the same formation and same “possession” football with the same players. This was enormously difficult to watch this unfold - it was like watching a car crash in slow motion.

 

The pressing after Norwich worked because two key options for the CBs to pass up the ball - namely Ndidi and Chilwell - when pressed just knew how to pass backwards. I have to say, Ndidi, before he was injured in January, was improving significantly in this regard but his injury hampered progress. But that means whenever the ball got to the 4 players in that back zone (Evans, Soy, Ndidi and Chilwell) we do sideway or backward passing. Yes, maybe this is why BR asked Maddison to drop back to help out, but unfortunately Maddison had limited options as many of the options around him were those same 4 players, and he is unfortunately not at Messi or De Bruyne level (and his long passing was not quite accurate or long enough) such that BR should place so much reliance on him there to play that role. Also, Maddison is better near the top as we know. This tactic employed by BR also took Tielemans out of his game because he saw very little of the ball. We had the occasional excitement coming from the right as Ricardo was exceptional and with Tielemans often sitting around that side from time to time we saw exciting moves built up on the right. On the left, we rarely had that except when on the occasions Barnes got the ball as he is a pretty direct player (just like Albrighton).  So in summary, a big reason for our downfall was that BR did not know how to react and change his ways/playing personnel. He insisted on the same players in his favourite list and made some players played roles they were not good at (square pegs through round holes).

 

For next year, therefore, we need to:

- reconsider how we employ Chilwell (he can still be our first choice LB but he cannot be asked to be our creative spark on the left as he is not a winger or an attacker; he also must learn a reliable way to pass upfield). Chilwell gets a lot of stick because of this but it was not all his fault (although his seeming lack of urgency when we were chasing games and lack of looking up does warrant some stick). If needed, Luke Thomas (who always look up) should be given a chance;

- reconsider how we employ Maddison (but I have a feeling he will improve next year);

- reconsider how we employ Ndidi (if he is a bit more like Kante passing-wise half our problems as mentioned above can be solved);

- reconsider formation like a back 3 which I thought didnt work so badly in the last few games to get around our deficiencies (because our CBs had more options to pass the ball up) and to suit players he likes to play;

- not be too defensively minded!!

 

Interested to hear others’ thoughts on the above.

Edited 30 July 2020 by Tom12345

[Foxin_Mad]

Brighton getting some early business done. They could have a good year next year.

 

We seem to be clueless in the transfer market at present, we wait to long then decide it costs to much and persist with what we have. If we do that this summer we are in big trouble.

[StanSP]

25 minutes ago, Foxin_Mad said:

Brighton getting some early business done. They could have a good year next year.

 

We seem to be clueless in the transfer market at present, we wait to long then decide it costs to much and persist with what we have. If we do that this summer we are in big trouble.

Clueless? Just because you don't hear anything in the press about transfers? 

 

You have absolutely no idea what goes on at the club even if it's a bit quiet. 

 

Absolute misery.