Time to reassess expectations

[FoxinNotts]

I'd be happy with sixth place and a cup final (Europa League, if possible)

[coolhandfox]

6 minutes ago, FoxinNotts said:

I'd be happy with sixth place and a cup final (Europa League, if possible)

I'd be over the moon with that.

 

[turtmcfly]

4 hours ago, SydenhamFox said:

I think we have to face, with perhaps a touch of humour for sanity, that expectations of finishing the league in fourth or fifth is too much to expect with the kind of defensive injury crisis we have currently at our club. Having six defenders out changes everything. It’s not just the loss of an £80m+ player in Fofana who adds so much. It’s not just the others. It’s the change in dynamics. We simply can’t play out with the same confidence. All of this is going to cost us points. The question is how many. 
I also happen to think that starting Vardy in the lone striker role will also cost us points. He’s our legend but he no longer possesses enough of his old strengths to warrant the lone striker role. The goal against Wolves masks the problem. He’s missing more chances than he used to, and more frequently being outrun and out muscled. This could be a mid-table season. Hopefully we get strong again defensively towards the business end of the Europa League. We’d still be missing Fofana though who contributes so much. Time to downgrade expectations. Mostly because of pure misfortune. 

 

 

A quick look at our results since he came back from a thigh strain in early March might have you heeding your own call for an expectation reassessment.

 

 

[An Away Move]

13 minutes ago, turtmcfly said:

 

 

A quick look at our results since he came back from a thigh strain in early March might have you heeding your own call for an expectation reassessment.

 

 

Fofana was immense pre-season. Would you prefer he didn't start when fit?

[BoyJones]

Mate, after 60 years following the lads, lower mid table and a cup run was normally the height of my expectations. See some good games, unexpected wins and be entertained. 
 

Anyone who expects top six finishes year in year out and then gets the arse because we fall away is living in cloud cuckoo land. 
 

Last night also showed me our fans aren’t the best.

 

After the final whistle when Kasper led the lads over to the travelling support, more than half of our so called fans had cleared off and didn’t stay to clap the team. You may say the players didn’t deserve it, but they would have been hurting.
 

If you can only show support when we win, but go awol when the going gets tough, doesn’t say much for you IMO. 
 

There is no doubt we were very poor in just about every aspect of the game last night and it might be a welcome wake up call, but at the end of the day you have to give credit to West Ham, they played almost the perfect game. 

[turtmcfly]

1 minute ago, SydenhamFox said:

Fofana was immense pre-season. Would you prefer he didn't start when fit?

 

 

Strawman all you like, but on careful reading I think you'll see my point was not to get too excited too soon by someone who, immense as he was in our two draws, one win preseason againt Burton, Wycombe and QPR, was nevertheless distinctly average for much of last year's run-in against Premier opposition, 

 

[An Away Move]

1 minute ago, turtmcfly said:

 

 

Strawman all you like, but on careful reading I think you'll see my point was not to get too excited too soon by someone who, immense as he was in our two draws, one win preseason againt Burton, Wycombe and QPR, was nevertheless distinctly average for much of last year's run-in against Premier opposition, 

 

Fofana was not distinctly average IMO

[Leicester_Loyal]

I think 6th will be a fantastic achievement, especially when you consder our injuries. If we beat Norwich that'll be 6 points out of a possible 9, I reckon most of us would have snatched your hand off for that prior to the season starting.

 

[oxtonfox]

I think that's three times in the last 6 league games that we have conceeded four goals (Newcastle H 2-4, Spurs H 2-4, West Ham A 1-4) and all three of those were shocking performances. I was hoping Brendan would play a few more of the new signings given this form but,  he seems very reliant on his so called tried and trusted formation and players. My Liverpool mate said he is simply not flexible and wouldn't change his beliefs. I think that is showing at the moment. His formation doesn't work in certain games and we really lack a leader with no Johnny Evans on the pitch. 

As to the season, we had a great season last year with the FA Cup. I'm hoping for top 6 but it may be a push so I'd be happy with top half and a bit of a rebuild with some of the new players. We need to toughen up, that is my main worry

[Dan]

It's too early to write us off completely but as usual, a not completely unreasonable topic on here is getting far too big a slating, despite there being a genuine case for us finishing a bit lower this year. I think there is a real chance we do just finish in midtable. That isn't totally unreasonable to suggest - given the injury situation in defence that was dealt a fresh huge blow against Villarreal, the fact we're in a bit of a transition in attack, the fact we do have the Europa League to contend with and the most worrying bit of all, that performance wise we seem to have picked up from where we left off last season in that we've not really looked any good since about February.

 

It's very early days but it's not the most encouraging so far.

[Rigga]

I’d say with EL as another distraction, 8th would be about par this season.

 

It looks likely we have a stronger  squad , but not necessarily a stronger starting 11. 
 

We sign Soumare and Daka yet they start on the bench…Kelechi who was our saviour last season is now back on the bench.

 

We have a real soft side to us which is easily exposed by teams that are not as good as us. We haven’t learnt from this in our last 3 games v West Ham.

 

our embarrassing passing from CB to CB just showed we had no answer to their set up.. it was horrific to watch.
Teams will have worked us out thy they go an give us possession and we are not good enough to break teams down..It will be one difficult season based on what we have seen so far.

 

we need a winger/attacker from the right as a matter of urgency… something we have known since Mahrez left..

 

[Dan]

4 hours ago, RonnieTodger said:

I'd say that's a minority. 

 

If we lost at home to anyone other than Man City, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs or Arsenal we'd get booed off. 

I'd probably chalk the last two out of that as well. We don't have good fans at all. West Ham, much maligned for their home crowd and people largely giving their run last season credit because they didn't have the home support there, were far better last night than ours were last week.

[Number 6]

I think our expectations will also be affected by actions of rivals. The target has always been to disrupt the big 6; we've done a great job of this over the last couple of years but it has undoubtedly been helped by Arsenal and Spurs being very very poor. With their resources, if they sort themselves out I think we'd be in a position where 7th would be a very good season. For me that "best of the rest" will be the aim, anything more is great but whilst Arsenal look pretty awful you do feel it's something we have to cash in on. I absolutely think out squad is a top 6 squad and would be slightly disappointed if we finished below that, accepting that we have been very very good for large parts of the last 2 years now and the odd bad season isn't a disaster.

[don_danbury]

17th

[fuchsntf]

5 hours ago, fox_up_north said:

Objectively, last night was just comical at points. Even Youri's goal was silly. But it cannot be ignored that we are probably using our 4th choice CB pairing and we seem to have relied on good runs early in the season to get us up to 4th/5th. That is unlikely to happen.

 

Personally, I'm hoping for top 6, accepting top 8 and a decent stab at EL this season. If I do that, then my enjoyment of the season vastly improves as I won't be mentally working out what's needed for 4th.

 

We had the chance, we blew it but we're still here and still a good team. Just enjoy it.

This is right on the button,     

its Setting those high hopes & ambitions and then arrogantly making them as least expectations some seem to have them

as entitlement & should positions.I

I believe it was @Babylon who said last season it being proud and understanding the  words "competing or challenging for"

[whetstonefox]

Perhaps this year we’ll have a slow start and make up ground in the new year and finish 5th again

[Corky]

I didn't agree with the predictions I heard that we were guaranteed at least 5th and were miles ahead of the 15 below.

 

Europe is big this year- I think most of us will tolerate a lesser league season if we go far in the Europa League.

[Claridge]

9 hours ago, lanefox said:

It’s one game get a grip

Big win against Norwich and we could be top of the league👀

[adejo92]

I think the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United & Chelsea are the strongest they have been for the last few years. Liverpool will be up there again challenging and i quite fancy Tottenham to have a good season under Nuno.

 

Besides the above, any maybe West Ham, i think we're considerably better than the rest.

 

 

[Matt]

My expectations going into this season were slightly lowered compared to the previous two anyway.

 

The previous two my aims and expectations were top 4, because the league generally has been poor or more competative on an even keel if you like, the 'top' teams had lost their fear factor and no so much of a threat.

 

Following those previous season, I describe it like upsetting a wasps nest, they've all come out fighting and got stronger, I'd say this seasons league is the strongest in the last few years.

 

This is why it was so annoying and frustrating to miss out on top 4 for 2 consecutive years, which now feels and looks like a massive opportunity blown.

 

I feel we are still the best of the rest. However too many blips like last night that we're seeing all too often (usually towards the end of the season as we've come to know) and that best of the rest feeling can blow up in our faces.

[KansasFox]

32 minutes ago, Matt said:

My expectations going into this season were slightly lowered compared to the previous two anyway.

 

The previous two my aims and expectations were top 4, because the league generally has been poor or more competative on an even keel if you like, the 'top' teams had lost their fear factor and no so much of a threat.

 

Following those previous season, I describe it like upsetting a wasps nest, they've all come out fighting and got stronger, I'd say this seasons league is the strongest in the last few years.

 

This is why it was so annoying and frustrating to miss out on top 4 for 2 consecutive years, which now feels and looks like a massive opportunity blown.

 

I feel we are still the best of the rest. However too many blips like last night that we're seeing all too often (usually towards the end of the season as we've come to know) and that best of the rest feeling can blow up in our faces.

I Agree with this.  And not only have we stirred up a wasps nest with last years top 4, those around us will now see us as the realistic target.  They won't expect to upset Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, but they will all fancy their chances of an upset against us.  That is going to make this season VERY hard for us.  MY expectations have always been that this season will be much harder than the past two and that top 8 and a good run in Europe would be pretty successful.

I realise we should aim for me, but I don't think we should expect it.

[Legend_in_blue]

10 hours ago, SydenhamFox said:

I can take the stick I’m getting. Not sure I can take the denial. So those of you posting so far think 4th or 5th is still on then? Ok then. 

I bet you were a barrel of laughs at the start of this season too...

 

 

 

[Adrian]

When I saw what an upgrade fofana is and also ricardo looking back to his 2019 form..

Barnes back..soumare signing I thought our upwards trajectory may continue......but then last night...

 

Saying that it's been a theme under BR..

Really horrible game followed by actually a fairly decent set of results so fingers crossed 

 

But that was a very ugly  look last night

[Babylon]

We have a team that can finish anywhere from 3rd to 8th depending on injuries and what others do. 
 

Not only do we have a lot of players out injured (again), we also seem to have a lot of players who’ve not recovered fully (certainly form wise) from injuries. 
 

Maddison, Ndidi, Vardy, Barnes, Ricardo, who knows what impact injuries have had. Clearly Ricardo isn’t back to what he was yet, and Ndidi doesn’t seem close to the destroyer we had before his injuries, ditto Maddison. 

[Phil Bowman]

4 minutes ago, Babylon said:

We have a team that can finish anywhere from 3rd to 8th depending on injuries and what others do.

Anywhere from 1st to 20th, I’d say, although I’d have to admit that some of those places are less likely than others.