Where Will We Finish Season 21/22 | Page 19 | Vital Football

Where Will We Finish Season 21/22

We go into the new season with our strongest squad for many seasons. So where will we finish.

  • Champions

  • 2nd - 4th

  • 5th - 8th

  • 9th - 12th

  • Below 12th

  • Relegated

Results are only viewable after voting.
BringbakMON said:
interesting reading back some of those early pages especially those so righteous in how we'd definitely improved and were much better off - ho hum

looks like you just snuck in at the lower range of your points guesstimate

look forward to the next set of guesses as we're definitely adding 'quality' this time
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I think there's definitely an air of "we're better off without him!" going on. M
Probably more trying to persuade themselves more than anything.

If I remember correctly I went 8th-12th but reckoned we'd be 11th or 12th as I couldn't see us finishing above where we'd finished with Grealish.
 
I guess we didn't replace Jack, after all and SG is really not any better than DS, hence us being worse position and points wise.
I never did swallow the bravado we'd be stronger with the 3 who replaced him, I didn't expect those 3 to have so little impact to the point of not holding down a place.
I did put 8th to 12th but did think we'd at least make the top half, more 8th to 10th really. A very disappointing season from start to finish.
 
Villan57 said:
I guess we didn't replace Jack, after all and SG is really not any better than DS, hence us being worse position and points wise.
I never did swallow the bravado we'd be stronger with the 3 who replaced him, I didn't expect those 3 to have so little impact to the point of not holding down a place.
I did put 8th to 12th but did think we'd at least make the top half, more 8th to 10th really. A very disappointing season from start to finish.
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Didn't exactly excel with him IN the team either to be fair mate.
 
The Fear said:
Didn't exactly excel with him IN the team either to be fair mate.
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Nope we didn't but we were far better than without him and he missed a large percentage of the last season. It's killed our season and done bugger all for Man City either
 
Villan57 said:
Nope we didn't but we were far better than without him and he missed a large percentage of the last season. It's killed our season and done bugger all for Man City either
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Think that is my point, we clearly weren't far better with him, but I think we can agree to disagree! lol But our league position doesn't scream 'feck me, we miss Jack' or illustrates we were better with him.
 
I thought 12th and said that finishing there wasn't great, so in my view 14th is a fucking disaster given what we've spent since getting promoted.
 
Quality is the key and we just haven’t bought enough of it. I’m not sure that the policy of a gradual year by year increase in the quality of recruitment has been the right one. We’ve gone from buying less than average quality PL players which almost took us down first season to average then arguably slightly above average last season. In retrospect, buying fewer players but higher value and quality from the start could have worked better. Now we find ourselves with an overload to get rid of and still needing a lot more quality. So I accept 14th as a reality this season after predicting 9th-12th, but feel we now have a management set up that will spend big for big players. Still exciting times but Stevie knows he has to have a breakthrough season to follow and he’ll be backed to achieve it.
 
It’s not been the greatest season. SG has us 9th in the form table since he came in. I’m more concerned at our points tally TBF - down considerably on last season. Hey ho, we didn’t get relegated and live to fight another day. Need a good transfer window, get them in nice and early, full pre-season with no dramas and come out of the blocks quickly, gain some momentum and hold onto it for dear life.

Think Gerrards MO is win at all cost and he sets us up to do that - he’s right in that. If we can’t beat what’s in front of us, then we won’t compete at the top end of the table and quite frankly, that’s the whole point of playing. Obviously we’re not good enough to have a winning season yet. Sort the home form and we’ll do much better. SG is a winner as opposed to SB who was a don’t lose - different mentality. If SG gets a good window we should win more than we lose.

Next season is the fifth year of the five year plan, must be competing in the top 8 all season IMHO.
 
Silhillvilla said:
getting off to a good start is important. This season we turned up unfit and miles off the pace. We had been dealt 3 comfortable games and really should of been looking at 7-9 points instead of a measely 4.
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If we don't start off well next season I'll fear the worst, likely another 100M net spend and even if we ship out most of the deadwood we'll still have a bit of bloat on the wage bill.

There has to be a clear improvement, I'd be targetting 60 points and a decent run in the FA cup for once.
 
I agree about the importance of good start next season, given we have a stereotypical young and hungry manager, you’d hope him, his management team and the players are fired up with new signings and a good pre-season under their belt. There’s no excuses from August, I don’t buy this “not his team” bollocks, he has inherited lots of good individuals with potential, not the class of 2015/16.

If we don’t get off to a good start, the flip side of these young and hungry managers is knowing what to do. Change your style to draw or win ugly? Or pursue with the same formula because you’re the next Pep and you should stick to your (losing) philosophy… which is far more likely to work if you manage a squad full of world class players but doesn’t necessarily translate to a struggling mid table side.
 
We have one of the most prolific goal scores in the league, with Ing's, one of the most expensive players in history in PC and probably one of the top 10 best goals keepers in the world, and we end up 14th in the Premier League not to mention a whole team full of internationals so what the actual fuck. These players need and the management need to get a grip and start achieving something, if a lot of us under performed this badly we would be sacked It's nothing short of embarrassing having the likes of Brentford and Brighton higher than us in the league.
 
jcm19760 said:
We have one of the most prolific goal scores in the league, with Ing's, one of the most expensive players in history in PC and probably one of the top 10 best goals keepers in the world, and we end up 14th in the Premier League not to mention a whole team full of internationals so what the actual fuck. These players need and the management need to get a grip and start achieving something, if a lot of us under performed this badly we would be sacked It's nothing short of embarrassing having the likes of Brentford and Brighton higher than us in the league.
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I think we are the 12th best payer in the league (the best predictor of position). All teams have internationals.
 
danvilla2 said:
I agree about the importance of good start next season, given we have a stereotypical young and hungry manager, you’d hope him, his management team and the players are fired up with new signings and a good pre-season under their belt. There’s no excuses from August, I don’t buy this “not his team” bollocks, he has inherited lots of good individuals with potential, not the class of 2015/16.

If we don’t get off to a good start, the flip side of these young and hungry managers is knowing what to do. Change your style to draw or win ugly? Or pursue with the same formula because you’re the next Pep and you should stick to your (losing) philosophy… which is far more likely to work if you manage a squad full of world class players but doesn’t necessarily translate to a struggling mid table side.
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I genuinely believe midtable is the hardest position to manage because you can't just play your own game every week. 50% of games are against teams at a similar level, 25% of teams are far superior to you and, the other 25% of teams are weaker than you so you're expected to beat them. That's where you see Potter go out and lose 6 games in a row because he never changes how they play.

Gerrard has underperformed, if you look at the table there are no excuses for him. With the current crop of players we have we should have finished in the top half albeit with a lower points total. This squad is more than good enough to finish higher but not much more than that. We'll need a few much better players to get into European places but if he thinks that's the only issue he needs to wobble his head and buck up his ideas.

I want to believe in him, he says the right things but he's lost too many tactical battles. He's had more than enough opportunities to tilt things in our favour. We've played some very poor teams and dropped points. I am yet to be convinced he put out our best 11 at any point since he's took over.
 
It's been underwhelming. Won 10 lost 11 with a few draws. Feels worse than that though!He got us out of trouble but with the money and players available that's the least he could have done. The level of performances has been the big concern.
Looks like 14th when it should have been top half.
As previously said to finish below the likes of Brentford and Brighton is poor and the way Newcastle have gone past us too.
Repeat. Underwhelming.
 
My prediction on page 1 of a 10th-14th finish and potentially a very slow start is looking eerily correct.

Presuming 14th, we’re at the lower of end of the acceptable range. Gerrard has been in charge for 70% of the season so is responsible for a significant portion of the mediocre league position. Yes he’s technically improved on Smiths record on a points per game basis (from a pretty small sample size with Smith) but we seem just as inconsistent as before - win a couple then 3, 4 or 5 without winning.

Also think Smith had a tougher challenge dealing with the Grealish fallout at the start of the season, we were clearly not ready for the season in many ways; Gerrard has had the challenge of joining mid season but has benefitted from the squad having longer to adjust and for new signings to fully bed in - so an improvement on Smith’s early record was the minimum demanded and is not an achievement

Overall a disappointing season, not quite a disaster. A transition season in many ways but unfortunately the jury is still clearly out on the new manager. I expect a few transfers in the summer, the manager to have no excuses in getting his methods across after a full season and for better performances and results to follow next season otherwise we’ll be in for a tough year ahead
 
danvilla2 said:
I agree about the importance of good start next season, given we have a stereotypical young and hungry manager, you’d hope him, his management team and the players are fired up with new signings and a good pre-season under their belt. There’s no excuses from August, I don’t buy this “not his team” bollocks, he has inherited lots of good individuals with potential, not the class of 2015/16.

If we don’t get off to a good start, the flip side of these young and hungry managers is knowing what to do. Change your style to draw or win ugly? Or pursue with the same formula because you’re the next Pep and you should stick to your (losing) philosophy… which is far more likely to work if you manage a squad full of world class players but doesn’t necessarily translate to a struggling mid table side.
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my big concern is Gerrard has gone backwards after a decent month at the start. The football has been non progressive , the team selections , subs and tactics all leave me a little concerned as to the direction , or lack of.
 
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