The 2020/21 Premier League Restart | Vital Football

The 2020/21 Premier League Restart

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steveperryman

Vital Football Legend
The 20/21 Premier League Season is set to resume on the 12th September. If travel restrictions persist due to Covid-19 will the lack of competitive warm up matches hinder us? Bare in mind teams still competing in Europe will be playing on at the highest level throughout the close season. Will they have an unfair advantage come kick off?
 
steveperryman said:
The 20/21 Premier League Season is set to resume on the 12th September. If travel restrictions persist due to Covid-19 will the lack of competitive warm up matches hinder us? Bare in mind teams still competing in Europe will be playing on at the highest level throughout the close season. Will they have an unfair advantage come kick off?
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If Arsenal win the FA Cup we'll have to enter the Europa League at the 2nd qualifying round stage which means an additional 6 matches before the group stages. So we may not be at a disadvantage at all.
 
The thing that concerns me most about the Europa League commitment is that we don’t even have a squad to compete in the EPL let alone the Europa either in squad size or talent...Jose will want to win the Europa so the better players will be flogged hard unless we recruit 5 or 6 players better than their equivalents in the current squad and what are the chances of that?
 
Harry-Kari said:
The thing that concerns me most about the Europa League commitment is that we don’t even have a squad to compete in the EPL let alone the Europa either in squad size or talent...Jose will want to win the Europa so the better players will be flogged hard unless we recruit 5 or 6 players better than their equivalents in the current squad and what are the chances of that?
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I can see three players, maybe four but that will mean the corresponding leavers as well, so can't see our overall depth improving.
 
Harry-Kari said:
The thing that concerns me most about the Europa League commitment is that we don’t even have a squad to compete in the EPL let alone the Europa either in squad size or talent...Jose will want to win the Europa so the better players will be flogged hard unless we recruit 5 or 6 players better than their equivalents in the current squad and what are the chances of that?[/QUOTE
]I'm not sure that that will be the case Harry. In the early rounds almost certainly 'fringe' players and promising youngsters will be used extensively, with our best players, being on the bench only to be used if absolutely necessary. There will probably be fixtures early on where it really won't be necessary to drag the likes of Kane Son and Lo Celso to the outer reaches of Europe.
The Europa league should provide opportunity for players such as Gedson, Sessegnon Bergwijn and Skipp to better establish themselves at the Club than is the case currently.
That will probably be the case until such time that the CL 'discards' move into the Europa League and the competition starts to heat up. If we do progress deep into the Europa however, so be it, the complications you mention will become more of an issue. That really won't be much different however from running deep into the FA Cup or CL, it becomes all about priorities, and the EL may by that stage look like a tournament we can win, which may be our best route back into the CL.
I do however agree with the need for overall squad strengthening. Last year we went for a high priced 'marquee' signing in Ndombele which unfortunately didn't work out. Maybe this time around the funds available should be directed more toward a broader strengthening of the overall depth and strength of the squad. I'm very interested to see what transpires in the closed season.
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Spursex said:
I can see three players, maybe four but that will mean the corresponding leavers as well, so can't see our overall depth improving.
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That will be a problem although other teams seem able to manage like Wolves by resting the high tempo players regularly while keeping the rest constant.
 
Jose has shown in the past that he is not big on rotation and uses a small squad so for me Europa is what is required. You go back to the Shaun Wright Phillips and Scotty Parker days at Chelsea. Permanent bench players waiting for an injury to happen to get their chance. Jose also did it to Ashley Cole on his return when it was Azpilicueta that spent a season at LB, not the England LB.

It's guys like Sess and Gedson that benefit the most out of Europa. They would have expected some action in the Carabao but now they get the additional European games. As long as we balance the squad in the transfer window and don't get one of these injury cursed seasons we'll be just fine.
 
The squad depth is an interesting debate. We saw what happened when Kane, Son were injured at the same time. If not for lock down we would have struggled to finish with 50 points.

We need 22 players, two for each position and then the youth lads need to be at the ready for when the injuries start to pile up. They will they always do so we can't bury our heads in the sand now.

I actually like the Europa as it gives the squad players and youngsters a real chance. We can see who will make the grade or not.
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
If Arsenal win the FA Cup we'll have to enter the Europa League at the 2nd qualifying round stage which means an additional 6 matches before the group stages. So we may not be at a disadvantage at all.
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I didn't factor that in as i thought 6th was given an automatic place from the off. It could only be the arse.

The quality of opposition we'd face would be lower tier, then again any competitive match in the greater scheme of things, should help us out a little.
 
Depth only becomes a bigger issue when you aim to compete on every front. If we try to compete on every front then we will fall short on all of them. People seem confident that Jose will rotate and prioritise better than Poch but the pressure on Jose to deliver a trophy is much, much greater and he is known for sticking to a preferred eleven.

Did I dream up that we aren't in the League Cup next season due to inevitable fixture pile ups? I would always sack off the League Cup and only give the FA Cup a thought if we proceed using bench warmers and kids for the first 3/4 rounds.
 
Matic said:
Depth only becomes a bigger issue when you aim to compete on every front. If we try to compete on every front then we will fall short on all of them. People seem confident that Jose will rotate and prioritise better than Poch but the pressure on Jose to deliver a trophy is much, much greater and he is known for sticking to a preferred eleven.

Did I dream up that we aren't in the League Cup next season due to inevitable fixture pile ups? I would always sack off the League Cup and only give the FA Cup a thought if we proceed using bench warmers and kids for the first 3/4 rounds.
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There was definitely a discussion a couple of weeks ago about excluding/exempting clubs involved in Europe from participating in the League Cup this season. I don't think a final decision has been made yet.
 
steveperryman said:
I didn't factor that in as i thought 6th was given an automatic place from the off. It could only be the arse.

The quality of opposition we'd face would be lower tier, then again any competitive match in the greater scheme of things, should help us out a little.
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Automatic group qualification goes to the 5th placed team and FA Cup winners. If Arsenal win the FA Cup we are in effect the 7th placed team for Europa League qualification purposes. If the FA Cup winners (Chelsea in this case) have already qualified for Europe via their league placing or some other route, our 6th place would stand for qualification purposes. Basically 2 out of the 3 Europa League places for English clubs gain automatic entry to the group stages.
 
For me, the restart marks the stage where I can begin to judge Jose. Coming in about a 3rd of the way into the season, inheriting a squad of players in poor form with quite a few injuries, I gave him a free pass.

That now ends, although how much backing he gets from Levy over the Transfer Window will determine a lot. Not expecting record breaking signings, but a few shrewd ones in areas of need will go a long way in helping this manager. As Matic alluded to above, the late start is going to cause havoc with the fixtures piling up.
 
SpursEagle said:
For me, the restart marks the stage where I can begin to judge Jose. Coming in about a 3rd of the way into the season, inheriting a squad of players in poor form with quite a few injuries, I gave him a free pass.

That now ends, although how much backing he gets from Levy over the Transfer Window will determine a lot. Not expecting record breaking signings, but a few shrewd ones in areas of need will go a long way in helping this manager. As Matic alluded to above, the late start is going to cause havoc with the fixtures piling up.
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I won't overly judge him next season unless he comes below the place that his squad warrants. Good news for Jose is that anything 6th or above means he's probably in my good books. That's unless something crazy happens in these next few weeks in the transfer market.
 
muttley said:
I won't overly judge him next season unless he comes below the place that his squad warrants. Good news for Jose is that anything 6th or above means he's probably in my good books. That's unless something crazy happens in these next few weeks in the transfer market.
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He's going to need a couple of windows. He has shown he has the ability to manage in difficult circumstances & i believe he'll continue to do so.
 
steveperryman said:
He's going to need a couple of windows. He has shown he has the ability to manage in difficult circumstances & i believe he'll continue to do so.
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More windows won't help if we don't have the sort of money to spend that the new 'normal' is going to dictate. If anything I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him promote at least one youngsters and even two.

He'll get creative. Foyth is actually said to the one he's looking to step up and cause competition for RB, it will be interesting to see what sort of a player Jose can mold him into.
 
muttley said:
I won't overly judge him next season unless he comes below the place that his squad warrants. Good news for Jose is that anything 6th or above means he's probably in my good books. That's unless something crazy happens in these next few weeks in the transfer market.
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Well, I haven't judged him at all yet, Mutters, so just saying I'm gonna start come kick off ... as fairly as I can, too! lol As you say, there are a number of factors involved, even before a ball is kicked, the most important being the upcoming transfer window. So much hinges on the support or lack of he receives from Levy.
 
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