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Realistic expectations for 2020-21?

yankspurs

Enic Out
Aug 22, 2013
41,978
71,401
Well last season we managed 59 points with a terrible start, multiple injuries to key players and a change of manager. Despite being shit we were still just a win against Chelsea and a VAR call away from the top 4.

If we can avoid another shitstorm we're already doing better than we did last season, plus we've added a couple of signings in key positions. Even if they aren't from top teams, just having a decent right back and a defensive minded midfielder is a huge upgrade on last season. Add a striker and maybe another addition and we're quite a long stronger.

I think it will be a tough season due to the increased strength of the league, but last season was such a bad one that I will be extremely disappointed if we don't do better.
Avoiding another injury crisis when there is literally no time between games this season and when we’ve had injury crises in each of the last 2-3 seasons is almost impossible.
 

Spurs 1961

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
6,683
8,754
No more predicting a league title now. Realistically a top 8 is I guess our target. With massive improvements at most of our rivals + the upswing in fortunes of some other clubs makes competition hard. Allied with the fact that we are weaker now than we were a year or two ago and the best we can hope for is some stability.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
Avoiding another injury crisis when there is literally no time between games this season and when we’ve had injury crises in each of the last 2-3 seasons is almost impossible.
Yeah you're probably right, but fingers crossed it's not all of our most important players. Son and Kane at the same time is about as bad as it can get for us.

We also went about half a season without Lo Celso last year who ended up being one of our most important players in the 2nd half of the season, so there's that too. (Assuming Lo Celso is alive, that is)
 

SecretLemonadeDrinker

Well-Known Member
Jun 30, 2020
2,027
11,165
So far we have bought a RB off the 7th best team , who may be a slight upgrade on Aurier (saving levy money, when he offloads Aurier)a DM from the 11th best team who took Walker-peters at a net £3mill outlay and let’s face it that it wouldn’t be hard to be an upgrade on sissoko.
A goalkeeper that cost nothing and IMO is washed up so he can sell Gaza and make a big profit. So all in all if we don’t get a quality ST and midfielder then he has failed to back Mourinho properly, then don’t expect much difference in our season

What a bizarre way of looking at things!

What is the relevance of the selling club’s position in the table? We didn’t buy that club! We bought their player.

To show you how nonsensical that kind of attitude is, consider which clubs provided the players that constitute the bulk of the current Liverpool team that ran away with the league last season (and came within a whisker of winning it the previous season with a record number of points for a team in second):

Van Dijk, Mane, Lovren and Lallana - Southampton.
Gomez - Charlton
Robertson - Hull
Wijnaldum - Newcastle
Henderson - Sunderland
Shaqiri - Stoke

All of them at the same level as or below the clubs that we’ve just signed players from that you sneer at. So, really, belittling our signings on the basis of the clubs from which they were signed is just plain wrong. It’s players themselves that matter, and what they can bring to OUR club. That is all.
 

SecretLemonadeDrinker

Well-Known Member
Jun 30, 2020
2,027
11,165
Ok Lovren and Lallana have played a massive part in Liverpool’s success ?
Van Dijk cost 75 mill I believe and mane in 2016 34 mill. So not exactly cheap buys. I am entitled to my opinion the same as every one else on here. If you don’t like my posts jog on or at least be polite when giving your view . And to say I am sneering at spurs who I have supported since 1963 That is so far from the truth. Edited because I fell below the standards I expect from others...apologies

I did actually read your post before the edit but was unable to reply at the time. Anyway, you were probably right in the first instance that I am a bit of a w****r! ;)

As to the rest, I don’t believe that my original response was impolite but I am nevertheless sorry that you perceived it to be so. I must also point out that I didn’t at any time accuse you of sneering at Spurs. I said that you had sneered at the fact that we had signed players from clubs that finished below us in the table. I don’t believe that I was wrong in that regard.

Lastly, with respect, I think you are making the same mistake in your response to me as you made in your initial post - namely, that you are judging signings on the wrong criteria. In your first post, you judged signings on the club that they came from; in your second, you have judged them on how much they cost. Neither criterion is of critical importance. We’ve made plenty of expensive bad signings, after all, and plenty of great, comparatively cheap signings.

I repeat, all that matters is the player himself and how he fits into his new team. Cost and previous club are not directly relevant factors.
 

yiddo

Well-Known Member
Aug 19, 2003
543
1,099
More importantly, though, I’d disagree that we’ve done nothing to address the lack of creativity thus far. I believe that the reassuring presence of a proper DM in Hojbjerg will somewhat liberate the likes of Lo Celso and even Winks to be more creative. And Doherty’s end product will give us a huge creative upgrade over Aurier’s wastefulness.
I have seen a couple of people indicate similar but I don’t agree.

We do not have a Eriksen/Grealish/B.Fernandes/Modric type player within our ranks. Ndombele maybe the closest but anyone who believes he’s suddenly going to flourish under Jose is being highly optimistic.

Lo Celso and Winks in particular, whether they are given more freedom or not, I don’t believe will give us the creative ideas that we have seen already on many occasions we lack.
Doherty’s strength is not his creative end product, he’ll make runs into the box and attack the back post sure. But creating chances like TAA, Robertson or Trippier he definitely does not.
 

Goobers

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2011
1,982
3,193
I think the middle third of last season showed how much weaker we were without our star players - namely Hugo, Harry and Sonny. I think they really are the difference for us. They stay fit and on form I think we can do really well.
 

rossdapep

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2011
22,228
80,061
Still have to see how the rest of the window goes really, even up until October we won't have a clear picture.

Not just us but other clubs too.

If we can bring in Daka and a CB, and Ndombele starts to shine I think we can really get in amongst it.

If it's Milik or Diallo plus a CB and Ndombele then I think we can certainly get top 4, but perhaps it depends a bit more on other comps and how we fair.

The reason I say that isn't just about us. I honestly think this season has the potential to be a very strange one.

If Liverpool finished 4th I wouldnt be surprised, they've given a lot these last 2-3 years and without fresh blood it may become an issue for them.

If City finished 4th, I wouldn't be surprised, they lost 7 games last season and were dumped out of cups by Arsenal and Lyon plus David Silva will be a big miss. They've also not signed anyone to take them up another level IMO. Torres is talented but I don't think he's as good as Sane.

If United finished 5th or 6th I wouldn't be surprised. This season with all the attacking talent on display, defences will need to be on point to have a chance of winning stuff and I think United have a lot of problems with defence and game management.

If Chelsea finished 6th, I wouldn't be surprised. They've signed 5 players so far and they haven't really had a chance to play with each other yet, not too mention Lampard has big questions over him and It'll be curious to see how a young manager can get 5 big signings into the team effectively.

I think it promises to be very exciting. Hopefully we can get the players Jose wants so he can give it a good shot.
 

spids

Well-Known Member
Jul 19, 2015
6,647
27,841
As we stand today I think we will be lucky to finish top 4 as without serious back up / competition for Kane we will struggle when he is injured and/or jaded. However, sign a decent striker to share the burden up front, as well as offering us a plan B when we need a goal, and I think we can compete for 3rd or 4th and potentially win a trophy.
 

Grey Fox

Well-Known Member
Jul 10, 2008
5,132
31,094
Still have to see how the rest of the window goes really, even up until October we won't have a clear picture.

Not just us but other clubs too.

If we can bring in Daka and a CB, and Ndombele starts to shine I think we can really get in amongst it.

If it's Milik or Diallo plus a CB and Ndombele then I think we can certainly get top 4, but perhaps it depends a bit more on other comps and how we fair.

The reason I say that isn't just about us. I honestly think this season has the potential to be a very strange one.

If Liverpool finished 4th I wouldnt be surprised, they've given a lot these last 2-3 years and without fresh blood it may become an issue for them.

If City finished 4th, I wouldn't be surprised, they lost 7 games last season and were dumped out of cups by Arsenal and Lyon plus David Silva will be a big miss. They've also not signed anyone to take them up another level IMO. Torres is talented but I don't think he's as good as Sane.

If United finished 5th or 6th I wouldn't be surprised. This season with all the attacking talent on display, defences will need to be on point to have a chance of winning stuff and I think United have a lot of problems with defence and game management.

If Chelsea finished 6th, I wouldn't be surprised. They've signed 5 players so far and they haven't really had a chance to play with each other yet, not too mention Lampard has big questions over him and It'll be curious to see how a young manager can get 5 big signings into the team effectively.

I think it promises to be very exciting. Hopefully we can get the players Jose wants so he can give it a good shot.

Bet Christmas is a hoot at your place, no suprises
 

fishhhandaricecake

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2018
19,362
48,377
What a bizarre way of looking at things!

What is the relevance of the selling club’s position in the table? We didn’t buy that club! We bought their player.

To show you how nonsensical that kind of attitude is, consider which clubs provided the players that constitute the bulk of the current Liverpool team that ran away with the league last season (and came within a whisker of winning it the previous season with a record number of points for a team in second):

Van Dijk, Mane, Lovren and Lallana - Southampton.
Gomez - Charlton
Robertson - Hull
Wijnaldum - Newcastle
Henderson - Sunderland
Shaqiri - Stoke

All of them at the same level as or below the clubs that we’ve just signed players from that you sneer at. So, really, belittling our signings on the basis of the clubs from which they were signed is just plain wrong. It’s players themselves that matter, and what they can bring to OUR club. That is all.
spot on brilliant post.
 

fishhhandaricecake

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2018
19,362
48,377
As we stand with no ST,LB or creative CM/AM I think we would finish 6th and get to a cup semi.

If we sign a good 2nd striker and a creative CM/AM who is an upgrade on Lucas/Lamela then that could push us up to 4th and a cup final, right now we don't have enough creativity or attacking depth quality.

Another good LB would be a bonus but i think a combination of Davies, Tanganga and Sess/Cirkin could see us through at least until January.
 

yido_number1

He'll always be magic
Jun 8, 2004
8,699
16,910
Avoiding another injury crisis when there is literally no time between games this season and when we’ve had injury crises in each of the last 2-3 seasons is almost impossible.
Right now we are on course for exactly what happened last season. We need to effectively play two different 11's for the weeks we've got two or three games a week. If we don't we'll be fucked by Christmas.
 

T-Bone

Well-Known Member
Apr 3, 2014
433
2,358
Not to optimistic this season but hopefully I'm wrong, top 6 and maybe a trophy if Kane stays fit as things currently stand. If we have a good close to the window we can sneak top 4.
 

whitelanefever

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2012
2,149
2,855
It's one of those seasons where it's almost impossible to predict.. With Covid teams are gonna have players going into quarantine added to restructuring of fixtures for Afcon qualifiers & if South American World Cup qualifiers go ahead on top of already congested fixture list it's a bit of a nightmare.

My hope is that we can challenge for fourth as squad stands.. My fear is fixture list will do us & we could struggle. Lot depends on remaining transfers, we could do with a Midfielder that's a top notch passer & a striker.. If we could get a striker to not just be back up but also play with Kane then we could possibly even challenge for title.
 

Phomesy

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
9,188
14,102
I'm usually fairly optimistic but I'm just not feeling it this year.

Hoping that Mourinho can get us back to be bloody hard to score against. Our best years under Poch were based on a really good defence and Mourinho has a glittering career based on it.

If we can keep clean sheets early doors would be a really good sign but if we're leaky at the back I suspect we're in for a tough season.
 
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