Given West Ham haven't won an FA cup or league cup in modern history, I'd suggest they're harder comps to win than the conference league. Chelsea haven't won anything domestically since 2018 either.
It's a naff comp that simply shouldn't exist.
It's a naff comp that simply shouldn't exist.
Kevsleftpeg
Player Valuation: £35m
Absolute tripe.
To win a domestic cup you'll have to beat some of England's top sides which cost 1bn+ to put together.
To win the conference league you have to beat the likes of Genk, Frankfurt, Sevilla and Lyon.
It's not tripe, you're just in denial. Moyes will never win us a cup, he's not even arsed when we get knocked out at the first opportunity. That sides at Wolves was a disgrace.
Dyche's only full season - he earned the points in a chaotic off the pitch impacting on the pitch season to finish 12th.
Half the season was wrote off last season an we finished 13th.
After a club record spend before even factoring in Grealish/wages - we've got to be looking at top 10 this season, really.
Moyes himself said this teams target has to be Europe. We've got a decent team now, apart from balance at full back, pace and up front. It's certainly a lot better than it has been for a long time.
Small margins at the moment but given Wolves knocked us out the league cup, anything below 10th would be disappointing - especially factoring in how half the league it seems have Europe.
Half the season was wrote off last season an we finished 13th.
After a club record spend before even factoring in Grealish/wages - we've got to be looking at top 10 this season, really.
Moyes himself said this teams target has to be Europe. We've got a decent team now, apart from balance at full back, pace and up front. It's certainly a lot better than it has been for a long time.
Small margins at the moment but given Wolves knocked us out the league cup, anything below 10th would be disappointing - especially factoring in how half the league it seems have Europe.
There’s a whole lot more chatter in here than I expected from a narrow defeat to the league leaders.
We have, but currently our 4 best players have been taken out in one go, which is going to impact results over the next few weeks. The fact we’re 10th having not had Branthwaite all season is slightly above where I would’ve had us at this stage if I’d known that was going to be the case.
Well, injuries are part of the game. It's why I was happy to see Keane kept. As is afcon. We had £80m of new signings on the bench last match, as per.
We can lament Branthwaite, but we've had much less injuries than most. As I've often shared - often this season only 1 team has had less injuries than us.
[Edit] Even now. Comparatively, we're OK. We have 5 out, one is Coleman - so really its 4.
2 of them are AFCON.
Other teams have recruited better than us, we have recruited poorly once again. Whether we like it or not, Branthwaite and Ndiaye going out the side to be replaced by Keane and McNeil is a drop off bigger than any of our competitors face when one of their better players is out. Those two changes alone move us from a 8th-12th placed team back to the level of team we were last season.
Comparing Everton with Everton - Grealish replacing Harrison, and Dewsbury-Hall replacing Doucoure is a big step up. Whether we like it or not, we spent a club record amount in the summer and with that, comes increased expectation.
We can't hide behind injuries when 95% of the league have had more. Sure, Branthwaite is a big miss for us, but that's football - every club will have had injuries that are a big miss.
We had a chance to sell Branthwaite, which I was convinced we'd do - we didn't. We had the chance to sell Ndiaye who we knew would be AFCON, we didn't. We renewed Gana's contract who we knew was going to AFCON.
Ultimately, this team is a lot better than it has been and so we should see improvement in the league. We're currently seeing that.
I agree, having those players instead of Harrison and Doucoure has ultimately resulted in improved performances and results. However, we have now lost one of them to international duty as well as a key midfielder who we had available for the whole of last season, and we’ve lost Doucoure’s replacement to an injury. So over the next few weeks I expect to see these things taken into account when analysing our performances. That team we had out against Arsenal was no better on paper than the best XI we put out in the past two seasons.
At no point over the last two season did we have our 4 best footballers out at the same time. This is a circumstance that you just can’t compare with any former manager, because they never had to suffer it.
Kevsleftpeg
Player Valuation: £35m
He’s taken us to a final and multiple semi finals. Cups are a waste of time anyway. The league is ultimately the only thing that matters.
Cups are a waste of time haha. That's enough internet for one day.
The squad we had out vs Arsenal cost more than any squad we've had the past 5 years.
We were bringing on the likes of Rohl and Dibling, with summer signings Aznoi and Travers sat with splinters.
The point being then - this team has much more quality, and depth than it has for years. We didn't even need to use the loan market in full.
When Grealish is making the difference, or Dewsbury-Hall - previously we were relying on Doucoure, and Harrison. When they would get injured, we'd have calls for Roman Dixon or Nathan Patterson.
Injuries will impact, as it does all teams - thankfully we have more depth now.
From what I can see here, you are suggesting that there is no drop off from replacing Branthwaite, Gana, Ndiaye and KDH with Keane, Iroegbunam, McNeil and Alcaraz. Ok then. I guess we just fundamentally disagree and should probably leave the debate there.
