2019/20 - Minimum Requirement

[evertonarntwe]

I think it's impossible to say that until we know what the other teams look like

If Watford, Leicester and Wolves all buy well then it might not be so clean cut

Predicting where we should finish in May seems very premature when we don't know the lay of the land first IMO

only Leicester out of them 3 I would say have a chance though

Watford are okish but they wont spend money to improve
wolves have a tiny squad as it is now and with Europa next season they need ALOT more players, they've finished 7th on merit but they haven't overly impressed me this season, fine margins they took 7th over us because they beat us at goodison, if that game happened to be played at the start or end of season I think we would have beaten them and took 7th

 

[paulbefc]

with the squad we have, 7th is the minimum.

If we add some quality and those above fail to do so, we could look to 6th / 5th or even 4th. But we'd be aspiring to those places rather than them being a minimum.

I have no idea why some believe we have some sort of divine right to be in the top 6.

For me, it's the fact that every team that finished above us this season will be playing European football next season. We've no divine right, but we do have a huge opportunity. If we finish 7th next season, we'll probably have to try again with European football and an interrupted pre-season, no doubt with a player or two poached from us. It's not a now-or-never situation, but a lot of important variables are looking positive.

 

[ADT]

Think it depends what level striker we get in. If we actually manage to get someone decent, we’ll challenge for the champions league spots. Anything other than decent and were 7th

 

[Llyrap]

5th. Man City banned from CL for a season and we’re in.

Alternatively no mid season run of terrible performances which should mean that we may not crack top 6 but we’ll be close. Ready to launch following season.

Of course just before start of the season i’ll be far less measured and put a cheeky bet on us.

 

[meagher94]

6th. Setting 5th as an absolute minimum seems pretty ridiculous, how is it reasonable or logical to expect us to rise 3 league placings in one season?

“Minimum” suggests the manager should be sacked for achieving less. If we have a season playing enjoyable football, have a couple of good cup runs and finish 6th it’d seem incredibly harsh to sack the manager.

We don’t need to assault the top 4 immediately. Get into that top 6 and become settled in there, permanently ousting Utd / Chelsea. Then, keep pushing and top 4 can follow naturally in the next couple of years

 

[mkrudden]

5th. Man City banned from CL for a season and we’re in.

Alternatively no mid season run of terrible performances which should mean that we may not crack top 6 but we’ll be close. Ready to launch following season.

Of course just before start of the season i’ll be far less measured and put a cheeky bet on us.

you see 5th as the minumum?

How? Why? We finished 16 points behind 5th this season and those above us have had poor-ish ends to the campaign.

 

[Llyrap]

you see 5th as the minumum?

How? Why? We finished 16 points behind 5th this season and those above us have had poor-ish ends to the campaign.

Ok - my fault. Next time I'll put the special irony exclamation marks at the start and finish. I'd just read that Man City could have a seasons ban from CL and was being ironic as 5th would get you in.

My actual minimum expectations is that we have a season where we do not have a repeat of December, January and February 2018-2019, ditto 2017-2018, September to December 2016-2017, March - May 2015-2016 or December - March 2014-2015.

If we can have a season where we don't have a 3 month period where we are completely and utterly dour and useless it would mean that we we would be much closer to the top 6.

If you go back to my original post I said:-

"Alternatively no mid season run of terrible performances which should mean that we may not crack top 6 but we’ll be close. Ready to launch following season.

Of course just before start of the season i’ll be far less measured and put a cheeky bet on us."


I think that's quite measured. In any event there isn't a huge difference between 5th and 6th. 66 and 70 points. (we need 12 or 16 points)


In fact during our annual 3 monthly slump this year we drew with Newcastle and Watford and lost to Brighton, Southampton, Wolves, Leicester and Watford. We dropped 19 points in those games.

We also lost 3 times against Man City (2) and Tottenham (1)

In the 13 games we played over 3 months (7 at home) we only managed 11 points out of 39 points. We only beat Burnley, Bournemouth and Huddersfield.

If we were able to retain all the players that we presently have and made no additions I would hope that there would not be a repeat of that slump, and in fact I don't think that it would be setting too high a standard to expect at least 8-10 (Brighton win, Southampton win, Watford home win and one other draw) additional points from those games which would take us within spitting distance of 5th and 6th.

 

[Michaelcoyb]

Starting to realise that the season just gone might have been built on a castle made of sand if we end up losing the majority of our spine (Gomes, Gana, Zouma).

If we fail to keep those players, unfortunately we are going to be in for another season of transition. So if that were the case I would be expecting anywhere between 8th-10th.

 

[LostLegend]

Whilst I’m sticking with my ‘close the gap to the top 6’ requirement. It’s hard not to keep one eye on the teams floundering above us.

Man U spending (if the Maguire deal goes through) upwards of £120/30 mil on 3 players so far. 2 of which will likely improve them from the off, but not significantly enough to halt their decline.
Seems there’s a lot of toxicity around their camp and giving Rashford in excess of 200k a week won’t help matters.

Shades of us under Koeman. Just blindly chucking money at their problems by the looks of it.

Arsenal trying to low-ball Palace for Zaha is strange as well. Don’t think he’d massively improve them either. I would have thought bringing in a more mobile CB and a decent CM to compliment Torreira would be priority for them. Also rumours that Tierney may jib them off for Inter

Obviously I believe our rebuild should be slow, steady and well planned. Also the past few years make it painful to get excited for a real push against the top 6, but the potential for one or two of these teams to have a bad campaign is there.

Also can’t discount Leicester and Wolves thinking the same. Leicester in particular have been quietly building a young, exciting squad and could surprise a few.
But, if we get our main targets over the line and start how we finished last season, I reckon we should pull away from the pack.

 

[Hickson9]

The minimum for me is 8th but with more consistency through the season and more points accumulated.

Wolves and Leicester will be right there with us.

The target has to be European football.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Finish 8th or higher and win the League Cup

Seems more than reasonable

 

[BernieH]

7th or higher, 8th isn't good enough, we need to push on.

 

[Baines' left foot]

Top 6 minimum.

 

[davek]

7th. If we dont get that it's not working out (unless we win or get to a cup final as well).

Regardless, I expect us to be a lot less than 12 points off top 6, as we were last season. The top 6 are tied up in European campaigns and that is a big burden that closes some of the gap on them having more quality players.

If we get a balance to our performance and aren't rocked by a lot of major injuries, I can see us nosing into the top 6 for sure. The evidence from the last quarter of the season suggests to me we can do that.

 

[Saint Domingo]

European football and at least one of the below:

Derby win
Away win at top 6
Progression past a top 6 side in a cup
More than 6 away wins
No knockout from a trophy via a non top 6 team.