Expectations

[TraffordBlue]

Why should we be beating teams? What's the reason we should be beating Huddersfield, Southampton, Wolves and Bournemouth?

Wolves -- had a season where they smashed the championship, have a settled team and manager. We had 10 men.
Huddersfield -- Settled team and manager for a season + we cant counter attack them, timewasting grocks
Bournemouth -- Well drilled mid table side and a manager whose been there long term. We had 10 men.
Southampton -- We beat them.

Games at this level can go either way. It wont happen overnight...lets enjoy the season and see what changes occur.

We can't win them all and the Wolves result was a decent enough result given that we went down to 10 men. But them doing great things in the league below is irrelevant when coming up against a club as established as us in the top flight. They have a truly class player in Neves, and obviously Moutinho has had a good career, but the vast majority of their squad is unproven in this league. They are very overrated and we should be looking at beating sides like them if we want to improve as a club.

The Huddersfield and Bournemouth results were wasted opportunities yet again. Bournemouth because we took a 2 goal lead, and have vastly more resources than them as a club, and Huddersfield because they will be in a relegation battle, if not comfortably relegated and we played them at home.

8 points was the minimum return we should have been aiming for in my opinion. However, I do accept that we have been unlucky with injuries and when players come back/in to the side we should see an improvement.

 

[Verbal Kint]

7th place

 

[formerly manx toffee]

7th placed trophy. Half decent cup run but ult8mately knocked out by a top 6 team

 

[Michaelcoyb]

For a couple of seasons everyone was dubious with Klopp because of the comparisons with Rodgers’ record. But they gave him shedloads of time and seem to be doing well now.

Why are we so hell bent on short termism?

 

[MercuryBlue88]

Would be content to finishing 7th but with a clear plan and vision to improve. I want a stable season to build on next year, a more long-term model of little improvements, rather than rebuilding every year.

 

[Tennessee Blue Mike]

I feel at the moment 7th is a pipe dream. This team has to many question marks. The major one is creativity then there is the zonal marking on set plays which will take time. I like Cenk but he needs competition to start firing so another striker with some speed and ruthlessness is necessary in January. Rome wasn't built in a day and we have hope if Bernard and Gomes settle in. But yesterday at home we should have won going away and nearly everyone knows it. But we didn't so a big cause for concern remains.

 

[Thomasc]

I feel at the moment 7th is a pipe dream. This team has to many question marks. The major one is creativity then there is the zonal marking on set plays which will take time. I like Cenk but he needs competition to start firing so another striker with some speed and ruthlessness is necessary in January. Rome wasn't built in a day and we have hope if Bernard and Gomes settle in. But yesterday at home we should have won going away and nearly everyone knows it. But we didn't so a big cause for concern remains.

Why a pipe dream when we have finished 7th and 8th last two seasons?

I would set that as a minimum expectation.

As for creativity, we are a couple of games away from having Richarlison and possibly Bernard coming into the side which should improve that dramatically.

 

[overkill]

Top 7 I'll consider minimum, I'd like us to push to top 6 if United or Arsenal are going to have a mare this season.
Not assed about the style of football never have been I just want us to win.

 

[toffeejack]

I feel at the moment 7th is a pipe dream. This team has to many question marks. The major one is creativity then there is the zonal marking on set plays which will take time. I like Cenk but he needs competition to start firing so another striker with some speed and ruthlessness is necessary in January. Rome wasn't built in a day and we have hope if Bernard and Gomes settle in. But yesterday at home we should have won going away and nearly everyone knows it. But we didn't so a big cause for concern remains.

7th is a pipe dream? What? Who on earth is going to finish above us? We came 8th last season and we literally couldn't have been much worse. Burnley was a one off, they've shown it already, so they won't finish above us, so who will?

 

[T LEAFE]

Last season we had 1 player who was good enough.
So far considering everyone who has played so far this season we probably have 4 or 5.
Maybe the missing new boys will increase that number but still a lot of improvement in quality needed

 

[Papa Shango]

7th is both our minimum and maximum expectation.

Football in 2018 = Rubbish.

 

[D410]

Concerned that a lot of expectation will be placed on the new lads who have to come in while the squad regulars are playing crab football and getting there individual pass execution accuracy and touch rate up the charts.

 

[Tennessee Blue Mike]

7th is a pipe dream? What? Who on earth is going to finish above us? We came 8th last season and we literally couldn't have been much worse. Burnley was a one off, they've shown it already, so they won't finish above us, so who will?

For starters two unsung teams Fulham and Wolves may surprise and climb the table as they have been playing some decent football at the moment. What concerns me is our injury problem. Some marquee signings haven't even hit the pitch yet. We should be good but we aren't a lock for seventh based on our recent form coming out of the gate.

 

[toffeejack]

For starters two unsung teams Fulham and Wolves may surprise and climb the table as they have been playing some decent football at the moment. What concerns me is our injury problem. Some marquee signings haven't even hit the pitch yet. We should be good but we aren't a lock for seventh based on our recent form coming out of the gate.

Fulham and wolves won't finish above us, yes they won't go down and are probably more prepared than other teams coming up, but every team gets injuries. We had ten out yesterday and still have a better team /squad than them.

 

[Tennessee Blue Mike]

Why a pipe dream when we have finished 7th and 8th last two seasons?

I would set that as a minimum expectation.

As for creativity, we are a couple of games away from having Richarlison and possibly Bernard coming into the side which should improve that dramatically.

I agree wholeheartedly but after yesterday I'm having some reservations. At home we should smash Huddersfield but we didn't so I have concern near term.