How far off are we from replicating Man City 2010/11 (top 4 finish)

[evertonarntwe]

spurs got so so lucky with Kane coming through like he did, literally from nowhere becomes the leagues top scorer 2-3 years in a row, without him they're not even challenging

 

[Ebrell22]

Those first 5 games are crucial to our season. We will find out how good we are i think we can get 10 points would be chuffed with that as such a ridiculously difficult start. Really need to come out firing on all cylinders and everyone up to speed. Transfers sorted early deffo would have helped us in that regard.

 

[DownOnTheUpside]

I think Tevez, Yaya Toure and Kompany are the key players in that 11 we don't equivalents of . Also Silva and Ade on the bench.

gueye replaces toure and then some

also he's more sexy

 

[TraffordBlue]

Those first 5 games are crucial to our season. We will find out how good we are i think we can get 10 points would be chuffed with that as such a ridiculously difficult start. Really need to come out firing on all cylinders and everyone up to speed. Transfers sorted early deffo would have helped us in that regard.

What worries me is that it will be the same old Everton where we find Chelsea are far too strong for us and we will possibly get a draw at either City/United but lose the other one. So about 5 or 6 points maximum from the opening 15 when we need to be taking 3 points off 1 or 2 of them. Liverpool went to the Emirates and Stamford Bridge early on last season and came away with 6 points, and it's just something I can't see us doing at this moment in time.

 

[evilwebby]

There was an excellent point made on another thread that said it was a mistake to compare the Liverpool starting XI vs our new look team, because what we should be comparing to is the players we have brought to the likes of Coutino/Firmino when they first bought them.

It's easy to look back at any squad with the benefit of hindsight and see them through the lens of what they have been able to accomplish and recognise how good they have been. What we should be looking at is if our squad has the same sort of potential.

 

[DownOnTheUpside]

Leicester signed Slimani...

is he really an upgrade on slim shady tho?

 

[TraffordBlue]

There was an excellent point made on another thread that said it was a mistake to compare the Liverpool starting XI vs our new look team, because what we should be comparing to is the players we have brought to the likes of Coutino/Firmino when they first bought them.

It's easy to look back at any squad with the benefit of hindsight and see them through the lens of what they have been able to accomplish and recognise how good they have been. What we should be looking at is if our squad has the same sort of potential.

I can see your point because as far as I can remember, some of those players that City bought were not as well thought of at the time. A good example is Zabaleta. Admittedly I don't really follow foreign football that much except in the later rounds of the CL but I doubt many would have known how influential he would have gone on to be at right back for them. There is no way of knowing whether any of our new signings will surprise people. It's only 1 season but Gana for example was one of the stand out performers in the whole league last season despite being a £7m signing from relegated Villa.

I'm also aware of us not coming across deluded, especially with the resources of those above us but I think some people just read the bits they want to and go too far with their dismissal of any sort of chance we have to get among the top spots in the near future. I've already stated that I think 5th or 6th is our most realistic possibility in the coming season but a top 4 finish is not impossible as some have made out. It will require some luck, everything to click early on and other teams to under perform but all of those things are possible in football.

People would do well to remember that these players have a Premier League Winners medal whilst in the same team:

Wes Morgan, Andy King, Marc Albrighton, Jeff Schlupp, Jamie Vardy, Shinji Okizaki, Leonardo Ulloa amongst others.

None of those players are what you would deem to be top quality but they worked well as a team and surprised people.

 

[degsy]

I actually think Spurs will struggle at Wembley, Wenger will be forced out by xmas and the RS will be increasingly shiter that normal.




so we could actually push on if we hit the ground running.

you were doing quite well until that last bit of old tosh

 

[The Penalty Box Dancer]

Being successful is one thing but being successful over 38 games is another. We start our season next Thursday, still in July. We may class this as a friendly in ways but nonetheless is still a competitive game. We need to be close to our best and fit. We need to avoid lengthy injuries this season. If Michael Keane gets struck, we are down to Jagielka and Williams, one of the oldest pairings in the league. If Rooney gets struck, we have little up front. Sandro may be a good goalscorer but is going to need time to learn the league and we can't have him playing twice a week for 90 minutes each time. I'm basing this on the squad we have now and we must hope in each round of the Europa we get lesser sides in order to implement up and coming youngsters. We need players to be more versatile i.e. Besic playing at CB if need be or Mirallas playing as a striker.

It's gonna be tough and we still need to strengthen. It is the defence that worries me.

We need a CF with a proven record too.

 

[Deckard2049]

The question for me is how much would people be willing to sacrifice league form for the cups and in particular the Europa league? The top 4 a few years ago was just that.. a top 4. Years ago it was only between arsenal and united for the league. Then Chelsea came along. Then City. Throw in Spurs and the RS, and getting top 4 is a big challenge. Do we have more chance of acquiring champions league football via the europa league? 16 games vs 38. And generally weaker opposition.

 

[TraffordBlue]

The question for me is how much would people be willing to sacrifice league form for the cups and in particular the Europa league? The top 4 a few years ago was just that.. a top 4. Years ago it was only between arsenal and united for the league. Then Chelsea came along. Then City. Throw in Spurs and the RS, and getting top 4 is a big challenge. Do we have more chance of acquiring champions league football via the europa league? 16 games vs 38. And generally weaker opposition.

As a fan in the short term, i'd take 11th and win the Europa League to be honest. But winning the Europa League is a huge task alone for a club like ourselves in this era. But long term we need top 7 consistency at the very least.

 

[Deckard2049]

As a fan in the short term, i'd take 11th and win the Europa League to be honest. But winning the Europa League is a huge task alone for a club like ourselves in this era. But long term we need top 7 consistency at the very least.

With the squad we have currently assembled in conjunction with a fortunate draw (mostly meaning you don't get very good third placed group stage teams from the champions league falling down) I honestly believe we could go very far in the europa league. The main problem is lack of European experience, but I don't think we'll meet much quality opposition. After last year I think we should very much be looking up rather than over our shoulders. Although there wouldn't be anything wrong with a 7th placed finish for me, so long as there is a trophy in there. Even though it's the least prestigious, I'll be very disappointed if we fall out of the league cup early on. Sends the totally wrong message.

 

[carolinablue232]

Since Moshiri came in, a lot of Evertonians have expected us to spend big and the clear ambition is for us to try and break in to the Champions League Places by finishing in the top 4. Now obviously Moshiri does not have the wealth of Sheikh Mansour, but I think it is interesting how they gradually improved their team and squad over a few seasons to get to be challenging for that top 4. They did not immediately bring in the big names they have now and they weren't always capable of attracting the top players, very much like the position we are in now.

In 2008-09 City came 10th, and then 5th in 09-10 and 3rd in 2010-11 which is the season I am concentrating on.

In their first home game of that season they beat the RS 3-0 and this was their starting line up:

--------------------------Hart------------------------

Richards------Kompany----K Toure--------Lescott

------------------------De-Jong----------------------

Milner--------Toure--------------Barry-----Johnson

------------------------Tevez------------------------

How do you think our first 11 compares to that and how many of our current team would get in that? I'd say Coleman, Gueye and Schniederlin would all be worthy of a start in that team. It is worth noting that there were 3 key players on the bench for that game too: Zabaleta, Silva, and Adebayor.

There are certain similarities in the 2 teams in my opinion. Hart back then was a young English goalkeeper like Pickford, but Hart had more experience at that point. Lescott was a big money signing in defence like Keane is for us, but you can see that the team there is not full of the likes of Aguero. It's clear there though that their team does have some real quality in it and i'm not sure that we have as much in our first 11 as they do there and the league is possibly stronger now.

I personally think our squad is starting to look very good but we would need a big name signing to replace Lukaku who can score us 15-20 goals to be in with a shout of a top 4 finish in my opinion.

Well, we already have Barry. So we're 1/11 of the way to replicating them. I feel the rest might prove difficult.

 

[Ebrell22]

What worries me is that it will be the same old Everton where we find Chelsea are far too strong for us and we will possibly get a draw at either City/United but lose the other one. So about 5 or 6 points maximum from the opening 15 when we need to be taking 3 points off 1 or 2 of them. Liverpool went to the Emirates and Stamford Bridge early on last season and came away with 6 points, and it's just something I can't see us doing at this moment in time.

Hopefully the Rooney effect will instill belief into the players when we play in those big away games. Our record is indeed shockingly bad in those games but this is a new everton and im really optimistic about this season.

 

[Philw]

I've already stated that I think 5th or 6th is our most realistic possibility in the coming season

Tbh I'd be happy with 7th again, as long as we were a lot closer to the CL places come the end of the year (4/5 points instead of 15), and we had a couple decent cup runs, eg to the Semi's, especially in Europe.