So, wondering what people's thoughts are - just, say, two, stand-out thoughts - on the early season and then a straight yes/no on whether you think we'll stay up or not.

For me;

1. Same sort of trajectory as last season (in terms of getting a team of newbies to function) as last season. Prem League more unforgiving though.

2. Good to get difficult games out of the way during this 'moulding' phase. We'll reap the benefit when we play teams we have more chance against (assuming/hoping that confidence hasn't been shot).

Will we stay up or not.......it's a 'yes' from me.

UTC

YES

Yes

Yes

We'll stay up, though I dont think we will get points from the big boys. I cant imagine us going to Old Trafford, Anfield or Stamford Bridge and getting something from them this season.

Its been a poor start but I think anything would have been a bonus in these first 6 games, I probably expected a few more points but I'm not too concerned yet.

I think we will stay up but we need it to start clicking

Yes.

The Forest game shows what we can do currently and we will get better.

Haven’t seen enough yet to say that there’s for sure three worse teams than us.

Will have a better idea after 10 games

Yes

Yes

Goddy wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 10:21 am

a straight yes/no on whether you think we'll stay up or not.

Yes.

Trying to get the lads to blend into a functional unit whilst playing some of the best sides in the PL and indeed Europe that are littered with World Class players is unforgiving.

Yes

Think it'll be very close come seasons end, but i think I'll just about come down on staying up.

So yes.

We desperately need to find "a way to win" then the results and points will happen at a faster rate

The opening set of games was always going to be difficult and lets be honest, we should be at least 2 points better off than we are currently, and maybe even with an additional 3 more
The next 5 games will be more of an indication on how the season will go imo.

I think we will get at least 9 points from those games.

Yes we will stay up

know more at Xmas can't judge against top teams, get a team starting each week bar injuries and suspension and see how we perform against bottom half. UTC.

Yes.

yes

1. Positives are Foster who looks a much better player all round and Koleosho who is a great young talent.
2. We’ve not really strengthened where we needed to with experience and it’s showing. Wrong decision to start Trafford and we overpaid.

No.

Gotta kind of agree with Boss Hog. We actually look a really good side in many ways and we have pace and skill and we're exciting to watch going forward, especially when Foster plays, but ultimately in midfield and defensively we're not strong enough for this league. We'd absolutely P the championship with that squad because there are some extremely good players in pretty much every position, but sadly not good enough for the PL and we'll go down.

Boss Hogg wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 11:28 am

1. Positives are Foster who looks a much better player all round and Koleosho who is a great young talent.
2. We’ve not really strengthened where we needed to with experience and it’s showing. Wrong decision to start Trafford and we overpaid.

No.

Nah man Trafford is a great keeper and no doubt he will prove that this season. Once he gets a clean sheet he'll want to go for the next one and start gaining some real confidence once that constant talk about Muric dies down. I've seen Verbruggen at Anderlecht and I'm very happy with Trafford, think he has better reflexes, he's taller, already valued 5 m more on transfermarkt. And he barely makes mistakes. Very alert keeper with outstanding positioning. A bargain if you ask me.

This team is way better than the one last year only hard to compare a team that's played together for a season and knows what to do to a new one with guys still adjusting. If you don't think guys like Trafford Berge Amdouni Koleosho Trésor Koleosho Ramsey Odobert makes us a stronger team immediately or anytime soon...

Even O'Shea and Delcroix are good signings that give us squad depth without losing quality.

Benson zaroury and al Dakhil... even muric needed some time to get used to the new way of playing last season. Foster was written off by some as a pony after 6 months. The guys we've signed are way more desired on the transfer market. Where we got a bench player from Antwerp last season now we bought the Belgian player of the year just to give an example. The guy had most assists of all european leagues. Where Cullen was an anonymous player at Anderlecht bought for 3m. Berge who carried Genk to the title was already bought for 25m by Sheffield. These are all good lads and they still have to show what they can do.

And there's still Obafemi...

No doubts that they will soon start to display their qualities.

I see and understand the concerns, but...

...yes we'll stay up

its a Yes from me

Anthonini wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 11:51 am

Foster was written off by some as a pony after 6 months.

Pony. not a pony. Comes from rhyming slang - Pony and trap - Crap.

Mmmmm….tough question.
Received wisdom is 38 points, or thereabouts, should keep a team up. That’s an average of one point each game. So far, we have one point from 6 games. The longer we go without a win, the more difficult it becomes to meet the increased points per game requirement. We need to start winning soon, or it will start slipping away.
At the moment, for the reasons above, my answer would have to be “No”.
Hope I’m wrong.
My wife will confirm that I normally am.

Yes, as op said same trajectory as last season. Foster plays we woukd have beaten United. Run of horrendous games over now.

I'm very positive that we'll go down and come up again.

I think the team that won the Championship last season would easily have kept us up as they played so well as a unit. We should have gone all out to sign Tella, Maasten and THB to enable that rather than playing hard ball with transfer fees. We have signed some very exciting prospects but they are finding it difficult to gel given the standard of opposition we are facing.

I don’t think we are going to stay up but am hoping that we do and kick on next year.

No, some of the signs are encouraging that we'll be able to beat some teams & hold our own for draws but not enough for 35pts or above the usual safety marker, I have doubts over the long game that we will lack squad depth we look pretty poor even with our strongest 11 take a few out with injuries & suspensions it's even poorer, not enough guile or experience as well which is critical against some teams, I think it'll come down to whether we are better than Bournemouth for the last remaining slot.

No, Kompany sacked soon as there will be too much pressure from Keys and Gray. Pace admits defeat and hires their suggestion Tony Pulis in an attempt to save the club from being financially obliterated.

Yes - think we will easily stay up.

Jakubclaret wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 12:52 pm

No, some of the signs are encouraging that we'll be able to beat some teams & hold our own for draws but not enough for 35pts or above the usual safety marker, I have doubts over the long game that we will lack squad depth we look pretty poor even with our strongest 11 take a few out with injuries & suspensions it's even poorer, not enough guile or experience as well which is critical against some teams, I think it'll come down to whether we are better than Bournemouth for the last remaining slot.

Some good points there.

I think we will stay up as I believe we have better technical players than the teams around us.

However, the results have got to start coming soon

Yes.

The difference in quality between Championship and PL is staggering
VK is trying to remain positive but is looking less and less confident . Muric has to play and Foster back will be a big plus

NO

I think tomorrow nights game will tell us a lot.

So far, Heart says Yes, Brain says No but its willing to change if we win a couple soon

If you look at the improvement in defence of the last 3 games when we've played with Cullen and Brownhill and 4 defenders who know the system all ready you could question why VK felt the need to blood so many of his signings in the early games. We haven't been conceding sloppy goals we're been conceding worldies but many of them have come from mistakes by our players who've left gaps at the back.

I don't think THB would have made a jot of difference and I don't think Maatsen either but if we'd started with Zaroury, Benson and Tella I think we might have surprised someone and taken all three points from Forest.

Our season starts now. Luton, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Brentford and Everton are 5 of the 6 teams immediately above us. You wouldn't expect Chelsea to be in there but we're at home, they're short of confidence and we should be able to take a point of one of the big boys on our Turf.

We need to score more.
1 shot on target against Man City 0 goals
2 shots on target against Villa 0 goals
4 against Spurs 2 goals
4 against Forest 1 goal (plus one wrongly disallowed)
4 against Man Utd 0 goals.

I think Vinnie is right, we have improved but we need to start winning games now, by the end of the Everton game we'll have played 11 and we need to be close to 11 points. 3 wins and a draw would put our season back on track. I do think we'll get better as the season goes on but anything less than 2 wins from the next 5 and we'll be seriously losing ground. If I had to choose two games to win it would be Luton and Bournemouth as I think they are most likely to join Sheff Utd if we manage to get out of the bottom 3.

Positives - Koleosho and Foster


We’re 4th in a 5 team league at the bottom - it all depends on the second half of the season

Goddy wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 10:21 am

So, wondering what people's thoughts are - just, say, two, stand-out thoughts - on the early season and then a straight yes/no on whether you think we'll stay up or not.

For me;

1. Same sort of trajectory as last season (in terms of getting a team of newbies to function) as last season. Prem League more unforgiving though.

2. Good to get difficult games out of the way during this 'moulding' phase. We'll reap the benefit when we play teams we have more chance against (assuming/hoping that confidence hasn't been shot).

Will we stay up or not.......it's a 'yes' from me.

UTC

The answer to your question
Yes if we start picking the strongest players for the game in question

No if we keep picking a team for the future

Simple as
Trafford & Ramsey not ready
Muric & Larsen too good not to play

It's really hard to answer pre-Luton. That game will tell us so much. If we win tomorrow I can see us following it up by beating Chelsea at home and going to Brentford/Bournemouth full of confidence as a result.

I will be positive and say Yes, and that we will do the job tomorrow night.

jedi_master wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 2:36 pm

It's really hard to answer pre-Luton. That game will tell us so much. If we win tomorrow I can see us following it up by beating Chelsea at home and going to Brentford/Bournemouth full of confidence as a result.

I will be positive and say Yes, and that we will do the job tomorrow night.

Indeed. Tomorrow, as you say, will answer quite a few questions. And likewise, I think if we win well, which I think we'll do, we could go on a good run.

The next few fixtures are set up well for us.

Realistically I think between now and Boxing Day there are only 2 games we lose. The rest we can, if we play to our strengths, get something.

Still think we lack the powerful players we all wanted to compete with the typical Prem midfielders, but hopefully January window we can combat that, and a second striker for Foster to have a rest/push further.

I think we’ll stay up, just.

Think we can get points off the bottom half, but invariably we will get some more tonkings along the way. Look at Brighton on saturday, playing wide open football can hurt you. If we get a couple of wins fairly soon, then we should be fine, but the longer we go without a win then I fear the worst...

but

YES

Bullabill wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 02, 2023 12:26 pm

Pony. not a pony. Comes from rhyming slang - Pony and trap - Crap.

Well crap sounds even worse than a pony

Think we've been poor so far with bursts of quality against very good opposition. We'll stay up and I think comfortably when all's said and done.

So tough to call, at the minute I'd say 'no' but really hope I am wrong. If we beat Luton, the confidence and momentum will shift massively and you could easily see us going on a mini run of picking up points.

I think we'll be fighting to avoid that 3rd relegation spot. We're a young, inexperienced team which will certainly improve, I'm just not sure how much fight and know-how we have in us to compete with the likes of Everton, Bournemouth, Wolves etc who have been in this situation many, many times before. I can see it going right to the death with one of these teams, and them just having that nous to get themselves over the line.

I still think physicality is going to be an issue as the season progresses and having that knack of being able to grind out a draw or a win when its getting tough.