Ben Godfrey, MU and THFC

[Petriix 2,834]

1 hour ago, Jim Smith said:

I have to respectfully disagree.,. If we defend as we did last season in the premier league then we will get relegated. Of that I have no doubt. You can debate how much of it is down to personel and how much is the actual style of play but we are so open defensively and will get carved apart by most premier league teams. We will score goals as well but its a high risk strategy to rely on outscoring teams with so much firepower every week. 

All that said I don't expect us to play with such an open style next season and I think we will keep it tighter. You can certainly argue that individually all the defenders have the attributes to be premier league players if they can operate well as a unit and hopefully we will find the right defensive midfielder to sit in front of them. Simply improving our marking from set plays and crosses and closing down players at the top of the box from the second phase of play will help a lot but since we have had those issues consistenty through Farke's reign I am unsure as to whether he will be able to sort them.

I'm sure that there will be some games (especially against top 6 sides) where we will need to be a bit more conservative; but I very much doubt we are radically going to adjust the footballing philosophy which was so successful in both attack and defence last season. It is factually incorrect to suggest that we were poor defensively after those first few games with the exception of a couple of bonkers matches over Christmas.

[king canary 7,578]

Always good to aim high but I'll still view 17th as a big success if that is where we end up.

[splendidrush 699]

I'm not sure about all the blind optimism on here, we've done ever so well to get promoted but this is a massive step up for this squad. 

All this talk of top half finishes just doesn't add up in my book, apart from Blades, we're the least experienced, with the lowest budget. 

I'm with kc, 17th will be a huge achievement. 

[Jim Smith 2,314]

17 hours ago, Petriix said:

I'm sure that there will be some games (especially against top 6 sides) where we will need to be a bit more conservative; but I very much doubt we are radically going to adjust the footballing philosophy which was so successful in both attack and defence last season. It is factually incorrect to suggest that we were poor defensively after those first few games with the exception of a couple of bonkers matches over Christmas.

Statistically maybe we were not that bad but watching our games we consistently allowed the opposition to have free headers from crosses (both set plays and open play) and gave opportunities for them to have shots from the edge of the box, often flowing from clearances from set pieces where we would have all 11 of our own players back in and around our own six yard box and nobody picking up or closing down opposition players at the top of the box. Better players will score from those situations far more regularly (especially if we are going to have Krul in goal). These are two areas we really need to work on and I agree with you to an extent because we don't need to sign new players to make these improvements, these are tactical adjustments or training ground work.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

11 hours ago, splendidrush said:

I'm not sure about all the blind optimism on here, we've done ever so well to get promoted but this is a massive step up for this squad. 

All this talk of top half finishes just doesn't add up in my book, apart from Blades, we're the least experienced, with the lowest budget. 

I'm with kc, 17th will be a huge achievement. 

I agree with this. you look at the premier league next season and there are very few obviously weak teams unlike the last two or three seasons where the likes of Brighton have been able to stay up because there have been 3 or 4 appalling sides (by prem standards) up there. Most of what we would regard as our traditional "rivals" for the relegation spots (i.e. the likes of Palace, Southampton, Bournemouth, Watford) have been up there a few years now and have squads that reflect that. The likes of Wolves have come up and their resources immediately take them beyond the relegation candidates tag. Doesn't mean they won't have a bad season or can't go down though but generally speaking it looks a tougher league for a newly promoted side next season.

[Ramrod 258]

The really fascinating thing is: we don't know. 

Going forward we are PL class but defending....... 

We don't know who will make the step up. Our bright young players might struggle. But if they do well..... 

The likes of Leitner and Vrancic might finally fulfil their potential or prove themselves as 'nearly men.' I'm going to stick my neck out and say I expect Stiepermann to be the surprise package and become a very good PL player. 

What tactical changes will Farke make? We have changed in cup games to give PL sides a game. 

Then there is luck and that includes injuries plus that old PL adage of playing sides at the right time. I hope we play Man Utd away 1st match. For ourselves, a slow start is NOT an option this time. 

But, there is nothing to fear beyond losing Stuart Webber in the next 2 years. So we can have a right good go. And this is the best way to stay up. 

Finally, I hope our players are on another big bonus if we stay up as they were to win promotion.