Stronger or not

[Canaries north 151]

Trying to take my mind off tonight's game. Yes or no is fine, explain your reasoning if you want but do you think we are stronger or weaker than last season. Still time to go in the transfer market but where do you think we stand. I think we are weaker but maybe that's more to do with me not having seen our new players in the flesh. I hate YouTube clips as even wolfswinkle was made to look good. Long time to go but weaker at this exact moment for me. 

[cornish sam 953]

At this precise moment, a tad weaker, but still stronger than last prem season. 

As you say though, long time to go on the window still and one more signing and we would almost certainly be stronger...

[The Bunny 309]

Significantly weaker right now. Skipp and Emi were probably our best two players last season. Their replacements have potential but are unproven in this team and at this level (ignoring Billy Gilmour's handful of prem sub appearances). We've also lost Vrancic, Tettey and Stiepermann without replacement.

Obviously the window is far from done, so it's probably too early to judge, but it seems like the board are struggling to get high quality replacements for the proven players we're losing. They may now be regretting letting Emi go for £33m when Celtic are asking most of that for Ajer, for example - a bit of a reality check there. Aarons may end up in that departing list too, of course. 

So right now it looks like we'll make a tidy profit from promotion, but I doubt the team are going to be stronger than last season. I hope I'm wrong though. As I say, it's early days. 

[Monty13 2,234]

It’s too early. I’d be extremely worried if we went in to the PL season as is, we are possibly marginally stronger than last time in PL but that basically depends on Rashica hitting the ground running, but we are definitely weaker than last season right now IMO.

I’ll judge Webber come the window shutting but currently I’m optimistic we will be stronger than last PL season once he’s finished, the signing of Rashica has gone a long way to reassure me personally after Emi being sold but we better be nowhere near done yet.

[Petriix 2,835]

https://forum.pinkun.com/index.php?/topic/142954-current-squad-vs-last-season/

Admittedly it was on the second page of the forum.

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,135]

Weaker. I still think we need a top class defensive midfielder to be close to on par with last season. Then we need another CB at least as good as Hanley and Gibson and a really pacy skillful wide player at a minimum. Then if Aarons makes his expected move we need a replacement and should use the rest of the money on competition for Pukki in a player who is either really good in the air or really quick. 

 

If all the new signings turn out to be of the sort of Gibson/Gianoulis level of quality and we get lucky with injuries then I think we'll have a chance next year. Right now I'm still very concerned. 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Christoph Stiepermann

[Coneys Knee 953]

Right now, we are clearly weaker, but there is a long way to go in this window. I expect one or two mouthwatering signings yet but as a previous poster said I reckon we find it tough to convince our first choices to come here.

[Gordon Bennett 783]

By the end of this window I'm pretty confident we will be strongest we have been under Farke and Webber, just requires a bit of patience and trust. 

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,135]

We are taking a risky strategy targeting players who are in demand and would probably feel like they can get a better club than ours, if it works then great, but there is the chance that the window will drag on and on and we miss our targets and have to bring in inferior players late in the window or in January or miss out entirely. This is exactly what happened when we got promoted under Alex Neil, we targeted really high quality players and couldn't convince any of them to come here and left ourselves short.

Even with so long left in the window I'm getting nervous already because of how crucial this window is for us and we've seen this strategy fail before fairly recently. 

[Somerset exile 4]

Weaker at the moment.

The main transfer target should be a replacement for Skip

[canarycop 206]

We will be stronger. SW and DF have players in mind who they want and will probably get. Don't forget that they were planning for the possibility of promotion a long time,e before it was guaranteed. I have every confidence that we will be stronger than last season. I also believe we will smash our transfer record possibly even twice.

[Yobocop 1,099]

Stronger with the acquisitions of Gilmour and Rashica who are stronger than the players they have replaced, coupled with the fact we have a better back up option in goal 

something tells me we’re not finished either 

[Dean Coneys boots 1,400]

Currently much weaker because skipp and Buendia were head and shoulders our best players last season and only one is replaced. (Gilmour a very different type player to skipp) 

we need four or five genuine prem quality signings to make a decent go of it I think. Time will tell- but selling your best players does help improve things 

[Petriix 2,835]

19 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Currently much weaker because skipp and Buendia were head and shoulders our best players last season and only one is replaced. (Gilmour a very different type player to skipp) 

we need four or five genuine prem quality signings to make a decent go of it I think. Time will tell- but selling your best players does help improve things 

Selling your best player absolutely can improve things, if you reinvest the money to strengthen in multiple areas. Players' prices don't increase in linear proportion to how good they are. It stands to reason that four £8m players would be better than one £32m player for the overall strength of the team, especially considering that the majority of the squad comprises players costing less than £4m.

We're we better or worse after selling Maddison? Godfrey?

[Dean Coneys boots 1,400]

You might be right but when that £33million player created almost all your chances and you rarely won without him/ it’s a risk. Those lesser players have to deliver..

[Canaries north 151]

22 hours ago, Yobocop said:

Stronger with the acquisitions of Gilmour and Rashica who are stronger than the players they have replaced, coupled with the fact we have a better back up option in goal 

something tells me we’re not finished either 

I agree we are not finished but I struggle to see how you can say Rashica is stronger without even seeing him. Buendia was our heart beat. Rashica could turn out to be the same but only time will tell. I know the price doesn't always match with the player but it's a good guide. Is Buendia 3 and a half times the player Rashica is, probably not but are they equal, again probably not. Is Rashica a better player, I think you can see where I'm going. At this moment in time who would I prefer at Norwich. Buendia for me. 

[Yobocop 1,099]

11 hours ago, Canaries north said:

I agree we are not finished but I struggle to see how you can say Rashica is stronger without even seeing him. Buendia was our heart beat. Rashica could turn out to be the same but only time will tell. I know the price doesn't always match with the player but it's a good guide. Is Buendia 3 and a half times the player Rashica is, probably not but are they equal, again probably not. Is Rashica a better player, I think you can see where I'm going. At this moment in time who would I prefer at Norwich. Buendia for me. 

Oh absolutely but Rashica has performed at the highest level for a longer period than beundia has albeit in Germany 

it was gutting to lose beundia but we are currently in a better position because of it and I don’t think Webber n co are finished either 

EDIT - although beundia was a key asset for us, we were so much more than the Buendia show last season, there were games where beundia was not involved where we played really well (forest away) and we built our success on a solid foundation in defence - that will continue. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Yobocop

[Canaries north 151]

9 hours ago, Yobocop said:

Oh absolutely but Rashica has performed at the highest level for a longer period than beundia has albeit in Germany 

it was gutting to lose beundia but we are currently in a better position because of it and I don’t think Webber n co are finished either 

EDIT - although beundia was a key asset for us, we were so much more than the Buendia show last season, there were games where beundia was not involved where we played really well (forest away) and we built our success on a solid foundation in defence - that will continue. 

Really hope you are right. Now statistics can be misleading but the points with Buendia and the points without are frightening. Our defence was better but in a poor league. I think they can step up but it's still not guaranteed. I'm trying not to be all doom and gloom but in my mind Villa would have come back down without Grealish. Palace would the same without Zaha. Some players can make such a difference to a team. Talisman. It doesn't make Buendia better or worse than Rashica, just I feel Buendia is more important to us than even his footballing ability. We will have to wait and see but I still think weaker. 

[AJ 1,219]

On 11/07/2021 at 16:39, Dean Coneys boots said:

You might be right but when that £33million player created almost all your chances and you rarely won without him/ it’s a risk. Those lesser players have to deliver..

This is the problem, you are basically saying replacing Emi will cost £33M but we haven't gone out and bought a £33M replacement for Emi, so inevitably that is a downgrade.

The only positive is, if the new lads do perform, is that we might be stronger overall and less reliant on single players such as Emi, or Pukki. Still waiting for us to unveil a new striker signing that, otherwise we run the risk of last time when Pukki took a knock in the Prem and we never recovered

[FatCanary 249]

25 minutes ago, AJ said:

This is the problem, you are basically saying replacing Emi will cost £33M but we haven't gone out and bought a £33M replacement for Emi, so inevitably that is a downgrade.

The only positive is, if the new lads do perform, is that we might be stronger overall and less reliant on single players such as Emi, or Pukki. Still waiting for us to unveil a new striker signing that, otherwise we run the risk of last time when Pukki took a knock in the Prem and we never recovered

I have to wonder how can people still claim to be Norwich fans and not understand that spending loads of money isn't always the right thing to do

[Canaries north 151]

I have never said we have to spend £33 million. The question was are we stronger. I believe Buendia was actually worth more than £33 million TO US. It has nothing to do with the price spent on players more to do with a player who to us was fundamental in most of our success. I look at most of the clubs in the premiership apart from the top 6 or 8 and they are all very average bar 1 player. Without that player they would go down. I think with a bit of strengthening around the squad but not a lot we would have had a great chance of staying up with Buendia as our star quality. I know in our set up we will always have to sell when the money is right and also if the player wants to leave but I still think if asked I would say weaker. 

[AJ 1,219]

1 hour ago, FatCanary said:

I have to wonder how can people still claim to be Norwich fans and not understand that spending loads of money isn't always the right thing to do

I'm not really sure how that is relevant to anything I have said?

[FatCanary 249]

1 minute ago, AJ said:

I'm not really sure how that is relevant to anything I have said?

'This is the problem, you are basically saying replacing Emi will cost £33M but we haven't gone out and bought a £33M replacement for Emi, so inevitably that is a downgrade.'

I was agreeing that you don't have to spend loads of money to replace a player who has left for loads of money.

[Yobocop 1,099]

12 hours ago, Canaries north said:

Really hope you are right. Now statistics can be misleading but the points with Buendia and the points without are frightening. Our defence was better but in a poor league. I think they can step up but it's still not guaranteed. I'm trying not to be all doom and gloom but in my mind Villa would have come back down without Grealish. Palace would the same without Zaha. Some players can make such a difference to a team. Talisman. It doesn't make Buendia better or worse than Rashica, just I feel Buendia is more important to us than even his footballing ability. We will have to wait and see but I still think weaker. 

Yet we had Buendia last prem campaign and still got relegated 

we’ve spent upwards of £30m this out season which In terms of the Webber/Farke era is completely out of this world let alone what NCFC have done previously 

the club have been good to their word and have been able to reinvest most of the beundia money back into the player squad 

another in today, Lees-Melou for £5m, a player with top flight and europa league pedigree and we are not done yet 

 

[Canary Jedi 579]

Add a decent striker and centre back then we’re looking stronger

[birchfest 397]

A decent back up striker, a CDM and CB to be stronger.

 

A CDM and CB to be about the same as last season, which I think is still better than the team we had for most of the 19/20 season.

[Uncle Fred 526]

Stronger but as things stand no where near strong enough to be safe next season 

[urdie_Canary 33]

Where are the goals!!

[cornish sam 953]

1 minute ago, urdie_Canary said:

Where are the goals!!

At either end of the pitch

[urdie_Canary 33]

**coming from.

Not a great deal of attacking threat in the team IMO