Prediction time

[Robert N. LiM 4,220]

So come on then boys and girls, less than a week to the start of the season to go, Marney definitely coming, Francis almost certainly going. How do you think we''re going to do? Ladbrokes and William Hill have us as favourites or joint favourites for the title.

I''m not quite that optimistic. I''m going to predict a finish between fourth and sixth.

Why?

In our favour we''ve got three first-team regulars who are too good for the division and who rarely get injured (fingers crossed): Hucks, Ashton and Greeno, obviously. Also, we''ve been here before and know how it''s done.

But against us, I still think the midfield and central defence looks a bit thin.

Secondly, this is a bloody tough league - we didn''t win it by eight points last time because it was easy, we won it because (a) we were really good, (b) we were scandalously fortunate with (lack of) injuries and (c) we had an experienced side (especially the defence), who''d been playing together for two or three seasons. I think it''s going to take quite a while for all the new signings to gel, and I really think we need to be patient in the first few weeks, or even months of the season.

Long post, sorry. But - where are we going to finish? and why?

[Slim 0]

I think this season is going to be really interesting for us Norwich fans.

If the majority of the team play football like they did against Inter on Friday then most of the teams in the championship should be a push over, but if there''s one thing we''ve all learnt watching us play, we don''t make anything easy for ourselves.

I think all we can do now, is sit back and watch our boys return to the Premiership.

We can do it!

[Salopian 1]

I agree with Robert, totally.
On paper we have a team which should be good enough for the top 2, but the squad is so thin that with only a few injuries and we could struggle.

If Shackle loses form, or is injured, we could start leaking goals. If Deano is injured or struggles for some reason, then we might struggle to score enough.

If we have two injuries in the same position, striker, central defender, right back, etc, then we would have the familiar situation or people playing out of position, or replaced by academy players.

If we assume an injury level somewhere between the last two seasons, then Robert is probably about right, so long as the injuries are "run of the mill" rather than some of the longer ones we had last year.

The prospect could be improved by one or two further good signings.

[Northern Canary 0]

We should be up in the top 3 imo. but i have already said that these threads are a bit too early for me, i will not really be able to predict the season until i have seen the team play a few games of the season

[ZLF 271]

I think it will be another seasons of high and low emotion for city fans (I predicted the same and relegation last season).

I thin we are all struggling to recall just how hard it is to get out of this league, how much luck in running is needed and how much graft will be required to grind out a result at Hull for example.  We have the squad to get promoted but...

I have two concerns,

The first is do we have the mental toughness to succeed proper mental attitude for visits to crewe brighton hull etc?  Big time complacency is the biggest killer of promotion dreams in this league.  We are seen as a key team in this league and everyone will want to beat us or at least ensure they dont lose to us - that means a lot of patience and defenders to overcome.

Secondly is can the manager change the traits ofa life time and pick the best players each game rather than leaving the squads talent on the bench while relying on has been favourites?  Can he drop key players when they are out of form or sub them when ineffective?  Can he learn from his time in the prem and organise the defence to keep a shape and structure?  Can he ensure the defence and midfield work closely but maintain some gap between the players?  Can he encourage more than one player to actually tackle?  In essence can he become a tactician? 

If we can get these bits rights then we can get promoted.  My feelingis that we wont get the luck in running we had last time we won and will ''only'' make the play offs.

Below the play offs is a manager changing season IMO.

OTBC

[..xx..WoRtHy_In..xx.. 0]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I personally don''t think that you can ever predict football - things are always changing - but anyway. I reckon it''ll be harder than we think. Yeah of course we can do it but it doesn''t mean we will. It''s not always about tactics and stuff. Even if you just have an OK squad you can do anything, all you have to do is set your mind to it. If we think that we can win this leauge, and the players think that, then there is a good chance that we will. But we MUST sing and NOT boo our players!!! Sorry I''m waffling now.

[Viking 0]

Proper mental attitude:-

NCFC Championship Champions 2005/2006

Proper mental toughness:-

We are the best team in the league and we will beat all comers.

Board, players, supporters and everyone at NCFC should believe this if not we might aswell give up now.

We are the best in this league.

[Tumbleweed 106]

My prediction as things stand is fourth/fifth.

Reason is that I have not seen enough evidence that Nigel is sorting out the defence. I think we will be very good going forward (especially with Marney playing as a genuine winger), but I still worry about whether we can grab hold of midfield and seize control of a game. I don''t know enough about Jarrett, Hughes, Colin and J-LM so I have no idea how that will play out and whether it will relieve pressure on the centrebacks.

the marking in the defence has been very poor the last couple of seasons and we got punished for it last campaign. If the midfield fails to hold out then I have big worries about the number of goals we will concede. This will itself put pressure on the forwards to bury their chances if they know we have a leaky defence.

If Nigel uses the Francis money to buy a decent tall centreback then I would go for a prediction of 3rd or 2nd.

 

[ZLF 271]

There have been a couple of these prediction type posts but this is the only one I can find at the mo - pre season the expectation or definition of success was broadly drawn as, mainly from memory,  

over acheiving  - auto promotion

Par                   - playoff or 7.8th 

Below that        - failure and change manager.

As teh current expectations are around mid table why should we wait until the season end to do what most commentators set as the standard pre season?