Challenging for the Title

[Dr Gloom 22706]

14 minutes ago, Rayvin said:

 

Aye, agreed on this. I also wonder if there's a wider thing at work here in terms of how the rest of the league perceives us too. If you look at our first full season under Howe, we did well because we exploited an arrogance in other teams who felt that we were still fairly shit based on the players we had - or that they fancied their chances against us. Forest are benefitting from that this season. Once we are title contenders and people take us seriously as a dangerous team, they're going to sit deeper, take fewer risks, try to react to us more. That allows us to dictate terms for how the game will be, same as the City/Arsenal/Liverpool teams. And I do wonder if that might actually be an overall positive in a lot of ways.

 

We have to build into it for sure, get the right players to unlock low block defenses, but as much as our mentality around the club needs to evolve to seeing us as winners - I also wonder if everyone else's has to do the same. In other words, would Liverpool be so successful this season if everyone else believed they could get something off them and really went for it?

 

that's the missing piece. howe has struggled at times with the transition this season from a counter-attacking side to a possession-based one that can control games and unlock the low block. howe's deicsion to move tonali deeper and bruno further up has changed everything in that sense. 

 

good analysis here from one of gemmill's crushes 

 

 

[Dr Gloom 22706]

9 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said:

I saw an arsenal fan saying we were 'bang average' other than Isak which made me genuinely lol.

 

a lot of people who don't watch us every week would agree. 

 

i know next to nowt about the other teams in the PL tbh, because our games are the only ones i watch week in, week out 

[Toonpack 10542]

8 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

 

that's the missing piece. howe has struggled at times with the transition this season from a counter-attacking side to a possession-based one that can control games and unlock the low block. howe's deicsion to move tonali deeper and bruno further up has changed everything in that sense. 

 

good analysis here from one of gemmill's crushes 

 

 

 

Welcome to last week boys and girls (erm more boys)

[Renton 22615]

33 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said:

I saw an arsenal fan saying we were 'bang average' other than Isak which made me genuinely lol. If he had've said we might struggle a bit without him for goals I could understand as currently we have nobody else who could be a stand alone striker who is ready to fill in for a few weeks, (Osula isn't ready and unfortunately Wilson's had it).

Bang average. Rightio.

 

Bruno, Gordon, Joelinton, Tonali, Botman, Hall, Tino are elite international class. We have a whole tier beneath them who are currently lower international class, some of whom are young with masses of potential. On our day, we can compete with anyone in the premier league. I include Liverpool in that, who I genuinely feel we have been unlucky against. 

Edited yesterday at 17:13 by Renton

[aimaad22 4393]

33 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

 

that's the missing piece. howe has struggled at times with the transition this season from a counter-attacking side to a possession-based one that can control games and unlock the low block. howe's deicsion to move tonali deeper and bruno further up has changed everything in that sense. 

 

good analysis here from one of gemmill's crushes 

 

 

 

That's the other thing in our favor if we can figure out the PSR lark.

 

Howe has shown he can adapt and come back from slumps, managed a horrendous injury crisis with dignity. So many of these other trendy managers fancied by the media just yet havent been able to do that, look at Ange right now. And will remain to be seen what Nuno does at Forrest when they have their inevitable slump. 

[Alex 35979]

3 hours ago, Gemmill said:

However, the treble remains in our sights this season. 

I’d settle for CL football next season and winning the League and FA Cups

[aimaad22 4393]

31 minutes ago, Renton said:

Bang average. Rightio.

 

Bruno, Gordon, Joelinton, Tonali, Botman, Hall, Tino are elite international class. We have a whole tier beneath them who are currently lower international class, some of whom are young with masses of potential. On our day, we can compete with anyone in the premier league. I include Liverpool in that, who I genuinely feel we have been unlucky against. 

 

A couple of them on Twitter seem to have decided they want Tino and 25M would get him  

 

They absolutely would love any of our midfield or full backs and they absolutely need somebody like Isak and Gordon.

[Ayatollah Hermione 14286]

I agree with regards to injury to Isak, like. If we can do it all, I’d be trying to get someone in on loan because we all know Wilson’s February return date is about as likely as Richie Edwards nipping back to his old gaff for a change of clothes 

[Dr Gloom 22706]

42 minutes ago, aimaad22 said:

 

A couple of them on Twitter seem to have decided they want Tino and 25M would get him  

 

They absolutely would love any of our midfield or full backs and they absolutely need somebody like Isak and Gordon.

it’s fucking hilarious that fans of the legacy clubs gan on like Mike Ashley is still running the show.
 

The game is up, bitches. You can slow us down with this psr shite but the days of us rolling over and giving you our best players are over 

[Rayvin 5600]

8 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

it’s fucking hilarious that fans of the legacy clubs gan on like Mike Ashley is still running the show.
 

The game is up, bitches. You can slow us down with this psr shite but the days of us rolling over and giving you our best players are over 

 

I feel like the actual clubs know this, it's just the fans who haven't quite caught up. Have any of the actual clubs properly tested us yet on this front? Not sure they have. Clearly they don't fancy their chances.

[The Fish 11112]

A one off title challenging season? Not a lot. Key players stay fit, bit more quality in 1 or two positions. Bit of luck. 

 

To consistently be a title challenging club? Fucking loads.

We need a conveyor belt of talent from the youth teams to provide both depth for the first team squad, and a reliable revenue stream. 

We need recruitment to consistently find players that can evolve the options we have on match days (so we don't become predictable) without veering too far from the overall identity of the football we play. 

We need to get the balance right between selling players that are valuable, without selling players that are priceless.

We need commercial deals that can give us the freedom to go off and sign the finished article, in that key position we need.

We need a manager that has won things, who can instil in the squad a winning mentality.

 

 

et-fucking-cetera

Edited 8 hours ago by The Fish

[Dr Gloom 22706]

6 minutes ago, The Fish said:

A one off title challenging season? Not a lot. Key players stay fit, bit more quality in 1 or two positions. Bit of luck. 

 

To consistently be a title challenging club? Fucking loads.

We need a conveyor belt of talent from the youth teams to provide both depth for the first team squad, and a reliable revenue stream. 

We need recruitment to consistently find players that can evolve the options we have on match days (so we don't become predictable) without veering too far from the overall identity of the football we play. 

We need to get the balance right between selling players that are valuable, without selling players that are priceless.

We need commercial deals that can give us the freedom to go off and sign the finished article, in that key position we need.

We need a manager that has won things, who can instil in the squad a winning mentality.

 

 

et-fucking-cetera

agree with all of that except the manager point. Eddie can win stuff for us if the other stuff you mentioned comes together 

[The Fish 11112]

27 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

agree with all of that except the manager point. Eddie can win stuff for us if the other stuff you mentioned comes together 

Eddie can win cups. Then he can win titles.

[LongTimeAdmirer 1304]

21 hours ago, Dr Gloom said:

 

 

 

Fish said the same thing and you agreed with him farken 

[David Kelly 1306]

Potentially we might have a better chance of winning the league this season than we do in others over the next 2-3 years.  Win tonight and we are potentially 2 behind Arsenal and 9 off Liverpool.  Obviously that's still a fair way to go but Liverpool aren't looking imperious at the moment and any injury to or loss of form from Salah would make a massive difference in this second half of the season (he has 31 goal contributions which is about 10 more than anyone else).  Arsenal are missing Saka for a while and Jesus for the rest of the season and still don't look like they're going to win the league and City are already behind us.  Of course it looks highly likely City are going to strengthen this month and Arsenal probably will too and we would certainly be relying on a good run with injuries (particularly Isak) but I do think this season is looking like one of those seasons were the legacy clubs could fuck up and leave a route through to allow us to challenge.  Don't get me wrong, things could very easily go a different way for us.  Next season I seriously doubt there will be as much of a chance.

 

To genuinely challenge on a consistent level is another thing.  I would say we need 3 elite level starters at keeper, centreback and right wing.  None of the top sides would consider having Pope, Schar or Murphy as their first choice.  On top of that the squad (which is certainly the best it's been for a long long time) needs filling out.  I know he's going through a great spell at the moment, but top sides wouldn't even have Murphy as a squad player.  We need a back up striker of the level of Wilson but who can actually stay fit.  In general though, we need to improve squad depth in every position.  Winning a cup would be massive too, especially if we did it by beating someone like Liverpool in a final.  That experience for the players and management would be a game changer I think.

[wykikitoon 21638]

1 hour ago, The Fish said:

et-fucking-cetera

 

[Holden McGroin 6997]

1 hour ago, David Kelly said:

Potentially we might have a better chance of winning the league this season than we do in others over the next 2-3 years.  Win tonight and we are potentially 2 behind Arsenal and 9 off Liverpool.  Obviously that's still a fair way to go but Liverpool aren't looking imperious at the moment and any injury to or loss of form from Salah would make a massive difference in this second half of the season (he has 31 goal contributions which is about 10 more than anyone else).  Arsenal are missing Saka for a while and Jesus for the rest of the season and still don't look like they're going to win the league and City are already behind us.  Of course it looks highly likely City are going to strengthen this month and Arsenal probably will too and we would certainly be relying on a good run with injuries (particularly Isak) but I do think this season is looking like one of those seasons were the legacy clubs could fuck up and leave a route through to allow us to challenge.  Don't get me wrong, things could very easily go a different way for us.  Next season I seriously doubt there will be as much of a chance.

 

To genuinely challenge on a consistent level is another thing.  I would say we need 3 elite level starters at keeper, centreback and right wing.  None of the top sides would consider having Pope, Schar or Murphy as their first choice.  On top of that the squad (which is certainly the best it's been for a long long time) needs filling out.  I know he's going through a great spell at the moment, but top sides wouldn't even have Murphy as a squad player.  We need a back up striker of the level of Wilson but who can actually stay fit.  In general though, we need to improve squad depth in every position.  Winning a cup would be massive too, especially if we did it by beating someone like Liverpool in a final.  That experience for the players and management would be a game changer I think.

 

9 points but Liverpool would have a game in hand. The law of averages say we can't keep this winning streak up for much longer.  We are only 3 points off being in 8th. Sobering. Makes you think.