Rarely been so little interested in the start of a new season. The thought of spending over £150m on Barcola seems crazy to me. Seen nothing from this guy that makes me believe he will be worth even half that…we are about to be ripped off big time.
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A lot will come down to Iraola and how fast he adjusts to the rigours of a 60+ game season.
If he manages to keep the team fresh and avoid a high number of injuries, there’s nothing stopping us from winning a major trophy, or even the title. City have lost a lot of key figures, including Guardiola, and Arsenal don’t scare anyone with their style of play and over-reliance on bending the rules on set pieces, which is supposed to be under greater scrutiny anyway.
Of course, the precondition for the above is that we don’t do something stupid like leaving Iraola desperately short in some key area.
I feel the same about him but I might be able to provide a crumb of comfort. Speaking about this whole protracted transfer saga with the (French) Father-in-Law , I’ve always maintained that I’d be happy for us to hand that amount of money over for Doué. But he is adamant that Barcola is the better player , and he sees them play every week.
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Similarly but maybe coming to slightly different conclusions, I was talking to a PSG fan at work and he had the following comments about Barcola:
- He’s not a finisher - he’ll create chances for himself but he does not put enough away
- He doesn’t come with Dembele or Mbappe style peripheral circus/drama
- Ultimately he and fellow PSG fans see Doue as the better prospect and if good money comes in for him, maybe it is a time good time for Barcola and PSG to part ways - on good terms
I’m 50-50 on him. He could kick on be great. But, even if he is average, what we are buying is, besides his skill set, is his personality and experience. He’s not going to be weighted down by expectations, moving to a bigger club, the jersey, not having won anything and so on - he been there and done that.
Ultimately I just want the eason to start and see how we develop - what ever the roster…
My expectations for this season are probably similar to my expectations for last season: i.e. the complete opposite of what actually happened.
I suspect we will have a slow start as the new coaching regime comes into its own. I expect a slowe will probably have a few disappointing draws and occasional defeats until the players get up to speed, both physically and tactically.
Hopefully we will be floating around the upper half of the table by Christmas and can push on from there to get top 4.
I’m not expecting too much from Europe, but I expect us to make it through the group stage.
We should know by January whether Iraola can get a tune out of most players. However I don’t expect us to fill any gaps at that point unless there are opportunistic signings to be made.
I just hope that the fans will give them time to get things right.
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I expect to enjoy the football a lot more than I did last season.
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In parts, I do agree, but I think it will be a frustrating season similar to Klopp’s first season, where we dominate games early on, then we will notice a massive drop off after 60-70 minutes when the players are blowing out their arses.
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I’m expecting more misery.
We’ve been dogshit for 18 months and have somehow managed to make ourselves even weaker as things stand.
Right now we have no reliable right-back. We have a 35 year old CB who is basically unexpendable given our other options are 2 kids who have never kicked a ball in the PL and a loanee. We have the same 5 CM’s who stunk the place out the whole of last season to varying degrees. Szoboslai maybe gets a pass on that one but he wouldn’t get near a starting place at Arsenal or City. On the flanks we’re relying on Munoz hitting the ground running and Ngumoha finding some end product.
We needed a mass clearout this summer and 7 or 8 quality signings at a minimum. We’ve signed 1 and got 1 on loan. Absolutely fucking disgraceful. Whoever’s responsible for this shambolic situation needs fucking off asap.
I see a couple of people are talking about winning the title! I’ll have a pint of what you’re having please. We wont finish within 20 points of Arsenal or City.
As for Europe I expect we’ll qualify for the 1st knockout phase and then get knocked out.
I feel incredibly sorry for Iraola inheriting this fucking shambles.
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Not criticising your mate but don’t all fans to a certain extent do this.
Morton is a case in point, anyone on this board actually wanting to make his first team when he left.
Now apparently he is the greatest CM and better than some of our crap who will no doubt end up being clambered for somewhere else when they move.
I don’t disagree. My point was just to highlight a slightly different take on him.
I emphasize, I’m 50-50 on him coming (or not). I’m not too worried about the price - it is obviously high but you’d get a player that has played at the highest level, won lots of things and played for a big team. Success wont depend entirely on him, there are obviously the other 10 players, the manager, the squad and the coaching staff, but he will likely not be a hindrance to it.
I kind of expect a transitional season similar to Rodgers’ first (yes, I really said that) or Klopp’s first and second, hopefully with a finish in CL spots. The team should be playing much more enjoyable football but with poor squad depth and inevitable injuries, I doubt we can be looking at finishing higher than fifth. Most of all, I want to see clear signs of progress and return of the playing identity that made us fearsome under Klopp.
Does fifth mean CL qualification again?
Anyway, I don’t expect anything from this season. Too many unknowns at this stage. If Barcola can be brought in, it will fill a gaping hole, and it’s not out of the question that the club still moves for one or two other players. We’ll see. What Iraola says and does fills me with confidence that he knows what he’s doing. There is a plan, and it will slowly unfold. Time is needed, and he’ll get that time.
I hope for some good football, and am quite confident that we’ll get some, like the one we got yesterday against Como during the first half. But don’t expect it on a regular basis, and throughout ninety minutes. Too early for that.
I’m just looking for some enjoyment and passion from the players after that sad last season. And to fight for every ball. That will already be a big improvement.
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English teams would have to be very bad across the three European competitions to not win that additional spot. Definitely not happening. As seen in the last two years they get it more or less done during the league stage.
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I want to enjoy watching Liverpool play. The last season of Slot was gutting to me to see as a Liverpool fan.
Results are mostly secondary. Iraola needs to have that time given to him for him to implement his brand of football and we brought him over especially for his brand of football. I don’t ever want to see meaningless possession games with no end result
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Not sure if that was a transitional season.
More I think of Rodgers it was just one good season.
I think we’ll probably see some parallels with Jurgen’s first season and a bit, in terms of the players having to raise their fitness levels to cope with the demands of the system.
Hopefully two years under Slot hasn’t left them quite as unfit as that last BR team, but they will have to do a fair bit of adaptation.
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I liked Rodgers’ football in the second part of 2012/13, after Sturridge and Coutinho had arrived. It was then that I started thinking “OK, we’re onto something now” and it was evolving nicely if inconsistently due to not having a proper defence. With Klopp, it was obvious what he wanted to do quite early on but I thought it took Mane arriving to see what he really wanted to do with the team.
In a way, like Zibby said, I think the players will have to (re-)learn what it’s like to play high intensity football again, raise their fitness levels, get used to their new teammates (if we manage to get some players in, which is never a given with us). There’s also a small matter of Van Dijk, Alisson, Tsimikas and Gomez leaving next season, which will also have to be navigated. This is why I think we’re actually in for two transitional seasons, rather than one.
Fucking win it. I know it’s a transition year, etc., but it could also be the last year we still have two of the best of all time: VVD and Alisson. Just fucking win everything. Replacing them next year will be even harder than replacing Salah.
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Top four.
For me the team/squad has too many gaps to be expected to win it but it should be enough with Iraola´s coaching to get top four and even 3rd, given the competition.
I think our midfield just isn´t good enough or balanced enough for us to be the best side, and likely we don´t have enough firepower from wide (though Barcola would help a lot). But with Iraola and with luck of key players staying fit, top four should be expected..
As for Iraola, he hasn´t exactly been backed and given the squad and it being his first season, I think top four would be a good enough job from him. 3rd or even 2nd would be a job very well done. 1st, well…
Brutal but I tend to agree.
Our fans on here really overrate our midfielders, in my opinion, based on them winning the league with superstar attackers and defenders around them (which we now don´t have) a few years ago. Our midfield cannot particularly pass and isnt particularly solid, and they do not suit our very expensive number 10.
Our back four has one player who can definitely deliver at the required standard and he surely can´t play as much as last year, flanks are mediocre and our two genuinely talented stars of Isak and Wirtz have struggled so far (and imo will keep struggling a bit with the players around and behind them who don´t suit them). The squad is not good enough and we didn´t make nearly enough signings or sales.
That said, we have a better manager, we should at least be more energetic and industrious which may make up for our lack of quality, Kerkez and Frimpong are more settled, Jacquet and Araujo look like they will be reasonable enough, Wirtz should be more used to the league, and the competition is also poor so I think top four is realistic to expect.
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