I can see it being bit of a frustrating season for us, as we'll drop a lot of points in games we could’ve picked something up, but didn’t because our defence is so cr*p. A few ‘what if’ games.
I don’t think we’ll go backwards dramatically. I am thinking it’ll be more like the season Leicester and Wolves had last season.
It won’t just be down to our defence being rubbish, it’ll also be down to the fact we’ll make so many signings to replace too many ageing players that we are kind of starting again. Going through a transitional period so to speak. Moyes has even hinted in recent interviews we may go backwards to hopefully go forward in the seasons beyond this one. He knows it’s going to be tough.
My biggest concern with Moyes is I am not sure if he is ruthless enough to drop out of form players. It was almost criminal how Fab and Cresswell never lost their place towards the end of last season. And that’s coming from someone who likes both players and appreciates what they’ve done for the club! The managers at the clubs competing right at the top are ruthless enough to drop players who don’t perform on a regular basis. When Karius made costly mistakes at Liverpool in European competitions for example Klopp went out and signed a new goalkeeper straightaway and I don’t believe Karius ever played again. Cresswell has another shocker in the Europa League and then starts 2-3 days later at Norwich!
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Time will tell how good Scamacca and Cornet are. But we have at least tried our best to breath new life into an attack that has done brilliantly in the last 2 seasons. But was even itself starting to look a bit stale towards the end of last season.
My only real disappointment with the transfer window this summer is I don’t think we’ve done anywhere near enough to improve on our weakness at the back. That really should have been number 1 priority. Whether Aguerd will be a good signing remains to be seen. He had a far from unconvincing 20 odd minutes at Rangers. But it’s unfair for me to judge him on 1 performance. Winston Reid’s debut at Villa springs to mind. Aguerd got injured weeks ago and we still haven’t brought in a replacement. Even after we sold Diop. And as much as I love Oggy the decision to offer him a new contract is looking baffling with every passing week.
Equally we lost Masuaku and still haven’t brought in a left back to compete or even push Cresswell out of the team.
At this moment in time I am thinking a finish around 8th-10th. However 2-3 signings to strengthen us defensively, plus Moyes dropping more underperforming players and I may change my mind.
I really do fancy us to have at least 1 good cup run again though.