Success criteria for the season 2019-20

grey_til_I_dye

I'd assume it was an aspirational target, Herb, which seems fair enough to me. We could finish top of the rest, but i don't think it would be a failure if we didn't.

MrsGrey

Fortuneseeker said:

We should have qualified for the Europa League group stages under Slav in 2016 but mucked it up losing to Swansea and Stoke at the end of that season.

I never think like this. To me it is illogical.

Why 'losing to Swansea and Stoke' at the end of the season?

You qualify by winning enough games over the season.

If we had won 2 earlier, we wouldn't have needed to win the last 2.

Those 2 losses were no more costly than any other 2 losses.

Lukerz

Has Pelle been advertised as a top manager? I wouldn’t say he is a so much of a top manager that, as a result, he should be achieving a certain standard this season to build on last season. For me he is the best level we can get at our club & he is vastly experienced.

For me, people seem to refer to last season as a bit underwhelming but I am not sure why. 52 points & not far off break even on GD is a pretty good season for a club like ours given our recent premier league record.

If we were to finish in the 50-60 points bracket, I would be very happy with that as players develop another year, the style develops another year & we hopefully keep building. Yes players will eventually go. What you do is you sell one & sign others to develop the side. In a years time Diop may want to move upwards, we will not be at that level yet, we get £60m for him & buy one or two players to improve the squad. The year after it may be Rice, the year after...Anderson.

We have to evolve as a club & that will involve selling players at certain times.

jay_in_cpt

The owners I'm sure stated that Pelle was a top manager acquisition .... experienced Luke, then he is in the same category as Big Sam & even Steve Bruce for that matter...Last season was IMO ok, it finished ok, but there was so much inconsistency , it could have been Slaven still in charge IMO... This season will IMO be a bench mark to see if Pelle is worth it....

claretandbluesky

I think its a pivotal season as we definitely moved in a good direction last season even though we didn't have the start or consistency to really turn that into something which showed through the table. We played better football and had a few players who were definitely able to move us forward. This season we need show we can actually move forward within the table as otherwise we may find it hard to keep our best players.


So for me its simply more points and a better placing than last season that allows us to make as strong an argument as possible come the end of the season that we are most definitely heading in the right direction and that players such as Rice, Anderson and Diop should stay.


One other point is that although we as fans never really know, it did seem last season we were very united as a team and the effort level was really consistent. This is also a plus from last season and must continue.

I think it's going to be a good one!

MrsGrey

claretandbluesky said:

allows us to make as strong an argument as possible come the end of the season that we are most definitely heading in the right direction and that players such as Rice, Anderson and Diop should stay.

A fair point.

MIAHammer

MrsGrey said:

Trouble with making League position the measure...

9th place next season :ok:

Season after 8th? Then 7th, and so on?

It's not a measure that has a long shelf life.

If you only make it by league position, then unless we win it in 9 years time, we've failed to improve.

I think we have to be more nuanced, which is why my criteria are related to becoming a consistent top half team (bobbing around 10th - 7th, maybe pushing up towards 6th) for a few years. That is progress for me: becoming consistent. If we finish 7th next year and 9th the year after, I won't see that as regression.

(Edit - yes about Cup competitions. A lottery.)

Totally agree Mrs. Grey. That's what I was trying to say.

Since we got back into the Premier League, we have finished:
10th, 13th, 12th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 10th.

We haven't finished Top 10 in consecutive seasons since 2009 so, for me, finishing top 10 next season would be considered a success.

ASLEFshrugged

At the very minimum I expect us to equal last season (10th, 52pts, -3 GD, 4th Rnd in the Cups) but providing we don't have any major upsets like the last three seasons I am confident we can do better (7th-9th, 55-60pts, 0 GD, 5th Rnd - QF).

I still see this as a transitional season for Pellegrini so I'm prepared to be patient but 2020-21 is when I'm expecting him to deliver.

Vorselaarhammer

Top 8 and positive GD would be blinding...

Top 10 and positive GD I would be happy...

Not getting hammered by City would be nice this season....

alderz

Until we have a positive goal difference across a whole season I will say they success for me is getting a positive goal difference.

That would probably mean top half, which would also be success for me.

I never ‘expect’ a cup run and it doesn’t define success for me. However, I would be very annoyed if we do the old 70% rotation we’ve seen in the past.

EXETERHAMMER

For me, a season when I actually get a buzz from our games. The Bilic and Payet season had such a feelgood factor. I would like a repeat

Hamstew

I'm not fussed about a cup run. Would be good to have one but for me I just want us to be beat the lesser teams and not be embarrassed in front of thousands of viewers.

Expat_Hammer

And do the double over the spuds, that would do it for me :biggrin:

ianbishoplegend

I have high hopes, don’t see much improvement around us. With Hazard gone, can’t think of many players to be afraid of on the the day. City, Spurs and Liverpool are the only teams that play really well consistently.

MIAHammer

Micheal Owen predicting we’ll finish 7th.


https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9635319/michael-owen-man-utd-champions-league/

ianbishoplegend

Beating Tubby Lampard is all I really want

MunichHammer

ianbishoplegend said:

Beating Tubby Lampard is all I really want

So we do the double over Chelsea and get relegated with a gd of - 75 and 6 points?

Brother_Sledge

The 'highly accurate' BT Sport computer prediction for 2019/20
1- Man C. 94pts, 2- Liverpool 88, 3- Spuds 75, 4-Chelski 67.
11- West Ham 44pts (GD -20), 20- Newcastle 37, 21- Norwich 34, 22- Blunts 32.
(I am particularly looking forward to the 4-4 draw with Arsenal. :doh:

Pearces_Left_Foot

Blunts are so bad they finish 22nd out of 20 teams !

baracks_a_hammer

baracks_a_hammer said:

Good - positive GD and 8th or above in the league plus none of our top players wanting to leave if 7th or 8th doesn’t achieve Europa

Bad - being humiliated in either cup competition. Also starting badly and then somehow declaring it to be a decent season if we claw it back and finish around 10th

I haven’t even gone away on my summer holiday with the kids yet, and already it seems a couple of these hopes/aspirations for season 19/20 could already be up in smoke

Vorselaarhammer

Vorselaarhammer said:

Top 8 and positive GD would be blinding...

Top 10 and positive GD I would be happy...

Not getting hammered by City would be nice this season....

So already my first wish for the season didn't happen....

ianbishoplegend

My only wish now is to thrash Chelsea. Can’t stand the tubby one in charge of them.

SuzanneClaret

I think Lampard it was of the best players ever to come out of our academy, at Chelsea he became world class.

I hope he succeeds* as a manager as I think we need more English ex-players making it as managers.

Obviously thought not at Chelsea :biggrin:

alderz

I’ve always liked him

IronHerb

My wish is to thrash Chelsea with or without Lampard. Simple really.

grey_til_I_dye

Like Lampard, can't abide Chelsea.

ASLEFshrugged

Agree with Suze although I think under different circumstances (i.e. Uncle Harry not getting sacked) Frank could have done just as well if he'd stayed here.

Chelsea used to be 2nd in my hate list but they've slipped somewhat recently and I'd certainly be pleased if Frank could get one over on Klopp or Guardiola.

ianbishoplegend

Awful player and awful person

Jorderz_Moyes_will_be_Moyes

Fantastic player and seems a very decent person, to be honest. So I don't know how you can say either.

And while we're on Lampard, can we not call people 'tubby'? I don't see why it's acceptable to reference somebody's weight just because they used to be a footballer. It would be out of order in any other walk of life so it should be out of order here.

baracks_a_hammer

The memory is a little hazy but to this day I still don’t know what he did wrong to cause some of our supporters to despise him.