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New season beckons - how do you see things?


Jerseybean

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As a new campaign nears kick off I have a few thoughts on what’s different compared with recent seasons. Be interested to hear others thoughts.

On balance I’m feeling more optimistic than I have for a few years, the main reason being the impact of an experienced manager. Who has set out…..

  • A more cohesive, clear and coherent approach in terms of recruitment and playing style
  • A sensible, well communicated medium-term plan which is realistic and clearly communicated
  • A significant clear-out giving us a smaller more focused squad
  • Focused recruitment (rather than a scatter gun approach)
  • A better balance in the squad with a decent mix of experience and youth
  • A recognition that our medical infrastructure needed addressing
  • A slight change in culture (which will continue and takes time) including shared values/responsibility, greater level of fitness, less bullshit/gibberish and greater accountability

Of course we need to see what happens on the pitch! I’m expecting better performances, us being more resilient, being harder to beat and working harder, being fitter. My main concern remains where will the goals come from.

I conclude with us finishing 13th.

 

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14 minutes ago, Jerseybean said:

As a new campaign nears kick off I have a few thoughts on what’s different compared with recent seasons. Be interested to hear others thoughts.

On balance I’m feeling more optimistic than I have for a few years, the main reason being the impact of an experienced manager. Who has set out…..

  • A more cohesive, clear and coherent approach in terms of recruitment and playing style
  • A sensible, well communicated medium-term plan which is realistic and clearly communicated
  • A significant clear-out giving us a smaller more focused squad
  • Focused recruitment (rather than a scatter gun approach)
  • A better balance in the squad with a decent mix of experience and youth
  • A recognition that our medical infrastructure needed addressing
  • A slight change in culture (which will continue and takes time) including shared values/responsibility, greater level of fitness, less bullshit/gibberish and greater accountability

Of course we need to see what happens on the pitch! I’m expecting better performances, us being more resilient, being harder to beat and working harder, being fitter. My main concern remains where will the goals come from.

I conclude with us finishing 13th.

 

Yes can agree with most of  that. And where goals from a def. worry. I really feel Wells is our man mind  he has got to really show he has what we signed him for. Goals

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After the end of last season I don’t see how you could be so optimistic about things? 
The signings have been what i would have expected and mainly to change attitude within the dressing room as we had no stand out leader. 
I still don’t see how we score many goals so i see nothing but a tough season ahead 

21st and I’d be happy with that 

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Not great,

We ended last season awful released a load of players including a striker that was a record signing before Kalas, and brought in 3 players. 2 of which were a free that is in an overpacked midfield. Dont get your hopes up folks. Not sure what our lord and saviour expects. Hopefully not alot, and he can stop kidding us about promotion.

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Unfortunately it doesn’t look good for us on the pitch, but I am really looking forward to going to Ashton Gate on Saturday and hoping  for a big crowd and great atmosphere.

I am trying to remember when we last opened a season with seemingly so little up front. Given how poor we were last year I was expecting a couple of signings to get excited about. To date they haven’t materialised. Still it’s a new season, our first with a proven manager in charge for a while, so hopefully we will ship more of the squad out ASAP to free up our wage bill and land another Tammy like loan before the end of the month.  

We do  appear to be producing some promising youngsters and I am expecting to see HNM develop into a top class midfielder this season. My concerns are that we will struggle to bring the ball out of defence, don’t have a midfield player that can control the tempo of our play and keep possession when under pressure, and don’t have anyone who will score 15 goals plus for us.  What I have just written makes us sound crap and I haven’t even mentioned our defending of set pieces and corners!  We look to be in trouble on the pitch.

 

 

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Still have concerns that NP wasn't able to improve things when he came in last season (debatable that it actually got worse !).

But l like what has been happening since the season ended and we are definitely in the "players to fit the system" mode and the more back to basics simplifying of things will help - IMO.

I predict a slow start but improvement post Xmas.

9th position.

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Like many others i cant see where goals are going to come from.  I would like to see a Striker on loan  coming in.

The signings made are as expected - we simply don't have the money for marquee signings. I really think selling Kalas will be a big mistake - you simply cant rely on Baker and Taylor-Moore not good enough.

On a plus we do have the likes of Weiman and Williams available to us this season. There are also youngsters who i think will prove their worth this season.

I cant see anything but lower to mid table. Hopefully will build on that next year when finances are not so tight. I think this year is all about staying in the division.

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1 hour ago, Hampshire reds said:

i think it will be a very average season. cant see where the goals are coming from. lost our main striker in Fam and not been replaced. Time will tell . 

Fam is hardly a player I would fear if we played against him.

Saying that, not sure any of our remaining players would be ones to fear either...

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To be fair I feel this is the first season in a long time where the fans haven’t been misguided. How many pre-seasons have we had talk of ‘going for it’ and ‘this is our season’ etc. The bluff and spin from the board to get our hopes up, and then a mediocre season plays out. So far I haven’t seen any talk of this, which manages expectations.

On the pitch, we look like we could be a tighter and fitter team, higher tempo and squeezing, not giving opposition 70 odd minutes with the ball every game.

However, I struggle to see us scoring anymore than 50 goals, which is a real worry. Who scores them? Unless there has been a significant improvement in the movement of the forwards, vision and passing ability of the midfielders (which doesn’t happen overnight), I can’t see anybody getting above 10. Fam had his limitations, but he was good for 12 goals a season. This could be a very 1-0 or 2-1 season. 

I would be delighted with mid-table given the lack of recruitment and the horrendous season last time out, but I think we will be around 16th/17th. 

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I'm like many others and unsure what to expect with us this year i don't see why the play offs is'nt something we should be aiming for, yes last year was awful but quiet clearly something was'nt right wether that be fitness, mood in the camp or just simply not good enough, we've finally got a proven manager who we all craved, but obviously lacking a striker is concerning, but we do have wells who if he does start contributing could be that goalscorer we need i don't think we've seen him play a consistent amount of games in his actual position, also most successful teams the whole team chips in with goals and this is where the realistic part comes in i don't think we have that either sadly, if we start well then i think we could have a pretty decent season but again realistically 12th seems to be about the most likely.

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41 minutes ago, VT05763 said:

Still have concerns that NP wasn't able to improve things when he came in last season (debatable that it actually got worse !).

But l like what has been happening since the season ended and we are definitely in the "players to fit the system" mode and the more back to basics simplifying of things will help - IMO.

I predict a slow start but improvement post Xmas.

9th position.

9th ? I’ll have some of what you are on. 

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Before each season starts I’m always hopeful rather than optimistic however this season I’m actually looking forward this time around for one reason in particular - City have a proper manager at last in Nigel Pearson.

He released many of the underperforming players, recruited new and experienced blood in Simpson, James and King along with a new CB in Atkinson, who if his YouTube clips are anything to go by looks to be an excellent signing.

Sure we do look to be short of 20 a season striker but these guys are in expensive but still in huge demand  so it’s going to be down to what we have to fill the void. Wells is due a good season, as is Martin and  the young guns like Conway, Bell and Semenyo will all get more opportunity to step up.

Im cautiously optimistic that we’ll be around the pray off places come March/April.

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I mean, Wells has been a bit of a disappointment so far at City, but honestly, he’s as good as we’re going to get as a pure goal scorer. 
 

He’s another one that was signed without thinking about how he fits into LJ’s tactical system… if he ever had one. 
 

Pearson knows this. So long as Wells has bought into Pearson wants. Displays the work ethic out of possession (which he says he will) and as a team we can get him the ball in areas he can do his thing, he will score at a better rate than pretty much anyone else at this level. 
 

With us, it’s ‘creativity’ that has always been the real issue. I.e. giving your strikers enough good chances.

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Seems we are putting a lot of faith in Wells (who lacked effort/interest in most games he played last season) and Odowda/Weimann who run around a bit but dont score too many. Fammy has not been replaced but the defence middle has been added to.

So we will lack goalscoring/firepower but should be harder to beat, cannot see a top half finish. Yes we are building....again....but we will we will lack wins to make any impression this season

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On paper the squad looks no better, arguably worse, than last season. Despite Nige coming in we ended the season in awful form.

I am not expecting much and just hope we get a few results early on so the mood doesn't drop. I do look at other clubs and think not many have strengthened. Hopefully a few points deductions coming and we can stay out of a relegation scrap.

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Il answer this once the transfer window opens. IF Kalas is sold and we get another cb plus big signing striker then I could see us pushing towards playoffs. We still have a talented squad (who were mainly on the treatment table last year) so I believe Nigel can get the best out of a smaller, fitter squad and make us a more robust but effective team. Right now I’d say 10-13th which would be success after last year 

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Last season was an aberration. Lots of factors at play, Covid, lack of fitness in general and also the injuries. It seems that the dressing room was not a good place with too many unhappy unmotivated players.

It seems to me that most of the above have been tackled. We have a manager that the fan base and players seem to believe in and have recruited ( bar a striker) exactly what we needed.

 I see no reason why we won’t revert to a top half, flirt with the playoffs position as previously and finish around 10th. Apart from those with parachute money and perhaps QPR, most teams look weaker.

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1 hour ago, JonDolman said:

I agree with Nige that we could have a good season. The players look very fit. We look much stronger defensively.

Johnson got us to a play off final based on a solid defence and no real goal scorer.

@Rocking Red Cyrilwe have to play to Wells’ strengths which for the majority of the time he’s been here we haven’t 

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I think, by championship standards, it could be a fairly disappointing season. I think the top 4 picks itself, and Derby are already taking up 1 of 3 relegation places. 

I usually do a 1-24 prediction with my brother and found myself wanted to put lots of teams in 14-20th positions, us included. Lots of teams have squads with less depth and/ or quality. Swansea and Blackburn* are examples of teams that have lost key loanees and top goal scorers, I think they could both finish notably lower than they did last season. Some teams have more serious financial situations too, Reading for example, which I expect will impact them on the pitch too.

I think we'll be finishing about 14th /15th. Happy with the signing of Atkinson and I hope King and James can create a more competitive culture that Nige speaks about, some injured players like JD and Weimann coming back will be a big plus, still have a top goalkeeper at this level so I think we'll be fairly comfortable. I hope and expect that we look more competitive and aggressive than last season. However, lacking a bit of quality and a real match winner to get us into the top 10 and pushing playoffs. 

Here's hoping I'm too pessimistic and we have a really exciting season. Can't wait for Saturday. COYR

* - assuming Armstrong goes to Southampton as rumoured

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I can see a lot of 1:0, 1:1, 2:1 results for and against. As with most of us goals is the main worry for me but also if and when we go a goal down, is there enough creativity to make things happen? I'm not sure that there is. On the plus side I don't see us getting constantly over run or being picked off when looking for an equalizer or a winner which was so evident last year. 

In summary, anything more than 12th would be cause for optimism that we are over the debacle of last season and everything that went with it!

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1 hour ago, robin_unreliant said:

On paper the squad looks no better, arguably worse, than last season. Despite Nige coming in we ended the season in awful form.

I am not expecting much and just hope we get a few results early on so the mood doesn't drop. I do look at other clubs and think not many have strengthened. Hopefully a few points deductions coming and we can stay out of a relegation scrap.

What?………surely you can’t be serious? The addition of Atkinson, James, King and Simpson instantly strengthen the squad. 

Maybe you’ve overlooked the number of OOC players Nige let go…………:cool2:

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