Why why why?

[Vermilion]

We did, but they had a nightmare period with Scolari. Ancelotti will be a different kettle of fish.

Both Manu and Chelsea have far superior defences, Chelsea have a better midfield and we have the best strike partnership, but then Man U have more attacking options.

We'll finish 3rd. Chelsea 1st, Manu 2nd and us 3rd.

Pretty much how i feel it will go too.

[-V-]

Im not blaming Torres for picking up knocks lol and im not being negative. This forum is for discussion and i am being realistic not negative.

Ngog is not good enough, Voronin is not good enough and while Johnson maybe an improvement going forward he is not an improvement defensively.

As things stand I believe we are just 1 good striker away from winning the league but as of right now I know we will fall short again.

3 weeks left in the transfer window, hopefully Rafa has a trick up his sleeve yet. We certainly should have plenty of money left over

[Craig_H]

Im not blaming Torres for picking up knocks lol and im not being negative. This forum is for discussion and i am being realistic not negative.

Ngog is not good enough, Voronin is not good enough and while Johnson maybe an improvement going forward he is not an improvement defensively.

As things stand I believe we are just 1 good striker away from winning the league but as of right now I know we will fall short again.

3 weeks left in the transfer window, hopefully Rafa has a trick up his sleeve yet. We certainly should have plenty of money left over

[Guest]

You should change your signature to this.

[Craig_H]

You should change your signature to this.

I'll do that when you change yours to 'I agree with whatever Rafa says, always'

[Guest]

I'll do that when you change yours to 'I agree with whatever Rafa says, always'

That's not true so I won't change it.

[Scratch]

This forum is for discussion and i am being realistic not negative.

I expect if we went back to the start of last year, the two of you would be saying the same no?

[DannyMan2006]

Actually, on the evidence of the game yesterday I feel much more confident. Both teams looked weak in major ares.

Anyhow, we all know what are season depends on, avoiding injuries as we lack the squad depth the other two have. If we do avoid them we will win the league, if we don't - we wont.

Simple.

[Neil Young]

You should change your signature to this.

I'll do that when you change yours to 'I agree with whatever Rafa says, always'

That's not true so I won't change it.

[Roboklopp]

I expect if we went back to the start of last year, the two of you would be saying the same no?

...and they were right, as we did not win the league due to lack of squad depth.

Aquilani might be an improvement over Alonso in the longer term, but that is a very big ask & he needs to become fit, even before the time he requires to bed in

[tommyg]

After watching yesterday's match i too thought that players such as Evra are a step above our left backs, he was constantly getting forward and playing neat balls back and forth with nani early on. Reina on the other hand is definitely better than both Cech and Foster (who is still young mind).

[Scratch]

...and they were right, as we did not win the league due to lack of squad depth.

Aquilani might be an improvement over Alonso in the longer term, but that is a very big ask & he needs to become fit, even before the time he requires to bed in

Disagree, we did not win the league and this was due to our inability to break down teams like Hull, Stoke and City at home...**** all to do with squad depth.

My point was that at the start of last season the same group of posters would no doubt be saying we'll only be challenging for 3rd/4th, whereas in reality we pushed til the very end and had our best season in the PL, and but for some freak results we were a step away from that elusive number 19.

[ronanm]

I think losing Alonso and replacing him with someone who is going to be injured for the best part of two months, while struggling with CB positions hasn't filled me with much optimism either

[Vermilion]

Disagree, we did not win the league and this was due to our inability to break down teams like Hull, Stoke and City at home...**** all to do with squad depth.

My point was that at the start of last season the same group of posters would no doubt be saying we'll only be challenging for 3rd/4th, whereas in reality we pushed til the very end and had our best season in the PL, and but for some freak results we were a step away from that elusive number 19.

Totally understand what you mean, and we did do better last season than i had expected, but my worry is that having had our best season we will struggle to re-produce that result.

However, i'm generally a pessimistic fan as a new season draws near, so i'm hoping my pessimism will be unfounded, but i just feel the Chav's will be the team to beat this time, adding to that their ability to buy quality players like Aguero, Villa, Silva etc should they need or want them, something we are still unable to do despite a takeover which was meant to remedy this.

I have faith in our managers ability, but over a long hard season, generally it's the teams with the best players that take the spoils, barring the appointments of inept managers that is, which unfortunately our rivals don't have.

[dww]

After watching yesterday's match i too thought that players such as Evra are a step above our left backs, he was constantly getting forward and playing neat balls back and forth with nani early on. Reina on the other hand is definitely better than both Cech and Foster (who is still young mind).

He's what a year younger than Reina?