Mid Season Report

No1newts

No1newts

No1newts

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Inspired by listening to TalkSport have a look at 3 things about your team to decide on the season so far and where they go next. 3 criteria are

Current Position and Performance so far

Areas/Players to strengthen with in January

Where will the team finish



I'll sTart with Newcastle.

Current position/performance: 8th after 17 games. Much better than I anticipated. Expected us to be in the bottom 5 teams all season and to struggle pretty much every match. Had some fantastic results (s'land, arsenal and everton) and dome stinkers (Blackpool, Blackburn and Bolton) but overall doing really well. Good team spirit and an overall steady enough squad with some outstanding performers being Caroll, Barton and Enrique. The Hughton situation was a complete farce which personally beleive will end up biting them where it hurts but I'm so annoyed with the whole thing would rather not talk about it :p

areas to strengthen: plenty of players I want but doubt we will have any budget. Need a new right midfielder as Routledge is diabolical though I can't think of anyone we could get for the position. Another striker wouldn't go amiss as Shola is not quite good enough but the rest of the team I would generally leave alone with Williamson coming back. Plus Gosling in the new year will be like a new signing.

Where will we finish: somewhere between 11th and 15th is what my head says. Heart says 8th-10th but I tend to ignore the heart :p as long as we stay up the season is a sucess as far as I'm concerned!
 
Liverpool:

Current position/performance: 9th after 17 games. Performance so far has been terrible. Home form has started to get back on track after playing like blind school-children for the first chunk of games, but away games still remain this poor, unfortunately.

areas to strengthen: No where as long as Roy's calling the shots, i fear he's taken the song "we all dream of a team of Carragher's" to heart if his recent signings are anything to go by :x
If Roy's gone then -
LB: Konchesky is about the worst Left Back i have ever seen at the club.
RM/W and LM/W: We need some wide players, urgently.
Striker: Obvious.

Where will we finish: Mid table it looks like, heart is saying 6th - 7th but brain is telling me 11th - 14th, which coincidently is where Roy's point tally is taking us at the moment.
 
Manchester United


Current Position and Performance so far

1st after 16 games with a game in hand. Weirdly we've rarely played well this season yet somehow we're unbeaten and top of the pile. Thankfully we've gotten out of the conceding late goals run that we were on and with Rooney back we're looking more and more dangerous.

Areas/Players to strengthen with in January

Ideally we still need a more attacking midfielder although Anderson has played brilliantly lately and could be a big boost for the second half of the season. At some point we need a left winger as well.


Where will the team finish

Couldn't have said this a month or so ago but I think we have to be favourites now. Traditionally we only get stronger as the season goes on. It will depend on the results against Chelsea I think, along with any big injuries.
 
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Liverpool

Current Position: 9th
We suck. Shankly would be turning in his grave if he could see the brand of football currently being played by Liverpool.

Areas to Strengthen in January:
1. New manager
2. New left back

Where We Will Finish: 8th-14th
Hodgson isn't good enough to get us any higher.
 
Arsenal

Current Position and Performance so far


Joint 2nd with City. I think we're in a healthy position but dropped points like West Brom and Newcastle at home should have seen us 4 points clear at the top. We've been sloppy and complacent, we need to kill games off earlier and finish off the numerous chances we have every game.

Areas/Players to strengthen with in January


CB. Vermaelen will be like a new signing but I don't have a lot of confidence in our other 3 (Djourou is coming on nicely though). We could also do with a proper winger at our club, Eden Hazard has expressed his interest and I would love to see him at the arsenal.

Where will the team finish

It's too hard too say. United look like they'll run away with it but City, Chelsea, Arsenal and despite being unbeaten, united all need to find their form. The final stretch of the season could see all of them going for the title. Tottenham could make things more interesting too. If we have an inform Nasri, cesc and RvP for the remainder of the season as well as the return of the Verminator, then we COULD be 1st or 2nd.
 
Current position and performance so far:

Our style hasn't really changed at all, we'll attack attack attack some sides, while when coming up against somebody well organised or happy to kick seven shades of **** out of us we'll struggle. We're slowly turning into a WWWDDL type of side.

While we had a few new signings for this season, the fact that they're relatively average has left us in rather the same position as last year - but with a few different personnel. RvP's injured for most of the season again, and this time Vermaelen's out too. Our defence is significantly weaker and with Alex Song adding roles to a job he's far from mastered we're still leaking goals and points.

Areas to Strengthen in January:

It's the same as always really. Still need some decent CBs, a LB, cover for RB and an experienced goalie.

Where will the team finish:

As is the norm for the first part of the season we're up there because Chelsea and Utd haven't found their form yet, which they will towards the business end of the season. We'll continue with the same form as we're in now, while the aforementioned two sides get better - to fall to 3rd or 4th.

Now City look a lot more organised even with their troubles, and Spurs continue to get better. I guess we should be thankful that 'Pool have done so badly so it means only one will miss Champs League footy next year. At least on paper we'll have the Carling Cup, hopefully as the saying goes that can be a springboard to future successes.
 
Aston Villa

Current position and performance so far

Current position - 14th. Bleedin' awful. Been a tad unlucky in some games (at home vs United springs to mind), can't close out games, concede a LOT of late goals and aren't beating teams we should be.

Areas/Players to strengthen with in January

Defence. Collins and Dunne have gone from being super-solid to pathetic in the space of 6 months. Not a clue what's going on there but Houllier needs to address it fast.

Where will the team finish

12th. We won't get back to the level we were at for the last few seasons in a hurry, but we aren't bad enough to go down that's for sure. If we finish in the top half I'll honestly be over the moon after our start.
 
Manchester City
Current Position and performance:
Joint 2nd. Doing fantastically well tbh considering how much our team is 'falling' apart. Would like a few more goals however.
Players needed:
Striker or two as Tevez/Adebayor/Santa Cruz are all likely to leave. Would like Dzeko/Torres etc.
Where will the team finish:
Top 4. Although the possibility of the title is achievable.
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Areas to Strengthen in January:
1. New manager
Click to expand...
:D

I know this has probably been asked before, but where do 'Pewl fans think their team 'should' be assuming a manager they like is in the hotseat? I just think you can match the trajectory of their current form and place to a year or two ago and Woy isn't a common denominator to the entire period...
 
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As a United fan I think 'Pool could get comfortable top half with the right manager, but I think funds are needed to get back into the top four.

The spine of a good side is there - Reina, Gerrard, Torres. It just needs the right players around them - selling Alonso was a very bad move.
 
Only post about it, since i dont want to de-rail the thread and turn it into another Roy thread:

A decent manager will comfortably get us into ~6-7-8 kind of positions, imo.
Roy's set to take us to ~11-14th based on his previous records.
Its not just the points tally, but the type of football he has us playing, or rather not playing.

Re: Selling Alonso, we didnt really have a choice did we?
Madrid come knocking and u can only resist so long, you should know.
Good news .. we got ~£30,000,000 or so.
Bad news: The old owners pocketed every penny.
 
:D Brighton & Hove Albion :D

Yes, we don't all support premiership teams!!


Current Position and Performance so far:

1st :eek: Very good position to be in heading into the Xmas period.

Performances have generally been very good under Gus Poyet's first full year in management, he has got the team playing football rather than hoofball and the results are there to show for it.

Areas/Players to strengthen with in January.

Left winger and striker.

Where will the team finish.

Hopefully in an automatic promotion spot, especially as we move into our state of the art stadium for season 2011/2012. Our own home after 13 long years, can't wait.
 
Newcastle

Current Position: 8th

a lot better than I thought, but saying that, with the quality of teams in the premier league, why not?

Still shocked at Hughton leaving, for Pardew it doesn't display ambition when Hughton was and has done all the hard work to get us where we are, we went from a complete JOKE when we got relegated to the championship to getting on with it quietly and actually proving a lot of people wrong be completely dominating the championship and turning a few heads back in the premiership.

Andy Carroll obviously becoming very important for us is a bonus and potentially a headache if he continues to keep scoring, definitely going to be a few bids in if he gets to 15-20 goals.

Areas to Strengthen in January:
Still need more flair and creativity in midfield, with ben arfa a crock.
Not to become to reliant on Carroll ha

Where We Will Finish:

I'm going to be optimistic and say why can't we finish in the top10... maybe 9th or 10th though :)
 
My team Manchester United

Current position and performances so far;

1st with a game in hand, not bad for a team who according to most has a rubbish midfield and apart from an out of form Rooney no quality up front either.

In reality one game against a fairly poor Blackburn game aside we haven't performed the way we can but positives are that while Rooney has been out of form players like Berbatov and Nani have stepped up, Ferdinand looks to be finally back from injury and when with Vidic are the best centre back partnership in the league and Scholes is rolling back the years in midfield

What I will also say that while I won't get too excited about the 7 goals against Blackburn if it wasn't for Chelsea's performances early season against a similar level of opposition would they really have any performances to rave about either?

Areas to strengthen in January;

Nothing, we won't sign anyone midseason but in the close season we do need to reinforce the midfield. At the moment though I can't see anyone who is available who would be good enough.....

Where we will finish;

Either first or second which is the same that was true at the start of the season, at the moment no other team is at the level us and Chelsea are at.
 
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