ClubSpinDoctor

Long Ball- An attempted/accurate pass of 25 yards or more

No I didn't say successful. I said accurate. So pumping it upfield to nobody doesn't count. Check the glossary on that site.

Cabella aside, those wide options are grim man. I can barely think of one appealing way to set this team up, so i guess there are plenty of equally unappealing ways which could equate to flexibility. Apparently colback doesn't pass forwards. That's off the SMB though so could well be sour grapes.

So I'm supposed to be optimistic at 7th or lower?

Can't see where I've said that so the rest of your post is pointless. I think I've been quite clear in saying that I think we're a worse team than we started last season with.

Aye during that run Cabaye wasn't with us and Remy was in class form when he played. That highlights how good these replacements need to be for us the be as good as we were in the 1st half of last season. Don't understand the 'flexibility' thing though, it's a struggle to find even one formation to fit these players into where you can truely say nobody is out of position. Not having any proper wingers (that are going to realistically play) hinders our options tactically as does our very limited strike force.

They only get counted as a long ball when they're accurate, and I can think of many a time when we've just pumped it long to nobody at all.

We need to more than replace those goals, we need to drastically improve upon it. In case you were asleep last season, we went on a record breaking losing run and displayed relegation form for about 5 months. That's kind of the point I'm making. We need to improve, not just replace. As it stands, we can't even say we've replaced because we've lost some very good players and it's unlikely that those we've signed will reach the same levels. We scored 43 goals. 28 of those were from players who won't play for us next season and 2 of them were own goals. So the players we've retained managed to score 13 league goals between them last season. If you think we've signed the players to drastically improve upon that then fair enough. We'll see won't we.

Slammed my pitching wedge to the floor in a radge on the 2nd today after a succession of shit shots. Snapped it. Fully deserved.

Aye, just check the summer signings thread for your proof

I'm more pissed off at the misplaced optimism than I am about the state of our squad. We've lost some proven good players and signed some potentially good ones. Yippee we might be as good as last year if they come good. Chances are we'll be shit and if for some reason we're not, and we rocket to 40 points by January... SALE TIME!

Sorry but just no.

This is what's getting at me. We were down this time last year because we'd signed nobody. But when I look at it like-for-like. The players who've left since then and the players that have come in. We're no better off. If you'd asked me last September who our 3 best players were I'd say Remy, HBA and Cabaye. All 3 of them have gone (effectively anyway). Debuchy was class last season he's gone. We've signed is replacements who will have to be excellent to equal their predecessors, and it's probably unlikely. Not to write them off but they've got big shoes to fill. Beyond that, we've done nothing to improve. We've signed some players, it's clouding people's judgement. We had a better team last September.

I thought De Jong was going up front and Cabella in a wide position? This is what I mean, nobody has any clue how we're going to shoehorn the players we've got now into a starting line-up. There's no obvious ways to do it.

Ah right. Like when we had 3 left backs playing. I understand.

I thought they were both central midfield players. Cabaye left, we had a central midfield player that could have stepped up to the plate. For whatever reason, we went to shit without him. The lads we've signed are "completely different players" too. Meaning we haven't replaced what we were lacking when he left.

I don't disagree, they are exciting players. But we needed other positions filling more urgently. We've signed a HBA replacement, but not a Remy/Cabaye replacement!

He doesn't exactly have a range on him does he. I'm not saying they're all terrible players. I'm saying that there isn't a lot of technical ability in, and we'd be in danger of being outclassed by teams. You only have to look at what happened when Cabaye left as proof of what taking that quality out of our central midfield did to us. We've brought in quality further up the pitch but we're still lacking it in the engine room. Anita hardly grabbed his opportunity with both hands and made the position his in the second half on the season, did he?

I think Anita is one of the biggest wastes of money on our books, I'd prefer Colback to start over him. What more do I want from a central midfielder? One with the vision and ability to be able to thread an unpredictable delicately weighted pass through to a striker. One that can spray a ball over to a man in space at the other side of the pitch. One that can hit an effort on target from range and actually score or trouble the goalkeeper. You know, some qualities that might separate them from being able to do the same stuff that the opposition midfielders can do equally well. Win possession, maintain and recycle. What incredibly low expectations.

They'll all put a shift in but what do they bring in terms of quality? I can't really name an outstanding technical attribute any of them have. No set piece ability, no long range passing ability. Just tippy tappy short pass grafters. Apart from Tiote who I'm perhaps being harsh on, given the job he does defensively when on form.

I don't think that was a footballing decision though. If he plays a combination of either Anita, Colback and Tiote in the centre of the park, and i've a feeling he will, then we're going to get outclassed by a lot of teams.

We're going to be awful. We needed two things this summer. A like-for-like Cabaye replacement and a goalscorer to replace Remy. All we've done is sign some players that we think we can make a profit on that we're going to have to fit into the team somehow.

Grim. Shoe-horning all over the place.

Have fun, is it your first game in-the-flesh? You'll be like an excited bairn if it is.

I'm not picking fault but just from watching him on youtube he might need to do things a little bit quicker in this league.