[Albion] Guardian Season Preview 2020-21: Albion Prediction Finish Position: 16th

[Medwayseagull]

I'm not hugely surprised by the prediction. We've been firmly bottom 6 for the past three years and usually teams around that end of the table eventually bite the bullet. There's some confidence around the club at the moment because we stayed up relatively comfortably in the end but we also mustn't forget that we were appalling (longest winless run in the whole football league) for a long stretch of the season before the lockdown. From the outsider's perspective we've not really strengthened. We've got Lallana (32, injury prone) and Veltman (unknown quantity in PL) in but lost Mooy and Montoya. I think that's positive progress but I can see why non-fans might think We'll still struggle. Add to that the fact that there were a few articles/comments from football writers questioning GP's tactics last season and I'd say another relegation fight is to be expected.

Don't you mean " bite the dust " rather than " the bullet "?

 

[Surf's Up]

Need a strike or two otherwise I suspect we will be right in the mixer again

Correct unfortunately.

 

[Grombleton]

as well as La Lama

Is that our new Mascot? Nice to see we're going for Spanish Llamas instead of Seagulls.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

19th isn't the writer's prediction. It's the average prediction of all the Guardian journos.

I never did like that Polly Toynbee

 

[portlock seagull]

Without goals we will struggle again. We haven’t strengthened there so the prediction isn’t far off the mark. Don’t know why this is upsetting so many?

 

[Boring Goring]

Forget the journalists with their personal preferences, they are not experts. If you want to know what the hard cold view of the world is, look at the betting markets. That's where you will get the best version of the truth. The bookies see us roughly where we see ourselves. Panic over.

 

[Berty23]

The journalist’s words don’t match the prediction. The text suggests we have progressed and should do better. I suspect the author thinks we will finish higher.

 

[Swansman]

That's very disrespecful to Maupay. 10 goals in your debut season in the PL in a lower half team is decent. What we need is more strength in depth up front. If something happens to him we look in a lot of trouble.

This. Plenty of teams last season did not have one single 10+ goals striker.

Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham were the only teams to have two or more 10+ goal strikers. Yet according to about 80% in here, this is "required" in order to leave the relegation battle.

 

[Seasidesage]

I'm surprised by the negativity on this thread even if it is NSC. I never thought we would go down last season even during our poor run where we continued to play quite well without getting wins. As the season resumed we looked very good at times and might conceivably have gained more points than we actually did. Since the end of the season we have significantly improved our defensive options which were already quite good and on Saturdays game at least Veltman is a level above Montoya and will keep Lamptey on his toes. Add Ben White to the defensive selection and we have fantastic options that most of the division will envy.

I am not as a rule especially optimistic when it comes to the Albion as that does have a habit of kicking you in the teeth. However, I genuinely think we can threaten the top 10 if we can get a focal point for the attack over the line. I have been watching this lot for over 45 years and this is the best squad we have ever had IMO

 

[southstandandy]

Without goals we will struggle again. We haven’t strengthened there so the prediction isn’t far off the mark. Don’t know why this is upsetting so many?

Agreed. It's been the 'Elephant in the room' now for pretty much the last 3 years trying to add decent strength up front (Maupay notwithstanding), so I'm not holding my breath. Assuming the Nunez deal doesn't happen (which is starting to look the case) it will be interesting to see who the club genuinely pursues as an alternative.

I want to see a new player or two come in up front and am just praying we end up with more of a Ulloa than Locadia if one is found.

 

[227 BHA]

19th isn't the writer's prediction. It's the average prediction of all the Guardian journos.

Exactly! So how many of them had us rock bottom to get to that average??

 

[Napper]

as it stand we are prob set to dominate possession again but lack the goals to move us away from a relegation battle.

 

[blue-shifted]

We didn't look like a relegation side last year and we didn't in the friendly we just played.

Journalists usually seek the path which causes least offence.

We have every reason to feel confident

 

[SAC]

Knowing the Guardian, it is probably a typo. The article itself was pretty fair and seemed to indicate an improvement on last season.

 

[Nameless]

I think this is a good thing. Will hopefully motivate the team seeing predictions like this.. Being the underdog has worked for us before. Makes it sweeter when everybody continuously predicts us to go down and we continuously make them look silly. Realistically I think we could finish between 12th and 14th. However, it wouldn't surprise me if we make it difficult for ourselves again it also wouldn't surprise me if we broke into the top 10 as I feel we're only 2 or 3 players away from being a top half of the table side as it stands I dare to say there is at least 4 teams worse than us so currently i'm fairly confident we won't be in another relegation battle.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Knowing the Guardian, it is probably a typo. The article itself was pretty fair and seemed to indicate an improvement on last season.

Having just read it, the fairly long write-up is a lot more positive than the19th position suggests.

 

[Mellotron]

Comfortably the best squad we've ever had.

Bit confused how they can see either of Fulham or West Brom as ahead of us currently.

 

[A1X]

I'm assuming most of the pundits only care about the big 6 and just lump us down there because we're deemed "too small" as a club. The comments underneath by fans of other teams who've seen us tend to disagree.

 

[Taybha]

Same old shyte , can't think I've seen any rag predicting us to stay up since we got promoted, long may they continue to write us off .

 

[Tony Towner's Fridge]

I do find it bizarre that they automatically put us in the relegation spots every year, when we've only ever spent 1 week in 18th and never been in the bottom two in our 3 years in the Prem. Even before lockdown the signs were there that we were adapting to how Potter wanted us to play and I think this season will see a lot of that hard work come to fruition. With the addition of the experience of Veltman and Lallana to the team I can see a 11th-15th finish this season.

Agree 11th-15th this season, maybe 8th-12th if we get Nunez. A couple of weeks ago I retrospectively read the newspaper predictions for 2019-20 and they were to a man/woman laughable. Pundits my @r*e!

Villa
South London Comedy Collective
Noocassel
Burnley
Sheff U
Fulham
The wee Albion
and Dirty

don't look as strong as us, so how we can be predicted to finish 19th is beyond me...mind you it is the Grauniad...says it all.


TNBA

TTF