[Albion] How close is this squad to being top 4?

[Simster]

I see Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal as currently having more established squads than us, with a greater ability to consistently win football matches.

However, I believe all the other teams in the division have good weeks and bad weeks, and aren’t as consistent. We have the greatest squad we’ve ever had, and I trust our head coach to continue to improve our players.

I see us as potentially being able to finish as high as fourth this season, though any European place has to be judged as a success. I’d be slightly disappointed if we finished in the lower half of the table, though don’t see us as being “finished article” enough to make linear progress. We’ll have some tough patches. It’s just a dream TBH. We’re competing with petro-states and sovereign wealth funds, and winning.

I think if you're going to include Arsenal in that 3 then unfortunately you have to include Chelsea too. The clown show has ended there I'm afraid and there's a good chance they'll finish third above Arsenal. For what it's worth I think we have the capability of finishing above both (although it is obviously unlikely). I say this because finally I'd have to say our squad as a whole is as strong as we've ever seen. It's not actually that different from either of those club's squads.

 

[ElectricNaz]

I don't think our squad is a top 4 squad based on talent alone

However I believe our management, coaching and other associated attributes means we are lifted from in my head, about 8th in terms of telent. How we will end up is a guess but it's still a much stronger *squad* than the one that finished 6th. But even that was a season where lots went our way in terms of the perfect storm of others being in transition.

 

[chickens]

I think if you're going to include Arsenal in that 3 then unfortunately you have to include Chelsea too. The clown show has ended there I'm afraid and there's a good chance they'll finish third above Arsenal. For what it's worth I think we have the capability of finishing above both (although it is obviously unlikely). I say this because finally I'd have to say our squad as a whole is as strong as we've ever seen. It's not actually that different from either of those club's squads.

I agree that the outright comedy has (sadly) ended at Chelsea, though I still think Sanchez may raise an occasional chuckle this season.

I’m not entirely convinced by Maresca however, I don’t think he always gets it right, and think there will be some matches that Chelsea’s supporters “expect” to win where that doesn’t happen.

I agree they have lots of good players, but you still have to set them up right for the opposition, and Maresca is still learning. We’ll see how the season pans out.

 

[um bongo molongo]

You are forgetting Bart!

I didn't forget Bart... jury is still out on him for me.

He's clearly a GOOD keeper. A very good shot stopper and his distribution is good and improving... but he's still some distance from being at the level of other top 4 keepers such as Alisson, Ederson and Raya.

...but he has time on his side.

I think he’s closing fast on that level. Been brilliant the last few weeks. Raya and Allison the standouts in the league. Ederson I don’t think is at the levels of a year or two ago. No one else I’d swap him with. Still baffled why RDZ chose hologram Steele over him.

 

[aolstudios]

As we all know, a few key player injuries and we’d be having a much tougher time. We simply don’t have the depth of squad to compensate. We really struggled at the latter part of last season for this reason.

& the fact our manager had lost the plot completely

 

[aolstudios]

The way we outplayed City in the second half yesterday, I can see why we'd get ahead of ourselves, but that just can't be right? I presume Villa, Spurs and Chelsea at their best are better than us. Not sure about Newcastle.

No doubt I'm biased but yes, I think our best *team* is better. It's the squad depth that'll do for us

 

[The Optimist]

I think our best 11 is better than Chelsea, Villa & Arses. Seriously .
Their depth may tell though, sadly

Not sure about Arsenal. Their entire back 4 is probably better than ours. Odegaard and Saka would get in our team. Would have to think about the rest.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I didn't forget Bart... jury is still out on him for me.

He's clearly a GOOD keeper. A very good shot stopper and his distribution is good and improving... but he's still some distance from being at the level of other top 4 keepers such as Alisson, Ederson and Raya.

...but he has time on his side.

Ridiculous to compare Bart to those three without a lot of context. For a start they are all a lot older than him and have played a lot more football.

Alisson, Ederson and Raya are all in their 30's (well Raya is 29). They were nowhere near the level that Bart is when they were 22. When they were that age Alisson wasn't a regular start in club football in Brazil and was at least a year from his first international game. Ederson had just moved to Benfica and was still 2 years from making his international debut. Raya was at Blackburn not long off a loan move to Southport. He was a long way from being in the Spanish international squads.

Bart at 22 is first choice for his club in the Premier League and for his country. His improvement over the last 2 seasons has been staggering. He was the youngest goalkeeper at the Euros (and the third youngest to ever play in the competition). He's arguably the best young keeper in the game right now and the gap between him and the other top 4 keepers you mention isn't anywhere near as big as you claim.

 

[Silverhatch]

The question to be answered is whether (on our day) there are 4 better sides in the PL. Prime DeZerbi we were pretty close. We now have a better and deeper squad. Put money on us being Top 4 and am happy with our prospects.

 

[Mustafa II]

Ridiculous to compare Bart to those three without a lot of context. For a start they are all a lot older than him and have played a lot more football.

Alisson, Ederson and Raya are all in their 30's (well Raya is 29). They were nowhere near the level that Bart is when they were 22. When they were that age Alisson wasn't a regular start in club football in Brazil and was at least a year from his first international game. Ederson had just moved to Benfica and was still 2 years from making his international debut. Raya was at Blackburn not long off a loan move to Southport. He was a long way from being in the Spanish international squads.

Bart at 22 is first choice for his club in the Premier League and for his country. His improvement over the last 2 seasons has been staggering. He was the youngest goalkeeper at the Euros (and the third youngest to ever play in the competition). He's arguably the best young keeper in the game right now and the gap between him and the other top 4 keepers you mention isn't anywhere near as big as you claim.

Your post is all very fair - but the discussion was about how far we are from being a top 4 side now, I was merely pointing out that Verbruggen is some distance away from being a top 4 standard keeper, using top 4 keepers as examples.

I highly rate him, I think he'll continue his development to become a top keeper within the game, but I do think goalkeepers are one position where experience is particularly important, and that takes time.

 

[Triggaaar]

No doubt I'm biased but yes, I think our best *team* is better. It's the squad depth that'll do for us

Ok. Could you name your best starting 11?

 

[Brian Munich]

I think he’s closing fast on that level. Been brilliant the last few weeks. Raya and Allison the standouts in the league. Ederson I don’t think is at the levels of a year or two ago. No one else I’d swap him with. Still baffled why RDZ chose hologram Steele over him.

It’s amazing what being given a consistent run of games does for a young keeper’s confidence and sharpness, isn’t it?

The way RDZ rotated Steel and Verbruggen for most of last season did neither keeper any favours. If Massive kept rotating Beadle in and out of their starting 11 we’d recall him in January.

 

[Hugo Rune]

It’s going to be top 4 at the critical run in stage of the season because our strength and depth is massive. Other teams will have injuries and fatigue, especially those with European commitments.

We could be struck by some very big injuries to the vast majority of the players who performed so well last night too. But could still finish the season with a line-up like this (of players not involved yesterday) which is pretty, pretty, pretty good:


—-—Enciso ——Ferguson————Minteh-—
March——-—-Milner—Gomez——-——Lamptey
———-Kadıoğlu—-—Dunk—-Webster————
——————-——Steele——————————-

Our squad depth is astonishing. Rutter, Kadıoğlu, Gruda and O’Riley are starting to look quality. Our young midfield triplet of Baleba, Ayari and Hinshelwood are developing fast also. I’ve a feeling this season is going to be special.

 

[aolstudios]

Ok. Could you name your best starting 11?

I think we have 2 or 3! (although probably with a common 7 or 8).I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about how we perform as a team

 

[tigertim68]

Forest who are above us in the table?

Should of beat them down here , they were down to 10 men last 20 mins , we didn’t look like scoring against 10 men,
and were the better team throughout the match

 

[Triggaaar]

No doubt I'm biased but yes, I think our best *team* is better. It's the squad depth that'll do for us

I think we have 2 or 3! (although probably with a common 7 or 8).

Aren't these two posts at odds with each other? If we have a clear best starting 11, then it's our squad depth that's the issue, but if we have 2 or 3 best 11s, then surely we've got some good depth?

Anyway, who would your starting 11 be, and if you've got 2 or 3 options, what would they be (this isn't a test or a challenge, I'm just interested in the discussion)

 

[Hovegull]

What do we need in January? What are the gaps other than strikers?

 

[BrianSwan]

Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea have stronger squads

 

[Triggaaar]

What do we need in January? What are the gaps other than strikers?

We don't need anything. We're not Chelsea, we're not trying to buy everyone. The players we have need the chance to play. A couple of weeks ago plenty on here were saying how shit Igor was and we should have bought a centre back, and now they think Dunk is our backup. Buonanotte had to leave to get game time and he's tearing it up. There's a good player in Enciso and he can't get in the team. We have Fergusson to compete with Welbeck, we don't want to consign a player with that much potential to the bin.

Let's keep the team together and see how far we can go.

 

[Reddleman]

Bit early in the morning to be wasted isn't it? We should have beaten Wolves, Ipswich and Forrest, but Liverpool? Maybe a draw would have been reasonable, but we weren't (clearly) the better side.

And no doubt Spurs should've beaten us, as should Arsenal (Rice shouldn't have been silly - yes he was silly, but if the point is what should have happened...)

Never too early to be wasted.