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Unread 4 Aug 2007, 11:42   #13
lokken
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Re: Premiership Predictions 2007/2008

Right this season I am being brave and wading in.

1. Chelsea

Last season's defensive injury crisis simply can't happen again. They have strengthened extremely well and spent very wisely indeed. Ben Haim will be an asset to the defence, Sidwell is a canny acquisition and Pizarro is a pretty dependable striker. Malouda is their only money purchase as yet and it seems he will only benefit their ranks with the speed and skill that a team so reliant on dominance like Chelsea need. The result is that Shevchenko and Ballack are now players that don't need to be relied upon as starters and Robben's injury record is less of a worry, if he stays. The return to a 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 is welcome, simply because it's always been their best formation.

The only concern is right back, where the likes of Glen Johnson, Ferreira and Diarra at a push don't really get the juices flowing. I agree that if Alves comes, they will be a frightening prospect. Put simply, they are the most relentless, most driven team around and I fully expect them to be in for the title come May, but it will be close.

Key Man: Michael Essien

The driving force behind this team. His work rate and energy levels are just super human and he has the ability to defend and drive the team forward. Chelsea's game is all about winning the midfield by force and he is going to be vital to that.

2. Manchester United

Manchester United are another exceptional team, who play prettier football.

Towards the end of last season their defence looked hopeless without Vidic, who has clearly become the keystone to their game. Ferdinand can look a little bit lost, Neville is a stalwart and dependable (but is he a great right back?) while Evra's attacking nature can leave them open. Van Der Sar is actually starting to look old too. But with Vidic holding it all together, what I've written might sound a bit dramatic - I just think he is that important. And with him, United are defensively strong.

The other issue is with the changing of the guard in midfield. Scholes and Giggs have been wonderful servants to United and the premier league and it seems this season will be the beginning of them being phased out. Nani and Anderson are probably the best buys United could have hoped for. The question is whether that £30M is going to pay off and I think we will see one hit, one miss. Ronaldo is obviously the exceptional talent in this team and no more need be said about him. Hargreaves will clearly step to the fore in the harder games, while Carrick will continue to do what he does best, which is dispose of teams with players who aren't that brilliant. I can't see the chopping and changing in midfield that looks inevitable helping United.

Up front, all looks rosy in garden. The arrival of Tevez to play with Rooney will put them in a very strong position while Saha and Solskjaer are no mugs either. Giggs can obviously join up front.

Key Man: Nemanja Vidic - simply the bedrock of the team. Without him, especially away from home, opposition teams will scent a chance, get their foot in at the midfield and lump it forward. Vidic is the best defender in the Premiership and will be key to keeping them in the hunt.

3. Liverpool


Liverpool have spent and not spent very well. Their best signing for this season was arguably in January when Mascherano gave their central midfield the look of not just one that strangles a game shut but one where the ball can be distributed very efficiently. Benitez has spent big money on a top spanish striker, he just bought the wrong one (should have bought Villa) because Liverpool needed a goalscorer, not another all round striker to go with Kuyt and Crouch. Babel and Benayoun feel like another attempt to sign decent wide players, but really Benitez could have saved his time and spent the £13.2M it would have taken to get Simao. Voronin seems to be irrelevant (famous last words if ever there was)

But defence good, central midfield very good, wingers/strikers maybe not in terms of the title.

Main man: Steven Gerrard - doesn't speak Spanish but still plays for Liverpool. An achievement in itself. I also hear he's good at football.

4. Arsenal

Why aren't Tottenham here you might ask. Because Arsenal without Henry and despite Tottenham's spending (which I shall come on to shortly) are still a very good side. Sagna has come in to replace the defensively woeful Eboue at right back and Eboue looks set to start the season on the right side of midfield, which I think is the best place for him. So that's one hole plugged. Clichy, Toure, Gallas, Lehmann. I like em all. Midfield can pass like mentalists, maybe lacking that killer instinct in the tackle but they still created a shedload of chances last season. Up top, Robin Van Persie is about to score a shedload of goals and Eduardo is a striker with good pedigree, I rate him. With Adebayor to come off the bench, Arsenal are still a frightening prospect when on song, because they have pace to burn. Lightweightness and maybe lack of depth is going to be a problem though.

Main man: Robin Van Persie. He must score goals at the rate of last season and make Arsenal's football pay off, or Wenger will have failed. In the cups I can't see a more dangerous team than this bunch, as in terms of one off performances, Arsenal are probably the best team.

5. Tottenham

Ah, good but not great club spends big, moves sideways, we've seen it all before. So lets look at that spending

Ins: Gareth Bale (Southampton, £5m), Adel Taarabt (Lens, undisclosed), Yuri Berchiche (Athletic Bilbao, undisclosed), Darren Bent (Charlton £16.5m), Younes Kaboul (Auxerre, £8m), Danny Rose (Leeds, undisclosed), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Hertha Berlin, undisclosed).

Spurs now have a left back. Box ticked. But left back while being very good on the ball is a bit shaky defensively and one might suspect his attacking play is going to paper over the cracks somewhat. Regardless, Bale will succeed. Taarabt, Berchiche are presumably going to be peripheral, so we'll pass over them for now. Darren Bent, another striker who will get them as many goals as Defoe or Keane probably would at a truly absurd price. Kaboul will probably improve the defence. Rose must be some kind of english child they have bought. Boateng is interesting and is highly regarded in Germany. I'm not sure if they have bought another of those 'almost' players like Jenas. As for the incumbent players - Robinson overrated but good, King fantastic, Chimbonda great, Lennon hot and cold, Jenas hot and cold, Berbatov world class, Keane excellent, Defoe white hot or arctic chill.

Basically their midfield still hasn't been sorted out in my mind, it's still full of 'almost players' they've only got an improvement in terms of a new left back so they are going to go sideways.

Key Man: Dimitar Berbatov - first touch and awareness to die for.

6. Newcastle

Big Sam may have the resources to deliver with this team, as much as it seems to be Newcastle's role to fail at any opportunity. Cacapa, this spanish bloke, Rozhenal and Geremi are all pretty useful. Viduka/Martins/Owen/Ameobi look good up front, the midfield for Newcastle has always been good (it just used to collapse on a hopeless defence) and with Allardyce's penchant for substance over style, Newcastle will get results. Obviously I might be wrong and Newcastle get mass injuries, have a bad start to the season, Allardyce is out on his ear within 6 months after the massed protests at Saint James Park and it all collapses and this particular prediction might be a fantastic troll but I am trying to be objective here.

Key Man: Joey Barton - he might be scum but on the pitch he has the right attitude and takes no prisoners.

7. Everton


David Moyes has adopted an 'if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality this season. Jagielka and Pienaar have boosted his options but haven't really moved the side on. But I respect his point of view, simply because he's chosen to stay out of a market that is obviously inflated. Everton are solid but unspectacular but they have a formula of being solid first and foremost and at Goodison will have no problems whatsoever.

Key Man: Mikel Arteta - came to the fore last season, all play will be pretty much dictated by him again.

8. Blackburn


I like Blackburn. I think they are good to watch while having that nasty edge to them and they are probably what a Premiership team should look like. I think Europe might take toll its again and they haven't really strengthened in light of that. Santa Cruz at £3.5M is good value, the rest we all know about. Pedersen is highly regarded amongst us all, Bentley is growing into a good player, McCarthy and Roberts are more than adequate up front. Matt Derbyshire is also a player I hold in very high regard.

Key Man: Benni McCarthy - will need his goals to equal last season's efforts.

9. Man City

Manchester City have bought big, bought reasonably but look as if they lack that British steel that might make them anything other than an average Premiership team. This is one where really we need to look at the acquisitions in depth, as apart from Richards and Dunne, a new team is being built here.

Ins:

Geovanni (Cruzeiro, free)

Geovanni was on trial with us and did quite well. He is a decent player, but not exactly a top player and Sven decided to take the risk. He is a squad player more than anything.

Rolando Bianchi (Reggina, £8.8m)

Pierluigi Casiraghi scored 20 goals + for quite a few seasons in Serie A only to come to the Premiership and look terrible. Bianchi has that weight of pressure upon him. It's a massive gamble for that kind of fee and you can bet Sven will play him whatever, simply because he has paid so much for him.

Gelson Fernandes (FC Sion, undisclosed)

A nice tidy young prospect in the middle, who shouldn't have much problem getting to grips with things.

Javier Garrido (Real Sociedad, £1.5m)

When you buy a defender from a team that got relegated in Spain, I don't know about you but my alarm bells are ringing. Maybe he'll be good.

Vedran Corluka (Dinamo Zagreb, undisclosed)

The current Croatian team is very good indeed, with a good manager to boot (Slaven Bilic) and Corluka is in that team. With Dunne as someone to look after him, I think he'll be fine.

Elano (Shakhtar Donetsk, £8m)

Great transfer. Smashing little player, good skills, absolutely destroyed the Argies along with Kaka when they got stuffed 3-0 at the Emirates.

Valeriy Bojinov (Fiorentina £5.5M)

Has pedigree with an excellent spell at Lecce, failed at Juventus.

This is why I think Sven will do average. He's simply building the same team he would at any other club. It will be decent, but not set the world alight until he gets world class players to do it with.

Key Man: Elano - simply the player with the best pedigree City have bought in years.

10. Portsmouth

Obviously, my own club will be a very long scribble indeed.

Am I overrating our performance next season? Quite probably yes, but sadly I envisage the sides below us being worse, because there is a lot of shit in this league. And we are one of the shit. The difference between us and the rest of the shit is that we have David James, Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin which means that we can play rubbish and still draw/win, as the Asian Cup proved on a grand scale.

Our main strength (which for a Harry Redknapp side is plain bizarre) is our defence. Apart from James in goal we have:

Sol Campbell Sylvain Distin, Linvoy Primus, Lauren, Dejan Stefanovic, Herman Hreidarsson, Noe Pamarot, Martin Crainie, Djimi Traore (who as cover, is not that terrible). Put simply, we can play 2 back 4's that are more than adequate. We can even play Taylor at left back if we wanted.

Our midfield will not get the pulses racing in many of you. Gary O'Neil and Matthew Taylor are all about their work rate rather than the flashy stuff and they are very vital simply because they give us balance between defence and attack. Muntari looks as if it is an attempt by Harry to get someone who can dominate the midfield and pull the strings, but we will see (I think he is a good buy). Mendes has always been good on the ball, Davis is a passable midfielder at this level. The one we scratch our heads about most is Kranjcar. He is obviously a very talented player. But where does he play exactly? Can he get fit enough to play in the middle of a 4-4-2. Is he not a bit wasted out wide left? Shouldn't Taylor be there? If he can adapt (and this is still a work in progress) then the £2.5M we paid for him will look like loose change. But like many of you I agree, the jury is still out.

Up front, we lack a goal scorer of distinction. Benjani is a guaranteed start, his hard work, support play and endeavour are appreciated by all at Fratton because it means we defend from the front as teams are always uneasy with him running around at them. The question is who will play with him.

David Nugent: As of yet, looks a bit fat and championship for this level for whatever £4.5 to 6M. I think he is a big risk, Harry has said he is a risk and he really wasn't joking. I want him to succeed, he's just not looked very good.

Lua Lua: In the past year or so, Lomana has been nothing short of a complete twat. Selfish on the ball, problems off the pitch and outbursts that are just plain crazy. The reason he can be disliked is that it's obvious he has talent, he just doesn't use it very well. Preseason has shown that just maybe, he might be sorting his head out for a few weeks - he has scored goals and played well consistently and this is cause for optimism, until he gets carried away with himself. If Harry can keep him hungry with his feet on the ground, he might be useful.

Kanu: looks set to sign his one year deal. It comes as no surprise that he's waited until preseason is over to get signed up, someone might find out his real age. The master of rubbish goals (and OK a couple of very good ones) is fantastic at holding it up and his touch is also noticeably good. But he is not a goal threat.

Utaka: I know little about him, he has allegedly impressed in the short periods he's played, any information would be appreciated.

In my opinion, we need to move mountains and sign Yakubu, as quite simply Harry can get the best out of him and make him into the fearsome player he looked that he was going to be in late 2004. With Benjani I have no doubt he would be absolutely frightening and we should do everything to get him. Because if we did, we would probably finish top half guaranteed. As such, we might scrape into it if we're lucky.

Key Man: David James - he's just not human, really he can't be.

11. Villa

Martin O'Neill is bizarre. He has a small squad, sells players, then only brings 2 players in. One of whom simply adds an option off the bench in Harewood (is he better than Carew, Luke Moore or Agbonlahor? no). The other is Reo Coker who can be very good but had some real stinkers last season. Maybe he has something to prove this time round and he'll do well for Villa. But the squad is so thin i can't predict anything other than a load of draws and a slump when the injuries and suspensions bite. Villa's first XI are better than 11th, their squad drags them down into mediocrity.

Key Man: Luke Moore - one of the most underrated players by people who aren't Villa fans. He's a good player.

12. West Ham

Ins: Scott Parker (Newcastle, £7m), Julien Faubert (Bordeaux, £6.1m), Richard Wright (Everton, free), Craig Bellamy (Liverpool, £7.5m), Freddie Ljungberg (West Ham, £3m).

Should Dyer join them, this looks like a recipe for an underperforming season. Bellamy is the best signing of the lot, he is a small club player and will get goals. Scott Parker is presumably a straight swap for Reo Coker but will be pretty much on his own in the middle of the park. He may improve because of Curbishley and that's a factor to consider. But the defence is still poor, one of the signings is already out for 6 months and Ljungberg is a bit washed up by all accounts. Bringing Dyer closer to his favourite nightclubs and more importantly, Lee Bowyer is not going to help. Flashes of talent, but lightweight.

Even so, they shouldn't be in this list.

Key Man: Dean Ashton - if he gets fit and scoring, we'll be seeing a few 'appy 'ammers

13. Sunderland

Roy Keane reminds me of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Like S.P.E.C.T.R.E. he doesn't tolerate failure and i would be frightened to let him down. I expect a Roy Keane side to play with commitment as a minimum. Signings have been mixed:

Ins:

Dickson Etuhu (Norwich, £1.5m)
A good player at Championship level, but perhaps a bit too rough and ready for liking.

Kieran Richardson (Manchester United, undisclosed)
The only top-flight player I've seen laughed off the field. He's not very good to be honest.

Greg Halford (Reading, £2.5m)
Never really played for Reading, mainly because they were doing so well. Could be decent.

Russell Anderson (Aberdeen, £1m)
A good defender.

Michael Chopra (Cardiff City, £5m)
Overpriced, bit fat to be a success in the prem.

Paul McShane (West Brom, £2.5m).
Excellent buy, was fantastic for the Baggies last season

Key Man: Roy Keane - his whole career is resting on this season.

14. Fulham

Northern Ireland have spent big this season, occasionally doing the age old trick of getting a foreigner in cos their gran once went on an orange march. There is a long list and they are all solid, if unspectacular signings. Don't expect great things from them, don't expect them to be too woeful either. 14th is pretty much the Fulham position.

Key man: David Healy - has to prove that he can transfer his international form to the league.

15. Middlesborough

Look to be quite weak, but Woodgate will save them as he is their one top quality player. The defence and keeper aren't too bad, the midfield isn't exactly adventurous but up top there are massive worries if Tuncay don't cut it and near cataclysm should Yakubu move.

Key Man: George Boateng - without him their form is woeful, he holds the team together, they can't live without him. Woodgate they can probably manager, not Boat though.

16. Reading

I nearly forgot about Reading, such is their irrelevance as a club. Yes the Rumblestix are back again for another season, with all those happy people from the thames valley having a lovely day out. Such is their lack of adventure they have sat on their arse and done pretty much nothing apart from sign 2 central midfield players. 2nd season syndrome has to be a bit of a worry, but with Steve Coppell and the likes of kitson/lita/doyle/long up top, they've got enough about them to survive just about.

Key Man: Dave Kitson - easily their best player.

17. Birmingham

Have bought well but with someone as incompetent as Steve Bruce in charge you never know. After peeing money at the team last season in Championship terms he only just managed to get them promoted. Yet again, the same seems to have occurred in the hope survival will follow. I think it will. Kapo, De Ridder, O'Connor, Ridgewell, Quedrue and Muamba are all good enough so they'll get there just. But there's still plenty of rubbish in their squad, which will take time to clear out. Plus their best player from last season (Bendtner) has gone.

Key Man: Gary O'Connor - made the grade at every other level, so why not this one.

18. Bolton

Sammy Lee is a fat **** who shouts encouragement at people and barks when they don't get something right. This makes you a coach, not a manager. There are quite a few Allardyce signings who must wonder why they are at Bolton consider who they came for has now gone. This can only end in tears. Ben Haim, their bedrock has gone, McCann and Samuel can't make much of a difference and I can't see Anelka or Diouf staying long. I'm sure they will get homesick very soon and be on the first plane to Lyon or somewhere very quickly indeed.

Key Man: Anelka - only person capable of single handedly saving this team.

19. Wigan

Chris Hutchings has a terrible record, Heskey can't score goals, Bramble can only be trouble, Sibierski is another support striker, Koumas is good if he can be accomodated, De Zeeuw is gone, McCulloch is gone, Brown is shit, Melchiot has been bad enough to get relegated before and the majority of the team are a bunch of cloggers. Even Baines wants out.

Key Man: Paul Scharner - underrated, very versatile, very handy player. Wouldn't be disappointed if he signed for my club and that's probably quite true for many clubs.

20. Derby

Despite the fact they are stuffing us next week, Derby are shit. Earnshaw scores goals but means you are effectively playing with 10 men, Andy Todd won't keep you up on his own and 2 right backs in Mears and Andy Griffin is just plain weird. Releasing Seth Johnson, their best player in the playoffs also seems to be a big mistake. I can't see anything but woe for this team. Worse still for the sheep, they could be replaced by Leicester come May.

Key Man: Giles Barnes - any bets for a January move to Tottenham if it all goes tits up anyone?

All in all this is going to be a very tough season. Many teams have spent big and it's difficult to predict, simply because you don't know which signings are going to pay off. The amount spent this summer has disgusted me totally and I've been quite disillusioned that player value has been totally ignored. Even so, I'm looking forward for the season to start. Saturdays are pretty boring at the moment (although we only have one 3pm kick off at Fratton until December). The gap between the top 5 will certainly get smaller, there will be small mini league for Europe and the bottom 10-11 teams can all spend their time worrying about relegation again.

p.s. Deffeh thread
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Last edited by lokken; 4 Aug 2007 at 11:50.
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