That was an impressive way to end the phoney war, as our very own Connor Southwell described it yesterday. Sure, les Violets should have been put to the sword more clinically than they were but it’s no bad thing to go into a Premier League season with a win under our collective belt.
So, what clues does that give us to our starting line-up at Anfield on Friday night?
Sticking my neck out I will make a prediction that it will be:
Krul, Aarons, Godfrey, Hanley, Lewis, McLean, Trybull, Buendia, Cantwell, Stiepermann, Pukki.
So that would leave Hernandez, Drmic, Farhmann, Byram, Klose, Leitner and Vrancic on the bench.
Just my assessment and of course it might not be right. I very rarely bet for a reason, as in I often get predictions wrong.
I did my old-school reporting bit and asked a few of my mates what they expect from us this season.
Positive responses all round to be honest, and in no particular order:
A guy I know who works in our local Lidl predicts we’ll get a 0-0 (what!) at Anfield and go from strength to strength to finish around 14th.
Cutty reckons (like myself) that we’ve only got to be better than three other sides and he’s confident we will achieve that. He predicts a finish of 12th.
His son Tony said we must stick to our guns and that we can go to the likes of West Ham and win. He agreed with his Pa on 12th.
Scott was just a tad pessimistic in comparison. He didn’t approve of the transfer policy and added that if we went gung-ho we would be found out, with a warning that heads could drop if we had a bad start. However he still suggested 16th.
Me? I’ve always said 14th and I’m sticking to that. We’ll see.
I also spoke to a lovely French couple who had made a long weekend of it by staying at the Maid’s Head on both Friday and Saturday nights.
Serge reckoned the sight of Max Gradel – complete with Leeds reference – would put the wotsits up us but said he had seen a bit of Norwich last season on the telly and he liked the way we (try) to play. He told me Toulouse had hung on in Ligue 1 for many years and how happy he was with that. They are not a rich club either.
His thoughts about PSG aligned with mine about Man Citeh.
Serge’s wife or partner Marielle (I think that was her name) said that if I wanted to see a real cathedral I should go to Rheims. We smilingly agreed that the one in Palma de Mallorca was more spectacular than either. I think that’s what we said anyway.
We also had a laugh about the Toulouse manager’s name: Alain Casanova. I can’t remember who was the first of us to point out the original owner of that soubriquet was actually Italian.
Serge said he hoped we all pronounced Daniel Farke’s surname correctly. It’s funny that wherever you go in Europe you pick up the Sweary Marys. I assured him we all pronounce it as Farker and never try to alter it in an obscene fashion. Which is true.
So it’s four days to go.
I’m praying to the football gods that any variation of all our predictions cometh true.
Something tells me that our result against Newcastle at the Carra will kind of set the tone for our season.
And after all, we’ve got nothing Toulouse.
Boom boom as Basil Fox would say.
You should get the brush-off for that comment.
Actually averaging us all out it does add up to an average prediction of 14th. Roughly.
And that would cheerfully do for me.
Cheers pal.
I think you mean Basil Brush!!
Hi Jim
Herr Cutz is one of those guys who (unlike us journos, MFW and elsewhere) only makes deliberate “mistakes”.
Please feel fee to give us your starting XI for Anfield if you feel so inclined.
Thanks.
Hi Martin
I’d probably go with Krul, Lewis, Godfrey, Hanley, Aarons, Trybul, McClean, Vrancic, Stieperman, Buendia, and Pukki. However, Cantrell was outstanding on Saturday, so possibly play him instead of Vrancic. I’m just glad it’s Herr Farke’s decision, not mine!
Hi Jim
Not sure if Super Mario is match-fit yet. Only Herr Farke and crew will know the answer to that one of course.
I couldn’t call the selection in all honesty myself. My offering was only an outline. But if Vrancic is fit I would rather he played than didn’t.
If not it’s young Todd, who my money would be on at the moment.
Cheers.
Anywhere above the bottom 3 will be OK for me , not fussed stayin up is what matters; the higher the more cash flows down, and that means bit more for players if needed .
It is important to me we need to get a few points on board more or less from the start. Any period with out some good positive results to begin, soon breds the losing mentality. That is ruddy hard to get out of.
Certain games I almost write off as long as there are no real thumpings, GD may be vital,, aany point of those will be an added bonus. that leaves 13 teams where we have to be better than them on the day plus better than 3 over the season. That is I believe very do-able.
Hang on as the rollercoaster is getting to ready to start….Thanks again Mr P your next we will have left the blocks on the race.
Hear that we are supposed to looking to loan in Sevilla players, Joris Gnagnon and Ibrahim Amadou.
centre back and defensive midfielder. I thought thre was a limit of two overseas players, we have one already in battling with Krul. Also a reliable Sun reporter (is there such a thing ?) reckons Rhodes deal will be completed this week, Well it has to be Thursday is Deadline day. Agents and paper filling I reckon …
Hi Lad
I have to say that getting points on board at the beginning of the season is going to be a seriously tough ask. I for one expect nothing from Anfield and hope we can turn Newcastle over at the Carra and take it from there.
Amadou seems a sound acquisition and I’m sure we’ll give it our best shot to get him – if the stars align. Nothing is guaranteed, of course but we do need a DM.
As for the Sun (where I worked as a shift sports sub for a short while) I can only say that their SPORTS reporters are actually no better or worse than anybody else. These days Alan Nixon seems pretty reliable. As for their “news” content, please don’t ask me:-)
I’ll end by saying that if you look back, Hucks had to put his own agent back in his box by trying to scupper his dream move.
Funny old world.
Thank you.
Hi Martin
Picking up my Granddaughter this morning and driving back along the Blackpool seafront we watch Basil Brush being erected for the Illuminations and it was Boom Boom from the back of the car.
I hopefully expect city to illuminate the Premiership this season with some dazzerling skills on show.
My neighbour who for his sins is a Blackpool supporter thanked city for the player donation in Husband and the Belgium lad and hoped both had a great season, but wondered what reception he would get from Fleetwood as they also wanted him back.
Watching the Saturday game via streaming it looked a good game but Toulouse put in a few heavy tackles and no more injuries so a good day all round.
So what surprises in the last 4 days of the window will we see the return of Rhodes or possibly an import from the bluenoses or a couple of rejected Seville Oranges by all accounts the papers are saying city will have a busy few days.
I agree with your team selection for Friday but just think Farke might give Klose a start instead of Hanley.
Some one suggested that he should try Hanley as the holding MF not sure on that one.
Onwards and Upwards
OTBC
Hi Alex
Got to cut straight to the chase here – Grant Hanley in midfield? Like the old Deep Purple song: No No No!
I don’t think son of Jason will happen for a variety of reasons, the first and foremost being that surely we don’t really need him in the first place.
And would he rather get League One game time or join our under-23s? Only one answer there.
Amadou sounds feasible. We’ll see. We do need a DM after all.
The clock is ticking for Jordan Rhodes. It might happen, but not for the recently-referenced £4million. Stuart Webber isn’t daft.
Thanks as always.
Hi Martin
The Dozzell one is an interesting transfer especially after LP rant about Marcus Evans saying he can sell who hecwants to who ever he wants, I have had no money to improve the squad, he can sack me if he wants I don’t care and I am not feeling any pressure at the club. So Is this beginning of the end for him at Ipshite already
Lets hope the positivity has reason to last during the season. I don’t think our defence isnt good enough to survive (and I dont just mean ‘the defenders’). Maybe we will make some signings this week. I don’t know what ridiculous prices Webber have been quoted for players, but I can’t deny I’ll be disappointed if we end up spending only £750K on new first team players this summer.
Hi pab
Trouble is with all these figures that aren’t bandied about as much as they used to be we don’t truly know who is on what wage and what they actually cost to acquire.
The dark cloak of secrecy.
I’m just about old enough to remember the days when players didn’t have agents (advisors, sure, such as a friendly uncle or whoever).
Our oft-quoted £20 million budget (which incudes wages, contract extensions, whatever) has just about been spent.
Maybe one more.
It will either be Amadou or Rhodes, who is clearly desperate to return to us, even if only for personals.
Mind you I wouldn’t reject, say, £14k a week to play football. And that’s the bottom end of the scale.
Just how it never happened to me is simple: I wasn’t very good, although I had some tremendous fun along the way
The football world has gone mad in financial terms
Thank you..
Cathedrals? The French are very competitive when it comes to cathedral top trumps. Different in style to the English versions, they are much more ambitious with height. The English cathedral is more conservative. longer and lower. The French pushed the absolute limits with structural ambition, and there were several collapses and disasters. The English style allowed for a large crossing tower/spire which is not a typical continental feature. Reims and Norwich are very different, it is like comparing apples and oranges. Norwich was begun in the late 11th century, in a more dour early Norman style. Reims is much later from mid 12th. Reims is thus high gothic in style and has an extravagantly decorated exterior. Norwich has later additions including the two-storey cloister, wonderful stone vaulted roof (ceiling) and clerestory (high up windows for extra light) and current iconic stone spire. The interior of Norwich has near perfect proportion which accounts for its amazing impact. Score draw for me. Like Anfield….
Hi Cobwatch
I’m no architect (ha!) and Serge and his other half did appreciate our Cathedral, genuinely.
Quite how Rheims came up in our conversation I do not know – I think it was simply a case of “ours is better than yours” but it was so light-hearted a conversation it didn’t really matter.
You may well know the French for “flying buttress” but I sure don’t.
I think I equalised when I said we have regular seasonal peregrine falcons nesting on our summit but I struggle a bit with the language tbh. And that’s just English!
I agree with you that the cloisters at Norwich are magnificent – my daughter went to the Cathedral School for sixth form and I was allowed to see a few different aspects of them, as in inside looking out. Actually my favourite experience was viewing the outbuildings where a certain type of person dwells. Lucky them!
MFW’s great – we get everything from Black Sabbath to early medieval architecture on here:-)
Thanks a lot.
Hi Martin
I have an interesting tale about cloisters…visited Lisbon cathedral (a fab city by the way) a few years back. The receptionist proudly gave me one of their new leaflets which had just been published in English. It stated quite clearly that the double-storey cloister was a special feature, being unique in Europe. I wasn’t having that of course. Nope, i said. She didn’t believe me and ended up searching Norwich cathedral online…what is certain she said, these leaflets will not be reprinted or ditched…
I’ve never been to Lisbon – Portugal must be just about the only country in Europe I’ve not visited.
Friends who have been there would agree with you; they said at the time that Portugal was magnificent and about so much more than the Algarve.
I can sure see why the receptionist wasn’t aware of our cloisters – what they lead to is equally fascinating.
I was so lucky to have enjoyed my slightly off-the-piste mini-tour.
I find it rather ironic that a couple from the south of France took time out to appreciate our cathedral when so many local folks pass it by without a second thought!
Cheers.
Still undecided about Cantwell…but he has looked better than last season.
I’d prob replace him for Roberts (who I think has looked sharp) and shift Buendia into a slightly more central role.
Leitner vs McLean is an interesting battle…
I’m really hopeful we can prove the doubters wrong, but we looked so exposed at the back v Atalanta, I do worry for us defensively.
I went into last season with zero expectation – I shall do the same this time and hope I’m pleasantly surprised!
OTBC
I’ll tell you something Martin – I cannot disagree with a single word you’ve said.
This is indeed a season for hope over expectation.
Leitner/McLean is an interesting one. They’re not exactly similar protagonists. Just right now I’d go with McLean but of course he cannot set the old metronome like Leitner.
But, at least at Anfield, I feel McLean should get the gig.
We will need the strongest sinews we have.
Thank you.
At this stage last season I confidently said that if we weren’t in a relegation fight the season would be a huge success. I’m happy to make the same statement this season.
Hi Don
Best answered by David Bowie.
“I’m happy, hope you’re happy too.”
Cheers pal
Martin, no Roberts in the squad? I’d have thought he’d be ahead of Vrancic on fitness grounds for the moment. He won’t be able to play against Man C of course. I’d have him ahead of Hernandez anyway.
I personally think Leitner will start ahead of Cantwell.
I think we are going to be very much up against it this season. There have been years when you could see at the start of the season that certain supposedly established clubs had been sleep-walking towards relegation for a while – for example Bolton, Stoke, WBA, Villa, Swansea, Sunderland, Hull, in the past.
It should be Watford, Burnley, Bournemouth by now, they’ve all defied the odds for a while, but they don’t look like they’re heading that way to me.
Unfortunately there are not many badly-managed teams among the non-elite at the moment. Newcastle looks like a basket case off the field, but Bruce has a strange knack of starting well at clubs – before losing it after about a year. It happened at Hull, and at Sunderland.
I think Brighton will go, but I don’t think Villa will “do a Fulham” – Smith is a good manager. Palace, if they lose Zaha, could be threatened but Hodgson knows what he’s doing as he showed when he went there – they were rock bottom by a mile before he took over.
So I’m pessimistic, but not miserable. I think we will go down, with Brighton and the Blades, but strange as it may sound, in a much more positive way than under Hughton (and Adams).
I very much hope I’m wrong (about us, not about the Blades)!
Hi Keith
Completely my bad about the omission of Patrick Roberts. I tend to write really quickly and off the cuff whereas MFW’s better journos put more of their time into factual accuracy.
Of course Roberts will be on the bench (at least) even if only because Man Citeh will insist upon it.
I don’t think we’ll go down, I really don’t. To be honest I don’t really care who the Blades have bought and for how much. That’s for their Club to assimilate, not us.
My three for the drop are still Brighton, Sheffield United and Newcastle – I said that six weeks ago so if I changed my mind now I’d look a bit daft.
I agree with you that Dean Smith appears to be an excellent manager.
Thanks as always.
I’m predicting heart ache on the final day of the season. We’ll duke it out the whole year surprising many as we go. Then with Citeh on the final day Chelsea will pip us for 4th place and we’ll be consigned to that awful Europa league!
I can’t wait for the season to start, playing Liverpoo first up has to be a good time to play them, I fancy a draw as they will maybe not be up to full tilt and we are going to be better than they expect.
Bah!
Hi General
By the good Lord we’ve missed your dry humour.
The way the cricket’s going I needed a laugh.
And I’m glad you spell it Citeh, as quite a few of us do these days.
Thanks a lot.
OK Martin , you want a starting eleven for Friday.here goes
Krul, Aarons, Lewis, Godfrey ,Klose. Trybull ,Leitner, Buendia, Stieperman, Hernandez and Pukki. Probably got it wrong , the only person I know worse than predicting than you good self is me. As I am sure others will point out this is one of our go out and enjoy it games, ( all away top 6) and if we get anything its a bonus . A good performance is better .
Hi Bernie
Glad to see a couple of discrepancies between your starting line-up and mine…
What the heck will Daniel Farke be thinking?
We shall see.
A good performance is all we can hope for this season against the head honchos away.
Cheers me ole Walrus.
There are no easy games, but Only the top two for me warrent that level of respect/fear, maybe Spuds at a push.
With Chelsea in transition with a young and inexperienced manager and their best player sold, Manure with all sorts of issues and Ole far from convincing last season and Arsenal often flakey, why not believe we can get something, even away?
Bah!
I sure do believe in the case of Manure and Chelski General.
We have a chance at both venues.
It would be funny if Salford City drew Man Ure in one of the Cups:-)
The average finishing position for the champions of the championship has been 14th over the last 10 years. With 8 of 10 champions staying up in their first year in the premier league.
My team would be
Krul
Arrons
Godfrey
Klose
Lewis
Trybul
Leitner
Beundia
Stiepermann
Hernandez
Pukki
I would go with Onel and play him up against Trent Alexender Arnold.
He looked tired yesterday against Man City
Hi Jase
I’d prefer Klose over Hanley myself – only fitness levels will dictate. And Hernandez over Cantwell is hardly a bad shout either.
Leitner over McLean is a 50/50 for me – it wouldn’t concern me if Mo got the nod but the Mayor has had a LOT of publicity this off season and I would expect him to start tbh.
I quite like the look of our bench tbh!
Thank you.
I’m not too sure of Friday’s starting eleven…….what I will say after Saturday is that I don’t think there will be a more youthful nor valuable back 3 in the Prem than our own Aarons, Lewis and Godfrey. I thought all 3 superb, with Lewis in particular seeming to be a big step upon where he was last season.
If Webster from Bristol City is now a 20m player, those 3 have to be a cool 100m collectivel.
Yes, money talks in the Prem but personally I’m well satisfied with our building for the future in the way Webber and Farke have done this close season.
I’ll take 17th now, but am certain that come next May there will be 3 teams who have spent a lot more than us only to finish below us.
O T B C
Hi John
Couldn’t agree with you more about the three youngsters at the back. I truly feel that if all of them have a good season we could be looking at something around £80 million for the trio, if not quite your £100m.
It will be dreadful for us to sell them but one day it will become inevitable.
I sincerely hope your final par is accurate in every sense of it, and I think it will be.
Thanks very much.
Hi Martin, seems you forgot Roberts in your predicted lineup. Reckon he’ll start over Cantwell who is more likely to cover Stiepermann from the bench.
Hi Joe
Yep, I put my hands up to that error -and it was an error – in a reply to Keith B above.
Cantwell seems to prefer the more central role ’tis true so you may well be right. The Stieperdude often pops up on the wing of course.
Thank you.
Although we have some of the very best young defenders in the country we let in far too many goals last season. We will not be able to get away with the same this season and need to defend much better as a team,
I would have spent a chunk of the transfer budget on a new central defender and moved Godfrey into a defensive mid field role.
The away fixtures at Burnley, Palace and Bournemouth should give us a pretty good indication if we can be competitive.
Assuming we can beat Newcastle and Villa at home…….
Hi Cannock.
You make some very valid points.
Farke spotted Godfrey’s CB potential over a season ago now and although he doesn’t seem to be particularly stubborn I guess he would prefer to keep him in that role.
There are aspects of our defence (in terms of the actual defending) I worry about too, zonal marking at corners being just one of them.
Obviously this requires everybody back with no outlet on clearance. The ball just comes back of course.
It’s funny really, around the beginning of April our most rose-tinted supporters were begging for 100 points. Right now 40 would do us just fine and I think we’ll make it.
Great comment.