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2025/26 pre-season

Said to my brother the other day, who's getting our goals this season?
Johnson was good getting the goals he did but now he's not on the right and with a different system can't see him getting many.
Early days of course but a bit of a worry as we really lack creativity as shown today and especially in the Luton friendly.
Bayern are a very good side but just like Ange's side last year, today we could easily have conceded 7 or 8.
Agree. Bayern’s quality covers up our shortfalls.

We may churn out enough points per game to keep our head above water but there is absolutely nothing to fear when looking at our team. It’s a top half side at best.

There were players available that would have kept Levy to his word about winning things but we skipped those for the cheap options.
 
Agree. Bayern’s quality covers up our shortfalls.

We may churn out enough points per game to keep our head above water but there is absolutely nothing to fear when looking at our team. It’s a top half side at best.

There were players available that would have kept Levy to his word about winning things but we skipped those for the cheap options.
I get the logic
But who have we skipped?
 
I know how this works. I say the names and then everyone provides reasons outside our frugalness of why we didn’t sign them.

Let’s just say if we really wanted to we could have been far more active.

And even if it wasn’t going to be the high tier players we should have had others in by now.
Nah
I’m not jumping in on that
For me the signings we could and should make, we still can
We need a 10/wf - Eze
We need a striker - Vlahovic
Left back is harder and maybe we plod on hoping we get by but the ideal on for me is Robinson from Fulham
None of those have been signed by others
The players others have signed in the majority for me are not ones that would have even my choice for us
Except for Cherki.. but I’m very very happy with Kudus
 
Nah
I’m not jumping in on that
For me the signings we could and should make, we still can
We need a 10/wf - Eze
We need a striker - Vlahovic
Left back is harder and maybe we plod on hoping we get by but the ideal on for me is Robinson from Fulham
None of those have been signed by others
The players others have signed in the majority for me are not ones that would have even my choice for us
Except for Cherki.. but I’m very very happy with Kudus
Those 2 would solve a lot of issues. 130-150m?

I was annoyed about Mbuemo, Delap and MGW. Appreciate we will miss out a large percentage of the time up against Utd and Chelsea.

Hopefully the Mbuemo frustration goes away with Kudus.
 
Those 2 would solve a lot of issues. 130-150m?

I was annoyed about Mbuemo, Delap and MGW. Appreciate we will miss out a large percentage of the time up against Utd and Chelsea.

Hopefully the Mbuemo frustration goes away with Kudus.
Delap would have been sensible
I think he has made a bad move but we will see. Quality player
I think we need certainty’s though and Vlahovic for £20m is just way way too sensible
Mbuemo is imo no better or wise than Kudus. I’m a huge Kudus fan and I also rate Mbuemo
MGW was what it was … club didn’t do anything wrong their and the player will suffer imo because of his naivety at not making the move happen.
 
I knew that response would come and I’m not really buying it. We have a massive game in 9 days. We should be going in ready.

Part of the problem is….after Son’s departure we don’t really have a recognised first choice left winger/left forward.

We have limited amount of games and all asides from the initial couple of fixtures are against strong opposition - we have to get minutes in to the players legs. Pretty sure come the start of the season LW will not see Johnson preferred to either Tel or Odobert showing this selection today for what it is
 
a sign of things to come in the CL, oh dear.
Not really. We're only going to play teams of Bayern's quality twice in the 8 games. We'll get out of the group phase and maybe the knockout qualifying round, but that's about it. The only hope is that Frank's tactics have bedded in by then.

We still need a couple of good signings, though
 
In attacking terms those are arguably the two most important roles in any side. So you think we are lacking quality there, well then of course we are average, theres little to no quality in the key areas. We *might* even have decent choices elsewhere (and decent is not a level I think we should be targeting) but that leaves an unbalanced side in terms of quality.

We are going to need to be really strong defensively this season to make up for the paucity of ability at the top end of the field, and this isn't new. I'm been saying the same things for 2 years now.
When I say decent, I mean compared to other teams well compete with, not with the absolute top teams. Decent, as in similar quality to the other teams in the 4th-8th bracket.
 
Those 2 would solve a lot of issues. 130-150m?

I was annoyed about Mbuemo, Delap and MGW. Appreciate we will miss out a large percentage of the time up against Utd and Chelsea.

Hopefully the Mbuemo frustration goes away with Kudus.
I was annoyed at Joao Pedro. Not this year, but two years ago when he joined Brighton. An absolute steal for the £28m they paid for him and one we should have been all over.
 
I think we have had a healthy does of what is to come this season. Much tighter overall defensively (the goals Bayern scored were three great range finishes and an opening offside goal), I think generally we’ll be much harder to beat/get in behind…alas, unless we address the creative issue, it feels to me like Frank is going to rely on high-press waves and counter-attacking bursts. We could well end up like Mourinho-era Spurs without Kane and Son to bail us out (or Bale for that matter)… Power and speed with not much guile beyond individual. I feel for Kudus because if we could just get one more player demanding the attention his skill demands, then he could have a field day. I cannot believe we payed Brennan on the left, he is currently our most productive squad player; it is not a good use of his talents. I was surprised we did not see Kudus as a 10 with Johnson, Tel, and Odobert; Kudus has incredible strength and surge on the ball, and in a central position right now could be very very good.

I am both concerned and relaxed. Concerned because I think we’ve fudged it a bit…relaxed because, well, my expectations should never have been set as high given the facts/actions since May…
 
Not too bothered about this, I still remember our fantastic pre season spanking both Dortmund and Roma just to have our worst start of the season since the stone age.
That's all well and good, results aren't important in pre season but you still work on things in these games. The facts are issues with our squad that were there last season are still there, and have been compounded by Maddison's injury - and we are apparently expecting to compete on all fronts.

Our midfield and attack is pretty average, you didn't need a poor defeat to Bayern to tell you that...
 
I think we have had a healthy does of what is to come this season. Much tighter overall defensively (the goals Bayern scored were three great range finishes and an opening offside goal), I think generally we’ll be much harder to beat/get in behind…alas, unless we address the creative issue, it feels to me like Frank is going to rely on high-press waves and counter-attacking bursts. We could well end up like Mourinho-era Spurs without Kane and Son to bail us out (or Bale for that matter)… Power and speed with not much guile beyond individual. I feel for Kudus because if we could just get one more player demanding the attention his skill demands, then he could have a field day. I cannot believe we payed Brennan on the left, he is currently our most productive squad player; it is not a good use of his talents. I was surprised we did not see Kudus as a 10 with Johnson, Tel, and Odobert; Kudus has incredible strength and surge on the ball, and in a central position right now could be very very good.

I am both concerned and relaxed. Concerned because I think we’ve fudged it a bit…relaxed because, well, my expectations should never have been set as high given the facts/actions since May…
Had a minor argument with my miserable mate
We haven’t improved
Were relegation candidates
We’re brick
We haven’t improved
So I did say we have signed some actual players, 2 will start and the other 2 will get a lot of game time
But.. we’re missing 40% of the first 11… again
He didn’t seem to recognise that
How we fix that, I don’t know. But we haven’t regressed despite what people think IMO
 
I know this is Bayern and they are a very good side, but a clear sign that we need some serious work done in the remaining days of the window. Disappointing that, as usual, we’re a couple of weeks off the end of it and still clinging to the hope that there is a final flurry of business from us.
Why change a habit of a lifetime. This method works so well for us
 
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