Jump to content
talkfootball365
  • Welcome to talkfootball365!

    The better place to talk football.

Rate your club's first half season 21-22


football forum

Recommended Posts

Sign up to remove this ad.
  • Replies 25
  • Created
  • Last Reply

 

Which club?

Saarbrücken

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?

Differs between the club's expectations and mine. The club officials announced their expectations were a top 6 spot. Pesonally, I was more pessimistic and expected a table midfield finish.

League spot right now?

5th spot

Best performance?

Probably our 2-1 win versus league leaders Magdeburg, or our second half versus Wehen, when we almost egalized a 0-4 deficit.

Worst perfrormance?

Our 0-2 loss at home to Kaiserslautern. The only match I remember this season I was indeed annoved having paid money for it.

Best player, so far?

Hard to tell, probably Adriano Grimald. He's the absolute focal point in our attacking style and scored 8 goals.

Best young player?

That's our homegrown talent Luca Kerber hands down. Wouldn't be surprised if he left FCS for greener pastures after this season.🥲

Player, who disappointed?

Expected Lukas Boeder would play more regularly and be more convincing when he does. Calling him a disappointment is a bit of a stretch, though.

Overall mark?

8/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

Would be nice, if our game became a more dominant than it was in the first half of the season. Provided we're spared from an injury crisis we should finish in the top 6. 4th spot would be brilliant as that meant we were qualified for next season's DFB-Pokal regardless how we do in Saarland-Pokal. A possible  promotion would come a bit early though, if you look at our current squad realistically. It's doubtless good enough to compete for promotion, still not sure it has the quality to play for a midtable spot in 2.Liga.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderator

Which club? 

Fortuna Düsseldorf

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?

Depends on who you ask. Some would say promotion, others a decent top half finish. 

League spot right now?

13th 

Best performance?

Probably our 3-1 win against Karlsruhe. 

Worst perfrormance?

Losing against fucking Sandhausen. 

Best player, so far?

Khaled Narey. His back must hurt from carrying us that often. 

Best young player?

Tim Oberdorf. He's already 25, but he just signed his first professional contract a few weeks ago. One of the most amazing "late bloomer" stories I've witnessed so far. His style of play reminds me a bit of Mats HUmmels. 

Player, who disappointed?

Edgar Prib. Ever since he signed for us, he's been very underwhelming. 

Overall mark?

2/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

I hope the winter break will do us some good. Give Preußer more time to develop the team, maybe sign 1-2 more players, especially in the creative department, and we could play a decent 2nd half of the season. 

Expected League finish now: 7-9th. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Subscriber

Which club? Werder Bremen

Expected league finish at the begin of the season? No official expectations from the club. I originally predicted 6th.

League spot right now? 7th

Best performance? Either one of the last 3 matches. I'd say either the match against Aue, or the second half against Hannover.

Worst perfrormance? quite a few, but I have to go with 0-2 loss against HSV.

Best player, so far? Marvin Ducksch, hands down. Worth every cent. 

Best young player? Niklas Schmidt looked class at the start of the season, but sadly fell apart again and now barely makes it into the squad. As it stands now, Agu and Schmid are the most impressive ones so far. Special mention to Gruev who did his job well when it was required.

Player, who disappointed? Assalé. Signed to improve the squad, but hardly featured at all.

Overall mark? 4/10 for Anfang's team, 9/10 for Ole Werner's.

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now? I'm hopeful. Don't think we'll get promoted, but I'd expect a 4th-5th at the end of the season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club?

Dortmund

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?

CL spots

League spot right now?

a distant 2nd

Best performance?

There hasn't been one.  Every match has been about scoring as many goals as possible and hanging on for dear life because the defense is so bad.

Worst perfrormance?

Hertha 3-2 BVB.  Sums up the the season so far.  

Best player, so far?

Has to be Gregor Kobel.  The guy has kept the team in so many games with make-shift defenses in front of him.  Hard to believe that the goals against would be even worse without him.  I wasn't convinced that he was the answer at GK but I have now seen the light.

Best young player?

Bellingham has been very good this year, but just like Haaland last year I see some attitude creeping in and it irritates me.  The cockiness, sticking the tongue out... you haven't won anything yet punk.  A lot of the squad have an arrogance about them that is making me angry.

Player, who disappointed?

Axel Witsel, Emre Can, Nico Schulz, Thomas Meunier can all fuck off for me.  Should never have been signed and now they are on massive wages and underperforming.  Witsel's contract expires in the summer.  The rest are all locked down until at least 2023-2024.  Awful recruitment.

Overall mark?

I know it sounds entitled to say that being 2nd at Christmas is a disappointment.  I wasn't expecting a title race.  I haven't expected a title race in a long time and I don't feel like it's incumbent upon BVB to always be the team to challenge Bayern.  There are 16 other teams in this league that are equally relevant.  I just want the players on my team to play with passion and play for the shirt.  All I see out there are mercenaries right now.  I've mentioned before that I wanted to blow up the team and start over and I still believe that, CL spots be damned.  Watzke talks about being happy to see Haaland win something at Real Madrid.  Why don't you go work there then, Hans?  The club feels plastic right now and I hate that.  

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

Probably finish 2nd or thereabouts because that's what we do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club? Liverpool

Expected league finish at the begin of the season? 2nd/3rd

League spot right now? 2nd

Best performance? Beating United 5-0 away from home

Worst perfrormance? The 3-2 loss to West Ham

Best player, so far? Mo Salah

Best young player? What constitutes young? If 23 is still young, Trent Alexander-Arnold. If not, I'd have to say Harvey Elliot... but he picked up that nasty injury

Player, who disappointed? Tbh everyone's been pretty good this season, it's kind of nit-picking to say anyone's been a disappointment so far. If I had to pick someone, probably Keita... but that seems really harsh.

Overall mark? A - so far we're still in the title race and look like we can possibly finish as the best club in the country if we get a bit lucky. Otherwise, we look like we're likely going to finish top 3 and that's about where I'd expect us.

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now? I think we're at least the 3rd best side in the country, probably the second best because nobody can really compete with the depth City have. Chelsea have the depth but I don't think have the same overall quality of our first team (not far off, mind you - but we're just a bit better when we've got a full strength side imo).

So I think we probably finish somewhere between 1-3, unless we have a horrific injury crisis again this season. Because unlike last season, I'm not sure we can still come top 4 if we suffer the same kind of injury hell as last season. But I do think AFCON + COVID will fuck up our chances of winning the title.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Subscriber

Which club? FCB

Expected league finish at the begin of the season? :35_thinking:

League spot right now? :)

Best performance? Probably the 5-1 over Leverkussen. Everything in that first half was humming right along. Expected to be a tight contest and was anything but right from the opening whistle. 

Worst perfrormance? Gladbach'd. Im sure many of you remember this much more fondly then I xD

Best player, so far? Probably has to be Sane. Hes been incredible. This is the player we thought we purchased a year ago but it just never really clicked. Hes been immense. 

Best young player? Musiala continues to impress. Playing more central in the last 3-4 games playing more of a Goretzka type role as an 8 beside Roca. Hes just got such a high footballing IQ, he looks like a veteran its hard to remember hes still only 18 going on 19. Hes going to be an incredible talent going forward for Bayern and Germany. 

Player, who disappointed? Probably has to be Sabitzer so far. Hes been injured the last few weeks but before that he just was not looking comfortable no matter the position. Part of it is probably only being given a run of sub appearences but when Tolisso is passing him on the depth chart and justifiably so hes got to turn it around, im confidant he can. 

Overall mark?

9/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

If things fall our way in the champions league as far as injuries go we have a real shot. This team is rock solid and even has some depth. Im concernced with basically two players; Kimmich and Lewy, against top tier opponents we cannot make do without either of them, 100% irreplaceable players imo. Cautiously optimistic would be my mood.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Subscriber

Which club?
Man United

Expected league finish at the beginning of the season?
Champion League spot

League spot right now?
6th

Best performance?
None yet, all hot & cold games when the smiling gnome was in charge

Worst performance?
v Leicester City away, leading 0-2 then getting thrashed 4-2

Best player, so far?
DeGea, if it was not for him we would be hovering around the relegation zone

Best young player?
Jason Greenwood

Player, who disappointed?
Marcus Rashford, I know he is doing a good thing with the charity bit but I think he should either carry on with that and give up football or vice versa and concentrate on his football, the magic has gone from him at this present time.

Overall mark?
When Ole was in charge it would have been 4/10 and if he was still in charge by now it would be 0/10.

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?
Just hoping Ralf Rangnick can turn things around and make United the force they were once before and OT becoming a fortress where teams dreaded turning up.


 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club?
Chelsea

Expected league finish at the beginning of the season?
1st-3rd

League spot right now?
3rd

Best performance?
Chelsea 4-0 Juventus

Worst performance?
Watford 1-2 Chelsea. May have won but that arguably the worst performance. 

Best player, so far?
Reece James

Best young player?
Reece James

Player, who disappointed?
The entire attack bar Mount. 

Overall mark?
8/10

Still in all competitions and are 6 points off of first. On course to complete objective. 

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?
With everyone fit I expect us to complete our objective. Stay within reach of both Liverpool and City will be improvement, along with ending the season with another trophy. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Administrator
20 hours ago, Rucksackfranzose said:

Which club?
Leicester

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?
5th or 6th

League spot right now?
9th

Best performance?
4-2 vs Man Utd
4-0 vs Newcastle

Worst perfrormance?
0-1 vs Legia Warsaw
0-3 vs Chelsea
2-2 vs Palace

Best player, so far?
Vardy or Maddison

Best young player?
Luke Thomas. Already getting lots of decent experience at this level and will continue to learn/develop. The fact he's outshone Ryan Bertrand speaks volumes - one is a youth product with lots of hunger and desire to prove himself. The other was signed on a free (not a bad thing) but hasn't shown half the application as someone much younger is doing, and rocked up with that 'one last paycheck' vibe. 

Player, who disappointed?
Schmeichel, Soyuncu, Evans, Ndidi - experienced and usually reliable players who have underperformed. Expected more.

Overall mark?
6/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?
Any decent level of performance will be a vast improvement on the 1st half of the season. It's quite telling of the league that we're in 9th yet have showed a distinct level of underwhelming, sub-par and inconsistent performances so far. We've barely gone on a winning streak, we can't defend set pieces for shit. We should be grateful we have a decent attack force in the likes of Vardy, Daka, Tielemans, Barnes, Maddison. Even then some of those have been inconsistent. 

Just one small thing in being able to defend corners and free-kicks properly could genuinely turn a draw into a win. The amount of times we've fallen behind in games this season is incredible, for a team that used to be defensively reliable. It just means we have to work harder to salvage a result and always needing to score at least 2 to just draw or win a game is not right. A lot of our influential players need to step up a gear and act like the leaders they are - pretty much most of the 4/5 players named above.

The promising thing is that there's plenty of improvement - once we do click we're actually engaging and entertaining to watch. The return of Youri in last couple of weeks is welcome. He just makes us tick. 

The other thing to counter in is our poor Europa League showing - not qualifying from that group is horribly disappointing. Even if just to finish 2nd. Losing against Legia Warsaw and not beating Spartak Moscow at home killed us. Left ourselves too much to do in the last game against Napoli. Would love us to take the Europa Conference League seriously - a) it's another potential trophy which a club like us shouldn't turn our noses up at and b) it's a realistic route back in to the Europa League.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Subscriber

Which club?
Leicester City

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?
Enough debate within this one itself, I think realistically people would've been happy with 7th but many had us 5th.

League spot right now?
9th

Best performance?
Quite easy - the 4-2 win over Manchester United. I thought we looked comfortably better than them throughout the game and there aren't many games I can say that for.

Worst perfrormance?
I think in terms of a flat, dreadful performance then the 4-1 loss at West Ham and 0-3 loss to Chelsea spring to mind, but I think when all is said and done it's got to be losing at Legia Warsaw - who are basically having a Chelsea 2015/16 season, in the relegation places in Poland despite winning the league in the last two seasons. To lose to them in what ultimately cost us in the Europa League is totally pitiful.

Best player, so far?
This is tricky but I'm probably going to go with Tielemans, who I think has been the only player to consistently play well this season. Maddison has been very good lately, and Vardy started very brightly, but Tielemans looks the standout player for me.

Best young player?
If we're talking academy prospects I'd probably give it to Dewsbury-Hall but he's only really had a recent run, so otherwise I'd go for Luke Thomas. Dewsbury-Hall has performed the best in his minutes though.

Player, who disappointed?
Sadly there are loads of contenders for this. Soumare has been a disappointment so far, Bertrand I thought would be steady but he's been shocking, Ricardo I think has struggled without being poor, but the disappointment is more than he was a genuinely borderline world class full back pre-injury. I would probably put Soyuncu for this though, he's been really poor and a big part of a defence that's kept two clean sheets all season.

Overall mark?
3/10 for me. It's been crap. 9th doesn't look bad but it's a very congested table, and with a very tough next two games we could easily end up about 13th going into the new year. I think performances have been worse than where we are, the majority of our players are playing below their ability and I saw an xg table earlier that had us 17th, which is really, really bad. Add in that we've crashed out of a very passable Europa League group and there isn't much positive I have to say.

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?
I don't really see us getting any higher than this unless there's a significant improvement in performances, but like I said I think we're fortunate to even be this high. You can only point to the Brighton game where we were a bit unlucky, while I can name a few games we were a bit fortunate with the result. I want us to have a real crack at winning the Conference League personally, there is no side left in that that I don't think we're capable of taking on our day. League position though I think we'll finish about 10th or 11th.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club? Darmstadt 98

Expected league finish at the begin of the season? Mid-table

League spot right now? 2nd

Best performance? The thrashing of the league leaders St Pauli.

Worst performance? Our 3-1 loss against our all time bogey team - Düsseldorf.

Best player, so far? Very hard to pick one out but Luca Pfeiffer has been the sensation of the year! Him and Tietz together form an amazing duo. Patric Pfeiffer has been just as amazing at the back with his partner Isherwood - fast and solid. Our midfield with the destroyer Gjasula not leaving anything to luck has been amazing. Bader, one of the best right backs we've had, and still so much potential in him. The list goes on and on and...

Best young player? Riedel, was promoted to the playing 11 due to all the covid infections in the squad, did his job very well and got rightfully called up to the u21 national side. With time he'll get even better

Player, who disappointed? Sobiech, I expected much more from him when we signed him but hasn't been as good and has lost his space. Still a decent centre back but has had a hard time against the rocks at the back.

Overall mark? 9/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now? The way we are playing, nothing seems impossible right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club?
Chelsea

Expected league finish at the beginning of the season?
3rd

League spot right now?
3rd

Best performance?
Chelsea 4-0 Juventus

Worst performance?
Several yet WHU away and losing 3-2 disappointed the most.

Best player, so far?
Mendy

Best young player?
Reece James

Player, who disappointed?
Saul, was hoping we would see more from a well rated player.

Overall mark?
7/10

Disappointed to drop to 3rd this month after leading the league for some time, understand injuries and now the virus are issues. Pleased to still be in all cup competitions.

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

Expect us to finish 3rd though 4th would not be a disaster and then we have the cups and this might provide some silverware if we can ride the injury and cov-id challenges.


 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club?

Ebbsfleet United 

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?

Expected to challenge for the title. 

League spot right now?

1st (only on goal difference) 

Best performance?

Beating Welling 6-0. Utterly dominated the game from start to finish. 

Worst perfrormance?

Hampton 3-0 Fleet. Game was over by half time. 

Best player, so far?

Rakish Bingham has played very well. Been a far bigger asset to the team than I was anticipating. 

Best young player?

Not had his best few weeks, but Ben Chapman (22/23) looks like a decent player. 

Player, who disappointed?

Josh Gould. Perhaps a bit harsh (but hard to pick one to be fair as we're top) but was a loanee and looked the business in his first few games. Kind of fizzled out since. 

Overall mark?

8/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

Hard to say as we still have to play Dartford and Dorking (two of what I suspect will be our main title challengers) home and away, but I'd like to think that we'd take a title challenge right into the Spring months, particular with our bigger-than-average squad. 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club?

Newcastle United

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?

10th-15th

League spot right now?

19th

Best performance?

We've won 1 game :4_joy:

Worst perfrormance?

No such thing

Best player, so far?

Joelinton under Howe. Not under Bruce.

Best young player?

We don't play any youngsters. Or academy is fucked by a lack of investment.

Player, who disappointed?

Lascelles

Overall mark?

0/10

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

We have to deliver top 6 results just to reach 40 points ffs. Regardless of how much money we spend we aren't going to do that. We will be around 30-35 points and it's all a question of 3 others being worse. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which club?

Leeds United

Expected league finish at the begin of the season?

Anywhere from 10th to 15th I'd say

League spot right now?

16th

Best performance?

I'd actually say Leicester at home. Drew 1-1 but dominated for large periods, played really decent football and only conceded an absolute freak worldy finish. Unfortunately luck wasn't on our side.

Worst perfrormance?

It would be very easy to say 7-0 away at Man City, and that was bad. However, we still created opportunities against them and they are good enough to put up a bog number against sides anyway.

By far the worst was Southampton away, it was just a 1-0 defeat but an abysmal performance where we had not one shot on target and didn't look like creating a thing.

Best player, so far?

Raphinha. Without him, it would be a scary thought where we could actually be.

Best young player?

Joe Gelhardt. He came on against Wolves and immediately showed his pedigree. Fast, stocky, puts himself about, no fear running at people, reminds you of anyone? Well, if he is half the player Rooney was, we'll be laughing.

Player, who disappointed?

Junior Firpo. Looks a liability to me at LB and has been really run ragged in most games he's appeared. Maybe he needs more time to adapt but I'm not impressed so far.

Jack Harrison, also. Had three progressively great seasons with us including last season where he took to this level like a storm. But we haven't seen anything like that from him this year. 

Overall mark?

5/10. Not been great by any stretch but we need to consider that we overachieved last season and this season we've not been able to put anything like our best XI out with as worse an injury crisis as we've had under Bielsa. 

Outlook on the season's second half and expected league finish now?

Despite everything going against us, we've scrapped enough points together to give ourselves breathing space from the relegation zone. We got players gradually coming back and hopefully by March, we'll be in a position to field a strong side. Hopefully then we will kick on and do what we've shown we are capable of. 

On that basis, I'll say we finish 14th.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.


Sign up or subscribe to remove this ad.


×
×
  • Create New...