Less, but....

that is because two years ago I was

1) supremely confident in Buendia to create chances to get us out of trouble and that Pukki's accuracy in taking those chances was a little better than it actually turned out
2) I thought that any two of Zimmermann / Klose / Godfrey / Hanley would be decent in the PL although they would make mistakes.
3) I overestimated Jamal Lewis' defensive capabilities, probably due to the fact that he rarely needed to use them in the Champs.
4) In light of above, absolutely underestimated the need for a proper defensive midfielder and the additional pressure not having one would put on the defenders and goalkeeper.
5) Didn't factor in the difference in ability from the first XI to replacements on a PL level.
6) Rose-tinted glasses when considering the potential of players like Hernandez, Stiepermann, McLean, Trybull and Idah who had seemed a level above in the Championship at times.
7) I thought the signings like Passlack, Drmic and Roberts might actually be decent.

However, this season I am less confident because:

1) While I think our back four is an upgrade, it isn't massively and I am also more aware of the fullbacks getting caught upfield, the lack of depth in quality of the CBs, the propensity for mistakes from players like Hanley, Giannoulis, Omobamidele etc which don't matter so much in the Championship but in the Premier League you get killed. As I think Krul said "The difference with the PL is that you try a cute through ball in midfield, get the ball intercepted and then 6 seconds later Mane scores".

2) I saw how important Skipp was last season - I think if there was one player you could remove and failed to get promoted, he was the one. And we haven't replaced him at all.

3) Am more aware of Pukki not always being clinical (his movement is excellent!). And Idah shows promise but hasn't pulled up any trees yet.

4) Still think we might have the same issue as last time where we have a bunch of talented attacking midfielders and forwards who spend most of the game defending, which is not their strength.

5) I am more sober on the expectations of new signings. They are all potentially exciting, but also all a little bit of a gamble (and yes, we can do nothing else with our resources!).

6) We can say we have more experience in the PL now, but do we really? We've replaced a lot of the players from the last PL runout. Omobamidele, Giannoulis, Mumba, Lees-Melou, Rashica, Sargent, Tzolis, Dowell, Idah, even Gilmour - they all have no or very limited experience in the Premier League.

So, I am less confident.

Posted By: Legacy Fan on August 11th 2021 at 10:21:53

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