The 2017/18 season preview/expectation and build up thread

[maffff]

I still can't comprehend how our squad finished 3rd last season. . . .

Good manager who had the team playing better than the sum of its parts?

The same manager that we have retained and has added to the squad?

[Maneki Neko]

by amassing more points than all but 2 other teams

[Snowflake Royal]

I'm pretty happy. It was glaringly obvious we needed more in the way of a striker at the end of last season. Bodvarsson isn't exactly what we all wanted, but he does tentatively look like a good fit for the system, even if we probably can't expect more than 10-15 goals from him over a full season.

I think Stam's been clever in identifying that good strikers are so ridiculously over-priced and so brought in goals elsewhere on the pitch. Pretty much every outfielder he's brought in this summer is capable of banging in significantly more goals than you'd really expect to come from Beerens, Evans, Berg, or Kelly etc.

We've added plenty of pace and we now have two Championship quality strikers who can play that focal point for us. Let's not forget that Kermorgant's scoring record was very little to write home about before Christmas.

And what you want as a team, is to threaten the goal from all over. If you rely heavily on one player, you're an injury or loss of form away from collapse ( *coughLeedscough*). It's easier to defend against one prolific goalscorer and four people trying to supply him, than five decent goalscorers who can feed each other.

I think we *should* be right up there again. I think we're in with a decent shout of automatics and not making the Play Offs would be a disappointing failure. But you've got to see how the season pans out and re-evaluate as you go.