End of Season Predictions 21/22

[Crazyface]

Quite a few predictions coming after most of the games finished

In MY defence, I have been saying, at home, since Utd made the good signings, that's how I think the top four will look. Honestly.

 

[Orikoru]

Ok, I've come up with a totally random arbitrary scoring method, and the final results are as follows:



Obviously a lot of these are subjective, haha. But the higher up you are the better you did, roughly.


Positions: bold green means correct, normal green means you got the right relegated team but in the wrong position. Red means that team wasn't in the team six / wasn't relegated.
Top scorer: if your pick got less than double figures you get a red, if they didn't I let you off.
Cups: I let you off a red if you got the losing finalist (i.e. Chelsea).
First Manager Sacked: I was generous and gave a green for Bruce as he was a close second. You get a red if your manager wasn't sacked at all.
Best Signings/Flops: Obviously this was entirely down to my judgement, ha. If I was unsure whether they succeeded or flopped, I just left them as neither green or red.

Final scores were greens minus reds, and the 'bonus' was how many bold greens you got as a decider.


Crazyface did remarkably well for a guy who put Everton in 5th and also said this:

I'm amazed at how many are predicting city to win it again. As far as I can see they are in a mess. No Kane, as yet, rubbish anyway. No Messi despite him liking city's manager. A loads of players listed as not required, if you believe the papers.

The winner was the only person who is not a forum member, so shame on all of us. In fact he was the only person who got more right than wrong!

Pauljames87 confused me by naming Saka as best signing even though he didn't sign for anyone and remained at Arsenal.

Edit: Just noticed I shouldn't have given Colchester's lad the bonus for League Cup since I didn't do that on the FA Cup, but it makes no difference to the scores so I can't be arsed editing it now.

 

[fundy]

I guess we wont be getting the squirrels view on these results

 

[SteveW86]

Ok, I've come up with a totally random arbitrary scoring method, and the final results are as follows:

View attachment 42693

Obviously a lot of these are subjective, haha. But the higher up you are the better you did, roughly.


Positions: bold green means correct, normal green means you got the right relegated team but in the wrong position. Red means that team wasn't in the team six / wasn't relegated.
Top scorer: if your pick got less than double figures you get a red, if they didn't I let you off.
Cups: I let you off a red if you got the losing finalist (i.e. Chelsea).
First Manager Sacked: I was generous and gave a green for Bruce as he was a close second. You get a red if your manager wasn't sacked at all.
Best Signings/Flops: Obviously this was entirely down to my judgement, ha. If I was unsure whether they succeeded or flopped, I just left them as neither green or red.

Final scores were greens minus reds, and the 'bonus' was how many bold greens you got as a decider.


Crazyface did remarkably well for a guy who put Everton in 5th and also said this:


The winner was the only person who is not a forum member, so shame on all of us. In fact he was the only person who got more right than wrong!

Pauljames87 confused me by naming Saka as best signing even though he didn't sign for anyone and remained at Arsenal.

Edit: Just noticed I shouldn't have given Colchester's lad the bonus for League Cup since I didn't do that on the FA Cup, but it makes no difference to the scores so I can't be arsed editing it now.

someone has way too much time on their hands

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Ok, I've come up with a totally random arbitrary scoring method, and the final results are as follows:

View attachment 42693

Obviously a lot of these are subjective, haha. But the higher up you are the better you did, roughly.


Positions: bold green means correct, normal green means you got the right relegated team but in the wrong position. Red means that team wasn't in the team six / wasn't relegated.
Top scorer: if your pick got less than double figures you get a red, if they didn't I let you off.
Cups: I let you off a red if you got the losing finalist (i.e. Chelsea).
First Manager Sacked: I was generous and gave a green for Bruce as he was a close second. You get a red if your manager wasn't sacked at all.
Best Signings/Flops: Obviously this was entirely down to my judgement, ha. If I was unsure whether they succeeded or flopped, I just left them as neither green or red.

Final scores were greens minus reds, and the 'bonus' was how many bold greens you got as a decider.


Crazyface did remarkably well for a guy who put Everton in 5th and also said this:


The winner was the only person who is not a forum member, so shame on all of us. In fact he was the only person who got more right than wrong!

Pauljames87 confused me by naming Saka as best signing even though he didn't sign for anyone and remained at Arsenal.

Edit: Just noticed I shouldn't have given Colchester's lad the bonus for League Cup since I didn't do that on the FA Cup, but it makes no difference to the scores so I can't be arsed editing it now.

Should a rule be made, that those in the bottom half of the list are banned from the Footie thread, as they obviously know nothing about the game?

 

[Swango1980]

Pep and Manchester City deserve even more praise than they've been getting since winning the title. After all, winning the title so impressively, having to accommodate the flop Grealish in 28 games is extremely impressive. Can you imagine how easily they'd have beat Liverpool and the rest of the sides had Grealish not played?

 

[Swango1980]

Should a rule be made, that those in the bottom half of the list are banned from the Footie thread, as they obviously know nothing about the game?

Careful what you ask for, you said Man Utd would win the league

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I looked back at my predictions and am amazed I was not bottom . It shows why I don't gamble, terrible stuff.

Bit harsh to call Grealish a flop mind although most of the other flop suggestions were pretty spot on.

Good effort @Orikoru

 

[Orikoru]

Pep and Manchester City deserve even more praise than they've been getting since winning the title. After all, winning the title so impressively, having to accommodate the flop Grealish in 28 games is extremely impressive. Can you imagine how easily they'd have beat Liverpool and the rest of the sides had Grealish not played?

Most people who picked Grealish did so with the caveat of it being relative to the enormous fee they paid, and said that his return wouldn't be enough to justify it. With 3 goals & 3 assists only, I think it's fair to call him a flop in those terms. Maybe not the biggest flop. But I'm sure even Grealish himself would have hoped for more than that. He was hardly a key player.

 

[Swango1980]

Most people who picked Grealish did so with the caveat of it being relative to the enormous fee they paid, and said that his return wouldn't be enough to justify it. With 3 goals & 3 assists only, I think it's fair to call him a flop in those terms. Maybe not the biggest flop. But I'm sure even Grealish himself would have hoped for more than that. He was hardly a key player.

No doubt I bet he wished his numbers would be higher. But, it was unlikely he was really ever going to be better than De Bruyne, or be the main man in midfield. High price tags are just part and parcel of football these days, especially if a top club is signing an English player.

It'll be interesting to know what City fans think of him, as they'll watch him week in, week out. When I've watched City games, Grealish has always looked decent on the ball and composed (it is nice to see as a Utd fan, who doesn't see that from an entire team of players). He seems to link up with his team mates pretty well, and even if he doesn't directly score a goal or set it up, he is often an important part of the build up. There are a few sites that have delved deeper into the stats, and they indicate some of the very positive work he does for the team, higher than most / all other City players in many areas. Call it the "offensive dirty work" so to speak. I noticed the other day City had a very positive goal stat from set pieces, and I wondered how much of that was down to Grealish, in that he times his movement of the ball very well, and inevitably gets taken out by defenders who mistime their challenge.

At end of the day, what else should we expect? For Grealish to be scoring goals instead of the players who did score the goals? Or robbing assists of his team mates? Or, should he have be adding to his team mates goals, so instead of scoring 99, maybe they should have scored 110 to 120 if City had signed a better midfielder instead of a flop? I doubt Pep would personally consider him a flop, and will enjoy trying to help him develop his play over the next few years, just like he does with all the City players.

 

[Orikoru]

The word 'flop' would be harsh, but I don't think he's represented good value so I gave people the point for it. Laporte scored more goals than him from centre back. Rodri scored 4 more than him from defensive midfield. Gundogan scored 5 more in less appearances. Ferran Torres was only one goal behind and he only played 4 times lol.

You've not argued with Sancho being a flop, but his numbers were similar.

You don't even have a horse in this race as you weren't in it! Get along with you.

 

[Swango1980]

The word 'flop' would be harsh, but I don't think he's represented good value so I gave people the point for it. Laporte scored more goals than him from centre back. Rodri scored 4 more than him from defensive midfield. Gundogan scored 5 more in less appearances. Ferran Torres was only one goal behind and he only played 4 times lol.

You've not argued with Sancho being a flop, but his numbers were similar.

You don't even have a horse in this race as you weren't in it! Get along with you.

Sadly, I missed it when you originally posted this. Can I make my selections now?

Sancho would certainly be in a better position to be considered a flop. After all, he could barely get in the side before Greenwood's personal life came into play. And, even though he has shown a few positive signs, still been in a team that has been awful in attack. Even though he scored a few goals, Sancho has really not contributed in helping the side sustain attacks and pressure on the opposition. That is probably a great example that highlights goals and assists do not purely tell us how valuable a player has been to their team (unless you are solely interested in fantasy football points). I'm sure City fans have been much happier with Grealish's contribution that Utd fans have been with Sancho's.

 

[AmandaJR]

Personally I've been disappointed with Grealish but then need to remember I never rated him that highly at Villa either and not his fault he cost such a ridiculous amount.

When we really needed someone to get us a goal Pep didn't see him as the solution it seems. He's looked at his best when Pep really overloaded the left with him, Silva and Foden working really closely together.

Overall - still a bit of a prancing pony for me

Also - not sure he's a good influence on younger players like Foden.

 

[Piece]

One thing is clear, I know my own club too well

 

[fundy]

The word 'flop' would be harsh, but I don't think he's represented good value so I gave people the point for it. Laporte scored more goals than him from centre back. Rodri scored 4 more than him from defensive midfield. Gundogan scored 5 more in less appearances. Ferran Torres was only one goal behind and he only played 4 times lol.

You've not argued with Sancho being a flop, but his numbers were similar.

You don't even have a horse in this race as you weren't in it! Get along with you.

similar numbers apart from he didnt win the title?

 

[Piece]

Personally I've been disappointed with Grealish but then need to remember I never rated him that highly at Villa either and not his fault he cost such a ridiculous amount.

When we really needed someone to get us a goal Pep didn't see him as the solution it seems. He's looked at his best when Pep really overloaded the left with him, Silva and Foden working really closely together.

Overall - still a bit of a prancing pony for me

Also - not sure he's a good influence on younger players like Foden.

Don't know if you saw the Grealish interview on the pitch with Neville, Richards, Keane, etc. It was a short sharp one but quite revealing. In essence he said that Pep was so demanding in that the ball is not given away, he felt pressurised not to go forward and "create", preferring to cut back and pass back. I think you'll see a different Grealish next year.

 

[AmandaJR]

Don't know if you saw the Grealish interview on the pitch with Neville, Richards, Keane, etc. It was a short sharp one but quite revealing. In essence he said that Pep was so demanding in that the ball is not given away, he felt pressurised not to go forward and "create", preferring to cut back and pass back. I think you'll see a different Grealish next year.

I didn't see it but would explain a lot. Too much tippy tappy sidewards/backwards passing full stop - typical we had something like 74% possession and were two down! Thing is he needs to trust his ability to be more adventurous and trust he won't lose the ball...hope we see better next year.

 

[Orikoru]

Don't know if you saw the Grealish interview on the pitch with Neville, Richards, Keane, etc. It was a short sharp one but quite revealing. In essence he said that Pep was so demanding in that the ball is not given away, he felt pressurised not to go forward and "create", preferring to cut back and pass back. I think you'll see a different Grealish next year.

That's interesting and makes a lot of sense. I also think he'll kick on next year. As @AmandaJR just said, he'll have been bought for his ability to beat players and still not lose the ball (or at least win free kicks!) so he'll be needing to do more of that.

 

[Tashyboy]

No doubt I bet he wished his numbers would be higher. But, it was unlikely he was really ever going to be better than De Bruyne, or be the main man in midfield. High price tags are just part and parcel of football these days, especially if a top club is signing an English player.

It'll be interesting to know what City fans think of him, as they'll watch him week in, week out. When I've watched City games, Grealish has always looked decent on the ball and composed (it is nice to see as a Utd fan, who doesn't see that from an entire team of players). He seems to link up with his team mates pretty well, and even if he doesn't directly score a goal or set it up, he is often an important part of the build up. There are a few sites that have delved deeper into the stats, and they indicate some of the very positive work he does for the team, higher than most / all other City players in many areas. Call it the "offensive dirty work" so to speak. I noticed the other day City had a very positive goal stat from set pieces, and I wondered how much of that was down to Grealish, in that he times his movement of the ball very well, and inevitably gets taken out by defenders who mistime their challenge.

At end of the day, what else should we expect? For Grealish to be scoring goals instead of the players who did score the goals? Or robbing assists of his team mates? Or, should he have be adding to his team mates goals, so instead of scoring 99, maybe they should have scored 110 to 120 if City had signed a better midfielder instead of a flop? I doubt Pep would personally consider him a flop, and will enjoy trying to help him develop his play over the next few years, just like he does with all the City players.

A very very good analogy of Grealish. I like him a lot, he does do a lot of “ dirty offensive work”. The fouls he draws are just unbelievable. Defenders know what he is like but it still happens. The stats from set pieces are astonishing. Remember when City couldn’t “defend”. Don’t get me wrong at times they cannot and that is purely down to the style of play they have. Me I like Grealish and like many other City players during there first season. They/ He has not set the season on fire. Remember a couple of seasons ago when Sancho went to Dortmund and Foden was a bit part player. People questioned his and Peps decision. Look at Foden now. Yup Ave a feeling and hope next season Grealish shows his worth for City and England.

 

[ColchesterFC]

I video called him yesterday to tell him that he'd won. After dancing around the living room celebrating he asked what he'd won. I said it was "the undying and eternal respect of the GM forum members". He replied, "so nothing then". He's a quick learner that boy.