If we had top four aspirations...

[EnglishBob]

If we wanted to assemble a squad capable of genuinely competing for the top four, just for a bit of fun, who, out of the present squad, would you retain in the starting eleven, who would be a tasty squad player who could be trusted when called upon, and who would we need to let go/sell?

I'll kick off by saying that first teamers would maybe be: Patricio, Boly (?), Otto, Neto, Jimenez (assuming he's the same player pre-injury)
Squad/rotation: Neves, Semedo (?), Podence (?)

Younger players who may really kick on would have to be considered, of course, but I'm basing this purely upon where we're at right now.

 

[Tony Towner]

I think we have a lot of players who could be in and around a Top 4 squad, look at Leicester outside of their first 11 for example, Perez, Albrighton etc. First 11 in anything other than a freak season. Rui (on form), Neves, Raul, Neto on potential, but then you could easily cope with a couple of Jonny, Boly, Semedo if the other 9 were at Top 4 level. Coady in a 3.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Our first XI and probably squad is on a par with Leicesters. They are competing for the top 4.

So first XI: Rui, Jonny, Semedo, Boly, Neves. Moutinho (not so much now), Neto, Traore, Raul, Podence,

Squad: Donck, Saiss, the U21s

 

[Premier Quality]

if we put van Dijk and Fernandes in our current side (with Jiminez back), we’d definately be top 4.

 

[Pablowolf]

Without a doubt I'd have Neves in the 1st XI but I'd pair him up with someone who'd do more of the dirty work and let Neves' magic foot shine.

All in all, Patricio, Semedo, Boly, Otto, Neves, Podence, Neto, Jimenez.

By the time we're ready for a full-on top 4 effort, Silva will be in there.

 

[prawnking]

Some over-optimistic appraisals so far, surely? Do we really have 8 players who are top 4 quality? Some very generous evaluations of Semedo and Podence for sure.

Jonny, Neves, Neto, Raul for me, Boly too probably.

Is Nuno a top 4 manager though? Having the players is one thing, moulding them into something greater is another. This season has left some question marks for me.

 

[Paul]

Some very generous evaluations of Semedo and Podence for sure.

Why have you never mentioned Semedo before, this is so out of the blue, I'm almost reeling

 

[PuntsWolf]

Some over-optimistic appraisals so far, surely? Do we really have 8 players who are top 4 quality? Some very generous evaluations of Semedo and Podence for sure.

Jonny, Neves, Neto, Raul for me, Boly too probably.

Is Nuno a top 4 manager though? Having the players is one thing, moulding them into something greater is another. This season has left some question marks for me.

What about Evans, Soyuncu, Albrighton, Praet, Perez, Justin, Mendy, Fuchs, Fofana, Iheanacho, Choudhury, Amartey, Are they worldbeaters?

I mean Barnes and Maddison are good but they aren’t elite. Neither can get in England squads. Vardy, Schmeichel, Tielemans and Ndidi are very good. But so are Rui, Neves, Neto and Raul.

 

[prawnking]

Why have you never mentioned Semedo before, this is so out of the blue, I'm almost reeling

I'm nearly as obsessed with him as you are with me.

Any football opinions on the thread topic?

 

[prawnking]

In fact, if you asked nicely I'm sure the mods would set up a separate Prawnking forum where you and Johnny can stalk everything I say and then laugh at each others posts ad infinitum?

 

[prawnking]

What about Evans, Soyuncu, Albrighton, Praet, Perez, Justin, Mendy, Fuchs, Fofana, Iheanacho, Choudhury, Amartey, Are they worldbeaters?

I mean Barnes and Maddison are good but they aren’t elite. Neither can get in England squads. Vardy, Schmeichel, Tielemans and Ndidi are very good. But so are Rui, Neves, Neto and Raul.

Why the obsession with Leicester? Just cos they're currently in the top 4 doesn't mean they're a top 4 side, any more than West Ham are a top 5 side.

Leicester finished 5th last year, before that most PL seasons you're usually talking about regular big six clubs finishing in the top four, season after season.

We have some very good players, but look at the table and the season we've had, and how we fell apart with the loss of a single player. I haven't seen much evidence of top 4 standard performances, although there's potential in the team.

I think we have a little way to go to get back to challenging around 6th-8th, let alone higher. I think the 4/5 players I've named who can go higher is perfectly reasonable to me.

 

[Tony Towner]

Why the obsession with Leicester? Just cos they're currently in the top 4 doesn't mean they're a top 4 side, any more than West Ham are a top 5 side.

Leicester finished 5th last year, before that most PL seasons you're usually talking about regular big six clubs finishing in the top four, season after season.

We have some very good players, but look at the table and the season we've had, and how we fell apart with the loss of a single player. I haven't seen much evidence of top 4 standard performances, although there's potential in the team.

I think we have a little way to go to get back to challenging around 6th-8th, let alone higher. I think the 4/5 players I've named who can go higher is perfectly reasonable to me.

I think the point is more that Top 4 sides aren't full of elite players. I think PQ made a good point re Fernandes and VVD and putting them in our side would elevate us to that level. Utd's first 11 is probably
Elite: Fernandes, Pogba - when he can be bothered
Top 4 class De Gea, AWB, Rashford, McTominey, Shaw
Good enough to get by with Maguire, Lindelof, Fred, Martial.

You sprinkle some gold dust at the top and it raises what's at the bottom.

 

[prawnking]

We're not talking about dropping world stars in our team, we're talking about what we have?

It's a bit of a leap to make claims for more than a handful of our players to be top 4 material when we've been floundering around lower mid table all season.

IMO 4/5 players is about right, I'd need to see more consistency before putting Rui, Pod and Semedo in there.

7/8 top four players in our squad is just too much. There's 'glass half-full' and then there's 'glass half-full of ayahuasca'

 

[PuntsWolf]

Why the obsession with Leicester? Just cos they're currently in the top 4 doesn't mean they're a top 4 side, any more than West Ham are a top 5 side.

Leicester finished 5th last year, before that most PL seasons you're usually talking about regular big six clubs finishing in the top four, season after season.

We have some very good players, but look at the table and the season we've had, and how we fell apart with the loss of a single player. I haven't seen much evidence of top 4 standard performances, although there's potential in the team.

I think we have a little way to go to get back to challenging around 6th-8th, let alone higher. I think the 4/5 players I've named who can go higher is perfectly reasonable to me.

Yeah you’re literally proving my point. They came 5th and only missed out due to a crazy drop off in form, pressure? Covid? Who knows, but it was a wolves level of collapse. The fact they are up there again with a massive injury list all year, extra games, condensed season just proves the point further.

Our season didn’t fall apart because of the loss of one player. We were shit with Raul (you even say this yourself!!!). You literally change your viewpoint on something just to use that as contrary evidence against another viewpoint. You either think Raul being injured ruined our season or it didn’t. You can’t say it didn’t the criticise the manager/ team and then say it did to show our team isn’t good enough to progress

There’s a long list of issues we’ve discussed on other threads, but the bottom line is the manager isn’t getting the most out of his players available.

So what TT says. You don’t need a team of elite players to be in the equation.

 

[prawnking]

Sorry mate, I just don't get the point you're making anymore so we'd best leave it here, as we're kind of undoing English Bob's prediction that this will be 'a bit of fun'.

 

[Norman Deeley]

I was thinking about the top four the other day - we're only a couple of players off, but the recruitment has to be right. To be honest the quickest route to the top 4 is probably to sack our recruitment team (do we seriously still employ the person who scouted Vallejo?) and hire Brentford's. Or Leicester's. Or whoever found Soucek for West Ham.

 

[YoungWolf]

I was thinking about the top four the other day - we're only a couple of players off, but the recruitment has to be right. To be honest the quickest route to the top 4 is probably to sack our recruitment team (do we seriously still employ the person who scouted Vallejo?) and hire Brentford's. Or Leicester's. Or whoever found Soucek for West Ham.

I was looking through my twitter DMs the other day and saw a conversation I had with uni friend who was a video scout for the club at the time who said there was a lot of objection to the Vallejo signing within the scouting team but they went ahead and did it anyway... safe to say they were right!

 

[Premier Quality]

Wonder who would have pushed it through?

 

[AndyWolves]

I was looking through my twitter DMs the other day and saw a conversation I had with uni friend who was a video scout for the club at the time who said there was a lot of objection to the Vallejo signing within the scouting team but they went ahead and did it anyway... safe to say they were right!

Video scout? I assume they watch those banging YouTube compilations like we all do??

 

[YoungWolf]

Wonder who would have pushed it through?

tough one that!!!