Squad Numbers

Unlike the previous section in this series, this is a place where no football fan wants to be. Finishing in this area of the League brings with it delusion, despair and eventual delight. For months you feel like you may be doomed to relegation, hoping, praying that something might change, but in the end, relief is the emotion you feel, and very quickly, you turn your mind to imagining a scenario where your club will never go through that again. Let’s get into who may have to deal with this ordeal this season:

15th: Fulham

Fulham have been exceptional since their return to the Premier League, they skipped the phase that most promoted teams go through upon promotion of struggling to remain in the League and then slowly gaining stability, Fulham have been stable from moment one. In their first season back in the Premier League, they finished 10th, and last year they finished 13th. The definition of stable. This season however, I predict that they wont be quite as stable, they will still avoid relegation, but there may be moments in the season where things look a little bit questionable.

They were inconsistent last season, they’d go through spells were they’d look exceptional, they beat Man United 1-2, Brighton 3-0 and Tottenham 3-0 in the space of three weeks, yet they also went through terrible spells, they lost 0-2 to Newcastle, then 0-2 to Burnley, then 3-0 to Bournemouth. They are the quintessential mid table team.

My only worry is, what if they can’t get out of one of those bad patches? that is the kind of thing that can kill a team, confidence drops, morale drops and the end result can be disastrous. Just look at Leicester a couple of years ago, no-one though that they would go down, they finished 8th the season before, yet they went on a poor run, couldn’t recover, panic sacked their manager, and ended up getting relegated.

Fulham have also lost Joao Palhinha to Bayern Munich for £45 Million and Tosin Adarabioyo to Chelsea on a free transfer. Both of which were crucial players for them last season. Fulham’s major strength last season was defensive security, they conceded the 7th fewest goals of any team last season, losing those two crucial players could really hamper their hopes this season.

They have replaced Tosin with Jorge Cuenca from VIllarreal, a 24 year old left-sided centre-back, it is a strange one, because Cuenca is a good signing, he played 29 La Liga games for a VIllarreal side which finished 8th in the League last year, yet as said earlier, Cuenca is left-sided, and Tosin was right-sided, so it may be that Fulham have another player lined up in that position and Cuenca is not a direct replacement.

Palhinha hasn’t been directly replaced, as the marque signing has been Emille Smith-Rowe, in a £30 million move from Arsenal. Smith-Rowe is an attacking player, capable of playing as an attacking midfielder or winger, so he is not a replacement for Palhinha. If they can keep Smith-Rowe fit, he could be a quality addition to their squad.

They have also re-signed Ryan Sessegnon on a free transfer, he is a similar story to Smith-Rowe, if he can be kept fit, he will be great, but that is a BIG if.

What I touched upon last is my huge worry with Fulham, the amount of injury prone players that they have could be a massive issue. They had one of the best injury records of any team last season, which massively helped them as their opposition weren’t able to field anything near their strongest team, whilst Fulham were at full strength the majority of the time.

If injuries hit them hard, as they may do, they could be in a much worse position than they ahve been the past few seasons.

The other question that I have is about the striker position. Marco Silva has always had a firing striker at Fulham, whether it be Aleksandar Mitrovic in his first two seasons, or Rodrigo Muniz last year. It feels as if Muniz was running hot last year, and I’m not sure if he can keep that form going into the new season, and it isn’t likely that Raul Jimenez regains his lockdown form. Muniz is only 23, so it is possible that he continues as he was, but if he doesn’t, Fulham could struggle to score.

ONE TO WATCH: Antonee Robinson

Fulham have one of the oldest squads in the League, so picking an up and coming prospect for them was difficult, so I’ve decided to go with an established player, in Antonee Robinson, who could be set for another great season. Robinson is a very attacking left back, who got 6 assists last season. Robinson is also forward thinking in defence, he’s aggressive, and steps up out of defence to make interceptions. Robinson made 80 interceptions, the most of any Premier League player. The 27 year old is a quality, and could be in for another strong season for Fulham.

16th: Brentford

Last year was a difficult one for Brentford, it started off on the wrong foot as Ivan Toney, their talisman was suspended until January for betting offences, and it continued to go downhill from there. They lost their two first choice full backs in Aaron Hickey and Rico Henry for the majority of the season due to injury, they also had to do without Bryan Mbeumo and Kevin Schade for much of the season.

This hampered their results, and resulted in a terrible run of 5 losses on the bounce at around Christmas time. The pressure really grew on Thomas Frank to turn it around, and that he did. A combination of hard fought points against “better sides” in Brighton, Chelsea, Manchester United and Aston Villa and necessary wins against relegation rivals Burnley and Luton Town secured Brentford’s Premier League safety.

They must improve this season, and they are capable of it. At times last season they were void of any attacking plan, except win set pieces and get it into the box, which to be fair to them, they were very good at and it did win multiple games for them. However, to survive in the Premier League, you need more than that. I feel as if I have typed the word injuries a million times, but they were crucial to Brentford’s season, and when they had the likes of Toney, Mbeumo and Wissa available, they were a much more fluid attacking side.

Thomas Frank tried to move Brentford to a 4 at the back system at times last season, but the experiment didn’t work and more often than not he would revert back to his tried and tested 5 at the back which gave them so much success upon their promotion to the Premier League. I don’t think that is the last we’ll see of the 4 at the back though, it is the next evolution of this Brentford team, as they look to become a more progressive side, as they have now established themselves as a Premier League side.

Brentford’s transfer business this summer also points towards them trying to move towards a 4 at the back. Fabio Carvalho has joined the club from Liverpool in a deal worth £27 million, Carvalho has been used off the left hand side in his career, but it is as a number 10 where he has really thrived. In his loan spell with Hull in the second part of last season, he played 20 games, scoring 9 goals, in this time he feautrued mostly as a number 10, and that is the position I expect him to play for Brentford, as they are already stacked on the left hand side, with the likes of Joanne Wissa, Keane Lewis-Potter and Kevin Schade.

Carvalho could also be used as a false 9, a role in which he was deployed in at times for Hull. This could be effective, as you could have Carvalho dropping in, creating space for the pacey Mbeumo and Wissa/Schade to run into. This solution would also solve Brentford’s centre forward problem.

Ivan Toney has said on multiple occasions that he wants to move on to bigger things this summer, yet he hasn’t attracted any offers thus yet, leaving all parties in an awkward situation, whilst Toney’s £30 million replacement Igor Thiago picked of an injury in pre-season, leaving him out until January. If Carvalho can play at centre forward, that would massively help sort out a really difficult situation in an important position of the pitch.

There is much uncertainty around Brentford, they have lost their set piece coach Bernardo Cueva, who was an instrumental part of making set pieces such a valuable part of Brentford’s game. They have also missed out on their top transfer targets in Antonio Nusa and Archie Gray.

Yet they remain a solid, well coached team who have ways in which they can threaten the opposition, so whilst their bum’s will very much be squeaky for periods this season, they will eventually escape the threat of relegation.

ONE TO WATCH: Kevin Schade

Last season was quite frankly a nightmare for Schade, he started well, with a supreme solo goal against Crystal Palace, yet just weeks later, he suffered an Abductor injury which would keep him out for the next 7 months. On his return, he scored and assisted in consecutive games, leaving his season stats as 3 starts, 2 goals and 1 assist. If Schade can stay fit for a full year, he could be in for a big season, he is still only 22, so there is time for him to continue what was looking like a very promising career.

17th: Wolves

It seemed as if everyone, including myself, had Wolves as dead certs to be relegated last season, their manager Julen Lopetegui left just days before the season started, and they were forced to sell some of their key players due to financial issues. Yet Gary O’Neil defied the odds, and kept them up, and did so in the face of adversity. Wolves had so many VAR decisions go against them last season, many unjustly, they would have looked even better if they had not had to deal with them, and their injuries were shocking as well, key players such as Pedro Neto couldn’t play half of their games. Wolves were solid, dependable and could give anyone trouble on their day.

This season may be different though, it felt as if last season they were a club with a point to prove. A group of players determined to change the perspective of them and their capabilities to stay in the League, and a manger determined to prove that his previous sacker’s in Bournemouth were wrong to get rid of him, and that he wasn’t just a one season wonder. I don’t know if that will continue this season.

Wolves have lost Max Kilman and Pedro Neto to West Ham and Chelsea respectively, and although the large fees recouped for those players will be helpful for their financial issues, they are huge losses. Neto was crucial to Wolves last season, in 18 league starts, he scored 2 goals and got 11 assists. His pace on the counter attack was crucial to how they played, he was a major part of their victories against Chelsea and Manchester United. Kilman meanwhile, was a stool-wart of their defence last year, starting all 38 league games. Kilman was their club captain as well, so will be a huge loss.

Wolves now are going into a Premier League season with Craig Dawson, Toti Gomes, Santiago Bueno and Yerson Mosquera as their centre back options, all of those players are solid enough in isolation, but not as the only options, they will have to make additions in that area or they will be in serious trouble.

They have added to their squad though. Tommy Doyle has joined on a permanent basis after his loan from Man City last season, whilst Jorgen Strand Larsen will bolster their forward options as he arrives on loan from Celta Vigo. Wolves have also brought in two young talents in Rodrigo Gomes and Pedro Lima. Gomes is a 21 year old winger signed from Braga. He featured heavily for them last season, scoring 7 and assisting 7 in the Portuguese top division. He can play on either wing and has impressed in pre-season so far, scoring 3 goals in 3 games.

Lima meanwhile, is an 18 year old right back, snatched from under the nose of Chelsea, Lima joined Wolves from Sport Recife, in the Brazilian second division. Lima is a highly rated youngster, and while he may not be ready for much first team football now, he is a top prospect for the future.

It feels as if Wolves will struggle this year, whilst they did have poor luck with VAR last season, it felt as if it became to much of an excuse, and there was too much complaining about things that they couldn’t control, not what they could have, such as the fact that they only had 1 win in their last 10 Premier League games. Gary O’Neil is a decent manager, but it is yet to be seen whether he is more than just a mid table Premier League coach, this year will be the litmus test of that.

ONE TO WATCH: Rodrigo Gomes

I spoke about Gomes earlier, so wont go into too much detail, but he is a clearly talented young prospect, and with the departure of Pedro Neto, he could see more game time than was initially expected, with his development benefiting massively from that.