Season expectations 2017-18

[Marlon From Bearwood]

11-15th under Bruce. Automatic promotion? Dream on.

Agreed.  He will be gone by xmas. I feel worse about our prospects than 12 months ago

This. I'm certain Bruce will be gone by Xmas, even more so after being at Shrewsbury yesterday (yes I know it was only a friendly etc) so for me, whether we go up or not depends on how far adrift we are and who we bring in to replace him.

I'm not confident at all.

[tony scott]

I was more confident last season but quickly came down to earth with a bump.  I think the playoffs are a possibility, a problem arising pretty soon ,will be if we're not in the top 8 at the end of September

[berneboy]

After 71 votes the majority of us don't think we'll be promoted. I understand the good sense of stable management and some proof of experience of 'how to do it's but SB depresses me. I think we'll be trying again next year with a different manager.

[Tayls_7]

I'd be a lot more confident if I could see evidence that we are going to depart from the system that proved so ineffective last season. A team of strangers pulled together to form a very unconvincing representative side most of the time.

[PeterWithesShin]

[SoccerHQ]

Even if performances were underwhelming we ended last season with 26 points from final 14 games (started v Derby at home).

Over a season that's low 80s so easily play offs and maybe even automatic promotion if no one runs away with the league.

I know it's easy to take a sample of the season and spin it but given that was the most recent spell under the current squad it's better than comparing things a year ago.

The two diabolical runs last season killed our promotion hopes. 1 win in opening two months which meant we were well adrift of 2nd place so early on and then the infamous new year run.

I really don't see any disastrous run this time. We will lose games but I think we'll bounce back strongly and quickly. Lose a game and then win the next four is the method Newcastle used to good effect last season. We did it after losing to Huddersfield away.

[sirlordbaltimore]

Like it or not, Bruce has had a LOT of success getting teams out of this league. Let's just vow to get behind him and see what he can do for us now.

Then what will be will be come May.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Relegated but we'll win the FA Cup to end 61 years of hurt.
It going to be our year !

[Ivo Stas]

I expect us to be a little bit better than last season, in that I think we will be a bit more solid in defence over the whole season, and I reckon that slight improvement should be worth about 5 league places, so I reckon we'll finish 8th. Basically we will be nearly as good as Leeds were last season (which is hard to imagine I grant you).

[Matt Collins]

Like it or not, Bruce has had a LOT of success getting teams out of this league. Let's just vow to get behind him and see what he can do for us now.

Then what will be will be come May.

Agreed. We've made our bed and we should only consider a change if we're really doing badly. You just can't deny that Bruce has pedigree at this level and we'd just can't change the manager every season

[West Derby Villan]

We will go up as champions, there, I've said it!

[eamonn]

Once you say it you can't unsay it!

I was very confident that the Terry signing would make us confident of success just based on his presence. But if Bruce's style is agricultural and reliant on a bit of Kodjia magic, I'm not too sure. Not finishing in at least the play offs would be unacceptable given our resources.

[brontebilly]

Automatic promotion has to be the target.

However I don't think Bruce will last til Xmas, his talk of going back to 352 after the disastrous experiment last year is frightening and will expose the likes of John Terry and Nathan Baker to ridicule.

[ozzjim]

Playoffs then defeat in a drab performance in the final with one attempt at goal in 120 minutes and losing to blues.

[tomd2103]

Our squad should be top 2, however I think we'll be 6-10th. Bruce just doesn't give me any confidence at present.

I think we will be in that sort of region for most of the season if Bruce remains in charge.  If we do go up, it will be a long, hard slog and probably through the play offs.