We mustn't get carried away with how fantastically we did last season. If title challenges, CL quarterfinals and domestic cups are people's expectations, then I fear for the state of this forum if we're chasing 4th in a few months. Let's keep some perspective. There are at least 4 teams with squads/first 11s at least as good as ours, with Chelsea and Man City way out in front at the moment. For us to challenge again for the title like last year we're going to need them to slip up several times along with ourselves being at our best. Man C had to get used to a new manager last year and started poorly, and Chelsea slipped to some very uncharacteristic defeats. As for top 4, Man U will surely emerge from their Moyesian malaise, Arsenal will have Sanchez, Spurs have some great players if Pochettino can gette best out of them, and Martinez is a great manager. It's far from a given. We'll likely be third favourites to get out of our CL group, and the CL will be a new experience for Brendan and many of our players. And we still don't have huge squad depth, so the domestic cups are very likely to see us field a good few reserves or youngsters.
My expectations are that Brendan will have us building fluid, fast, exciting attacks and have us looking more comfortable in defence. I expect to see the team looking increasingly competent and able playing to Brendan's tactics. I expect to see committed, passionate performances on our European nights, and remind everyone just what an incredible experience a CL night at Anfield is. How many wins and points, and what positions this will translate into I don't know, but as long as this happens I'm sure we'll have a great season. I expect us to at least mount a serious challenge for top 4, and I'm desperate that we qualify for the CL again as that's the platform we need to keep building our team, but I won't be going crazy if things don't all go our way, as long as I see positive progress in our playing and the team morale and togetherness stays as good as it was last year.
