Have your expectations for the season changed?
I don't feel we will ever be in a position where we should expect to be in the top 6. FFP has protected those teams and done what UEFA wanted it to do. However, a few months ago, I don't think it was unreasonable to expect us to challenge them yet again as we had the same squad pretty much that had done so twice recently.
However, that was very short sighted of me. A fair number of that squad have gone past their best, other key players seem to be constantly fighting injuries and we've now lost Fofana. Combine that with everyone else improving their team and I think it's pretty clear that, at this point with likely defeats to Man Utd and Brighton to come this week, the only priority is to stay up.
We've got a defence that ships two goals a game, a goalkeeper who looks out his depth, a midfield that only lasts 60 mins and an attack that creates very little. This is a recipe for relegation unless there's 3 teams worse than us.
We have to sign some players this week to lift the mood and then pray Barnes and Maddison can stay fit. I'm not normally this negative but everyone else looks better organised and more of a threat than us so far. We're in trouble.
Iain Wright
Definitely. I’d previously hoped we could fight for 6th/7th while, more realistically, being satisfied with any top half finish and a decent cup run.
Now it feels as though the cups are almost irrelevant, and any kind of finish that sees us comfortably clear of the relegation zone would be welcomed. I’d say ending the season in 14th or higher would be an achievement at this point.
Charlie Carmichael
My expectations haven’t changed but my confidence in our ability to meet them has. I’m fed up of Brendan Rodgers abandoning any idea of coaching the team because he didn’t get Ademola Lookman back.
Our team is weaker than last year, but it’s not anywhere near as bad as everyone is telling themselves now. Castagne, Justin, Evans, Ndidi, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison, Barnes, Iheanacho, Vardy is the core of an excellent team. And we can buttress that with players like Soumare and the array of centre backs we still own.
It basically comes down to the manager. And I just don’t have any confidence that he can organise them into a good team. I assume Rodgers would be sacked if our Premier League status was genuinely in danger. So I’ll revise my pre-season hope of a European challenge down to a top-half finish.
James Knight
Truthfully, yes. It's very difficult to make clear judgements when you've P4 L3 D1, but even though I don't think those results are a true reflection of the players we have, it's equally hard to see major improvements around the corner. The organisation is seemingly non-existent, and you can't imagine that the mood is particularly good.
Equally, you look at other clubs and there just appears to be a lot more quality in the lower reaches this year. Maybe it's just more competitive outside of the traditional elite so far, but either way, most other clubs seem to have had something they can hang their hats on in 2022-23.
A couple of wins would be huge to change the dynamics. Until then, the thought of a relegation battle is fairly sickening, but after the dismal summer we've just had, I'd pretty much accept staying up from here.
Joe Brewin
Talk about a moving feast. From 7th to 10th to 14th, I think by the end of this weekend I could be happy if we simply manage to stay up this season. It feels like it’s been the summer from hell in many ways and even my expectation of today’s transfer deadline business has been hastily rewriting itself by the hour over the past couple of days.
The biggest dip in my expectations hasn’t so much been due to the transfer debacle as the collapses against Brentford and Southampton. These are two teams I’d previously have felt confident about beating at home, given we did it with relative ease last season despite an underwhelming feel to the overall campaign. You start to wonder who we can actually beat, because the fixtures throw up one of the elite so regularly that the pressure builds for all of the others.
Tonight is pivotal but every game will be until we haul ourselves off the bottom of the table. Fans often feel like an afterthought in the Premier League narrative these days - bottles of water being banned from stadiums, games being moved at the last minute - but our expectations play such a big part in the outcome of a season.
As we saw in 2015 and 2016, an unexpected upturn in fortunes can rouse an atmosphere and sense of occasion around each game that wouldn’t have felt possible before. To paraphrase The Birch, that can and does have an immediate effect on what happens on the pitch. The confidence boost we’d get from a strong performance and points on the board tonight would be immense. It’s rare this early in the season but I’ve got that feeling about tonight. You know the one. Not optimistic. Not pessimistic. Just… please, Leicester…
David Bevan
