Here's to many more for the bright young star.
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Thank you all for participating - looking forward to next month already!
Another month, another voting session! Thanks to everyone for participating!
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Right now at the break, Opta has us at:
La Liga:
Champions League:
Surprisingly, I feel as though these metrics are pretty fair. Usually I disagree a bit. Maybe our % chance to win the league should be a bit higher, but otherwise La Liga makes sense to me.
For Champions League it also makes sense in my mind. I think we're better than a couple of teams ahead of us in the predictions (Como, Roma, Sporting, and Dortmund), but for the others it's more difficult to make a case.
Nonetheless, I love this team. I think the ceiling is sky high.
Right now at the break, Opta has us at:
As we all know, we haven't had the best start to the campaign. If things go as we expect though, we'll have a strong winter window and hopefully turn the tide a bit (plus more time in Palladino's system won't hurt).
If a bit of luck comes our way and we can qualify for Conference League, I will be overjoyed, but I think that's the ceiling for us right now in 2026. Finishing 9th - 14th is likely where we land at the end of the day.
Right now at the break, Opta has us at:
Personally, I think they are quite harsh on us right now. Of course, we're near the bottom of the table right now, but we are so young. I think we'll grow into Stendel's system and finish pretty decidedly mid table. If some magic happens and things click + we have a wonder winter window somehow, then who knows. But think we finish mid table.
This is kind of a venting/brain dump session, so I apologize in advance, but our attack is so maddening to watch. We don't seem to have an identity. We have players who are very good at very, very specific things, like (focusing just on attacking skills right now):
Forwards (excluding Enem and Mbangula for now):
Midfielders (excluding Amondarain and Libra for now):
It's very interesting because these players have these strengths, but do not have a complete profile in other areas of attack. As such, we can be one dimensional at times. Opposing teams know exactly what to expect when certain players have the ball or are trying to receive the ball.
This halts attacks because we are being so one dimensional.
To fix this, I'd like to do a few things:
PLEASE note: these are just some ideas - part venting, part brain dump, part analytical. I'm very displeased with our start, as I know we all are, and am just trying to think of solutions outside of the obvious (acquiring more players). Curious of your thoughts and would love to discuss more.
tl/dr: I feel as though Bologna's attack is very one dimensional. Not from a tactical standpoint per se, but from an individual skill level standpoint. This makes us easy to defend and I'd like to explore fixes by shifting positions around slightly and re-distributing minutes to other players.
Thanks for reading :)