August Evaluation

FIXTURE TALK


August sees us start against an Everton side who will be new to the Ronald Koeman methods, which you would expect would take time to be instilled. Even as an away fixture it is one we should be expecting to win.

Crystal palace are a side we often struggle against, home or away. We have come unstuck against them before and they are not a side we can take lightly. This is just the sort of game where we can not underestimate the opposition, but we must go into with the right mental attitude. We seem to have thet until the final few games when we lost our heads and gave up. A return to the right approach and we would expect to collect the points.

Finally we end the month with Liverpool who will be much tougher opponents in 2016/17. Jurgen Klopp will have got his methods across and just like we improved under Pochettino after one season, Liverpool will improve, significantly I believe, under Klopp this season. I can see this one ending in a draw.

August
13/08/2016    15:00    Everton (a)
20/08/2016    15:00    Crystal Palace (h)
27/08/2016    15:00    Liverpool (h)
25/08/2016    CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAW
29/08/2016    INTERNATIONAL BREAK

August Points Total: 7
Season Points Total: 7

Right now no cheating. Place your expected points total in the comments section and follow the monthly evaluations to see how many points we each expect to get next season. You can then keep a running total in the next monthly evaluation as well as the expected monthly points total. The only thing missing are the FA Cup dates for next year which begin for us in January.

The UEFA Champions League draw is important for us at the end of the montha nd then we have an international fixture break where we will all be waiting for the Premier League ti start again, but with so many Spurs players involved perhaps we'll enjoy the international break more this time.

Does this start impact upon our transfer activity? It seems that Michy Batshuayi is our preferred choice and we his preferred choice. We know Marseille have until 30 June to raise £31.67-million hence the valuation their president has placed on the striker. His valuation is clearly no coincidence. he isn't worth £31m yet and as the days tick down so will his price, 14 days to go on Thursday.

Vincent Janssen I suspect is our second choice. He wants playing time which he apparently accepts that he will get at Tottenham will all our fixtures. He has his international future to think of so joining a side where he will sit on the bench as a fourth choice striker isn't an option. You would think that rules out Manchester United who are said to be interested.

Victor Wanyama is all about agreeing a fee with Southampton and they will need to find a replacement as well as a manager who will want to assess what he wants. This transfer could well take its time. That is not ideal given we would want him training, but fortunately he has played the Pochettino system before so does have a little head start.

It is going to be a tougher season than last season with more teams involved at the top. Chelsea will return, Manchester United should improve under Jose Mourinho, manchester City won't be so poor away from home and Liverpool will get into the mix as well again.

We need to ensure we get ourselves into a good position for and through April. We don't want to be going into the last four fixtures having to win them all, not that we can't, it would just be easier if we didn't have to.