Prem 2 - Europe to relegation 2018 - 2019

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by EB Hornet, Aug 11, 2018.

  1. Beekayess

    Beekayess Reservist

    Very good. Looking forward to seeing this table throughout the season EB.

    I reckon we're 3rd just now (behind Mufff & Palarse alphabetically).
     
  2. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    Bournemouth 2-0 Cardiff - Cardiff looked weak, but this is only game week 1 so we'll see
    Fulham 0-2 Palace - Lots of new players chucked in for Fulham against a decent looking Palace team
    Watford 2-0 Brighton - Enough said about this one in other threads (insert various smiley emojis here)
    Wolves 2-2 Everton - I found I was conflicted in being happy for Richarlison here. Wolves looked like they could be good to watch
    Southampton 0-0 Burnley - Burnley playing to their strengths and Southampton will be hoping Ings stays injury free.

    As Linekar says the table is fairly pointless right now but here it is anyway

    Prem 2 Table 2018 Week 1.PNG
     
    cyaninternetdog likes this.
  3. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    So now the transfer window has gone and the dust has completely settled, thought I'd take a look at all the 14 teams in 'Prem 2' and ignore the top 6...kind of like what the world does to the Premier League but just the other way around. Starting with the team who finished highest and working down I'll look at their transfer dealings and give my opinion (feel free to chuck yours in to).

    Burnley

    Last Season - 7th (top of this league)
    Total transfers in - 3
    Transfers with Prem experience - 3
    First team players sold - 0
    Money spent £19M
    Net spend -£19M

    They've kept their manager, and he's added to his squad with more players who fit his style of play. With no-one leaving and a fairly settled squad I can see them having another good year. The impact of being in the Europa League could be the one stumbling block. In this particular league they had by far the best defensive record, conceding close to half of what any other team did.

    Everton

    Last Season - 8th
    Total transfers in - 6
    Transfers with Prem experience - 2
    First team players sold - 5 (albeit ones they wanted to get rid of, maybe Rooney as the exception)
    Money spent £89M
    Net spend -£66M

    It's all change at Everton - manager and players - it's to be seen if there have been enough changes for the 2 to marry up successfully. Fingers crossed eh!

    Leicester

    Last Season - 9th
    Total transfers in - 7
    Transfers with Prem experience - 2
    First team players sold - 3 (including star man Mahrez)
    Money spent £104M
    Net spend -£44M

    Still a decent team and squad, but losing Mahrez is a blow and will take away some of their ability to break teams down.

    Newcastle

    Last Season - 10th
    Total transfers in - 7
    Transfers with Prem experience - 4
    First team players sold - 3
    Money spent £23M
    Net spend +£21M

    Not really improved the team, more shuffled it around and the money in the bank backs this up (no really big money sale to skew this). At face value an average squad, so hats off to Rafa for last seasons high finish.

    Crystal Palace

    Last Season - 11th
    Total transfers in - 4
    Transfers with Prem experience - 2
    First team players sold - 0
    Money spent - £10M
    Net spend -£10M

    He may get a hard time from some quarters but Roy has done a good job so far, he's kept his squad together, and most importantly Zaha.

    Bournemouth

    Last Season - 12th
    Total transfers in - 3
    Transfers with Prem experience - 0
    First team players sold - 2
    Money spent £47M
    Net spend -£27M

    You just keep thinking it's all got to go wrong there soon, surely the manager will leave, the players get bored, but here they are still....yay. Semi-rivalry aside, they have a distinct style of play that works for them and a set of players who seem happy there. I'd imagine they'll do ok once more.

    West Ham

    Last Season - 13th
    Total transfers in - 9
    Transfers with Prem experience - 4
    First team players sold - 1
    Money spent £99M
    Net spend -£88M

    They've gone big in manager and spending on players. The media will be raving about them to start with, but it's just not that simple. you either buy the absolute best around or there's still that level of the unknown. Not a club you look at and think "well they know what they're doing".

    Watford

    Last Season - 14th
    Total transfers in - 7
    Transfers with Prem experience - 2
    First team players sold - 1 (you could argue 2 if you include Amrabat)
    Money spent £24M
    Net spend +£16M

    Ok, so from the outside looking in we've under-spent, but looking at overall ins and outs it's hard to argue that we aren't at least the same standard as last season, with surely a much improved injury record ahead meaning it's going to be like having even more new signings.

    Brighton

    Last Season - 15th
    Total transfers in - 11
    Transfers with Prem experience - 0
    First team players sold - 0
    Money spent £31M
    Net spend -£22M

    A lot of signings, but none with Premier League experience. I'd say they've gambled somewhat by not buying ready made quality and hoping Hughton can keep them well drilled and make the Amex a tough place to get points once more. I'd be a worried Seagull in all honesty.

    Huddersfield


    Last Season - 16th
    Total transfers in - 7
    Transfers with Prem experience - 2
    First team players sold - 1
    Money spent £30M
    Net spend -£18M

    I'm sure Huddersfield fans get annoyed at the obvious peering down their noses of other clubs towards them. They would probably be in most other supporters teams top 3 sides that get the "we should be beating the likes of...." comments. Problem is it's hard to look much further than them for relegation candidates, hardly a squad full of talent and not much spent on largely unproven new recruits.

    Southampton

    Last Season - 17thTotal transfers in - 5
    Transfers with Prem experience - 2
    First team players sold - 2
    Money spent £56M
    Net spend -£41M

    They appeared to be signing no-one and have yet spent £56M. Manager not exactly thrilled with their business and 2 players in Tadic and Boufall who can add a bit of sparkle occasionally have departed. In Ings though they may have done one bit of business that could prove crucial, I'm sure bubble wrap has been bought in bulk to help their season.

    Wolves

    Last Season - 1st in champ
    Total transfers in - 8
    Transfers with Prem experience - 1
    First team players sold - 0
    Money spent £59M
    Net spend -£55M

    Lots of players with good reputations, but most of them are alien to the Premier league. You'd imagine they will do well, but there's no guarantees. You'd fancy them to finish above a few of the sides mentioned above though.

    Cardiff

    Last Season - 2nd in champ
    Total transfers in - 6
    Transfers with Prem experience - 1
    First team players sold - 0
    Money spent £29M
    Net spend -£29M

    They've struggled to bring in the standard of player required and look odds on to go straight back down. Maybe very good team morale might see them battle to a fighting chance

    Fulham

    Last Season - 3rd in champ
    Total transfers in - 12
    Transfers with Prem experience - 5
    First team players sold - 2
    Money spent £105M
    Net spend -£105M

    They've gone big with the money and have a manager we all respect. It's still going to be tough but they've given themselves a good shout of surprising some of the more established Prem 2 teams this year


    So that's it. And for me, now I've done this, I'd take a punt at us finishing 14th - 16th. But that's merely on paper and the thing with this 'let's forget about the top 6' league is it has that unpredictable nature and competitiveness that the Championship has. It was claimed by some that these teams looked poor last year, but for me they all have money to buy a good level of player and it's hard to outshine each other, the standards good overall but fear of relegation can make some teams play a little negatively. Here's hoping we don't.
     
  4. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    Well based on what we have seen so far we are better than Brighton, Cardiff and Newcastle.
     
  5. Markoa$

    Markoa$ Squad Player

    After watching that shocker of a game, I would be seriously disappointed if we didn’t pick up at least 9 points out of 12 against Cardiff and Newcastle. 2 weeks in a row I’ve watched them both on the tv and they are truly crap. I feel sorry for Benitez, his managerial career will be getting tarnished with them. There was one point in the game when the cameraman panned in on him and you just got the feeling he was thinking about resigning. He had this “feck this crap” look about him.
     
  6. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    Just want to say this is a great post. Agree with everything you said in it.
     
    EB Hornet likes this.
  7. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    cheers Opti, appreciate the comment
     
    Optimistichornet likes this.
  8. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    We've drifted out to 6/1 in the relegation market. Bookies reckon there's more chance of West Ham, Newcastle and Fulham going down, as well as the usual candidates.
     
  9. folkestone orn

    folkestone orn Squad Player

    And Burnley...
     
  10. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    not so sure about brighton after that great result for them yesterday....although if we are better than brighton then that also makes us better than man utd :p
     
  11. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    Second round of results. Most notable points, great results for Bournemouth and Watford to win away from home. Cardiff and Newcastle looked poor and could struggle for goals.

    Cardiff 0 Newcastle 0
    Everton 2 Southampton 1
    Leicester 2 Wolves 0
    West Ham 1 Bournemouth 2
    Burnley 1 Watford 3

    Table as it stands (we are top of the league sing we are top of the league!)

    Prem 2 Table 2018 Week 2.PNG
     
  12. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    Based on last season you only need 7 wins in this mini league for survival (let’s go with 8 to be sure)...and we have 2 already! (Bet West Brom thought the same last season mind).

    But based on Pereyra interview on another thread it sounds like the players have bigger ambitions than that.
     
  13. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    Southampton have 6ft 5in Haivis Vestergaard.
     
    folkestone orn likes this.
  14. tonycotonstache

    tonycotonstache Squad Player

    One more without reply today and we were top of the real top banana Prem league....
     
  15. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    Starting to look pretty good. We will drop though over the next couple of games with Man Utd and Spurs to play, but only through lack of real league fixtures.
     
  16. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    CLOSE THREAD. no longer relevant to us.
     
    foxywfc, EB Hornet, kVA and 1 other person like this.
  17. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    Well just in case we don't go on to win THE league, I'll keep this league going for now....

    Talking points from the week.....I found myself disliking the Bournemouth team a little bit more, their gamesmanship is very annoying! And even when they leave they seem to have it ingrained in them, as proved by Harry Arter at Cardiff. Talking of which that's 3 games played and no goals for Cardiff and they've not really played any particularly strong sides yet. Maybe the Europa League really does make life hard, Burnley are uncharacteristically leaking goals for fun. And as for top spot, well I'm sure I don't need to point that out to anyone on here. Updated league below

    Prem 2 table 2018 week 3.PNG

    And as a little add-on, obviously not many games played yet, but here are the top scorers (just from games in this mini-league)

    Prem 2 top scorer.PNG
     
  18. onion8837

    onion8837 Reservist

    Burnley look like they could struggle this year. Really hope they get through to the Europa League and get drawn against a whole load of obscure eastern European teams
     
  19. goldenstate-goldenboy

    goldenstate-goldenboy First Year Pro

    Small thing but it's making my head hurt to see a table with the points to the left of the goal difference instead of to the right.
     
  20. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    I don't know why, but it's how I've always read league tables, as in a team has 9 points with a plus 5 GD. But I have noticed more leagues doing it the way you suggest. I'm easy either way though so happy to switch it over from now on if most people prefer it the way you suggest
     
    goldenstate-goldenboy likes this.
  21. vic-rijrode

    vic-rijrode First Year Pro

    I'm still getting used to 3 points for a win....
     
    Bloke likes this.
  22. goldenstate-goldenboy

    goldenstate-goldenboy First Year Pro

    I think it's because I've always mentally seen it lined up as a math equation on the table, goals scored - goals allowed = goal difference, so to see it broken up is not computing in my brain. I don't mean to moan too much though, I love the thread. Thanks for putting it together
     
    EB Hornet likes this.
  23. Davidmsawyer

    Davidmsawyer Statto Statto Statto

    I love this thread too.

    I also prefer the points to be the rightmost column. Similar to golden state it's the way my brain works.

    As you say though its not wrong - different places do it different ways.

    The main thing is that for now at least we are top!
     
    EB Hornet likes this.
  24. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    14-16th out of the bottom 14 is ominous.
     
    EB Hornet likes this.
  25. Sort of OK

    Sort of OK Reservist

    Maths
     
  26. Sort of OK

    Sort of OK Reservist

    Excellent work EB.
     
    EB Hornet likes this.
  27. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    Yeah I seem to have confused myself in this post!
     
  28. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    15 th & 16th would mean automatic promotion so there is a silver lining.
     
  29. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    We still following this?
     
  30. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    Really bad week for us here, as we didn't pick up any points in this league. Gracia out.
     
  31. EB Hornet

    EB Hornet Reservist

    Apologies for those following this thread for the break (more extended than the international one). Actually surprised at how few games have been played in this league since I did an update, anyhow here is the updated league table. It's the mini-pozzo league at the top and Everton struggling to keep up as it's latest recruit!

    Prem 2 table 2018 week 4-6.PNG

    Golden Boot Top Scorers

    Top scorers week 4-6.PNG

    And just to show the gulf between the 2 sets of sides, the current record for Prem 2 teams against the Prem 1 sides is as follows (and it's currently worse than last year)

    Played 26
    Won 2
    Drew 2
    Lost 22
    GF 21
    GA 65
     
  32. RookeryDad

    RookeryDad Squad Player

    Ssssilva’s habit of conceding 2 a game is a standout. Even once Richie puts his boots on the right feet, he’s not going to score a hat trick every game.

    Also, Colin & Rafa are clearly doing their best by organising defensively but where are the goals?
     
  33. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Watford now the only team ‘in and around’ (copyright Andy Townsend) the top 6, apart from the designated top 6. After just six games.
     
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  34. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Amazing how brainbox Townsend came up with that insight. Did he perhaps look at the top 7 in the league table ?
     
  35. Otter

    Otter Gambling industry insider

    Interesting that bottom of the table Newcastle are the only other unbeaten team in the mini-league.
     

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