The Championship 2020-21

Think I'll wait til the evening of that first playoff game if you don't mind ? Lots I can do between now and then and lots more games like today to enjoy. Chin up.

 

We wont be in the playoffs though, straight up piece of p*ss.

 

How did Swansea not beat Norwich today?

Hopefully we'll up our game against these sides.

 

Good job Swindon and Oxford are in different divisions to us haha!

 

Yes, of course. The way we are playing at the moment, I doubt we will concede another goal, let alone drop another point.

 

Yes, they certainly haven't got there by good play. But the performance graph-lines of teams in this division are anything but smooth. Wycombe, for instance, have got all 7 of their points very recently; previously they had been flat-lining on zero. It would not have taken a huge stretch of imagination to envisage Coventry, despite being nearly a division below us, beating us yesterday.

 

Yeah, if you look at the last five games for the entire league then apart from Derby and Norwich, it’s a complete mess and you’d have no clue who was at the top and who was at the bottom.



Cant seem to get both Reading and Derby in but obviously Reading have lost their last three so have similar form to them!

 

I'm not at all sure the strength of our defence was undoubted earlier in the season. On the surface the score-lines might indicate that it was good and strong, but, watching them showed them to be rather lucky and unconvincing. I do suspect a lot of the early teams we were playing were still getting their acts together, just as we have been, and probably granted us too much respect, as well (Ex-Premiership team and all that).

 

Of the teams we've faced so far, Blackburn and Wycombe caused us the most problems and I think Reading caused us the fewest. Funny old division.

 

"Funny old game, football".

 

This division already looks like it'll be one of those closely contested competitions with no outstanding sides, like 1995/96, 2007/08 and 2012/13 - the bottom of the table doesn't show it currently, but it could be another of those seasons with a high points total needed to avoid relegation and a low one for the last play-off place.

It's funny that up until the early part of this millennium, it wasn't that uncommon to see at least one team sweeping aside the division with swashbuckling football - Sunderland in 1998/99, Fulham in 2000/01, Keegan's Man City in 2001/02, Portsmouth in 2002/03 and Reading in 2005/06. But I can't think of a single side that has done that since, at least not consistently (the two Newcastle sides that won the division in the 2010s were just very consistent rather than spectacular), so it would be naive to expect our team to do the same.

 

And let's be real, the Newcastle teams which won the Championship in the 2010s were always heavily fancied to win the league comfortably, in particular in 2016-17 they were able to use the money by selling their wantaways to bring in some players who were too good for the Championship and who could handle themselves at Prem level

 

The form table (5 games) shows the volatility of the league at the moment.

Also might mean we've played a few teams at the "wrong" time so to speak. Reading's form has kinda plummeted since they beat us, Barnsley and Wycombe on a bit of a run. Not making excuses or anything.

Forest's league position betrays their relative form at the moment too.

 

Blackburn have caused a lot of teams lots of problems, Armstrong is currently the division's top scorer, it's the fact that they're so attacking and so open at the back that made it relatively easy for us to deal with. Wycombe was a dreadful performance, though they do offer something that few other teams do at this level, they just can't finish their dinners. Reading may be top now, but it would be a surprise if they stayed in the top 6, they'd been massively overperforming their xG before the last few games

 

My Derby-supporting brother in law reckons the Sheik's first big splash will be a fat contract for Eddie Howe.

 

They could do worse.

What about Rooney though?

 

Just drop the word ‘contract’ from your sentence.

 

Getting his non compete period out of the way so he can join us in January?

 

Good decision even with their deduction being cut from 12 points to 6, based on their form in the second half of last season even without that punishment staying up under him would've been a tall order.

At least he managed to beat Bournemouth, a result which may be crucial come the end of the season!

 

Monk in habit of getting sacked? Was it a clerical error that led to his departure?

 

His early sackings seemed harsh, e.g. Swansea and Leeds, but this is happening so regularly now you do wonder if there is something about his demeanour or behavior that is causing it.

 

Out of the frying pan into the Friar

 

Apparently they got confused between tonsure & censure.

 

At the end of the day, he just didn't have the prayers to get them out of trouble.

 

Or he’s just not a very good manager as has been proved over the longer term?

His sacking at Swansea was harsh certainly, but not so sure about Leeds given they were top and didn’t even make the play-offs. His career has generally been on a downward trend since Swansea, but he’s like a slightly better version of one of the likes of Terry Butcher, Brian Horton, Glenn Roeder and Russell Slade - managers who keep/kept getting jobs without having much to show for them or doing much to earn them.

 

Not enough to altar the results I'd say.

 

Actual Tony Pulis, holy smoke. I'd sooner have Pleat managing Watford.

 

If they stop the season now we're up!!!

 

Whilst following the election in America I came across a website providing detailed analysis of the state of the polls, and the counts, all interesting stuff, but they also covered sports predictions - and if you can forgive them the use of the word 'soccer' -

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/championship/

sadly the late goal conceded against B'muff looks likely to cost us automatic promotion.

 

Anyone who calls football 'soccer' has no business voicing any opinion on it

 

The interactive bar-charts, the decimal points, the sheer complexity of it all.....
It makes one wonder, given they are so certain of the system and the results of their calculations, why they don't spend their time putting money on it at the bookmakers. And, if they already do, why risk it all by making their calculations public?
The illusion of science, the bogus precision...
Snake Oil.