The Championship 2020-21

The weekend shows what a joyous thing our dominant and crucial win at Norwich was. Had we lost (as many expected) we may only be 1 point ahead of Brentford now and low on confidence.

We would all be bricking it.

But we won and we’ve been on the beach planning our Premier League squad ever since.

Enjoy it.

 

Enjoy the vaccine.

 

The Championship, particularly this season, has been a grinding marathon.
Watford's season was basically divided into the Ivic bit and the Munoz bit. There is an ongoing question about how much Munoz should take credit for the improvements and also how much of the early part was down to Ivic.
Ivic drew several short straws, but, in my view, he produced some of the most turgid football I have ever seen. Yes, he strengthened the defence but the entertainment value, the excitement, the enterprise, all coupled with his grim demeanour, where dreadful, just dreadful. One of the few things good about Covid is it stopped me having to make a decision about buying season tickets (3 of them, well over a grand). To watch that!!
I'm sure this has coloured peoples' judgements on the quality of the Champ.

 

If your team are relegated the quality of the football in the new league is worse. So it's a truism to say the striking has been poor. However, I think the goal attempts by the majority of teams has been 'strikingly' (sorry) bad.
Watford' defence looks set to have one of the best records ever in this division, but when I watch them, again and again I'm left thinking 'In the Premier that would have been a goal'. Am I right?
If Watford don't markedly improve the quality of their goal-scoring players they are going straight back down. Am I right?

 

Actually I thought just that when watching Birmingham at home and that was one of our better performances. Without a significant raising of the level throughout the team, no way would that performance have got a clean sheet in the Prem. Any of the shakier moments (the occasional mix-up in defence or Bachmann's uncertainty when coming out for the ball) would have got ruthlessly punished by any teams from probably 15th upwards.

 

I dont think its as black and white as that. You concede more goals simply because the opponent can play a quick 4 pass move, the players are sharper, quicker and then finish better.

What we're talking about is a poor pass or touch that puts the other team in. But a lot of these come from hoofs, which frankly we don't get any more in the top. Stoke always worked this one because it does cause errors but I'm much more concerned about the quality of opponent simply walking through us than I am of WTE's passing. Our lack of goals will be our Achilles heel if we struggle next season not the errors we make at the back.

 

Well… i could only fit 5 into a top 5! I seem
To have blanked forest out of my mind, but the other two just didnt leave me quite as astonished or fed up and lingering. Not using much science to do this retrospective mind you.

 

Well… i could only fit 5 into a top 5! I seem
To have blanked forest out of my mind, but the other two just didnt leave me quite as astonished or fed up and lingering. Not using much science to do this retrospective mind you.

 

Also how a lot of us were worried about those final games, however the timing actually played out perfectly for us. We did play well at Norwich, but we played them at the same point Brentford just played us. We’ll never know just how ‘on the beach’ Norwich were, but if our game on Saturday is anything to go by they were definitely ‘on the beach’ to some extent, even if it was just a little bit.

 

It's the bottom of the division where it's all happening now. Derby are in real danger of going down. Rotherham are 3 points behind them with a game in hand, (against scum), and a better goal difference. Derby then play Sheff Wed in the last game where a Wednesday win will put them ahead of Derby. I think Rotherham will survive.

 

It will be hilarious if Wayne Rooney’s Derby County go down, I think it will be something like 7 defeats on the bounce if they do. His managerial career over before it started.

 

It wood be just like ***** to beat them tonight and help save WRDC.

 

Yes would be brilliant if R could beat the scum and so be able to send both SW and Derby down.

 

I don't understand, I just checked google for the fixtures and Bournemouth don't have a game scheduled for this evening ?!?

 

0-0 at the Kennel.

This relegation battle is turning into a real damp squib, wouldn't surprise me if both games involving Rotherham and Wednesday and Derby also end goalless, with Derby emerging as marginally the best of three terrible sides (though Wednesday will have amassed the most points).

Also, isn't the Championship normally scheduled on the final weekend so that the dead rubbers are played on a Saturday 3 pm, whilst teams with something to play for (automatics, play-offs, avoiding relegation) play Sunday lunchtime? Or has that not been the case for some time?

 

No, usually the final day of the Championship is played all at the same time.

 

Good to think that we were promoted on 24th April and play off winners will not be promoted until 29th May - 35 days difference and a huge advantage to us and norwich

 

Didn't realise Derby and Wednesday play on the final day. Keeps it slightly interesting!

 

Don’t think I ever remember it like that but your memory is usually pretty impeccable so I assume it was once?

 

Yep one will definitely be relegated!
Hopefully them both if Rotherham can muscle a last minute winner at Cardiff!

 

On the beach or not, it would have helped us if we didn't lose two players in the first half! Mind you, we got lucky with Norwich playing for 73 mins with 10 men against Muff, and being forced to use their backup LB against Sarr!

 

Poor Rotherham, I'm surprised they're still in it, because they must be knackered. They've been competing in games without getting many points, but more to the point Derby have been gutless...

 

My brother and I said the same thing. We have a massive advantage over them. I just hope we really do get all the business done early. So that come July when pre-season starts, we don’t have too much disruption. We have zero excuses to mess up this pre-season. Players know we’re a Prem team, so when Giaretta says they are already working, I hope he means it.

3 key signings for me before July 1st have to be ST, LW and LB. We need all 3 done by the time pre-season starts. Then the CB, CDM and CM/CAM can be signed throughout pre-season. Need all 6 in the door before the start of the season.

 

That's interesting, I'd have thought CB would be the number one target you'd want in the door as early as possible (aside from striker, for its meaning above all else) so that they have as much time as humanly possible to learn a partnership with Sierralta and gel as a defence overall. Every single day is an advantage in that sense.

 

Big advantage yes but it just means those teams will have had to work with a Plan A and a Plan B. I’m sure the recruitment teams behind the scenes will be talking to the same players we are to see who’s available, who would come, and at what price. It just means they have double the work as we only need a Plan A. It’s a shame that no one can sign before 1st July as that would have given us a real advantage with signings completed before the POs are over !

 

I watch the Luton v Rotherham game yesterday. They were both absolutely gash.

Rotherham's main problem appears to be creating and scoring goals, which, in football, is a pretty big issue.

I would love to see them beat Cardiff and send down SW and Wayne Rooney's Derby County but I can't see them scoring, even if Cardiff send out their under 8s team.

 

The matches certainly used to be played on Sunday lunchtime - I double checked the date/time of the Swansea match because I had presumed it was on Sunday. But I can’t ever recall the differentiation to which you refer.

 

I think we are pretty capable of winning 10 prem games to stay up. One win home or away against the 10 listed below and 1 scalp and 3 draws will be enough. When we went down in our first 19 games we won 2 drew 5 and lost 12. 3 of the losses by 1 goal. In the 2nd half of the season we won 6 drew 4 and lost 10, 5 of the losses by 1 goal. Honestly we only needed to score a pen against spurs at home, or not concede at Brighton or not concede the 95th minite goal at Villa and we would have been safe. I have confidence our squad will stay up next season as I think we have improved the Defence which let us down big time.

Norwich
Brighton
Burnley
Newcastle
Barnsley
Wolves
Aston Villa
Southampton
Crystal Palace
Leeds

And I would love just once to swat Man City.

 

You reckon Barnsley are going up? I think Brentford will win the play-offs, they seem to be finding form having gone 11 games unbeaten. I agree with that list, except I would swap Barnsley with “Play-off winner”.

And just once, a win at a top four side would be nice - even minnows like Bournemouth, Swansea and Wigan have managed that at least once.

 

We won at Arsenal under Mazzarri. They were third at the time.

 

Funny things happen on the final day in the Championship.

I wouldn't want to call it.

 

Swansea getting into 6th spot last season was mental. Forest still haven't recovered from that collapse.

 

Wycombe are down, they need Sheffield Wednesday to win and Rotherham to not win. However Sheffield Wednesday have a better GD than Derby, so even if Wednesday win by 1 goal, Wycombe will need to win by 13 goals; if that happened there would be an inquiry.

Rotherham need to win and hope Derby don't, their GD is better than both Wednesday's and Derby's.

The only match where it's in anyone's hands is the Derby v Wednesday game. Obviously if Derby win, it's all over for everyone else, any other result would mean both go down if Rotherham win.

If I were to call it, I'd say that Wycombe will win and the other two games will end in a draw meaning Wycombe finish 22nd and Derby survive.

 

Should be entertaining as both Rotherham and SW must win and so must score, even if they spend the last 5 mins with all 11 players playing upfront. Those 2 games may end in draws but I'd be surprised if they were 0-0.