The Championship 2020-21

Certainly goes a long way to explaining the stagnant market and depressed transfer fees.

 

Good midfield, no doubt. None of them get many goals though.

 

Hopefully Capoue can rediscover his goalscoring touch from the 16/17 season, although I guess he'll be playing a more defensive role. I think Hughes gets 5-10 goals at this level if played as a number 10.

 

Trouble with Capoue scoring more goals in The Championship than Prem is that row Z is in the same place of the stadium whatever league you re in.

 

I wonder if Hughes plays that far forward once he’s back and fit? He looked much better once he was playing deeper alongside Capoue last season.

 

That's true. I quite liked Cleverley in his more advanced role against Luton, stretching their back line with constant runs, but I agree he's not been much of a goal threat since his first spell with us

 

Realistically Hughes and Capoue at the base of midfield will get max 10 between them.

However, hopefully they can free our CAMs of Cleverley/Quina to get another 10 further up the pitch.

 

Just as well we got rid of Doucoure, then.

 

Cleverley shouldn't be playing if Hughes and Capoue are fit.

We need to develop Quina and play him in his correct, more advanced position and I'm sure Garner is going to expect a certain amount of playing time as well.

 

You’re ignoring the obvious 2-6-2 formation solution. 85% possession, 3 shots.

 

Can Garner play as an attacking mid? Either way, he'll get plenty of games with the fixture list as it is

 

I don't think we'll need to score loads of goals like we did under Joka, simply because we won't let many in.

 

People aren't getting upset we aren't going to paste teams 3-0.They are concerned that in 3 of the 4 games so far, we barely created any chances.

One goal from open play in four games must make us just about the worst attacking side in the division. We had the most expensive attacking player in the divison (by some margin) playing in half of those games as well.

Regardless of whether we defend well - you aren't going to get promoted if all your results are 0-0

 

Although if QSF were in charge he might try and see if this works.

0-0 to the Golden Boys...

 

Funnily enough, the start of this season is pretty Flores-esque. In 2015-16 after the opening 2-2 at Everton we didn’t score for three games and took until match 10 to score more than one in a game before QSF adopted a more attacking approach, culminating in the brilliant 3-0 against Liverpool (shame he didn’t last the distance).

Maybe Pedro can be our next Ighalo? And once the team gets into gear, we won’t fall off a cliff after Christmas?

 

Because we had no focal point up front

 

I think we haven't created enough chances, and the chances/openings we have created have been wasted with poor finishing. Hopefully that improves. Despite having no recognised striker for most games, and no Hughes/in-form Quina to be the creative force in midfield, we're still creating a few chances per game.

Boro- half-chance for Pedro 12 yards out, deflected wide, free header for Pedro from a corner put wide, and Cathcart's goal. 2 good chances/1 half-chance. Not enough.

Sheff Wed- Murray shot from just inside the box saved, good move leads to free Perica header saved from 12 yards, opening for Cleverley inside the box weak shot saved, Kabasele shoots over the bar 6 yards out from good cross. 3 good chances/1 half-chance. Better.

Luton- low Pedro shot from 15 yards saved, Cleverley shot under pressure from edge of box deflected wide, Pedro goal, Garner shot saved after nice flick from Pedro, follow up saved, Chalobah volley over from edge of box, TDB shot from edge of box saved. 3 good chances/2 half-chances plus plenty of decent openings. Much better.

Reading- Ngakia free shot from 15 yards scuffed wide, Sarr shoots wide from tight angle, Garner hits bar from FK, TDB over the bar from outside the box, Garner tough chance first time just inside the box saved, Pedro weak volley 12 yards out saved. 1 good chances/plenty of half-chances. Not enough.

So I think the signs are there this team can create enough chances to score 2+ a game, especially once Hughes/Gray are back. Need to be more clinical though, which has been the case for quite a while now.

 

I would strongly disagree that a lot of those were good chances though.

We are 15th in the league for xG across those four games with an xG of 0.69. That suggests we are not creating enough clear cut chances to score even one goal a game, which is extremely concerning given we have played against four of the weaker sides in the division.

Stats don't mean everything by any means (proved by the fact reading are 20th for xG) but the stats do reflect what I have felt watching the side.

 

I can't say I disagree

 

People keep saying this, but Reading are top having won 4/4. Luton's only loss was to us. Boro are 10th. What is the rationale behind people saying this?

 

Looking at the table after 4 games doesn't mean a great deal. If we were top having played like we had played, I would be saying just the same thing.

All four were in the bottom half of the table last season, and Boro and Luton spent most of the season battling relegation. That to me is more reflective of where they are as a side, than the fact they are top at the moment. As said - Reading have won every game so far, despite being 20th in xG. The statistics, and their performances I have seen so far, suggest to me they are not suddenly the best side in the division.

Our results, and the underlying statistics, both suggest we do not create enough chances. This problem is compounded by the fact that those chances that we do create we do not have strikers clinical enough to take advantage of.

We may be able to get promoted on the stregnth of our defence as teams like Cardiff and Huddersfield did, but I personally do not think it is an effective way to do it.

 

Personally, I hardly even look at the table, let draw any conclusions from it, until at least ten games into the season. Even then, the table doesn’t really start to take shape until the new year - in 2014-15 the top 8 were pretty much set in stone from January. But there can still be surprises, eg Hull went from nowhere near the promotion picture for the most part of 2007-08 to almost automatic, and conversely last season they sank like a stone after being just outside the play-off places in the new year.

 

With any luck we can finish 14th by the end of the season!

 

I think it's fair to say the table has 'taken shape' after 10 games. Everyone's played a good selection of opponents home and away by then, but of course there's loads of time for things to change. There are many examples, but the one I remember years ago was when Millwall were top in December when we went to their place and beat them and they were relegated with us and L*t*n on the last day.

 

Given our involvement with Watford General next door, you'd think being clinical might be our strong point.

Maybe we could sign some nurses?

Might be an upgrade on {insert favourite boo boy}

....Gray's Anatomy joke to follow

 

Before the season started FTRE had an expert from the Israeli league who stated that Ivic is a good manager but prepare yourself for a lot of one nil wins .

 

If we do get promoted it will be a pleasant change, if only for the fact that 1994-95 and the two seasons in the third tier aside, Watford haven't been renowned for their defensive solidity - but we may miss the swashbuckling style that characterized 2005/06 and 2014/15 and the near miss that was 2012/13.

 

Can't wait for our team to play Akinfenwa, let it not be forgotten he started his career at Watford in the youth academy.

 

I had no idea! There's quite a few notable football characters who did that and are just not associated with us in any way in the broader consciousness, like Tactics Tim (Sherwood) and Kevin Phillips.

 

I thought we bought KP from Baldock Town for £10k.

Wasn't he stacking shelves or something before we picked him up?

 

I'm pretty sure Charlton were at the top this time last year, which goes to show how little it means.

 

One of the Geordies said something interesting (in an 'Ingerlund' thread):

 

For those above who are claiming we are creating enough chances, please see the below table which would suggest very much the opposite:

 

xG can be a useful tool, but it's certainly not the be all and end all, **** knows what the difference between a >0.35 chance and a <0.35 chance is. Besides, playing an actual striker for a change should mean that they'll actually get on the end of crosses and create decent chances