The Championship 2020-21

Let’s face it, we just aren’t good enough for autos as it stands.

We can never string more than two wins together, and that will never be good enough.

I’ve said a couple of times it’s inevitable at least a couple of teams will string maybe 5 wins together and we’ll be miles off, that is starting to happen.

Our tactic of win at home and don’t get beat away is all well and good, but you can’t afford one single slip up, and we’ve had plenty already so it’s no longer viable.

I think we’ll comfortably get a play off spot, but unless something changes then that will be it, something does need to change though.

If we’re sticking with Ivic one thing he needs to start doing is assessing the opposition on a game by game basis rather than just taking his generic approach to every game.

If we’re playing a rubbish team away from home we need to go for a win, nothing short of 3 points is going to be good enough now. Sure we’ll slip up every now and then but the league table is proof that what we’re doing now is simply not enough and will not be enough, it’s just no longer an option so if we persist with it Ivic needs to be sacked just for being completely thick, aside from anything else.

The irony is it IS the weakest league for years, but that’s massively benefited our fellow relegated teams as well. It’s a shame neither of them are basket case clubs like in previous years. Both well run clubs with a lot of continuity that has enabled them to take advantage.

 

Both of their forms are trending upwards though - maybe they aren’t playing well but they are winning more often than not recently. That’s crucial coming into this massively busy period. Keep that going whilst we continue with patchy form and they will be clear by early/mid-January.

At this point I think we are less likely to than both those sides. Not by a huge distance though. Plus Norwich have an extremely settled side...and Bournemouth’s owner could probably find them £10m or so down the back of his sofa if needed in January. I don’t think we can say the same.

If Ivic is to remain, I think he needs to settle on a team for the next few weeks and deviate as little as possible from it. Allow partnerships to grow in the team.

 

All we have to do is ensure our all-action incisive football eviscerates them home & away so we do the double over them.

 

Lack of a goalscorer is going to make this a lot harder for us. We'll have to try to go up like West Brom did last year, not scoring that much, goals spread throughout the squad.

 

Yes we just don’t have the right players in the right positions, goal scorer being the most important, for Ivic’s tactics and game plan to work.

I don’t think he’s that bad a manger, if he had the right players we’d probably easily win most home games and pick up a few more wins away, but we don’t. That’s why we need a manager who will fashion something out of the players we’ve got, or ivic needs to change his approach and start trying to actually win games, like Joka did.

 

I'm wondering if he is doing that already but erring on the side of caution a bit too often. Reason I am suggesting it is that he started 2 strikers against Preston at home. If he was generic and cautious all the time he would've been less attack minded for that game.

 

Think its a lack of a threat from midfield that is hurting us a bit more tbh. Gray had scored before he was injured, Perica has scored, Deeney has 3 in 3. But I lack confidence at the moment in Capoue/Chalobah, Garner, Cleverly, Quina, Hughes getting on the scoresheet that often or looking that threatening near the goal, like Doucoure used to do for us. We had Doucoure, Sarr, and Delefeou (when fit) as forward impetus last season. Now we only have Sarr, which is why I defend him from some of the stick he gets coz that's all we got. Alternatively a loan deal for a Doucoure or a Grealish/Maddison type from far afield in January would be just the ticket.

 

Never say never.

 

After today's announcement only Muff, Norwich and Bristol City can have fans now in this league.

 

More evidence of an anti-Watford conspiracy by the football authorities.

 

They are so jammy it's unreal! Their winner against Reading was another penalty from a massive dive (yes we've had one from Sarr earlier in the season, but Norwich have def been getting the rub of the green more regularly than us in such scenarios).

I keep expecting their luck to run out eventually, I don't think they're impossible to catch yet.

 

It's both. Deeney can't score from open play. Starting Perica would help, but we also need another goalscorer from midfield as well, whether it's to replace Garner or Cleverley, or even to rotate with Sema (both Sema and Sarr are wide players who are only really decent at crossing, which is useless when we have no one in the box for them to cross to; neither of them are very good at scoring for themselves).

 

They win in the early kick off tomorrow and before we kick a ball we'll be 9 points behind. Not impossible, but the way we're playing I highly doubt we'll make that up unless something changes.

 

Let's hope Deeney gets lucky next month and has a player/coach role at Birmingham. Sarr gets sold for £40M to Southampton, Capone £6M to Valencia, Hughes £2M to Brighton, Phillips £23,000 to Millwall and finally, Ivic stays, gets a few players in which he can utilise to his way of playing and we finish 5th and get knocked out by Stoke at Wembley in the playoff final. I am confident in all these predictions; but I could be wrong;; ;

 

Reading wont even finish in the top 10 they had a lucky start which flatters their league position. Bournemouth haven't won more than two games in a row all season.

 

Over the last 10 games Reading are 16th in the form table and Bournemouth are 2nd and we are 3rd we have picked up one less point than Bournemouth. In the last 10 games Bournemouth have only played two games against teams currently in the top half of the table.

 

You would think that teams doubling up on Sarr every game would free up space in the middle for our midfield to get open

 

It's not even half-way through the season yet! Of course we'll need to improve a bit though.

 

Sarr is only only player going forwards with any real pace and threat so teams can currently afford to do that - we'd need someone with more dribbling and goalscoring ability than Garner or Cleverley to capitalise from it.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55360456

Swansea to replace their pitch before we play them in Jan. Probably good news as they will not be any more used to the new surface than us and have no doubt been taking advantage of knowing the old crappy pitch.

 

Quina?

 

As per the post above, firstly he's injured, secondly he's not been good enough yet. Stylistically he's perhaps similar to what we need, except it would help if they were someone who wasn't brushed off the ball so easily and could actually hit the back of the net with their shots!

 

One more down, kinda (Moore, torn hamstring):

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/55319444

Annoying that it happened just before they play Norwich though.

Lucas Joao has also suffered a minor injury which will mean he'll miss their game vs Brentford today.

 

Not really.

 

Having some fans back has hardly seemed to help our performances.

 

Was just about to type that Norwich don’t look all that and they almost scored.

 

As soon as I switch to the Norwich game they score.

In reference to the attacking midfielder/Quina discussion above, we have no player who has shown they are capable of doing what Buendia just did there from the middle of the pitch.

 

They will run away with this league.

And then get relegated.

Repeat.

 

Norwich look good. Cardiff too to be fair.

 

Probably. Although they’ll probably get more points than last time, trouser a nice chunk of change, then go up again. They could eventually sustain themselves in the PL after a few cycles of that, but you can’t always guarantee the championship will be as poor as it is this year.

 

He has had about one and a half decent performances this season. He's not up to it.

 

Quina is ok if he’s utilised closer to the forwards. If he’s playing deeper in midfield he’s an absolute liability in terms of losing the ball, much like Chalobah. Hughes is just a much better all round version, it’s a shame he’s barely been able to play.