Championship - 2022/23

Bloody hell, are you 12?

 

Unlucky you’ve been caught in a “WatfordTalk loop”. It happens.

 

No ?
You’re trying to argue with something I posted but seem to agree with it ? We don’t normally fall out. I’m not really sure what you’re upset about.

 

Fair enough. I apologise for overreacting.

I agree it's currently unlikely anyone will overtake SU, but disagree it's impossible, or even that it's outlandish to suggest it could happen. But happy agree to disagree on that aspect.

 

Got injured, only just became available again. Hits a top bins free kick match winner, I wish our crocks did that.

 

Louza did that and then got crocked again.

Our crocks are as good as anyone else’s crocks , if only because we have so many of them .

 

I’d quite like to ask Mariah Carey if she fancied a couple of pints in my local and then back to mine for a curry.

 

Anything to stop her singing

 

It's high time wfc forums set up an elaborate honey trap for Gino Ponzi.

 

Sheff Utd would have to collapse AND we'd have to hit a rich vein of form for us to come 2nd. It's not impossible but would be some turnaround. If we can keep our players fit and get our sheet together, another Wembley final is not beyond us but the same also applies to half the teams in the league. It's all to play for really.

 

A win at Bramall Lane would be essential to put the wind up them.

 

Yes. A great win. They still finished above us of course though . Meant we got the day out at Cardiff though .

 

Same amazing hopium in this thread, people talk about Sheff Utd not looking great and ignore the fact we ourselves regularly look crap.

 

Reading is so tough I guess

How have Boro and WBA looked of late, do you think?

 

To show graphically the task we face, I have produced this visual table (Thanks to Soccerstats.com for the idea.)



For teams on equal points Team A has a better goal difference than Team B

Edit: This is as of 12pm 21/01/23

 

I can only go off brief highlights of both, but my guess would be WBA seem the strongest other challengers for promotion - in large part because they have the most quality throughout the squad, especially now their main issue in lacking a goalscorer has been addressed by Dike getting fit and firing again. Boro don't have as many good players or much squad depth and Carrick has surely got them over-performing right now.

 

I should have registered this idea (this from the 2016/17 Premier league - Relegation Watch thread on 14 May 2017!)

 

They do say great minds think alike.

 

We'll see Norwich in the playoffs then, hope we get to play them!

 

No Ben Whiteman for Preston today despite their manager saying he had a fully fit squad to pick from.

 

Sheff Utd aren’t that good, they’re only 14 points ahead of us with 18 games to go.

*Draws with 18th placed Rotherham

 

Our poor result today has absolutely no correlation with the strength of Sheffield United, but apart from that, great post.

They're clearly a good side in this division, and are on a great run of form. We'll see if they can keep that up, and if they have any negative reaction to any side that manages to apply some pressure on them.

 

It’s a great way to give a visual representation of where teams stand in relation to each other. I first saw a league table displayed like this a number of years ago in, I think, La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian daily sports paper.

 

Maybe that Wolves team a few years back with all the Portuguese players?

 

Posted in match thread but I found it interesting we are currently odds against to make the playoffs with SkyBet. A small part of that price is the chance of top 2, but it’s interesting when you take out bookies margin they have us at about 33% whereas the forum (including myself) thought 60%, 75% and 100%!

 

2012-13 after 28 games
1 Cardiff 60 – finished 1st 87
2 Leicester 50 – finished 6th 68
3 Hull 50 – finished 2nd 79
4 Palace 48 – finished 5th 72
5 Middlesbrough 47 – finished 16th 59
6 Watford 46 – finished 3rd 77
7 Brighton 42 – finished 4th 75

2014-15 after 28 games
1 Bournemouth 54 – finished 1st 90
2 Derby 54 – finished 8th 77
3 Middlesbrough 53 – finished 4th 85
4 Ipswich 51 – finished 6th 78
5 Brentford 49 – finished 5th 78
6 Watford 47 – finished 2nd 89
7 Wolves 45 – finished 7th 78

2020-21 after 28 games
1 Brentford 57 – finished 3rd 87
2 Norwich 55 – finished 1st 97
3 Swansea 54 – finished 4th 80
4 Watford 48 – finished 2nd 91
5 Reading 48 – finished 7th 70
6 Bournemouth 45 – finished 6th 77

Current season after 28 games
1 Burnley 62
2 Sheff Utd 57
3 Watford 44
4 Blackburn 43
5 Middlesbrough 42
6 Norwich 42
7 Luton 42
8 Millwall 42

Main takeaway from that is that our current tally of 44 points would not have got us in the top 6 at this stage of any of our previous promotion-chasing campaigns. And Sheff United have the highest number of points of any of the teams in second place at this stage.

 

Fun fact: Blackburn got their first draw of the season yesterday. Under the old 2 points for a win system they would now be 11th instead of 4th.

 

Thanks Sunderland. We stay 3rd and Boro lose their best defender against us.

 

I dunno if it’s a good result. Just adds another team right on our tails. Would rather the playoff pack separated from mid table.