Championship - 2023/24

We're definitely improved and I also can see us hovering just outside the play off places over the next couple of months.
Agree we're prone to dodgy moments at the back but after that start v Norwich we seem to have woken up and I wonder if a big part of that has been a basic lack of confidence (newish bunch... Lose a lot of early games etc).
Anyone else notice we've started breaking out of defence quite neatly a-La Douc/Capoue lately? (is that the Livermore/Kayembe combi?)

 

Wayne Rooney has done an awful job at Blues they looked alright under Eustace but are looking woeful now.

 

I think he's trying to get the players to play in a system that they are not good enough for.

 

A promising young manager canned in favour of a big name former player, Rowett has seen this story before

 

Heads up. QPR are bang in form with the new coach, another win today, and despite still being in the bottom 3 are only 11 points off top 6. Yet you can still get over 200-1 for them to finish top 6.
Stoke are 2 points ahead of QPR yet are only 26-1.
Just saying like!

 

Yeah but Stoke are a big club innit, do they still have Bojan and Shaqiri?

 

Was talking about Brum, this is just like when Rowett was sacked and the owners brought in Zola, they'll have to hope Rooney grows into the role, but the early signs are not positive

 

Not that I'm scared of QPR or Sheffield Wednesday lol, but we were lucky to get them when we did when they were either patched up under a struggling boss, or just starting out with a new manager trying to overhaul things, even when they played against us there was a pretty noticeable improvement on Xisco. Rotherham do look cooked, and with their smaller stature you wouldn't think they'd be able to attract a manager as talented

 

Not followed them closely, but I get the feeling they were a bit fortunate to be up that high, they were pretty average when they came here, and that was against us when we were finding out feet

 

No but they do have Mama Cass!

 

Shows how damaging their start was though when they’re still eight points from safety - still, moving off the bottom and getting their first away win should give them quite a confidence boost.

Bournemouth, though I’m not a fan, have demonstrated well how dramatically things can turn around in football - picked up 6 points in 15 games going back to last season (same run as we had in 2019 before getting our first win under QSF, which we miserably failed to build on), now have more than trebled that after fearlessly going to Old Trafford and putting three past the Mancs without reply.

 

Only Plymouth (and to be fair, Steven Schumacher looks fairly safe) of the current bottom 9 haven't sacked their manager yet this season

 

Well, we escaped the bottom 9 just in time then…

 

Their new owners don't seem the sort to go for one of the usual "merry go round" managers tbf. Already seen they're apparently after Will Still who's doing a great job in France with Reims

 

Presume the lack of badges isn't a problem then!

 

I note that a few weeks ago the bottom three all had less than 20% of the points of the leader. Now they have all moved up into the 40% to 20% bracket. I've done a visual table (as of 12/12/23 before WFC v Ipswich) to illustrate this (and other stuff):

 

Sunderland also linked to Julien Sable, who is currently number two to some Italian guy a poster on this forum used to go on about a lot at Nice.

I think they actually covet his boss as they were linked with him last season but there’d be no way he’d leave France now with his club second in the league.

 

Thank you, that's very kind Skyla, but I wouldn't dream of mentioning my amateur efforts in the same breath as @reids insightful, professional contributions.

 

Great chart .

Tells a better story than the table alone

 

Think this has blown up in Sunderlands face a bit really, whilst Beale did well (albeit in a brief stint) at QPR he utterly failed at Rangers, which is a club that's hard to utterly fail at. Whilst Sunderlands recent results weren't amazing, they also weren't bad and I still felt they had a good chance of playoffs. That could still be the case with Beale but it's all too much of a gamble and almost a change for changes sake rather than identifying someone that could definitely improve them. Can't help but feel their first couple of preferred choices fell through but again that signals a lack of planning on their behalf - at least when we change managers we've normally always got a deal already agreed with whoevers coming in before we give the old manager the boot.

 

Ipswich fans must think they will never beat Norwich again after the derby draw today.

 

When you see Rob Edwards St the Luton game today you cannot help feel he is such a sound bloke and trusted horribly here.

I know he is with ourvrivals but wish we had given him more time.

Truly nice genuine bloke and pleased he is doing well

 

Great turnaround by Wednesday in a crunch game, but the six point gap shows how much they still have to do. Still Huddersfield getting a draw has kept Millwall in the mix, but it’s hard to see how either they or Stoke could go down - it’s still likely to be three from the bottom four, all of whom happened to be the top four favourites for relegation at the start of the season.

 

Another idiotic Pozzo decision.

PS ‘Treated’?

 

Rotherham look absolutely ****ed, you'd fancy QPR to climb their way out now that they are under new management and haven't banished their best players for no reason. Wednesday look much much better than the start of the season, but as you say, 6 points is still a considerable gap

 

I think “trusted” makes sense in that he wasn’t trusted sufficiently to build his team and make his own decisions - typically Pozzo, at least during 2019-23.

 

Problem was as we had been relegated. Pozzo’s unrealistic aspiration's in assuming we would be winning every game, with our P.L. Squad, (ex championship 12 months before) coupled with playing a left footed fullback as right back, there was only one way it was going to go. This season Pozzo appears to have realised sacking Managers left right and centre doesn’t always work!