Championship 21/22

Waz afcb said:
Could get top six. West Brom and Fulham are going to run away with top two I fear. Could be the most boring championship season ever in terms of competition for automatic promotion.
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I think West Brom are catchable .....we need to show a massive improvement to mount any sort of challenge though......I fancied Birmingham for top 6 at the start of the season..... finished last season well under Bowyer and made some shrewd signings.... Bowyer looks a smart manager .
 
I think the two dark horses are Stoke and QPR and it will be interesting game on Tuesday.

Birmingham have done well apart from losing to us but it's hard to judge them against a Derby team who seem to be doing all they can to phuck themselves.

Just over 2 years ago when they lost in playoff final to Villa under Lampard who was smart and got some good loans - Their lineup - Roos, Ashley Cole, Keogh, Tomori, Huddlestone, Mount, Bradley Johnson, Harry Wilson, Bennett, Lawrence.

Since then they've lost 9 of that line up, one was the best ever LB to play the game, one is now starting every game for Chelsea and just won the CL, one was sold to AC Milan for £26m, one to Fulham for £15m. And they bizarrely sacked their captain for being a passenger in a car of the 2 left of that starting line up - Lawrence and Bennett one who was pissed, and Now they've got another former England player only he is not smart in the slightest so perhaps they deserve to suffer. They do have experience still likes of Curtis Davies, Jagielka, Ravel, Nathan Byrne, Baldock and Lawrence but perhaps they're not motivated anymore.
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
I think the two dark horses are Stoke and QPR and it will be interesting game on Tuesday.

Birmingham have done well apart from losing to us but it's hard to judge them against a Derby team who seem to be doing all they can to phuck themselves.

Just over 2 years ago when they lost in playoff final to Villa under Lampard who was smart and got some good loans - Their lineup - Roos, Ashley Cole, Keogh, Tomori, Huddlestone, Mount, Bradley Johnson, Harry Wilson, Bennett, Lawrence.

Since then they've lost 9 of that line up, one was the best ever LB to play the game, one is now starting every game for Chelsea and just won the CL, one was sold to AC Milan for £26m, one to Fulham for £15m. And they bizarrely sacked their captain for being a passenger in a car of the 2 left of that starting line up - Lawrence and Bennett one who was pissed, and Now they've got another former England player only he is not smart in the slightest so perhaps they deserve to suffer. They do have experience still likes of Curtis Davies, Jagielka, Ravel, Nathan Byrne, Baldock and Lawrence but perhaps they're not motivated anymore.
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Lampard didn't do Derby any favours.
 
Topfarrier said:
Lampard didn't do Derby any favours.
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Why not? Not getting them promoted like every other manager they've had since 2008? He bought in some good players on loan probably for next to nothing as a favour from Chelsea, played some decent stuff and only parachute payment Villa denied them a place in PL and then Villa went on to relegate us following season for a ghost goal.
 
Topfarrier said:
I think West Brom are catchable .....we need to show a massive improvement to mount any sort of challenge though......I fancied Birmingham for top 6 at the start of the season..... finished last season well under Bowyer and made some shrewd signings.... Bowyer looks a smart manager .
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Topfarrier said:
I think West Brom are catchable .....we need to show a massive improvement to mount any sort of challenge though......I fancied Birmingham for top 6 at the start of the season..... finished last season well under Bowyer and made some shrewd signings.... Bowyer looks a smart manager .
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I think it’s unfair to judge us so far considering the strength of the squad we’ve had available so far. To some degree Parker has had a bit of a free hit to this point, but from now on with the strength in depth he has available will really be the time to judge him. Think it’s harsh to say we need to improve as given what he’s had to work with so far we have over performed. If the performances are still at the same level from this point on then that would be majorly concerning.
 
Waz afcb said:
I think it’s unfair to judge us so far considering the strength of the squad we’ve had available so far. To some degree Parker has had a bit of a free hit to this point, but from now on with the strength in depth he has available will really be the time to judge him. Think it’s harsh to say we need to improve as given what he’s had to work with so far we have over performed. If the performances are still at the same level from this point on then that would be majorly concerning.
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Agree he's got away with it so far because of all the youngsters thrust in since the first game but even with the team we had out against Blackpool and Hull it's 4 points dropped and that's exactly what happened last season and we fell too far behind Norwich and Watford and I can see it happening again with WBA and Fulham, too many draws against teams who are happy to draw with us and just make it difficult to break them down. And if we finish behind them 2 then it's a lottery in playoffs as we know and there are a few dark horses - QPR, Stoke, Boro, I think even Sheff Utd and Swansea will climb back up and be in amongst the top 8.
And although we signed Christie and Lowe on paper we are weaker than last season with Begovic and Arnie gone as they guaranteed you an extra 10 points at least.
 
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Vlad_The_Impaler said:
Why not? Not getting them promoted like every other manager they've had since 2008? He bought in some good players on loan probably for next to nothing as a favour from Chelsea, played some decent stuff and only parachute payment Villa denied them a place in PL and then Villa went on to relegate us following season for a ghost goal.
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What sort of shape did he leave them in after all the loan players buggered off?....look at the shite they are in now .... penniless and no assets to sell.
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
Agree he's got away with it so far because of all the youngsters thrust in since the first game but even with the team we had out against Blackpool and Hull it's 4 points dropped and that's exactly what happened last season and we fell too far behind Norwich and Watford and I can see it happening again with WBA and Fulham, too many draws against teams who are happy to draw with us and just make it difficult to break them down. And if we finish behind them 2 then it's a lottery in playoffs as we know and there are a few dark horses - QPR, Stoke, Boro, I think even Sheff Utd and Swansea will climb back up and be in amongst the top 8.
And although we signed Christie and Lowe on paper we are weaker than last season with Begovic and Arnie gone as they guaranteed you an extra 10 points at least.
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Not sure QPR can be classed as dark horses given how they finished last season....strongly fancied to be top 6 tbf...... Swansea on the other hand will be nearer the bottom 8 than top 8.
 
Topfarrier said:
What sort of shape did he leave them in after all the loan players buggered off?....look at the shite they are in now .... penniless and no assets to sell.
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I don't see how you can blame him for that mate, their net spend the Summer he arrived they were 400k up on transfers. That profit would've gone on wages but it hardly bankrupted them in one season as he was getting free favours as i said.
The Summer Paul Clement was there in 2015 he spent £30m and they made no sales in the Championship which is a big risk and they failed, in todays money that is over £45m, but since then they have always sold level or more than they've spent so phuck knows what they've done with all the money. perhaps the owner's limit was £50m friendly debt and not a penny more. They get decent crowds but PL TV money is everything these days and without you can't afford to spend £30m in the 2nd tier and not go up.
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
I don't see how you can blame him for that mate, their net spend the Summer he arrived they were 400k up on transfers. That profit would've gone on wages but it hardly bankrupted them in one season as he was getting free favours as i said.
The Summer Paul Clement was there in 2015 he spent £30m and they made no sales in the Championship which is a big risk and they failed, in todays money that is over £45m, but since then they have always sold level or more than they've spent so phuck knows what they've done with all the money. perhaps the owner's limit was £50m friendly debt and not a penny more. They get decent crowds but PL TV money is everything these days and without you can't afford to spend £30m in the 2nd tier and not go up.
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This is exactly my point Vlad....why did Derby have to go and spend 30m after Lampard left?....once the loan players left they had nothing.....he built absolutely nothing....I think the common term is building a house on sand......
'Everyone who hears these words of mine, and doesn't do them will be like a foolish man, who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall'...
 
Vlad_The_Impaler said:
Agree he's got away with it so far because of all the youngsters thrust in since the first game but even with the team we had out against Blackpool and Hull it's 4 points dropped and that's exactly what happened last season and we fell too far behind Norwich and Watford and I can see it happening again with WBA and Fulham, too many draws against teams who are happy to draw with us and just make it difficult to break them down. And if we finish behind them 2 then it's a lottery in playoffs as we know and there are a few dark horses - QPR, Stoke, Boro, I think even Sheff Utd and Swansea will climb back up and be in amongst the top 8.
And although we signed Christie and Lowe on paper we are weaker than last season with Begovic and Arnie gone as they guaranteed you an extra 10 points at least.
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True, but after this point we went on to top the table for a while.
 
Waz afcb said:
I think it’s unfair to judge us so far considering the strength of the squad we’ve had available so far. To some degree Parker has had a bit of a free hit to this point, but from now on with the strength in depth he has available will really be the time to judge him. Think it’s harsh to say we need to improve as given what he’s had to work with so far we have over performed. If the performances are still at the same level from this point on then that would be majorly concerning.
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We've missed a few players and you're right the time to judge him is now but this 'given what he's had to work with' is a very tenuous excuse for the style of football we're playing.....what does Mark Robins have to work with?....yet he can still put a team out that creates over twice as many chances as we have....if they had the quality up front Parker has had at his disposal they would be top of the table alongside Fulham now.....for us to be bottom of stats tables such as chance creation and shots is inexcusable imo.
 
Topfarrier said:
We've missed a few players and you're right the time to judge him is now but this 'given what he's had to work with' is a very tenuous excuse for the style of football we're playing.....what does Mark Robins have to work with?....yet he can still put a team out that creates over twice as many chances as we have....if they had the quality up front Parker has had at his disposal they would be top of the table alongside Fulham now.....for us to be bottom of stats tables such as chance creation and shots is inexcusable imo.
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Agree in some respects, yes it has been very disappointing so far in terms of how much we have been able to create. I’m sure many on here will label us as bedwetters for being concerned sitting in sixth position after playing the first five games with a threadbare squad, but if you actually analyse what we have seen past the simplistic view point of points accumulated, then anyone who understands the game will tell you that our goals scored vs chances created thus far is completely unsustainable in the longer term and that if we don’t find a way to create more then we are going to slide down the table very quickly. So yes, I’m completely with you on that. However we have been playing with a very threadbare squad, and it’s worth noting that vs Hull (when we had a squad that more resembled a championship quality side,) despite not winning, we actually recorded a very respectable XG total of around 2.4 I believe. So hopefully the indication is that now the squad is getting back to something that resembles full strength, we will be better able to create. Having an actual right full back available will be huge as i feel our creativity down the right has been severely stifled by having to play Mepham.
 
I've no doubt that with our quality players back our xg will go up....thats not really the point though is it?.....we may have had an improvement in terms of XG against Hull but did anyone enjoy watching it?
What we should be asking ourselves is how other manager's can set up a team to play attacking football with teams that cost a small fraction of ours even with the players we had missing.
 
Topfarrier said:
I've no doubt that with our quality players back our xg will go up....thats not really the point though is it?.....we may have had an improvement in terms of XG against Hull but did anyone enjoy watching it?
What we should be asking ourselves is how other manager's can set up a team to play attacking football with teams that cost a small fraction of ours even with the players we had missing.
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Our XG vs Hull was similar to Fulham’s vs them a week earlier, suggesting they are not the easiest team to play against. If we’d have scored a couple like we should have I imagine most would have enjoyed it more. I think you’re being a little harsh at this point, we’ve been playing players with next to no experience of senior football up until this point. I also think our lack of a natural right back has severely hindered us this far. Our main issue is that everything goes through the number six position for us, we need to find another way of playing through when this player can’t get on the ball.
 
Topfarrier said:
I've no doubt that with our quality players back our xg will go up....thats not really the point though is it?.....we may have had an improvement in terms of XG against Hull but did anyone enjoy watching it?
What we should be asking ourselves is how other manager's can set up a team to play attacking football with teams that cost a small fraction of ours even with the players we had missing.
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How many chances are they conceding though? How good are the chances the create?

Yes I agree we need to create more chances and I firmly believe we will with the new signings, just pointing out its not black and white.
 
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