Play offs - yes or no?

[OWL1969]

1 hour ago, parkfieldowl14 said:

Keep The Play-Offs but The Changes that i'd would make to them  is for there to be Five teams instead of four

• 3rd Placed team straight into the Wembley Final
• 4th 5th 6th 7th placed teams battling it out for the other Final Spot.

Keep em as they are for me, with 1 exception. If any match is still tied rather than penalties the highest placed league team win. 

Would mean we would now be in the final, but would also mean we would have to win the Final in 120 minutes. If the scores were still level  Reading would be promoted without the need of penalties. 

Also think this would give teams an incentive to finish as high as possible once they have qualified for the Playoffs.

Would never happen though as Sky and armchair fans love the excitement and pure drama of penalties.

 

[parkfieldowl14]

5 minutes ago, OWL1969 said:

Keep em as they are for me, with 1 exception. If any match is still tied rather than penalties the highest placed league team win. 

Would mean we would now be in the final, but would also mean we would have to win the Final in 120 minutes. If the scores were still level  Reading would be promoted without the need of penalties. 

Also think this would give teams an incentive to finish as high as possible once they have qualified for the Playoffs.

Would never happen though as Sky and armchair fans love the excitement and pure drama of penalties.

 

Alternatively,What about replacing the two legged Semi Finals with a Single game played at a Neutral Venue like Villa Park or Old Trafford then?any takers on that suggestion then?

[Lawrie Madden]

Only change I would make is to make the play - off semis just 1 game

teams who finish 3rd and 4th get home advantage

 

Oh no cup presentation at Wembley

[scram]

No changes

 

They're pretty perfect

[HIGHERSTATE]

Well none of the 4 games were exciting were they.

 

And for me our matches were just nerve wracking.

 

Even the great day out at wembly was pretty much over as the game wore on.

 

But seems everyone likes them. 

[ChinaOwl]

10 hours ago, scram said:

No changes

 

They're pretty perfect

 

The system is not perfect in my eyes.

 

Firstly, we saw this season how players being rested can be detrimental to the spirit of the league set up. Fair enough, clubs should be allowed to play whatever team they see fit. It is not the clubs that are in the wrong, it is the system that creates the disparity.

 

Secondly, removing my Sheffield Wednesday spectacles here, I thought that Brighton in 2016 were put at a wholly unfair disadvantage when they played us. I think it was something like fifteen points they finished above us and the system created the disparity of them having to play a crunch league game while we put our reserves out against Wolves.

 

You can throw back that was just the misfortune of the fixtures computer but it made Brighton the victims of being far better than us over 46 games. Had they not had to play Middlesbrough just a few days before that semi-final, I think things could have been very different. In my opinion, clubs should not be put at a disadvantage by finishing higher up the league and Brighton was a classic example of how it can happen.

[scram]

Anomalies will always happen - can't legislate for them

 

Many, many things happen over the course of a season - many could be equally considered pivotal

 

It's long been the contention of clubs that get into the champions league is that their league programme is unfairly disadvantaged for eg

 

I did make a mistake in saying the play-offs are perfect though - the gap between the semi finals and final is too big - to make the play offs perfect i'd just like to see the play-offs finished within 10-14 days of the seasons end - semi's during the week after the last league match - then the final a week later

[ChinaOwl]

In my opinion, play-off eliminators in any sport should be an extension of the league season and not played like a separate competition. My contention is that football has not got the balance right. It is almost like the league finishes and four teams then start an entirely different competition. Other sports as other have alluded to in this thread have been able to devise play-off eliminators that carry some kind of reward or advantage over from the league positions hence the higher you finish, the better the chances in the play-offs.

 

I mentioned my idea earlier in the thread. Maybe it's not perfect and somebody could come up with a better format but that is the kind of thing I am talking about. It seems unfair to me that 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th basically start on an even footing. 

 

There have been two schools of thought. One is that the best three teams over the season have ultimately proved themselves the best three for promotion and the other being that the play-offs keep the season alive for so many more teams thus the interest in the league is increased. I have sympathy with both arguments but there is middle ground that could be exploited to satisfy both arguments if a suitable format were designed in the manner that reward or advantage is created to the clubs finishing highest and still allowing for 5th and 6th to progress if they were good enough.

[james o connor]

The play offs make the league more interesting but as we are taking derby/the blunts crown as play off bottlers , I'm kind of hoping they get scrapped !

[scram]

16 minutes ago, ChinaOwl said:

In my opinion, play-off eliminators in any sport should be an extension of the league season and not played like a separate competition. My contention is that football has not got the balance right. It is almost like the league finishes and four teams then start an entirely different competition. Other sports as other have alluded to in this thread have been able to devise play-off eliminators that carry some kind of reward or advantage over from the league positions hence the higher you finish, the better the chances in the play-offs.

 

I mentioned my idea earlier in the thread. Maybe it's not perfect and somebody could come up with a better format but that is the kind of thing I am talking about. It seems unfair to me that 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th basically start on an even footing. 

 

There have been two schools of thought. One is that the best three teams over the season have ultimately proved themselves the best three for promotion and the other being that the play-offs keep the season alive for so many more teams thus the interest in the league is increased. I have sympathy with both arguments but there is middle ground that could be exploited to satisfy both arguments if a suitable format were designed in the manner that reward or advantage is created to the clubs finishing highest and still allowing for 5th and 6th to progress if they were good enough.

 

 

There is a distinct advantage - the team finishing 3rd play the bottom placed PO team - they have home advantage in the 2nd leg

 

The 4th place team have home advantage in the 2nd leg over the 5th placed team

 

I'd say that is definitely reward enough

 

The play offs have totally reinvigorated the leagues imo - football will always be an imperfect game and unfair at times - anomalies will always exist

 

Fans should really try to get their head around those basic truisms and roll with the punches

 

But people keep trying to fix what isn't broken

[MOwl]

I'd get rid of the second leg but other than that, I agree 100% with Scram. Keeps everyone fighting till the end.

[ChinaOwl]

4 minutes ago, scram said:

 

 

There is a distinct advantage - the team finishing 3rd play the bottom placed PO team - they have home advantage in the 2nd leg

 

The 4th place team have home advantage in the 2nd leg over the 5th placed team

 

I'd say that is definitely reward enough

 

The play offs have totally reinvigorated the leagues imo - football will always be an imperfect game and unfair at times - anomalies will always exist

 

Fans should really try to get their head around those basic truisms and roll with the punches

 

But people keep trying to fix what isn't broken

 

OK, I guess we will will just have to put it down to a difference in opinion but I really don't think that the "home advantage in the 2nd leg" has too much of an impact. For example, Huddersfield could have easily finished 3rd or 4th this season if they had maintained their earlier momentum but switched off when it became apparent that they could not force their way into the top two and preferred to rest players/ lose games with the aim of giving everything in the play-offs.