Standard of teams.

[SallyCinnamon]

I don’t think it’s an easy league, I just think Monk is doing a good job.

 

Its rubbish when people say this league is easy. It’s really not. So many teams pushing for promotion, and most games are close fought battles. 

[cowl]

2 minutes ago, frastheowl said:

 

Leeds are far and away the best side in the division in my opinion. 

 

WBA are the team with the nous and know-how to get results. And that's why those two will run away with it.

 

After that, I'd say ourselves, Brentford and Fulham are probably the next tier of sides, you'd expect to feature in the playoffs come the end of the year. Both ourselves and Brentford both look good at both ends of the pitch. Brentford certainly easier on the eye, but ourselves seem to play the margins very effectively under Monk, and are really excelling in terms of xG. Fulham ooze attacking talent, yet are soft defensively. Expect that to change when Hector comes into their reckoning next month. 

 

 

I think Brentford's main issue is still one of consistency. I suppose it would be valid to say this of most of the sides in and around the play-offs (after all, if they could produce their better results with consistency they'd be in the automatic spots and not the play-offs), but even so, Brentford at their best have really impressed me this season.

 

I agree with what you say about WBA. They're a very solid team and with enough players with that x-factor which, as you say, translates directly to results. Their game against us was a good example of that. I expect WBA to take the title this season - and quite possibly by 8 or 9 points+.

 

Leeds - I'll be honest - I just can't make my mind up about. In terms of approach play, I've seen them put in performances this season that have been scarily good. And yet, I'm talking about their approach play. It's so fast and relentless. I was really not looking forward to our game with them a few months ago because I feared their game. And yet there's something so very unreliable about what happens when they get in the 18 yard box though. Maybe it was just a confidence issue with Bamford and now with him getting a few goals his ‘luck’ will generally change, but it still strikes me that there's a major mismatch between their quality outside the 18 yard box and inside it. Perhaps they'll sort this out in January because I'm sure they'll be bringing in at least one striker.

[cowl]

5 minutes ago, SallyCinnamon said:

I don’t think it’s an easy league, I just think Monk is doing a good job.

 

Its rubbish when people say this league is easy. It’s really not. So many teams pushing for promotion, and most games are close fought battles. 

 

Inclined to agree with this.

 

I think it's a league of teams without much to separate them.

 

Obviously some games could be said to be easier than others, but there's no easy games; and when teams expect 3 points, they very often end up with none.

 

I think it's this that makes it a great league actually.

[torryowl]

4 minutes ago, SallyCinnamon said:

I don’t think it’s an easy league, I just think Monk is doing a good job.

 

Its rubbish when people say this league is easy. It’s really not. So many teams pushing for promotion, and most games are close fought battles. 

its anything but easy ...its 46 games of mainly attritional football and hopefully with just a bit of extra class we possess we can grind out enough points to make the play offs . 

[prowl]

56 minutes ago, cowl said:

I actually think Brentford are the best team I've seen this season. I think they're better than both Leeds and WBA actually.

 

Still, I thought they were poor at Hillsborough by their own standards - particularly so in the 2nd half, but even their 1st half seemed to be played at a lower gear than I've often seen them play in.

Maybe that's because we don't give much away. We are tight at the back and give teams little room to play. Maybe most teams look average against us because we are better than average.

 

I'm not saying we are an expansive, exciting side but we are just hard to play well against. Even when we lose it's by the odd goal. If we hadn't thrown away a load of soft goals at the death we would have been up or above WB and Leeds. I know every team throws away the odd late goal but we were specialists at it for a while.

[prowl]

58 minutes ago, frastheowl said:

 

Double post.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by prowl

[Holmowl]

Match after match fans post how poor our opponents were.

 

Boro, Cardiff, Swansea, Luton, Barnsley, Forest....etc etc

 

Instead, perhaps we didn’t let them play. Look at today - a good side with real promotion hopes got 3 shots off all game. Our midfield and defence was outstanding.

 

Praise where praise is due.

[Anlaby Owl]

I really do think the emergence of lots of foreign managers has put far more emphasis on playing style than it has results.  Monk (much to my surprise and delight) seems to be one of very few who have their priorities right.  We are stretching teams using our width and by using bannan as a sort of fulcrum (quickly pinging balls this way then that) the opposition aren't able to narrow the play either latterally or in terms of depth.  This style also means that our back line arent being overloaded because of the speed with which we are capable of getting the ball into dangerous positions, teams are now frightened to do this.  (compare this with carlos last year).  It is actually making our back line look more accomplished than they otherwise might. 

A couple of other things ive noticed.  Fletcher seems more aggressive this year (not so much the gentleman) and the keepers distribution has been scrutinised and probably 'managed'.

Theres absolutely no doubt in my mind that we are now generally playing to a plan that opposing sides really don't like playing against. 

[SwellOwl]

This season in particular is up for grabs. Look at the top 2, they are nothing special.

 

We need to keep concentrating on us.

[cowl]

17 minutes ago, prowl said:

Maybe that's because we don't give much away. We are tight at the back and give teams little room to play. Maybe most teams look average against us because we are better than average.

 

I'm not saying we are an expansive, exciting side but we are just hard to play well against. Even when we lose it's by the odd goal. If we hadn't thrown away a load of soft goals at the death we would have been up or above WB and Leeds. I know every team throws away the odd late goal but we were specialists at it for a while.

 

I think a great deal of credit to us for our performance against Leeds. I thought we made them look average and deserved three points (but only got 1).

 

Against Brentford we got 3 points that I would never have envisaged at half time. I didn't even think Brentford were at their best in the first half and yet I still thought we looked a distant second best. We obviously deserve credit there to take a victory from such a game, but I feel overall that it was really a Brentford off-day. I know this is the kind of view that won't be popular with many of our fans that would prefer to see all our victories and defeats as the mere success or failure of our team - but sometimes other teams just have poor games - and I think this was the case against Brentford when we played them. Still, it's not like they gifted us the game and we had to come from behind, so I also have no problem with saying (and no sense of contradiction) by saying that we deserved the 3 points over the whole 90 minutes too.

 

By the way, I was talking about the best few sides in the division, and I do think we're above average for the division - but I also think there's not much to separate those above and below the average.

[glynnb]

1 hour ago, ljhowl said:

Agreed. Sure teams went up on merit but in the last 10 years, I'd say Wolves were the only team that were really head and shoulders above the rest in the division. 

Newcastle in 2010 and 2017 wern't bad teams either, seem to remember they won it with 5 games to spare.

[owls7]

I'm not saying it's an easy league I'm just saying I haven't been blown away by any team yes some are better than others but I don't really see one standout team. I know sky love Leeds and the manager but even when we played them I didn't think they were anything special I think teams get hyped up by Sky etc but to be honest I don't fear many this season.

[toooldforthis]

Anyone can beat anyone in this league on the day. It's mainly a league of errors or mistakes. We have a very good back four.  Strength in Lees, class in Borner and speed in Iorfa. Teams can't knock it beyond us, over us or through us. Our two full backs are very competent and know their job. We have experience and quality in midfield and up front.

 

There are no stand out teams in this league. If we can maintain this consistency and beat Leeds away, we can catch them.

 

It'll only be avoidable mistakes that will prevent us or anyone else this season. We're doing well. We were much better than BC today...it wasn't because they were poor, we just played better than them.

[Nero]

36 minutes ago, Anlaby Owl said:

I really do think the emergence of lots of foreign managers has put far more emphasis on playing style than it has results.  Monk (much to my surprise and delight) seems to be one of very few who have their priorities right.  We are stretching teams using our width and by using bannan as a sort of fulcrum (quickly pinging balls this way then that) the opposition aren't able to narrow the play either latterally or in terms of depth.  This style also means that our back line arent being overloaded because of the speed with which we are capable of getting the ball into dangerous positions, teams are now frightened to do this.  (compare this with carlos last year).  It is actually making our back line look more accomplished than they otherwise might. 

A couple of other things ive noticed.  Fletcher seems more aggressive this year (not so much the gentleman) and the keepers distribution has been scrutinised and probably 'managed'.

Theres absolutely no doubt in my mind that we are now generally playing to a plan that opposing sides really don't like playing against. 

Great post!

[VBQ24]

Agreed, most teams seem poor but you can only beat what's put in front of you on the day. 

[Prutton Away]

Years ago when "they" got to the play offs i watched "them" play Ipswich. "They" won 2-0 without really playing well, it was basically a given organised win. Be organised, in this league, as described at the start of the thread, or  as Sammy H said really early on in the season,"know" how to grind a win out and you will go along way in this league.

[SiJ]

Regardless of the quality, I'd argue that the Championship, relatively speaking, is the hardest division in this country and by a distance. 

 

Anyone who manages to get themselves promoted or close to promoted has more than earned their stripes. Tough as nails this division. 

[owls7]

Maybe it's the standard of our team I need to worry about after the last few games.

[Hack-Abusi]

On 23/12/2019 at 01:01, SiJ said:

Regardless of the quality, I'd argue that the Championship, relatively speaking, is the hardest division in this country and by a distance. 

 

Anyone who manages to get themselves promoted or close to promoted has more than earned their stripes. Tough as nails this division. 

This season mind it's been dogga apart from leeds and West Brom ...