Championship Season 2020 - 2021

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

39 minutes ago, martonrover said:

Surely, it must be time for the relegation thread? ?

Jim usually starts that off, any day now I reckon.

[chaddyrovers]

16 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Four points off the drop zone and Wycombe who are third bottom just won 2-1 at Big Club.

No chance. 

Fair played to Wycombe and Ainsworth 

[G Somerset Rover]

16 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

No chance. 

Fair played to Wycombe and Ainsworth 

By the same token, absolutely zero chance we’re going up. 

[JHRover]

I'm one of those people that wasn't sucked in by an admittedly very impressive couple of wins against dreadful sides early doors. The 'brilliant start' lasted about 4-5 games and saw us peak at about 5th place for a week, since when our trajectory has been a downward one over the last 5-6 games with the exception of the Coventry win.

We could easily end up in trouble this season. I thought Sheff Wed would be a nailed on bottom 3 bet but their survival chances have rocketed after a good win and deduction reduction today. Wycombe have turned a corner with impressive results vs Watford, Wednesday and Birmingham, hitting some momentum and consistency that we are still waiting to achieve.

Sides who many look down their noses at including our manager are outperforming us. This includes Luton, Millwall and Preston. 

Sides who many on here said we had no right to expect results against e.g. Bournemouth and Watford, now dropping points against sides below us in the table.

Of course Mowbray is now armed with his raft of excuses for anyone who dares question performances and results and is able to point to the Covid issues and injuries. Ok. He has some sympathy on that front because a lot are missing. But lets not make out that we were running rampant before those players went missing or that we have ever or will ever have a situation where all these players are fit and available together or that this manager would know what to do with them all if they ever were all available. We were inconsistent to say the least when most of them were here.

Douglas, Johnson, Armstrong, Kaminski could be argued to be unfortunate absences, however Mowbray has a £12 million strike force waiting in the wings along with 2 goalkeepers just signed this summer so I'm not sure he can plead poverty on that front. The rest are injury prone or long term injuries that he has had chance to recruit replacements for. 

Folk predicting promotion or even play offs need to revise their expectations because it ain't happening under this setup. 12th to 18th was my pre-season estimate but I'm not as confident of that right now with the state of things. Shame because we've ended up with a squad of players capable of much more and it likely won't be here beyond this season.

 

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, Gavlar Somerset Rover! said:

By the same token, absolutely zero chance we’re going up. 

Good chance of getting top 6. 

[G Somerset Rover]

Just now, chaddyrovers said:

Good chance of getting top 6. 

I’ll have a charitable wager that we won’t. 

[davulsukur]

Derby lose again and now sit second bottom of the league. 

I'll be surprised if their gaffer isn't binned in the morning. 

Rooney to take over was already a rumour previously, would be a bat shit crazy decision though if they did it now.

[JHRover]

Just now, davulsukur said:

Derby lose again and now sit second bottom of the league. 

I'll be surprised if their gaffer isn't binned in the morning. 

Rooney to take over was already a rumour previously, would be a bat shit crazy decision though if they did it now.

I'd be surprised if Derby were so foolish to take such a gamble at this point. I think Cocu will be gone soon but I'd be amazed if their owner gambled on Rooney who has never struck me as manager material. 

I think it is more likely they'll end up bringing McClaren back for another spell to save them, or look abroad.

They seem to be a bit of a mess and with a big money takeover lined up can't afford to be hanging around the bottom 3.

[Stuart]

6 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Good chance of getting top 6. 

Based on what?

[martonrover]

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Based on what?

Donald Trump's method of counting.

"We were winning and in the top six, but now they are trying to steal it away from us".

Sheffield Wednesday now up to five points.

[Blue blood]

8 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Good chance of getting top 6. 

 

1 hour ago, Stuart said:

Based on what?

That Stuart is the question. And given there is "no chance" of relegation despite our form and injuries, you do wonder how these conclusions are made. 

And if the unchallengeable opinions reason comes out I may bang my head against the wall...

 

Edit I'm also not sure how someone can think there is no chance of being relegated, think we will make top six and be happy with the job the manager is doing and where we are languishing in the league...

Edited November 5, 2020 by Blue blood

[AllRoverAsia]

From being way behind us Preston are now ahead. That's a sackable offence on its own.

Mowbray''s not into a Top 6 finish,

It would mess up the Cartel.

[AllRoverAsia]

1 hour ago, Blue blood said:

 

That Stuart is the question. And given there is "no chance" of relegation despite our form and injuries, you do wonder how these conclusions are made. 

And if the unchallengeable opinions reason comes out I may bang my head against the wall...

 

Edit I'm also not sure how someone can think there is no chance of being relegated, think we will make top six and be happy with the job the manager is doing and where we are languishing in the league...

I think I have the answer but I'm pretty sure its not PC correct so best not to post,

[davulsukur]

10 hours ago, JHRover said:

I'd be surprised if Derby were so foolish to take such a gamble at this point. I think Cocu will be gone soon but I'd be amazed if their owner gambled on Rooney who has never struck me as manager material. 

I think it is more likely they'll end up bringing McClaren back for another spell to save them, or look abroad.

They seem to be a bit of a mess and with a big money takeover lined up can't afford to be hanging around the bottom 3.

Nar i don't think they will go for Rooney now, it was just paper talk a few weeks back.

[chaddyrovers]

3 hours ago, Stuart said:

Based on what?

My opinion 

[phili]

Ainsworth does seem to be learning very quickly how to operate in the Championship.

First thing he seems to have done is to sort out their defence, stopped playing so open and to make it difficult for sides to score against them.

[Hi Mack]

11 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Good chance of getting top 6. 

I just can’t see it now. I don’t see Mowbray being savvy enough to get the points on the board. The way he was going on after the Boro game you’d think we had half the u12s in the squad. That team was more than capable of beating Boro at home!

His negativity rubs off on the players and it shows. How can we go from fast flowing football to boring disjointed long ball?

under TM I think we will remain the nearly men. We are destined for a mid table finish, in my humble opinion.

[Hi Mack]

26 minutes ago, phili said:

Ainsworth does seem to be learning very quickly how to operate in the Championship.

First thing he seems to have done is to sort out their defence, stopped playing so open and to make it difficult for sides to score against them.

What is this wizardry? 

[Blue blood]

1 hour ago, chaddyrovers said:

My opinion 

I'm on his ignore list so please can someone repost. 

Having an opinion does not count as a valid reason for thinking something or make something true. An opinion needs evidence to back it up to be valid.

For example if I say Messi is a rubbish footballer or the moon is made of cheese they might be my opinion, but they are not true, valid or unchallengeable.

Same goes in this case  too. Just stating it's your opinion doesn't make it true, valid or unchallengeable especially given the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. 

So what evidence is there to suggest we will get top 6? 

[AllRoverAsia]

34 minutes ago, Blue blood said:

I'm on his ignore list so please can someone repost. 

Having an opinion does not count as a valid reason for thinking something or make something true. An opinion needs evidence to back it up to be valid.

For example if I say Messi is a rubbish footballer or the moon is made of cheese they might be my opinion, but they are not true, valid or unchallengeable.

Same goes in this case  too. Just stating it's your opinion doesn't make it true, valid or unchallengeable especially given the evidence strongly suggests otherwise. 

So what evidence is there to suggest we will get top 6? 

I admire your tenacity. Good luck with eliciting a reply ....

[LDRover]

Top 6 means nothing if we don't go up, we may as well be mid table. Top 6 is not success on it's own.

[Blue blood]

I don't think we will go down for several reasons but there is a distinct possibility of it. 

My reasons for thinking we will be safe are:

1) there is a good chance we will get better when players get back. I've said before we can't rely on this but logically of the 7+ players out at least one or two will improve us. We can't rely on all of them coming back being all guns blazing so there are question marks as to whether it will it be enough. But there should be some improvement in the team. 

2) We have battered weaker teams. If we can batter enough of the weaker teams, and we are doing that convincingly, then we should have enough points to stay up. It's not looking great against any competent team but there are a number of weak ones that we have done well against so that should see us up. 

3) Wednesday and Wycombe started late. The former are still not in positive points whilst Wycombe are only just got off the mark 6 or 7 games in. You have to think that the headstart over them means both are prime relegation candidates. These two clubs have a huge disadvantage which means there are less, certainly at least 1 less, relegation places at stake. That can only help. 

 

The big worry that makes me think we could get relegated is over complacency/relying on players to get back. This season has a bit of a 99 echo to it, especially with the injuries and overconfidence. Back then we shouldn't have gone down even with the injuries and poor management, and teaches us shouldn't isn't the wake as won't. There's a bit too much of a deja vu feeling for me to be completely comfortable even with the factors above suggestingnl that we should stay up. 

[Hasta]

Someone said the other week that the sides that have beaten us would 'definitely be in the top 6 at the end of the season", as though it was to be expected we would struggle to compete with those sides.

Since we lost to those sides, their records have all been iffy.

Forest - W1 , D3 , L1  (Failed to be Luton, Derby and Rotherham)

Ex Premier League Watford - W1 , D2 , L1 (Failed to beat Wycombe. Lost at Barnsley)

Reading - L2  (Lost to Coventry and PNE)

Swansea - D1

There's always an excuse when we aren't doing well. Always a reason to leave it for 3 / 6 / 12months.

. We needed another proper striker at the club in the summer. I said it was one of the 3 priority signings and got names like Gally and Brereton thrown back at me. If they are leading the line we will always be blunt, unless Dack somehow returns and fits into our formation at the top of his game.

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by Hasta

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Anybody else thinking that home advantage doesn't count for much these days in our league ?

[LeftWinger]

24 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Anybody else thinking that home advantage doesn't count for much these days in our league ?

Absolutely. Since football resumed after the first lockdown 36.5% of Championship matches were won by the home side compared to 36.1% by the away side. 

Rovers have managed to buck the trend somewhat by losing more away games than any of the 30 sides that have played in the Championship since then (Lost 7 out of 10 away from home).