too hard to pinpoint where we are

[blade too long]

again tonight the championship offers a set of results that defy perceptions of who's on the up

Watford after beating Stoke 4-0 lose at home to Swansea who go 6th
Stoke. get good point at Burnley who draw again
West Brom fall into bottom 3
preston keep another clean sheet
and after Norwich dropped 2 late points

we lost a game but not much ground

The Championship is not the place for predicting results

 

[Silent Blade]

again tonight the championship offers a set of results that defy perceptions of who's on the up

Watford after beating Stoke 4-0 lose at home to Swansea who go 6th
Stoke. get good point at Burnley who draw again
West Brom fall into bottom 3
preston keep another clean sheet
and after Norwich dropped 2 late points

we lost a game but not much ground

The Championship is not the place for predicting results

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

Aye
We’ve played 8 of (current) top half (top 11 to be precise)
Other 3 are (currently) 17th; 18th; 19th

No idea what tells us

 

[Bladesman]

The Championship is a marathon not a sprint.

 

[Champagneblade]

Aye
We’ve played 8 of (current) top half (top 11 to be precise)
Other 3 are (currently) 17th; 18th; 19th

No idea what tells us

That's a very good and encouraging observation.

It doesn't mean anything if you don't translate it to results but if you look at the first half of the season we have played on average 10.66. That means the remaining games of this half season are against an average placing of 15.54.

So we are top despite playing against better teams.

I'm refusing to tempt fate because a lot depends on the XI we can get on the field.

But I would certainly add if we can get Anel onto the field asap we can be confident to accumulate against supposed lesser teams though you can caveat there are some teams with capable player not meeting their billing right now. E.g. Hudds, WBA.

To the OP, great that Watford lost, having 7 points over them is very good after a quarter of the season. Also some of the thoughts I had about Burnley not being prolific in front of goal are coming true with the draws they are accumulating which is also good to see.

What is also encouraging is against the top teams we played, we thrashed Reading 4-0, pumped Blackburn 3-0 and even QPR, disappointing as it may be, if they concede possession and goal efforts on a 2 to 1 basis they'll soon slide down the league.

Hopefully Burnley and Watford continue to stutter and we can hammer it home against some of the more underperforming teams. This really has to be the time when your Sharp, Brewster, N'Diaye, Khadra make hay.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Just a shame we couldn't have got more from these last 2 home fixtures and consolidated our lead. This league is there for the taking.

UTB

 

[Snowflake]

That's a very good and encouraging observation.

It doesn't mean anything if you don't translate it to results but if you look at the first half of the season we have played on average 10.66. That means the remaining games of this half season are against an average placing of 15.54.

So we are top despite playing against better teams.

I'm refusing to tempt fate because a lot depends on the XI we can get on the field.

But I would certainly add if we can get Anel onto the field asap we can be confident to accumulate against supposed lesser teams though you can caveat there are some teams with capable player not meeting their billing right now. E.g. Hudds, WBA.

To the OP, great that Watford lost, having 7 points over them is very good after a quarter of the season. Also some of the thoughts I had about Burnley not being prolific in front of goal are coming true with the draws they are accumulating which is also good to see.

What is also encouraging is against the top teams we played, we thrashed Reading 4-0, pumped Blackburn 3-0 and even QPR, disappointing as it may be, if they concede possession and goal efforts on a 2 to 1 basis they'll soon slide down the league.

Hopefully Burnley and Watford continue to stutter and we can hammer it home against some of the more underperforming teams. This really has to be the time when your Sharp, Brewster, N'Diaye, Khadra make hay.

Are there now 26 teams in the league or am I misinterpreting your figures ? 27 given that we cannot play ourselves

 

[Torrix1889]

I can pinpoint exactly where we are......top of the league after 12 games and only 1 point worse off at the same stage than the promotion year in 2018 and a better goal difference........sadly we have probably got 3 times as many injuries....

 

[blade too long]

Are there now 26 teams in the league or am I misinterpreting your figures ? 27 given that we cannot play ourselves

the number is average position in the table not the total number of clubs

we are averaging 1st place ... be nice to maintain that

 

[Greasy Chap Butty]

We are here

 

[Aston max]

If we can keep the 2 points a game average we will be fine, I can see this being one of the lowest points totals for winning the league

 

[JJBlade]

It's easy
We are not going to play a single team all season unless they have managed to get in the top three, or are on a fantastic run

 

[HarryHaslam]

Results definitely going for us at the moment, pity we couldn’t capitalise and get the extra points this past week, if we can win at the weekend and get some good results before the WC break I can see us and Norwich pulling away, we have to stop putting in poor performances against teams we should be beating though especially at home.

 

[DronnieBlade]

We are here

View attachment 145087

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

UTB

 

[JackSUFC]

Results definitely going for us at the moment, pity we couldn’t capitalise and get the extra points this past week, if we can win at the weekend and get some good results before the WC break I can see us and Norwich pulling away, we have to stop putting in poor performances against teams we should be beating though especially at home.

Maybe in a way we needed these last two results in order to keep our feet on the ground.

Before the international break most of us were all (quite rightly) giddy with how things were going.

 

[bakeblade]

again tonight the championship offers a set of results that defy perceptions of who's on the up

Watford after beating Stoke 4-0 lose at home to Swansea who go 6th
Stoke. get good point at Burnley who draw again
West Brom fall into bottom 3
preston keep another clean sheet
and after Norwich dropped 2 late points

we lost a game but not much ground

The Championship is not the place for predicting results

Most championship games are close and can be decided by mistakes.
We've lost points recently by Bashams brain fart against Brum, and Wes/Doyle mistakes against QPR.
Conversely We've gained points against Swansea and Preston due to their mistakes.

 

[SwissBlade]

again tonight the championship offers a set of results that defy perceptions of who's on the up

Watford after beating Stoke 4-0 lose at home to Swansea who go 6th
Stoke. get good point at Burnley who draw again
West Brom fall into bottom 3
preston keep another clean sheet
and after Norwich dropped 2 late points

we lost a game but not much ground

The Championship is not the place for predicting results

Try Google maps. Or find my type app on phones as they pin point exactly where I or my device is

Hope this helps

 

[raimond]

We've a great squad, have played some lovely stuff, are top of the league and deserve to be. We've got a shitload of injuries, most specifically to all our left sided defenders, which has disrupted our balance and we've had a couple of dodgy performances the last couple of games where we've looked unbalanced and knackered. Poor old Bogle looked nowhere near match fit on Tuesday but he's committed enough to turn out.

There may be a couple more dodgy performances to come until players return but over a full season (and with a month's break), if we don't have any long term injuries or sell anyone key, we'll have bloody good fun watching a very good team hopefully get promoted.

If these performances had come out of nowhere, then worry. They haven't, they've come with injuries meaning we're unbalanced, players in unnatural positions and half fit. We'll be fine.

 

[Snowflake]

the number is average position in the table not the total number of clubs

we are averaging 1st place ... be nice to maintain that

Coincidence that the two figures total exactly 26 ?

 

[Champagneblade]

Coincidence that the two figures total exactly 26 ?

It doesn’t come to exactly 26, it comes to slightly more because there is the weighting aspect of us having played one game more against higher opposition.

The calculation was:
128/12 for the teams we played = 10.66666 recurring.

171/11 for the teams we haven’t = 15.54545 recurring.

For every position accumulated this would be 300/24 though you obviously don’t play yourself and by definition the higher up you are the lower the average of opposition.

If you are top, the average position of the opposition will be 299/23 I.e. 13.

The highest team you can play is 2nd, offset by the lowest team you can play is 24th. 24+2 = 26 then divided by 2 = 13 until you run out of teams and are left just with 13 on its own as we play an odd number of games.

The overriding point is that we’re top having played hard matches. We will play teams placed almost 5 places lower on average vs what we have faced so far. Football is not linear and anyone can beat anyone but it is an plays that we now enter a period before the World Cup of playing teams who have shown less aptitude to win and pick up points than those we have faced so far.

In short we’ve got 2 points per game from playing on the whole top half teams. That can only give us confidence now we have a period against bottom half teams.

 

[cahill]

Pleased to see Watford and Burnley slipping up. Not so much bothered about Reading.

 

[Snowflake]

It doesn’t come to exactly 26, it comes to slightly more because there is the weighting aspect of us having played one game more against higher opposition.

The calculation was:
128/12 for the teams we played = 10.66666 recurring.

171/11 for the teams we haven’t = 15.54545 recurring.

For every position accumulated this would be 300/24 though you obviously don’t play yourself and by definition the higher up you are the lower the average of opposition.

If you are top, the average position of the opposition will be 299/23 I.e. 13.

The highest team you can play is 2nd, offset by the lowest team you can play is 24th. 24+2 = 26 then divided by 2 = 13 until you run out of teams and are left just with 13 on its own as we play an odd number of games.

The overriding point is that we’re top having played hard matches. We will play teams placed almost 5 places lower on average vs what we have faced so far. Football is not linear and anyone can beat anyone but it is an plays that we now enter a period before the World Cup of playing teams who have shown less aptitude to win and pick up points than those we have faced so far.

In short we’ve got 2 points per game from playing on the whole top half teams. That can only give us confidence now we have a period against bottom half teams.

Thanks. I think I understand it now !!

 

[BladesOnToast]

Mad Championship: After tonight's game it's quite possible that the team top of the table could have a negative goal difference!!!

 

[Bladesman]

We are here

View attachment 145087

 

[VictoryBlade]

Are there now 26 teams in the league or am I misinterpreting your figures ? 27 given that we cannot play ourselves

But if we did at least thats 6 points guaranteed?

 

[Snowflake]

But if we did at least thats 6 points guaranteed?

Not with our defence !