Matchdays 13 & 14 Ayew Wrecks’em and Preston Pecked!

[ucandomagic]

6 points in 5 days, I’ll drink to that, and we are now solidifying our playoff credentials.

Very sound against Wrexham – I thought Ayew was outstanding – held the ball up well, pressed high and really hard, and his saved effort created BBD’s winner. Speaking of pressing high and hard – Rom has turned into Cal O’Hare off the ball, a Yorkshire Terrier snapping at your heels and never letting up.

Against Preston – it was a good game to have to miss Kitching – as our creaky, leaky central defence would have been easy meat to a decent side. Sydie stepped up in Kal’s absence – him and Kalvin are clearly our best midfield pair. Rom down the left is now his proven best position – and with his high pressing he is on another level. If we had a right-footed equivalent for the right wing we would stretch teams wide to breaking point – Chong is just physically too weak and has to cut inside to trouble all the time.

Remember, that based on the last decade, I am taking a 92 points target for Automatics, a 70 points target for 8th (playoffs) and an 81 points target for 4th (playoff semis). My pre-season Blades forecast was to get that 8th place with 70 points. I’m showing the first 15 fixtures on the graphs at the moment, so that the difference between the lines is visible. Graph 1 plots our progress against those promotion targets, with my forecast for each match that will deliver those targets. After Wrexham and Preston, on 22 points from 14 games, we are right on my benchmark for 4th place!! Even I don’t believe that we are a 4th placed team at the moment – our stats are bottom half – but good results breed better confidence which breeds better results. I still think we’ll finish 8th.

Graph 1:



Graph 2 is the comparison with our last 2 seasons – and with 22 points we are now a huge 13 points ahead of last season, and 8 points behind Wilder’s 92 point season in 24/25.

Graph 2:



The League Table shows us in 9th place, level on points with 8th. The table highlights the point that our current position is probably flattering our performances. If you look at the colours on the table we have taken 20 points from 8 games against teams in the bottom 11 – and 2 points from 6 games against teams in the top 12. So from that you’d expect us to be around 12th rather than 9th, but as John Harvey-Jones once said to me “always shoot for the stars, but with your feet on the ground”!

League Table:


Charlton away on Saturday. I don’t like Nathan Jones – a bit of a Parkinson type of character – jumping on the dugout roof away at Burnley was totally classless. They’ve had some surprising results, as well as bad ones though, and I’m very glad Kitching will be back.

UTB & Slava Ukraini!

 

[Revolution]

That chart makes us look like a bunch of rabbit killers.

record v 12th or above: W0 D2 L4
record v 13th or below: W6 D2 L0

It strongly suggests a mid table finish to me.

 

[cahill]

6 points in 5 days, I’ll drink to that, and we are now solidifying our playoff credentials.

Very sound against Wrexham – I thought Ayew was outstanding – held the ball up well, pressed high and really hard, and his saved effort created BBD’s winner. Speaking of pressing high and hard – Rom has turned into Cal O’Hare off the ball, a Yorkshire Terrier snapping at your heels and never letting up.

Against Preston – it was a good game to have to miss Kitching – as our creaky, leaky central defence would have been easy meat to a decent side. Sydie stepped up in Kal’s absence – him and Kalvin are clearly our best midfield pair. Rom down the left is now his proven best position – and with his high pressing he is on another level. If we had a right-footed equivalent for the right wing we would stretch teams wide to breaking point – Chong is just physically too weak and has to cut inside to trouble all the time.

Remember, that based on the last decade, I am taking a 92 points target for Automatics, a 70 points target for 8th (playoffs) and an 81 points target for 4th (playoff semis). My pre-season Blades forecast was to get that 8th place with 70 points. I’m showing the first 15 fixtures on the graphs at the moment, so that the difference between the lines is visible. Graph 1 plots our progress against those promotion targets, with my forecast for each match that will deliver those targets. After Wrexham and Preston, on 22 points from 14 games, we are right on my benchmark for 4th place!! Even I don’t believe that we are a 4th placed team at the moment – our stats are bottom half – but good results breed better confidence which breeds better results. I still think we’ll finish 8th.

Graph 1:
View attachment 246619


Graph 2 is the comparison with our last 2 seasons – and with 22 points we are now a huge 13 points ahead of last season, and 8 points behind Wilder’s 92 point season in 24/25.

Graph 2:
View attachment 246620


The League Table shows us in 9th place, level on points with 8th. The table highlights the point that our current position is probably flattering our performances. If you look at the colours on the table we have taken 20 points from 8 games against teams in the bottom 11 – and 2 points from 6 games against teams in the top 12. So from that you’d expect us to be around 12th rather than 9th, but as John Harvey-Jones once said to me “always shoot for the stars, but with your feet on the ground”!

League Table:
View attachment 246622

Charlton away on Saturday. I don’t like Nathan Jones – a bit of a Parkinson type of character – jumping on the dugout roof away at Burnley was totally classless. They’ve had some surprising results, as well as bad ones though, and I’m very glad Kitching will be back.

UTB & Slava Ukraini!

We owe Charlton one after two dubious first half sendings off last season. Hope Tanganga is up for it.

Agree about their manager he’s easy to dislike

 

[CPB]

That chart makes us look like a bunch of rabbit killers.

record v 12th or above: W0 D2 L4
record v 13th or below: W6 D2 L0

It strongly suggests a mid table finish to me.

It's why it's important we do pick up points on the teams below too.

But the barometer has to be made basically by about Christmas.

As by then we will have played, Southampton, West Ham, Burnley, QPR and then Boro on boxing day.

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

That chart makes us look like a bunch of rabbit killers.

record v 12th or above: W0 D2 L4
record v 13th or below: W6 D2 L0

It strongly suggests a mid table finish to me.

This is the issue with current Wilder & we had the same in 24/25 we don’t pick up points in the tougher games

 

[bladesince64]

Think we will best Burnley and Qpr and hopefully get a draw maybe from West Ham, Southampton (Boro no)

 

[unitedbhoy]

6 points in 5 days, I’ll drink to that, and we are now solidifying our playoff credentials.

Very sound against Wrexham – I thought Ayew was outstanding – held the ball up well, pressed high and really hard, and his saved effort created BBD’s winner. Speaking of pressing high and hard – Rom has turned into Cal O’Hare off the ball, a Yorkshire Terrier snapping at your heels and never letting up.

Against Preston – it was a good game to have to miss Kitching – as our creaky, leaky central defence would have been easy meat to a decent side. Sydie stepped up in Kal’s absence – him and Kalvin are clearly our best midfield pair. Rom down the left is now his proven best position – and with his high pressing he is on another level. If we had a right-footed equivalent for the right wing we would stretch teams wide to breaking point – Chong is just physically too weak and has to cut inside to trouble all the time.

Remember, that based on the last decade, I am taking a 92 points target for Automatics, a 70 points target for 8th (playoffs) and an 81 points target for 4th (playoff semis). My pre-season Blades forecast was to get that 8th place with 70 points. I’m showing the first 15 fixtures on the graphs at the moment, so that the difference between the lines is visible. Graph 1 plots our progress against those promotion targets, with my forecast for each match that will deliver those targets. After Wrexham and Preston, on 22 points from 14 games, we are right on my benchmark for 4th place!! Even I don’t believe that we are a 4th placed team at the moment – our stats are bottom half – but good results breed better confidence which breeds better results. I still think we’ll finish 8th.

Graph 1:
View attachment 246619


Graph 2 is the comparison with our last 2 seasons – and with 22 points we are now a huge 13 points ahead of last season, and 8 points behind Wilder’s 92 point season in 24/25.

Graph 2:
View attachment 246620


The League Table shows us in 9th place, level on points with 8th. The table highlights the point that our current position is probably flattering our performances. If you look at the colours on the table we have taken 20 points from 8 games against teams in the bottom 11 – and 2 points from 6 games against teams in the top 12. So from that you’d expect us to be around 12th rather than 9th, but as John Harvey-Jones once said to me “always shoot for the stars, but with your feet on the ground”!

League Table:
View attachment 246622

Charlton away on Saturday. I don’t like Nathan Jones – a bit of a Parkinson type of character – jumping on the dugout roof away at Burnley was totally classless. They’ve had some surprising results, as well as bad ones though, and I’m very glad Kitching will be back.

UTB & Slava Ukraini!

We have to maximise points against Charlton and Watford because the real test is Southampton onwards.

As your chart shows we are fine against the shit of the division. Hopefully we've turned a corner and can start picking up some points against the better teams otherwise we will be bottom third come Christmas

 

[metalblade]

6 points in 5 days, I’ll drink to that, and we are now solidifying our playoff credentials.

Very sound against Wrexham – I thought Ayew was outstanding – held the ball up well, pressed high and really hard, and his saved effort created BBD’s winner. Speaking of pressing high and hard – Rom has turned into Cal O’Hare off the ball, a Yorkshire Terrier snapping at your heels and never letting up.

Against Preston – it was a good game to have to miss Kitching – as our creaky, leaky central defence would have been easy meat to a decent side. Sydie stepped up in Kal’s absence – him and Kalvin are clearly our best midfield pair. Rom down the left is now his proven best position – and with his high pressing he is on another level. If we had a right-footed equivalent for the right wing we would stretch teams wide to breaking point – Chong is just physically too weak and has to cut inside to trouble all the time.

Remember, that based on the last decade, I am taking a 92 points target for Automatics, a 70 points target for 8th (playoffs) and an 81 points target for 4th (playoff semis). My pre-season Blades forecast was to get that 8th place with 70 points. I’m showing the first 15 fixtures on the graphs at the moment, so that the difference between the lines is visible. Graph 1 plots our progress against those promotion targets, with my forecast for each match that will deliver those targets. After Wrexham and Preston, on 22 points from 14 games, we are right on my benchmark for 4th place!! Even I don’t believe that we are a 4th placed team at the moment – our stats are bottom half – but good results breed better confidence which breeds better results. I still think we’ll finish 8th.

Graph 1:
View attachment 246619


Graph 2 is the comparison with our last 2 seasons – and with 22 points we are now a huge 13 points ahead of last season, and 8 points behind Wilder’s 92 point season in 24/25.

Graph 2:
View attachment 246620


The League Table shows us in 9th place, level on points with 8th. The table highlights the point that our current position is probably flattering our performances. If you look at the colours on the table we have taken 20 points from 8 games against teams in the bottom 11 – and 2 points from 6 games against teams in the top 12. So from that you’d expect us to be around 12th rather than 9th, but as John Harvey-Jones once said to me “always shoot for the stars, but with your feet on the ground”!

League Table:
View attachment 246622

Charlton away on Saturday. I don’t like Nathan Jones – a bit of a Parkinson type of character – jumping on the dugout roof away at Burnley was totally classless. They’ve had some surprising results, as well as bad ones though, and I’m very glad Kitching will be back.

UTB & Slava Ukraini!

Not hard to see that we are only beating the crap of the Championship apart from two draws every team in the top half has beat us which says to me we will finish outside the play off places unless we can bring in better players in January, I will not hold my breath on that one.

 

[Uganda Blade]

Not hard to see that we are only beating the crap of the Championship apart from two draws every team in the top half has beat us which says to me we will finish outside the play off places unless we can bring in better players in January, I will not hold my breath on that one.

Hang on. Of the teams above us, we've lost to Stoke and Wolves, and those games were before the international break and, arguably, could have gone either way on another day.
Of the other teams in the top half, we've lost to Portsmouth (when Hamza was sent off in the first half) and Norwich (before the international break).
We are, I think, fifth in the last-six form table. Four points before the next break will set us up nicely for what is, admittedly, a daunting run to the end of December.
But it seems to me that things are on the up. Field our strongest XI in that run and we should be competitive.

 

[Millhousesblade1889]

This is the issue with current Wilder & we had the same in 24/25 we don’t pick up points in the tougher games

Just to add to this, I do think this contributes towards why our home crowd are flat & away attendances are poor

It’s that mid table pessimism, we all remember that sunny day vs Villa where we beat them 4-1 at home 18/19 season. We turned up expecting to beat them & if you look back at their 11 it was probably better than most sides in this current division.

 

[SwissBlade]

Hang on. Of the teams above us, we've lost to Stoke and Wolves, and those games were before the international break and, arguably, could have gone either way on another day.
Of the other teams in the top half, we've lost to Portsmouth (when Hamza was sent off in the first half) and Norwich (before the international break).
We are, I think, fifth in the last-six form table. Four points before the next break will set us up nicely for what is, admittedly, a daunting run to the end of December.
But it seems to me that things are on the up. Field our strongest XI in that run and we should be competitive.

We drew with now 2nd placed Birmingham on the opening day. We also drew away at Swansea and they seemed there for the taking as well, but in both those draws we never looked like scoring, really. They were "flying" at that time. Looking back, with them also still 4th, it was a decent result with the side we had.

I don't for a second think that with Southampton, QPR and West Ham all to come in the next month after the international break that we'll still be sat optimistically looking at a 4pt gap to 2nd on 4th December. However, I do think credit where its due, despite looking really shit in some games, we've managed to get some decent results. We're picking up wins against sides we'd be expected to beat, the draw against Derby stands out as a should've won, Stoke, perhaps should've drawn. Bolton, we were perhaps lucky to get the late winner.

Its all subjective, but as you pointed out, with our strongest side, now, we're competitive. We're more competitive now than before the first international break, but so are a lot of other sides. The summer was a strange one for most clubs, the world cup running so late didn't help many clubs to have a strong start

 

[Akrotiri_Blades]

This is the issue with current Wilder & we had the same in 24/25 we don’t pick up points in the tougher games

Very true but in 24/25 could have lost both times to Leeds & Burnley as long as we would have won our "easy" games at home to Oxford, Millwall, Blackburn and away at Plymouth, those fixtures were 11 points dropped and although it's difficult to say we should win them all, those with that team that season should have won and we would have won the league on 101. Although last night defensively against the vast majority in the league we draw or lose that match.

 

[Carlton Blade]

That chart makes us look like a bunch of rabbit killers.

record v 12th or above: W0 D2 L4
record v 13th or below: W6 D2 L0

It strongly suggests a mid table finish to me.

16 points from the last 30 matches against teams in the top half.

Going back to include the 24/25 season it's only 54 points in 54 matches.

 

[ThirdGenBlade]

Thought-provoking as ever GraphMan.

It’s interesting to read the fluctuating reactions on here, as individual matches come and go. Looking at your graphs - from Match 1 to Match 14 we have always been around an 8th placed team who might aspire to being a bit higher.

I think recruiting Kitching and developing Donovan from boy to man, the way we developed McAtee, will be the basis of an increasingly successful season.

UTB & FTP!