Auto promotion chances after the JTW and recent form.

[GreasyChipBeattie]

I've had Leeds/Burnley finishing 1st/2nd pretty much all season.
Assuming Sunderland don't trouble us, I'm more confident that we can nick second now that we have strengthened, but not just because of that.
Burnley have been incredibly consistent in what they do, BUT although their defence is ridiculously well organised, their overall game plan/game management might just be their undoing.

Their last 6 results have been :

H 0-0 v Stoke
A 1-0 v Blackburn
H 0-0 v Sunderland
A 5-0 v Plymouth
H 0-0 v Leeds
A 0-0 v Pompey

No defeats, no goals conceded
Us on the other hand, have lost twice and conceded 7 goals BUT, we have collected 12 points compared to their 10.
The question is, particularly after we strengthened in the JTW (i know they have signed a couple of decent players too), even if we continue winning and losing at the same rate, will they be able to change their approach to do what they will have to do and turn draws into wins?
I suspect their 'tried and tested' system that has made them rock-solid at the back but recently resulted in relatively few wins may not have the flexibility to do so, even with their 2 new additions.
The game at Turf Moor is becoming increasingly important and could well end up being the 'decider' but, if we can open up a gap by going for the wins, we will hopefully be too far ahead by then

 

[BladeByChoice]

Don't know who they signed so can't comment but we are by far the greatest team the world has ever seen
so we win the league, and the prem next year and the champions league the year after along with a couple of cups
No Brainer UTFB.

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

I think they'll maintain their incredible defensive record but their lack of a CF signing might be their undoing, along with Parker's astonishing negativity and obsessive commitment to not conceding at all costs

We'll keep staggering along, beating most of the poorer teams, but I'd feel much more confident without the minus 2 and with a convincing Souttar replacement

I think Sunderland could well sneak into the top 2. They will outscore both us and Burnley comfortably and in Isidor have the difference making striker we both lack

 

[loyalblade95]

Unless Burnley have addressed their issue of lack of goals then I'm not too worried about them, didn't realise until Saturday that Jay Rodriguez has gone to Wrexham.

Imo, Sunderland seem to be the opposite of us in a way, while our performances are inconsistent we're still winning games, whereas Sunderland seem to perform well in most games, but don't consistently get wins which is why they seem rooted to 4th spot.

I was hoping Meslier would be the thing that costs Leeds promotion, but they are so good in front of goal that they could probably beat someone 4-3 if Meslier let in 3 howlers, or at the very least, draw the game like they did against Sunderland and Hull.

 

[ben1987]

I’m currently hoping Leeds just keep beating everyone (except us) so they take points off those around us.

We’ve got as good a chance of any of the others

 

[Tazzy]

We was standing at 2nd with a team struggling with the amount of game time they have been getting . Now we have no excuse lets kick on and win the league

 

[coaxingstar71]

I was still of the opinion I wouldn't be bothered if we missed out on autos, but now the fear that Wednesday will nick 6th place and we finish 3rd is enough motivation (or even worse, we end up playing them in the play-off final).

I'm clinging to the fact that Wilder has been here before and knows what it takes. However I suppose the other two do too. I can't see anyone catching Leeds and it will be between us and Burnley. Still a long way to go and as Wilder is always fond of saying, there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way.

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

I was still of the opinion I wouldn't be bothered if we missed out on autos, but now the fear that Wednesday will nick 6th place and we finish 3rd is enough motivation (or even worse, we end up playing them in the play-off final).

I'm clinging to the fact that Wilder has been here before and knows what it takes. However I suppose the other two do too. I can't see anyone catching Leeds and it will be between us and Burnley. Still a long way to go and as Wilder is always fond of saying, there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way.

I don't think Wednesday will be a problem to us mate.
To be fair though, I'd fancy us more in a one-off at Wembley than a 2-legged semi final affair.
When they 'go for it' they can hurt you (they've scored more than us this season) but can be got at just as easily.
My fear would be a 1 goal reverse at the Sty, and a frustrating 0-0 spoiler at the Lane.
F**kinell, my arse is twitching just thinking about it.

Edit:
Then again we might just batter them several nil.

 

[Sheffsteel]

Such a difficult question because all 4 clubs can put forward a realistic argument why they’ll finish top 2.

My view is that Leeds will finish top
And I feel we have a 66% chance of finishing 2nd, so I do expect us to be auto promoted but I’m not confident.

Leeds, Sunderland and even Middlesboro are the most expansive open attacking teams in this league.
When these teams click they are capable of beating anybody but when they don’t click and have an off day…they can drop points against anybody.

Leeds are probably the best team in the league with the best squad so I expect them to finish top
But they do have a recent history of bottling it, they only need a couple of defeats towards the end of the season and their fanbase will panic going into meltdown.
Sunderland are an exciting attacking team that prefer to play games like a game of basketball
This means the opposition will always have chances ensuring they’ll drop unlikely points.

Burnley and Sheff Utd are more of the strangling, chess match teams who know how to gain points even when having off days.
You sense that towards the end of season when the pressure is on, players become nervous so matches become more of a fight
This favours the Burnley and Sheff Utd more pragmatic style.

Burnley must have a great chance of top 2 becuase they don’t concede.
They’ve had so many 0-0 draws and you would expect it shouldn’t be too difficult to change these to 1-0 wins.
I do wonder if the Burnley manager can break out of his natural pragmatism and negativity or will the 0-0’s continue?

Regards United we’ve had a bit of a disaster in the 1st half of the season, loads of players out injured
Losing our 2 most important players (Souttar and Arblaster) for the whole season and being forced to rely on untested Academy players.
Don’t know how we did it but incredibly with a severely weakened team we’ve still found ourselves in 2nd place.
Logic suggests that with a much stronger squad both in numbers and quality, then our 2nd half of the season results must be better than the 1st half
And if this happens, we’ll finish on at least 95 points and will be promoted.

Think our promotion chances revolve heavily around the Rob Holding signing….the defence is no longer calm and solid without Souttar.
Holding comes with an impressive pedigree (far better than any of our other defenders and better than Souttar) but hardly played football at a decent level for 2 years.
Hopefully he might have Souttar effect, took him 3 games to fit in and make the defence look imperious.

 

[s20Blade]

Rotation in quality will get us over the line now IMO. Three matches in a week and a few Injurys (unless it's Hamer ) won't be a huge difference.

 

[BalticBlade]

I don't understand why people keep writing Sunderland off.

 

[Trigger Blade]

Rotation in quality will get us over the line now IMO. Three matches in a week and a few Injurys (unless it's Hamer ) won't be a huge difference.

If I read the fixtures correctly, we only have 3 more weeks with midweek fixtures (Boro, Millwall, Bristol C, all at home) then Burnley away on Easter Monday after the Saturday game v Cardiff. Other than that we’re back to one a week with an international break as well in March, so our improved and bigger squad is arriving after the fixture peak, though rotation is still a good thing.

By the way, Hamer is more likely to be out for 3 games suspended when he gets to 15 yellows in about 5 games time

 

[Sheffsteel]

I don't understand why people keep writing Sunderland off.

Probably because they play an open attractive game but this allows the opposition to have chances.
It means that at their best they are a fine team (better than us) but unlike us….Sunderland can easily drop points against the weak teams.

Agree…none of the top 4 can be written off and all have a realistic chance of the autos making this season an exciting and nervous finish.

 

[Shawy24]

Much will depend on how many Wilder selection and substitution brain farts we have to endure along the way. I fully expect at all times an attempt to shoehorn Brewster into the line up no matter what and a return to seeing if Burrows can “do a job” in midfield now and again. To be really cynical if not completely accurate, wherever the most effective position is for Hamer will not be where Wilder plays him.

 

[Stretch]

I am also not convinced that their recent acquisitions will lead to more goals.

Such a difficult question because all 4 clubs can put forward a realistic argument why they’ll finish top 2.

My view is that Leeds will finish top
And I feel we have a 66% chance of finishing 2nd, so I do expect us to be auto promoted but I’m not confident.

Leeds, Sunderland and even Middlesboro are the most expansive open attacking teams in this league.
When these teams click they are capable of beating anybody but when they don’t click and have an off day…they can drop points against anybody.

Leeds are probably the best team in the league with the best squad so I expect them to finish top
But they do have a recent history of bottling it, they only need a couple of defeats towards the end of the season and their fanbase will panic going into meltdown.
Sunderland are an exciting attacking team that prefer to play games like a game of basketball
This means the opposition will always have chances ensuring they’ll drop unlikely points.

Burnley and Sheff Utd are more of the strangling, chess match teams who know how to gain points even when having off days.
You sense that towards the end of season when the pressure is on, players become nervous so matches become more of a fight
This favours the Burnley and Sheff Utd more pragmatic style.

Burnley must have a great chance of top 2 becuase they don’t concede.
They’ve had so many 0-0 draws and you would expect it shouldn’t be too difficult to change these to 1-0 wins.
I do wonder if the Burnley manager can break out of his natural pragmatism and negativity or will the 0-0’s continue?

Regards United we’ve had a bit of a disaster in the 1st half of the season, loads of players out injured
Losing our 2 most important players (Souttar and Arblaster) for the whole season and being forced to rely on untested Academy players.
Don’t know how we did it but incredibly with a severely weakened team we’ve still found ourselves in 2nd place.
Logic suggests that with a much stronger squad both in numbers and quality, then our 2nd half of the season results must be better than the 1st half
And if this happens, we’ll finish on at least 95 points and will be promoted.

Think our promotion chances revolve heavily around the Rob Holding signing….the defence is no longer calm and solid without Souttar.
Holding comes with an impressive pedigree (far better than any of our other defenders and better than Souttar) but hardly played football at a decent level for 2 years.
Hopefully he might have Souttar effect, took him 3 games to fit in and make the defence look imperious.

Good analysis.

I would just say that whilst I completely agree about the loss of Souttar, you have rightly pointed out that we lost Blaster too, and I would add that people seem to forget that in addition we have had Souza out for a long period. So whilst the big lad at the back clearly added a significant amount to defence, he was largely aided by having a combative and tactically astute player like Souza in front of him, breaking up attacks and limiting passing lines.

That's why I think that even without a proper Souttar replacement, we are going to be much more solid now with Souza and Choudhury in there to shore things up.

We will still concede the odd goal from crosses, but I don't seen teams walking through us anymore, as they had started to do in the new year.

 

[Booker4]

We have the ability to win when no t playing great which I'm not do sre Burnley and Leeds for. I dull fancy us to win the league after the reinforcements let alone top two.

When the new players settle in I think we'll see performances improve too.

 

[BalticBlade]

Probably because they play an open attractive game but this allows the opposition to have chances.
It means that at their best they are a fine team (better than us) but unlike us….Sunderland can easily drop points against the weak teams.

Agree…none of the top 4 can be written off and all have a realistic chance of the autos making this season an exciting and nervous finish.

I'm probably jinxing it here but I think if any of the top four are going to drop away it will be Burnley.

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

I’m hoping someone comes in for the Sunderland gaffer based on his success and playing style. That may scupper them.

 

[Houston_Blade]

I don't understand why people keep writing Sunderland off.

They haven’t got us to play so they’re 3 points down for the run in already!

 

[3Cheers4Ramirez]

If we don't get top 2 we need to hope it's Sunderland who finish 2nd. They'd beat us in the play offs, because they're more fearless and expensive

Burnley on the other hand probably wouldn't even make the final. They'd draw 0-0 twice and lose on penalties. Parker would be satisfied

 

[ATL Recs]

I was still of the opinion I wouldn't be bothered if we missed out on autos, but now the fear that Wednesday will nick 6th place and we finish 3rd is enough motivation (or even worse, we end up playing them in the play-off final).

I'm clinging to the fact that Wilder has been here before and knows what it takes. However I suppose the other two do too. I can't see anyone catching Leeds and it will be between us and Burnley. Still a long way to go and as Wilder is always fond of saying, there will be plenty of twists and turns along the way.

don't worry if we finish third and them 6 we wont play them in the play off final, only the semi final

 

[Blade56]

I've had Leeds/Burnley finishing 1st/2nd pretty much all season.
Assuming Sunderland don't trouble us, I'm more confident that we can nick second now that we have strengthened, but not just because of that.
Burnley have been incredibly consistent in what they do, BUT although their defence is ridiculously well organised, their overall game plan/game management might just be their undoing.

Their last 6 results have been :

H 0-0 v Stoke
A 1-0 v Blackburn
H 0-0 v Sunderland
A 5-0 v Plymouth
H 0-0 v Leeds
A 0-0 v Pompey

No defeats, no goals conceded
Us on the other hand, have lost twice and conceded 7 goals BUT, we have collected 12 points compared to their 10.
The question is, particularly after we strengthened in the JTW (i know they have signed a couple of decent players too), even if we continue winning and losing at the same rate, will they be able to change their approach to do what they will have to do and turn draws into wins?
I suspect their 'tried and tested' system that has made them rock-solid at the back but recently resulted in relatively few wins may not have the flexibility to do so, even with their 2 new additions.
The game at Turf Moor is becoming increasingly important and could well end up being the 'decider' but, if we can open up a gap by going for the wins, we will hopefully be too far ahead by then

I admire your confidence of 2nd but fear you are talking yourself into it.

I think we could get lots of wins and draws to put us in contention but this season will come down to three double defeats to Leeds, Burnley and Middlesbrough

 

[Down the Channels]

I don't understand why people keep writing Sunderland off.

Sunderland are better than Burnley in my opinion. Between us and them for second. It will be close and I fear the 2 points will have an effect.
I think we'll go on a good run, I am not being negative. I just think Sunderland will too. Danns is a great signing for them. But we have also made some excellent signings.
As always it will come down to the results against the teams we are both expected to win.
Also nerves will kick in during the last 8 games, I back our squad to handle that better.
Exciting times after last season.

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

I admire your confidence of 2nd but fear you are talking yourself into it.

I think we could get lots of wins and draws to put us in contention but this season will come down to three double defeats to Leeds, Burnley and Middlesbrough

I don't think we will lose 2 at home and 1 away
Leeds away are a different proposition to Leeds at home.
Boro at home? Easily winnable.
Burnley got lucky against us at BDTBL and only drew 0-0 at home with Leeds, Sunderland, Stoke, Middlesborough, Derby, QPR and Preston!!

 

[Cherry Street]

People posting in this thread seem to be unaware that we've won the highest number of games in the league. Our dip in form coincides with a crippling injury crisis.

We appear to have made the signings necessary to cope. Chin up, lads.

 

[Lane Ender]

We’ve got to be honest with ourselves and admit we aren’t a good side really but we’ve ground results and won games horrible.
The football dished up is abismal and it’s only that the majority of the division is so poor that we are in this position.
There is only two players that are Premiership quality Cooper and Hamer so what’s the plan if we go up the mind boggles.

 

[mattbianco1]

No defeats, no goals conceded

Lets hope for another no goals scored tonight for them. I can see them getting 2 or 3 though unfortunately

 

[Aston max]

If we can keep the 2 points per game going we will be fine , my Leeds mate is expecting the wheels to fall off for them ( tbf most of them are as bad as us with the glass half empty ) he says their window has been uninspiring as in none !!! Like us he says they were desperate for 1/2 centre halves
I see Burnley have signed a young lad from ajax and Marcus Edwards to solve their lack of goals

 

[coaxingstar71]

don't worry if we finish third and them 6 we wont play them in the play off final, only the semi final

Perhaps it didn't read that well, but that's what I was implying.

 

[Cappy]

What the bookies are offering