ucandomagic
Well-Known Member
I waited to post this so that I had an up-to-date league table after the BellEnd Road Colosseum massacre of the Wendy Innocents by the Dark-Side Farkers!
I had the feeling that our game was going to go well when I gave a motivational fist-pump towards BBD as I went to my seat, and he gave me a very happy thumbs up in response.
What followed was a highly professional, mainly stress-free victory. I felt with Norwich that they were a quality squad being managed by somebody who put performance above results – persistently playing out from the back and putting possession above penetration!
With Cooper and Burrows we have a calmness at the back alongside the athleticism of Anel. Gus and Cal provide a perpetual motion engine and the prospect of a pair of clinical new TC’s up front is mouth-watering. I also really think that Femi has the attitude and ability to become another Kyle Walker. A contribution by goal-line technology and a clinical penalty a bit later and the job was basically a good’un. I just wish that Gus’s 50-yarder could have beaten the Gunn!
So, moving on to the graphs, which show the great position that we are in.
Graph 1 compares our progress against 3 benchmark sets of results which represent Automatic Promotion, Playoff Certainty and Playoff Possibility. My benchmarks take account of who our opponents are each week. On 55 points, comparing to my benchmarks, we are 2 points ahead of my Autos Promotion schedule – and that is with our 2 point deduction. (It’s also good to see the yellow line of piss slipping below the Playoff Possible line in Graph 1!)
Graph 1:
Graph 2 compares this season against our last 3 successful promotions from this level (all in second place), in 2005/06, 2018/19 and 2022/23. On 55 points after 27 games (with the 2-point deduction) we are 5 points ahead of the 50 points that we had under Wilder in 18/19, 1 ahead of Hecky in 22/23 and still only 4 points behind Warnock in 05/06. ( We got 6 points from 8 games later on in 05/06, so that season is still very beatable)
So we are still 5 points ahead of our great 18/19 season with a 2-point deduction.
Graph 2:
Next, the coloured annotated up-to-date League Table, which highlights where our strengths and weaknesses are against opponents’ league positions. As I said before, the colours emphasise that we are only losing to teams that are having a very good season. We were top for a day and, watching the Leeds game earlier, I celebrated the 2 minute goal but must admit that I wanted the train-wreck from across the city to get a point from the game to keep us top.
League Table:
With a couple more good signings and a fair set of injuries I think we can keep this train running, and go up with the basis of a sustainable Premier League side. I’ll have a look at the XG stats and tables when all of the Championship data is in on Tuesday.
UTB & Slava Ukraini!
I had the feeling that our game was going to go well when I gave a motivational fist-pump towards BBD as I went to my seat, and he gave me a very happy thumbs up in response.
What followed was a highly professional, mainly stress-free victory. I felt with Norwich that they were a quality squad being managed by somebody who put performance above results – persistently playing out from the back and putting possession above penetration!
With Cooper and Burrows we have a calmness at the back alongside the athleticism of Anel. Gus and Cal provide a perpetual motion engine and the prospect of a pair of clinical new TC’s up front is mouth-watering. I also really think that Femi has the attitude and ability to become another Kyle Walker. A contribution by goal-line technology and a clinical penalty a bit later and the job was basically a good’un. I just wish that Gus’s 50-yarder could have beaten the Gunn!
So, moving on to the graphs, which show the great position that we are in.
Graph 1 compares our progress against 3 benchmark sets of results which represent Automatic Promotion, Playoff Certainty and Playoff Possibility. My benchmarks take account of who our opponents are each week. On 55 points, comparing to my benchmarks, we are 2 points ahead of my Autos Promotion schedule – and that is with our 2 point deduction. (It’s also good to see the yellow line of piss slipping below the Playoff Possible line in Graph 1!)
Graph 1:
Graph 2 compares this season against our last 3 successful promotions from this level (all in second place), in 2005/06, 2018/19 and 2022/23. On 55 points after 27 games (with the 2-point deduction) we are 5 points ahead of the 50 points that we had under Wilder in 18/19, 1 ahead of Hecky in 22/23 and still only 4 points behind Warnock in 05/06. ( We got 6 points from 8 games later on in 05/06, so that season is still very beatable)
So we are still 5 points ahead of our great 18/19 season with a 2-point deduction.
Graph 2:
Next, the coloured annotated up-to-date League Table, which highlights where our strengths and weaknesses are against opponents’ league positions. As I said before, the colours emphasise that we are only losing to teams that are having a very good season. We were top for a day and, watching the Leeds game earlier, I celebrated the 2 minute goal but must admit that I wanted the train-wreck from across the city to get a point from the game to keep us top.
League Table:
With a couple more good signings and a fair set of injuries I think we can keep this train running, and go up with the basis of a sustainable Premier League side. I’ll have a look at the XG stats and tables when all of the Championship data is in on Tuesday.
UTB & Slava Ukraini!
