Standard of the Championship - Has it got worse?

[AnstonBlade1]

We’ve just played crap for three games running and look where we are.
Infact I can’t remember a game where we’ve played well for a long time.

 

[FredZeppelin]

It's definitely poorer....and, for me, much less exciting.

As I've previously said, I've stopped going a few weeks ago. I'm busy with other things at the moment anyway but I'm just not motivated to go at all. I never thought I'd say that but here we are and I'm not really missing going at all. I'm sure its different for the majority though, who make a day of it and meet freind before and after the match and I get that.

Most teams are poor except Leeds, who look like they are going to run away with the title now. Some teams are just solid and dull (Burnley and us for the early part of the season) and we have been poor and largely dull to watch for the most part (imo). Does anyone really know what our tactics and game plan is, even at this stage of the season??

The whole experience has just got slightly depressing, boring and bit predictable. I've thought that maybe it's me, but I'm happy in general with life.

Oh, for the days of 'overlapping centre backs' and exciting games. Oh well.

utb

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

I still think the playoffs should be 6th plays 5th on 5th’s ground, winner plays 4th on 4th’s ground and 3rd is already in the final and isn’t knackered.

This. 100%. They do something similar in Italian Serie B.

 

[Sheffsteel]

No it's always been pretty shit with a smattering of youngsters and loans increasing quality slightly.

It's unwatchable as a neutral

Agree…..I’m sure every single year…..fans say “is this the worse standard Championship ever”.

People say they love the Championship but compared to the Premier league it’s really crap and as you say almost unwatchable….it’s almost like a different sport.
People are forgetting we were in the PL last season….so of course Blades will be shocked at the comparative low standard.

Where as Portsmouth fans, who are used to league 1 football, think the standard is really high.

 

[Sheffsteel]

We’ve just played crap for three games running and look where we are.
Infact I can’t remember a game where we’ve played well for a long time.

Norwich City about 4 weeks back…..we had Hamer in the middle and we were impressive in that match.
However to be honest Norwich made the game easy…..for some reason they didn’t seem interested in attacking us.
Their instructions appeared to be….just keep possession and don’t even try to score.

 

[GymClassHero]

It's always a poor standard when United are in it. We're so lucky

This notion of it being a 'weak league this year' gets trotted out, without fail, every time we are challenging for autos

Tbh I hear this statement from Championship fans every year!

The league is no weaker this season than any other IMO. You do get the odd season where it's particularly strong if one or two more 'established' PL teams drop, other than that it's the same.

 

[Balham]

This. 100%. They do something similar in Italian Serie B.

The National League (and its north/south feeder divisions) has something similar: 2nd plays the winner of 4th vs 7th; 3rd plays the winner of 5th vs 6th at the higher placed team's ground then the final is at a neutral ground.

 

[Brighton Blade]

So we've somehow managed to keep ourselves in 2nd for most of the season. We've often looked poor, but by and large the opposition has often looked equally poor, if not worse. (Though Hull and Portsmouth both impressed despite being lower down the league). Does anyone think possibly the overall standard of the Championship has dropped this season? And if so, is it a one-off or more of a clear trend?

I have often thought we have looked very poor but gotten away with it as we basically are less shit than the shit around us. If we go up, I expect worse than last season.

 

[S40BLADE]

I think football as a whole has gotten poorer quality over the last decade and even though im a numbers and tactics nerd this system driven football derived from peps style of play is slowly killing any pace, physicality and individual expression that once made the game so exciting. #BringRonaldinhoTekkersBack

 

[Massive Attackers]

Rule change to 5 subs + 10 minutes added time.

Prem clubs can keep top cham/average prem players happy as they have loads of minutes to share around.

 

[Badger Blade]

I think football in general has just got worse to watch over the last 5 years. It might just be me, but I think part of it is the “Pep effect” and this new cult of football statistics driving absolutely everything has made a lot of games boring.

There's not that much football that I'll bust a gut to watch now. I watched the back end of City v Madrid last night only after seeing a holding ad when I turned the TV on and was a better option than Celebrity Gogglebox that Mrs B was watching and was glad that City got beat again.

The whole Pep thing is flavour of the month like so many things in football are where there are various fads that come and go from sweepers, tiki taka, zonal marking, gegenpress to the old fashioned 4-4-2. Hopefully everyone copying Pep will soon come to an end because his team look like a shadow of themselves, bracing for whatever punishment is heading their way.

I much prefer the cut and thrust of the game in the 90's/00's. As much as they cheated and intimidated, Fergie's Man Utd team were a bloody good watch, playing direct forward-looking football rather than all this passing along the back 4 ad nauseum. Same with Wenger's Arsenal team around the same time who were such a massive step on from the sort of turgid rubbish that George Graham's team served up and then served up again at Leeds.

What annoys me most is teams copying all this passing in the 6 yard box when there are plenty of centre backs, even at Championship level, who can barely trap a bag of cement never mind turn and hit a 40 yard pinpoint Norwood ping. Norwich were the prime example of this - they were like the lad who turns up to a cricket match in over a grands worth of gear and gets bowled first ball.

 

[Cheeky Blade]

Same question every season for awhile now.

Premiere league has got much better, Championship is still as hard as ever to get out of.

 

[Swannyblade]

At present, there's a lot of talent concentrated in the Premier League in bloated squads and academies.
Teams can afford to have large squads with players that rarely get a sniff of the first team and the players, despite their lack of playing time, are reluctant to drop down the leagues because the clubs can't come close to matching their wages.
Premier League academies hoover up all the local young talent that once might have broken through into senior football at lower level clubs. Even when they do develop their own talent, the bigger clubs are happy to snap them up and pay the tribunal fee.
There's a growing inequality in football and I can't see it changing any time soon.
What seems a bit different about England is that through the eye watering amount of TV rights money the Prem clubs receive, the gulf seems to be between the top league and the rest. Whereas in the rest of Europe, the gap seems to be between the "elite" teams who regularly qualify for the Champions League and the rest. I think that's why we're now seeing the promoted teams really struggle to bridge the gap to the Prem.

 

[bladesince64]

The way that the sport has developed over the last few years is that football clubs are now operated primarily as a business rather than a sport/entertainment event which means that the revenues are so ridiculously high for the elite PL clubs and the rest are at a huge disadvantage when trying to achieve any traction.

The fans/supporters are now irrelevant.

 

[ancientblade]

definetly worse it has to be for wednesday to be sat in 11th if it was a better quality championship we wouldnt be in top 6 and wednesday would be in a relegation battle

 

[Numpty's Dusty Ruts.]

There's not that much football that I'll bust a gut to watch now. I watched the back end of City v Madrid last night only after seeing a holding ad when I turned the TV on and was a better option than Celebrity Gogglebox that Mrs B was watching and was glad that City got beat again.

The whole Pep thing is flavour of the month like so many things in football are where there are various fads that come and go from sweepers, tiki taka, zonal marking, gegenpress to the old fashioned 4-4-2. Hopefully everyone copying Pep will soon come to an end because his team look like a shadow of themselves, bracing for whatever punishment is heading their way.

I much prefer the cut and thrust of the game in the 90's/00's. As much as they cheated and intimidated, Fergie's Man Utd team were a bloody good watch, playing direct forward-looking football rather than all this passing along the back 4 ad nauseum. Same with Wenger's Arsenal team around the same time who were such a massive step on from the sort of turgid rubbish that George Graham's team served up and then served up again at Leeds.

What annoys me most is teams copying all this passing in the 6 yard box when there are plenty of centre backs, even at Championship level, who can barely trap a bag of cement never mind turn and hit a 40 yard pinpoint Norwood ping. Norwich were the prime example of this - they were like the lad who turns up to a cricket match in over a grands worth of gear and gets bowled first ball.

It pains me to say this, but Arsenal in their Wenger prime were wonderful to watch, and they knew that one of the primary objectives of professional football is to entertain. This, and the idea of keeping your most loyal fans (the ones in the ground) happy, appears to be a secondary consideration to winning at all costs, and amassing shitloads more money. Sadly it sort of reflects the world we live in.

 

[BerksBlade]

Better quality in the PL obviously, but for me the Championship has traditionally delivered more entertaining football. Partly because there are more mistakes leading to incidents, and partly because it's been a competitive league - very few games were foregone conclusions. I say "were" because this seems to have changed in the last 2-3 years - the gap between top and bottom is widening.

 

[CPB]

I feel like the standard is fairly similar for the past several seasons.
But you get some seasons with better sides or quality in them than others.

We are in a position that when we haven't played well we've still been picking up points because we have some quality on the pitch. We actually haven't been greater than the sum of our parts this season very often at all. Unlike 18-19.

Leeds are in my opinion looking the real deal right now. Squad is probably about the best in quality and their play is also about the best.

Us and Burnley are similar in that we have quality but not always the performance.

Back to main topic though what has gone up in quality is the PL. But probably not the quality of team. More so all the fine margins are finer. Is for instance Liverpool or City in 2019 better than the versions now. (Well in citys case yes) But you get my drift.

I just think that fitness, and efficiency of play is now so fine tuned in the PL that it plays a bigger part. And to achieve that big pockets are needed from a champ to Pl jump.

But it's that age old question

 

[loyalblade95]

Don't think it's a great Championship this year, especially when it comes to squad quality.

You've got us, Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland at the top (the four best teams with probably the best squads overall).

Then you've got the good playoff chasers like WBA, Middlesbrough, Blackburn and Norwich, whose form has been up and down all season but they're dangerous teams on their day.

Portsmouth probably don't get enough praise for how well they've done this season, they have a good home record and are quite good against the top 6, Mousinho is a good up and coming manager, and they've recruited smartly to an already good squad, same with Oxford.

 

[metalblade]

The standards haven't got worse just the tactics, far too many teams are trying to play like Man City without the players that are capable of playing that way. This pissing about in you own penalty area is rubbish to watch and leads to pressing teams getting soft goals. Keepers hardly ever boot the ball over the halfway line for the forwards to have a physical battle with defenders which has lead to the game being soft as with very little contact other than shirt pulling and hugging each other. It's almost like most are scared to lose.

 

[Kop Cat]

worse,its shite

 

[georgebernardshaw]

It’s the worst standard league ever if you’re doing well, the hardest league ever when you’re getting relegated into it. Same story every year!

Old saying: “You can only play the cards you’re dealt”

 

[FinchleyBlade]

It's very poor. The fact that we are 2nd despite playing so poorly for most of the season is proof of this.

 

[blade too long]

Of course CHAMPIONSHIP teams quality is diminishing , its not rocket science
when I started watching in the sixties it literally was 11 v 11 and all clubs had 2 or 3 quality players
of course now those that were spread around EVENLY AT all club are bench warmers , players 12 to 18 at top prem clubs
any talent at say our club , or any championship club that has promise is surgically removed , even teams like bournemouth asset stripping less well off clubs of any gems. so instead of 20 teams with 14 or 15 tops to choose from now have 25 to 40 on staff.. so 300 top division players is now 500 plus
and the championship is light 200 or so players with quality

parachute payments are to stop clubs going bankrupt after severely having to raise a clubs wage bill ,,,,nothing else
not a failure payment as owls say , but to stop what had happened teams getting relegated and running up immense debts due to enhanced contracts

leeds bolton charlton saints , and others all either went into admin as a result of being forced to pay more

some clubs , as luton are proving cant even make ends meet with parachute payments