| The Championship strata! - how hard is this league and how good is the football? 09:28 - Jun 23 with 4064 views | unstableblue |
Lots of interesting debate and views expressed on the board yesterday around how tough a test our rivals will be next season and the overall challenge. And therefore how well Town will do. Also discussion of how high is the quality of football played across the Championship in comparison to the pure football McKenna is delivering.
I enjoyed the Blue Monday podcast fixture list review - worth a listen - and one key discussion was that teams are ultimately in layers of difficulty. With teams heavily parachute payment backed towards the top. And the likes of Rotherham with lesser means, or poor recent form (QPR) at the bottom.
A good way to derive these ‘strata’ is from Oddschecker and how they see the chances of promotion across the teams - consolidating multiple betting outlets thoughts… and it goes in order like this (which I’ve grouped into a view of difficulty):
Tough
Leicester
Leeds
Saints
Boro
Norwich
Watford
West Brom
Difficult
Stoke
Sunderland
(Ipswich)
Blackburn
Coventry
Millwall
Swansea
Hull
Beatable
Bristol City
Preston
Sheff Weds
Cardiff City
Huddersfield
Points A-go-go
QPR
Birmingham
Rotherham
Plymouth
Major caveats have to be managers are still being appointed and the transfer merry go round has only just began - for example Brum are predicted to be in the struggling group but they’re already buying quality and have backing.
Also there seem to be major variances to the Town fans view… for example we see Stoke as much easier than Sunderland, and given Plymouth results last season would we say they’re the easiest games we’ll get.
Positively the order given by the bookies doesn’t seem to factor in some of the turmoil around the fancied teams… Norwich feel in a state, Leicester manager greeness and squad flux, Leeds lacking someone at the helm, questionable manager at Saints, West Brom financial woe.
What does the list make you feel about our chances??
For me the ‘difficult’ strata sums up the real challenge ahead and need to further strengthen - I watched a number of games with these teams and they’d didn’t fit the TWTD narrative that Championship teams are playing League Oneesque football… with Sunderland, Coventry, Millwall, Blackburn standing out as a challenge!!
Get some home wins and away draws from that group and a good season will be had.
COYB
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| The Championship strata! - how hard is this league and how good is the football? on 11:10 - Jun 24 with 558 views | Vegtablue |
| The Championship strata! - how hard is this league and how good is the football? on 09:44 - Jun 23 by Swansea_Blue |
Don't necessarily agree with all of that. I think there's an element of judging the name with a few of them and not their current level. West Brom were woeful last season, Watford were more often than not, and too Norwich. Coventry would have been in the tough bracket and probably Blackburn. Hull were very beatable and so were Stoke. Cardiff will probably be relegation fodder, they're in a right mess.
The surprise of last year was the rise of quite a few teams who'd been average the season before. It's hard to predict who will do that next year.
Watford and Norwich have the capacity to do a lot better as they've still got a financial advantage through parachute payments, but they need to do a lot better than last year to be a threat.
Leicester will be interesting - they've been in the PL long enough and high enough to have players on big wages, so as you say could well have massive squad changes that will unsettle them. The teams that bounce back tend to be those that don't make too many changes. |
West Brom were 9th to be fair to them with positive GD, 3 points off Sunderland. Woeful in respect to not mounting a serious challenge in their post-relegation seasons maybe, rather than woeful in terms of Championship teams. Otherwise it sets our own bar very high for next season 😅 |  | | |
| The Championship strata! - how hard is this league and how good is the football? on 13:37 - Jun 24 with 499 views | tractordownsouth |
I doubt Watford will be anywhere near the top six. |  |
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| The Championship strata! - how hard is this league and how good is the football? on 13:47 - Jun 24 with 494 views | Naylorsrightboot |
| The Championship strata! - how hard is this league and how good is the football? on 08:18 - Jun 24 by ArnieM |
We need better central defenders …. |
I'm with you on this. Wolfy is too laid back and will get caught out more than once and Burgess isn't a championship defender. I have grave reservations over Edmunds. |  | | |
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