This season The Championship is soo poor, anyone else agree ?I

[ScalleysDad]

I just don't understand how some people can say they prefer the championship to the premier league surely you'd rather be playing the likes of man city and liverpool to Barnsley or hull,and it must be every club ambition to pit there wits against the best

We tried "pitting our wits" last year and it did not work out very well. Before we try again and get even more humiliated we need to be that team taking the Championship apart. A way to go yet.

[Statto]

I just don't understand how some people can say they prefer the championship to the premier league surely you'd rather be playing the likes of man city and liverpool to Barnsley or hull,and it must be every club ambition to pit there wits against the best

We tried "pitting our wits" last year and it did not work out very well. Before we try again and get even more humiliated we need to be that team taking the Championship apart. A way to go yet.

In 17/18, we scored more points than anyone, even Wolves, from around this time, late October. We were "that team taking the Championship apart" for all but the first quarter of the season.

"It did not work out very well" in the PL because we had a p*** poor transfer strategy, not because we weren't good enough when we went up.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say I can't see us replicating that 17/18 run this season, and if we don't go up this year, IMO it's pretty much inevitable that the next couple of years will be a lot more challenging for us.

So if you offered me promotion this year by scraping into 6th and a fluky QPR-style win in the play-off final, I'd take that.

[bill taylors apprentice]

Quality and competitiveness (as in fighting to achieve) are two different things.
There are many more competitive teams in this league than ours.
If we can find that competitive edge and based on what I've seen of this league so far we will be top two.
But then we all know that!

[Lighthouse]

Funnily enough I prefer the competitive nature this season compared to when there a few outstanding sides. I am not sure that the quality is that much poorer. Just think more teams are good. But then that is the difference  from the Prem. We already know that only a few teams  will be fighting it out at the top. I become bored of knowing the result. Nice when anybody can win and I am still not totally convinced the quality is lesser for all that.

[RoyTund]

A comment like this has happened every year we've been in the championship. I think the overall quality is better.

[Riversider]

Are you deeming the league poor because one team isn't running away with it? Maybe collectively the league is stronger as its closer. One team doing well doesn't mean it's a stronger league, in fact I think it makes it the opposite.

Let me turn that around on you then and ask you to name two or three quality sides in The Championship this season ?
There aren't any, I think W.B.A will win the league this season, but not because they are a good team or not because they have good players, but solely because they are not as bang average as the rest
We could have been discussing QPR in second place this morning !!
As I say , I love The Championship and have no time for The Premier League whatsoever,  but nobody is going to convince me otherwise that it's a strong division this season because it simply isn't,
Clubs like WBA, Leeds, Sheff Wed, Bristol City, Preston and hopefully Fulham must be surely looking at the league this season and thinking "It's now or never"
Get it right in January and I'm convinced it can still be us.
COYSW

[Woolly Mammoth]

One thing is for sure, Fulham are not running away with it, as some on here predicted, certainly not with our defence. We have a lot of challenges ahead, and many dangerous opponents. If we can lose to the bottom two without scoring a goal against them, then we can lose to any team. Come to think of it we couldn't score against the third from bottom team, so we have problems at both ends of the pitch.
I know we are handily places 4 pts behind the leaders and two points behind second place. But there are only 5 PTs separating Fulham from 16th place.
Plenty of teams will fancy their chances of a top six place, and plenty of those teams will fancy beating us also.
We have to buck our ideas up, show more ruthlessness and strengthen our ability in the air. We have some very good individual players, but we have to turn pressure into goals with a higher tempo, and we must keep more clean sheets if we have any real ambition to finish in the top six.
We are nowhere near the finished article yet, but we are getting there, but we have to accelerate the process. Hector coming in is a big plus, but we need to beef up one or two other positions before it's too late.
Winning our home games is crucial, as we have only won two away games out of seven so far.
Of course it's still a long way to go, but the warning signs are there.

[MJG]

Are you deeming the league poor because one team isn't running away with it? Maybe collectively the league is stronger as its closer. One team doing well doesn't mean it's a stronger league, in fact I think it makes it the opposite.

Let me turn that around on you then and ask you to name two or three quality sides in The Championship this season ?
There aren't any, I think W.B.A will win the league this season, but not because they are a good team or not because they have good players, but solely because they are not as bang average as the rest
We could have been discussing QPR in second place this morning !!
As I say , I love The Championship and have no time for The Premier League whatsoever,  but nobody is going to convince me otherwise that it's a strong division this season because it simply isn't,
Clubs like WBA, Leeds, Sheff Wed, Bristol City, Preston and hopefully Fulham must be surely looking at the league this season and thinking "It's now or never"
Get it right in January and I'm convinced it can still be us.
COYSW

is there a standout team?  No
Are there a better group of teams this season? id say yes.

I think similar to the PL the quality has spread down the league, with more teams going up and coming down the quality of player is higher (they all dont run away when a team gets relegted) and more move around the other teams.

There are more 8 out of 10 teams than maybe 1 10 out of 10 and a couple of 9 out of 10's.

As I argued earlier...the quality is spread around instead of one outstanding team.

So is it easier? Maybe in the sense no team will run away with things...but you have more harder games.

[AnOldBrownie]

How does anyone tell in a season of 46 games, with only 14 games played...how good a league it is?


Sheffield United went on their "great" run last season after game #24 and they put up loses to West Brom, Leeds, Forest and Derby before that game. (All still in this weak league)

Norwich had a consistently strong year last year, yet still dropped games to Leeds, West Brom and Stoke. (All 3 still in this league)

After 34 games last year Aston Villa had 9 losses....(which included losses to Milwall and QPR)...15 draws and only just made promotion due to coming into form at the right time and winning 10 games in a row.


Let's not get this twisted.    At this time last year no one would have been calling anyone other than Norwich "great" or in form enough to definitely beat anyone currently in this league's top 10.

Not Sheffield United.  Not Aston Villa...and even Norwich had 4 losses at this time last season.

So OP,  Until the season has progressed further I'll choose to  disagree with you.

[The Rational Fan]

How does anyone tell in a season of 46 games, with only 14 games played...how good a league it is?


Sheffield United went on their "great" run last season after game #24 and they put up loses to West Brom, Leeds, Forest and Derby before that game. (All still in this weak league)

Norwich had a consistently strong year last year, yet still dropped games to Leeds, West Brom and Stoke. (All 3 still in this league)

After 34 games last year Aston Villa had 9 losses....(which included losses to Milwall and QPR)...15 draws and only just made promotion due to coming into form at the right time and winning 10 games in a row.


Let's not get this twisted.    At this time last year no one would have been calling anyone other than Norwich "great" or in form enough to definitely beat anyone currently in this league's top 10.

Not Sheffield United.  Not Aston Villa...and even Norwich had 4 losses at this time last season.

So OP,  Until the season has progressed further I'll choose to  disagree with you.

All good points, but in Norwich's next nine games they got seven wins and two draws; frankly if other teams keep Mitrovoic reasonably quiet (less than a goal a game) then I cannot see that happening.

[AnOldBrownie]

How does anyone tell in a season of 46 games, with only 14 games played...how good a league it is?


Sheffield United went on their "great" run last season after game #24 and they put up loses to West Brom, Leeds, Forest and Derby before that game. (All still in this weak league)

Norwich had a consistently strong year last year, yet still dropped games to Leeds, West Brom and Stoke. (All 3 still in this league)

After 34 games last year Aston Villa had 9 losses....(which included losses to Milwall and QPR)...15 draws and only just made promotion due to coming into form at the right time and winning 10 games in a row.


Let's not get this twisted.    At this time last year no one would have been calling anyone other than Norwich "great" or in form enough to definitely beat anyone currently in this league's top 10.

Not Sheffield United.  Not Aston Villa...and even Norwich had 4 losses at this time last season.

So OP,  Until the season has progressed further I'll choose to  disagree with you.

All good points, but in Norwich's next nine games they got seven wins and two draws; frankly if other teams keep Mitrovoic reasonably quiet (less than a goal a game) then I cannot see that happening.

My point was, did that happen anywhere before game #20 of the season? 

How about let's compare how the teams that got promoted were doing by game 15 of last season.   Did they look much better than the top 7 sides look now?

I simply don't see how anyone can say the teams in a 15 game start to a season are much poorer than 3 teams that ended the season strong a year ago after 46 games.

By game 36 people had written of Villa.

[The Rational Fan]

How does anyone tell in a season of 46 games, with only 14 games played...how good a league it is?


Sheffield United went on their "great" run last season after game #24 and they put up loses to West Brom, Leeds, Forest and Derby before that game. (All still in this weak league)

Norwich had a consistently strong year last year, yet still dropped games to Leeds, West Brom and Stoke. (All 3 still in this league)

After 34 games last year Aston Villa had 9 losses....(which included losses to Milwall and QPR)...15 draws and only just made promotion due to coming into form at the right time and winning 10 games in a row.


Let's not get this twisted.    At this time last year no one would have been calling anyone other than Norwich "great" or in form enough to definitely beat anyone currently in this league's top 10.

Not Sheffield United.  Not Aston Villa...and even Norwich had 4 losses at this time last season.

So OP,  Until the season has progressed further I'll choose to  disagree with you.

All good points, but in Norwich's next nine games they got seven wins and two draws; frankly if other teams keep Mitrovoic reasonably quiet (less than a goal a game) then I cannot see that happening.

My point was, did that happen anywhere before game #20 of the season? 

How about let's compare how the teams that got promoted were doing by game 15 of last season.   Did they look much better than the top 7 sides look now?

I simply don't see how anyone can say the teams in a 15 game start to a season are much poorer than 3 teams that ended the season strong a year ago after 46 games.

By game 36 people had written of Villa.

If this team develops real cohesion and chemistry with the players we have, then i have no doubt, aside from injuries, we will be unstoppable. If Parker turns it around in November, we can win the Championship. If Parker turns it around in December, we can get automatic promotion. If Parker turns it around in January, we can come third. If Parker turns it around February, March and April, then playoffs promotion is 50/50.