Londoner Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 When we got up people were saying that this is the toughest championship in years....lots of big clubs some with big money etc...going to be a real test of character. However after a few weeks in I can't help but feel the league isn't as strong as first thought....mainly because of the number of sides in transition. Brentford, Blackburn, Leeds, Bolton, reading etc, are changing and it will take them time to find their feet...add to that the top end in Derby who are also struggling under a new coach. Is the league that strong? Or are there lots of big "names" going through a pretty bad patch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phileas Fogg Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 It is I think, takes a few weeks to balance out. However, there are very few teams you can be 100% will be down the bottom. Only Rotherham for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozo Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Our performances suggest we can compete at this level and none of the opponents so far have been frightening. Seeing clubs like Derby and Leeds draw every game is encouraging. We can finish top half but as we have said elsewhere, just a couple of injuries can severely disarm us. We have a few away games coming up after Burnley and I'll be intrigued to see if we can take more spoils from those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offside Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Time will tell, but my feeling is that it is quite strong. Based on the home games so far (I haven't travelled away this season yet) Brentford were very clinical and even though Leeds were very ordinary they still managed to exploit us on the counter attack. Having said that we have played some good stuff and have created lots of chances so we'll cause lots of teams problems this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 its clearly a very good league main thing you get punished for mistakes unlike League one. No team will walk away with the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Red Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Watching Cardiff v Wolves yesterday and the commentator on Sky came out with the stat that over 50% of games so far this season have been draws. Tells you everything, I think. It's a very competitive league and there's genuinely not much difference between the clubs in it. We'll win our share of games like yesterday but also lose a fair few that we might think we should win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 When we got up people were saying that this is the toughest championship in years....lots of big clubs some with big money etc...going to be a real test of character.However after a few weeks in I can't help but feel the league isn't as strong as first thought....mainly because of the number of sides in transition.Brentford, Blackburn, Leeds, Bolton, reading etc, are changing and it will take them time to find their feet...add to that the top end in Derby who are also struggling under a new coach.Is the league that strong? Or are there lots of big "names" going through a pretty bad patch.Only need to look at how many ex Prem clubs are in the league to realise how strong it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoons Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Very strong. Not one team has a 100% record. Anyone can beat anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cityexile Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 The number of draws tells me that it is competitive, rather than strong. If you start losing, it will be difficult to see where the next win comes from, if winning, everyone will seem beatable! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS3_RED Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 All i know is what I have seen and that is we were the better side against Wednesday in the first half though second half they were, we should have beat Brentford and we dominated against a Leeds side that never really tried to score apart from on the counter. We should have been three up yesterday, though they could have scored two or three in the second half. WE DESERVE TO BE HERE AND CAN HOLD OUR OWN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Very strong. Not one team has a 100% record. Anyone can beat anyone.Exactly. Would much rather follow events in the Championship as it is 100% more interesting than the Prem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid in the Riot Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Very strong. Not one team has a 100% record. Anyone can beat anyone. Anyone can beat anyone is not an illustration of strength, just means its competitive. In answer to the OP - no, it's not THAT strong. As pointed out L1 clubs coming up tend to survive for at least a season or two and as we saw last season the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth can have excellent seasons. MK Dons have already made a very good start this season and us and PNE will stay up comfortably I think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marmite Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Of course its a strong league with lots of ex Prem clubs in it. I think we will be able to hold our own this year but we wont get away with the cavalier approach we played with last season. If we play to far up the field we will get punished quickly for our mistakes and we will not find defences so easy to breach this season. We wont score as freely this term. About 15th would be good for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Anyone can beat anyone is not an illustration of strength, just means its competitive.Isn't that one of the same ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Of course its a strong league with lots of ex Prem clubs in it. I think we will be able to hold our own this year but we wont get away with the cavalier approach we played with last season. If we play to far up the field we will get punished quickly for our mistakes and we will not find defences so easy to breach this season. We wont score as freely this term. About 15th would be good for me.Hard to disagree with that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoons Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Anyone can beat anyone is not an illustration of strength, just means its competitive. In answer to the OP - no, it's not THAT strong. As pointed out L1 clubs coming up tend to survive for at least a season or two and as we saw last season the likes of Brentford and Bournemouth can have excellent seasons. MK Dons have already made a very good start this season and us and PNE will stay up comfortably I think...I personally think its a strong league. Teams coming up tend to do well because of the surprise element. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 For me it is a very strong league. If we take to it I don't think we were overegging the difficulty of the league but understating the quality that does run through our team. Burns and Reid are threatening to become prime examples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBrizzleRobin Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 While its a very competitive league its not as strong as some believe. Theres probably 3-4 very strong teams for this league, outside of that its pretty much of muchness and rather even, people just seem to go "they've just been in the prem recently and have loads of money, so they must be really good". Despite all the money thown around it hasn't improved a whole lot since we were last here, personally I think the money has grown far quicker in this league than overall quality. Every year generally 2 out of the 3 promoted teams do well which should tell you something. Generally the bottom 3-4 teams aren't any better than League One standard from what I've seen from our last stint here (yes, including us). I do find it strange that after a 6 year stint in this league which only ended 2 seasons ago people seem to forgotten what it was like, most agreed then that it was very competitve rather than strong and it still is now. We have nothing to fear in this league, we've got a good team, just need a little faith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid in the Riot Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Isn't that one of the same ? I don't think so, Tone. The bottom division at Goals down Filton might be competitive ie anyone can beat anyone - doesn't mean the standard of football is anything other than piss poor. The facts as I see them suggest that there isn't a huge gulf in quality between the top teams in L1 and a fair bit of the C'ship. There are a lot of big ex-Prem clubs, yes. But many of them have been treading water in this league for years ie Forest, Wednesday, Leeds. I haven't seen anything in this league so far that makes me think we'll struggle massively. Largely, we've been unlucky and the architects of our own downfall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pongo88 Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 You can't read too much into the first month of the season but.......Brentford didn't look particularly good until City played with 10 men. Leeds looked decidedly average until some kamikaze style defending by City. And this is City playing with basically the same squad as last season. With a couple of additional signings, I don't think we have anything to fear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
downendcity Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Hard to disagree with that Give OTIB enough time Tone and there's plenty will prove you wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
REDOXO Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Couple of interesting points in this thread! The league is competitive of that there is no doubt and mistakes will be punished at a a much higher ratio than in L1 of that there is no doubt also. Is it strong? time will tell how good some are and I guess tht the league will eventually shape up as three mini leagues, bottom, middle and top. The question is which one will we be in?...I'm a fundamentalist and always think we have a chance and SC will be drilling it into our players don't give the ball over cheaply and if we do be prepared to get back fast and defend en mass. Teams will already have spotted we are vulnerable to counter attacks but at least we know early and we will work on that In general terms we look like we will create chances and should have scored more goals, which we will also be punished for, nevertheless early days Agard is getting fitter and our own speed moving forward is there to see. I'm comfortable we will improve again and will put in a robust challenge near the top as long as we can stay clear of an injury crisis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesBCFC Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I think one of the ways to get an idea of how strong this league is would be to look at the premier league and league 1 tables once they have settled after 10-12 games. Then you can see how the best and worst of this divisions teams fare in easier and harder divisions respectively. Blackpool are a shambles at the moment though so can almost certainly be written off as an anomaly, however if the sides promoted to the Prem are really holding their own (and manage to do so over the whole season)then its fair to say this division isnt weak, otherwise we would be seeing another Derby circa 2007-08.Also worth looking at how the teams who were relegated into the championship are doing. If the championship was particularly weak,then those 3 would be walking away from everybody else. Of course things like transfers need to be taken into account, but IMO it gives a rough idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ten minutes of rough Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Not as strong as I thought, if we can gel like we did last season, well we can get ( word deleted by Admin ) We do have the great squad we had last season, minus the exit of a few fringe players, and the addition of a couple that have strengthened, bring 2/3 more in and who knows we could well be ( word deleted, final warning Admin). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTone Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I don't think so, Tone. The bottom division at Goals down Filton might be competitive ie anyone can beat anyone - doesn't mean the standard of football is anything other than piss poor. The facts as I see them suggest that there isn't a huge gulf in quality between the top teams in L1 and a fair bit of the C'ship. There are a lot of big ex-Prem clubs, yes. But many of them have been treading water in this league for years ie Forest, Wednesday, Leeds. I haven't seen anything in this league so far that makes me think we'll struggle massively. Largely, we've been unlucky and the architects of our own downfall. Ok, I can see where you are coming from and agree with most Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedRock Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Very strong and really tough. Skill levels light years ahead of League 1 & 2. Make mistakes you're punished, miss your chances likewise. Very impressed with the standard of football and level of entertainment to date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Very strong and really tough. Skill levels light years ahead of League 1 & 2. Make mistakes you're punished, miss your chances likewise. Very impressed with the standard of football and level of entertainment to date. I agree. Some of the people downplaying it in this thread were the same post Brentford saying how in this division mistakes will be punished which we'd get away with in League One, back three won't cut it, etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spoons Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 I agree. Some of the people downplaying it in this thread were the same post Brentford saying how in this division mistakes will be punished which we'd get away with in League One, back three won't cut it, etccouldn't agree more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whooooossshhhh Posted August 23, 2015 Report Share Posted August 23, 2015 Very strong and really tough. Skill levels light years ahead of League 1 & 2. Make mistakes you're punished, miss your chances likewise. Very impressed with the standard of football and level of entertainment to date. When I look at the fixture list, I think "Jeez that's a toughie....... oh, so's the next one........and the next etc etc. The good news for me is that even with limited numbers (so far) in the playing squad, we've not been made to look like tits. I'm pretty relaxed that we'll hold our own up here. If it all goes Pete Tong, then at least we'll have had the ride. Other minor local clubs can only dream of playing Leeds and Boro within 3 days atm. Oh, unless they do it via a pre-season friendly and a testimonial!! COYR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Londoner Posted August 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 After watching Bolton and Blackburn I'm starting to doubt it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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