Next 8 Games

[Goody1975]

It’s a bit early in the season to start thinking about what our rivals are doing .I seem to remember last time some of the posters were saying that Sheff Utd had won the league by the end of September.

My reply is in response to the opening post.

It is quite justified to think that we CAN set ourselves up for the rest of the season in the next eight fixtures. Will we? I don't know anymore than anyone else on here.

[Goody1975]

24 points. If you want to win the league we will need to win 9 or 10 on the bounce at some stage.

This looks a good opportunity.

The benchmark has always been two points a game for promotion and a little over that for the title. Sixteen points from the next eight games keeps us on track, anything more is a bonus.

[Goody1975]

Championship - Top Two Since 2004-05

Screenshot (72).png (54.77 KiB) Viewed 876 times

The seasons where the second place team finished with more than 92 points, the team in third had:-

2013-14 Derby County 85 Points
2016-17 Reading 85 Points
2023-24 Leeds United 90 Points

[Quickenthetempo]

The benchmark has always been two points a game for promotion and a little over that for the title. Sixteen points from the next eight games keeps us on track, anything more is a bonus.

Yeah, it's been a good formula for a few years.

But I think the top teams win a lot more games these days, where they would have settled for draws in previous years.
More money, bigger/better squads and watching the likes of City and Liverpool just win game after game relentlessly.

[Goody1975]

Yeah, it's been a good formula for a few years.

But I think the top teams win a lot more games these days, where they would have settled for draws in previous years.
More money, bigger/better squads and watching the likes of City and Liverpool just win game after game relentlessly.

Point one, we aren't in the Premier League and point two the table above suggests, that two points a game is still enough for promotion and has been the case for twenty years.

[4:20]

Maximum points would give us 34 altogether. At that stage under VK we were on 22

[Newcastleclaret93]

If you'd seen Whittaker yesterday you may have a different opinion.

Did you manage to watch Rigg yesterday? What did you think

[NewClaret]

Maximum points would give us 34 altogether. At that stage under VK we were on 22

This isn’t a pop at you, more the general debate on this thread, but I think it’s dangerous to be comparing Kompany and Parker’s points tally until maybe 5 games to go.

Firstly, we’ve been far from convincing yet performance-wise, and secondly, Kompany started pretty averagely but then strung an unbelievable run together after January, which in my opinion was aided by a couple of very good January signings. Parker has yet to have that opportunity.

We’ve had some fantastic results. I’d say Parker has started better than Kompany when you consider a) the fixtures he’s had, and b) the circumstances he’s had to deliver them in. Maybe that’s what you’d expect given his experience.

For now it should just be one game at a time and not fixating on comparing records. Average PPG is what we should be looking at.

[boatshed bill]

Did you manage to watch Rigg yesterday? What did you think

Yes I did, tidy player but a bit small. he ran the midfield in what was a fast and entertaining game. Plymouth got more into the game when he was subbed off.
Whittaker was largely anonymous, except for a brilliant shot against the bar which resulted in the own-goal, played wide right.
Michael Obafemi did very little at CF.
This was a very lively end to end type of game, I really like the Championship!

[4:20]

This isn’t a pop at you, more the general debate on this thread, but I think it’s dangerous to be comparing Kompany and Parker’s points tally until maybe 5 games to go.

Firstly, we’ve been far from convincing yet performance-wise, and secondly, Kompany started pretty averagely but then strung an unbelievable run together after January, which in my opinion was aided by a couple of very good January signings. Parker has yet to have that opportunity.

We’ve had some fantastic results. I’d say Parker has started better than Kompany when you consider a) the fixtures he’s had, and b) the circumstances he’s had to deliver them in. Maybe that’s what you’d expect given his experience.

For now it should just be one game at a time and not fixating on comparing records. Average PPG is what we should be looking at.

Just a bit of value free stats. I was curious of the figure and spent 10 minutes counting on my fingers, badly, having to re-run the research 3 times because my fingers were rusty and thought "all of that effort, don't let it go to waste, post it, you'll be a hero in your own mind etc." I do agree with the gist of your reply though.

[Dark Cloud]

Hull and Stoke both got automatic promotion on just 79 points. Weird one.

[NewClaret]

Just a bit of value free stats. I was curious of the figure and spent 10 minutes counting on my fingers, badly, having to re-run the research 3 times because my fingers were rusty and thought "all of that effort, don't let it go to waste, post it, you'll be a hero in your own mind etc." I do agree with the gist of your reply though.

It is actually interesting to compare, so thanks for sharing your mental arithmetic - I’m just jealous I can’t work it out myself

I just think overall the nature of how Kompany did it (slow start, amazing middle part of the season) makes it hard/pointless to compare.

Parker has started better, no doubt, may be that he falters more along the way though.

I’d love to get to January and be well placed so that we can strengthen perhaps with Premier League fringe players looking for game time, so Parker gets that boost I think Kompany got.

[what now !]

i too would be interested to see where we would be dropping more than 4 points out of that run of fixtures i am hoping for 22-24 points.

people have said that we cant break teams down that want to defend , that is exactly what Cardiff did and we put 5 past them,

its like it always is, if we get an early goal we will be ok, if they frustrate us then it becomes an issue, but not one that we cant overcome. i have enough faith and from what i have seen so far this season that we can break teams down and can score goals. if we are comparing the start under VK and this one we are in a far better place than we were under VK. so i am hoping for a similar or better season than we had last time in the championship.

remember our record in the championship is ridiculous , we have played something like 130 games and only last 13 , or something like that, i see no reason why that cant continue.

[jedi_master]

This team will break sides down, very confident of that. I would expect to see us sacrifice Hannibal or Brownhill (Cullen is the 'must start' in central midfield, in my opinion) to allow Flemming to start just behind Foster against the majority of these teams. It's a shame Benson has got injured because sometimes it is that type off the bench that can turn a draw into a win, we need to hope that Tresor, Agyei, Houtondji, Rodriguez or Sarmiento can be that player in this run.

I didn't actually give my prediction around that opening post, but I will be bullish (not complacent, but bullish): 22 points

[pureclaret]

24

25 pts as we get one for fastest lap



OPs wrong sport get carried away when F1 on 2 weekends in a row

[vinrogue]

I always look at points per games played, 92 points = 2 points a game, currently being on 10 points from 5 I would hope for 16 from the next 8, any more than that puts us on course for 1st or 2nd place. I think Leeds had 90 last season.

[Colburn_Claret]

It's a good set of fixtures, I would hope and expect more than the 2 pts per game benchmark, just as there will be future runs where we fall slightly short.
The positivity on this thread, compared to the doom and gloom just 3 weeks ago is incredible. A great deal thanks to SP and AP.

I doubt anyone went from game 1, 4-1 win away to one of the favourites. Game 3, 8 changes was it against an unbeaten Sunderland. Game 5, just 3 weeks later, another away win against another of the favourites, with 6 players starting who weren't in our squad for the Sunderland game. Unbelievable Jeff.

[morninbob]

I think that we'd have all taken 10 points from our opening 5 tough fixtures.
Draw Luton
Win Cardiff
Win Sunderland
Win Bast@rds
Lose Leeds.

[Goody1975]

So thirteen points it was. A win today would have seen us take two points a game over those eight fixtures.

The talk of twenty points plus was fanciful.

Played 8
Won 3
Drew 4
Lost 1

[willsclarets]

This thread is a pretty good example of how quickly fans can turn

[alf_resco]

This thread is a pretty good example of how quickly fans can turn

Or how claret-tinted specs warps logic.