EFL Championship 2020/21

[Ork1927]

As the fixtures are out - thought we better start this season's thread.

 

Previously on the Championhip (from about two weeks ago)

 

Leeds won the league after failing to do a Leeds despite bogey team Cardiff trying to trip them up straight after lockdown.

West Brom also went up despite playing like they were on strike post lockdown.

Fulham won the play-offs as Brentford's season finished in heartbreak after they should have pipped West Brom to automatic in the last two games of the season then lost to Fulham in the play-off final.

The two Welsh teams both reached the play-off semi finals as most of the other play-off contenders had a similar attitude to West Brom and did their best to not pick up many points post Lockdown.

 

At the bottom - Hull plummeted to the bottom of the league, mid table Wigan conterversially went into administration and went down thanks to a 12 point deduction and Charlton were the third team to leave the league through the trap door after Barnsley pulled off a great escape on the last day and Luton had a great post lockdown run to also escape.

 

We welcome Norwich, Watford, Bournemouth, Rotherham, Coventry and Wycombe. Opening day fixtures are: 

 

Quote

Bournemouth v Blackburn Rovers

Barnsley v Luton Town

Birmingham City v Brentford

Bristol City v Coventry City

Cardiff City v Sheffield Wednesday

Derby County v Reading

Huddersfield Town v Norwich City

Millwall v Stoke City

Preston North End v Swansea City

Queens Park Rangers v Nottingham Forest

Watford v Middlesbrough

Wycombe Wanderers v Rotherham United

 

Its always a difficult league to predict, but this year's looks especially tight with the added unknown of the continuing impact of Covid; all bar 3 teams having played a lot of games to finish last season and an more intense fixture list for this season.

 

Will the relegated teams from the Prem be able to bounce back? The promoted teams, no offence, seem unlikly to make a top 6 challenge. Sheff Wed are on a points deduction and Derby might follow. Forest may need time to recover from their incredible last day collapse to miss out on the play-offs as will Brentford for their double heartbreak. Will Birmingham carry on as badly as they did post lockdown? Can Swansea compete without Brewster and possibly losing other players?

 

And everyone should be afraid as Cardiff have signed Keifer Moore from Wigan and the last thing our opponents want to see when playing us is a big lump who can score from throw ins into the box. I think we will be up there - if nothing else we have a settled team of decent Championship level players are are horrible to play against.

[Plissken]

Good luck. We're all counting on you (to keep Blackburn out of the top six).

[Rsdio]

Any thoughts on Danny Ward, @Ork1927?

 

First here briefly on loan - tore League 1 apart.

First permanent spell - underwhelming but scored the odd beauty, generally looked a bit chubby and was fairly injury-prone.

Now - seemingly a full-time striker rather than a winger and looks as fit as a fiddle.

 

I think we all knew he'd improved away from us but I have no idea what to expect really. Usually when you re-sign someone it's because they actually did well for you the first time around.

[Mike1812]

Hard to see who the stand out team is going to be this season. The relegated sides, of course, but that depends on how many players they loose. Brentford too, but it looks like they might get ripped to shreds too. I'd like Forest to do well but they will need to recover from that collapse. 

[Rev]

The points deduction for Wednesday seems to have the bizarre side effect of meaning that Wednesday suddenly have some money to spend. We previously used the stadium money to ensure we’d made enough profit, but since they told us that didn’t apply we...Seem to be able to just spend money. Not a vast amount, but more than we have had for a while. Combined with an actual clear out of people being paid too much it definitely gives us a chance to fix squad problems we’ve had for years, particularly just how slow the squad was for a long time. We were in third last season just before the EFL launched their investigation, so Monk definitely can get results with us even if there were a lotttt of flukes in that run. It’s just a question of whether the squad has changed enough to put the second half of last season behind us. If so, and with the acknowledgment the points deduction will prevent promotion, we might actually be able to have a calm lower-mid-table season without people flapping. Could actually be quite healthy. 

[milko]

Brentford being in a new stadium is probably a bad thing, right? Always seems to take teams a little while to settle in.

[Timmo]

They'll also presumably lose Benrahma and Watkins. They're always decent but it could be tougher for them this season.

[Pants McSkill]

Milllwall are in with a genuine shout of challenging for the playoffs again. Gary Rowett has us playing this crazy fluid 3-5-1-1 system that really suits us, despite it playing several players in roles that they haven't really ever played before.

 

We've brought in Spurs wonderkid striker Troy Parrot on loan, but really our hopes rest on keeping hold of WhoScored Team of the Season member Jed Wallace, and keeping him fit.

 

We could use another CB, and I suspect a striker will leave, but with the team built around a midfield triangle of Wallace, playmaker Williams and run-everywhere-while-kicking-seven-shades-of-shit out of everyone Ben Thompson, we should be up there come the end of the season.

[Timmo]

30 minutes ago, Pants McSkill said:

Milllwall are in with a genuine shout of challenging for the playoffs again. Gary Rowett has us playing this crazy fluid 3-5-1-1 system that really suits us, despite it playing several players in roles that they haven't really ever played before.

 

We've brought in Spurs wonderkid striker Troy Parrot on loan, but really our hopes rest on keeping hold of WhoScored Team of the Season member Jed Wallace, and keeping him fit.

 

We could use another CB, and I suspect a striker will leave, but with the team built around a midfield triangle of Wallace, playmaker Williams and run-everywhere-while-kicking-seven-shades-of-shit out of everyone Ben Thompson, we should be up there come the end of the season.

 

I'm not sure I've ever seen Gary Rowett and fluid in the same sentence, has he evolved from being the Championship's mini Pulis?

[Pants McSkill]

He's a completely different person. Like it's an episode of quantum leap if Sam Beckett's mission was to bring asymmetrical dutch total football to South East London.

[Luseth]

On 21/08/2020 at 17:24, Pants McSkill said:

Milllwall are in with a genuine shout of challenging for the playoffs again.

 

Hopefully they don't make it again, could you imagine your dick'ed fans in the prem

 

Nah in all seriousness, I like Rowett and hope he continues to do well wherever he goes

 

That said, I'm quite enjoying the signings Karanka has made at Blues, I've felt for sometime our biggest problem is the midfield and he's added some great looking additions. If we can get another pacey striker in (Or maybe we are still thinking of bringing Hogan back) then I'd be looking at this season much more optimistically than last. A comfortable mid table finish please

 

Also we had a friendly against Walsall the other day and despite a slow first half, the second half we looked pretty good and it's evident to see we have some exciting youngsters that could be coming through in the attacking areas of the pitch. Related to that, our academy has applied for category 1 status which shows some more long term intent from the owners despite the fact we know nothing about them!

[Timmo]

Derby haven't scored in pre-season. I really like our midfield backwards but we're really lacking wide players and need another striker.

[Rsdio]

The state of Huddersfield's squad is fairly horrifying at the moment. I keep having these moments where I'm like 'It's OK, we're still early in pre-season, loads of time left to address things' then obviously I remember.

 

It's starting to look increasingly like one aspect of the 'difference in direction' with the Cowleys was that they thought we might have to actually spend a few quid in order to not be in an equal or worse mess next season.

 

Going by the way we usually do things we're probably waiting until we sell Grant before we spend anything but he'll end up going at the last minute and we'll pocket the brass because 'we won't be held to ransom on deadline day' and 'this squad has goals in it' (lol). Then a few months later we'll have the classic 'there's no value to be had in January'.

 

Man, this club has really ground me down over the past couple of years. Some minor cause for optimism as a break from the misery elsewhere in life would be quite nice at the moment.

[Pants McSkill]

2 hours ago, Luseth said:

 

Hopefully they don't make it again, could you imagine your dick'ed fans in the prem

 

 

 

 

It would be amazing though, especially if Leeds stay up.

 

Millwall v Leeds

Millwall v West Ham

Millwall v Chelsea

Millwall v Palace

Millwall v Spurs

 

These are all historically huge rivalries - Millwall/West Ham being the biggest obviously.... I'd prefer it if neither sets of fans added to the death toll it has produced over the years though.

We even had proper beef with Man City before they were an Oil club.

 

We do generate SOME atmosphere at the Den, and you see bigger teams with flashier player wilt when it is turned up. Our recent Cup runs were all down to this, watching genuine top class footballers forget how to pass the ball in the face of it is quite a sight.

 

 

[Ork1927]

We’ve just announced that we’ve terminated Mendez-Laing’s contract and the club won’t comment further.

 

Can only assume he has done something very bad as otherwise they’d sell him, but, without knowing the circumstances, it’s bad news on the pitch for us.

[Yobo Ahoy]

Rather shaky first game for Watford but a win's a win! We have so many players that need to fuck off if they aren't going to play - I have no idea why Deeney, Welbeck and Gray think they are above the championship as they scored about 5 goals between them from open play last season. The likes of Quina, Wilmot, Pedro, Dele-B will come on leaps and bounds this season.

 

Boro looked decent.

[Mike1812]

I mean, how many games has Welbeck even played the last 5 years?

[layten]

Brentford make their customary start to the season.

[Luseth]

8 hours ago, layten said:

Brentford make their customary start to the season.

 

To be faiir you were a bit unlucky with the woodwork. I was mostly happy that we competed with you but to get all 3 points, i'm ecstatic! We kept a good shape and I thought the young lad we had in goal did himself justice for his first competitive game. We are still missing that little bit of something up the attacking end of the pitch mind and once we got a goal in front we did what we always do and sat back and just soaked it all up which always bug's me, just asking for trouble. A draw would have been a fair result, maybe even you guy's nicking it so to take all 3 i'm very happy

[DirkCrisis]

On 03/09/2020 at 12:33, Pants McSkill said:

We do generate SOME atmosphere at the Den, and you see bigger teams with flashier player wilt when it is turned up. Our recent Cup runs were all down to this, watching genuine top class footballers forget how to pass the ball in the face of it is quite a sight.

 

I meant to ask what you thought of Jayson Molumby last season. I realise that he wasn't your player of the season or anything but I'd heard he put in a few blood and thunder performances which I think is the sort of thing we need now he's back with us.

[Pants McSkill]

Really solid player, does everything quite well without particularly excelling at anything. Can run for days though. 

Sorry to see him go.

[wullie]

Cov lost away at Bristol City which was probably to be expected, and I managed to get the stream logged in just in time to see their opener after 20(!) seconds so was looking for the refund policy pretty quickly. After that though we were probably the better team but months without competitive games told the tale in the second half and they scored a late winner. Bit of a sucker punch but based on our performance I'm quietly confident that we'll do ok in the division, at least once we're up to speed.

[Plissken]

Wycombe made a good impression on the Championship in their game against Rotherham by setting a new record for the lowest total time that the ball was actually in play.  35 minutes, 50 seconds, a new record since Opta started tracking the data in 2013-14

[Ork1927]

1 hour ago, Plissken said:

Wycombe made a good impression on the Championship in their game against Rotherham by setting a new record for the lowest total time that the ball was actually in play.  35 minutes, 50 seconds, a new record since Opta started tracking the data in 2013-14

 

We held the record before that away against QPR. 

 

Lost to Northampton in the Cup, Lost opening League Game to Sheff Wed, lost 5-1 to the Jacks in an Under 23 game on Monday and now we've lost our worst game ever inthe Championship record ;-( Worst season ever.

[Ork1927]

Boo-urns - we've sold Calum Patterson to Sheff Wed for 500K.

 

He wasn't getting much game time, no-one knows what his best position is and he plays like a bloke that won a competition to play for his team in a game, but easily one of my favourite players over the last few years as its a bloke that won a competition to play who happened to have a devastating ability to chase down the ball, terrify defenders, score all sorts of scrappy goals and give 200%.

 

A very important part of our promotion season, scored a few goals in the Prem including, in late October 2018, the first one that Liverpool conceeded at home in the Prem since February that year and he had an impact in our play-off run last year. Any team that played out from the back (including Leeds and West Brom) suffered greatly from Patterson charging down their centre halfs.

 

We really need to do something in the transfer window as we look weak unless Keiffer Moore is going to score every game.

[layten]

Well that'll be on a few football comedy moment videos.  

[Papaya Dance]

5 hours ago, layten said:

Well that'll be on a few football comedy moment videos.  

?

[layten]

19 minutes ago, Papaya Dance said:

?

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/12088738/pukki-misses-penalty-for-norwich

[Yobo Ahoy]

Well my pre-season prediction of Watford using their loan lads is going down the toilet. Estupinan to Villareal and Suarez to Granada for a combined £25m. On the plus side we are shifting players who have never played for the club and never intended to, but it's a shame and until guys like Deeney and Gray commit for the year we are really short up front. The transfer window can't close quickly enough.

[Kieran]

On 30/09/2020 at 14:32, Ork1927 said:

Boo-urns - we've sold Calum Patterson to Sheff Wed for 500K.

 

He wasn't getting much game time, no-one knows what his best position is and he plays like a bloke that won a competition to play for his team in a game, but easily one of my favourite players over the last few years as its a bloke that won a competition to play who happened to have a devastating ability to chase down the ball, terrify defenders, score all sorts of scrappy goals and give 200%.

 

A very important part of our promotion season, scored a few goals in the Prem including, in late October 2018, the first one that Liverpool conceeded at home in the Prem since February that year and he had an impact in our play-off run last year. Any team that played out from the back (including Leeds and West Brom) suffered greatly from Patterson charging down their centre halfs.

 

We really need to do something in the transfer window as we look weak unless Keiffer Moore is going to score every game.

 

 

He looking so good for us so far today.