Nearly a quarter way through the seasonand this is my quarterly report on the top 12 teams Southampton not surprised me they have a very good manager who doesn,t waste money on the transfer market . Still has plenty of funds left for the push in January.Expect a top 2 finish Boro still unbeaten but thier home record is not brilliant and need more players to sustain their momentum 7 is the best they can wish for Derby have done really well but looks to melike they are fading West Ham poor home form will cost them and Sam dearly but will finish in the top 6 as they will throw money at it ! Brighton donee really well but their defence is not very sound as was shown against us can they keep up the pace my view no top 10 finish Hull I think thier manager hasn't sorted out thier problem scoring goals but they have a sound defence no goals no top6 Blackpool anyone who underestimates Holloway beware they could finish in the top6 Leicester if they don,t finish in the top2 Sven will be out they have thrown £15m at promotion definately finish in top6 Cardiff need more staff to sustain a worthwhile challenge not top 6 material for me Ipswich after a shaky start they have suddenly taken off I expect a top 6 finish Leeds if Simon gets the defence sorted we will get into top 6 at worst .Much will be expected of Clayton Lees White Connolly and Odear i they gel we could get on a run Notts Forest they may manage to avoid the drop depends on the next appointment Burnley will push for a top 6 finish Reading sold too many good players mid table at best The rest I can't see putting any presure on the top 6 Sorry if I have upset anyone but this is only my thoughts
Good review Leeds60. As usual, money talks and who decides to back the manager/team at the January window will most likely progress to promotion. Last year Leeds held back and suffered a run of only 12 points from last 10 games and lost the playoff spot. I think the cash backing of Leicester will pay off, and the strike force of Southampton will take the top 2 places. West Ham will be just off the pace for auto promotion. Take your pick of the others for playoffs. You never know we might be in at the end but I always fear the worst when we play in critical matches. Thanks for the thoughts of Leed60, as ever an informed contributor.
Dunno but someone better call the punctuation police because my 6 year old cousin could write a better article.
Just read the first line and am shocked we are are a quarter of the way through already. Why is time going so quickly nowadays?
For winning the league, i'd be betting on west ham. I think they will sort out there home form. I think Southampton will start to drop off around christmas and by february, they'll be looking at a top 6 place. I genuinely do believe leeds can do it this year, we have the strike force, we just need to sort out that defence and if we do, we will get promoted. No doubts in my mind
Whatever they did in training this week worked. I want to see them do this for the rest of the season. We weren't misfiring on saturday, it simply sounded like Pompey defended well and took the game to us in the second half. Of course, I only listened and didn't watch so I can't give a comprehensive judgement. I can't see McCormack slacking off the goals any time soon, he was threatening again on saturday and was just very unlucky. We seem to have goals all over the park, although unlike last season we seem to be relying more on a single player. Still missing Max down that left side.
1) West Ham - the team are still learning to cope with the high expectations of the home support, a bit like our lads at ER. The manager and the squad are good, and come january expect a couple of new faces to ensure auto. 2) Leicester - Sven and his squad of multi million pound strikers will romp up the league, and Nugent and Beckford are bound to hit 20 apeice and vassal is having a new lease of life 3) Blackpool - Hollaway is no mug and now has a much better squad than the last time he took them to the prem. They are minted and will spend if they have to with parachute payments, and the club know what its like to earn big cash in the prem. 4) Southampton - Good manager and good squad with a strike force still scoring for fun and an owner with money to burn. The Swiss owners want prem football and will invest/gamble to get it. 5) Midlesboro' - Good manager who has got them playing well going forward and shored up the defence. Great chairman who will be happy with progress so far under Mowbray. 6) Ipswich - Shaky start, but a manager who knows how to win promotion and shrewd buys, especially Chopra will see them in the play offs. 7) Birmingham - Parachute payments and a motivational manager should see them start to perform, but being held back a bit by the Asian version of Bates who owns the club. 8) Hull - Another manager who knows his stuff, a new ambitious owner and a very tight defence, but if they can start scoring or bring in a good striker they will do some damage. This squad is full of kids from top prem teams, and have speed and power. Fryatt needs a bit of help. 9) Leeds - After a shocking start to the campaign Grayson seems to have got his defence organised. The team are capable of scoring goals and hurting opposition, but although the squad is 25 strong, its paper thin. Lees could be the new Woodgate and Clayton needs to stay injury/ban free, and Snodds needs a good right back who can support him and take some pressure off. This squad is not good enough for play offs and should have been sorted in the summer. There are too many really good players who can do some damage to our midfield and defence in this league, and the best we can hope for is some backs to the wall defending in some games. Leeds to start killing lower teams off instead of allowing them back into games, and we also need to perform against the top sides, as we did against West Ham 10) Brighton - After a great start Gus's defence is now being tested. The owners may let Gus invest more big cash in January and Gus is no mug as we know and any club who are willing to shell out a few million on a top striker CMS are ambitious
If the defence stays sorted we will get auto, even without Max we have the best attack in the league by a long way. I only watched the Pompey highlights and can see we could have been 2 or 3 up by half time. The fact Luciano's being kept on the bench says everything about how the strikers are doing. I think we could still do with a CM, and we should loan out a couple of defenders and get a better one in.
Doc totally disagree about Pearson if he knew is stuff why sell us Gradel for £100k and Kisnorbo free
Leeds60, Max at the time was a headless chicken with an attitude problem. We took him on loan to start with and he saw the light, plus we saw the potential. Paddy has always been injury prone though, plus you need to remember that the owner at the time had just moved into his 3rd club, and wanted the wage bill down, soon after he offed Pearson and brought in Souza only to fail, and then the new owners moved in and brought in Sven. Different times and circumstances mate. Also if you remember on the old 606 a lot of fester fans were laughing at us for taking Max on
I remember all the Leics fans saying that we had bought a pup in Maxi, and all those who wanted him sold ASAP after getting sent off v the Gasheads at the end of last season. SG certainly calmed him down.
Agree with your thoughts and predictions Doc as for kisnorbo he hasn't actually proven to be of much use in this division. We all thought his return would be like a new signing sadly it hasnt. Becchio should now replace keough though we need his goals
