With 10 games gone, the table seems to be taking some sort of shape. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/table First you have the bottom 8 - not far off from who you'd have expected to be down there back in August. Is there a team in there capable of launching a playoff push, rather than battling to stay up? I don't see one. Then you have four (Leeds, Fulham, Blackburn, Forest) who might be capable of climbing the table but ultimately seem to have too many flaws. Perhaps Fulham might emerge as the best of that lot. Then a three-point gap to the top 12, all of whom have shown some life thus far. Take your pick from those as there doesn't look to be much between most teams. I picked Middlesbrough preseason and see no reason to change that prediction now. If Dicko hadn't got badly injured I'd be backing Wolves too - perhaps Derby, who have not hit their straps yet but have still sneaked up there, will click and go on a charge. Burnley will surely be in the top 6 too. (I don't think Brighton have got the quality to stay in the top two.) Where do City fit into all this? Hard to say, given their performances. Toss a coin.
Every week I keep saying I can't see Brighton keeping this up , they will tail off...but credit to them they are still going This is my gut feeling top 6 as it stands now 1 Boro 2 Reading 3 Sheff Wed 4 Burnley 5 Hull City 6 Brighton
Sheff Wed are quitely going about there business , and winning games , I'm convinced they will make the play offs comfortably
If and when we 'click' then I see no reason why wouldn't finish top. What concerns me more is our tactics, defending leads when there is still chunk of time left and not been able to finish teams off. Can't guess what Diomande might bring to the attack but I really think we need Rhodes type of forward, speculate to accumulate and all that.
I think we need another two or three strikers in, dependant on how good Diomande is. I would try and get Cole in on a free, loan Wilson and top that off with a big January signing like Jordan Rhodes. Without doing that I can't seeing us getting the goals to finish top 6. The strikers need to be getting at least 20 goals each. Akpom hasn't a cat in hells chance, Diamonde no one has a clue leaving only Hernandez who might potentially hit that number.
I have a bad feeling about Diamonde. The fact we signed him with 15 minutes of the window left suggests he was a panic buy.
He had obviously been watched a bit. He's not exactly the type of find you pull out of a hat with a couple of hours of transfer window left. Didn't Bruce say he'd been tracking him for awhile? Just because it's late in the window doesn't make it a panic buy. It was late because Jelavic didn't leave until late on. Similar with Hernandez. People label him a panic buy as it didn't go through til near the end of the window, but he was our second choice target after Rhodes, he'd been tracked for weeks and the bid had been accepted over a week before the window shut. That's anythig but a panic buy.
What concerns me is how many times our defenders are being selected as MOM candidates? We are doing far too much defensive work, it's not defensive work because the opposition are brilliant, it's because we are simply allowing them possession in dangerous areas. I don't like the instructions that are being given to players whilst we're trying to hang onto narrow leads. Very dangerous.
I much prefer if we hang on to a lead by giving the ball to the attackers who then keep the ball as long as possible aided by the opposing defenders being too scared to risk rash challenges to try to get possession quickly.
Burnley, Boro, Derby and us all with a great chance of top two for me then there are a number of others who could easily do it i.e Brighton, Reading, QPR, Birmingham ect. Its still early to say we should have more of an idea around Christmas, we still don't know if we will lose anyone in January plus we don't know if others will come in. It will go down to squad strength, injuries ect but we must have a decent chance. Our forth coming fixtures of Sheff Wednesday, Ipswich and Birmingham will see us play three decent teams at this level but has we have found out anyone can beat anyone in this league which makes it very interesting.
While I agree on the whole, it's worth noting that we are tied for the fewest goals conceded in the division. (I also agree that the midfield doesn't deserve any of the credit for that statistic - Dawson and Davies deserve most of it.)
If i was gonna puck a top 2 id say Boro n Derby with us just behind It all depends on the January window to me If we keep Hernandez snd Diame then id put us in the top 2
He's steadily clawing back some respect, but it'll take a while longer for me to forget Wolves. Glad he's strung together a few more solid performances, though - he's looking more like the 13/14 McGregor than the 14/15 one.
