The Championship Thread 2023/2024

[foxinsox]

Boxing Day away at Ipswich is going to be quite a fixture, with the return on Jan 20. 

[Unabomber]

Can’t believe leeds beat bristol

city, that’s a massive result for them. 

[K789]

8 minutes ago, Unabomber said:

Can’t believe leeds beat bristol

city, that’s a massive result for them. 

Is it? I'd expect leeds to beat them 9/10 at ER

[Unabomber]

11 minutes ago, K789 said:

Is it? I'd expect leeds to beat them 9/10 at ER

Nige though 

[Koke]

5 points between these. Couple of good or bad results and a team can  hsnge trajectory 

 

[Chelmofox]

1 hour ago, Unabomber said:

Can’t believe leeds beat bristol

city, that’s a massive result for them. 

Take your Pearson tinted specs off - Bristol are awful and will be mid table at best this season. 

[moore_94]

2 hours ago, nathan. said:

This has to be the strongest start to a Championship season by the top 2 ever.

Sheff Utd lost their 12th game as well so both us and Ipswich have the chance to go clear of Sheff Utd as best ever starts

 

Edited 7 October 2023 by moore_94

[EastAnglianFox]

45 minutes ago, Chelmofox said:

Take your Pearson tinted specs off - Bristol are awful and will be mid table at best this season. 

I’ve a feeling Mr Bomber was fishing for a response like this tbh

[Dave Fishwick]

Are we allowed to say Preston had a lucky run yet or is it still disrespectful?

 

continue to be lucky by still sitting in 3rd

[tom27111]

Just now, Dave Fishwick said:

Are we allowed to say Preston had a lucky run yet or is it still disrespectful?

 

continue to be lucky by still sitting in 3rd

 

We should probably be more respectful than we are.

 

We'll have a tough run, it's inevitable, and everyone else will love it.

 

You don't win the league after 11 games.

[Daggers]

“It reminds me of the Robson era”, says an Ipswich lad waaaaay too young to remember them. 
 

I do, they aren’t. Ipswich are benefitting from piss poor defending and overloading the attack. Their defence is ropey.
 

I’ll put money on them not hitting automatic promotion. 

[tom27111]

2 minutes ago, Daggers said:

“It reminds me of the Robson era”, says an Ipswich lad waaaaay too young to remember them. 
 

I do, they aren’t. Ipswich are benefitting from piss poor defending and overloading the attack. Their defence is ropey.
 

I’ll put money on them not hitting automatic promotion. 

 

Like a Forest fan saying "reminds me of Cloughie" 

 

What, when he was a raging alcoholic and got you relegated? 

Edited 7 October 2023 by tom27111

[Daggers]

I know it’s only highlights, but fvck me the other teams in this division are complete gash. 

[Lionator]

50 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

Sheff Utd lost their 12th game as well so both us and Ipswich have the chance to go clear of Sheff Utd as best ever starts

 

Off the top of my head, at least two of those didn’t go up. So don’t get complacent. 

[EastAnglianFox]

32 minutes ago, Daggers said:

“It reminds me of the Robson era”, says an Ipswich lad waaaaay too young to remember them. 
 

I do, they aren’t. Ipswich are benefitting from piss poor defending and overloading the attack. Their defence is ropey.
 

I’ll put money on them not hitting automatic promotion. 

It will be us and Leeds at an absolute canter

[tom27111]

I'm still cautious. 

 

It looks good so far, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and cocky.

 

There's a long way to go.

 

We will hit a bad patch, it's how we come through that. 

[StriderHiryu]

 

 

It's worth watching Ipswich, because we aren't the only team doing special things this season. They play a really nice attacking brand of football and some of the individual goals they have scored this season have been top draw.

 

One thing I will say though is that I've noticed that teams continue to disrespect them and play quite open against them. Look at the number of men Preston committed forward at times in this game compared to against us. Not taking anything away from the Tractor Boys, but it reminds me a bit of our own team in 15/16 where teams kept pushing up high against us... and kept getting beat.

 

Regardless, Kieran McKenna is doing an amazing job for sure.

[gw_leics772]

1 hour ago, Koke said:

5 points between these. Couple of good or bad results and a team can  hsnge trajectory 

 

After the previous round of games I noticed Southampton were 10th, or joint 4th excluding goal difference! This is a well competitive league (🤣🫣)

[Arriba Los Zorros]

10 minutes ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

 

It's worth watching Ipswich, because we aren't the only team doing special things this season. They play a really nice attacking brand of football and some of the individual goals they have scored this season have been top draw.

 

One thing I will say though is that I've noticed that teams continue to disrespect them and play quite open against them. Look at the number of men Preston committed forward at times in this game compared to against us. Not taking anything away from the Tractor Boys, but it reminds me a bit of our own team in 15/16 where teams kept pushing up high against us... and kept getting beat.

 

Regardless, Kieran McKenna is doing an amazing job for sure.

Not sure why my previous post got deleted but yes agreed no teams are going to Portman Road to defend in numbers currently and when they do we will see whether Ipswich can last the course. They have had practice after being big hitters in league 1 of course.

 

Regardless they are doing brilliantly for a newly promoted team and long may it continue. 

[StriderHiryu]

Just now, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Not sure why my previous post got deleted but yes agreed no teams are going to Portman Road to defend in numbers currently and when they do we will see whether Ipswich can last the course. They have had practice after being big hitters in league 1 of course.

 

Regardless they are doing brilliantly for a newly promoted team and long may it continue. 

If they slip up, it will be down to injuries. The way they play, they will make chances even against teams that shut up shop. Though I would expect them to make fewer chances in such matches.

[StanSP]

10 points ahead of 3rd after 11 games.

 

Unheard of. It's incredible, really. I just really hope Enzo has drilled in to the side to not get complacent in the slightest. He's got to keep them focused. 

 

It's good that we've got such good rotation options too to keep the squad fresh. 

 

The points gap between 3rd and 15th will only serve in our favour really. As we pick up points, those teams will find it difficult to catch up with their inconsistency. 

 

International break doesn't come at the best time! 

[Arriba Los Zorros]

1 minute ago, StriderHiryu said:

If they slip up, it will be down to injuries. The way they play, they will make chances even against teams that shut up shop. Though I would expect them to make fewer chances in such matches.

I tend to think they will fall away but even so, making playoffs would be huge for them. The pressure is off in a sense and that's when teams can build huge momentum. 

 

Make no doubt though lose Sam Morsy or Leif Davis for an extended spell and they will struggle. 

[StriderHiryu]

1 minute ago, StanSP said:

International break doesn't come at the best time! 

Enzo said he's quite happy for it! It's because players can rest, and given we play high intensity, that's important. Even from a mental point of view, it can be important.

 

Maresca is superb at the rotation part of the game. If you look at Man City, you would be surprised at how many games some of their players actually start. Grealish only started 20 games last season, Foden the same. Because their team is always fresh, they get the best out of their players and they are very consistent. None of our players look gassed like Tielemans from last season, none of the usual suspects are breaking down with impact injuries, other than Doyle who up till that point had played a lot of games in a row.

 

But for us fans it definitely comes at the wrong time! We are all loving watching our team play at the moment, not just because we are winning, but we are winning well.

[Jobyfox]

So we've made the equal best ever start to the Championship after 11 games. The club that did it previously were Sheffield United in 2005/06.

 

I was intrigued to see whether Sheffield United won the league that season and remarkably they finished a full 16 points behind Reading. They did get promoted on 90 points in 2nd though 

[LCFCJohn]

7 hours ago, tom27111 said:

I'm still cautious. 

 

It looks good so far, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and cocky.

 

There's a long way to go.

 

We will hit a bad patch, it's how we come through that. 

Sensible words spoken. It is not possible to sustain (for us and Ipswich) relentless form to the extent we are doing. At some point we will go a few games without winning (draws in there of course). 
 

Im happy just enjoying each win and seeing the points total rise and rise. Let just get so many points on the board that it doesn’t matter if we have a run of games where our form drops a bit.

 

10 points ahead of 3rd after just 11 games is stunning, it really is. Maybe I’m just scarred from us chucking away a 14 point lead to drop out of the top 4 a few years back or the season before promotion when we were top and went on a run that saw us nearly miss the playoffs!