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Chelm Canary

Will we go up?

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You've only got to look at Ipswich in League 1 last year (and perhaps this year) to see that tables are meaningless until the fixtures unwind. Having said that, the Championship does seem to have settled down quickly with Reading being the only surprise. 

I have been impressed with Watford and Brentford from what I've seen on TV so far. It will be interesting to see us play them tomorrow night. 

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Way too early to be making predictions as there’s still another 39 games to be played! Yes we’re only 1 point off automatic promotion, but we’re only 9 points clear of the drop! I think the earliest time we can start making predictions is around Christmas, and that’s only if we are a significant number of points clear of 3rd spot although even then there’s no guarantee we will go up - look at Ipswich last season, top of League One around Christmas and failed to even make the playoffs!

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The next 2 games we will have a better idea of how we are doing.  Our last Set of games we have played teams that are happy to take a draw. the next 2 games will be tough as they are both good teams they is no home/away advantage and with no fans it’s still not football ️ 

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It’s going to be much more difficult this time as defences will be packed to respond to our expected possession.   We were unknown last time.  Expect a lot more draws unless we really step up the quality which means Buendia and Cantwell will likely be needed most games.     Martin will need more game time (he does have the quality (Marco) agility (Mario) and potential that they don’t have) and when Hugill plays we may need to change tactics slightly more to get the most from his game.   Not sure he is good enough technically for our tiki taka game.

Difficult to know but we have the quality to be Champions.   Do we have the belief?   

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6 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Before the season started I predicted us to finish between 6th and 10th.

 

If we manage to sneak in 1-5th I will be very pleased, but anything 11 onwards should be seen as a failure.

Think below 10th would have to be down to absolute bad luck, injuries, player sales in Jan, etc.... the quality and apparent team spirit appears far too good for that. 

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Predicted first earlier, but now playoffs. Consistent Wins are needed for automatics in the championship as we all know with high scoring and I see Norwich struggling to win near every game.

I have a feeling this season is more about being better defensively.

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I’m pretty sure we will finish top six but thereafter who knows, we have a good chance with the quality of our squad but this league is so tough and competitive. 

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I'm not sure.

On the plus side- we've got our fight and spirit back and we've pushed through to the end of games to grind out results.

On the negative- we shouldn't need last minute winners to get past teams like Rotherham and Wycombe if we're serious about promotion.

So I want to see how we play in the next 3 or 4 games before I make any predictions. My concern is if we put in the performances we saw in the last three games against Brentford or Millwall then those close wins become close losses.

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12 minutes ago, king canary said:

I'm not sure.

On the plus side- we've got our fight and spirit back and we've pushed through to the end of games to grind out results.

On the negative- we shouldn't need last minute winners to get past teams like Rotherham and Wycombe if we're serious about promotion.

So I want to see how we play in the next 3 or 4 games before I make any predictions. My concern is if we put in the performances we saw in the last three games against Brentford or Millwall then those close wins become close losses.

Disagree, only if we put in those performances and don't take our chances. Or make a massive blunder mistake.

The performances themselves have been fine - complete domination of possession, second highest xpg in the league - all suggests we're doing the right things and creating better opportunities than 23 other clubs.

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I predicted a loss in the play-off semis after coming fifth. I still think Watford and to a slightly lesser extent, Bournemouth have a bit more about them than us. That said, I also thought we'd have lost the three of the crown jewels we kept (but kept Godfrey and Lewis) and factored that into my thinking.

I don't think Reading will stay up there too long as they're sneaking through on pure efficiency in taking their chances, which is unlikely to last throughout a whole season (there's a reason why we remember Pukki's form from two years ago so fondly) as they don't exactly create lots of chances like we do. Brentford and Bristol will tell us a lot as I expect both teams will come and play as they're both good footballing sides. We've played arguably the two most agricultural teams in the league in Rotherham and Wycombe. We did quite well away to Bournemouth and in the second half we were definitely the better side. I don't think we'll see a more negative team than Brum under Karanka this season either.

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25 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Disagree, only if we put in those performances and don't take our chances. Or make a massive blunder mistake.

The performances themselves have been fine - complete domination of possession, second highest xpg in the league - all suggests we're doing the right things and creating better opportunities than 23 other clubs.

But the point is that the kind of performances we've seen v Wycombe or Rotherham won't create the same number of chances against better teams- for instance, v Bouremouth we had an xG of 0.9.

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We look so defensively shakey and misfiring at alarming rate. 
 

So in true Norwich fashion, we will probably storm it now! 
 

But in my honest opinion, no. I just can’t see it (currently).

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anything short of playoffs, we've failed. The squad is good enough to be hitting those spots.

Looks like we have found a way of digging out results again too, just need to find that ruthless edge again

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8/13 to be top 6 and 13/2 to win it. Brentford 4/1 outright which is skinny with results so far and players sold. 

Watford and ourselves have the best squads and I’d expect the champions to come from that list of 2. 


 

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2 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Before the season started I predicted us to finish between 6th and 10th.

 

If we manage to sneak in 1-5th I will be very pleased, but anything 11 onwards should be seen as a failure.

Anything below 6th will be seen as a failure. And so it should be. This is easily a top 6 squad.

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wins will mean more confidence, better performances and more points .  Already being in 5th is a solid start to build upon.

We should be there or thereabouts and even if we lose the next two games and suffer a dent in confidence there are still over 100 points to play for.

We will need to earn it and it wont be easy but its in our hands to succeed.

 

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I think the whole point of predictions is to make them before there’s a clear idea of what’s happening! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Grinding out wins with last minute winners against the teams that are going to treat you as their cup final is exactly why we’re looking good to do it again this season!

Don't remember us smashing all the ‘lower’ teams last time we won this competition either. We had to grind out some results there too for the very reason listed in the previous paragraph.

Have no idea why Brentford are still favourites to win the league. No way do they have the overall squad that ourselves, Watford and possibly Bournemouth do.

Still sticking with 1st, but otherwise, I feel we’ll get promoted regardless, whether that’s behind say Watford or through the Play-Offs. 

And will be very happy for Farke if he achieves what I think he will this season. After the injuries and budget presented to him last season in the worlds most unforgiving league, it’s not exactly rocket science that he or any other manager would struggle severely under such circumstances. He will prove his worth again this season, and that would be my main prediction. 

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Still dangerously thin in numbers in certain areas of the squad....uf we're around the top 4 / 5 come Jan and we get the likes of Hernandez,Dowell and Byram back plus any new signings ...( or returning loans?) to help the squad , I'd like to think we should carry on from there.

Dont think its a very strong looking league this season , so would be very disappointed if we couldnt stick around at least top 6

...however the empty stadiums are making for more of a lottery. Clubs who are perhaps more suited to playing in empty stadiums (Reading?) might fair better this season than they otherwise would have

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2 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

Dont think its a very strong looking league this season , so would be very disappointed if we couldnt stick around at least top 6

 

Yeah this was something I was thinking- feels like a very weak Championship this year due to the covid hit on the financials. 

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2 hours ago, Alex Moss said:

I think the whole point of predictions is to make them before there’s a clear idea of what’s happening! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Grinding out wins with last minute winners against the teams that are going to treat you as their cup final is exactly why we’re looking good to do it again this season!

Don't remember us smashing all the ‘lower’ teams last time we won this competition either. We had to grind out some results there too for the very reason listed in the previous paragraph.

Have no idea why Brentford are still favourites to win the league. No way do they have the overall squad that ourselves, Watford and possibly Bournemouth do.

Still sticking with 1st, but otherwise, I feel we’ll get promoted regardless, whether that’s behind say Watford or through the Play-Offs. 

And will be very happy for Farke if he achieves what I think he will this season. After the injuries and budget presented to him last season in the worlds most unforgiving league, it’s not exactly rocket science that he or any other manager would struggle severely under such circumstances. He will prove his worth again this season, and that would be my main prediction. 

Pretty much this. I think we'll be top two - it's a very weak league and our squad depth will be hard for anyone else to match. I think Stoke will come through. I don't honestly see Brentford as a consistent threat but they will always be a team who can beat anyone on their day.

As to what happens if we do manage to get promoted again, who knows? I fully expect West Brom and Fulham to come down again and drag another of the Burnley/Brighton/Palace/Newcastle/West Ham group with them and the polarisation of the leagues to continue. So if we were to go up, what do we do? Bank the money again or splash the cash next time? I don't see our squad being any more likely to "step up" to a PL standard.

 

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11 minutes ago, sgncfc said:

Pretty much this. I think we'll be top two - it's a very weak league and our squad depth will be hard for anyone else to match. I think Stoke will come through. I don't honestly see Brentford as a consistent threat but they will always be a team who can beat anyone on their day.

As to what happens if we do manage to get promoted again, who knows? I fully expect West Brom and Fulham to come down again and drag another of the Burnley/Brighton/Palace/Newcastle/West Ham group with them and the polarisation of the leagues to continue. So if we were to go up, what do we do? Bank the money again or splash the cash next time? I don't see our squad being any more likely to "step up" to a PL standard.

 

Yep, the thing with Brentford is that they’ve lost 3 out of their 7 games so not sure that they’re justifying their favourites tag. If they put us to the sword tomorrow night then I think I’ll see them in a different light. Not sure about writing off Reading from having a decent season either. We’ve seen it time and time again when a team that’s giving their all for each other punch above their weight in their respective division - after all, no one gave Leicester a chance but they kept on churning out the results and consequently their belief and confidence went through the roof. Conversely, we’ve seen expensively assembled ‘galactico’s fail due to infighting, ego, and consequently not gel as a team.

As for a return to the Premier League, it has long been my feeling that last years ‘attempt’ certainly had more than one eye on swelling the clubs coffers for the next promotion whilst keeping us solvent and a more serious attempt at staying in the division next time round - if we had completed the fairytale and done it on next to no outlay then great, if not, then as a self financed club, we were building the clubs coffers from all angles and would then be in a financially better position to gamble more on the transfer market upon the next promotion. If we went up this season, I still don’t think we’d break the bank but I genuinely believe Stuart Webber will work our transfer dealings out on the next level. He’s always said he effectively sent Daniel into war without a gun, and I think next time around he’ll look to rectify that without spending £100mil or wotnot. I know some are far from convinced, and that’s fair enough, but I think I can see what he’s trying to do, and if it works out then it’ll have been a clever move in the long run.

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There’s only one person who knows whether or not we’ll go up, and that’s LDC, but he seems to be quiet on the subject.

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All the ingredients are there. To me we just need to have a little more urgency going forward. I think we're often quite slow moving the ball forward and then end up playing in a series of triangles across either side of half-way line. When we push forward more quickly we can seemingly open up teams quite regularly.

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6 minutes ago, Tootingyellow said:

All the ingredients are there. To me we just need to have a little more urgency going forward. I think we're often quite slow moving the ball forward and then end up playing in a series of triangles across either side of half-way line. When we push forward more quickly we can seemingly open up teams quite regularly.

Thought this for a long time, Tooting. I’m not saying other teams players aren’t capable of this, but what we do know is that ours most certainly are. Zip and pace causes panic and trouble, simple as that. I love it when we get into that groove, we look unplayable. I hope we go into the Brentford game with that attitude, I want us to blow them away.

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Signs look fairly positive. Getting results without being fully in synch.

As always hoping for the best.

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