Teams to Watch Out For Next Season?

[sgncfc 1,253]

Several Champs teams seem to have strengthened significantly over the summer, so who should we fear and who is going to challenge us for the top 6 (or top two if you're really optimistic?)

I think Luton have bought very well, as have Hull and Birmingham - all will be dangerous "on their day" but may struggle to be consistent. Equally, Blackburn, West Brom and Cardiff look tough. In addition to Burnley and Watford, who are bound to have enough quality players to challenge, there are unknown quantities like Sunderland, Sheffield Utd, Middlesbro and Stoke - all of which could easily put a decent season together.

Will Huddersfield be strong again? Reading have also bought some talent but are still favourites to go down with Rotherham and Wigan.

It seems to be a much stronger league than two years ago in terms of the number of potential banana skins.

At this stage, my top 6 is Burnley, Watford, Norwich, Luton, Middlesbro and Sheffield Utd.

My three to go down - QPR, Bristol City and Wigan.

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,361]

Top 6 

West brom 

Hull 

Watford 

Norwich 

Sunderland 

Luton 

 

 

Down 

Wigan 

Rotherham 

Bristol city

[canarybubbles 1,937]

For me, it's even harder than usual to call the Championship this coming season.

All three relegated clubs obviously have squads which should put them up near the top, but all three of them have issues and could have disastrous seasons.

West Brom ought to be there or thereabouts but there is the issue of Bruce. A bad start might help them in the long run because they get rid of him. Sheffield United look to be close, as do Middlesbrough. Hull and Sunderland are my dark horses. If Corberán stays in the Championship, whoever gets him must stand a fair chance IMO. My prediction is that he will go to West Brom after they finally sack Bruce.

Edited July 15, 2022 by canarybubbles

[cambridgeshire canary 6,778]

Interested to see how Hull do given the signings they have made and their new rich owners and all..

[Google Bot 3,298]

Swansea could be one to watch, they're usually involved when we are - and if Piroe continues his progression goals sure get you up the table!

[SwearyCanary 1,179]

13 minutes ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Interested to see how Hull do given the signings they have made and their new rich owners and all..

You ruddy love Hull! 

[Mason 47 1,391]

I believe I shall focus on Championship ones but with a passing interesting in FC Girondins de Bordeaux

[baldy09 160]

ITS gong to be a difficult season all round-  we struggle badly in the prem and we got the same players this new up and coming season  and  the way the pink is writing in the papers etc -you think we got  a team of new signings. ready to storm the championship

[Google Bot 3,298]

45 minutes ago, baldy09 said:

the way the pink is writing in the papers etc -you think we got  a team of new signings. ready to storm the championship

Before losing Idah we were 4th from bottom in PL, so there is hope to be gained with players such as himself and Andy coming back.  New signings? maybe not, but a close equivalent of.

There are advantages in keeping a squad and building on it vs wholesale changes too.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Google Bot

[Surfer 1,547]

None to worry about. Top six will be City, Sheff U, Boro, Swansea, Watford, Luton. 

[Capt. Pants 4,274]

Sheff Utd and Sunderland for me, and the clubs with parachute payments. I don't think any Championship club has bought sufficiently to have a squad better than ours.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Every bookie has us as favourites.

The Baggies have recruited well. And they should figure but Bruce is on watch and a bad start could cause chaos.

Watford and Burnley will have parachute money for January if they don't start well somwill no doubt still figure.

So top 6, not in any order:

Norwich, Watford, Burnley, WBA, Huddersfield, Sheffield United.

 

[Yellow Wal 314]

The most interesting point to notice from the comments above is the fact that so many teams are fancied.

Compare this to last season and this, in the Premiership, where as per usual for six or seven teams finishing fifth is failure and for the rest finishing 17th is success.

The Championship is far better as a competitive league where all teams and matches can have such a marked impact on each other. Gone are the so many matches in the Premiership that almost need not be played because the results are foregone conclusions. The Championship is a good competitive league but, unfortunately the reward for success is to rejoin the Premiership to make up the numbers again.

Edited July 15, 2022 by Yellow Wal
typo

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,842]

Us and Watford should be up there as relegated sides, but I'm less convinced by Burnley. 

Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and West Brom are all big sides for this level and will want at least the playoffs. 

Also, Sunderland have momentum now, Hull are spending money and I've got a hunch about Cardiff for little good reason. 

So I'd say us, Watford, Boro, Sheff Utd and West Brom competing at the top, with Sunderland, Hull, Cardiff and Burnley pushing for the playoffs. 

But you never know what's going to happen in the Championship, as you often end up with a team who everybody expected to be in a relegation battle finishing in the playoffs.

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,139]

I think the fact that teams like Luton and Huddersfield were up there last season shows how weak the Championship has become. If we don't go up it will be because of something we get wrong whether it be mentality, consistency or new signings not working out. We have a good enough GK and set of defenders to keep teams at this level out and Pukki will get 20+ goals again so we should be top 6 minimum. Burnley and Watford right now will have to adapt to playing on the front foot again which makes their position less certain right now despite probably having similar quality to us, the rest of the Championship is very weak so it's ours to lose imo. 

I'm well aware we could very easily get done away at a Luton or Millwall and on their day teams like West Brom/Sheff Utd/Boro could easily beat us, but I think over the stretch if we stay consistent, find a first 11 that gels together and all players are up for the fight we should be able to pick up results regularly and finish top 2.  

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,797]

17 hours ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

Us and Watford should be up there as relegated sides, but I'm less convinced by Burnley. 

Middlesbrough, Sheffield United and West Brom are all big sides for this level and will want at least the playoffs. 

Also, Sunderland have momentum now, Hull are spending money and I've got a hunch about Cardiff for little good reason. 

So I'd say us, Watford, Boro, Sheff Utd and West Brom competing at the top, with Sunderland, Hull, Cardiff and Burnley pushing for the playoffs. 

But you never know what's going to happen in the Championship, as you often end up with a team who everybody expected to be in a relegation battle finishing in the playoffs.

I'm now more convinced by Burnley than Watford than I was a few weeks ago

The Kompany factor is an unknown and he will attract players there that they wouldnt have ordinarily have done...also using his connection with Man City to make signings

Watford on the other hand have an inexperienced manager at this level , have lost Sissoko and their 2 best players in Sarr and Dennis look like theyre leaving too

Sheff Utd will be better than they were last season and wont suffer from the same relegation hangover at the start of the season

The biggest 'unknown' is arguably ourselves

Under Farke , we knew that his methods wpuld win games in this league.

Under Smith we rarely saw us have the majority of possession in games last season so we've no idea what a Dean Smith team on the front foot looks like and how it intends to attack

[Inch High aka Inchy.. 409]

We still mainly have the same disfuncional team we had last season and I expect them to still be disfunctional sadly, 9th place for us.

Watford and Huddersfield would be my punt for top 2 in that order.

[Move Klose 303]

33 minutes ago, Inch High aka Inchy.. said:

We still mainly have the same disfuncional team we had last season and I expect them to still be disfunctional sadly, 9th place for us.

Watford and Huddersfield would be my punt for top 2 in that order.

Not a chance Huddersfield will even make top 6. They will end up like Barnsley when they lost Ismael. On the verge of losing Toffolo and O'brien aswell as losing Colwill and Sinani.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Move Klose

[Move Klose 303]

I think Luton may have a bit of a go at top 6 again, recruited well.

 

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,797]

55 minutes ago, Inch High aka Inchy.. said:

We still mainly have the same disfuncional team we had last season and I expect them to still be disfunctional sadly, 9th place for us.

Watford and Huddersfield would be my punt for top 2 in that order.

Huddersfield?....didnt Corcoran walk out on them last week??

[Canary dwarf 221]

I think Swansea are progressing nicely, good young manager playing good football , with a goal machine upfront .😁

[chicken 2,640]

Ask me again in about 3-4 weeks minimum.

I say that as it would seem that there is still a lot of business yet to happen for teams, both in and out. For example, lets take Watford.

Sissoko, King, Foster, Elliot, Gray, Zinckernagel, Kucka (loan ending) have already left, that's a fair bit of experience though undoubtedly wages as well. All released bar Sissoko and Zinckernagel. If you think how many youngsters we have shipped out is an issue, spare a moment for what looks like all of Watfords U23's... 


To add to that, they undoubtedly still have players that other teams could well swoop for such as Dennis and Sarr.

Plus you have the likes of Cathcart, Cleverly and Gosling who are all 32+... I don't doubt Watford will end up pushing, but they will have to retain at least one of Dennis and Sarr for that I feel. 

The same could be said of us, in that we have signed Hayden and Sara to address our glaring midfield balancing issue. Though we also suspect we will lose some of the talent we have yet. How well we do depends very much on who we can hold onto and how well we can replace those who do go.

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,842]

2 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

I'm now more convinced by Burnley than Watford than I was a few weeks ago

The Kompany factor is an unknown and he will attract players there that they wouldnt have ordinarily have done...also using his connection with Man City to make signings

Watford on the other hand have an inexperienced manager at this level , have lost Sissoko and their 2 best players in Sarr and Dennis look like theyre leaving too

Sheff Utd will be better than they were last season and wont suffer from the same relegation hangover at the start of the season

The biggest 'unknown' is arguably ourselves

Under Farke , we knew that his methods wpuld win games in this league.

Under Smith we rarely saw us have the majority of possession in games last season so we've no idea what a Dean Smith team on the front foot looks like and how it intends to attack

I'd argue we're the least 'unknown', certainly of the relegated sides. We're the only ones with the same head coach and we'll probably end up with a far lower turnover of players. 

Both Watford and Burnley have lost, or will lose, a few big players so they need to recruit well. I think that by August 31, Watford will have replaced their departed players better as they have a bigger budget and are actually used to having a high turnover for several years now, so this isn't necessarily new territory for them.

But the window still has seven weeks to run, so a lot could happen.

[If wed kept Howie.. 208]

i'm not sure what order the other 23 clubs end up in below us..

[Midlands Yellow 4,041]

Coventry will upset many teams, best manager in this league too. 

[Inch High aka Inchy.. 409]

4 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

Huddersfield?....didnt Corcoran walk out on them last week??

Danny Schofield is capable enough to guide them this season and they have the squad to battle for him.

[chicken 2,640]

6 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

Under Smith we rarely saw us have the majority of possession in games last season so we've no idea what a Dean Smith team on the front foot looks like and how it intends to attack

We had one premier league season plus 11 premier league games of Farke football. We dominated possession in some games, we even had pundits telling us how good our football looked, how we could, at times, out pass 'superior' opposition.

And that is all well and good, but the reality is, we were often left contemplating our lack of such good passing in the final third. Even Buendia, as good as he is/was, couldn't help create more clear cut chances. The bottom line is focusing purely on possession doesn't win games, especially not at Premier League level with the players we'll be able to attract in a first season in the premier league.

The bottom line is goals win games and we simply have never scored enough. Equally, defensively, we conceded too many. The concept of possession football is that you limit the time the opposition have the ball. The issue is that you rarely see teams have less than 30-35% of the ball. Against premier league opposition, they need fewer chances to score.

From the pre-season games so far, it looks like they are focusing on movement and transitions. Todays game saw some really nice stuff. Giannoulis in the 2nd haft cutting inside before a nice diagonal ball played to Sinani who then narrowly missed a curled far post effort.

Sure, this is pre-season, but in the past it would have been cut inside, pass to a CM, who then passes to another CM, perhaps to Pukki's feet, then to an AM, then wide, then maybe a ball into the box, by which time enough time had lapsed for teams to reset defensively and get numbers back. It could be too pedestrian, too slow. We seem to be doing more pushing and pulling, coming short, going long.

Smith seems to be looking to play a sort of new take, it's not that we don't want possession, we just have to be happy with less. And that is an important factor too, something Farke struggled to get into our squad.

It looks to me like we have a good 2-3 tactical options. We can use the width and play into feet as we seemed to look to do more 1st half with Sargent up top. Or we can play width and cross balls as we did 2nd half with Hugill. And even with two up top later on with Pukki joining Hugill and getting some joy from having a target man throwing his weight around giving the CB's two contrasting styles to try and combat. 

 

[KeiranShikari 1,426]

Us.

[HazzaJet 256]

I’m very interested to see how Burnley do, considering they’ve now lost some key players and have financial issues. I can’t see Huddersfield doing as well as they did last season. As it stands I do think we stand a good chance, but there’s still one and a half months until the end of the transfer window and so we still need to wait and see who we lose from the first team 

Of the fans who have said “recruited well” I take it that’s based on what the new signings sound like (history, experience, goals etc), but no new signing is guaranteed to turn out the same that they did at their previous club - they may do the same, they may do better, they may do worse. Lets not forget we were all really excited when we signed Gilmour last summer, and I can still remember when Krul and Pukki were signed there were loads of fans on here moaning things like “we don’t want a free agent”, “injury prone goalkeeper”, “Celtic reject”

Edited July 16, 2022 by HazzaJet

[Rock The Boat 1,332]

We are cast iron champions. The rest will trail in our wake