Predict the Championship 2017-18.

[Tayls_7]

I like Whelan and Elmohamady but Hourihane and Lansbury look like more lame ducks. I'd persist with Bjarnasson as at least he realises a midfielder is permitted inside the opposition's 18 yard box. His touch and passing have been appalling but it may be due to injury and he requires game time.  Even the play offs are not a foregone conclusion which is ridiculous. 

[curlytailavfc]

top 5 if bruce buys a new satnav showing where the goals are

[Chris Smith]

It's because we desperately lack goals and creativity and have added no goalscorers and only one creative player. With one creative player now set for a long time out injured, we have no more attacking threat than last season.

I'm fairly confident our defence will be among the best, if not the best, in the league. I don't think that will be enough to get us up on its own, though.

Hogan has been completely written off. He has been reduced to a one dimensional player when in reality he would not have got where he is without having more to his game. If (yes I know) Gabby maintains his current level of commitment then he will score goals at this level. That is without taking into account the potential for goals from elsewhere. On top of that with our defence we look perfectly capable of clean sheets meaning a single goal would be enough. To me we appear to be falling into the trap of under estimating our strengths and over inflating our deficiencies. You said yourself you have no idea about the rest but still seem convinced enough of them will be better than us.

[Ads]

With Terry we have a stronger defence. With Whelan we have improved the midfield. With Elmohamady we have added to our attacking options. There is still a month to go of the transfer window. I just do not see the logic behind anyone suggesting little improvement on last season.

I think Whelan being better on the ball than Jedinak and Terry replacing Baker for improved distribution should mean we are better at getting on the front foot and playing a slightly less compressed midfield line.

[robbo1874]

Just seen Villa are 7-1 joint favourites for the league next season. If I was a betting. Man I might have a few bob on Fulham at 8-1

[Damo70]

1 Sheff Wed
2 Villa
3 Boro
4 Reading
5 Sheff U
6 Leeds
7 Derby
8 Cardiff
9 Fulham
10 Wolves
11 Norwich
12 Hull
13 Sunderland
14 QPR
15 Bolton
16 Small Heath
17 Forest
18 Brentford
19 Ipswich
20 Burton
21 Barnsley
22 Preston
23 Bristol City
24 Millwall

[robbo1874]

Is that your prediction Damo, or based on bookies odds?

[cdbearsfan]

I can't see Brentford and Barnsley doing that badly. Wouldn't be amazed if Brentford went up.

[Damo70]

Is that your prediction Damo, or based on bookies odds?

My prediction. I haven't checked the odds for a while.

[QuintonVilla]

Boro 1st
Fulham 2nd
Wolves will make the play offs
We'll be 6th-9th. Lack of goals will probably see us miss out on the play offs.
Small Heath mid table.
The rest meh. Crap league.

[cdbearsfan]

It's because we desperately lack goals and creativity and have added no goalscorers and only one creative player. With one creative player now set for a long time out injured, we have no more attacking threat than last season.

I'm fairly confident our defence will be among the best, if not the best, in the league. I don't think that will be enough to get us up on its own, though.

Hogan has been completely written off. He has been reduced to a one dimensional player when in reality he would not have got where he is without having more to his game. If (yes I know) Gabby maintains his current level of commitment then he will score goals at this level. That is without taking into account the potential for goals from elsewhere. On top of that with our defence we look perfectly capable of clean sheets meaning a single goal would be enough. To me we appear to be falling into the trap of under estimating our strengths and over inflating our deficiencies. You said yourself you have no idea about the rest but still seem convinced enough of them will be better than us.

As I've said, lots of teams finished above us last year because we didn't score enough goals. Nothing we've done this Summer has convinced me that we will score enough goals this season. So unless they've all got worse, I don't see much evidence that we will storm the league.

Hogan might come good, who knows? But that seems based more on wishful thinking than anything else. And if we are relying on one goal a season Agbonlahor to suddenly turn into Gerd Muller, then, surely, it doesn't take too much of a leap of the imagination to work out why some of us think we might be less than prolific this season.

I'm more than happy to change my views if we can add a couple of goalscoring options between now and the end of the month.

[Damo70]

Is that your prediction Damo, or based on bookies odds?

The bookies go -

1 Boro
2 Villa
3 Fulham
4 Sheff Wed
5 Wolves
6 Norwich
7 Derby
8 Leeds
9 Hull
10 Brentford
11 Sunderland
12 Cardiff
13 Sheff U
14 Forest
15 Reading
16 Small Heath
17 Preston
18 Bristol City
19 Ipswich
20 QPR
21 Millwall
22 Barnsley
23 Bolton
24 Burton

[SoccerHQ]

It's because we desperately lack goals and creativity and have added no goalscorers and only one creative player. With one creative player now set for a long time out injured, we have no more attacking threat than last season.

I'm fairly confident our defence will be among the best, if not the best, in the league. I don't think that will be enough to get us up on its own, though.

If you keep clean sheets at this level you win games.

Start of last season we could not keep clean sheets. Just three in our first 11 games (Rotherham, Derby and Ipswich where they hit the post about 3 times).

We started doing it from end of February and went on a good run for two months so with Terry and Whelan in we're going to be even harder to play through with their expert positioning.

Someone will pop up with a goal, we've become a lot better at set pieces so I imagine that will be one route where we'll nick games just like we did against SHA.

We'll be in contention. I'm bemused by people saying we'll be tenth or lower, when did SB last finish that low in the championship when he actually was in charge from August?

[cdbearsfan]

Our defence wasn't really a problem last year... even despite the early season calamities we still had one of the best defences in the league. We struggle to score goals. We've done next to nothing to address this.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

Our defence wasn't really a problem last year... even despite the early season calamities we still had one of the best defences in the league. We struggle to score goals. We've done next to nothing to address this.

The main difference now being that we don't need to have an entire mid-field there to maintain that security at the back! We should now have some spare to get forward.