S25/26 | The Official Match Thread | Ipswich Town 3 Swansea City 0 | Att: 27,594 | 28/02/26 | The EFL Championship | Portman Road

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

“in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.”

Surely the league is relative though? Points hauls are hugely impacted by years where there are teams miles better than everyone else, years where there are teams that are truly dreadful or years where there is more of a much of a muchness.

You certainly really can’t compare relative performance based on points after x games. It depends in which order you’ve played other teams. Our run in is really hard. We have a lot of games against the better teams yet to come. That’s means we’ve played more of the weaker teams by definition. Which skews the points at this stage.

Only fair way is using Uncle Jeff’s coefficient! (It’s actually quite interesting if you like that sort of thing tbf!)

Uncle Jeff's Coefficient - An Ode to Uncle Jeff, The Totally Football show and its fans

Compare Premier League team performance across seasons with fixture-by-fixture analysis. Track points gained, lost, and team progression.

unclejeffscoefficient.com

 

[TruckerJack]

Last one from me as I’m sure it’s boring everyone else.

Indicator of what you’ve done compared to last year - I agree
Indicator of what you’ve done compared to the other 23 teams in the league - I disagree
(Personally, I’m far more interested in the latter at the end of a season, but I see the benefit of the staff/analysts looking at the former)

I’m not sure I ever said the league was weak this year. It’s far more even top to bottom (well 1st-23rd anyway) than I’ve seen for a long time.

Obviously your 3rd paragraph is correct, but they’d rather be promoted with 10 goals was my point, as you know that comparing an individual player’s season and a team’s season is totally different.

Yes, we would rather finish higher than lower, that’s a given. But points are a better indicator of how you have played over the course of a season and vs previous seasons.

The comment about the league being weak was in reference to the usual line trotted out about the division, and one I see year after year when people can’t explain how the league is so competitive, they just say it’s bad.

“in terms of team performance, points haul is a better indicator.”

Surely the league is relative though? Points hauls are hugely impacted by years where there are teams miles better than everyone else, years where there are teams that are truly dreadful or years where there is more of a much of a muchness.

You certainly really can’t compare relative performance based on points after x games. It depends in which order you’ve played other teams. Our run in is really hard. We have a lot of games against the better teams yet to come. That’s means we’ve played more of the weaker teams by definition. Which skews the points at this stage.

I think the league gets stronger every year, more money filters into the league both directly and to the Premier League which in turn creates bloated sides whose talent then filters down.

If we finish lower this season than last season but amass more points at the end of it, I’ll definitely think we had a season of progress, especially as those points will have been back loaded to the second half of the season since December.

 

[Cwmbwrla Floatabout]

That's way to intelligent for me.. I'll stick to my beans.. Benny agrees.

View attachment 7394

Is that Burgess from the Team Sheet?

 

[cmajack]

I think today was a combination of being outclassed and our players being on their arse after playing such a scrappy intense game against Bristol and the midweek game which was far from a standard midweek game with all the fanfare around Snoop. There’s no shame in it. We’ve got two very winnable games up next so hopefully we get back to looking like a better team.

Sad thing is, we never even gave them a game. Way way too easy for them.

 

[Londonlisa2001]

Yes, we would rather finish higher than lower, that’s a given. But points are a better indicator of how you have played over the course of a season and vs previous seasons.

The comment about the league being weak was in reference to the usual line trotted out about the division, and one I see year after year when people can’t explain how the league is so competitive, they just say it’s bad.


I think the league gets stronger every year, more money filters into the league both directly and to the Premier League which in turn creates bloated sides whose talent then filters down.

If we finish lower this season than last season but amass more points at the end of it, I’ll definitely think we had a season of progress, especially as those points will have been back loaded to the second half of the season since December.

I remain unconvinced that the league gets stronger every year. I understand the point that it should do given financial factors but that assumes consistent pounds per unit of player quality.
What I do see is incessant inflation of both fees and salaries on bang average players that takes up much of that additional money.

 

[Cwmbwrla Floatabout]

Lidl cheapo beans with a little curry powder for me.

 

[Swanjaxs]

Lidl cheapo beans with a little curry powder for me.

Typical Cwmburla boi

 

[TruckerJack]

I remain unconvinced that the league gets stronger every year. I understand the point that it should do given financial factors but that assumes consistent pounds per unit of player quality.
What I do see is incessant inflation of both fees and salaries on bang average players that takes up much of that additional money.

I think a good way to pressure test it is to see the performances of the Premier League relegation teams. The gap seems to get smaller every year between the top of the Championship and bottom of Premier League, long gone are the days of Newcastle getting nearly 100 points. In my opinion, widespread competitiveness is often mistaken for lack of quality. Ipswich looked excellent every time I’ve seen them and still can’t crack the top 2.

 

[T8AD365]

I think a good way to pressure test it is to see the performances of the Premier League relegation teams. The gap seems to get smaller every year between the top of the Championship and bottom of Premier League, long gone are the days of Newcastle getting nearly 100 points. In my opinion, widespread competitiveness is often mistaken for lack of quality. Ipswich looked excellent every time I’ve seen them and still can’t crack the top 2.

Two teams finished on 100 points last season, the season before had a team with 97 and another with 96.

Ipswich have a game in hand on Middlesbrough, if they win it they'll be second


Edit: reading your post again, you said teams relegated from the Premier League so just the one 100 point team last season

 

[bakajack]

The last couple of games have felt like steps backwards for me

The players going all out and leaving nothing behind in the tank combined with a unified and hungry press has felt missing in the last three or four games. This was more evident than ever today where our press was reactive rather than pro active meaning that their players always had time to pick their heads up and find the next pass before the players arrived to close them down.

As well as making them look better than they were (we saw that they were highly vulnerable to losing the ball in dangerous areas the few times we did catch them out) it left a bunch of players expending all the energy and leaving big gaps for them to play the ball into when they did inevitably beat the half assed press.

Compare that to the times when we had possession and it was slow, ponderous, safe and predictable. Pass it around the defenders and Stamenic before humping a floated long ball in the hopes that Nunes or Eom could get onto them and create something out of nothing (spoiler warning - they didn't).

The number of times we chose not to play in an early ball or pass it on the ground into the channel or slip it between defenders so someone could beat the press, turn and drive at them was beyond infuriating. I recall one moment in particular about 75 mins in, Walta committed a midfielder, took it to the side and played it around him to Stamenic ahead of him who had about 20 yards of free space to turn and drive into.

Instead he took the ball back past Walta under zero pressure before turning and passing it sideways to Cabango. In the first half Eom had played a beautiful ball around the full back to send Galbraith scampering free down the wing, he had a huge area he could aim to bend in a ball between keeper and onrushing center halves with three Swans players moving into the box to support him. Instead he checked back and passed it back to Stamenic who in turn passed it to Cabango resulting in the whole Ipswich team being back goalside.

 

[sit_down_jack]

Seen some criticism of Matos after today’s game (not on here btw). He may have got it wrong against Preston in the first half and earlier on today but it’s harsh to criticise him considering where we were when he came in. He is still a very new manager, not just to this league but in general. He’s got to be given the space to make mistakes and learn from them.

 

[Frankie Burrows Cap]

I think a good way to pressure test it is to see the performances of the Premier League relegation teams. The gap seems to get smaller every year between the top of the Championship and bottom of Premier League, long gone are the days of Newcastle getting nearly 100 points. In my opinion, widespread competitiveness is often mistaken for lack of quality. Ipswich looked excellent every time I’ve seen them and still can’t crack the top 2.

I’m jumping back in on the 100 points comment sorry. Burnley have got 100+ in 2 of the last 3 seasons (and they didn’t even win the league last year)

The last 2/3 seasons have shown the exact opposite about the gap between the two leagues. Happily, this season seems to be reverting back to the pattern from the decade before with established clubs in danger of relegation and promoted teams doing well (comparatively) in the PL.

 

[Captain_Sham]

Leicester got 102 points. Apart from all the teams that did get 100 points, there havent been any. You are right about that.

 

[TruckerJack]

Two teams finished on 100 points last season, the season before had a team with 97 and another with 96.

Ipswich have a game in hand on Middlesbrough, if they win it they'll be second

They did, but the Premier teams are now struggling with the influx of money into the league.

Two League One promoted sides with a larger budget than the majority of the league + the parachute teams.

If Ipswich don’t win their game in hand they remain 4th, which is crazy considering their squad is full quality and valued at nearly
200m.

 

[TruckerJack]

I’m jumping back in on the 100 points comment sorry. Burnley have got 100+ in 2 of the last 3 seasons (and they didn’t even win the league last year)

The last 2/3 seasons have shown the exact opposite about the gap between the two leagues. Happily, this season seems to be reverting back to the pattern from the decade before with established clubs in danger of relegation and promoted teams doing well (competitively) in the PL.

I’m talking about now.

I am saying you won’t be getting teams relegated and walking the league now. It’s too competitive with cash spreading out to teams that wouldn’t normally have it.

Saying it’s happened before doesn’t take away the fact that PL teams are not running away with the league.