Who do you think will be the runners in the title race (League 1)

[SKRam]

Big up to you @Ambitious that’s a terrific effort, though as you’ve alluded to, new arrival affecting your zzzs. Congrats!  I don’t go for big predictions for any leagues particularly other than have confidence we’ll be up there with the front runners. Blackpool am surprised they are so confident but my dark(ish) horses are Leyton Orient. I think they’ll  do well. 

[Mucker1884]

When I first spotted this thread title, I thought it said "Who do you think will be the runners-up in the title race (League 1)".

 

Well, you can imagine my sheer relief when I realised it wasn't @David up to his old wumming shenanigans again!  He upset enough folk last season!    🤣

[Alty_Ram]

Without reinforcements I think we'd struggle for playoffs so possibly 8th/9th as it stands. Bolton and Barnsley for automatics. Blackpool, Peterborough, Oxford and Portsmouth for playoffs.

[Day]

16 minutes ago, Mucker1884 said:

When I first spotted this thread title, I thought it said "Who do you think will be the runners-up in the title race (League 1)".

 

Well, you can imagine my sheer relief when I realised it wasn't @David up to his old wumming shenanigans again!  He upset enough folk last season!    🤣

I have a topic ready to go for where are we having the League 1 title party. Just wait till I drop that one in September.

[Mucker1884]

Just now, David said:

I have a topic ready to go for where are we having the League 1 title party. Just wait till I drop that one in September.

Just as long as I'm on the invitation list, I'll be right there with yer, buddy!

Can't wait!

[Ambitious]

1 hour ago, Alty_Ram said:

Without reinforcements I think we'd struggle for playoffs so possibly 8th/9th as it stands. Bolton and Barnsley for automatics. Blackpool, Peterborough, Oxford and Portsmouth for playoffs.

Not a dig, so don't take it as one, but I'd be really interested to hear why you feel Oxford are currently better equipped to finish in the play-offs over ourselves? 

It's a team that were two points away from relegation last season, who have since lost their (joint) top goalscorer in Kyle Joseph and had just the two league wins in the final four months of last season. They've added, for my money, just two good signings in Ruben Rodrigues (essentially unproven in professional football, though) and Jordan Thorniley. Mark Harris has never scored more than 3 goals in a season, regardless of level (3 in 24 games in non-league) and Josh McEachran was a big part of a recently relegated MK Dons side. 

The loan players are essentially unproven, with no real high expectations. They did do well against QPR but were demolished by a more competent Bristol City side (a half-strength Bristol City side) a few days before. 

[Alty_Ram]

3 hours ago, Ambitious said:

Not a dig, so don't take it as one, but I'd be really interested to hear why you feel Oxford are currently better equipped to finish in the play-offs over ourselves? 

It's a team that were two points away from relegation last season, who have since lost their (joint) top goalscorer in Kyle Joseph and had just the two league wins in the final four months of last season. They've added, for my money, just two good signings in Ruben Rodrigues (essentially unproven in professional football, though) and Jordan Thorniley. Mark Harris has never scored more than 3 goals in a season, regardless of level (3 in 24 games in non-league) and Josh McEachran was a big part of a recently relegated MK Dons side. 

The loan players are essentially unproven, with no real high expectations. They did do well against QPR but were demolished by a more competent Bristol City side (a half-strength Bristol City side) a few days before. 

No, that's an absolutely fair and reasonable question and in truth it was a bit of a wild card to throw in there rather than naming the usual suspects. I hadn't in fairness really noticed exactly how they'd finished the season but was going on a memory of what seems to have been a bit of a purple patch with them handing out some trouncings against poorer teams and at the same time getting some very creditable draws against the top sides at the sharp end of the season around April which perhaps suggested better things ahead. Draws against Wednesday, Peterborough and Pompey just suggested to me that with a few tweaks they might be a dark horse.

So no, your points are entirely reasonable. I do however think that currently we have gone slightly backwards overall and our squad is too small to sustain the football we want to play. It feels to me like we are in the crosshairs of a significant number of teams (Wycombe, Lincoln, etc) and I think we are short on numbers, creativity in midfield and strikers as it stands. Time for that to change with loans of course but we kick of the season on Saturday and we are already carrying injuries to players who have not had a pre-season in what is a small squad. I'd love us to start strongly over the first say 10 games and set the pace but we feel a bit under-strength to me still.

[europia]

Bolton and Pompey top two. Closely followed by Charlton and Barnsley and maybe Bristol. Hopefully the Rams in the play off mix. 

[MackworthRamIsGod]

13 hours ago, IlsonDerby said:

Honestly think we’re forgetting how crap most of the division was last season with the best teams (by far) having gone up and those competing with us getting weaker (bar Bolton) Barnsley and Posh definitely not going to be the worries they were last season. Teams coming down are in all kinds of trouble except Blackpool. 
 

Our squad is stronger than last season. Undoubtedly so in my opinion. Yes there are areas we’d still like to strengthen and I think we will but I’ll eat my hat if we’re not top 3/4 at the end of the season. 
 

A weaker league ☑️ 

A stronger squad ☑️ 

Manager with a full pre season ☑️ 

 

 

Our defense is stronger, undoubtedly, but we have just lost our best player in McGoldrick and Jason Knight, without replacing either.

As it stands today I would be amazed if we bettered last seasons position.

 

[plymouthram]

8 hours ago, Mucker1884 said:

Just as long as I'm on the invitation list, I'll be right there with yer, buddy!

Can't wait!

Nice to see you practicing your dance moves dressed in black and white.

[Rampant]

Top 8 for me includes us obviously but I'll not predict where we figure in it. The others, in order:

 

Portsmouth

Peterborough

Bolton

Lincoln

Charlton

Barnsley

Oxford

 

 

[BramcoteRam84]

Why all this love for Bolton? Am I missing something? Think they’ll be in the top 6 but not winning the league, no way. Ok they signed the bloke who was decent for Fleetwood last season but their best player was Conor Bradley the loanee from Liverpool, doesn’t look like they’ve replaced him. 

Think despite the summer managerial upheaval and losing one or two players Barnsley should not be ruled out. They’ll be in the mix, I expect Blackpool to be right up there now they’ve got Critchley back, Pompey and Charlton will be more competitive and Oxford could be a wildcard. Burton could also push playoffs close. I’m going with: 

1. Derby (Why not)

2. Blackpool

3. Barnsley

4. Portsmouth

5. Bolton

6. Peterborough 

7. Charlton

8. Oxford

9. Burton

10. Reading 

[IlsonDerby]

9 hours ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Our defense is stronger, undoubtedly, but we have just lost our best player in McGoldrick and Jason Knight, without replacing either.

As it stands today I would be amazed if we bettered last seasons position.

 

Defence is best in the division. 
Replacing Knight with Smith isn’t the dream scenario but is fine and will work. 
Replacing McGoldrick with Washington isn’t ideal if you assume we are going to be having the same levels of creativity as last season. I suspect that with actual wingbacks and having had a pre season with the side we’ll be a lot more creative as a team rather than over reliant on one player for creativity. 
 

His goals last season were at times crucial but important to remember that he scored in 15 out of 46 league matches. For over 2/3s of our matches last season we had to work without his goals. 
 

Collins scored in 10 of our matches for a reference point. 
 

As the team currently stands I’d wager we’d finish in the top 6 just because the division is weaker this year. With the additions Warne wants to make I think autos becomes the aim. 

[oldtimeram]

We are stronger in defence hopefully, but we are weaker in midfield and definitely attack, so I think we will struggle to get in the play off places.  I hope we do rather than expect it.

 

Unless we get in a decent striker to replace McGoldrick and a decent midfield player to replace Knight I will be quite disappointed with the business done in the transfer window.

If Bird is sold too, I'll be even more disillusioned with our progress and ambition to get out of League One.

Who that is down to, I don't know.

Still a bit of time to go, to show our true desire to get a serious promotion challenge underway.

Glass still half full at the moment.

Edited August 3, 2023 by oldtimeram
Addition

[Anag Ram]

5 minutes ago, oldtimeram said:

We are stronger in defence hopefully, but we are weaker in midfield and definitely attack, so I think we will struggle to get in the play off places.  I hope we do rather than expect it.

 

Unless we get in a decent striker to replace McGoldrick and a decent midfield player to replace Knight I will be quite disappointed with the business done in the transfer window.

If Bird is sold too, I'll be even more disillusioned with our progress and ambition to get out of League One.

Who that is down to, I don't know.

Steady on, Oldtimeram!

 

[TomTom92]

I think as things stand we'll finish anywhere between 4th and 8th.

With 3 good signings, top 2.

All eyes on the recruitment team.

[Warren Blufitt]

I must admit to being somewhat amazed at the love for Barnsley on here. I live in Barnsley and I can tell you that the locals aren’t anywhere near as confident as you lot are. They’ve lost 3 of their best players, look like losing Norwood too and have replaced these players with mainly National League defenders. Losing their captain Mads Anderson is the biggest blow he was so important for them and let’s not forget that they’re currently facing punishment from the EFL over misleading them on ownership rights and share holdings. They’re going to get at least points deducted I suspect so for me I’d put them mid table. As for Derby I can’t see you not pushing for automatics, Warne still has plenty of time to recruit a top striker and I’ve no doubt he’s just waiting for bricks to fall into place. As for Wanderers, people make a lot of our losing Bradley but to be fair whilst he was brilliant first half of the season he fell off towards the end but since he’s now been put up for loan again who says he won’t come back. In his place we’ve signed a guy in Dacres Cogley who so far seems to have a far better final delivery that Brad, which is probably why he’s still not ready at Liverpool. Wigan will be relegated, they’ll struggle pulling back 8 points, especially when you do them on Saturday. They’ve lost most of their quality young players and been left with oldies on big salaries. Blackpool a bit of a dark horse, likewise Pompey but I still see it as the bookies do with yourselves and Wanderers favourites for the automatics.

[Alty_Ram]

11 hours ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Our defense is stronger, undoubtedly, but we have just lost our best player in McGoldrick and Jason Knight, without replacing either.

As it stands today I would be amazed if we bettered last seasons position.

 

This is it for me. We seem to have have done decent work with the defence and acquired specialist wingbacks but we look weaker in midfield and attack options.

Obviously it's not over yet regarding loans and such but overall it seems to be a step backwards for me and I think we'll struggle with the squad at this moment to better last year's effort. Other than with Rams tinted glasses I don't see how folk can see this side as head and shoulders better than last year and a shot at he title when we were 22 points short of even the 2nd automatic places last year, never mind the title.

It feels like playoffs at best IMHO and I think we'll do well to get that so would need to consider it a decent effort. I'm worried that some folks expectations of what this squad can or should achieve does not reflect the severe limitations that we continue to operate under. I really don't want to see anyone baying for Warne's head because we're in 7th at Christmas when they expected us to walk the league for some reason. Hoping for automatics is one thing. Expecting/predicting it is quite another.

[Walkley Ram]

Honestly can't see us as champions, but I can see us pushing for 2nd or playoffs.

If I'm wrong and we do win the league, I am happy to pay the forfeit of eating an elephant's foot from birds.

Edit - Bolton champs for me.

Edited August 3, 2023 by oodledoodle

[Ambitious]

Bolton are truly the club that appears most likely at this point to be able to compete - but it's not really mentioned that they lost arguably the best RWB in the league from last season, a player massively important to their success and essentially a £20m goalkeeper. They've replaced Trafford with Nathan Baxter who had a fairly torrid time at Hull last season (21 goals conceded in 12 games, 1 clean sheet) binned after that spell of games and Bradley with Josh Dacres-Cogley.. yeah.. a 27 year old Tranmere full back who has played the majority of his career in League Two. 

It's not exactly been a home run of a summer from them, either. Although I do suspect they will be keen in the loan market later in the window.