It is widwly acknowleged that most club managers dont bother looking at the tables until at least 10 games into the season. Vital Hull takes a look at how last seasons 10 game stage shaped the table for the rest of the season.
Hull City find themselves lying in 15th place this season with 12 points from 10 games, at the corresponding stage last season we were sitting in 23rd place with 8 points from 10 games. 12 points last season would have seen us lying in 16th place at the 10 game stage.
If we look at the bottom 10 clubs from last season and compare them with the bottom 10 clubs this season as well as their final finishing positions we can see if it can tell us how the season is going to pan out.
Last Season
14th Sunderland (finished 1st)
15th Coventry (finished 17th)
16th QPR (finished 18th)
17th Norwich (finished 16th)
18th Barnsley (finished 20th)
19th Leicester (finished 19th)
20th Leeds Utd (finished 22nd)
21st Stoke City (finished 8th)
22nd Southend (finished 23rd)
23rd Hull City (finished 20th)
24th Sheff Wed (finished 9th)
So looking at last seasons table it would appear that with the exception of Sunderland, Stoke & Sheff Wed the final league positions are very similiar to the positions after 10 games.
This seasons bottom 10 looks like this at the moment.
14th Southampton
15th Hull City
16th Blackpool
17th Colchester
18th Leicester
19th C.Palace
20th Sheff Utd
21st Preston
22nd Norwich
23rd Sheff Wed
24th QPR
You would expect the likes of Sheff Utd, Preston & possibly Palace (with a new manager) to pull away from the bottom half so looking at the bottom teams it would seem that QPR, Sheff Wed, Norwich, Leicester & Colchester seem to be the clubs in danger of going down, City are looking good for a mid table finish at this stage of the season, although obviously it isnt all cut and dried yet.
In conclusion it would seem that indeed after 10 games in, the table does have a familiar end of season look to it, lets just hope that The Tigers can buck the trend
I think you are right. Sides like Sheff Utd, Saints, Palace and Leicester all have the financial clout to sort things out in Jan. I think Colchester are gonna struggle and Preston don’t have the players to push up the table.
This is very interesting. As a Col U fan, I’d like to see us higher but that evience shows that only three sides (Sunderland and Sheffield W) went on to put good runs together after this point a year ago.
I’ve decided not to look at my fantasy team until 20 games in….might have some points then !…seriously, a more consolodated start by City this year…realisticaly we could have been much further up as well but a few daft games, team selections and tactics make all that difference…this is one thing though that will need to cahnge should we have any delusions of grandour in moving on up………….
Lucks intresting as long as we keep playing like we are and score more goals we should have a decent season.
The four defeats have only been by a solitary goal and none of the victorious teams have looked better than us so plenty of optimism there. Just a question of keeping key players fit and having the proverbial “rub of the green”.
I concur with SirLes!