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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2016 14:03:33 GMT 1
For people who don't like the play-offs, last night provided them with plenty of ammunition. For starters, Sheffield Wednesday's players looked a lot fresher than Brighton's. That's because they were. Wednesday went into their last league match knowing that they would finish sixth regardless of the result. That meant they could rest players and that last night's starting line-up contained just one player who started that last league game. Brighton, OTOH, had something to play for, so put out the best side they could. Things got worse once the match started. Shortly before half-time, Brighton had to make a double substitution due to two injuries. Until that point the two sides had been reasonably well-matched, but the loss of two players changed that. Within five minutes of the second half starting, Brighton had to make a third substitution, and just a few minutes after that they were down to ten men because of a fourth injury. Thankfully, they somehow managed to limit Wednesday to just one more goal to end up with a two goal deficit. Now they just have to hope they've got enough fit players for Monday. All of the above would be frustrating but "just one of those things" in one league match out of 46. In a two-leg play-off, they were more than just frustrating, particularly against a team that finished 15 points behind Brighton. That makes me feel that my preferred format should be tweaked to favour the highest-placed side more, particularly when the gaps were so high. Maybe the fourth team should start the mini league with zero points while the others get, say, 0.25 points for each point they are ahead of that team. This year, that would give Derby 1 point, Hull 2.25 and Brighton 3.75. If the gap was so large that the fourth team had no chance of wining the group, they would be eliminated and it would just be a three team league. Of course, another advantage would be that it would reduce the chances of teams finishing level on points. But Brighton obviously are not prepared then for the riggers and toughness of playing in the premier league if their players are falling apart before the end of the first leg, some teams get involved in cups and euro tournaments and play many more games than the opposition, Leicester a prime example of a team with no extra games, where as Spurs, Arsenal had euro games and FA cup.
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Post by suedehead on May 14, 2016 14:46:16 GMT 1
For people who don't like the play-offs, last night provided them with plenty of ammunition. For starters, Sheffield Wednesday's players looked a lot fresher than Brighton's. That's because they were. Wednesday went into their last league match knowing that they would finish sixth regardless of the result. That meant they could rest players and that last night's starting line-up contained just one player who started that last league game. Brighton, OTOH, had something to play for, so put out the best side they could. Things got worse once the match started. Shortly before half-time, Brighton had to make a double substitution due to two injuries. Until that point the two sides had been reasonably well-matched, but the loss of two players changed that. Within five minutes of the second half starting, Brighton had to make a third substitution, and just a few minutes after that they were down to ten men because of a fourth injury. Thankfully, they somehow managed to limit Wednesday to just one more goal to end up with a two goal deficit. Now they just have to hope they've got enough fit players for Monday. All of the above would be frustrating but "just one of those things" in one league match out of 46. In a two-leg play-off, they were more than just frustrating, particularly against a team that finished 15 points behind Brighton. That makes me feel that my preferred format should be tweaked to favour the highest-placed side more, particularly when the gaps were so high. Maybe the fourth team should start the mini league with zero points while the others get, say, 0.25 points for each point they are ahead of that team. This year, that would give Derby 1 point, Hull 2.25 and Brighton 3.75. If the gap was so large that the fourth team had no chance of wining the group, they would be eliminated and it would just be a three team league. Of course, another advantage would be that it would reduce the chances of teams finishing level on points. But Brighton obviously are not prepared then for the riggers and toughness of playing in the premier league if their players are falling apart before the end of the first leg, some teams get involved in cups and euro tournaments and play many more games than the opposition, Leicester a prime example of a team with no extra games, where as Spurs, Arsenal had euro games and FA cup. I'm sure Brighton will be looking to strengthen their squad if they go up. Besides, the main point of my post was to highlight how unlucky they were to suffer four injuries in such an important match. The fact that Wednesday's reward for relative failure was to be able to rest their players (suggesting they may also not be prepared for the rigours of a Premier League season) just added to Brighton's woes.
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