Predictions 2021/22

[T.A]

From a neutral point of view this division looks a lot more wide open than usual. I don't see a stand out team never mind 3 or 4 teams. Maybe you lot will have a better idea than me but anyone willing to make some predictions for this season?

 

[shoddycollins]

What are we predicting? Who will win the title or how far into the season we get before it's abandoned?

Seriously though, I think Bradford look like really good shouts for promotion this time around. They're my standouts anyway.

Swindon looked like a basket case, and still have one or two issues to deal with, but they still have a decent squad and now that they have a manager and owner in place I think they'll do well. None of the relegated teams look like they'll struggle in any way so I imagine Brovers, Rochdale and Northampton will all be in or around the playoff places.

Oldham are another one that confuses me, decent squad on paper, terrible boardroom. If they don't self-destruct then you can see that squad of players doing quite well.

I expect FGR and Salford to be in and around it again thought he latter probably being on their fifth manager of the season by the time they once again stumble into the playoffs with a squad and manager who can't remember each other's names and then just bottle it.

Can see Barrow being a shout for playoffs, though their fans seem to have gotten a bit overexcited with the outlandish transfer rumours they're putting about.

 

[Attila the hun]

Salford Bristol rovers and Bradford should be right up there I got a feeling Port vale and Walsall could go well as for the bottom 2 I expect one of the teams that came up to go back down and I think Scunthorpe will struggle Swindon need bodies in sooner rather than later and not just panic signings to fill the squad as for us I would be happy with a top half finish

 

[kieran_vale]

Would probably have to put Bristol Rovers as favourites for the title and maybe Tranmere also in that conversation. I do think though next season is going to be very evenly matched and whoever does win the league will probably do it with a lower points total than usual.

There's a group of clubs I would say that include Vale, Mansfield, Orient and Carlisle who I think should challenge for the playoffs at least on paper but in our case and Mansfield's also I am mindful that's not the first time that has been the case and it's gone badly wrong.

One club who fly under the radar a bit that could form a challenge is Harrogate. Seem to have invested heavily in their forward line and now have a years experience in this league under their belt. Their manager also has the security of knowing the owner / his dad will be patient with him at the start.

Scunny look like they are in some trouble. I'm not sure on the other one but would look at any club which has been having difficulties with ownership.

 

[Indian Dan]

Autos - Vale Bradford Orient

POs - Mansfield Colchester Salford Walsall

In the relegation mix - Scunny Pools Sutton

Outsider Stevenage

 

[BarraMatt]

Autos - Bradford, Vale, Salford

Playoffs - Bristol Rovers, Newport, Rochdale, Mansfield

Relegation mix - Scunthorpe, Sutton, Hartlepool, at a complete guess.

I think there are a lot less dodgy looking teams than there were this time last year. Hartlepool and Swindon need some players in and they've a good chance of being fine. As for us I don't think we will go under the radar, somewhere around lower mid table would be an expectation and one I'd take to be honest.

It's hard put on paper any definite relegation candidates other than Scunthorpe. It could be a struggle for Sutton and Hartlepool as we found last year. The latter had a similar problem as we did in losing one or two standout players but at least they have a manager that knows what he is doing.

I'd expect media predictions to put us in the relegation mix based off our finish last year and the fact we also lost our top scorer. Despite the relative lack of quality in our squad last season once we had a manager in place that had a clue we had the results of a side that would plod along in 13th or 14th. Cooper is a significant upgrade on David Dunn and Michael Jolley.

 

[valefan16]

It’s hard to call this year, no real mega stand outs although Cambridge, Morecambe and Cheltenham wouldn’t have been most picks last year for promotion!

No big club bottoming out like Bolton or Portsmouth for example and the four down are league two regulars.

Salford I haven’t noticed as much this close season in terms of huge investment? Maybe I’ve missed that?

Bristol Rovers, Bradford, Mansfield should do well.

Tranmere always dangerous.

We are a difficult one, we’ve done some decent business. I expect us to be better than last season, if that’s enough to challenge we will have to see but don’t want to get burnt with the expectation that failed to deliver last season.

 

[Agombar stool]

Bit too early to call. Some clubs have plenty of business still to do. For example we have 7 first team players so anyone predicting how we are doing I think is a little premature. I expect us to be lower down the table but that could change based on who we recruit.

Of other teams I like what Walsall are doing and have also been impressed with Orient. Everyone else is much of a muchness.

 

[Soz]

barrow definitely outsiders for playoffs for me. some decent signings, experienced manager in, solid platform from staying up in their first year back.

bradford, orient and bristol rovers all look strong, vale, tranmere, mansfield not too far behind, walsall should be up towards the playoffs i think too

 

[T.A]

Interesting that I have Northampton down as finishing in the top 7 and no one has mentioned them yet

 

[Soup Ladle]

Honestly no idea as haven't paid much attention the last 4 years. Barely know any players, or where anyone finished last season.

I just want two sides worse than us this year and that's all that matters.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

I’m useless at predicting especially at this level, where there’s such a high level of player turnover and due to lack of quality I don’t think budgets have as much of an impact as higher up.

Regarding us, I’m happy with our business but worth noting for anyone thinking we’ll be autos. We currently only have Andy Cook and Lee Angol as forwards. We’ll only play 1 up top but we need another decent forward as we can’t be relying on Angol should anything happen to Cook. I’m not sure on our full backs yet either, other than that the rest of the squad is strong enough.

 

[masi51]

From a neutral point of view this division looks a lot more wide open than usual. I don't see a stand out team never mind 3 or 4 teams. Maybe you lot will have a better idea than me but anyone willing to make some predictions for this season?

Going to try and guess your leagues promotion this season.............3 up
Going for 1st Red lion, 2nd Dog And Duck...........Play offs Rammy

 

[denzel ecfc]

No one tipping us then? Fair enough.

On current squads I'd say Bradford, B Rovers and Salford for the autos.

I think Harrogate, Mansfield, Vale and FGR could sneak into the playoffs.

 

[Essex2Wessex]

Autos: Bradford, the Gas and one of the ones I've listed as play off contenders

Play offs: 4 of: us, Walsall, Barrow, Mansfield, Orient, Barrow, Tranmere

Relegation: Scunthorpe, Hartlepool

Think Sutton will have it tough but will be motivated and smart to find a way to stay up, and won't be the first team promoted to the fourth tier to go straight down. Not really sure what's going on at Hartlepool so may be excessively pessimistic about them.

As ever,anything at all, good or bad, could happen at Oldham. Imagine Swindon will kick into gear by mid-season after an early struggle. Salford will disappoint their owners again.

 

[Boz]

If the season were starting tomorrow, I wouldn’t fancy our chances of making the play-offs as still lacking in a few areas, most notably a main striker. Fortunately there’s still time to fix that.

Barrow, Bradford, Orient and Walsall seem to have done decent business so far.

 

[T.A]

It seems there doesn't look like many teams have a 20-30 goal striker or strikers which in theory will make the top 7 or even top half very close together. To me there are a good 10-12 teams that you could make a good case for going up this season.

Even a team like Bristol Rovers that look pretty strong but the uncertainty of Barton could knock them out of their stride at a crucial point.

 

[Robshep]

If the season were starting tomorrow, I wouldn’t fancy our chances of making the play-offs as still lacking in a few areas, most notably a main striker. Fortunately there’s still time to fix that.

Barrow, Bradford, Orient and Walsall seem to have done decent business so far.

Where exactly are we lacking in a few areas. I would be interested to know. Is it goalkeeping? Is it defence? Is it midfield? We may lack experience of playing in the EFL up front but that was the case in 2018-19 and our main striker didn't do too badly then despite limited EFL games.
Why not wait until August the 6th before getting pessimistic and if we have the same squad then i will understand your view.
I will not personally make any predictions on how we will get on until the club can no longer sign players after deadline day.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Autos: Bradford, the Gas and one of the ones I've listed as play off contenders

Play offs: 4 of: us, Walsall, Barrow, Mansfield, Orient, Barrow, Tranmere

Relegation: Scunthorpe, Hartlepool

Think Sutton will have it tough but will be motivated and smart to find a way to stay up, and won't be the first team promoted to the fourth tier to go straight down. Not really sure what's going on at Hartlepool so may be excessively pessimistic about them.

As ever,anything at all, good or bad, could happen at Oldham. Imagine Swindon will kick into gear by mid-season after an early struggle. Salford will disappoint their owners again.

So good you're tipping us for the play-offs twice?

It's odd seeing us tipped for the play-offs as the general consensus seems to be that mid-table would be an achievement. We did our business early so maybe that made a few people sit up and take note, but we still lack a few key players.

Bradford should walk the league, and Salford should come good eventually. Scunthorpe look to be signing the cheapest available options which is a worry, and Hartlepool look arguably weaker than they were a month ago so might struggle too.

 

[GTFCfish]

So good you're tipping us for the play-offs twice?

It's odd seeing us tipped for the play-offs as the general consensus seems to be that mid-table would be an achievement. We did our business early so maybe that made a few people sit up and take note, but we still lack a few key players.

Bradford should walk the league, and Salford should come good eventually. Scunthorpe look to be signing the cheapest available options which is a worry, and Hartlepool look arguably weaker than they were a month ago so might struggle too.

Just for information we were also quite widely tipped for the play offs last season.

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Just for information we were also quite widely tipped for the play offs last season.

Yeah, but you didn't bother to do a pre-season, if I remember correctly?

 

[shoddycollins]

Interesting that I have Northampton down as finishing in the top 7 and no one has mentioned them yet

I literally mentioned them in the first reply to this thread.

In this kind of weird ground-hog-day-esque time-vortex we've been stuck in for the past 18 months, it feel as though their playoff win was only yesterday, almost as if they should still be celebrating that... yet here they are... and Swindon for that matter.

 

[shoddycollins]

No one tipping us then? Fair enough.

On current squads I'd say Bradford, B Rovers and Salford for the autos.

I think Harrogate, Mansfield, Vale and FGR could sneak into the playoffs.

I thought about and if pushed might tip you for playoffs but wasn't pushed so remained on the fence since I was unsure if you were strengthening much or if you were starting to fall away after so many nearly seasons. At this point Exeter for playoffs has almost become a default prediction and this season doesn't seem like one for that kind of prediction.

Mansfield, are still highly fancied by the bookies I notice. Not really sure why though, when Radford throws his money about they struggle, so now he's not doing that any more but I'm unsure why they would still be considered serious challengers, unless someone knows something I don't.

 

[shoddycollins]

Yeah, but you didn't bother to do a pre-season, if I remember correctly?

Oh yeah I remember Ian Holloway banging on about how other clubs were being irresponsible in preparing for a season that might not happen. Any media outlet that gets him on as a supposed canny old expert in lower league football needs their head checked after that.

 

[SELatic]

What are we predicting? Who will win the title or how far into the season we get before it's abandoned?

Seriously though, I think Bradford look like really good shouts for promotion this time around. They're my standouts anyway.

Swindon looked like a basket case, and still have one or two issues to deal with, but they still have a decent squad and now that they have a manager and owner in place I think they'll do well. None of the relegated teams look like they'll struggle in any way so I imagine Brovers, Rochdale and Northampton will all be in or around the playoff places.

Oldham are another one that confuses me, decent squad on paper, terrible boardroom. If they don't self-destruct then you can see that squad of players doing quite well.

I expect FGR and Salford to be in and around it again thought he latter probably being on their fifth manager of the season by the time they once again stumble into the playoffs with a squad and manager who can't remember each other's names and then just bottle it.

Can see Barrow being a shout for playoffs, though their fans seem to have gotten a bit overexcited with the outlandish transfer rumours they're putting about.

Genuinely interested in your comment here re Latics’ squad as I don’t have that view at all. We’ve signed on a couple of last year’s no-hopers in defence in Jameson and Diarra and brought in 2 from Scunthorpe and 1 from Southend - both of which had poor seasons last season.

The keeper we’ve signed has decent reviews and I think Hope will be handy at this level. But Bahamboula is being whored around as we try and find some money to replace the money lost through those boycotting so you’d imagine he will be off and we’ve also lost McAleny.

Couple all that with our dickhead owners and I’ll take 22nd now! But maybe I am blinkered.

 

[Chief Rocka]

Whilst I'd be over the moon at finishing 3rd bottom this season I don't think we're going to struggle, the only player we've lost who is a blow was Rhys Oates, Luke Armstrong wasn't our player and was on mega Salford bucks, we were never going to be able to afford him and we all knew it, I would've liked to keep Ryan Johnson but he's not a big loss.

We're lacking in the striking department but we've still got time to bring people in, we've got arguably our best two players signed on in David Ferguson and Jamie Sterry who make most things happen for us, with a bit of help from the Mags and some quality loans again, famous last words but I think we'll be fine.

My knowledge of this place is crap but Bradford look like they've made some good signings and Mansfield have some decent striking options to choose from.

 

[Boz]

Where exactly are we lacking in a few areas. I would be interested to know. Is it goalkeeping? Is it defence? Is it midfield? We may lack experience of playing in the EFL up front but that was the case in 2018-19 and our main striker didn't do too badly then despite limited EFL games.
Why not wait until August the 6th before getting pessimistic and if we have the same squad then i will understand your view.
I will not personally make any predictions on how we will get on until the club can no longer sign players after deadline day.

So if we had exactly the same squad going into the opening game with Walsall would you be confident of a successful season? When Micky made his forceful remarks about the need for squad strengthening after the Rangers game, you were totally supportive of the manager's stance. Since then, we've signed just one squad midfielder, so I wouldn't expect your viewpoint to have changed?

I do like doing predictions, hence posting on a thread of that name and will have a stab at them fully closer to the season start. However, I don't think my initial assessment of our current position is controversial or out of kilter with many Rovers fans and it's realistic, not pessimistic. It would be a major surprise if there aren't significant additions to the squad within the next week or so.

As stated in my initial post, the main area of concern was up front. Norwood was a proven striker at NL level, so it was reasonable to assume that he'd be capable at L2 level, but in fact exceeded expectations. Our current strike-force is Dieseruvwe, not prolific at Salford, Glatzel, Liverpool youngster on loan and coming back from injury, unfair to expect too much from him initially, Jolley, youngster who didn't look ready for first team action last season, Burton, a promising youngster and Nevitt who's been prolific but at a few leagues below, will be interesting to see if he adapts. It seems likely that another forward will arrive.

Elsewhere, it seems like we might be signing a loanee keeper, so perhaps Murphy doesn't feel he can play a full season, given he was talking of retiring. I'd also say we need defensive cover in central defence and at right-back, or ideally someone who can play across the back and another wide player.

 

[Chris FGR]

Can see Port Vale, Bradford, Bristol Rovers, Mansfield and Northampton fighting for autos.

Playoffs you're looking at half the division as contenders. I'd like to think we could be in that group but quite a few question marks, unproven manager, still likely to rely heavily on Matt for goals and not likely to be rock solid defensively., not a lot of height at the back and we'll be looking to play a high line and press up the pitch which could leave us exposed from time to time. Our midfield looks strong though.

 

[shoddycollins]

Genuinely interested in your comment here re Latics’ squad as I don’t have that view at all. We’ve signed on a couple of last year’s no-hopers in defence in Jameson and Diarra and brought in 2 from Scunthorpe and 1 from Southend - both of which had poor seasons last season.

The keeper we’ve signed has decent reviews and I think Hope will be handy at this level. But Bahamboula is being whored around as we try and find some money to replace the money lost through those boycotting so you’d imagine he will be off and we’ve also lost McAleny.

Couple all that with our dickhead owners and I’ll take 22nd now! But maybe I am blinkered.

It was when an Oldham fan posted in the line-ups thread, myself and someone else thought it looked decent. You can come to your own conclusions as to what 'quite well' means but I wouldn't be surprised if you were in the playoff chase. Can understand why the fans would just be happy with survival though, your owner really does seem like a bit of a weapon.

 

[SELatic]

It was when an Oldham fan posted in the line-ups thread, myself and someone else thought it looked decent. You can come to your own conclusions as to what 'quite well' means but I wouldn't be surprised if you were in the playoff chase. Can understand why the fans would just be happy with survival though, your owner really does seem like a bit of a weapon.

Fair enough - maybe our first 11 is alright but beyond that we’ve not got much. Would love to be proven wrong though.