Good Month, Bad Month: January predictions
Ali and George predict the winners and losers of the month ahead, from the top of the Championship to the bottom of League Two.
This month’s Good Month, Bad Month is a written offering, due to my nipping off to Spain for some warm-weather
golfparenting.
The EFL January will be full of transfers, and we’ll be covering every single one on NTT20.COM in the form of daily bulletins. But DO NOT allow yourself to take your eyes off the actual football.
The Championship has six rounds of fixtures in January. Most League One and League Two clubs have seven league matches. Bolton Wanderers have eight league games and an EFL Trophy match!
Now, usually this is a podcast, with George and I predicting the teams who are going to have a good or bad month. That part doesn’t change. And neither does the business of recapping our successes and failures from the previous month. So here are the results from Good Month Bad Month: December.
George’s Good Months
1. WREXHAM — 12/18 points predicted, 8/18 points won
2. HUDDERSFIELD — 12/18 points predicted, 11/18 points won
3. GRIMSBY — 13/15 points predicted, 5/15 points won
Ali’s Good Months
1. BLACKBURN — 12/18 points predicted, 7/18 points won*
2. BOLTON — 11/15 points predicted, 9/15 points won
3. CREWE — 10/15 points predicted, 5/15 points won
*Blackburn’s home game against Sheffield Wednesday was called off and effectively replaced in the month of December by their replayed fixture against Ipswich, which is a slightly different proposition.
George’s Bad Months
1. PRESTON — 6/18 points predicted, 7/18 points won
2. MANSFIELD — 4/15 points predicted, 7/15 points won
3. CHESTERFIELD — 4/15 points predicted, 10/15 points won
Ali’s Bad Months
1. LEICESTER — 7/18 “max” points predicted, 10/18 points won
2. ROTHERHAM — 4/15 points predicted, 0/15 points won
3. SHREWSBURY — 3/15 points predicted, 2/15 points won
El Arbitro has judged that to be a draw, with myself and George each making two good predictions, two bad ones, and two that were somewhere in between.
Let’s go again.
Championship
Ali’s Good Month: WATFORD
It takes a lot for me to trust Watford FC with a positive prediction. They’ve unperformed for years and I don’t really believe in the decision makers.
But I like this team, right now, and it’s impossible to argue with their decision to sack Paulo Pezzolano and replace him with Javi Gracia. They’ve been the best side in the Championship over the last 12 games, and I believe in it.
They’re a team that’s solid in defence, boasting the third-best xG against in the division. The back four has tough tacklers at full-back, Mattie Pollock doing meat and potatoes, and Max Alleyne looking increasingly as advertised: a huge talent.
In midfield, Imran Louza orchestrates while Hector Kyprianou is doing well to anchor things. In attack, Georgi Chakvetadze’s return from injury and the recent emergence of Under-20 World Cup Golden Ball winner Othmane Maamma has raised the ceiling.
They also have the advantage of four home games in their next six, hosting Birmingham, Millwall, Portsmouth and Swansea. They travel to Hull and Blackburn.
Watford are in the play-off places as I write this, and I consider them the best team in the 4th-12th range right now. Another 12 points from these 6 games will put them in a great spot.
George’s Good Month: BRISTOL CITY
All right there, Bristol City, just sitting pretty in 8th place and two points off the play-offs. With much said and written about whether Millwall, Hull or Preston can last the pace, not much has been said nor written about Gerry Struber’s Robins. Should we now expect them to be genuine play-off challengers after finally breaking into the top six last season?
They’re playing well right now, beating Boro at home before going to The Hawthorns – where WBA are normally hard to beat – and coming back with all three points. Struber’s charges were unfortunate to lose at Millwall last time out: they looked the likelier team to win once Adam Randell had equalised, only to be done by a Macauley Langstaff sucker-punch.
They have four home games in January, with Pompey and Sheffield Wednesday being two of those. The visits of Preston and Derby will also hold no fear. An away trip to Ipswich is a tough assignment, but the other away game is at Oxford, who Ali is about to tell us will soon be cut adrift. Apparently.
I think they can win four of these six fixtures, so it’s 12 points and an official emergence onto the radar for Bristol City.
