For all that has been said. If we beat Fulham we will go above them

[RonnieBird]

Sure, but that's a long way from clean sheets being more important than anything else.

Last season, Middlesbrough had the joint-best defensive record in the Championship. They finished seventh.

You can't do anything else unless you can regularly keep clean sheets. You have to go on to do other things but that's the basic aim.
For every goal you give away you have to score two in order to progress. This is plain common sense.

[RonnieBird]

[Eric the Half a Bee]

You can't do anything else unless you can regularly keep clean sheets. You have to go on to do other things but that's the basic aim.
For every goal you give away you have to score two in order to progress. This is plain common sense.

Equally, for every goal you score, the other team need two in order to progress. No team wins a game without scoring.

Half of our wins under Warnock came with a clean sheet. Half saw us concede.

[The Lone Gunman]

You can't do anything else unless you can regularly keep clean sheets.

You can score more goals than the opposition. Doing so brings you three points. However, drawing 0-0 brings you just one point. That's common sense.

Of course defending is important, but keeping clean sheets is not 'much more important than anything else' as you maintained.

For example, Cardiff City kept 10 clean sheets in the Premier League last season. Wolves kept 9 clean sheets. One of those teams is playing is the Championship this season. The other is playing in the Europa League. You don't need me to tell you which is which.

[Seabird]

I like clean sheets.

[NYCBlue]

That's absolutely correct. The decisive factor will be whether Sir Neil can get the machine running quickly, because we can't afford to fall far behind in this league . I saw some very good signs against Blackburn because it's much more important to keep clean sheets than anything else.

I'm not sure regarding what you said about Fulham though because I doubt whether they can sustain the flash monkey stuff over 46 games and the moment they lose two games they'll sack the manager and the crowd will turn against them. To some extent that's true of Leeds too actually.

I do like the fact that people are writing us off against Fulham, and I'm sure Sir Neil will too. It's surprising how submissive some of our apparent supporters are in the face of a team which we did a lot better than last season and who rely on one of our reserve forwards on loan.

If you think about it, you might find it's much more important to score more goals than the other team.

[NYCBlue]

I like clean sheets.

Do you like to keep them clean?

[dembethewarrior]

I like clean sheets.

Fresh bedding is weirdly satisfying

[surge]

If you think about it, you might find it's much more important to score more goals than the other team.

The most common result seems to be 1-1 (sources not verified but left below to be judged), with the second most common outcome being a 1-0 home win and the third being a 2-1 home win. I can see why result-based managers may see this as a reason to score one or two from a set-piece and shut the opposition out for the most likely outcome, although it is based on how football has been played rather than how football will be played.

https://www.windrawwin.com/statistics/full-time-scores/
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features...nil-nil-draws/

[RonnieBird]

If you think about it, you might find it's much more important to score more goals than the other team.

Yes, well these are the things we must think about. Just as in a military conflict we must identify the aspects which we can control and take full advantage of them.
Remember I pointed out that a long thrower can't be tackled blocked or challenged when delivering the ball ? Similarly, if we can prevent the opponent from scoring ,then we only need score one goal to achieve the outcome you describe.
It's also worth saying that a clean sheet guarantees at least a draw.

Those who've thought giving goals away didn't matter because they'll score more have generally failed.

[Steve the Tea]

A 5-0 win will put us 4th, above Bristol C, on goals scored.

StT.
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[RonnieBird]

If we keep a clean sheet we'll only need 1-0, which is a bit more realistic.
I wouldn't worry about goal difference with Bristol City because that won't be a factor long term.