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Restructuring the playoffs?

Sexton Blake

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Is it time to review the make off the playoffs and follow the lead of the National League of involving six teams in the playoffs?

This is not intended as a snide comment about Argyle but would it be fair if Shrewsbury 18 points ahead of Plymouth lost out to them in the playoffs?

This could still happen even with the change but it would be made a little more difficult.

Plymouth would be amongst the lower group of four teams and would have to come through that group before playing the teams finishing either third (Shrewsbury) or fourth to progress to the final.......food for thought?
 

Grecian68

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Mar 29, 2013
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Is it time to review the make off the playoffs and follow the lead of the National League of involving six teams in the playoffs?

This is not intended as a snide comment about Argyle but would it be fair if Shrewsbury 18 points ahead of Plymouth lost out to them in the playoffs?

This could still happen even with the change but it would be made a little more difficult.

Plymouth would be amongst the lower group of four teams and would have to come through that group before playing the teams finishing either third (Shrewsbury) or fourth to progress to the final.......food for thought?
Nope, leave them as they are.

When the play-offs came started in 1987, I personally thought they were unfair on the team finishing 3rd in 2 leagues and 4th in the other but they have been great for football.

They've worked for 30 years as they are. Clubs have finished well clear and not been promoted before and will be again in the future.

Everyone knows the rules at the start of the season
 

LOG

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I think the play offs are fine as they are but something which should be changed is the number of sides promoted and relegated. Two come up from the conference but four are relegated (i know it's because two leagues feed into it so it's slightly different). Then in L2, four go up but only two go down and then in L1, three go up but four go down. It's only in the Championship where three go and up and three go down.

I guess that the problem is that you have the Premier League, the EFL and then the National League and all would need to agree. Clubs are unlikely to want to increase the number relegated but every club would probably want to increase the number promoted and doing that would mean it don't add up.
 

Legohead

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I definitely think that there should be 2 auto places out of the National League and 1 play off winner place then 3 drop from league 2.
 

STURTZ

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Worse in rugby, you can win the league by more than ten points but you still have to win the play offs to take the title.
 

Terryhall

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I think it would be a slippery slope as any argument based on "the team finishing 3rd has earned an advantage over the team finishing 6th", is ideologically not that far away from "no playoffs at all and 3 auto promotion slots" (or 4 in the case of L2).

Personally I'm a fan of the playoffs and like them the way they are. As Grecian68 says, everyone knows the rules and so in that sense its fair for everyone - and I very much doubt anyone is trying to "game the system" and plan to spend the season hovering around 10th place and then make a late run at the playoffs to try and take the momentum with you - surely that sort of plan would be too likely to backfire for anyone to try it.
 

bflockha

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I do think at this point in the season with a few games left the teams still going for automatic promotion can be penalised for having to play their strongest side while teams who know they cannot reach the automatic places can start to rest players; hopefully City will be automatic and can watch from a beach in the Medditeranean:)
 
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I've often thought they could tweak it by giving weighting to the clubs that finish well ahead - so if you finish 5 points, say, clear of your opponents you get a one goal start in the tie - so a team finishing 3rd but 15pts clear of 7th would get a three goal start when they met in the play offs. Still gives teams a chance of promotion but recognises that a particular team is superior over the season - as it stands there's no real benefit in Shrewsbury, for example, doing much in their remaining fixtures other than resting up for the playoffs.
 

Alistair20000

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I've often thought they could tweak it by giving weighting to the clubs that finish well ahead - so if you finish 5 points, say, clear of your opponents you get a one goal start in the tie - so a team finishing 3rd but 15pts clear of 7th would get a three goal start when they met in the play offs. Still gives teams a chance of promotion but recognises that a particular team is superior over the season - as it stands there's no real benefit in Shrewsbury, for example, doing much in their remaining fixtures other than resting up for the playoffs.
I would prefer to keep it simple.
 

IndoMike

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Is it time to review the make off the playoffs and follow the lead of the National League of involving six teams in the playoffs?

This is not intended as a snide comment about Argyle but would it be fair if Shrewsbury 18 points ahead of Plymouth lost out to them in the playoffs?

This could still happen even with the change but it would be made a little more difficult.

Plymouth would be amongst the lower group of four teams and would have to come through that group before playing the teams finishing either third (Shrewsbury) or fourth to progress to the final.......food for thought?
Too much hassle at the end of the season, Sexton.
 
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