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[Albion] Potterball failure?



portlock seagull

Well-known member
Jul 28, 2003
17,618
They had pace, power and bite in the second half, all 10 outfield players.

Only Bernardo maintained that for us.

Similarly Sheffield Utd bossed us.

Are we a team of decent technicians, who are easily knocked out of their stride and tire when up against superior athletes?

Definitely weaker than most sides, physically so.
 




GloryDays

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2011
1,720
Leyton, E10.
As the season has gone on I’ve noticed we’ve become more reserved and reverting to type like the OP suggests. I suspect that as we are being dragged in to a relegation scrap Potter is losing his nerve a little and hitting the abort button - losing faith in Potterball. It’s all well and good knocking it about in mid table, winning a few, losing a few...but when the wins need to come but aren’t I thinks it’s having a bit too much of an influence on performances. We look decidedly slower and more laborious of late as well...maybe just fatigue. I could have been convinced CH was in charge for the Wednesday game for example.

Hopefully we’ll stay up but if we don’t I won’t be too saddened. I expended all my football energy last season and if we go down this year it’s purely because we aren’t good enough. Equally if we stay up we will have done well. Realistically we all thought anything from 17th upwards would be a good season.
 


Taybha

Whalewhine
Oct 8, 2008
27,562
Uwantsumorwat
Don't shit your pants just yet, he's here for the long haul, Shearer says we'll be fine so that's all I need to know.
 


PILTDOWN MAN

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Sep 15, 2004
19,360
Hurst Green
Agreed. If I could sign one player for us in this window, it would be a rapid right winger who is direct and can carry the ball a long way very quickly on the counter attack. Daniel James is obviously out of our league, but someone like him is exactly what we need.

He’d play him left back
 




Thunder Bolt

Silly old bat
I've had a look at Bournemouth's forum this evening and there is less hand wringing, and blame culture on there than there is on here. So we were total crap in the second half. It's happened before and it will happen again. Yes it's frustrating, but when you are a small club in the Premier League it comes with the territory. We gifted Villa a point, so should we abandon everything we have been trying to build since our new manager's arrival?

The only thing about 'Potterball' that is a failure is the cringe inducing term itself. We are not the proponents of 'Potterball', we are Brighton & Hove Albion and we always will be. Some weeks it will be dull, some weeks awful, some weeks it will be joyous and every now and then it will be the most life affirming thing you will ever experience. Saddling a modest, thoughtful and flexible young manager with such an embarrassing, hubris filled label, is not going to do him or us any favours at all.

There’s far too much common sense in this post for Nsc. :wink:
 


blockhseagull

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2006
7,364
Southampton
Problem is simple, we are expecting to play a sharp, crisp passing system with possibly the slowest midfield in Premier league history.

Player for player I don’t have a problem with any of our midfield as individuals..... but as a collective Stephens, Propper, Mooy and Groß don’t offer enough pace or variation to make the system work.
 


BN41Albion

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2017
6,703
Problem is simple, we are expecting to play a sharp, crisp passing system with possibly the slowest midfield in Premier league history.

Player for player I don’t have a problem with any of our midfield as individuals..... but as a collective Stephens, Propper, Mooy and Groß don’t offer enough pace or variation to make the system work.

We had two players with a good deal of pace sat on the bench though, neither used. The game was crying out for more pace. That's what i can't understand re potter's decisions yesterday.
 




blockhseagull

Well-known member
Jan 30, 2006
7,364
Southampton
We had two players with a good deal of pace sat on the bench though, neither used. The game was crying out for more pace. That's what i can't understand re potter's decisions yesterday.

Must have missed the two CM on the bench with pace and ability to play the game 20 yards further up the pitch
 


BNthree

Plastic JCL
Sep 14, 2016
11,293
WeHo
We had two players with a good deal of pace sat on the bench though, neither used. The game was crying out for more pace. That's what i can't understand re potter's decisions yesterday.

Totally agree with you here. presumably Potter, and the team analysts, thought this would be an easy win seeing as we looking good against Villa away in November, so decided to rest them up for Bournemouth away on Tuesday. Yesterday Potter got the subs wrong and too late.
 


Farehamseagull

Solly March Fan Club
Nov 22, 2007
14,848
Sarisbury Green, Southampton
Agreed. If I could sign one player for us in this window, it would be a rapid right winger who is direct and can carry the ball a long way very quickly on the counter attack. Daniel James is obviously out of our league, but someone like him is exactly what we need.

Totally agree.

Someone who can ideally also drift inside a bit to support/interchange with Maupay. As you say, James would be ideal. As would also out of our league, Adama Traore. Within our league, I like Mbeumo at Brentford who does this.

For me with the players we have, we’re crying out for more of a 4-2-3-1 with Propper and Alzate centre midfield, Mooy behind Maupay and Trossard and this new signing on the wings.
 




HalfaSeatOn

Well-known member
Mar 17, 2014
2,039
North West Sussex
Problem is simple, we are expecting to play a sharp, crisp passing system with possibly the slowest midfield in Premier league history.

Player for player I don’t have a problem with any of our midfield as individuals..... but as a collective Stephens, Propper, Mooy and Groß don’t offer enough pace or variation to make the system work.

Get our right back in there.
 


tigertim68

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2012
2,585
Problem is simple, we are expecting to play a sharp, crisp passing system with possibly the slowest midfield in Premier league history.

Player for player I don’t have a problem with any of our midfield as individuals..... but as a collective Stephens, Propper, Mooy and Groß don’t offer enough pace or variation to make the system work.

I agree with the above , been saying this all season
 


Frankie

Put him in the curry
May 23, 2016
4,383
Mid west Wales
Izquierdo , may fill that role when he returns ?
 




Shooting Star

Well-known member
Apr 29, 2011
2,879
Suffolk
Haven't seen us play since the Bournemouth game, but from comments and player ratings on here I'd say we need to play to our best player's strengths, and that is Aaron Mooy. No point playing two strikers if it nullifies Mooy. As Potter doesn't like changing the system mid-way through, it gives him Connolly if Maupay needs replacing to freshen legs.
 


Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Haven't seen us play since the Bournemouth game, but from comments and player ratings on here I'd say we need to play to our best player's strengths, and that is Aaron Mooy. No point playing two strikers if it nullifies Mooy. As Potter doesn't like changing the system mid-way through, it gives him Connolly if Maupay needs replacing to freshen legs.

Connolly is too lightweight as a battling forward against big defenders at the moment imo. We need someone bigger and more experienced, Connolly is one for the future not for a relegation dog fight. After a good opening 15 mins he got swatted aside by Villa defenders.
 


Lower West Stander

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2012
4,753
Back in Sussex
I haven’t read the the whole thread.

What I do know is we’re going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that if we want to stay up. We looked complacent against a limited Villa side who fought very hard and deserved a draw.

And letting Murray go would be absolute madness. We need him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Everything in 2/3rd's of the pitch was wrong.

There was nobody on the right.
All play was down the left, with some success.

2 little fast strikers v 2 lumbering centre backs who looked scared in the opening 10 minutes.
Then nothing, nothing for them to chase, no 'on the shoulder' passes, so they dropped deeper and deeper.

My concern about possession at the back is it's all about creating the advantage further up the pitch.
The team does that brilliantly right up until the moment it needs to play THE quick pass, through the now out of position midfield.
That ball never comes.


Bad day at the office - let's see if GPott can, unlike his predecessor, learn and improve.
 






Clive Walker

Stand Or Fall
Jul 5, 2011
3,545
Brighton
The most concerning fact is that most of our starting 11 are all fit apart from burn. Other teams amongst us are suffering huge injury issues and suspensions. Dread to think what state we’d be in if we get injuries and suspensions to dunk/moy etc
 


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