What is more important to you, Winning or Playing attractive football?

[The Sock of Poskett]

I would much rather watch attractive football played by talented, creative players than route 1 delivered with brawn and muscle.

Yes, it's frustrating that we've not picked up the points we should have from the last few games, but we're learning all the time, and with Gus at the helm we WILL get there. Harper and Jara look shrewd loans, and I'm confident we'll start climbing the table again in the weeks ahead.

That's my tuppence worth

 

[Icy Gull]

That said, I don't think Brighton are making that choice yet. Dozens of passes across your own back four does not constitute passing football and beyond that Brighton don't appear to have any creativity.

Unfortunately you are absolutely correct. We are so predictable 95% of the time that we are mostly ineffective against organised teams who press us. That's everybody we play at the moment.

As to the thread title I'd prefer attractive football every time. Unlike some I don't find keep ball in our own half that attractive and I really miss us putting teams under concerted pressure. Our shots on target per game is atrocious ( don't have facts just what my eyes tell me). So basically I'm not overly impressed with our style of play at the moment but I'm happy to stick with Gus whilst he gets in the right players. League one step ups are not the answer as we are finding out. The only time I'll be happy to watch unattractive ground out wins over style is when we fall into the bottom 5 or 6 and look relegation bound.

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

A win is a win is a win is a win, that said, it's nice to able to lose games of football with our heads held high.

 

[SeagullSongs]

I'm just looking forward to the day when a Brighton & Hove Albion team plays the way Gus wants them to with some seriously shit-hot players. Every week.

Winning will then be a natural consequence of playing attractive football.

This. There's still a lot of progress to be made with Gus' tippy-tappy style. In Gus we trust.

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

dis

 

[Commander]

I think people are getting confused.

The MOST important thing is winning.
The NEXT most important thing is winning and playing good football.

These two things do not have to be mutually exclusive you know. Keep playing the good football and the results will come back.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

We are playing attractive football as it gives us our best chance of winning.

Winning football IS attractive

 

[Commander]

I'm just looking forward to the day when a Brighton & Hove Albion team plays the way Gus wants them to with some seriously shit-hot players. Every week.

Winning will then be a natural consequence of playing attractive football.

Very good point. I think Gus gets frustrated with the likes of Allardyce coming to Brighton and playing like that because he knows full well that if he had West Ham's budget (or the £20 million than Sven has spent in the last year) he would walk this division.

If we can keep hold of him until we can get to the point of being as financially strong as those clubs then we are going to be in for a treat.

 

[Commander]

The two aren't mutually exclusive.

We are playing attractive football as it gives us our best chance of winning.

Winning football IS attractive

So basically, exactly whay I said?

 

[Dominoid]

I agree, the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. Ultimately though, the long term plan is I assume to be winning as a result if playing attractive football so I'm happy to put up with a few losses while the lads learn it.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

So basically, exactly whay I said?

HA! You must have posted yours whilst I was writing mine.

Scary. But we're BOTH RIGHT

 

[Commander]

HA! You must have posted yours whilst I was writing mine.

Scary. But we're BOTH RIGHT

I finished mine a minute earlier than you.

I win.

 

[Fran112]

i'm just looking forward to the day when a brighton & hove albion team plays the way gus wants them to with some seriously shit-hot players. Every week.

Winning will then be a natural consequence of playing attractive football.

this

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Very good point. I think Gus gets frustrated with the likes of Allardyce coming to Brighton and playing like that because he knows full well that if he had West Ham's budget (or the £20 million than Sven has spent in the last year) he would walk this division.

If we can keep hold of him until we can get to the point of being as financially strong as those clubs then we are going to be in for a treat.

Good summing up. Our passing style is the way to go but we need quicker passes and more running off the ball to get to striking positions. WHU defended extremely well last night and closed down all the openings that we tried to create. If we had their budget we could afford stronger, quicker players but we will have to wait for them to come in one by one rather than buy them all at once.

 

[pork pie]

The only thing that matters is winning, and three points towards promotion (or staying up at this rate!). If we can win playing pretty football, that is great, but we only need to look at West Ham and their fans' fixation with playing attractive football, to see where that has got them!

The thing that I have a real problem with is that I do not find the negative tippy tappy back passing football even slightly attractive or entertaining. Last year was great, because it was enhanced my more than a few goals (until the end of the season run-in when we played the better teams who had sussed us out), this year it lacks any penetration, and is frankly as boring as watching paint dry.

 

[pork pie]

Very good point. I think Gus gets frustrated with the likes of Allardyce coming to Brighton and playing like that because he knows full well that if he had West Ham's budget (or the £20 million than Sven has spent in the last year) he would walk this division.

If we can keep hold of him until we can get to the point of being as financially strong as those clubs then we are going to be in for a treat.

I tend to agree with you. HOWEVER, we are not currently blessed with good enough players, and a Plan B or better players to execute Plan A are needed.

 

[goldstone]

But we are not playing particularly attractive football at the moment. What is attractive about the defence passing the ball between themselves, making no progress, and then passing back to the goalie who boots it upfield? In my humble opinion the boot upfield may as well have come earlier, particularly when you're one nil down.

Before anyone jumps down my throat, I agree that the booting upfield is pointless at present because we do not have a target man, so all that happens is that the ball comes right back off the head of an opponent.

And while on that subject, what really surprised me was that Gus did not think of putting Greer or Dunk up front for the last 10 minutes to give us a target man and some height. Playing tippy tappy certainly wasn't going to get us the goal we needed, so he needed to look at other options.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Last year was great, because it was enhanced my more than a few goals (until the end of the season run-in when we played the better teams who had sussed us out), this year it lacks any penetration, and is frankly as boring as watching paint dry.

Near the end of the season Murray injured his shoulder, Ankergren had a dead leg and El-Abd had a broken foot so for the last few games we were playing without key players, notwithstanding the fact that we had already won the league so players were trying to avoid further injuries.

 

[Barnham Seagull]

Winning!

Playing effective pretty football is a bonus and the prefered way forward.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

Both are important but a few on here need to realise that good football consists of mant styles of play including passing and not solely passing a ball between defenders or even defenders and midfield.

Our present style might be the basis of how Gus wants us to set out our stall but you are deluded if you think it's anywhere near the ability to constantly win games and it presently only works against teams who allow us to move the ball forward. Any team that attracts us is able not only to win the ball from time to time but also is able to reduce us to overplay and send the ball backward or over/under hit.

Whilst occasionally the odd long pass is probably acceptable to Gus he has made it plain that he WILL not do it and expect to play the ball forward from defence but this also does not mean that teams that do that cannot contain players big and strong enough to defend against teams playing high balls in to the box. Football is a game of defence as well as attack so it would be dumb for us to think we can purely win games solely by trying to pass the ball around

In any case our game this season has been found out and opponents have been able to both restrict attacking chances as well as force us to play tippy tappy balls at the back which is pretty boring after a while especially if the game ends in a draw or worse a defeat.

Overwhelming teams by fast moving passes, accurate crosses and talented skilful attackers is the way forward.

Sadly some on here think that passing a ball between three championship players in your own half represents carpet football a la Barcelona but it's not.