[Albion] Fab out?

jackalbion said:

Good thing we gave a young manager with a lot to learn, the biggest spend possible.

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jackalbion said:

And then we've seriously regressed in the following two games, the two worst performances of the season. You need to build on these good results, we have not built on them at all.

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chaileyjem said:

He's not responsible for squad rebuilding, loans or transfer spend so this is a bit of a moot point. He is responsible though for integrating new young players into the squad, coping with injuries and developing players - that's the job. Perhaps the new signings have put a bit more pressure on him to succeed , its certainly given those fond of the RDZ glory days a talking point , but the job is pressured enough as it is. All PL managers have a lot of incoming and this type of responsibility.Or are you saying we shouldn't have strengthened the squad - to give him more time to bed in ?

(I think what you really mean is - we shouldn't have hired him in the first place ha ha)

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Home and Away said:

I think there's few thighs here going wrong at the moment... we seem to only sign "prospects" who are not ready to compete in the PL. All the signings are "for the future"... which never realises as the top players get sold/unsettled as we don't reach the heights they expect. Or the club/manager cannot have the time, energy or means to make these "prospects" better and therefore they get loaned to lesser clubs and disappear in couple of seasons. We also sign old PL greats as role models, but they are all over 34yo and prone to injuries, slowed down, etc.

We don't seem to sign anyone to make an impact here and now. Not a single PL/Top flight proven player that's strong, fast, big/tall that can take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Then there's the manager... I get that it might be very difficult to get the team playing the way he wants if the team is full of young people from all around the world with variable experience in top flight football. However... tactical naivety, poor game management and inability to adapt setting for the games and during games has cost us this season... a lot. I can't obviously comment on the morale or the atmosphere behind closed doors, but if there are disclipinary challenges in the team it's obviously not a good sign.

And don't get me started on the injuries... there's something wrong there as well... unless obviously these "injuries" are a disguise for disciplinary action?

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Home and Away said:

I think there's few thighs here going wrong at the moment... we seem to only sign "prospects" who are not ready to compete in the PL. All the signings are "for the future"... which never realises as the top players get sold/unsettled as we don't reach the heights they expect. Or the club/manager cannot have the time, energy or means to make these "prospects" better and therefore they get loaned to lesser clubs and disappear in couple of seasons. We also sign old PL greats as role models, but they are all over 34yo and prone to injuries, slowed down, etc.

We don't seem to sign anyone to make an impact here and now. Not a single PL/Top flight proven player that's strong, fast, big/tall that can take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Then there's the manager... I get that it might be very difficult to get the team playing the way he wants if the team is full of young people from all around the world with variable experience in top flight football. However... tactical naivety, poor game management and inability to adapt setting for the games and during games has cost us this season... a lot. I can't obviously comment on the morale or the atmosphere behind closed doors, but if there are disclipinary challenges in the team it's obviously not a good sign.

And don't get me started on the injuries... there's something wrong there as well... unless obviously these "injuries" are a disguise for disciplinary action?

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Mellotron said:

If I knew Liam Rosenior was ready to come in, I'd be very tempted.

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Change at Barnham said:

We don't have a problem, just a load of shit injuries.
We are on course for a top ten finish despite our horrendous lack of player availability.

In Fab and the tracker we trust.

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Home and Away said:

If we beat Chelsea (at least once) and Soton, get a draw against B'muff this month I'm willing to say I was overreacting and all is well.

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Change at Barnham said:

We don't have a problem, just a load of shit injuries.
We are on course for a top ten finish despite our horrendous lack of player availability.

In Fab and the tracker we trust.

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Stato said:

I know many roll their eyes at Xg, but I looked because my impression is that we don't have the control of games that we've become used to over the last few seasons. Teams seem happy to let us have possession in areas that are not threatening, assured that they can get into shape and defend against our slow build up.

Across the season so far, our Xg measured against our Xga is now in the minus column. Totalled from games up until the end of November it was +1.18, but since then -3.95. Totalling -2.77 across the season so far. We haven't had a negative in this column over a season since 2019/20.

Now Saturday's disaster is a major factor in this calculation. We were still just in the positive until that disgraceful collapse, but we are making less chances and conceding more chances. The drop off at the end of last season left us +0.97 for the term, after RDZ's previous +27.57 and Potter's +2.36 and +13.91. The chances created has been up and down over that period, but the chances given to the opposition has been steadily on the rise from 39.91 to 47.21 to 50.15 to 60.94. If you extrapolate our current position across 38 games it would be 61.39 for this year.

Actual goals conceded has also been on a season to season rise, from the mid 40s under Potter to the 50s and then 60s under RDZ. We're on target for the 60s again this season. We have become much easier to score against. Something that seemed a pay off of risk and reward when RDZ's bait and switch was scoring us loads too, but we've now hit the point where, as Saturday underlined, the attack is slow and laboured and the defence is committed too high as a result of this.

We seem very seldom to be playing in space in the opposition's half and our opponents always seem to have acres of it in ours. We've invested in loads of quick wingers presumably to run into space, but our wingers seemingly always have a defensive barrier to run through. We seem to have bought the players to play more Klopp, less Pep, but we haven't made the tactical change to exploit these talents. Nobody falls for the counter press lure any more and our response seems to be to try to get the overloads by committing more and more players forward. This doesn't work often because however may of us there are up there, playing in crowded spaces is very difficult.

I can't offer any easy solution to this quandary, but it's notable that, when Hurzeler arrived, it was with the knowledge from his time at St Pauli that defensively he liked a high press, that would quickly drop into a low block if possession was not won back straight away. We don't seem to have seen very much of the latter part of this approach and it could very well be that it's more difficult to do against EPL teams that have the midfielders who can find the small spaces to move the ball quicker in transition. However, it could also be that our players are simply not getting back quickly enough.

There was a point on Saturday where Welbeck had the chance of a quick break, but it quickly fizzled out and it was notable how many of Forest's players made the effort to get back and defend. We don't seem to be doing the same. We've lost players like Burn, Lallana, Mac Allister who set examples and insisted on standards from their colleagues. Milner is a similar sort of character, but hasn't been on the pitch to do it. It seems that we are a bit like Chelsea of the last couple of years, too many young stars and not enough leaders and grafters. I don't know if Hurzeler is the problem, or whether he will resolve it given time. I just know that we've been spoiled being extrordinary for a few seasons and it's very frustrating watching us look ordinary.

Excuse the rambling. Saturday hurt us all and, though reactionary decisions are likely to be wrong ones, it's obvious that something neeeds to change, but not at all obvious what.

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mejonaNO12 aka riskit said:

If we were observing any other team with the following scenario and heard their fans were even suggesting that the manager should go, we would think they are mad. Utterly utterly mad.

-10th in the PL after finishing 11th the prior season.
-one of the youngest squads in the league
-17 points clear of relegation
-6 losses in 24 games
-Manager only appointed in the summer
-A huge overhaul of players, with the age of those signings being predominantly 23 and under.
-New signings hit by injury
-The one team in the PL recording profits showing they are continually selling big talents and replacing with "cheaper alternatives"

I just can't fathom that, even if you aren't excited by the football on show, you wouldn't AT LEAST say "we simply HAVE to give this guy the full season"

We have been spoilt rotten.

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jackalbion said:

Lets see if it improves in the next three games, if we don't win any of them, I will be seriously concerned.

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