[Football] A mIssed opportunity?

[Easy 10]

Starting lineup v Bristol Rovers - a decent balance between 1st team, fringe players and kids, with a youthful bench:

Button
Balogun
Webster
Bong
Alzate
Mooy
Groß
Bernardo
Jahanbakhsh
Connolly
Murray

Substitutes

Steele
Baluta
Ahannach
Sanders
Cochrane
Davies
Roberts

No problem with that.

But to go from that starting lineup to what we saw last night is frankly bizarre. I'm not buying that we've got THAT many injuries and "illnesses" that ruled out an entire swathe of our squad to that extent. Bissouma came on as sub on Saturday, he could certainly use some gametime. Alzate had a great game on Saturday, I don't see why he couldn't have featured. Mooy has been a bit-part player so far this season but has looked very promising, why wasn't he involved ? I'd probably have left out Old Man Murray, although he could've been on the bench along with the rest of the kids surely.

Poor.

 

[Justice]

Man City will win it all a bit boring not that bothered

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Of the Premier League sides remaining, we played the weakest (least experienced) team - and perhaps the weakest line-up (relatively) in a League Cup game in our history.

Fair play if you knew this was coming...

Assume you had a HUGE bet on Villa before line-ups were officially announced? Would have made a killing.

Extraordinary sense of foresight you have mate. Because if you look at the team for Villa thread there are about 40 suggested teams and not one of them was remotely similar to one we actually saw. You haven’t got Saturdays lottery numbers have you?

I wrote I knew there was a POSSIBILITY he MIGHT play a team like that, not that I KNEW he WOULD!

He's thrown in kids from the reserves straight into the starting lineup of a Premier League game already this season, so why not do it in a lower-key game that is still a competitive one. As I mentioned elsewhere, maybe it made sense (to him) to blood a load of others all at the same time

No money made, nor lottery numbers known, I'm afraid

 

[dazzer6666]

Dean Smith said;
"This football club has got a very proud history in all cup competitions - we've won this five times, we've won the FA Cup seven times.

You've seen the numbers that have travelled down from Birmingham and they deserve our utmost respect - and we've given it that tonight."
Whilst we don't have that history, we don't have an academy as strong as the big 6 yet and so should not expect them to roll over teams that do take it seriously.

Disappointed we were not bothered and feel sorry for those that made the effort to go.

No need to feel sorry - I enjoyed watching a few of the academy's finest get a proper run out.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I thought we were trying to recapture some confidence at home, instead of effectively gifting games to the opposition. In recent seasons, we have fielded some understrength teams but last night was a whole new level. I looked at the side before kick off and wondered how many Villa were going to score. It was clear we weren't even going to be competitive.
To me, it bordered on arrogance and disrespect. As other posters have said, where was the game time for the likes of Mooy and Bissouma, who will surely be on the bench at Chelsea. All this talk of a long list of injuries....well lets see it then before we all troop up to the Bridge for our ' free hit ' but alas, inevitable defeat on Saturday.

 

[el punal]

Personally I was bitterly dissapointed with the way we treated last night game. I know the Caribou Cup is much maligned in some quarters but as a lower half EPL club why can't we take this a bit more seriously?

At the beginning of the season I wonder what our aims are, obviously first and foremost it is EPL football in 2020/21 so survival, but surely we can stretch our ambitions slightly beyond that and take the two cup competitions seriously? We won't get 3 consecutive seasons in the EPL on our honours list, or in our trophy cabinet but whilst we are a decent EPL outfit we do have an outside chance of winning a cup, an outside chance but a chance all the same.

I understand your sentiments here, but there are two schools of thought related to this. Do we, firstly, put in our strongest team with a view to achieving a slim chance of success in winning a trophy, or at least, progressing throughout the competition? The downside to this is the realistic chance of key players picking up injuries thus affecting our League performances.

Secondly, should we use this competition to blood the youngsters from the development squad and give them a bit of experience in a first team environment? The positive outcome of this is to see which players thrive under this pressure and for us fans to observe and comment on their potential. The negative aspect is of course the danger of being outplayed, as last night, and going out of the cup.

My view on the situation? I am disappointed that we were eliminated, I don’t like to see the Albion lose at any level. I am heartened by the fact that Graham Potter decided to give so many of our youngsters the chance to show their skills - I’m sure that this decision would not have been made for a League match. The outcome was that, according to various reports, several of our young players showed true promise and maybe the attributes necessary to succeed at first team level. Surely that has got to be a positive take on last night’s proceedings?

 

[happypig]

I feel it was somewhat disingenuous of the club not to tell us they would be putting out a team of youngsters and not making even a token attempt to win the game.
I was expecting some of the first team to be rested, not all of them.

 

[blue-shifted]

The players loaned out aren’t good enough and wouldn’t be happy rocking up for a cup game once a month. The squad is evolving as it always will, especially after a managerial change. I understand your frustration but realistically you’d have a group of very unhappy players who are used to playing first team football, but not good enough to rep us in the league! Some appear to be loaned out because of attitude issues other out of respect to their careers after they’ve been so good to us. If we stay up the transfer window at the end of this season will be very interesting.

I agree with the subheading under you user name Doc, but don't agree with your post. If you want to be a premier league manager, part of the skillset is keeping a squad of players involved and content. There are two problems I have with loaning players out. Firstly I think we've loaned at 1 or 2 too many of our attacking first team players. This conversation has been done to death, but ultimately we paid the price last night and we pay the price every league game we dominate possession but don't score. I also think we need a more balanced strategy of loaning out young players close to the first team. Most would have improved the team last night and some might have got bench or game time in the premier league already.

I think it's great we're looking ahead, but you can spend forever only ever looking at the horizon. We need to spend more time thinking about the now. How can we win the next game? Isn't that what players and managers always say?

 

[Geoffish]

I think I’d have been happy with the same line up but with a senior midfielder, just so the spine of the team had a bit more experience. At the same time, seeing as Duffy went off injured, maybe it was just as well we didn’t risk more.

 

[Deano's Right Foot]

Starting lineup v Bristol Rovers - a decent balance between 1st team, fringe players and kids, with a youthful bench:

Button
Balogun
Webster
Bong
Alzate
Mooy
Groß
Bernardo
Jahanbakhsh
Connolly
Murray

Substitutes

Steele
Baluta
Ahannach
Sanders
Cochrane
Davies
Roberts

No problem with that.

But to go from that starting lineup to what we saw last night is frankly bizarre. I'm not buying that we've got THAT many injuries and "illnesses" that ruled out an entire swathe of our squad to that extent. Bissouma came on as sub on Saturday, he could certainly use some gametime. Alzate had a great game on Saturday, I don't see why he couldn't have featured. Mooy has been a bit-part player so far this season but has looked very promising, why wasn't he involved ? I'd probably have left out Old Man Murray, although he could've been on the bench along with the rest of the kids surely.

Poor.

OK, Obviously I'm not Potter but...

Button - check
Balogun - injured
Webster - needed the game time then, now saved for Chelsea
Bong - check
Alzate - saved for Chelsea after a hard PL debut at Newcastle
Mooy - saved after 70 mins at Newcastle
Groß - saved after 81 mins at Newcastle
Bernardo - injured
Jahanbakhsh - injured
Connolly - played 57 mins having come on as sub for 20 mins at Newcastle
Murray - injured/saved

 

[Seasider78]

Any idea what happened with Bissouma?

Certainly implicit suggestions via the club’s insta that he was going to feature? Last minute knock?

He had a squad number under 34 so was immediately ruled out as being able to play

 

[Whitechapel]

Heard a rumour that there’s been a virus going round the first team.

Would explain a lot.

As others have pointed out we played a fairly strong team v Bristol Rovers so there must be a reason to go from that to the U-18’s

 

[Easy 10]

OK, Obviously I'm not Potter but...

Button - check
Balogun - injured
Webster - needed the game time then, now saved for Chelsea
Bong - check
Alzate - saved for Chelsea after a hard PL debut at Newcastle
Mooy - saved after 70 mins at Newcastle
Groß - saved after 81 mins at Newcastle
Bernardo - injured
Jahanbakhsh - injured
Connolly - played 57 mins having come on as sub for 20 mins at Newcastle
Murray - injured/saved

There were still plenty of options above and beyond fielding an academy side last night. And I don't really buy into this "saving the players for Chelsea" malarky. We're 6 games into the season, having already had a 2 week break halfway through, and there's another fortnights break coming up in 10 days time - its not exactly a PUNISHING schedule, now is it ?

Quite aside from the more than likely fact that we'll get fvck-all at Chelsea, regardless of who we'd put out last night anyway. IMO, the likes of Bissouma, Mooy and Alzate would have positively benefited from a run-out last night.

 

[blockhseagull]

Literally no-one is arguing that we should have started the match with key first-teamers.

I’d argue with the injuries we currently have EVERYONE rested last night is a key first team player.

Murray, Maupay, March, Ali J, Trossard, Balogun, Schelotto, Bernardo all injured.

We couldn’t risk any of the others as they are needed Saturday.

 

[blockhseagull]

There were still plenty of options above and beyond fielding an academy side last night. And I don't really buy into this "saving the players for Chelsea" malarky. We're 6 games into the season, having already had a 2 week break halfway through, and there's another fortnights break coming up in 10 days time - its not exactly a PUNISHING schedule, now is it ?

Quite aside from the more than likely fact that we'll get fvck-all at Chelsea, regardless of who we'd put out last night anyway. IMO, the likes of Bissouma, Mooy and Alzate would have positively benefited from a run-out last night.

I don’t think it’s about players needing a rest.

I think it’s about currently we only have about 18 players fit of the 25 man squad.

I’m not sure who I’d wanted to have seen risked last night, Potter has already said Alzate was being rested because his performance on Saturday. Bissouma is about the only one who should have played.

 

[spence]

Not good enough. With another two straight defeats coming up its only a matter of time before the fans turn. Some like me already have and could see the horrific flaws in Potterball.

Terrible appointment

Potter OUT

 

[Swansman]

I'm pretty shocked about your response to giving young players experience against a qualified side.

But then again the "should we sign Wilfried Bony" thread is above any thread about the Brighton youth teams so I guess having local/academy players coming through in the long term might not be as important to you as getting a result in third round of the Carabao Cup 19/20.

 

[Weststander]

Starting lineup v Bristol Rovers - a decent balance between 1st team, fringe players and kids, with a youthful bench:

Button
Balogun
Webster
Bong
Alzate
Mooy
Groß
Bernardo
Jahanbakhsh
Connolly
Murray

Substitutes

Steele
Baluta
Ahannach
Sanders
Cochrane
Davies
Roberts

No problem with that.

But to go from that starting lineup to what we saw last night is frankly bizarre. I'm not buying that we've got THAT many injuries and "illnesses" that ruled out an entire swathe of our squad to that extent. Bissouma came on as sub on Saturday, he could certainly use some gametime. Alzate had a great game on Saturday, I don't see why he couldn't have featured. Mooy has been a bit-part player so far this season but has looked very promising, why wasn't he involved ? I'd probably have left out Old Man Murray, although he could've been on the bench along with the rest of the kids surely.

Poor.

This. I doubt a mass injury crisis arose between the two LC rounds.

Instead and it’s his prerogative, Potter effectively threw the tie, in what he would consider a win-win. The kids get vital first team experience, and in the unlikely event of an Albion win .... everyone’s a winner.

But managers doing this disrespect a major trophy and the fans. In my early years of being an Albion fan in the 70’s onwards, all managers took the LC very seriously.

Potter is far from alone in doing this. Bmuff at Burton, West Ham at Oxford, I remember Rafa doing this in a cup tie at either Preston or Burnley in his first Liverpool season. All ties lost, the fans furious.

If we lose at Stamford Bridge anyway which is highly likely, was this really worth it?

 

[spence]

This. I doubt a mass injury crisis arose between the two LC rounds.

Instead and it’s his prerogative, Potter effectively threw the tie, in what he would consider a win-win. The kids get vital first team experience, and in the unlikely event of an Albion win .... everyone’s a winner.

But managers doing this disrespect a major trophy and the fans. In my early years of being an Albion fan in the 70’s onwards, all managers took the LC very seriously.

Potter is far from alone in doing this. Bmuff at Burton, West Ham at Oxford, I remember Rafa doing this in a cup tie at either Preston or Burnley in his first Liverpool season. All ties lost, the fans furious.

If we lose at Stamford Bridge anyway which is highly likely, was this really worth it?

We needed a win. Any win to lift spirits The players will eventually become disillusional in Potter's methods.
With two defeats coming up a cup run could have been a welcome break for all.
Results have not improved under Potter and it will only get worse.
Today is the day I finally say he has to go.

Potter OUT

 

[schmunk]

Playing this team yesterday was indeed a missed opportunity to get tonked by a strong Wolves team in the fourth round