[Albion] A summary of Albion’s 2020/21 season - authors of our own downfalls

[Jeremiah]

I want Maupay to stay, but I’m praying that Tony buys a quality striker this summer.

If not, why will the same old change?

I fully expect us to start next season with just Maupay & Connolly . Welbeck will be off to better pastures and The Albion will do the customary "we are good enough with what we've got"

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

There has been a pattern all season long.
A pattern to which I'll add failure to play both halves of the match in a commanding fashion.


I hope, and in fairness I do genuinely believe it to be so, that this is all part of GPott's learning curve.
So I don't expect his team to choke through next season as well.



But if they do, that'll be his downfall.

Although we will have VERY low expectations next season. Shouldn’t be too difficult to exceed them...

 

[Weststander]

I fully expect us to start next season with just Maupay & Connolly . Welbeck will be off to better pastures and The Albion will do the customary "we are good enough with what we've got"

If that’s all we have upfront in the squad at the close of next summer’s transfer window, imho that’s a likely relegation, I’m not joking.

I’d go so far as saying that I’d then agree with THPP’s synopsis of TB’s EPL strategy.

But I don’t think TB will provide GP with that ridiculously spartan strike force.

 

[Guinness Boy]

The BBC were keen to reinforce the message that the club has made progress under Potter and I do get that, but as a Men's First XI we make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Part of that lies with the players and part, sorry, lies with Potter.

We need to have a summer that aligns players to the coaching view, because I don't see GP going to Spurs or getting the tin tack.

 

[Weststander]

We still have a soft underbelly with this team but I don’t know why. If you individually check list the players they all seem pretty strong mentally and physically. It’s better than last year in terms of quality but even allowing for our absence of Dunk today I thought we conceded ground far to quickly and went into siege mode straight away.

Imho a key issue is not having a pacey and devastating counter attack. So today Wolves could largely relax once we went down to ten men.

Dare I say, Eze/Zaha and Wilson/Saint-Maximin give any set of opponents a lot to think about.

Enabling them to leave 7 or 8 outfield players behind the ball at all times, the other two ready to pounce and commit daylight robbery at any moment.

 

[BBassic]

However, an interesting/annoying statistic is the number of times we concede late on.

I think we've only conceded in the 85+ minute four times this season.

United
Palace
(struggling to think of this one)
Wolves.

Still four times too many of course. And of course happy to be corrected.

 

[Swansman]

You've thought that, what with Potter being an expert in Emotional Intelligence etc., getting the team individually and collectively to toughen up mentally would be a cakewalk. Obviously it isn't and maybe he's not quite the finished article re the old psycho babble either

Some people spend years and years and years in therapy, its not like psychology is some on/off button, its a pretty complicated topic and you cant help everyone with everything.

 

[Stat Brother]

Imho a key issue is not having a pacey and devastating counter attack. So today Wolves could largely relax once we went down to ten men.

Dare I say, Eze/Zaha and Wilson/Saint-Maximin give any set of opponents a lot to think about.

Enabling them to leave 7 or 8 outfield players behind the ball at all times, the other two ready to pounce and commit daylight robbery at any moment.

Careful now I'm still getting jip for saying 3 points against a Wilson/Saint-Maximinless Newcastle was a gift.

 

[Weststander]

The BBC were keen to reinforce the message that the club has made progress under Potter and I do get that, but as a Men's First XI we make the same mistakes over and over and over again. Part of that lies with the players and part, sorry, lies with Potter.

We need to have a summer that aligns players to the coaching view, because I don't see GP going to Spurs or getting the tin tack.

Potter won’t be the Spurs manager. It’s complete fiction in the minds of 1% of Spurs fans.

Potter’s a promising bottom 6 manager, with an awful lot to learn.

Spuds have £831m of debt (according to their own fans websites), they require CL football tomorrow, so after their car crash of a season .... in Autumn 2022.

They won’t take a long-term punt on a promising manager without a winning games track record.

 

[Shooting Star]

I also think that Potters inability to adjust or out-think the opposing manager in the second half in most matches is a major problem. How many times this season have we seen a completely different Albion turn up in the second 45 minutes. The conceding of late goals is now almost a certainty.

100% this. Sadly last week seems like an anomaly in a season where our second halves are generally very poor and Potter has no answer for it. Almost half of the games we've gone in 1-0 up at half-time have ended in draws/losses. Only 5 times have we come away with more points by full-time than we were on course for at the interval.

 

[Weststander]

Careful now I'm still getting jip for saying 3 points against a Wilson/Saint-Maximinless Newcastle was a gift.

I may not have said so at the time in that particular win, but I did say it throughout when NSC’s Geordie haters predicted their relegation. Wilson and Saint-Maximin give NUFC great threats.

Injuries to key players in the EPL make a huge difference, this season in particular it’s altered the destiny for several clubs. Newcastle, CP without Zaha, LFC without VVD/Henderson/Jota/Gomez/Matip, Villa without Grealish, Wolves without Jimenez, Spuds whenever Kane’s injured.

All become teams that can’t buy a win, opponents emboldened simply by looking at the team sheet.

Whilst ManU, West Ham and Chelsea have had incredible luck this season, their best players have been available.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Some people spend years and years and years in therapy, its not like psychology is some on/off button, its a pretty complicated topic and you cant help everyone with everything.

True, but I’m not sure it is efficient use of a football manager’s time

 

[Reddleman]

The team are so fragile. Its the same scenario every game, either start well, end poorly or other way round. Miss numerous chances and then regret it later on. And finally, if we are drawing going into the 90th minute we know we have the mindset to collapse and concede to a woeful goal. so utterly predictable.

Sorry but that’s just simply not true. Since Xmas we have had more clear sheets than every time in the league except Chelsea and Man City. That’s not a team that’s fragile. There’s been a couple of bad ones like today where we concede late but we are anything but fragile these days.

 

[Muzzy]

We do not have the ability to play well for 95 mins. Why not?

 

[Reddleman]

I think we've only conceded in the 85+ minute four times this season.

United
Palace
(struggling to think of this one)
Wolves.

Still four times too many of course. And of course happy to be corrected.

Leicester is the other one. I agree with your post it’s nowhere near as big a problem as people make out. When it happens it hurts and so it sticks in the mind but it’s not been that big a problem.

We have also scored late goals against Sheffield United and Liverpool to snatch points as well as ironically what should have been a late draw against Man U if the ref hadn’t played an unwarranted extra three minutes.

 

[Stat Brother]

Blimey is this what we've become.

An insight on psychology and therapy from one of our more 'out there' fruit loops.

 

[Reddleman]

We do not have the ability to play well for 95 mins. Why not?

What team in the PL does? Other than the very top teams who also have off days, see Man City’s recent run, no team will dominate every 90 minutes. Our problem is more we don’t fully capitalise on the spells we are on top.

 

[Muzzy]

What team in the PL does? Other than the very top teams who also have off days, see Man City’s recent run, no team will dominate every 90 minutes. Our problem is more we don’t fully capitalise on the spells we are on top.

I wouldn’t expect us to dominate any game in this division, but we blow hot or very very cold, especially when we score early on. We weren’t in this game in the 2nd half even before Dunky was rightly sent off. We invite pressure unnecessarily too often.

 

[Reddleman]

I wouldn’t expect us to dominate any game in this division, but we blow hot or very very cold, especially when we score early on. We weren’t in this game in the 2nd half even before Dunky was rightly sent off. We invite pressure unnecessarily too often.

But since Xmas we are in the top three for clean sheets so inviting pressure isn’t really a problem. We never looked remotely troubled today until the red card totally changes the game.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Agree with most of what the OP says BUT this one was down to Dunk's recklessness, and this thread and the timing of it perhaps masks that. Ironically, he was likely heading for man of the match before that.