[Albion] After a night to sleep on it

[happypig]

I was proper grumpy last night but more at the nature of the loss rather than the loss itself. When we lost to ManU last week, it was unlucky and could easily have been a win. Yesterday we were the architects of our own misfortune; a couple of bits of comedy defending and a puzzling reluctance to "just lump it into the box" from corners in conditions that can cause mistakes and against an off-form keeper.
Today, meh, it was an off day and I'd rather have it against an Everton side that looks real quality than against our direct rivals like Newcastle, Palace, WHU etc.

What I am still grumpy about is that cheating shithouse Hooper (although he didn't really affect our loss, had it been closer he could, and likely would, have).

Edit: In fact, [MENTION=6886]Bozza[/MENTION], can we have "Simon Hooper" changed to "cheating shithouse" like you did with "M!ke Dean" ?

 

[Arthritic Toe]

Bizarrely the thing that angered me most was Dunk taking a free kick.

To my memory he's taken about 4 now, 3 have ended up in row Z (ok he scored from the other, but only due to keeper error). Why is he taking them? Has he taken a few in training that have flown into the top corner? Its a mystery.

 

[B52]

Lots of training themes for the international break.

Zonal marking vs Man to Man.

How to defend set pieces.

How to notice when a keeper is out of form and how to exploit them.

Finding a proper free kick taker.

How to make short corners work.

How to test a keeper with corners.

Protecting yourself from a break attack.

And how to stop conceding after scoring.

 

[Blue3]

I think GP was spot on we had moments and we contributed to our own downfall through silly errors, the weather was truly awful not good for keepers, set pieces defending or attacking need working on, but most of all need a couple of old heads on the pitch who can just organise and have a quiet word now and then, as an example we looked more composed with Veltman and Lalarna on the pitch but by that time the game had run away from us, It was always going to be a tough start to the season and Everton are on fire at the moment but the break I think comes at a good time and with Palarse next it's all to play for a good time to get the videos out of the past Brighton Palarse encounters sit the new players infront of a TV and go through some history

 

[Steve in Japan]

Never mind all that, has the ball returned to Earth after Dunk's free kick, or is it still in orbit? I think Ulloa was properly impressed with the height he got on it.

 

[cheshunt seagull]

I am not too down. Even if we had played well we would probably have lost to a strong side. This came after setting the bar very high in our 2 previous performances and if we are to have an off-day I would rather it was in this game than against teams in the lower half of the table. Having said that I think we made far too many errors with careless passing and there is clearly a major problem with the way that the keeper and central defenders position themselves with crosses. The failure to use free-kicks and corners to put pressure on a nervous keeper was mystifying. These are all things that can be worked on and maybe a reality check was needed.

Yesterday I was less measured and was screaming, 'no, no FFS get back' each time one of our players headed out of the box towards the player taking our corner.

 

[Thompson720]

Nowhere near as sick as I was last weekend against United! We got beaten, and deservedly so by the in form team. Even the players knew it judging by their social media posts.

Bad day, but we go again after the break. We can see we can play, and it's a long old season!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Still raining and a tad windy....sigh

 

[Lush]

I would be really interested to see how often the most expensive team on the pitch wins.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Indeed. An embarassing shit list of entitlement. I can picture, now, what their Christmas list for Santa looked like when they were kids

- an aeroplane
- a submarine
- a Koala bear
- a wardrobe full of little lord Fauntleroy suits
- a genie in a bottle

etc.

You missed a few H

A heated kidney shaped pool
A Gucci shoe tree
A year's supply of antibiotics
Bob Dylan's new unlisted phone number
A beautifully restored 3rd Reich swizzle stick
A Las Vegas wedding
A Mexican divorce
A solid gold Kama Sutra coffee pot
Or a baby's arm holding an apple

 

[southstandandy]

I gave up caring at 3-1, the outcome was obvious

Not in the slightest bit angry as we kind of knew we'd come away with nothing.

I don't think GP got anything right yesterday, I just hope he learns from it. THe biggest concern is after such an abject display, particularly at the back we need to move on positively and get a good performance and some kind of result from our next game.

And the next game is?

Imagine the meltdown on here if we lose to the old enemy.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

You missed a few H

A heated kidney shaped pool
A Gucci shoe tree
A year's supply of antibiotics
Bob Dylan's new unlisted phone number
A beautifully restored 3rd Reich swizzle stick
A Las Vegas wedding
A Mexican divorce
A solid gold Kama Sutra coffee pot
Or a baby's arm holding an apple

Love that track. Will dig it out and post it shortly

Edit wan't Rosemary's baby also on that list?

 

[Steve Foster]

[/B]

And the next game is?

Imagine the meltdown on here if we lose to the old enemy.

... after today’s results we will be back to our usual league position as a bottom 6 side.

Are we better than that this season? Who knows time will tell - but with only 2 strikers & a leaky defence - I can’t see us improving ...

 

[Giraffe]

I expected defeat.

What surprised me was how poorly we defended and how poor we were at getting a free kick or corner into the bloody box. Basic stuff that I would hope is fairly easy to fix.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I must admit I avoided NSC yesterday. I had a get together, me, my mate and our teenage boys together watching the game and a curry and few glasses of wine for the adults over the Leeds / City game. Feeling bad after defeat after a couple of drinks isn't the ideal time to post on here and, typically for us, it was a good day together ruined by 90 minutes of football.

Everton aren't top by accident. Mina had an outstanding game as did James Roderiguez. They'll be giving Alzate a bit of bantz in the Colombian training camp for sure. We're not going to get our way in open play against every side in the league. Ancelotti is a good coach too and knew how to set up against us. Even this early on I fancy Everton to crash the top four this season if James stays fit.

We weren't terrible but we did sign our own death warrant at set pieces. The one worrying thing about both this game and Man U is how bad we look defending set pieces, considering we have 3 CBs on the pitch. And with 3 CBs, wet conditions and a poor keeper in Pickford our constant taking of our own set pieces short, sideways or backwards was massively frustrating. It was obviously an instruction from Potter based on a perceived weakness but he called it wrong.

Beyond that we still scored twice and had some bright moments in the game. Sort out the set pieces and we'll be fine with some easier games coming up.

 

[Ooh it’s a corner]

I thought Everton did well in nullifying TL. Biss looked off the pace to start with which nearly cost us. We also missed the influence of AL in comparison to the Utd game. The ref clearly didn’t help as having booked SA for pulling back he HAD to book Digne for the same offence.

Overall though I agree with many others - the defensive errors cost us significantly with poor game management after we equalised. We can’t give away free kicks near our box if we going to defend like that. Webby and Dunky can both be good in the air but you wouldn’t have known it yesterday. DCL and Mina rose effectively unopposed for the first two goals.

Nothing is ever straightforward with our beloved club. I thought Solly had an excellent game again yesterday but it was sill his silly challenge that gave away one of the free kicks. I can’t work out if he’s playing better because he’s at LWB or whether it’s just improving confidence. I wonder about putting DB back at LB of a four in certain games but with March still in team which then means leaving out one of the three CBs.

I am trusting in GP and the players to sort it. We’ve had a tough set of starting fixtures and this was the first game we really deserved to lose I thought.

Although the rain should definitely not be relevant I really didn’t think we looked up to the battle when the players emerged from their changing area. It didn’t inspire confidence!

 

[The Wizard]

I can accept losses against Everton, Man United and Chelsea. We were thoroughly outplayed against Everton, didn’t deserve to lose against Chelsea and should probably have beaten United, somehow losing to a 99th minute penalty.

What I can’t accept is the criminal defending of set pieces and our own appalling set pieces, it’s unforgivable for me and when you concede goals like that we are going to be very vulnerable against some of the more average teams we come up against that is the worry and Potter MUST address this as soon as possible, it’s also not acceptable that we waste every set piece we get doing some weird short routine that I think I’ve seen work once in the entirety of GP reign.

Losing to teams better than us, I can accept pretty easily, in this league you sort of have too with the quality we are up against but in a couple of the games so far this season we’ve gifted teams easy goals from set pieces and that does worry me because we haven’t made teams earn their chances. Teams will start targeting it and then it can become a mental thing so Potter must get on top of it now.

 

[atomised]

We were seemingly denied a positive result against Manchester United by some bad luck but played extremely well at times.
In our next match the same set of players seemingly performed poorly.
Encouragement followed by gloom. In reality the truth is somewhere in between.

It's a young team, that's now played Chelsea, Manchester United and a revitalised Everton side.
By the end of next month we would have played Palace, West Brom, Burnley and Villa. We'll then know where we realistically are.

With the struggles many of us are suffering with our mental health, the last thing we need to do is to further burden ourselves worrying about an Albion domesday scenario that in reality isn't there.
We have enough to concern ourselves about with financial struggles looming for many families and the lonely and difficult winter ahead.

I'm sure three points at Palace will solve the world's problems for most people on NSC.

Spot on for me. 4 games in. We've gone toe to toe and looked good and possibly deserved more against Man Utd and Chelsea. We kept Wilson quiet at Newcastle and looked great and we flopped at a far from happy hunting ground against a revitalised Everton who won't be far from top 4 come season's end.
Half full for me. The players are adapting to a different system and once it beds in and we can judge it against some of those games we would hope to get points from I think things will look far better

 

[Justice]

Spot on for me. 4 games in. We've gone toe to toe and looked good and possibly deserved more against Man Utd and Chelsea. We kept Wilson quiet at Newcastle and looked great and we flopped at a far from happy hunting ground against a revitalised Everton who won't be far from top 4 come season's end.
Half full for me. The players are adapting to a different system and once it beds in and we can judge it against some of those games we would hope to get points from I think things will look far better

That’s fine and all but what happens when we pick up injuries/suspensions during the season? We are basically finished if certain players are missing. Lamptey only player with some pace, Maupay the only real PL quality forward we have. Take away those two away and I just can’t see how we will win enough games.

 

[SimpKingpin]

Corners and set pieces - attacking and defending.
That's all I'm seriously concerned about.

But that's a BIG part of the game.

ATTACKING:
Who can take our direct free kicks and look like a threat?
Is Dunk the right choice?

Who is going to take corners and indirect free-kicks that are not a gimmicks or passes back to halfway line? Who can whip in a deadly cross?
Mac Allister? (not on pitch) Gross? (not on pitch) March? Trossard?

DEFENDING:
If I knew the answer to these I'd be working for BHA, not posting on here. But it doesn't take a scientist to realise it's a problem.
So much so that I expect us to concede whenever the opposition has a corner or set piece.

Forget signing a LWB or striker. Sign a set piece specialist for defending and/or attacking. It would be a much better use of money.

The rest of it I'm very happy with. Absolutely LOVE Potterball - never been more excited to watch us play.

EDIT: On the plus side I'm extremely happy to see Maupay scoring regularly again. I love the midfield duo of Bissouma x Alzate. Lamptey, March, Trossard, the list goes on.