[Albion] Anyone still in denial?

[Timbo]

Wouldn't say I'm in denial, I'm just not overly bothered. If it wasn't for TB's investment and the shit state football clubs have got themselves in nowadays where relegation could spell the end of the club I'd be even less bothered.

 

[doogie004]

Do you honestly think the investment in strikers that Potter has had since he has joined is good enough? It'd be interesting to know since the start of last season how every other PL club has spent on strikers.

Maupay (we've got our moneys worth)
Zequiri (future)
Welbeck (panic signing for numbers)
Connolly (unproven youth player with very little pro experience)
....

Moneys worth with Maupay ?struggling to think of any team that would pay £20 mill or whatever it was for him


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[Springal]

Moneys worth with Maupay ?struggling to think of any team that would pay £20 mill or whatever it was for him


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£1M a PL goal seems about right.

 

[twickers]

Where to start with this. Fulham will likely lose vs City next week, by which point we'll have 2 games in hand, still be above them and be playing an average Southamapton team without their best player the next day. We're not in freefall, we've had 3 poor defeats with decisions and fortune against us (minus the usual poor finishing). Before that we were on our best ever unbeaten run in the top flight, including wins at Anfield against the defending champions and Mourinho's Spurs. Dan Burn also had an excellent game vs 2nd place Leicester, FYI. Did you even watch the game?

It's truly incredible how pessimistic and short sighted our fans can be. I think we'll stay up, and even if we don't, Potter should stay and continue his measured and balanced work with the team.

Good point. Too early to roll over into a ditch.

 

[father_and_son]

If we go down then NSC folks get to reconcile... compare and contrast...style without enough substance taking us down, or no style under CH keeping us up.

If we stay up, and finish no higher than before, we also have to ackowledge whether it was worth it and I suspect most realists will say yes because whilst it was closer to the drop than we'd all like, at least we stayed up showing signs that the team can play more exciting and interesting football than we have before and that (though not in everyones eyes) is progress. So we should remember and acknowledge that if we survive.

The difference between staying up under CH and staying up (I think we will) under GP is simple. Under CH, we were playing sh*t, negative football and eventually we would have gone down. Under GP we are playing skillfull, entertaining football everywhere on the pitch except the 6yd box and eventually we will climb the table.

IT IS ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT! WE DIDN'T PLAY FOOTBALL IN THE PL UNDER CH, WE JUST KICKED A BALL AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO STOP ANY FOOTBALL OCCURRING. AT LEAST WE HAVE MOVED ON FROM THAT.

 

[Swansman]

Which of Murrays goals (in a lower division) this season have been your favourite?

The idea that Murray would be the saviour is laughable, probably even if you ask Murray himself.

Its partly based on selective memory saying Murray wont miss chances, and partly based on the idea that the team would create equally many chances with Murray as with players with the pace, technique and stamina to make runs / put down pressure / carry the ball. Murray is still probably the best finisher out of the lot but that matters little if you dont have the physique to compete with the opposition. There's a reason there's very few 35+ year old strikers around in the PL - and that reason isnt that they've lost their ability but that they are simply not able to compete in the most physically challenging football league in the world.

I think there's only one 37 year old striker (Teddy Sheringham) in the last 20 years of PL who reached 10 goals and while I suppose its technically possible Murray would have got anywhere near that, its not very likely.

 

[chaileyjem]

Moneys worth with Maupay ?struggling to think of any team that would pay £20 mill or whatever it was for him

We paid £16m. He's scored 17 goals in 62 with 5 assists.
What were you expecting for £16m ?
Ollie Watkins was £28m.

 

[drew]

Graham Potter said he was happy with the squad and said his job was to make them better. So he must be satisfied with the strikers.

You really think he is going to say to the press that he is unhappy with the squad that TB has provided him with!!!

We are led to believe we missed out on some targets, Darwin, Brewster and who knows who else we might have been bidding for.

 

[father_and_son]

The idea that Murray would be the saviour is laughable, probably even if you ask Murray himself.

Its partly based on selective memory saying Murray wont miss chances, and partly based on the idea that the team would create equally many chances with Murray as with players with the pace, technique and stamina to make runs / put down pressure / carry the ball. Murray is still probably the best finisher out of the lot but that matters little if you dont have the physique to compete with the opposition. There's a reason there's very few 35+ year old strikers around in the PL - and that reason isnt that they've lost their ability but that they are simply not able to compete in the most physically challenging football league in the world.

I think there's only one 37 year old striker (Teddy Sheringham) in the last 20 years of PL who reached 10 goals and while I suppose its technically possible Murray would have got anywhere near that, its not very likely.

Murray actually broke into a sprint for NF at the weekend... he NEVER did that for us!

 

[chaileyjem]

Moneys worth with Maupay ?struggling to think of any team that would pay £20 mill or whatever it was for him

We paid £16m. He's scored 17 goals in 62 with 5 assists.
What were you expecting for £16m ?
Ollie Watkins was £28m. Rhian Brewster (0 in 21) was £23.5m.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Because Burn isn’t anywhere near as good as March at LWB or Webster at CB.

Well yeah, there is that.

 

[Hotchilidog]

Where to start with this. Fulham will likely lose vs City next week, by which point we'll have 2 games in hand, still be above them and be playing an average Southamapton team without their best player the next day. We're not in freefall, we've had 3 poor defeats with decisions and fortune against us (minus the usual poor finishing). Before that we were on our best ever unbeaten run in the top flight, including wins at Anfield against the defending champions and Mourinho's Spurs. Dan Burn also had an excellent game vs 2nd place Leicester, FYI. Did you even watch the game?

It's truly incredible how pessimistic and short sighted our fans can be. I think we'll stay up, and even if we don't, Potter should stay and continue his measured and balanced work with the team.

Agree with all of that, particularly the final sentiment.

 

[Icy Gull]

Where to start with this. Fulham will likely lose vs City next week, by which point we'll have 2 games in hand, still be above them and be playing an average Southamapton team without their best player the next day. We're not in freefall, we've had 3 poor defeats with decisions and fortune against us (minus the usual poor finishing). Before that we were on our best ever unbeaten run in the top flight, including wins at Anfield against the defending champions and Mourinho's Spurs. Dan Burn also had an excellent game vs 2nd place Leicester, FYI. Did you even watch the game?

It's truly incredible how pessimistic and short sighted our fans can be. I think we'll stay up, and even if we don't, Potter should stay and continue his measured and balanced work with the team.

All good points. One consideration is, that if we do go down, Potter may be offered a job at another PL team with better finances (on the spending front) than us. So we may not keep him, even if we want to.

Yes, I am braced for the incoming laughter, incredulity and abuse for holding this opinion from some of the more vehement Potter haters

 

[drew]

The idea that Murray would be the saviour is laughable, probably even if you ask Murray himself.

Its partly based on selective memory saying Murray wont miss chances, and partly based on the idea that the team would create equally many chances with Murray as with players with the pace, technique and stamina to make runs / put down pressure / carry the ball. Murray is still probably the best finisher out of the lot but that matters little if you dont have the physique to compete with the opposition. There's a reason there's very few 35+ year old strikers around in the PL - and that reason isnt that they've lost their ability but that they are simply not able to compete in the most physically challenging football league in the world.

I think there's only one 37 year old striker (Teddy Sheringham) in the last 20 years of PL who reached 10 goals and while I suppose its technically possible Murray would have got anywhere near that, its not very likely.

He got 2 premier league goals last season!! Loaned to Watford who hardly played him, why? He's a legend for us but people believing he would, at his age, be our saviour, as you say is not laughable, it's sadly deluded.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Spot on.

we are the bottom 6 of the whole football league for win percentage this season. poor management.

Assume the same is true for Fulham?
Is that poor management too?

 

[Braggfan]

The idea that Murray would be the saviour is laughable, probably even if you ask Murray himself.

Its partly based on selective memory saying Murray wont miss chances, and partly based on the idea that the team would create equally many chances with Murray as with players with the pace, technique and stamina to make runs / put down pressure / carry the ball. Murray is still probably the best finisher out of the lot but that matters little if you dont have the physique to compete with the opposition. There's a reason there's very few 35+ year old strikers around in the PL - and that reason isnt that they've lost their ability but that they are simply not able to compete in the most physically challenging football league in the world.

I think there's only one 37 year old striker (Teddy Sheringham) in the last 20 years of PL who reached 10 goals and while I suppose its technically possible Murray would have got anywhere near that, its not very likely.

I don't think Murray would have been the saviour and I do understand why people think he's not longer able to play at this level but equally I don't think it's laughable to say he would have scored goals for us this year. I think at the moment a lot of the chances we're missing would suit Murray's style. In previous seasons we were relying on pacey forwards which Murray obviously couldn't do, but this year we're creating a lot of chances in the box that don't require pace, but someone physically strong, good in the air and a finisher. Murray has all of those things. In fact the goals he scored in the premier league in the last few seasons have all come from his presence in the box and finishing instinct. Exactly the things that we're saying we're missing. I personally think he could have done a job off the bench for us season.

 

[Springal]

I don't think Murray would have been the saviour and I do understand why people think he's not longer able to play at this level but equally I don't think it's laughable to say he would have scored goals for us this year. I think at the moment a lot of the chances we're missing would suit Murray's style. In previous seasons we were relying on pacey forwards which Murray obviously couldn't do, but this year we're creating a lot of chances in the box that don't require pace, but someone physically strong, good in the air and a finisher. Murray has all of those things. In fact the goals he scored in the premier league in the last few seasons have all come from his presence in the box and finishing instinct. Exactly the things that we're saying we're missing. I personally think he could have done a job off the bench for us season.

Murray wouldn't be in those positions to take those chances so it is pointless. Watch him at Forest, he plays in a deeper role, with the young lad in front of him. Hence Murrays lack of goals.... It would be easy to defend against him up top, even in his prime he was constantly offside, now? Just play a high defensive line and leave him isolated

Set pieces he would have got a couple I reckon, but you can't carry around an immobile 37 year old in the hope of a few set piece goals.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Yes it has, what's even more bemusing is earlier in the season there was the suggestion of Tinkering . . .and now we have a settled satarting line up who can't buy a result but GP won't drop players who are failing badly.

Many posters blamed the tinkering for the run of bad form previously and claimed the settled squad was the solution.
That was clearly untrue as well.

In all honestly our previous top performers are either injured (Lamptey/Webster/March) or knackered (Bissouma/MacAllister)
Bissouma really hasn't had the same impact over the last 3 or 4 games that he was having earlier in the season. But he remains pretty much undroppable.
The problem is that tinkering in the next couple of games will get dogs abuse on here if it doesn't go right.

 

[KeegansHairPiece]

Not wanting to get into another big GP, is he any good debate.

But I have observed the substitutions very rarely have an impact on the game. I'm actually struggling to think of one who has changed a game this season. Feel free to help me out.

I generally think he gets the starting XI right most weeks.

Maybe it's the ability to think on his feet that's the issue. We clearly have a strong bench

Welbeck came on and equalised against Sheff Utd, only for the other sub Jahanbakhsh to miss an open goal in injury time.

MacAllister came on and equalised at Selhurst.

 

[chaileyjem]

On average we win every 6 games, considering every game is carbon copy of the one before there is no reason to suggest this form will change. We need four wins

On average we'll finish the season with 36 points. (we're currently at 0.92 points per game)