[Albion] Are we just a bit…

[macbeth]

I think we mostly agree, I am not going to argue about semantics.

Trust the process, rebuilding, in transition, bedding in players, learning the league, learning the team. It's all the same and it means we may have to be patience.

Alternatively something is rotten in Denmark and the manager has to be moved on and TB will do that thing.

Our discussion, excuses or whatever make no difference to the process/rebuild/transition anyway.

These are the times that make the good times better.

yes and i said in another post that i see i'm maybe being a bit obtuse here. those terms just wind me up a little bit, even though they’re obviously well-intentioned. TB has obviously earned enough trust for us to assume he knows what he’s doing with this appointment.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I mean, if this is us being shit, sitting 10th in the Premier league, then we really have arrived in the big time.

Brighton being shit used to mean a whole different thing.....

 

[SittingbourneSeagull]

Woeful shooting, is that why we are reluctant to do so? Corners are shit, never look dangerous with them. Crosses into box are poor and always when opposing defenders set. We never put opposition defenders under pressure facing their own goal. Something that every team does to us?? All a bit naive and smacks of inexperience.

Yes as my son said last night " our set piece coach is stealing a living"

 

[A1X]

We are doing better, this is it. This is exactly where TB said he wanted to be, a top ten team with the occasional sortie into Europe.

We all jumped up and down with glee when this was suggested. What a dream!. With this suggestion comes the idea that progress will not be linear, there will be ups and downs and bumps in the road. Backward step to move forward.

As frustrating as the last few games have been, this is our reality. The same reality we were all gleeful about a few years ago.

The only thing that has changed or gone off piste is (some of) our fan's expectations. Which is embarrassing. But that is part of the process too.

Agreed 100%, some on here seem to think our single sortie into Europe meant Europe every year, or at least more years in than not. When I don’t think that’s ever been the plan or expectation communicated by the club.

 

[GT49er]

we’re ALWAYS in transition/rebuilding. name one season where there hasn’t been a case to make that argument.

Not when we are trying to shoe-horn in three-quarters of our £200M new players (two went straight out on loan, still leaving six for us to fit in). In those glorious sunny days in August and September, when we went unbeaten for the first seven matches (5 in the league, 2 in the league cup), apart from Minteh playing in four and a half of them, the only newbies to start were Wieffer at Everton, O'Riley (yes, we all know how that ended after 5 minutes, sadly), and Rutter twice (against Ipswich and Forest) we were just playing our existing players, the same players from last season.
Come Chelsea, for the first time we tried introducing three new players - 4-2 down at half time, they were all pulled in the second half as we tried to recover and avoid our first defeat. Some transition! Hope it works - eventually!

 

[Han Solo]

we’re ALWAYS in transition/rebuilding. name one season where there hasn’t been a case to make that argument.

Obviously there's always some "argument" but the 22/23 squad was a complete one where most of the players had accumulated a lot of Premier League experience.

You could see in the pre-season interviews etc that Graham Potter was very confident in his team and delighted about particularly the Mitoma signing but also the other new players. The last pieces of junk (Andone, Locadia, Ali J and all of those) from the CH era had gone, the squad was trimmed but not too small and decent competition for all places... it could be seen very early that the time is "now". It didn't even matter that player of the season-Cucurella had f***ed off as we had found a similar level replacement.

Prior to that there was always something or another. Potter carefully nodding when asked if he was happy with a squad with only Maupay and Connolly up front. Shane Duffy returning from the dead (well, Celtic) to be crowbared into a squad.

Similar the summer before this: the outdrawn sale of Caicedo, the manager complaining about some of his new players, weird expensive loan of Ansu Fati etc. Just chaos. And now this summer with a new 12-year-old manager and a dozen 8-year-old players to integrate.

I think the ambition is to have one of those "we're ready" seasons like 22/23 every now and then. But it requires a lot from everyone involved and the stars kind of have to align or not misalign.

Unfortunately last season was a little wasted in terms of achieving that again. For once the club decided to sacrifice some long term ambitions to be competitive in Europa League in the short term and it has lead to a bunch of after-effects that makes me believe the club will handle another success season better so we don't have to start over from "chaos", like this season.

 

[macbeth]

Obviously there's always some "argument" but the 22/23 squad was a complete one where most of the players had accumulated a lot of Premier League experience.

You could see in the pre-season interviews etc that Graham Potter was very confident in his team and delighted about particularly the Mitoma signing but also the other new players. The last pieces of junk (Andone, Locadia, Ali J and all of those) from the CH era had gone, the squad was trimmed but not too small and decent competition for all places... it could be seen very early that the time is "now". It didn't even matter that player of the season-Cucurella had f***ed off as we had found a similar level replacement.

Prior to that there was always something or another. Potter carefully nodding when asked if he was happy with a squad with only Maupay and Connolly up front. Shane Duffy returning from the dead (well, Celtic) to be crowbared into a squad.

Similar the summer before this: the outdrawn sale of Caicedo, the manager complaining about some of his new players, weird expensive loan of Ansu Fati etc. Just chaos. And now this summer with a new 12-year-old manager and a dozen 8-year-old players to integrate.

I think the ambition is to have one of those "we're ready" seasons like 22/23 every now and then. But it requires a lot from everyone involved and the stars kind of have to align or not misalign.

Unfortunately last season was a little wasted in terms of achieving that again. For once the club decided to sacrifice some long term ambitions to be competitive in Europa League in the short term and it has lead to a bunch of after-effects that makes me believe the club will handle another success season better so we don't have to start over from "chaos", like this season.

agree completely, i think the summer 2023 window is the only time since promotion, other than summer 2018, where i can be said that the club royally stuffed up the recruitment/squad planning. i mentioned the whole rebuilding/transition thing as i personally don’t like those abstract phrases like that, or ‘trust the process’ as they seem fairly asinine to me, but i definitely see how this seasons rebuild is on the larger side of the scale. with that in mind, i don’t think a lower mid-table finish is the end of the world, but then you look at the fact that we do have some extremely talented players who probably won’t be here next season, and it would feel like a bit of a missed opportunity again if we ended up finishing, say, 15th

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

How do you come to that conclusion when last night we had 28 shots or whatever and none troubled the keeper. That’s poor skill / mentality from the players

Zamora out!

 

[Wardy's twin]

Don't think we are sh*t just immensely frustrating and that really came to a head (for me) with our keeper continually dithering with the ball with no clue what to do. We don't look like a team with a plan we looked like a group of good players trying stuff first half and second half just like a group of players going through the motions very much like the second half of last year.

24 'shot's but no goals doesn't really tell the story , if we had played with more urgency it could have 40. If we played it more quickly it might have been less but without having to get through 10 defenders.

Well Villa next, not seen us win there so hopefully.....

 

[Pliny the Gull]

TBH I think most games this season have had 30 minute periods of anything on a scale of 1 to 10 Sh*t to brilliant periods of play.
The only constant being throwing subs on in the last quarter.
Feels like to me that every game this season is like watching a FA cup tie rather than a league campaign.

 

[Han Solo]

Yes as my son said last night " our set piece coach is stealing a living"

In attack they're indeed quite pointless but we've conceded very little chances on set pieces this season.

 

[Weststander]

In attack they're indeed quite pointless but we've conceded very little chances on set pieces this season.

Other than Arsenal with their ex Brentford expert, who are obsessed with corners.

 

[Han Solo]

Other than Arsenal with their ex Brentford expert, who are obsessed with corners.

Yup. Hope we basically copy what they're doing. Its such a leap forward and those who understand it will benefit from it. Its a bit like when Swansea started using GPS vests ten years ago and most clubs said "ehh, what?"... its so obvious that the Arsenal tactic is superior.

Most teams play football around the concept of not having players running backwards while duelling big centre backs who can run towards the ball and therefore have a massive advantage. Thats why teams don't hoof it anymore.

When Arsenal puts all their players on the far post and run towards it, they get the same advantage you get when defending a hoof ball. Pluts its virtually impossble to mark them as they start in a crowd and "explode" from there.

Its great on paper, works great in reality... we should try it.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Agreed 100%, some on here seem to think our single sortie into Europe meant Europe every year, or at least more years in than not. When I don’t think that’s ever been the plan or expectation communicated by the club.

Externally we’d never communicate that. Internally Europe and even the Champions League are targets.

 

[Weststander]

Yup. Hope we basically copy what they're doing. Its such a leap forward and those who understand it will benefit from it. Its a bit like when Swansea started using GPS vests ten years ago and most clubs said "ehh, what?"... its so obvious that the Arsenal tactic is superior.

Most teams play football around the concept of not having players running backwards while duelling big centre backs who can run towards the ball and therefore have a massive advantage. Thats why teams don't hoof it anymore.

When Arsenal puts all their players on the far post and run towards it, they get the same advantage you get when defending a hoof ball. Pluts its virtually impossble to mark them as they start in a crowd and "explode" from there.

Its great on paper, works great in reality... we should try it.

Last night we tried boxing the Brentford keeper in at set pieces. The Brentford players appeared to disrupt the ploy by claiming violent conduct from Dunk or similar, leading to lengthy lectures from the ref. Wolves used it successfully the other night, Onana was boxed in as Cunha scored deliberately direct from a corner.