[Albion] Are We The Baddies?

[Thunder Bolt]

We are to some, not to others.

The media have started to hate on us because, frankly, our games are not very interesting. They've got a whole lot of Premier League product to sell and one team whose pragmatic approach is as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. The dismissive comments after the semi from Linekar and co proved that one. Last night Sky practically creamed themselves when Spurs finally scored. We're dull, we waste time, we have players no one has heard of with difficult names and we never, ever score. We are now also perceived as dirty.

I posted this on another thread but I think the chances of us getting any support overseas and tapping in to another revenue stream for Tony there are zero at the moment. Who wants to be the only Indonesian or Thai or Korean in the bar supporting that team that never score, especially if the game is in the middle of the night local time. The relatively attractive football played by Wolves or even Bournemouth must be far more appealing.

I'm not sure your average Liverpool or Man City fan cares one bit who else stays up or goes down though.

It started in the quarter final against Millwall. The BBC were besides themselves praising Millwall for knocking out yet another Premier League club, and how brave and strong they were in the Lions' Den.
Then Brighton (who are they?) spoiled it all by fluking an injury-time equaliser.

Not sure where everyone is getting the negativity from other teams fans from but I've not seen it.

I know loads of Wednesday and United fans but also Spurs, Man U, West Ham and various others. The only person I know who wants us to go down is my son's mate who supports Palace. Which is fair enough.

Everyone hates Cardiff.

I've had good luck wishes from various different fans around the country, that I know including Wolves, Wednesday, Leeds, and even from a Palace mate who wants revenge next season.

 

[Triggaaar]

I've noticed a discernible difference in the way we're now perceived by other fans.

Earlier in the season we seemed to enjoy quite a lot of goodwill (everyone's favourite away day, etc) but the way we're playing at the moment seems to have provoked a wholesale shift in opinion whereby most non-Albion folk would now rather see us relegated, not because of who we are but because of the style (or lack thereof) of our football.

So if we survive, and manage to play better next season, their opinions will change again. That's fine with me.

That hurts...

Nah. The prospect of getting relegated hurts. I couldn't care less that opposition fans aren't loving our football.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

...we should be creating chances against teams of that ilk.

Ha! Effortlessly superior to the formulaic "We should be beating teams like..." parroted by lower-order supporters elsewhere.

Pretentious? Nous?

 

[chimneys]

Was in the queue after game last night at Northumberland Park station and overheard one middle aged Spurs fan say to his adult son that our play was pathetic. I wasn't having that and proceeded to point out:

1. The vast inequality of team spending in the Prem, and if we had gone toe to toe we would have been thrashed.
2. That they would be very happy if we do similarly against Arsenal.
3. That they will also park the bus if they get through to the final to play Barcelona.

They piped down after that, the entitled twats!

 

[LlcoolJ]

So if we survive, and manage to play better next season, their opinions will change again. That's fine with me.

Nah. The prospect of getting relegated hurts. I couldn't care less that opposition fans aren't loving our football.

Exactly. Although as I said, I'm not seeing this supposed negativity from other teams fans anyway.

 

[SI 4 BHA]

Crikey, with every thread you read it's almost like:

100 Ways to put a negative spin on being an Albion fan.

Needs must fella, we must stay in the league, next season we go again, bit more recruitment, a striker, maybe some more expansive rather than expensive football and we'll see where we end up.

48 points next year and no late season worries, the spin then will be, why isn't exciting, why can't we be in a battle to stay in the league or .... why didn't TB spend £200,000,000 in January to grab us that Europa League spot.

I think everyone would be happy with 48 points next season, to get that many we would have had to do some attacking and score a few goals! Thought we played pretty well last night, a hard fought rearguard action against one of the 4 best teams in the country was nothing to be ashamed of, but what most supporters are moaning about is the abject failures against the might of Burnley, Southampton, Bournemouth and Cardiff!

 

[Hotchilidog]

Well I could give two hoots about what anyone else thinks right now. We are in a relegation battle and we have to do what is necessary to get the required points and entertaining the pampered souls that go and watch those who have prospered from the imbalance in modern football finances is not one of them.

Not going to lie, If I were a neutral I wouldn't watch an Albion game right now, we are indeed dull as ditchwater. However from my perch behind the goal last night as someone emotionally invested in us getting a result I found our performance compelling and slightly heroic. That team battled for everyone of those 95 minutes, and I was enthralled by it.

 

[rippleman]

Does make you wonder how many of last year's Summer signings were based purely on our footballing needs and how many were based on the club's desire to raise it's global profile.

It does indeed. But if that was Barber's ploy it has seriously backfired.

We are playing boring, negative football; it is boring and frustrating for me to watch and I've been supporting the club for over 40 years. I can't recall in the past waking up on a Saturday morning and thinking "oh ****, I've got to go to football today". I don't enjoy it and whilst I will always support the club, it's becoming more and more difficult to stay supportive of the players we have and in particular the manager who serves up the same turgid rubbish every game, usually with the same result.

I get why other football fans don't want to watch us. If I wasn't blue & white through and through I wouldn't want to watch us either.

 

[rippleman]

If I was a opposing fan I'd love Brighton to stay up, there's very little chance of losing plus you get to see your team attacking for 90 minutes.

That's really sad. REALLY SAD but undeniably true.

 

[stss30]

Ha! Effortlessly superior to the formulaic "We should be beating teams like..." parroted by lower-order supporters elsewhere.

Pretentious? Nous?

It's not really pretentious though, is it?! I'm not suggesting that we should be in any way superior to these teams, let alone win the matches, but surely all the clubs I listed would be hoping to create some presentable goal scoring opportunities against us at home, so why could we barely muster a shot on target?

You must agree that if we can't demonstrate our offensive play against teams in and around us in the table, we simply don't deserve to be in this division!

 

[LlcoolJ]

Could be worse lads (and lasses). Could be much, much worse.....

"Toxic tactics behind Coventry’s slide from FA Cup glory to brink of oblivion"

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...d-sisu?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

It does indeed. But if that was Barber's ploy it has seriously backfired.

We are playing boring, negative football; it is boring and frustrating for me to watch and I've been supporting the club for over 40 years. I can't recall in the past waking up on a Saturday morning and thinking "oh ****, I've got to go to football today". I don't enjoy it and whilst I will always support the club, it's becoming more and more difficult to stay supportive of the players we have and in particular the manager who serves up the same turgid rubbish every game, usually with the same result.

I get why other football fans don't want to watch us. If I wasn't blue & white through and through I wouldn't want to watch us either.

Trouble with playing boring negative football is it has a very limited lifespan. You can get away with it for a short while. Then you get dumped on your arse back down whence you came. And unless you reinvent the side in a major way, don't even THINK about trotting out the customary BS about bouncing right back up again. Never going to happen. Other clubs want it far more, and are far better equipped to do so.

 

[schmunk]

Next season Hewten will aim for 38 0-0 draws - 38 points is enough to stay up?

 

[Questions]

Think we're in serious danger of becoming the new Stoke ie the club whose style of play epitomises the very worst of the PL

I wish we were that good

 

[BBassic]

Alternatively we could have come up spent 100 million on attaching players and set up in a far more positive manner to go at teams it worked for Fulham....... oh

I don't buy this as an argument at all.

"We'd better not do what some other club has done, they got relegated". The logic is laughable. Especially using Fulham, who put six goals and took four points off us, as the example.

Their problem wasn't that they bought attacking players and had a go in a couple of games it was that their defence was shocking. Jokanovic couldn't decide on his best back line and changed it almost every week. They actually had the 7th best possession stats in the league at the time Jokanovic got the shove; 80% just behind United, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and then City. They were a good side in that regard but with the side leaking goals all that possession meant f**k all.

Another issue was that some of their big Championship players didn't make the step up to the Premier League very well. I wonder where we've seen that before? I'm actually pretty sure that most of their Championship promotion team hardly got a look-in. They had a complete shake-up.

It could be argued that they were naive in some games, attacking where they should have gone for a more pragmatic approach but to say that they got relegated because they had a go is flatly inaccurate.

 

[peterward]

I've noticed a discernible difference in the way we're now perceived by other fans.

Earlier in the season we seemed to enjoy quite a lot of goodwill (everyone's favourite away day, etc) but the way we're playing at the moment seems to have provoked a wholesale shift in opinion whereby most non-Albion folk would now rather see us relegated, not because of who we are but because of the style (or lack thereof) of our football.

It's bad enough being in this position but everyone hating us more than Cardiff and Warnock?

That hurts...

Nothing to do with the club or us fans, it's any combination of league position, managers tactics, team selection and squad performance.

 

[Steve in Japan]

I think only centre-halves actually enjoy watching the Albion play these days. It's not a big group of people.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

You're competing with Cardiff. No-one (except Leeds and possibly Millwall) could be considered baddies compared with Cardiff.

And yourselves I would suggest.

 

[peterward]

I don't buy this as an argument at all.

"We'd better not do what some other club has done, they got relegated". The logic is laughable. Especially using Fulham, who put six goals and took four points off us, as the example.

Their problem wasn't that they bought attacking players and had a go in a couple of games it was that their defence was shocking. Jokanovic couldn't decide on his best back line and changed it almost every week. They actually had the 7th best possession stats in the league at the time Jokanovic got the shove; 80% just behind United, Spurs, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and then City. They were a good side in that regard but with the side leaking goals all that possession meant f**k all.

Another issue was that some of their big Championship players didn't make the step up to the Premier League very well. I wonder where we've seen that before? I'm actually pretty sure that most of their Championship promotion team hardly got a look-in. They had a complete shake-up.

It could be argued that they were naive in some games, attacking where they should have gone for a more pragmatic approach but to say that they got relegated because they had a go is flatly inaccurate.

With a pretty solid group of defenders here, I wonder if Mr Jokanovic would get more out of this squad ? Wouldnt mind finding out + mitrovich may then become more likely!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Such a crying shame that our style and execution of play is so at odds with TB's stated aim of incremental improvement. He deserves far better. Expect some fairly brutal upheavals, carried out in a gentlemanly fashion, over the Summer.