attila
1997 Club
Ironic to be called predictable and boring by mostly armchair 'fans' of the most boring, predictable league in the world.
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[Albion] Are We The Baddies?
- Thread starter GJN1
- Start date
Mo Gosfield
Well-known member
- Aug 11, 2010
- 6,362
The appeal of football to the ever burgeoning global audience is that it is a simple game to understand. The vast majority expect some level of entertainment and expect both teams to try and attack. Defending and defending well is unfashionable. Its boring. They haven't got time for that. Gorged on Barca, Man C and Liverpool sweeping gloriously forward and scoring for fun against hapless opposition is what they expect. Defenders get in the way, they spoil things for the important people in football, the goal scorers. Defending is disregarded by many as almost irrelevant. Cricket has created the same feeling for bowlers in T20. It is totally batsmen orientated. Thats what the fans come to see. Sixes being hit everywhere and bowlers being reduced to mere sideshows. Same with football now. Defenders spoil a good game of football. Elitism breeds arrogance and impatience.
I accept that you have to get the defending/attacking balance right but football has never just been about scoring goals. You have three types of player. One that stops goals, one that creates goals and one that scores goals. It is easy to criticise a team defending for their lives but it ain't the first time and it won't be the last. Circumstances are currently dictating that our balance is one sided at present but we seem to be getting a rough press considering we gave Man C a tough game at Wembley and have run Liverpool and Tottenham close in two league games. We also happen to be 20 points ahead of Huddersfield but I guess its fashionable to have a go at a team making it difficult for one of the more fashionable sides.
Perhaps some of these fans should be asking why a league has been created that shows such a points disparity through 20 teams and therefore forces some teams to take drastic measures to try and compete in almost impossible circumstances.
I accept that you have to get the defending/attacking balance right but football has never just been about scoring goals. You have three types of player. One that stops goals, one that creates goals and one that scores goals. It is easy to criticise a team defending for their lives but it ain't the first time and it won't be the last. Circumstances are currently dictating that our balance is one sided at present but we seem to be getting a rough press considering we gave Man C a tough game at Wembley and have run Liverpool and Tottenham close in two league games. We also happen to be 20 points ahead of Huddersfield but I guess its fashionable to have a go at a team making it difficult for one of the more fashionable sides.
Perhaps some of these fans should be asking why a league has been created that shows such a points disparity through 20 teams and therefore forces some teams to take drastic measures to try and compete in almost impossible circumstances.
Well not quite as predictable as the Scottish, Dutch,German, Portuguese, Italian, Greek and Spanish leagues ...but other than them...
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
Thats the media for you ....we are in fashion to have a bash at right now..and as per usual the comments are over the top.....in time it will be someone else's turn
Incredible stat: The Championship has never had the same winner two years in a row!
E
Eric Youngs Contact Lense
Guest
Well put. People also forget that there are reasons why we have 3 points for a win and "Away Goals" - they forget that the "great sides" of the past, mastered defending away from home - hoping to nick a goal but banking on winning at home. I think we are already seeing the swing that two-legged ties are breeding very cautious 1st-legs as the Home team can't afford to gift an away goal. 0-0 at home is not a bad result in that context. The disparity is put into greater context when you consider Man Utd have lost 6/7 in the last 8/9 games and have not really dropped any further down the league ( a place or two maybe) and wont drop any further even if they don't pick up another point this season..defending and counter-attacking is the only hope for everyone else.
Gritt23
New member
I think you have a very valid point, but the extent to which I care is quite minimal. I never did care what other fans thought of us in terms of playing style, so why start now? We're in danger of getting used to the good feeling people have had towards us in the Fans United days and our subsequent battles, and liking people having a "soft spot for us" but in terms of whether neutrals want us to stay up or go down, I don't give a stuff.
I also think we are bearing the brunt of dis-satisfaction at the wider game. Just go down the bookies and look at the odds of the smaller sides when they come up against the big teams. They are ludicrous, but clearly accurate, as you never see a poor bookie. But these are odds, that if if you saw for a boxing match, the promoter would be getting asked serious questions. But in football, it's fair game.
The big teams are getting so much stronger than the rest of us, there is little choice but to park the bus and hope for the best, not just from us, but from plenty of sides. In the last 2 seasons in the EPL we've had 60+ games where one team has had over 70% possession. In the first 3 years of OPTA stats (about 15 years ago) there were just 3 games with over 70% possession for one team. In 15 years, that level of dominance has gone from 1 game per season, to 1 game in 6. No-one is convincing me, that it's just us.
To put into perspective how dominant 70% possession is, Wolves didn't achieve that against us last week (69%). So we are talking 1 in 6 games are MORE dominant than Wolves were against us.
It's where the game is going. Tourist fans wanting to come and see the "stars" perform, and if that is against a little team, then we are the stooges vs the Harlem Globetrotters. It's what the financial divide in the game has created, and it sells, so no-one is about to change anything. Anyone who thinks it's just us, is deluded.
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Knocky's Nose
Mon nez est retiré.
I don't care if we're the baddies, as long as we stay up - and change next season... and be seen to change. Only then will people think "ah, yes - well, they were doing what they had to do, but fair play they've changed their approach in 2019/20.."
You can't blame CH for absolutely reverting to the purest form of his football. It's what he knows, and (sadly) it's what he's best at, even if it's as interesting to watch as next doors cat shitting in your flower bed.
You can't blame CH for absolutely reverting to the purest form of his football. It's what he knows, and (sadly) it's what he's best at, even if it's as interesting to watch as next doors cat shitting in your flower bed.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,316
Tho bizarrely Wolves beat Arsenal 3-1 the other day with a mere 29% possession and only 3 shots on target. There's hope for us yet!
Gritt23
New member
Tho bizarrely Wolves beat Arsenal 3-1 with a mere 29% possession the other day
Not saying it doesn't work, that wasn't my point at all. But that it is a widely played tactic to cede possession and hope for the best.
Goes back to the OP and his point that we are being perceived as the baddies ..... find me an analyst who is criticising Wolves tactics. They just have better players than us at hitting teams on the break. For CHAMPIONS, the stats on Leicester possession when they won the League were unbelievable. So it can work, it does work, but LOADS of teams are doing it,better teams than us, all the way up to Mourinho winning the title with Chelsea, parking the bus is a widely used tactic, but lately WE seem to be the only ones that are being pulled up on it.
BadFish
Huge Member
- Oct 19, 2003
- 18,194
Mr Putdown
Well-known member
fosters headband
Well-known member
Double post
fosters headband
Well-known member
If you are asking me if both Barber and Hughton are yes men, then the answer is yes to both
Hughton should be asking both Barber and Bloom how many other Prem teams have been functioning with only a 24 man sqaud against the allowed 25, since January, Why since we have joined the Premier league, have we wasted money (fees to both their clubs and agents) buying and then loaning out 11 players, when surely some if not all could have been used on better signings for the front side?
Why are we wasting money bringing in two throwaway Championship goalkeepers at the same time let a better one leave on loan to a Championship side?
Why are we spending £14 million on a striker and let a better one go out on loan?
Why are we trying to emulate Chelsea by having 19 players currently out on loan but cannot fill the 25-man allowed Prem sqaud?
Surely our Mr Barber should be highlighting to Mr Bloom how much we will lose if we are relegated and that perhaps more is spent on the front sqaud and less on maybe stars of the future or Belgium clubs.
It just seems a shame to me that we are gambling on our Premiership future.
I know I will I will get flamed for this view but it is just how I see things at the moment.
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father_and_son
Well-known member
I get the frustration, but the club does not have one shot at the PL and if we get relegated we are never allowed back.
Bloom's plan has always been the long term financial stability of the club. He has set that in motion by investing in infrastructure and youth. Whilst hugely frustrating now, if it pans out the way he wants then, in the long run there is always a 'successful' BHAFC and never again will we be homeless or staring that the abyss on non-league status.
We can't throw all the money at big name signings and then still have investment.
Should we have Button and Steel... Absolutely not. Completely agree that was a ridiculous decision to bring in both, especially given we have Walton and youth players.
All the others I see working with the long term strategy. We have too many players out on loan, second only to Chelski I believe, and we should be cashing in on some, especially when we have, seemingly, no programme to bring then into our first team.
Is it perfect... Probably not, but then it's not a precise science. Will it ensure we have 100years of professional football, in the city, in the PL or EFL... Yes. I think we will.
Nixonator
Well-known member
It's media perpetuated bullshit, why anyone is giving it any thought at all is indicative of how much control they have in swaying opinion.
We have not played the way we did against City, Wolves and Spurs all season. We played that way against City because they brought on 3 subs from the bench worth twice the cost of our entire squad.
We played that way at Wolves and at Spurs out of necessity after a troubling losing streak.
Anyone with half a brain can see this, but the media are going with a fallacious news story about Brighton ruining football. It would be absolutely hilarious, if not so tragic.
It sieves out those who know anything about the wider game and those who don't. For instance I can understand that a 10-year old Ben and his Uncle Bob, who have just transferred from being interim palace fans and picked up a spanky new Spurs season ticket, have every right to be annoyed at our football on a 1-game basis.
We have not played the way we did against City, Wolves and Spurs all season. We played that way against City because they brought on 3 subs from the bench worth twice the cost of our entire squad.
We played that way at Wolves and at Spurs out of necessity after a troubling losing streak.
Anyone with half a brain can see this, but the media are going with a fallacious news story about Brighton ruining football. It would be absolutely hilarious, if not so tragic.
It sieves out those who know anything about the wider game and those who don't. For instance I can understand that a 10-year old Ben and his Uncle Bob, who have just transferred from being interim palace fans and picked up a spanky new Spurs season ticket, have every right to be annoyed at our football on a 1-game basis.
Tho bizarrely Wolves beat Arsenal 3-1 the other day with a mere 29% possession and only 3 shots on target. There's hope for us yet!
....3 shots on target. #Deluded
Thunder Bolt
Silly old bat
"Toe the line" is an idiomatic expression meaning either to conform to a rule or standard, or to stand poised at the starting line in a footrace.