[Albion] At least next season we are likely to see more attacking football from the Albion

[pishhead]

Formations are irrelevant, it's about intent. Barring a couple of bad misses by Pröpper, between himself and Stephens how many PL goals or goalscoring opportunities have the pair of them managed in our 2 PL seasons? The simple fact is that in either 4411 or 433 we simply do not get enough players in the box to be in goal scoring positions.

That has nothing to do with recruitment and everything to do with the job the players are told to do.

 

[Napper]

Hudds probably said the same thing when they were limping to safety last year.

It's often the clubs that struggle back end of seasons that flop the following season

 

[Stumpy Tim]

The priority is not strengthening the squad shirley? In the olden days that would be called strengthening the reserve team. Both then and now, the priority should be to strengthen the first team. Which overall we've not done.

I think the goal was exactly to strengthen the squad for sure. Last year we had Ryan, Dunk, Duffy, Stephens, Propper and Murray fit 95% of the time... we got lucky. With Kayal injured we had no midfield cover at all, and really the cover for Murray, Dunk & Duffy wasn't adequate. The goal was to fix that, and I would say it was largely successful. We also did improve the first XI with Montoya and Bernardo, though ideally Andone would have made the front position his own.

Our biggest problem has been failing to have a decent backup for Gross in the 10 role, and our wingers haven't stepped up with Jose injured

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

I don't feel they've all been given a chance to play in a system that would suit them. Jahanbakhsh hasn't ONCE played in his natural position. Nor does Locadia. Andone hasn't had a settled run of games.

Bernardo is the one out of that 4 who has been given a decent run of games in his correct position and - surprise, surprise - he's a clear improvement on Bong.

I understand your point, but if any of them had anything about them, one would of them would have taken the opportunity, whether it is in their natural or unfamiliar position. Football has moved on to such an extent where players have to be flexible, and in fact most teams have wingers that cut inside on to their favoured foot, which is clearly how we play.

Andone is probably the closest, but it's looking like he needs to be part of a forward two or adapt himself to become a no. 10 style role.....

Sorry to be negative, but I think we could easily replace most of our forward players including Murray (from an age perspective) and certainly Izquierdo and Knockaert. I do think Solly has got better this year and Gross has plenty of credit in the bank.

Perhaps I', still reeling from Saturday......

 

[maltaseagull]

Formations are irrelevant, it's about intent. Barring a couple of bad misses by Pröpper, between himself and Stephens how many PL goals or goalscoring opportunities have the pair of them managed in our 2 PL seasons? The simple fact is that in either 4411 or 433 we simply do not get enough players in the box to be in goal scoring positions.

That has nothing to do with recruitment and everything to do with the job the players are told to do.

It was significant on Saturday how many times BMuff had more players in our penalty area than we did in open play.

The only time we seem to have more than one in the opposing penalty are is for corners or free kicks. Midfield is too slow to support for fear of getting caught out. (Cos they're too slow)

Never mind. Tonight it's al going to be different isn't it?

 

[Mr Banana]

Hudds probably said the same thing when they were limping to safety last year.

It's often the clubs that struggle back end of seasons that flop the following season

If you extrapolate our form in the calendar year so far across half a season, you end up with us somewhere between 19th and 17th based on this season's table after 19 games (partly depending on how generous you are with the number of points you think we'd get from the game you'd have to add on to the calculation.) It's quite likely that there won't be two teams as dismal as Fulham and Huddersfield next season (and more than a third of our points have come from them and Mourinho's United.)

Not sure what all this means, but the atmosphere, based on Satdi, is going to be grim if we are in the position that suggests in December.

 

[Seagulls1984]

Chris is gone by mid September whatever league we end up in .

 

[studio150]

If we go down, with or without CH, we will not need to be as defensive as we have been this year.

If we stay up, with or without CH, I can't see TB sanctioning the stay-in-the-game-for-70-minutes-and-hope-to-nick-it-at-the-end tactics we've seen this year for another season.

I've never seen as much negativity from fans since the Mike Bailey years and he got the tin tack, even though we finished 13th.

You have to look on the bright side if you are an Albion fan, even though it can be hard to find.

And look what happened after Mike Bailey was sacked.

 

[Perkino]

Ok, fair enough, we'll just have to agree to disagree then. All I'd say is it must be more productive to recruit players that slot in to, and enhance, your existing style of play rather than rejig the formation to play to, say, the strengths of Locadia. Because if you rejig in that way you put the existing formation out of kilter. All the time CMS was here, the accusation was that we weren't playing to the kick'n'rush schoolboy level skills that made him successful at his previous club.

Bernardo, Bissouma and Andone were probably bought to fit into our formation but the belief in the squad and the club was with 20+ points after 16/17 games we could play a more attacking style of play which has allowed us to play Locadia and despite an early improvement it hasn't been working for a long time

 

[martin tyler]

No I wasn't there in the Hyypia days as it happens, I was in Sunny Spain. So I only got back for the occasional game although I could hear how bad things were on Seagulls Player.

But I don't buy this line that we should concentrate on British talent. We should concentrate on talent, wherever it comes from. Then it's up to the management team to develop that talent as well as the character of the player.

The problem is we are not identifying talent that is able to play at this level with the budget we have. We are dipping into Holland France ect for players that have got stats on paper but can’t hack it in the PL. Locadia and Ali’s j combined total of £32 million quid. Thus far not a lot for the return. Bournemouth for example brought in David Brooks for £12 million. Good young player who had already cut it in the championship. Wilson brought for £3 million. Burnley Woods brought for £12 million. Liverpool snapped up Joe Gomez for peanuts years ago. Lots of decent young players out there English or foreign but you have to buy players to fit how we plan to play. The current recruitment system seems not to have identified players especially going forward who can actually play as we do hence the struggles. Bernardo can be seen as the only real positive signing that I can see last summer with a potentially very good player in Bissouma in year to come.

 

[GT49er]

The priority is not strengthening the squad shirley? In the olden days that would be called strengthening the reserve team. Both then and now, the priority should be to strengthen the first team. Which overall we've not done.

Hallelujah and 100% agree! Whether it was the intention to target the recruitment on improving the squad rather than the first team, I don't know - but that is absolutely what happened.
Improving the team has now become the absolute top priority, which means fewer new players coming in, but more expensive ones who are a clear improvement on whoever they replace. And who will go straight into the team without needing a year or more to 'settle',

 

[B52]

Agreed! It must be tough earning 5-10 thousand a week and not have people singing their hearts out for you...

Do you want us to win or not FFS

 

[amexer]

Have heard several times Hughton saying what a good job recruitment team have done. Sorry but I see no evidence of this. Name a player that is an improvement on last years team.

 

[WGull]

Have heard several times Hughton saying what a good job recruitment team have done. Sorry but I see no evidence of this. Name a player that is an improvement on last years team.

Bernardo is better than Bong
Andone is better than Hemed
Montoya is better than an ever ageing Bruno/Schelloto

thats 3 first team players that I think show an improvement, others are certainly more debatable

 

[Chicken Run]

Do you want us to win or not FFS

Calm down Nick... of course I want them to win!

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Bernardo is better than Bong
Andone is better than Hemed
Montoya is better than an ever ageing Bruno/Schelloto

thats 3 first team players that I think show an improvement, others are certainly more debatable

I agree in part. Montoya is fitter and quicker than Bruno, but he doesn't have Bruno's awareness and footballing brain. I wish Bruno was 10 years younger.

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Hallelujah and 100% agree! Whether it was the intention to target the recruitment on improving the squad rather than the first team, I don't know - but that is absolutely what happened.
Improving the team has now become the absolute top priority, which means fewer new players coming in, but more expensive ones who are a clear improvement on whoever they replace. And who will go straight into the team without needing a year or more to 'settle',

I think that was exactly the strategy, with the hope that some of them might hit the ground running. Our "second 11" is as good (or as bad!) as our 1st 11 - overall we are not weakened to any great degree by injuries - . Next target is to target some quality at a price we believe we can afford.. without breaking the whole team up and losing the battling qualities that we have been recognised for. I don't expect that we will become an attack focused team however, but we might become better at counter-attacking if we can find some more quality/pace that works for us..

 

[Icy Gull]

I agree in part. Montoya is fitter and quicker than Bruno, but he doesn't have Bruno's awareness and footballing brain. I wish Bruno was 10 years younger.

He’d be playing for Valencia

 

[Big_Unit]

Were you not there when we played Millwall under Hyypia.

As I mentioned on another thread, that was the worst load of sh*t* I've seen during the Amex era. I don't expect it to be beaten. It was on the telly as well, IIRC.

 

[B52]

Calm down Nick... of course I want them to win!

Glad you cleared that one up.