[Albion] Brighton need returns from big buys

[Stat Brother]

Gotta wonder if CH's flat refusal to play the newbies will eventually be his downfall.
Not only wasting £50m of his bosses money, but Shirley much more of this and Winstano won't be able to sing anyone else.

 

[Justice]

Nothing to do with them having settled for the point and completely sitting back after they equalised then.

They had 10 men and out played us at home you can’t sugarcoat it, they weren’t even that good. We were so shit they even put two strikers on embarrassing.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

Gotta wonder if CH's flat refusal to play the newbies will eventually be his downfall.
Not only wasting £50m of his bosses money, but Shirley much more of this and Winstano won't be able to sing anyone else.

Or any potential new signings will be put off from coming because they don't think they will get to play many games.

 

[Justice]

Locadia looked good scored two in two and then....

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

It doesn’t help that every single summer signing has no experience of the EPL, we got away with it last summer IMO.

Any player with the relevant Premier League experience is going to coast absolutely stupid money to buy.

What doesn't help is that any player we seem to sign doesn't get the chance to prove themselves by playing games!

 

[pishhead]

We really need some pace up top tomorrow. Huddersfield will press up high and without an option to knock the balls into the channel the ball will just keep coming back.

 

[Wozza]

Is there a reason the newbies (esp younger ones) aren't being given game time in PL2?

Plenty of gaps in first-team schedule recently due to internationals.

 

[BBassic]

It’s not about having marquee players and getting a return from them. It’s improving our depth and median quality which we have done - and I suspect will continue to do.

We’ll leave it to the Croydon Clowns to blow everything on “big” signings and then expect everything from them.

I don't think anyone's expecting everything from any of the new signings really.

For me it's that we're going into December and our new signings are still, largely, of an unknown quality. We don't know if they've improved the squad, beyond its depth, because they've been unable to work their way into first team contention on a regular basis. Is that because they're not up to it or because CH has other plans in mind? I've no idea of course but you would have thought, or liked to hope, that one of them would be making more regular appearances than a few cameos off the bench.

 

[Don Tmatter]

Jahanbaksh hasn’t had enough of the ball in attacking areas, usually gets it deep in his own half so not the same end result we saw on his YouTube clips from previous seasons.

 

[TSB]

Nonsense, isn't it?
We've got 15 points so far. Win on Saturday courtesy of one of the old boys and we're halfway to staying up DESPITE limited contribution from new signings.
So, in fact, we don't need it at all.

 

[Bold Seagull]

They had 10 men and out played us at home you can’t sugarcoat it, they weren’t even that good. We were so shit they even put two strikers on embarrassing.

That is true, but keep blaming the management is missing the bigger picture of how competitive our squad is. You also cannot sugarcoat that the signings have yet to look good enough, and I don't buy into all this they've not had enough time, Bissouma, Jahanbakhsh and Locadia have all had plenty of time to do enough to earn a longer stint in the team. Andone remains the one we have to hope has a lot more to offer.

First half we looked good, there is no sugarcoating that, and should have gone in with a 2 goal lead. Think we'll improve as the season progresses like we did last season, each point is a prisoner.

 

[Don Tmatter]

Just thinking back to last season was everyone convinced of the strengths of Propper and Gross by this point? Maybe Gross, but recall many grumbles about Propper.

Groß had the pre-season with us and hit the ground running, Pröpper only signed in the week before the Man City game and it showed, but his quality had shone through by this stage last season.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Jahanbaksh hasn’t had enough of the ball in attacking areas, usually gets it deep in his own half so not the same end result we saw on his YouTube clips from previous seasons.

He had plenty of the ball in attacking areas against Wolves, and had started in the 2 wins before that too. His quality in the final third against Wolves was really lacking, and this is the crux of the matter, if you are attacking and you lack the threat in the final third, or ability to use possession effectively, you're going to get turned around too much.

First half against Leicester was the first time in a while we really carried a threat in the final third, and no great surprise to see Gross and Propper pulling the strings. Quite what happened second half we have debated all week. No matter how Hughton sent them out, he wasn't expecting them to perform as badly as they did.

 

[A1X]

Andone would surely have featured more but for his injury, had he been fit from the start of the season he would have been involved much earlier and by now may even have usurped Murray. Bernardo is clearly one for the future but looked decent against Leicester (one of the few bright spots IMHO). Balogun I suspect knew the score that he was cover for D&D, but has done well when called upon. The others have all been disappointing, including Locadia.

However some fault also lies with Hughton. As I've said before, his loyalty to the Championship squad is admirable, but there comes a time when you need to start looking at upgrading March or blooding the replacement for Murray when his body does give up on him. To still be picking Bruno, Bong, March and Murray more weeks than not is, IMHO, evidence of a manager who is not ruthless enough with poor performance. He seems to have been a lot more lenient to March, for example, during his struggles in recent weeks than he was with Jahanbakhsh who was performing similarly poorly.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Has to be said, it IS starting to look increasingly likely that the recruitment team has pissed the best part of £60 million quid of the chairman's money up the wall over the summer.

 

[Bold Seagull]

However some fault also lies with Hughton. As I've said before, his loyalty to the Championship squad is admirable, but there comes a time when you need to start looking at upgrading March or blooding the replacement for Murray when his body does give up on him. To still be picking Bruno, Bong, March and Murray more weeks than not is, IMHO, evidence of a manager who is not ruthless enough with poor performance. He seems to have been a lot more lenient to March, for example, during his struggles in recent weeks than he was with Jahanbakhsh who was performing similarly poorly.

Montoya, Bissouma, Jahanbakhsh have all been favoured over those players, but haven't performed well enough or got injured to retain their places. I'm not sure that is any false loyalty, struck me that he was more than ready for these players to become integral to the side. Far from not being ruthless enough, it seems to be the case that others are making the argument he is too ruthless in not giving some of these players more of a chance, even if they're not playing well?

What is he supposed to do with Izquierdo, Knockeart, Jahanbakhsh, March when none of them have really shone yet this season. Strikes me he has rotated them in order to try to get to a player he could get some form. Jahanbakhsh was starting regularly, the only reason March was getting a look in was because Gross was injured and Bissouma just hasn't looked good enough.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I thought Bissouma was unlucky not to get the Solly March No. 10 roll in Gross's absence. The lad has speed and trickery whereas March is very much a winger shoved into a central role.

Similarly, I would have liked to have seen Locadia and Andone for Murray and Gross for that last 25-30 mins. We'd lost the initiative at that point, a double substitution would have given the Leicester defenders power and pace to contend with. Hughton missed a trick there.

 

[PoG]

Groß had the pre-season with us and hit the ground running.

...slowly

 

[raymondo]

This thread only reminds me how incredibly frustrating the game was against Leicester. A man up at half time with a hobbled Murray. I was sure Locadia would come on for 45 minutes to rest Murray with Andone to follow and see us press the 10 men with speed and guile. But no. No attempt to get our big money buys on the pitch until after giving Leicester, with their 10 men, the full pitch do what we should have been doing with our 11. Yes, I'm still angry about it because Locadia looked bloody good in his 6 minutes and Andone looked a touch of class when he came on. We have to stop buying players then letting them get discouraged. A little more squad rotation would not go amiss in my view.

Well said. Yes, more rotation please Chris. I would start Andone (even Locadia) every away game: Muzza rarely scores away and change of striker may help a change of tactics too. Even at the back I think there's a case for rotating in Balogun: I know DnD are very good but Balogun was unlucky to be dropped and, if he'd been used more, would now be fully integrated (waiting to be flamed...). But mostly, I'm desperate for Andone and Locadia to be given sufficient game time to integrate and score... that would really move us forward, IMO.

 

[RandyWanger]

Locadia looked good scored two in two and then....

He had that attacking mentality trained out of him