[Albion] Come on then geniuses what's The TinkerMan supposed to do?

[WATFORD zero]

This is the bit that takes 10s of millions to solve...... or a great deal of luck/scouting.

Unfortunately, it takes 10s of millions PLUS great luck or scouting.

We have seen numerous times that 10s of millions on it's own doesn't guarantee you a premier league striker, despite what some posters think

 

[trueblue]

staying in the division for two years?


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By default last season. This year it's much more competitive among those bottom 6. If we were employing the same tactics again, do you genuinely think we would have any prospect of staying up? We were barely crossing the halfway line, let alone having a shot from March onwards. This time around, we're always in with a shout. It looks bleak - but we're not a shambles. The 3 clubs that go down will all know that it could have been any of 5 or 6.

 

[Swansman]

Potter is always going to change tactics and starting elevens, but I'm 100% sure it has happened more than he would have preferred this season. When the team win he rarely make more than one or two changes to the lineup. Its kind of the downside to having about 20 players with roughly the same quality but different abilites.

Currently lineups lean towards experience, which is common among managers when they are trying to end a bad streak, and I'll think thats what we will do until the end of season - bit more Murray than Connolly, so to speak.

I think if the no 1 plan for this club was "avoid relegation at all costs", there would have been better appointments last summer. If the no 1 plan is "create long term success", Potter is still the man - he got a clear football vision and I dont think any current English manager comes close to his track record of turning decent youngsters into ready top footballers.

With all the investment in the youth academy, I think Brighton is trying to become the British equivalent of Ajax or Sporting Lisabon. Clubs that each season produce ~2 young players who take a matchday spot and then either stay at the club or bring in good money. You get players, money and having a lot of youth players definitely strenghten overall culture around the club.

If relegation is the case, it might not be as bad for as its been to a lot of other clubs. I think if TB in that case are brave enough to stick with Potter, it would take 2-3 weeks of Championship football before the misery of relegation got overshadowed by the great prospects of a new, young and talented team.

Still, dont believe relegation will happen. All of the games are close ones, meaning our squad is very far from giving up. We really need a win though... I think if we would have won that game against Villa, I'm fairly certain we would have won another 2-3 games now. I think if we win any of our next five games, chances of staying up are great as that boost of confidence could do wonders in the last three rather winable games, but if we dont - its over.

 

[zefarelly]

Keeper (I’m undecided if Ryan keeps his place)

Lamptey
Dunk
Burn
Bernardo

Stephens

AJ
Propper
MacAllister
Alzate / Trossard

Maupay


As a side note

Seems to be a problem that when we Switch play to the left Dan burn is in the LW position, he’s a great defender but isn’t a winger and doesn’t have the ability to take someone or with an end product.

You look at how we are set up when we are well advanced in their half, not enough movement and players literally standing around offering nothing, result in a Biss or March wild shot after pissing about




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Well said sir, and I agree with the team selection. RB is the onlY real grey area.

Marchs shots aren't wild, just very tame.

 

[Icy Gull]

Well said sir, and I agree with the team selection. RB is the onlY real grey area.

Marchs shots aren't wild, just very tame.

We haven’t seen Lamptey in the stripes and yet he is now first choice RB for so many. SO NSC!

Looking forward to seeing him but not ready to put him up as a saviour.

 

[Motogull]

No other threads to lob this into #lookatme

You're better than this. Its a perfectly reasonable stand alone thread. Who gives a fukk about who starts it?

Yesterday was the tale of two squads: one with decent strength in depth, one not. Without the strength in depth the first 11 becomes easier to pick. Given the negative tactics, they can probably get away with it because the players will not burn out.

If GP wants to keep everyone happy and spread the caps around, why not have two squads, one home and one away. At least we'd have some form of consistency. I appreciate this is silly but theses are difficult times.

 

[vagabond]

Come on [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION]. I think all our Potter mojo needs a lift.

What instances or very difficult, dangerous times did GP have to overcome in Östersund?

Does he have any experience of relegation battles?

Make it a new topic if you like.

 

[doogie004]

You’re the one that thinks knocky wasnt .as good as trossard ?
He broke up the one thing we were good at defending . Dropping Duffy and bringing in £18/20 Webster who let’s face it has not improved us but taken us backwards on what we had .
Allowing knocky locadia and andone to leave and not replace and thinking 36 year a 19 year old and a championship good player would be ok .
Keeping hold of players that are not prem standard , yes March is one of those .
Propper Stephens Gross just don’t score goals and it’s costing us
Every game everyone seems to play the new game of getting as close as possible to how many changes and bringing players back in the starting 11 that g as be not even been in the squad for the last 3/4 games need stability
There u go something to get your teeth into


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[Guinness Boy]

Back to 5 at the back with quick(er) WBs.

Ryan

Lamptey Dunk Burn Webster Bernardo

Stephens
Propper Bissouma/ Alzate
Two from MacAllister, Murray and Maupay

Mooy has been gash since signing permanently and Trossard is better off the bench. I'd also have Connolley on the bench every week to run a defence ragged for the last 15 mins when everyone's knackered.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

We haven’t seen Lamptey in the stripes and yet he is now first choice RB for so many. SO NSC!

Looking forward to seeing him but not ready to put him up as a saviour.

Don’t by any means consider him the saviour. This is the team I would go with based on what I’ve witnessed over the last month at least.

We need to shake it up, maybe some “big” names wouldn’t like being dropped however I would be looking to try something different as have no confidence in Montoya, Greyhound, Mooy, gross biss, Webster based on recent performances.

Never thought I consider us missing Stephens but he plays a part in the small chance of survival we have


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[Icy Gull]

Don’t by any means consider him the saviour. This is the team I would go with based on what I’ve witnessed over the last month at least.

We need to shake it up, maybe some “big” names wouldn’t like being dropped however I would be looking to try something different as have no confidence in Montoya, Greyhound, Mooy, gross biss, Webster based on recent performances.

Never thought I consider us missing Stephens but he plays a part in the small chance of survival we have


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Stephens would along with Dunk be the first two names on my team sheet given our current predicament. Hope both Lamptey and Mac Allister get a run out next weekend.

 

[Worried Man Blues]

Lamptey and MacAllister are now our equivalent of the cavalry, you can hear them coming over the hill, they had better be good!

 

[West Upper Seagull]

Or, what would you do?

Seemingly the comedy gold that is a GPott team selection is the main reason we're shitehouse.

Posters seem to be suggesting if only Potter would play a settled team, everything would be alright.

Yet nobody can agree on what this settled team would look like.
Nobody can pick 8 other players to join Dunk, Ryan & Propper - 6.

Solly's 'clearly not good enough'.
Yet 3 weeks ago he 'must start every week'.

Exactly the same can be written about Mooy.

Were Ali and Groß starting, I'm adamant they now also 'wouldn't be good enough'.

The squad is full of 'impact' subs.

Spending £15m each on all your footballers gets you a team of near indentical £15m footballers.

Everyone is screaming for stability, but everyone wants a different stability, kind of says it all really, doesn't it?

Great post !

Firstly GP should be playing players in their best positions, which means stop playing Burn at left back / wing back (and Alzate at right back). Burn is a good player, but as a centre back.

He needs to stick to the same formation so that players can get settled into a specific role and develop an understanding, and as such the starting 11 should primarily consist of at least 9 players who started the previous week - only replacing players who are either injured or had a particularly poor game the week before. So often we have seen players have a great game but then get dropped the following week ! How does that motivate players to want to keep the shirt ?!

In my opinion we need to play 3 centre backs, makes us more solid and hard to beat - Dunk, Duffy & Burn. Which was just as it was when we tore Watford apart in the opening game of the season.

Lamptey needs a run at right wing back and Bernardo is the best left wing back in the club. They would give us the natural width going forward and provide a good supply from the wings for our forwards. Burn offers nothing going forward, he will always play a safe pass (which is not his fault, it’s not his game).

The midfield 3 should be Stephens, Propper (even though I thought he had an unusually poor game yesterday) and Alzate - who has consistently played well when given the chance.

Up top should be Murray with Maupay and Mac Allister playing off of him.

Trossard has been a huge disappointment for me this season and we’ve largely carried him every time he starts - he’s best used as an impact player, as is March, AJ and Mooy.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Back to 5 at the back with quick(er) WBs.

Ryan

Lamptey Dunk Burn Webster Bernardo

Stephens
Propper Bissouma/ Alzate
Two from MacAllister, Murray and Maupay

Mooy has been gash since signing permanently and Trossard is better off the bench. I'd also have Connolley on the bench every week to run a defence ragged for the last 15 mins when everyone's knackered.

Oh - and I'd curfew Duffy and Stephens. The Hughton era drinking culture should have ended the second CH left.

 

[darkwolf666]

A list of interesting stastics and our place in the Premier League...

Touches - 5th - 17th
Passes - 5th - 17th
Shots - 6th - 19th
Offsides - 5th - 3rd
Big chances missed - 6th - 20th
Tackles - 7th - 8th
Clearances - 15th - 10th
Goals - 14th - 17th

Now to me those stats don’t paint a picture of a team or manager devoid of attacking ideas, they appear to indicate a team devoid of someone who can shoot early enough or be relied on to put the ball in the net.

For interest, I have now added last seasons stats as a comparison...

 

[Seasider78]

It’s a game of opinions but I think our main issues are

- our crossing and wide play is terrible
- our midfielders do not make any effort to get in the box and offer an alternative option to the strikers
- too many of our midfielders are slow which means we cannot counter teams with pace
- need to add goals from midfield which we are not currently seeing

This means some difficult decisions and changes needed but (as much as I have been hugely impressed with him) would take Burn out and put Bernardo back to left back and put Lamptey at right back so we can actually use our full backs and their pace during attacks.

Play Propper and Stephens as the two defensive midfielders

Then play Trossard MacAllister and Ali J on the basis the two wide players can actually cross and pick a pass and MacAllister is known for being able to get in the box and offer an additional goal threat

Murray or Maupay up front on their own which can rotate depending on who we are playing.

Play that and stick with it for 3 games

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Solly can get a role as a wingback but not as an attacking player in a front 3 or 4.

I would play fairly narrow with Maupay, Mac in the hole and 2 other midfielders or inverted wingers pushed up. The wide stuff isn't working.

That leaves us 4 at back with the popular 2 DMs or a back 3 with 2 wingbacks and just one deep midfielder.

 

[Granny on the wing]

I don`t understand why a player like Ali J who we spent 17 mill on does not get at least 3 or 4 games on the trot so we can pass judgement that one detail is really frustrating .No we don`t want left wingers players playing on the right .Every thing is out of balance .Burn should be pairing up with Dunk .Bernardo is proven as a decent Left back .Personally think Murray up with Maupay with what is now old fashioned 442 keep it simple .Solly should be an impact sub ,Murray would have taken his chance .Would have been very handy to have bought on Andone in that game but no we do not need him or even a replacement he did not cost a lot either .None of it makes any sense but no GP is not worried .

 

[zefarelly]

We haven’t seen Lamptey in the stripes and yet he is now first choice RB for so many. SO NSC!

Looking forward to seeing him but not ready to put him up as a saviour.

Which is why I said grey area, neither Monty or Laika are Bruno. The other problem is expecting a right back to also be a right winger, because our right winger is on the bench.

 

[raymondo]

Potter says his job is to improve the players he's got. So, how is he doing? Which players have improved as the season's progressed? Here's my list:
Alzate
Hmmm... Ali J perhaps
Hmmm...Schelotto, a big maybe...

I know it's subjective, depends on the team selected, on team confidence etc.
I'm just saying this measure is Potter's own.
I want him to stay...there is a lot of work to be done.