[Albion] De Zerbi: 'We deserved to lose...I understood the problem in January!"

[Stat Brother]

One clear message in all of this:-

'If you come for the king, you better make sure your whole army is behind you'.
(It never will be)

 

[Bold Seagull]

The downside is conceding goals pretty well every time a team with fast PL standard players break and have a shot on target. Our keepers are never man of the match because they are left so exposed when De Zerbi ball is countered by low block and fast breaks. I don’t remember the last time an Albion keeper was MOTM but I remember plenty of opposition keepers getting the award.

It annoys me how much shit Steele and Bart get when we concede when it’s normally a f*** up in the system that leaves them with little chance of a save.

All tactics and systems concede goals. West Ham, with a £400m defensive based squad, the epitome of tight low block counter attack football have conceded more goals than us - with the lowest injuries in the PL this season.

Newcastle have conceded 1 more, Wolves & Chelsea 1 goal less.

If our goal conceded column was an outlier then you may have a point, but outside the top 6 our GD is 2nd only to Newcastle.

 

[Skaville]

To back up someone’s previous point, Premier League form table, Game weeks 7-27:

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

All tactics and systems concede goals. West Ham, with a £400m defensive based squad, the epitome of tight low block counter attack football have conceded more goals than us - with the lowest injuries in the PL this season.

Newcastle have conceded 1 more, Wolves & Chelsea 1 goal less.

If our goal conceded column was an outlier then you may have a point, but outside the top 6 our GD is 2nd only to Newcastle.

Couldn’t agree more. There is so much earnestly given but pointless advice and analysis being given by people on here at the moment. The classic being ‘don’t concede first.’ When the f*** did that become a pearl of wisdom ?

 

[Superphil]

What has Fabrizio Romano been paid to say?

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

To back up someone’s previous point, Premier League form table, Game weeks 7-27:

So around the same time the Europa League campaign kicked in, followed by the Injury crisis and us not strengthening the squad...who'd have thought it

 

[TottonSeagull]

He is walking out at the end of season! Will have nothing to do with us wanting him in or out! He is beginning to believe his own hype! This season his whole demeanour has changed to blaming the club for every defeat and not concentrating on making what is on the pitch better. Just look at the demise of Fergie, maybe if you start getting a tune out of him we may start scoring goals and maybe if we had a defence that were coached to defend we may stop conceding every game!
RDZ of last season is a brilliant coach, the current RDZ is not!

 

[CaptainDaveUK]

Has anyone actually watched his post match video? Serious over reaction on here. The headline could quite easily be, “We need to show more anger and passion”. RDZ is rightly saying it is difficult to fight in three competitions at this stage of the season with 8 or 9 players out injured, but also that we deserve to be in the last 8 of the Europa League and we will do everything we can to win on Thursday. Unfortunately this meant resting Welbeck and Gross yesterday, in order to give us our best shot, with a seriously depleted squad, of pulling off the greatest away win in the history of our club. UTA.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

What I don’t get is that even playing with seven defenders on the pitch against an average side we still let two goals in the first half. Ok the squad is thin due to injuries and suspensions but other clubs manage to conjure up players from their under 21s and youth teams and get on with it. He knows the model and can’t start moaning now. This season hasn’t been a disaster- a satisfactory FA cup run and even if we get knocked out of Europe, a top ten finish is still achievable and that, when he started off with us, would have been a pipe dream.

 

[Bold Seagull]

He is walking out at the end of season! Will have nothing to do with us wanting him in or out! He is beginning to believe his own hype! This season his whole demeanour has changed to blaming the club for every defeat and not concentrating on making what is on the pitch better. Just look at the demise of Fergie, maybe if you start getting a tune out of him we may start scoring goals and maybe if we had a defence that were coached to defend we may stop conceding every game!
RDZ of last season is a brilliant coach, the current RDZ is not!

Demise of Ferguson - the lad is just 19 years old, are you going for full stupid suggesting he’s not developing young players very well?

 

[Bold Seagull]

What I don’t get is that even playing with seven defenders on the pitch against an average side we still let two goals in the first half. Ok the squad is thin due to injuries and suspensions but other clubs manage to conjure up players from their under 21s and youth teams and get on with it. He knows the model and can’t start moaning now. This season hasn’t been a disaster- a satisfactory FA cup run and even if we get knocked out of Europe, a top ten finish is still achievable and that, when he started off with us, would have been a pipe dream.

You have to be careful judging PL sides outside of form, which varies often inconsistent with league position. Fulham have actually been on a decent run of form and have a very strong home record. Yesterday was always going to be a tough game even at full strength - which they were and we clearly weren’t.

 

[Clive Walker]

Has anyone actually watched his post match video? Serious over reaction on here. The headline could quite easily be, “We need to show more anger and passion”. RDZ is rightly saying it is difficult to fight in three competitions at this stage of the season with 8 or 9 players out injured, but also that we deserve to be in the last 8 of the Europa League and we will do everything we can to win on Thursday. Unfortunately this meant resting Welbeck and Gross yesterday, in order to give us our best shot, with a seriously depleted squad, of pulling off the greatest away win in the history of our club. UTA.

I’ve watched it and the headline is glaringly obvious. He says “the club” wanted to play at this level and “the clubs” mentality is a “challenge” for him in order to maintain the levels.

He’s basically saying the club isn’t ambitious enough.

 

[Johnny RoastBeef]

Not sure if it's been mentioned previously on this thread, but the club did try to sign Dewsbury-Hall and Ibrahim Osman in January. That's additional to completing Valentin Barco's move.

That looks to me like they tried to address the areas of weakness that De Zerbi is miffed about.

He's Italian and is emotionally expressive, just venting his frustration. That doesn't mean he doesn't agree with the clubs actions.

He wore a Slazenger jacket, £16 from Sports Direct, for his first couple of months with us. He strikes me as a man who knows about budgeting sensibly.

 

[Bold Seagull]

I’ve watched it and the headline is glaringly obvious. He says “the club” wanted to play at this level and “the clubs” mentality is a “challenge” for him in order to maintain the levels.

He’s basically saying the club isn’t ambitious enough.

Who wouldn’t agree with that though?

If we’re funding at below mid table levels, and expecting top 7 returns, it is clearly a challenge.

And that challenge may well work with an average injury hit season and a few things going our way, but is exposed with an extensive injury list and things not.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I’ve watched it and the headline is glaringly obvious. He says “the club” wanted to play at this level and “the clubs” mentality is a “challenge” for him in order to maintain the levels.

He’s basically saying the club isn’t ambitious enough.

I haven’t seen the interview but taking your interpretation at face value I would say he couldn’t be more wrong. The upward trajectory since Tony took over is staggering. Trying to compete with oil states isn’t ambition. It’s stupidity.

 

[rebel51]

I know it sounds weird but I love the club more when the chips are down.

 

[Clive Walker]

I haven’t seen the interview but taking your interpretation at face value I would say he couldn’t be more wrong. The upward trajectory since Tony took over is staggering. Trying to compete with oil states isn’t ambition. It’s stupidity.

Agree. But I don’t think he’s talking about it to those extents. I’m more aligned with us selling our two best players and replacing them with nothing.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

He is walking out at the end of season! Will have nothing to do with us wanting him in or out! He is beginning to believe his own hype! This season his whole demeanour has changed to blaming the club for every defeat and not concentrating on making what is on the pitch better. Just look at the demise of Fergie, maybe if you start getting a tune out of him we may start scoring goals and maybe if we had a defence that were coached to defend we may stop conceding every game!
RDZ of last season is a brilliant coach, the current RDZ is not!

Until yesterday, I would have disagreed with you, but not adjusting the team to address the hole created by Pervis’s lack of positional discipline, just showed either complete arrogance or a lack of tactical nous.

I know it’s not the latter, because what he has achieved has been brilliant and my most enjoyable moments in the near 50 years of supporting.

If it’s the former, then someone needs to shake him!

I love RdZ, the passion and everything about him, but yesterday was really frustrating and he lost a bit of credit with me.

Of course, if we win even over the two legs vs Roma, he’ll be a genius again….

 

[Commander]

It’s not that he shouldn’t say how he feels, on most subjects it’s fine like we laughed when he slagged off the refs, or when he talks about players etc. when it comes to the topic of the club and Bloom/Barbar, then he needs to be more professional and raise his problems with them behind closed doors.

It doesn’t do any good, because it’s not like they haven’t been trying to get players in and will do again in the summer, and it just gives an impression of being unhappy/the club not being in a good place and with some comments, him not being committed. I am not sure that a lot of this is even a true impression.

It can’t do his career prospects much good either. I would not be hiring a Coach that I thought would publicly criticise my decisions if he started losing!

 

[DJ NOBO]

I know it sounds weird but I love the club more when the chips are down.

. The chips aren’t down . not even close.