Deep Trouble

[Seagulls1984]

He will get to the next international break!

 

[Guinness Boy]

I know what you mean, but I've never thought like that, I always take a season in batches of say 10 games and I'm thinking we're contesting wherever we are in that period. I think you have to have a mindset of where you are right then whether it's your 14th or 40th game.

Relegation battles start too late for those that go down. In my heart of hearts I don't think we'll be in a relegation scrap come April, but right now it's important we realise where we are, not just hoping it won't be the case in Jan.

We ARE scrapping in the relegation places. The season hasn't just started, we are well in to autumn and nearly a quarter of the way through. Alarm bells should be ringing and we DO need points, not to go up but to ease our position.

EDIT - this is in agreement with your post!

 

[AlastairWatts]

Exactly. Ulloa would have scored more goals had he had better service. So would CMS. And the strikers we have now would, I suggest, undoubtedly score more if they had better service through/from the midfield. Same old story...

 

[Portslade Pete]

Much as I like TB, the whole set of suits just don't seem to get their priorities or timings right. Took too long to bring in a new manager and players in the summer (because of the world cup.....really?) and missed out on the quality. Burke thinks he is playing Championship Manager on his laptop and needs to get in the real world.
The fans are suffering here guys, don't hang about and hope things sort themselves out...they won't!

Take action in the next month and stop piddling yourselves over FFP.

 

[One Love]

And even if we were to burst forward down the line who exactly are we crossing to? That's right, frodo and bilbo in the middle.

Agree but twice today low crosses were laid on a sliver platter for Gardner and Baldock around the penalty spot and neither of them could even hit the ball properly. It just defies belief sometimes.

 

[portlock seagull]

The wrong players are wide at the wrong times and we can't find them with the right pass. Calde was in 20 yards of space on the right wing at times in the second half while we pushed it to the double teamed Lua Lua in the middle of the pitch or moved it wide to Bennett, making sure he was marked first so we could get nudged off the ball or have to play it back.

Don't disagree. One thing that is just a worrying trait of this club for a very long time now is our love of waif like footballers. Little and no muscle, knocked over by a puff of wind. Brighton are soft, we really are. Too many players are physically weaker than the sides we are up against and I would love us to start signing 6ft + only players who can knock the opposition off the ball when running side by side. Sick of seeing us fall over or be brushed aside. Get rid of the Matildas, let's have some Tiger tanks out there for a change.

 

[Rookie]

On the phone in, lots of people were talking about no width. I thought the opposite. We are always playing the ball out wide...but not forward. It's always sides to side, spreading the ball but only ever inching never striding forward. And even if we were to burst forward down the line who exactly are we crossing to? That's right, frodo and bilbo in the middle. For me we badly lack any sort of penetration in the middle of the park that would open up the wings to provide some more dangerous runs and crosses from the flanks. We can play the ball out the wings and back all day long without causing teams any trouble. The ball spends too much time out there at the moment, need to bring it inside and do some Richie carpenter or Jimmy case type damage in centre of the park. Could Paddy provide? Christ, let's hope so. Because we are looking terrible at the moment and most of all we are just woeful and painfully boring to watch.

With the full backs playing as wingers, the central midfield are covering them therefore unable to get forward. I can't believe Gardner and Caskey are happy about being asked to play as sort of full backs.

 

[Skylar]

With all due respect, that is probably the biggest load of nonsense I have read on this board for a long time. What do you think we should have done when faced with a player who wanted to leave to have a shot at the big time, and in return we were getting 5 times what we paid for him? You are basically saying that if it wasn't for Ulloa we would have been relegated last year. Really?

Yes we would have been relegated without Ulloa last season. We're a selling club unlike the top clubs in this division. Bloody joke.

 

[bn18bloke]

I have seen us play some shit in the 30 odd years I have been following Albion but today was pretty much near the top of the pile.
They looked like they were strangers out there with no real idea of what they were meant to be doing.
Boro weren't much better, and neither goalie really had much to do, but from what I have seen so far no team is much cop in this division, and unless we get some results under our belts it could be a interesting new year.
Don't get me wrong I was pretty ****ed off by the performance, but last year under Garcia was pretty shit for long periods of times with Yeovil away being the low point for me.

 

[Grombleton]

I'm always trying to look on the bright side of the Albion (whistles the rest of the tune) but today was awful.

I'm not going to slate each player individually - I personally think Stockdale is ok, but not up to the standard that we've set for him. I'm now not convinced by playing the full backs high up and having the CMs dropping back - especially if neither are tracking back.
I'm not going to stoop so low as to claim we are in a relegation battle, but if we continue without any form of improvement then i'll reconsider that. It's a tight league and I'm always hoping that we'll pull something out the bag, but we need to pick up at least 4 points from the next two games to give us momentum.

January could be the most important transfer window in our recent history. Stick or twist.

 

[nwgull]

Yes we would have been relegated without Ulloa last season. We're a selling club unlike the top clubs in this division. Bloody joke.

Am on a train so I have excuse that I had time to kill to look this up:

Played 14 games without Ulloa last year - 3 due to suspension and 11 coz of injury.
Won 6; Drew 5; Lost 3 - 23 points.

Extrapolating that over a season of 46 games gives us over 75 points. 4 more than we ended up with - not quite relegation material.

 

[Grombleton]

Yes we would have been relegated without Ulloa last season. We're a selling club unlike the top clubs in this division. Bloody joke.

Hate to stop you in your anger, but pretty much EVERY club in the COUNTRY is a selling club. Bar people like City or Chelsea.

 

[portslade seagull]

LuaLua, Tex, CMS and Holla all have league goals, so your last line is talking bollocks. I agree though, as it stands, we're in potential trouble of getting dragged down.

Can only see 1 striker in amongst that lot so who is talking bollocks

 

[Luke93]

Can only see 1 striker in amongst that lot so who is talking bollocks

Learn to read. He said 'NO striker'.

 

[bWize]

With all due respect, that is probably the biggest load of nonsense I have read on this board for a long time. What do you think we should have done when faced with a player who wanted to leave to have a shot at the big time, and in return we were getting 5 times what we paid for him? You are basically saying that if it wasn't for Ulloa we would have been relegated last year. Really?

To be fair we should have had adequte players to replace them. We let a good chunk of our core squad go over the summer and the replacements were a gamble at best. This on-top of a new, inexperienced manager was always asking for trouble. A big portion of the money should have been put back in to the team and a proven manager employed. If you want to run a club at this level you have to put funds into the football team (to a reasonable extent)

I understand the FFP/money being lost but that goes for every other team in the Championship. Can't have your cake and eat it, which is the feeling I get with our board sometimes. People go to the football to be entertained not to have half the team sold/released whilst being charged full whack for everything. It's starting to really take the piss.

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

To be fair we should have had adequte players to replace them. We let a good chunk of our core squad go over the summer and the replacements were a gamble at best. This on-top of a new, inexperienced manager was always asking for trouble. A big portion of the money should have been put back in to the team and a proven manager employed. If you want to run a club at this level you have to put funds into the football team (to a reasonable extent)

I understand the FFP/money being lost but that goes for every other team in the Championship. Can't have your cake and eat it, which is the feeling I get with our board sometimes. People go to the football to be entertained not to have half the team sold/released whilst being charged full whack for everything. It's starting to really take the piss.

I'm not sure if you are aware of what our owner does for a day job. TB is a gambler by trade but he also knows when to chuck a shit hand. He's not going to let Hoops carry on or much longer I'll venture.

 

[el punal]

As someone who is usually overwhelmingly positive, I am two games from pushing the panic button.

I'm in the same camp as you on this one. Following good performances against Cardiff and Watford, with no end result, I really thought that we would be moving up a gear against Boro. How wrong I was. Crunch time methinks will be around 7.30pm on Sat.1st Nov. That will be after the next three league games against Huddersfield, Rotherham and Bournemouth. If we don't start producing by then the alarm bells will start ringing. And, possibly dare I say it, Sami falling on his own sword.