[Albion] Do Brighton have a bigger problem than they realise? (Four Four Two article)

[boik]

There's a lot of stating the obvious going on.

In all my times of supporting the Albion, the good times have come when we've had a clinical striker, Ward, Nelson, Zamora, Murray, etc, and when they have gone we have struggled. The fact that we have not had so many of them shows how hard they are to find. Other clubs are exactly the same: Leicester were bang average without Vardy, Saints struggled until Ings hit form, City struggling without Aguero.

The top clubs have more than one so can cover for injuries.

If we find such a striker we'll be fine despite our defensive frailties. Leeds defence leaks like a sieve, but Bamford is keeping them in a reasonable position.

But it's a huuuuuuge IF!

 

[Justice]

To add to discussion, apart from Lamptey we appear to have no blistering pace (I’m not sure Izzy will have it when he comes back), if March could just be able to drop the shoulder and get past the defender we’d make more chances. we don’t score enough goals from our midfielders - good teams get goals from a spread of players not just the strikers. I’m not sure we have anyone to take the game by the scruff of the neck - Dunk appears a quiet captain, so no Bruno, Duffy, Stephens, Murray types in the team. I’m not sure we get the rub of the green (but that’s through rose tinted glasses) and I know you make your own luck but you have to hope.

My thought as I said in summer - let’s get Origi - he’s not in first 5 choices for Liverpool (and they’ll need to clear a squad place for new centre back ) at least he fights and can hold the ball up. The get James or Henderson on loan from Man Utd.

Origi is going to Wolves in Jan.

 

[Barham's tash]

What's in the tank is Molder (sp) & Tau.

With the straw clutches that are Andone & Izquierdo.


Money doesn't really come into it.

Those are already sunk costs and of course money or more important financial profligacy come into it.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

And, yesterday's game is the perfect example. Outplayed west ham for much of the game yet, they had 2 chances and took them. We had most possession but as usual, didn't create enough with it. We just aren't ruthless enough and it could relegate us.

It could be argued that we outplayed them because Moyes set them up that way and he felt they could beat us by counter attacking.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Nothing we don’t know although some don’t want to see it

Indeed. Instead of in depth analysis it’s far easier to call for Potter’s head this undermining our brilliant benefactor’s long term project and love for attractive football.

 

[Barham's tash]

Yep, i found it super frustrating. I am assume its because we’re shot of confidence. Moyes almost called it, sit out the first half and watch us run out of ideas then come at us in the second.

Although that’s not at all what happened

 

[Dorset Seagull]

James, McBurnie, Rodon and Celina weren't exactly dragged out of the local pub.



Potter's squad here is a lot better than Hughton's. And he seems to have two positions for every player.



I agree. I think adding him has made "too many cooks". Who has the last say on a player? Why was Veltman apparently a piece in the jigsaw and then Welbeck brought in as a panic measure after the window slammed shut?




True but should we then not cut our playing cloth accordingly?



Don't insult me Swanny. You've been here two minutes. I remember when Bloom took over at a wet athletics stadium.

Wellbeck was not brought in as a panic measure as Ashworth has been courting him for some time

 

[phoenix]

No idea where you get the idea that I'm used to something faster from - baffling! 'Direct' and 'being patient' don't come into it either - I'm quite happy with most of the passes we make, we just need to be making the ball travel faster by hitting it harder. Our players don't need to be dashing about all over the place, neither to we need to hoof it upfield (though occasionally that needs to be an option!), but the ball rolling along at walking place - that is a problem.

We scored 2 goals yesterday, so its not a great example.

 

[Justice]

Indeed. Instead of in depth analysis it’s far easier to call for Potter’s head this undermining our brilliant benefactor’s long term project and love for attractive football.

You say that although if CH had finished 12th in his last season no way is he getting sacked. Football is always about results.

 

[Acker79]

And yet the Potter outers are just 20% of the fanbase, going by this sample.

I assume because the vast majority recognise that we need a striker?

Possibly. I'm not potter out, either, just to be clear.

My point is simply about how there seem to be so many people claiming to already know there are problems and yet, some fans, as I mentioned, have simply been convinced it will all come good if we just keep doing what we're doing. There are also some fans who don't seem to care if that happens. They are enjoying the football, and have said they'd rather go down playing this football than staying up playing less entertaining football. Some fans are just not concerned by the results, or the failure to convert more chances than we currently are converting.

 

[Stat Brother]

What stunning insight will Richard Jolly be giving us next week?

"EXCLUSIVE! 4-4-2 Reveals the secrets of where bears like to do their business..." or maybe "The Pope and Roman Catholicism - the mysterious link uncovered!"

"A bear was once seen heading into the woods with a copy of The Daily Mail under its arm".

 

[blockhseagull]

Some tough decisions to be made.

For me we have 2/3 players who just aren’t cutting it currently..... that might be because they aren’t good enough or it might be because the system just doesn’t suit them. Either way it can’t continue and we need to make some changes to take the next step.

 

[GT49er]

We scored 2 goals yesterday, so its not a great example.

What?? A great example of what - in fact, what example?

 

[Swansman]

I agree with some of your response and not all of it but I think that's where we'll both be for a while. However, I do take issue with the above sentiment, and you are not alone in expressing it.

The idea that you are either in favour of the long term project or a short term reactionary is a false dichotomy. That was my point about your insulting Bloom comment - we all know he's not a corrupt, oil rich nation state and that we have to be more long term, creative and risk taking in our approach. But that shouldn't stop a level of criticism if you think that the risks are too far or the creativity not enough or whatever - basically if you see the medium term being the middle of The Championship as opposed to the middle of the Premier League. And projects can, and do, change leadership from time to time without altering the overall goal.

But being a fan IS reactive. It's not a bad thing (for a fan anyway). Football is an art not a science. Fans live from game to game. For that moment of joy when you score, texting your sad loser mate when you've beaten them, riding the ups and downs of social media. And right now we are m'eh, which is exactly what I don't want from my art. I feel at the end of most of our games like I have paid too much money for an ok gig, a meal that didn't quite satisfy, an overly arty exhibition, a club night where the DJ never lifted the crowd once. And it is nearly every game.

If I had that experience in any other art I'd see a new band, change my nightclub or restaurant, re-assess my approach to art. But, with a football club you can't do that. The fan is stuck with his team, Unless, that is, you choose to follow a manager and philosophy instead. Then you can look on it dispassionately and, if it stops working, it can be the fault of them rather than your hero.

Some fans care a lot about results, others care less. The combination of "I want to see the team win a lot" and "I desperately want to stay in the PL" are not going to do any "result" oriented fan any favours. Of course criticism is going to come around when a team doesnt win enough, it happens in every club. A lot of times its based on nothing or, at best, guesswork - people who never seen a training session saying "they need to train more shooting" or people never in the dressing room saying "manager x is too nice/too harsh/too full of shit". Its understandable.

As you say, football for a fan is about emotions rather than science... and me being a bit annoyed with people trying to convert those emotions into some kind of pseudo science wont change that: after all, what is the option? People try to look for answers, its natural.

But most of the time its just guesswork, some of it better than others. Im sure that when Challenger and Columbia exploded a lot of space nerds sat around on forums saying "this rocket scientist is out of his depth" or "obviously bound to happen again, need to sign some better parts for that Thermal protection system". Its very human, we all do things like that. But its important to be aware that we know very little about most things or there is a chance people end up too harsh and dogmatic (regardless of subject). The "I hope I will never see Connolly" again thread is a good example of when it goes overboard and some knob throwing all modesty of the boat says something that is actually quite likely to make some serious psychological damage.

Bit off topic last paragraph.. but I think I catch your drift and I think you catch mine (tldr; we dont know much but its healthy, natural and fun to debate as long as we dont believe we are the voices of God or his executioners).

 

[Hampster Gull]

Although that’s not at all what happened

It is what happened, although perhaps not moyes cunning plan

 

[Wozza]

What are you saying about the other tens of thousands?

They're still in denial.

 

[twickers]

Depends which way you look at our cup. Half full and I think.we have players which have potential to deliver much more...we haven't had that in previous seasons and were always playing our best hand at our limit. We don't have an Aubameyang out of form, we have a Championship striker out of form so we can take the risk of change up front. The defensive errors and our set piece hit rate are fixable. Someone on the coaching staff nerds to eat humble pie there are get them back on attacking and defending set pieces that plays to our strengths.

It takes one article for all the lazy journos to follow suit this article, the Guardian, the editors for the pundits have all changed tune to "must do better" Brighton...an observation that couldn't be more obvious by the clear scrap the bottom 5 will be in and with Fulham seemingly starting to tread water instead of drowning and Big Sam working his grinding out results through organisation approach it's no wonder the scrutiny is on us. It's probably now more than ever this season at this crucial juncture that Potter needs some slack...the players and club won't be better for feeling the noise from us and wobbling on the pitch...as much as I'm frustrated with how in some ways we've gone backward, how in many ways the lack of a goal scorer would bite us etc. It feels like it's all been written and said...I'd hate to see us finish January with a toxic meltdown.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Shame on Four Four Two for daring to suggest that Emperor Potter may be just a tad lacking in the clothing department. The impertinence of it!

 

[Swansman]

Interesting that the article is basically saying what most are saying - "the goalie let in a lot of the shots and the strikers are not clinical" - but somehow consider this article as something "new" or as "proof" for what most have said for a while. The title is simply dumb - the answer is no, no one has failed to realise that these things are problems and though obviously some seem to believe that FFT is this authority able to confirm or deny their own beliefs, its simply not the case. Theres a few thousand people on this board that could have written the same article, give or take a detail or two.

 

[NooBHA]

I think [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION] and [MENTION=616]Guinness Boy[/MENTION] are passing International Espionage Secrets in amongst their big long message exchanges in this thread.

I tend to like short sharp exchanges on a Football Forum. It tends to help me break away from work mode where I normally have to read documents with thousands of words which could quite easily be said in 100 words.

So I can only assume that there are Cryptic messages in there somewhere. ��