[Albion] Fab out?

[sussex_guy2k2]

Oh dear, clueless

What’s clueless about this? That’s how we’ve set up for most of this season?

 

[Justice]

Slightly strange - Forest changed tactics and played more compact, while we basically just left a huge gap in midfield for Forest to play with.

Indeed they went five at the back, looking at our injuries we should have matched them and stunk the place until they started to get braver in front of the home fans and then hit them on the break.

 

[oldboyroy]

My partner who is a converted Brighton fan since meeting me and been to a dozen games said today when I told her Ferguson is at west ham on loan" that's a shame but I miss Roberto"!

 

[AZ Gull]

Last season there were 7 episodes of Boot Room (the final one was after the end of the season cos Pascal left)
This year there's been 4 so far - the most recent being Christmas.
There's also been 23 episodes so far this season of Unlocked which is a mix of BTS stuff and pitchside footage. The last one was a week ago.

This week's edition of "Brighton Unlocked" will be the most descriptively accurate, at least.

 

[The Fits]

I wonder if Fab has nightmares about a blackcloaked Niedzkowski standing at the foot of his bed?

 

[Home and Away]

I wonder if Fab has nightmares about a blackcloaked Niedzkowski standing at the foot of his bed?

 

[Robinjakarta]

View attachment 196157

Assistant Manager of Kuntz. Hmm.

 

[Mancgull]

I’m not sure the new guy is head coach material. More of a technical guy who oversees coaching.

There is an interesting article in the Athletic re the 7-0 drubbing. ( behind a paywall).
Apparently the Athletic ( probably Naylor) asked about our set piece stats this year, directly after the game. Goals conceded and scored from corners. We are stand out bad. Only Southampton are worse.
The response from FH was that we are poor because we haven’t had any consistency with the corner takers. What a load of nonsense Fab. Ayari has been in the team consistently to take them and our defence line up has been relatively consistent in terms of defending corners. When he first came FH stated that this was an area which he’d be looking to improve and yet there has been no improvement at all.
Too little time on the training pitch possibly.
Some posters have challenged the Fab Out brigade with a ‘lack of evidence’ statement. Well there is one piece which is very clear.
If anyone can make the stat available via the article you can see for yourselves.

 

[Hiheidi]

There is an interesting article in the Athletic re the 7-0 drubbing. ( behind a paywall).

Seven factors that explain Brighton’s humiliating 7-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest

Saturday's loss at the City Ground was Brighton's heaviest in a league game since the opening day of the 1958-59 season

www.nytimes.com

 

[Bodian]

I’m not sure the new guy is head coach material. More of a technical guy who oversees coaching.

There is an interesting article in the Athletic re the 7-0 drubbing. ( behind a paywall).
Apparently the Athletic ( probably Naylor) asked about our set piece stats this year, directly after the game. Goals conceded and scored from corners. We are stand out bad. Only Southampton are worse.
The response from FH was that we are poor because we haven’t had any consistency with the corner takers. What a load of nonsense Fab. Ayari has been in the team consistently to take them and our defence line up has been relatively consistent in terms of defending corners. When he first came FH stated that this was an area which he’d be looking to improve and yet there has been no improvement at all.
Too little time on the training pitch possibly.
Some posters have challenged the Fab Out brigade with a ‘lack of evidence’ statement. Well there is one piece which is very clear.
If anyone can make the stat available via the article you can see for yourselves.

I actually think the quality of our corners has improved - in as much as most of them are getting in and around the danger area now, instead of failing to beat the first man. It's just we don't do anything with them after that.

 

[SlickHenry]

Still think FH needs to be given the time to find his feet. He was chosen for his potential and having the desire to play the way our team is built for. It’s a long term project and there will be bumps along the way. People seem to forget RDZ suffered big defeats too.

It’s also a young team and although we spent a lot those fees represent young players potential rather than PL ready signings. They take time to bed in.

Not so keen on the Andy Naylor article as his conclusions seem quite knee jerk without much analysis. The Liam Tharme article is really worth reading though and looks at the way that we have changed how we play with specific stat and comparisons with other teams:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6058239/2025/01/14/brighton-most-dribbles-issue-control/ Brighton have attempted the most dribbles in Europe – that isn’t a good thing.

In essence we are playing a much higher line than before and are far more direct in attacking with players running at defences but with a low success rate. This leaves us much more vulnerable to counterattacks and transitions. Our shot quality has dropped considerably too. We also have very rarely ever had the same starting XI each week.

 

[Justice]

Still think FH needs to be given the time to find his feet. He was chosen for his potential and having the desire to play the way our team is built for. It’s a long term project and there will be bumps along the way. People seem to forget RDZ suffered big defeats too.

It’s also a young team and although we spent a lot those fees represent young players potential rather than PL ready signings. They take time to bed in.

Not so keen on the Andy Naylor article as his conclusions seem quite knee jerk without much analysis. The Liam Tharme article is really worth reading though and looks at the way that we have changed how we play with specific stat and comparisons with other teams:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6058239/2025/01/14/brighton-most-dribbles-issue-control/ Brighton have attempted the most dribbles in Europe – that isn’t a good thing.

In essence we are playing a much higher line than before and are far more direct in attacking with players running at defences but with a low success rate. This leaves us much more vulnerable to counterattacks and transitions. Our shot quality has dropped considerably too. We also have very rarely ever had the same starting XI each week.

So if we cut all the fluff his formation isn’t working in the PL.
The way I see it is we are playing a risky high line for very little reward.
I’ve seen JPVH, Pervis, Dunk all caught out of position way to many times for comfort.

 

[SlickHenry]

So if we cut all the fluff his formation isn’t working in the PL.
The way I see it is we are playing a risky high line for very little reward.
I’ve seen JPVH, Pervis, Dunk all caught out of position way too many times for comfort.

I agree the tactics and player roles need working on. For example Mitoma has often been doubled up on as Pervis is making less overlapping runs to give him more space as he is coming into CM more. i dont think you can say a particular formation isnt working as we have played several and it will change according to the opposition and available players. With the high line a point in another article it talks about how we have caught teams offside on average 4.8 times per game. The highest is the league. So in many ways it is working. I guess it is because people remember the close calls or when it doesn’t work.

There are quite a few good points in the article so I recommend you have a read if able. Personally i think it shows FH is trying different things but he is still learning and is very new to the league.

Also to mention our poor corner success in the league is an obvious target but corners are notoriously low quality chances. Even if we improved significantly it’s not going to result in many more goals.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

Can't really think where to put this but I don't think it warranted its own thread, so this one will do. Despite living in Prague, I don't pay much attention to Czech football (Brighton's my one and only team). But I remembered the rumour that we'd been interested in Slavia's manager at some point, so I figured I'd check on how they're doing.

They've conceded the same number of goals across 20 games this season as we did in 1 game on Saturday.

 

[AZ Gull]

View attachment 196184

You would think Six Sigma would be way out front at the top of the table, wouldn't you.

 

[oldboyroy]

Know I'll get shot down for this but I really do miss RDZ. Yes, he questioned the board and did it the wrong way but he is far superior in getting his style of play to work. I have no idea what Fabs style is or his tactics game to game?. I do think we'd be challenging the top 4 with this current crop of players with RDZ in charge!
Still ring's a bell that Ally Mac, a world cup winner said Roberto was the best manager he'd worked under so far.

 

[Justice]

Know I'll get shot down for this but I really do miss RDZ. Yes, he questioned the board and did it the wrong way but he is far superior in getting his style of play to work. I have no idea what Fabs style is or his tactics game to game?. I do think we'd be challenging the top 4 with this current crop of players with RDZ in charge!

We had the master and hired his disciple, didn’t Fab spend a week watching RDZ’s training sessions. Hansi Flick was another who visited Lancing twice to take in the training sessions. Arnie Slott was another fan who told his players to watch DeZerbi’s football.
Fab should have only made very slight tweaks a bit like Slott who has Liverpool not so kamikaze as Klopp ball.
Instead he went higher with the line leaving huge spaces in behind making us more vulnerable. The patterns of play diamond formations all over the pitch have all been erased, the ball is moved at a snails pace probably because the players are worried about turning over possession as they know we are done for with his shabby tactics.

 

[Arkwright]

I'm on the fence. Young manager deserves to be given a decent chance.
My biggest concern is the progression of the young player's under a young manager. The club's policy is to buy young, improve and sell for a profit.
Would the younger player's learn more from a more experienced manager and speed up development?

 

[Flounce]

If there was an experienced manager who plays entertaining football available I’d bin Fab today, otherwise he stays until one becomes available or Fab starts to show some recognisable tactics and nous over a few games. Currently close to being a dead man walking imo, but a week is a long time in football. Let’s see what the next game brings.

Not being able to oversee more than 45 mins of football and control in a game is my biggest worry about him. If I could see what he is trying to do I’d have more confidence and give him quite a bit of time.

I hope he can turn it around over the next few games, not necessarily win them but show some progression and recognisable tactics. I did think he’d done that in the three games before the Everton game, even though the tactics weren’t obvious to me.

However I’d sack him on the spot regardless if he utters “trust the process” one more time in a press conference

 

[Springal]

We had the master and hired his disciple, didn’t Fab spend a week watching RDZ’s training sessions. Hansi Flick was another who visited Lancing twice to take in the training sessions. Arnie Slott was another fan who told his players to watch DeZerbi’s football.
Fab should have only made very slight tweaks a bit like Slott who has Liverpool not so kamikaze as Klopp ball.
Instead he went higher with the line leaving huge spaces in behind making us more vulnerable. The patterns of play diamond formations all over the pitch have all been erased, the ball is moved at a snails pace probably because the players are worried about turning over possession as they know we are done for with his shabby tactics.

Irony being both of those managers have achieved far more at a higher level than Roberto. A touch of the Bielsas perhaps