Going backwards in every respect

[Pretty pink fairy]

Ha ha what deluded thread, people are either spending match day in the pub or complaining on the train how things haven't changed and how boring it's all got, time for a reality check folks !!!!
regards
DR

 

[marshy68]

Right. Glad I've got your attention. Obviously it's the first game of a long season. Obviously the transfer window closes at the end of August and we appear to have several irons in several fires. Obviously playing with 10 men against a team as adept at time wasting as Wednesday is never going to turn out well. Obviously we still have a club, The Amex is lovely, the seats are padded yada, yada, yada.

Nevertheless I am about to wet the bed. Regular readers on here and of last season's blog will know this is actually out of character. I understand FFP. I understand how much money TB has put in and, no, I don't have that much myself. I understand we have the best Academy in the country and this is going to give us a rosy long term future. So I have to say:

When you start with Shamir Fenelon and O'Grady in the Championship where once it was Barnes and Ulloa you are going backwards. When you have to play your reserve right back as a left wing back you are going backwards. When you play another ex-devteam squad player as one of two holding midfielders when his major weakness is tackling you are going backwards. When you no longer have Mathew Upson reading the game and controlling the spine you are going backwards. When your answer to this is to put on an overweight, out of favour player with the pace of a snail on mogadon and who cannot accurately pass a bottle of port you are going backwards.

This squad doesn't need three or four additions. It needs major surgery.

Have to agree two years ago we destroyed swfc at the amex. we are in for along hard season.

 

[enterprise]

You see, this is my problem with all the bollox spouted on here. Nobody knows what is spoken about behind closed doors, althouth there are a lot on here who would have you believe they do. As i have said on here numerous times, we don't know who we are looking at, how many we are close to signing, an how many we miss for various reasons, we don't even know the reasons, for christs sake. Every thing the club does in the recruitment department seems extremely professional to me, if we miss players, we miss them, but, I would bet that we move heaven and earth to sign the pkayers we would like,some won't come cos of the wages, some wont come because of length of contract, and some like, shall we say a little sweetener, that we are not prepared to pay. But to imagine that the club hierarchy doesn't want success is bordering on madness, and very disrespectful to Tony Bloom etc. Judge the transfer window when it closes, not before

I agree with your sentiments, I to am sure that the recruitment team is trying to bring in players but sticking to an internal policy. I think that the problem that most people have on here is that fact that apart from Stockdale none of the key positions have been filled before the start of the season. I'll no doubt be proved wrong as the season goes on but if you look at our opening 8 league games we have / had a real chance to put our marker down against some of the poorer teams in the league before we start a tough old run of games. Not only could this this have brought confidence to the young and emerging players but it would have got the fans going, increased ticket sales and spend on the additional retail / commercials that we are advised to purchase to support the club ... I don't buy into this theory that transfer dealings have been late due to the World Cup etc, just look at other teams. I'm equally sure that we will get 3 or 4 good additions by the start of Sept but my frustration is that it will take time for players / squad to jell and this should to large extent have taken place in pre season not during the opening 8 matches when we should be putting down our marker for the season. I'm sure that SH and the board share our frustrations so someone needs to be accountable for why the obvious isn't happening.

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

I can tolerate the odd below-par performance. They happen even in the best of times.

Today was a bit different. We seemed to have lost our style and rhythm altogether. I couldn't see what our formation or game plan was meant to be. We looked like the ultimate generic mid-table Championship team rather than the classy Brighton team that has won admirers (if not promotion) in recent seasons.


Early days but we look four or five players away from being play-off contenders.

I thought I saw a much clearer game plan yesterday, but I agree that we need different players to make it work better. If we are to change, and most admirers of our football in the past seem to also say that we need to have more than just possession, then we need to stick with it in the meantime, until we get new players in. But you need to stick with it so that the existing team does get more comfortable with it. I'm afraid that might mean a poor start this season.

 

[Surf's Up]

I agree with your sentiments, I to am sure that the recruitment team is trying to bring in players but sticking to an internal policy. I think that the problem that most people have on here is that fact that apart from Stockdale none of the key positions have been filled before the start of the season. I'll no doubt be proved wrong as the season goes on but if you look at our opening 8 league games we have / had a real chance to put our marker down against some of the poorer teams in the league before we start a tough old run of games. Not only could this this have brought confidence to the young and emerging players but it would have got the fans going, increased ticket sales and spend on the additional retail / commercials that we are advised to purchase to support the club ... I don't buy into this theory that transfer dealings have been late due to the World Cup etc, just look at other teams. I'm equally sure that we will get 3 or 4 good additions by the start of Sept but my frustration is that it will take time for players / squad to jell and this should to large extent have taken place in pre season not during the opening 8 matches when we should be putting down our marker for the season. I'm sure that SH and the board share our frustrations so someone needs to be accountable for why the obvious isn't happening.

Agree with this + loosing your manager every summer doesn't help.

 

[Acker79]

In fairness I'm not sure who else he was supposed to pick, apart from the 18 players in the match squad we've only got Stephens and March ( both injured ) Ankergren and Maxi and that's it. It really does show how small our squad is at the moment especially as Crofts is now suspended as well.

Ankergren was initially listed as sub, but then a late change to Walton, was Ankergren injured, too?

 

[B.W.]

Right. Glad I've got your attention. Obviously it's the first game of a long season. Obviously the transfer window closes at the end of August and we appear to have several irons in several fires. Obviously playing with 10 men against a team as adept at time wasting as Wednesday is never going to turn out well. Obviously we still have a club, The Amex is lovely, the seats are padded yada, yada, yada.

Nevertheless I am about to wet the bed. Regular readers on here and of last season's blog will know this is actually out of character. I understand FFP. I understand how much money TB has put in and, no, I don't have that much myself. I understand we have the best Academy in the country and this is going to give us a rosy long term future. So I have to say:

When you start with Shamir Fenelon and O'Grady in the Championship where once it was Barnes and Ulloa you are going backwards. When you have to play your reserve right back as a left wing back you are going backwards. When you play another ex-devteam squad player as one of two holding midfielders when his major weakness is tackling you are going backwards. When you no longer have Mathew Upson reading the game and controlling the spine you are going backwards. When your answer to this is to put on an overweight, out of favour player with the pace of a snail on mogadon and who cannot accurately pass a bottle of port you are going backwards.

This squad doesn't need three or four additions. It needs major surgery.

I agree with all but the last bit. 4 quality players required and we are back in business. Those 4 should have been bought as early as possible in the close season. Far too slow. No more excuses (because that is what they are), the Albion need to sort out their p1ss-poor player recruitment and very, very quickly.

 

[Brighton Mod]

Looking around where I sit (WSU) I don't think anyone was in the least bit surprised by today's result. Wednesday were very ordinary, we were even more so - no shape, no obvious tactics and definitely no threat up front. Stock dale was ok but some of his clearances were poor (three straight into touch); on several occasions, especially in the first half, two and three players went for the same ball in midfield and finished up losing it; O'Grady laid the ball off quite well a couple of times, but was slow and cumbersome, and Fenelon looked totally out of his depth and offered nothing. Ok, it's only one game but there was nothing to feel the slightest bit optimistic about.

I wanted to see what Sami has for us and was concerned with what I saw. KLL playing in the middle in the first half whilst we played Calde on the left wing and had Buckley on the bench. CMS gets 15 mins, The midfield was not cohesive and failed make a telling pass, we lacked pace up front against a slow, rather static defence. Dead ball, set pieces were poor in the extreme (whats going on in training}

I struggled to see what type of game we were playing and generally felt that we didn't look like scoring. So did Sami pick the team or was NJ involved, I felt the team selection was wrong, the tactics, whatever they were, were wrong and the playing of certain players in wrong positions. My biggest concern this season is for the manager and how many goals we are going to score, both subjects raised in previous threads. The defeat, we can all take that, but the lacklustre, unimaginative and dull performance is of serious concern and comes off the back of a poor pre season.

In terms of where we are, given our previous seasons there is a feeling of reverse and make and mend. the squad is not deep enough or good enough and the manager, again is unproven in English football. Given the resource available to the manager and coaching staff and the time they have at their disposal to develop tactics and strategies the performance yesterday was poor and shows no signs of improving. May I remind everyone that of the last five games we have lost four and drawn one, its not looking good.

 

[B.W.]

Even my rosy spectacles are currently on the end of my nose, and not up at and over the bridge.

We didn't start with a team capable of winning the game.

Welcome to the correct side. I told you so...

 

[B.W.]

It feels to me that the club have put so much time and effort into the new training ground and nike sponsorship that they've forgotten what really makes the club work, Players and fans.

Spot on BB. Priorities require a reset.

 

[Stat Brother]

Welcome to the correct side. I told you so...

At least they are still on my face.

Irrespective of the season to come, and who will or won't be bought in, foresight and hindsight told me we should have won yesterday.
Wednesday flattered us by being pooh in front of goal, but as saying elsewhere I don't think we played the team that could have won.


It didn't take long to get on the GusBus, I called shotgun in the OsCar, but yesterday did nothing to get me off the fence re Sami.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I agree with all but the last bit. 4 quality players required and we are back in business. Those 4 should have been bought as early as possible in the close season. Far too slow. No more excuses (because that is what they are), the Albion need to sort out their p1ss-poor player recruitment and very, very quickly.

Emphasis on quality though rather than players. 4 of the caliber we've brought in so far won't cut it. We are looking at a quality left back with bags of fitness, a creative midfielder (with Agustien going the other way with any luck), a marquee striker and someone who can play as a central attacking midfielder better than Kaz.

However I stand by my final paragraph having seen yesterday. If Toko is injured I'm not sure who really fits in to the second deep midfield role with Ince? Not JFC for me. And Ince will inevitably blow hot and cold as he did last season. He's only a youngster. Can you really see Bruno playing as wingback for 46 games with his fitness record? Is Walton adequate backup for Stockdale? I thought we needed 4 like you. On yesterday's peformance 7 or 8 is nearer the mark with some shipping out.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

I wanted to see what Sami has for us and was concerned with what I saw. KLL playing in the middle in the first half whilst we played Calde on the left wing and had Buckley on the bench. CMS gets 15 mins, The midfield was not cohesive and failed make a telling pass, we lacked pace up front against a slow, rather static defence. Dead ball, set pieces were poor in the extreme (whats going on in training}

I struggled to see what type of game we were playing and generally felt that we didn't look like scoring. So did Sami pick the team or was NJ involved, I felt the team selection was wrong, the tactics, whatever they were, were wrong and the playing of certain players in wrong positions. My biggest concern this season is for the manager and how many goals we are going to score, both subjects raised in previous threads. The defeat, we can all take that, but the lacklustre, unimaginative and dull performance is of serious concern and comes off the back of a poor pre season.

In terms of where we are, given our previous seasons there is a feeling of reverse and make and mend. the squad is not deep enough or good enough and the manager, again is unproven in English football. Given the resource available to the manager and coaching staff and the time they have at their disposal to develop tactics and strategies the performance yesterday was poor and shows no signs of improving. May I remind everyone that of the last five games we have lost four and drawn one, its not looking good.

Can't disagree with that.

 

[B.W.]

At least they are still on my face.

Irrespective of the season to come, and who will or won't be bought in, foresight and hindsight told me we should have won yesterday.
Wednesday flattered us by being pooh in front of goal, but as saying elsewhere I don't think we played the team that could have won.


It didn't take long to get on the GusBus, I called shotgun in the OsCar, but yesterday did nothing to get me off the fence re Sami.

He needs the 'tools' (players), and time to make his ideas stick with the squad. Problem is, the club have supplied him with a 'toolkit' missing at least 4 key tools, with no immediate replacements on the horizon. As soon as Sami has the players he needs, we can start judging his tactics, until then I'm leaving my rose-tinted spectacles in their case!

 

[Notters]

Was that the worst performance since pre Gus days. I cant think of a worse one. It was as if the players havent learnt what Sami wants or are not capable of doing it.

Ridiculous.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Spot on BB. Priorities require a reset.

Fair comment. At times it feels like it's more the Paul Barber show than the Albion.

 

[Stat Brother]

He needs the 'tools' (players), and time to make his ideas stick with the squad. Problem is, the club have supplied him with a 'toolkit' missing at least 4 key tools, with no immediate replacements on the horizon. As soon as Sami has the players he needs, we can start judging his tactics, until then I'm leaving my rose-tinted spectacles in their case!

My point is I believe Sami had the tools at his disposal to win yesterday, but didn't use them.

I'm still positive for the future, esp as like everybody else I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.

 

[B.W.]

Emphasis on quality though rather than players. 4 of the caliber we've brought in so far won't cut it. We are looking at a quality left back with bags of fitness, a creative midfielder (with Agustien going the other way with any luck), a marquee striker and someone who can play as a central attacking midfielder better than Kaz.

However I stand by my final paragraph having seen yesterday. If Toko is injured I'm not sure who really fits in to the second deep midfield role with Ince? Not JFC for me. And Ince will inevitably blow hot and cold as he did last season. He's only a youngster. Can you really see Bruno playing as wingback for 46 games with his fitness record? Is Walton adequate backup for Stockdale? I thought we needed 4 like you. On yesterday's peformance 7 or 8 is nearer the mark with some shipping out.

Fair enough GB. I would like to see, in order of priority:

ST (Ulloa replacement, will cost big money)
LB (Ward - just do it)
ACM (may have to move this one up the priority list based on yesterday!)
Left-sided forward (not sure I can say LW in the new Sami world).

Anyway, agree re quality. That's why I'm saying 4, not more (recognising FFP).

I've been saying this since before our first pre-season game. The club need to wake up or pay the price (lost revenue through dwindling attendances).

 

[Art Morte]

A Liverpool fan from Finland here, joined up on this forum because Hyypiä is the reason I became a Liverpool fan in the first place and him managing Brighton & Hove makes your club my favourite one in the Championship this season.

I'd like nothing better than Sami going on to have a successful managerial career. I was excited when the news broke that he's the next Brighton manager as Brighton have been one of the best, most consistent clubs in the Championship recently.

However, I'm a little worried. Even to an outsider like me it seems obvious the squad needs a few quality additions after the departures and some players perhaps starting to be past their peak?

Sami also needs to motivate the squad very well, imo, as being for, what, three years in a row now knocking on the Premier League's door can install some "I guess it's never going to happen" thinking into the guys who have so many times come close.

So, it looks to be a tougher challenge for Sami - and Brighton in general - than it might have initially looked on paper. I'll be keeping a close eye on this club's fortunes this season and will probably pop in here every once in a while, too. Good luck.

 

[B.W.]

My point is I believe Sami had the tools at his disposal to win yesterday, but didn't use them.

I'm still positive for the future, esp as like everybody else I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes.

Have to agree that the starting line-up was not as good as it could have been, even given our depleted squad. But the subs that came on did little to backup that argument IMHO.

As I said before, people are judged by results (I certainly am). On this basis, the recruitment team is failing IMHO.