[Football] "Graham Potter’s side remain a gloriously flawed machine": The Observer 12 July

[Perkino]

I think that sums up my thoughts. The number of games we have dominated and failed to score/score enough is frustrating (Southampton pre-Andone red, Newcastle, Palace, etc) Goals in those games would give us the push up the table to be challenging for top ten.

This is completely the focus of our development, far too many draws to be comfortable. Progress next season will be more than 10 wins but less than 10 draws

 

[Iggle Piggle]

It's a good read but the defence isn't the problem albeit I can understand how that opinion was formed after watching the city game.

I said on another thread that there aren't many players we'd sign that would improve our defence. I rarely watch a game where the opposition doesn't have a more potent CF. The stats and what we witness tell the same story over the course of the season. We are tight enough at the back but don't score enough goals allied against the XG stats which suggest we are a pretty good side apart from that. Whilst Maupay has undoubtedly done well, it's a bare cupboard after that. Connolly might get there, Murray isn't going to get any better whilst Andone and DJ Strollabout have rightly been shipped on. I personally think Villa and arguably Norwich - who had a free scoring Pukki earlier in the season - are the only teams with a worse set of options up top. Sort that out and we might have a top 10 team.

 

[Marshy]

Centre Midfielder who is great on the ball and no 9 of different variety to Maupay and Connelly and we are good to go.

 

[Stat Brother]

Nevertheless I'd take 'gloriously flawed' over 'Burnley are being very Burnley', as it was last night, every single day of the week.

 

[maltaseagull]

Seems to me that the Albion are 'gloriously flawed' in much the same way that Norwich are. Both trying to play the game the right way, neither particularly good at it. REALLY need to upgrade and kick on next season else we're likely to be next season's Norwich. Can't KEEP doing that Relegation Flirtation thing, because more likely sooner rather than later there WON'T be three worse teams

Looking at bookies odds most seasons they tend to think the 3 newly promoted teams will go down.
That's not always correct but I do think there is a good chance that there will be 3 teams worse than us as long as we don't get any worse.
Having said that, I would love to see us looking up the table at around game 30 and thinking -if we can get x points from the last 8 games we could be top 10 or even in Europe rather than over our shoulders and asking will we get to 36-40 points.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Agreed. We're quite weak, physically and mentally. There's not a lot of leadership or bite in the current team. Maupay is a scrapper but he's one of the only ones. I sometimes get the sense that GP/the club feel we should get praise for trying to play "good" football. I'd rather be a bit more pragmatic and win than look nice and lose.

Yes. We've had a few in our time: Jimmy Case and Brian Horton could play good football as well as enforce. One of their kind would help.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I think you're being a little generous about the Muff away game. Brittle as. (going in 2 down after having about 98% possession in the first half hurt)

Apart from that, can't really argue. We've battered the entire bottom half 1-1 all season. what would be great is the winners were no longer determined by the number of goals they scored, but with artistic merit points from a judging panel compromising Len Goodman and Chris Waddle.

Not just possession though was it.

I thought the same after the game and then someone advised me to rewatch the highlights.
We battered them absolutely battered them. Go and dig it out and take a look.
I agree with all the comments on here about "it's goals that count", "We don't have the players" etc. etc. etc.

But Potter is only 1 season into revolutionising our style of play.
He has got the players committed to a riskier, but better style of play.
He backs himself and the players to improve.

Taking that into account, having a season where we:

• Stay Up
• Outplay or compete in 80% of the games
• Play expansively
• Develop Youth
• Score more goals

Is a massive achievement, with potential for further improvements.
Having the occasional game where are frailities are laid bare, is all part of the journey and should be expected.

 

[Perkino]

Centre Midfielder who is great on the ball and no 9 of different variety to Maupay and Connelly and we are good to go.

I'm not so convinced in the need for a new central midfielder. The set up that we play often involves 3 centrally from Stephens, Propper, Bissouma, Alzate, Mooy, Gross, MacAllister. Unless we see someone move on from this group it wouldn't be my main concern. We also have Kayal, Maloumby & Sanders who could also have a part to play.

Another Striker and a wider midfielder are key

 

[Braggfan]

It is lazy journalism and I think he fundamentally misunderstands Brighton.

It’s easy to say we’re defensively poor when Man City thump us 5-0 and because of our league position. But if I had to summarise our defence this season it wouldn’t be that we were defensively poor, but that we're Jeykll and Hyde. We have two faces to our defence. We have been poor defensively against the top 5 sides no doubt, but actually against the rest of the division we've been ok.

Against the teams outside the top 5, only Sheff Utd, Burnley and Palace have conceded less than us. That’s not bad. In fact it’s not only 'not bad', but its actually a pretty good foundation to build on.

 

[zefarelly]

Agreed. We're quite weak, physically and mentally. There's not a lot of leadership or bite in the current team. Maupay is a scrapper but he's one of the only ones. I sometimes get the sense that GP/the club feel we should get praise for trying to play "good" football. I'd rather be a bit more pragmatic and win than look nice and lose.

To an extent yes, we need the ability to be hard (but fair) close things down, shut up shop etc. but not at the expense of progression. ultimately playing nice and being good is the ideal goal.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

For me, the most enjoyable part of our progression this season has been that we are no longer a "park the bus" team.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I'm not so convinced in the need for a new central midfielder. The set up that we play often involves 3 centrally from Stephens, Propper, Bissouma, Alzate, Mooy, Gross, MacAllister. Unless we see someone move on from this group it wouldn't be my main concern. We also have Kayal, Maloumby & Sanders who could also have a part to play.

Another Striker and a wider midfielder are key

The Striker is the only missing piece for me.
If Andone wasn't injured and a mentallist, I wouldn't even be too concerned on that front.

Other than that I remain confident that the recruitment/development team will continue to refresh the pool of players, and that Potter and the coaches will mould them into a very solid Premier league squad.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

"Graham Potter’s side remain a gloriously flawed machine": The Observer 12 July

“I wonder if next season Brighton will finally run out of luck? You know relying on 3 worst teams than them to ensure Premier League survival.

You do have to wonder. Even now looking at the top six of the Championship, all of the clubs, bar Brentford look a good bet to finish above Brighton next season, regardless of who goes up.”

Obviously not familiar with Aston Villa or Norwich

I would suggest based on the undertones in the comments there are a lot of “big” some “massive” clubs treading water in the championship and league 1 who frankly don’t think we deserve to be better played than them, despite being on absolute merit and nothing else !


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[Uh_huh_him]

“I wonder if next season Brighton will finally run out of luck? You know relying on 3 worst teams than them to ensure Premier League survival.

You do have to wonder. Even now looking at the top six of the Championship, all of the clubs, bar Brentford look a good bet to finish above Brighton next season, regardless of who goes up.”

Obviously not familiar with Aston Villa or Norwich

I would suggest based on the undertones in the comments there are a lot of “big” some “massive” clubs treading water in the championship and league 1 who frankly don’t think we deserve to be better played than them, despite being on absolute merit and nothing else !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This!

some don't know anything about us and will knee-jerk with these sort of comments.
Others will know us much better and be envious of our success, set up and potential.

To whoever posted the quote:
It is worth noting that Liverpool are very likely to run out of luck and there won't be 19 teams worse than them in the league next year.
It's how all league positions work dumbass!!

 

[Goldstone1976]

Some players will indeed improve from the chastening experience against City far more than if they were told, "your first touch is good enough when your playing Palace, but FFS hoof it long when your playing against good teams!"

Yes, indeed - and an interesting observation.

I wonder if that number is greater or less than the number who'd feel demotivated by a 0-5 (coulda/shoulda been 0-7, 0-8) drubbing, and would welcome some sense of pragmatism when playing teams stuffed with the World's elite?

 

[AlbionBro]

I'm sure he will - just don't think he has one at the moment. We really need a Murray replacement. A big man with a speed merchant to get on the end of flick ons would give the high pressing teams pause for thought. You just need the option to allow you to mix it up and use the passing from the back as well. A footballing "corridor of uncertainty" if you will. You press us too high and you better make sure you can stop our number 9 winning headers.

I would like the same, a Ward/Mellor combination.

We have enough tall headers of the ball. Burn on a one-match trial with Maupay might be nice.
He is a massive lad, who knows how to handle himself, he is also very mobile.
But I will leave that to Potter as he is the master tactician, not me.

 

[Badger Boy]

The single biggest flaw is the non-shape we play in. It doesn't benefit any of the players. We're far too narrow to give our midfielders options to make passes, which results in the ball being given away and shots rolled to Ryan's left where he can't get anywhere near them. Rinse and repeat.

Until the formation is changed, we'll continue to barely create chances and be caught out when the ball is inevitably given away.

 

[MJsGhost]

The commenter "VoiceofReason08" trolls every piece on Brighton on the Guardian/Observer. Ridiculous that he got a Guardian Pick for one of his replies.

I think there’s a silent ‘r’ involved when it comes to that particular poster.

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

I didn't read further than 'Sort the defence out and there’s a top-10 side in there' The defence is the least of our problems.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Yes, indeed - and an interesting observation.

I wonder if that number is greater or less than the number who'd feel demotivated by a 0-5 (coulda/shoulda been 0-7, 0-8) drubbing, and would welcome some sense of pragmatism when playing teams stuffed with the World's elite?

Yeah two schools of thought definitely.
The play without fear mantra that has followed Potter around wherever he goes, shows that he won't be inflicting any morale-sapping comments to anyone who try and fail.

I suspect the long term view is that developing a squad, who have a good siege-mentality "us against the world" creates a squad who are only valuable to us.
A squad who are developed to reach their own individual potential creates players who will be valued by other clubs more highly and ensure that the club achieves the necessary return on investment to be able to compete at this level.