[Albion] Have We Turned The Corner?

[el punal]

New year, new dawn so January wasn’t too bad after all. Two stuttering performances in the FA Cup, two wins and we’re still in it. As for the League, 1-3 down to Wolves (on 2nd January) at halftime and looking dead and buried we come back bravely to draw 3-3.

From there on in the Albion’s reputation as a pretty, pretty powderpuff team playing pleasing on the eye football with no end result - getting the ball in the net - has at last changed. Aside from a meritorious 1-0 defeat to Man City where we played well and earned the plaudits we have become, well, different. Convincing performances with wins against Leeds and Spurs, and a must-not-lose draw to Fulham, we now look stronger. No goals conceded in those three games.

There seems to be a growing confidence in the side. We have shown we able to shut out games after leading and not concede silly late goals - well done Lewis Dunk against Fulham! The downside is that we are still not proficient at making the most of goal scoring opportunities.

So now we have two big games coming up with Liverpool and Burnley in short order. Time to test our mettle with a confidence boosting seven point gap now between us and the relegation zone. I somehow feel comfortable about our chances which certainly would not have been the case a month ago. I hope my hope is not misplaced.

 

[Dick Swiveller]

If we have, I hope we don't have two players trying to take it.

 

[B-right-on]

Yes.

Never easy, will still be a few hairy, heart straining moments as this is the Albion after all. But looks like a TEAM is coming together.

 

[AmexRuislip]

New year, new dawn so January wasn’t too bad after all. Two stuttering performances in the FA Cup, two wins and we’re still in it. As for the League, 1-3 down to Wolves (on 2nd January) at halftime and looking dead and buried we come back bravely to draw 3-3.

From there on in the Albion’s reputation as a pretty, pretty powderpuff team playing pleasing on the eye football with no end result - getting the ball in the net - has at last changed. Aside from a meritorious 1-0 defeat to Man City where we played well and earned the plaudits we have become, well, different. Convincing performances with wins against Leeds and Spurs, and a must-not-lose draw to Fulham, we now look stronger. No goals conceded in those three games.

There seems to be a growing confidence in the side. We have shown we able to shut out games after leading and not concede silly late goals - well done Lewis Dunk against Fulham! The downside is that we are still not proficient at making the most of goal scoring opportunities.

So now we have two big games coming up with Liverpool and Burnley in short order. Time to test our mettle with a confidence boosting seven point gap now between us and the relegation zone. I somehow feel comfortable about our chances which certainly would not have been the case a month ago. I hope my hope is not misplaced.

It's a great feeling in knowing we played Spuds off the park on Sunday.
Realistically whatever we do as a club against any other PL side, it will always be about the opposition, we rarely get a mention in dispatches these days.
At the end of the day, it is what the Albion fans know and that what counts in my opinion.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Yes

 

[OzMike]

I would hope so but I think more goals in relation to chances would have signified that better than just the 1.

 

[Simster]

I think the corner has been turned, and I wonder if the team genuinely believes they can get something at Anfield? A big ask, but we do look solid at the back and City only squeaked past us.

 

[Goldstone1976]

I'm not sure I'd go as far as to say that we've actually turned the corner just yet. Perhaps we've stuck our head around it to see whether we like what's up that street - I'm hoping that the players decide they prefer mid-table road to relegation cul-de-sac.

 

[pasty]

Lets see where we are at the end February. We have 4 league games after Liverpool where I would hope we will be picking up points: Burnley A, Villa & Palace H and West Brom A.

 

[Sheebo]

I keep on about halftime v Wolves - it was the crossroads. I’d lost a lot of faith with Potter and the team personally too - and as soon as I started to give up, they did the opposite. The Man City and Fulham performances weren’t just good, they weren’t ‘same old’ either - there was a spark to them. Our attacks seem a lot more purposeful & a lot less wishy washy / clueless. Our defence is looking settled and hard to break down. Our midfield the same - winning a lot of tackles and second balls more often than before.

Basically, I think we’ve turned a corner and the second half of the season will see more points than the first. It’ll never be plain sailing, there will no doubt be setbacks, but we have some nice momentum now.

Just please don’t tinker too much Potter - please!

 

[peterward]

New year, new dawn so January wasn’t too bad after all. Two stuttering performances in the FA Cup, two wins and we’re still in it. As for the League, 1-3 down to Wolves (on 2nd January) at halftime and looking dead and buried we come back bravely to draw 3-3.

From there on in the Albion’s reputation as a pretty, pretty powderpuff team playing pleasing on the eye football with no end result - getting the ball in the net - has at last changed. Aside from a meritorious 1-0 defeat to Man City where we played well and earned the plaudits we have become, well, different. Convincing performances with wins against Leeds and Spurs, and a must-not-lose draw to Fulham, we now look stronger. No goals conceded in those three games.

There seems to be a growing confidence in the side. We have shown we able to shut out games after leading and not concede silly late goals - well done Lewis Dunk against Fulham! The downside is that we are still not proficient at making the most of goal scoring opportunities.

So now we have two big games coming up with Liverpool and Burnley in short order. Time to test our mettle with a confidence boosting seven point gap now between us and the relegation zone. I somehow feel comfortable about our chances which certainly would not have been the case a month ago. I hope my hope is not misplaced.

Not sure about turned the corner, but the biggest difference imho is Sanchez effect of the defence.

The defense is now looking and feeling a lot more solid, you don't $hit your pants at every corner/free kick.

Still have massive problems in fluffing chances and converting at the top end, without which we are always going to have issues, but for now we look more solid at the back and Dunky is also back to being a rock, he did look a tad ropey earlier in season.

Progress for sure defensively, offensively still need quality finishers to give us what we lost in Muzza.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

I hope so but we won't know until we play again, I hope yesterday was not a one off, maybe Potter will put out a totally different side with different tactics on Wednesday, he likes to bamboozle the opposistion, but I think yesterday really worked well.
Liverpool will be tough and by playing like that i will be hopeful for a point, but we need to play like that and hopefully beat Burnley, if we do well in both games then I will say yes, but our record against teams below or around us is not good.

 

[ForestRowSeagull]

Football has a habit of putting you on your arse when you're feeling confident, so i'll stay quiet for now.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I keep on about halftime v Wolves - it was the crossroads. I’d lost a lot of faith with Potter and the team personally too - and as soon as I started to give up, they did the opposite. The Man City and Fulham performances weren’t just good, they weren’t ‘same old’ either - there was a spark to them. Our attacks seem a lot more purposeful & a lot less wishy washy / clueless. Our defence is looking settled and hard to break down. Our midfield the same - winning a lot of tackles and second balls more often than before.

Basically, I think we’ve turned a corner and the second half of the season will see more points than the first. It’ll never be plain sailing, there will no doubt be setbacks, but we have some nice momentum now.

Just please don’t tinker too much Potter - please!

Yeah all of this.

Potter has addressed the real underlying issue (Defence/Maty) and the results are coming.
Losses are becoming DrawsandDraws are becoming wins.

If he could do something about our luck then we'd be flying.

 

[A1X]

Lets see where we are at the end February. We have 4 league games after Liverpool where I would hope we will be picking up points: Burnley A, Villa & Palace H and West Brom A.

This. People were saying similar things after we beat Leeds then we proceeded to fail to beat (and nearly lose to) Fulham. You can't claim to have turned a corner until you've made it stick.

 

[Wellesley]

We must have. I've been going around the bend all season.

 

[kjgood]

I really would like to believe that we have turned the corner, several performances lately have shown promise, several haven't, but until we start putting the ball in the net regularly I'm still on the fence. Last nights was a really good performance, but then one, maybe two golden chances went begging and we need to be converting these.

The next two games are going to be really difficult, Liverpool is a free hit but they are coming back into form and then we have Burnley where we must get something from.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

This. People were saying similar things after we beat Leeds then we proceeded to fail to beat (and nearly lose to) Fulham. You can't claim to have turned a corner until you've made it stick.

Fulham are hard to beat.
They have become very well organised, but suffer even worse goal scoring yips than us.

CH kept us up on the basis of just being hard to beat. He pretty much felt it was the only way to do it, on our budget.
Plenty of other Prem managers work in exactly the same way.

The idea that we failed to beat Fulham is very entitled. Fulham defended for their lives and won a point.
Just like we did at Wolves under Hughton.

It's the Premier League.
Every win takes a top performance.
You can't just turn up and expect to win against the lower teams.
Ask Jose.

 

[Change at Barnham]

I also think we're turning the corner with some pundits. I thought the Sky analysis was very fair and Jamie Redknapp was particularly impressed.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I agree that the February fixtures ( post Liverpool ) will give us a better guide as to where we are. A minimum of 5 points from those games and I don't see us going down. We could get more. If we get to 26/27 points after these games, we will have 12 games left and may only need 8-10 points to survive.
We have turned the corner psychologically, re home wins. It was a huge barrier. The players knew that and showed it at the final whistle. That was the corner turned. We have taken a big step last night. With others around us getting big results, we needed to respond and we did. The spirit is good and there is every reason for optimism.