[Albion] Home Form: Worried?

[Dave the OAP]

Aren't we the first side NOT to score against Palace this season, and we've given them their first point away from home?

Could have been worse, I guess.

Town scored three at palace and haven't scored a single goal away from home since!

 

[goldstone]

Didn't Middlesborough get relegated because they drew too many games? I'm beginning to be concerned. We DEFINITELY need a striker in the transfer window.

 

[Marshy]

Nope not worried. Points keep coming.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Yes it's disappointing not to be picking up wins at home.
The 4pts dropped from Palace and Stoke have put a dent in our otherwise excellent start.

I suspect this has more to do with the fact that teams are aware that we aren't the easy three points we were billed as at the start of the season.
Teams are coming for a point and this is exposing our lack of options up front.

I'd be interested to see what would happen with Baldock back in the side. Although I can't see that happening for quite a while.

 

[Silverhatch]

We may have the ingredients. We might need a new recipe - especially at home. Surely at some stage we have to try Propper further up the pitch. He has wonderful touch, like Gross but he's quicker and much better in the air. He's also played (very successfully - for only two games admittedly) the no.10 role off Janssen for Holland. I'd swap those two around or get Kayal in and give Pascal a much-deserved rest.

 

[oldboyroy]

we have competed against the best and shown we can hold our own we just need that cutting edge up front and hopefully get that striker once December is out the way

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

A little bit but our away form has been better than I expected so it does balance it out.

4 points from home games against Palace, Stoke, Southampton and Everton is the only disappointment of the season so far on paper. However, the Everton game apart we didn't play particularly well in those games, draws were fair results and at least we didn't lose them. The Everton game is the only one that frustrates me as they really are terrible and we should have won that.

 

[A1X]

We're proving hard to beat, we just can't convert enough of the chances created. The lack of a striker in the summer is starting to cost us now, we've got away with it to this point.

 

[Nixonator]

We need something at Hudds, at least a point if not a win to keep the pressure off. Turning into a very important game.

 

[FatSuperman]

I think home vs Palace is a very difficult game to judge us on. That was always going to be a very stressful game for the players, desperate not to lose more than anything else. It'll be the toughest game we have this season, mentally. They may be bottom but they aren't shit, their performances have been way better than their results so it was bound to start turning around soon enough. A bit of unity and they are looking much better. Hope they've left it too late.

Ask hope we smash them at SP.

 

[Petee]

Slightly concerned but the wins away at West Ham and Swansea have helped. If we didn't win those then it would be a big concern.

The frustrating bit is the games were all there for the taking and we didn't take them.

 

[jimhigham]

Didn't Middlesborough get relegated because they drew too many games? I'm beginning to be concerned. We DEFINITELY need a striker in the transfer window.

I'm inclined to agree with this. Being in the top half of the table is nice enough but things are so condensed at the bottom of the table that we are not actually that much better of in terms of points than those in the drop zone. It wouldn't take much of a bad run to find ourselves in trouble. That said, when we failed to land a striker in the last transfer window a lot of us said we would struggle to stay competitive until it reopened again in January. We have achieved that and really given ourselves a good platform for when the time comes to go shopping again.

And it's an odd thing but I feel we might give Liverpool a run for their money.

 

[Renegade]

Maybe we are just a good away side as we seem to be playing better away.

 

[RandyWanger]

Yes. We need to do better and we should be beating teams like Palace.

 

[brianwade]

We are too defensive - full stop. I'd rather have won two at home and lost two than drawn 4 . Unlucky against Everton maybe but the other three draws were draws . Time to take the fight to the oposition

4pts from 12 at home is relegation form .

Stevens and Propper have to get into the box more

 

[SUIYHP]

Kind of getting that same feeling about 2015/16, we're not getting beaten easily but we arent winning matches we want to win which could bite us on the arse if we aren't careful. Even if we do survive this season the second will be much harder if we lose some of our key players in the transfer window (Dunk, March and Groß being amongst those who have garnered interest from other clubs) and we've been found wanting of depth.

 

[Taybha]

Nope , if you had offered me 17 points at this stage of the season i would of been very happy , i thought we would be around the 12 mark looking at the games we had , saying that i do think we are creating more and more chances that we really do need to put away , this will be addressed in january .

 

[GT49er]

Yes, I'm worried. We all knew that survival would be likely to depend on beating the teams around us - and we haven't. I'm not saying we should be beating teams like x, y and z, but realistically we should have been looking for a couple of wins from those last four home matches. I'm not saying which of the four we should have won - perm any two from gfour, I guess.

What is more worrying is that we've only got twelve home games left. Five of those are against the 'big six', and three more are against teams currently above us. That just leaves home matches against Swansea, Wet Sham, Udders and B'muff as matches we 'should win'. Although we're in a good position now, we need to kick on - remember, our final run n is pretty daunting.

 

[studio150]

I said this last night. Our home form is going to cost us if we are not careful. Ok we have won two away games at teams below us, however, only drawing against stoke and Southampton, and against the team bottom of the league is not good enough.

This is very tight now with palace one win from being out the bottom 3. Looking at the next few games, we have Liverpool, Burnley, Watford as home games, all of which have decent away records. I am not expecting anything from Liverpool, but would hope to win one of the other two...if we don't, the away games at town and Chelsea look like games we need to get something out of.

What really concerned me yesterday is how we played against a poor side in this division( a bit like stoke) ..we seemed happy to **** about in midfield with no outlet up front. They sussed our game within 2 minutes and pushed up forcing is backwards time and time again...this was not Man City, this was palace! The Colombian is not worth 13 million...solly is a better player than him and knocky blows hot and cold. Murray struggled against a decent centre back and gave the ball away too much. What really showed was that , although they were shite, the palace forwards broke as a unit...zaha, Townsend, etc all dashing up field when the break was on.....we preferred to let them get organised and then try to break them down, which we couldn't. Did the goalie have any saves to make apart from 1 shot that Stephens blazed the rebound wide? Example was near the end, attacking,..solly passed it back to stutter for him to cross...he sat in it, passed it back, then to dunk...then to duffy....palace reorganised...it ended up back at the Aussie.

I am not bedwetting, but we really do need to show more intense attacking play if we are going to get goals. I can't see where one is coming from at the moment with this slow slow quick slow buildup hughton seems to prefer.

Bloody horrible night last night!

I think you are reading too much into the Palace game.

It was clear from very early on that both sides would be happy with 0-0 and were not prepared to really go for it, and were happy to keep their shape to ensure that they weren't exposed to a fast counterattack.

One mans **** about in midfield is another mans intelligent play in ensuring retention of the ball and not just hoofing the ball long to turn the ball over and defending for far more than is necessary.

The good thing about league forward is that the table is formed by results from both home and away games, and we currently sit 10th (although will probably drop slightly after tonights games). We are still 8 points (9 with goal difference) above Palace.

Yes you can look at a home record of 2-4-1 as one that could be improved upon. However the time to judge is at the end of the season.

At this time I can't see CH throwing caution to the wind even at home, and will still be prepared to accept draws rather than trade wins for losses.

A draw at home, still puts less pressure onto the team going into an away game, than a lose at home does.

You have to stay up beat, we have come from behind to draw (Southampton and Stoke), and the home form is not like some of the Withdean years when going a goal down you knew that was game over and another home defeat.

I'm not concerned given that we were never going to go through the season winning 75% of our home games.

 

[Dave the OAP]

I think you are reading too much into the Palace game.

It was clear from very early on that both sides would be happy with 0-0 and were not prepared to really go for it, and were happy to keep their shape to ensure that they weren't exposed to a fast counterattack.

One mans **** about in midfield is another mans intelligent play in ensuring retention of the ball and not just hoofing the ball long to turn the ball over and defending for far more than is necessary.

The good thing about league forward is that the table is formed by results from both home and away games, and we currently sit 10th (although will probably drop slightly after tonights games). We are still 8 points (9 with goal difference) above Palace.

Yes you can look at a home record of 2-4-1 as one that could be improved upon. However the time to judge is at the end of the season.

At this time I can't see CH throwing caution to the wind even at home, and will still be prepared to accept draws rather than trade wins for losses.

A draw at home, still puts less pressure onto the team going into an away game, than a lose at home does.

You have to stay up beat, we have come from behind to draw (Southampton and Stoke), and the home form is not like some of the Withdean years when going a goal down you knew that was game over and another home defeat.

I'm not concerned given that we were never going to go through the season winning 75% of our home games.

good for you. personally I am worried, but hey...who give a toss