[Albion] How good are we really ?

[Neville's Breakfast]

If so then why have you voted “Potter out” then?

Snide comment of the day

 

[Bry Nylon]

We're okay.

Let's not get carried away by beating Southampton and Newcastle - two of the shittest teams in the league. Everybody beats them at the moment.

Sterner tests lie ahead.

 

[CheeseRolls]

We are a team in transition and trending towards something really good.

We have played the season with a large number of inexperienced players at this level and we have a squad which is not quite balanced. The net result has been a stop start season, whilst we have had to change formations and styles to deal with key injuries

If we were to play this season again, I believe we would do better, based on the experienced gained. I think what is needed in the summer is a couple of tweaks, rather than wholesale changes (there are a few to move on though) and remain optimistic this team is heading in the right direction.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Can't be arsed to look at old tables and final goal difference but looking at the current one I reckon swap us for Palace and the table would be roughly in line with GD and look about right to me.

 

[Icy Gull]

Palace/Villa I would of been disappointed if Sanchez hadn’t made the same saves nothing spectacular really. As Maupay said they have generally played well for 45 minutes in a lot of games and that’s probably the crux of the league position.

Nothing to do with Sanchez, you said the Villa and Palace keepers weren’t worked. The Villa keeper was MOTM

I have no idea why I’m bothering, you don’t like Potter and give him zero credit. I’ll step away now but I think you, like a few on here, are incapable of admitting that you may be wrong, even though the evidence suggests that you may be..imo

 

[vagabond]

Yes, I’ll go with that. Looking at the games we’ve lost, there haven’t been many where we’ve been comfortably beaten (Leicester, Everton, Chelsea) and there haven’t been many where I thought we’ve been fortunate to win or draw. Undoubtedly we could and should be higher in the league and the main reason why we’re not is ( as many others have pointed out ad nauseam) poor finishing. I’d worry a lot more if we had failed to create chances.

[emoji106] A combination of poor finishing, lapses in concentration in the final minutes and outrageous refereeing/VAR.

We’re the draw specialists in the league, and arguably dominated nearly all of those draws. Really not inconceivable that if we changed some of those draws to wins we could be sitting quite pretty in the league.

With this set up, this owner and this manager, I truly believe we’re on the verge of something quite special. In the here and now of course, we have work to do and stay up.

 

[Blue3]

Goal difference says we should be a lot higher up the table above Palace around where Leeds currently sit, we have had a lot of bad luck in front of goal and it's taken GP almost 3/4 of the season to find a front line that works

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

If so then why have you voted “Potter out” then?

Are you really going back and looking up what people voted ? Aye Carumba.

 

[Reddleman]

I would beg to differ I don’t really think we worked the Palace or Villa keeper despite having 80 attempts or whatever it was.

What? Seriously What? The Villa keeper got MOTM and was absolutely outstanding making a number of excellent saves. That’s just a ridiculous comment.

 

[Hugo Rune]

I think we should expect a push for top 10 provided Potter is backed in the transfer window. This is even on assumption that we cash in on Biss (four internationals queuing up to replace him) and White (Webster & Veltman are equally effective in his position of RCB).

The £100m+ we’re likely to pull in on the two aforementioned players should halt the loses and give us a bit to spend on a striker and left back. I think we’ll also sell another half dozen including Locadia, Andone, Izquierdo (release?), Bernardo & possibly Davy P.

If we get the right striker and he hits a vein of form, we’ll be comfortably top 10, probably pushing on the top 6. Only bad luck can stop us now.

 

[Reddleman]

I can’t think of more than a couple of games where we definitely got more points than we felt was deserved.

I can think of at least 10 (if not a lot more actually) where we got less than we deserved. And before people start saying poor finishing doesn’t deserve more, some of that has also been down to VAR decisions depriving us.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

We are a team in transition and trending towards something really good.

We have played the season with a large number of inexperienced players at this level and we have a squad which is not quite balanced. The net result has been a stop start season, whilst we have had to change formations and styles to deal with key injuries

If we were to play this season again, I believe we would do better, based on the experienced gained. I think what is needed in the summer is a couple of tweaks, rather than wholesale changes (there are a few to move on though) and remain optimistic this team is heading in the right direction.

One man’s tweak is another man’s wholesale change. It’s always difficult to know what the impact of even one new player will be, or the loss of an existing player to injury or transfer - ask Liverpool. Potter seems to have a flexible approach mind you. Exciting times could be ahead.

 

[Frankworthington]

Palace/Villa I would of been disappointed if Sanchez hadn’t made the same saves nothing spectacular really. As Maupay said they have generally played well for 45 minutes in a lot of games and that’s probably the crux of the league position.

Pringles

 

[CaptainDaveUK]

Feels like we’re not that far off from being a top ten team. UTA.

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

We're Fu**ing Brilliant!!!

 

[Machiavelli]

Swansman made very good point on another thread that the issue is not just (or perhaps even) absence of 20 goal man (and there are significantly less than one per PL team) but the lack of goals from midfield. Saturday was first occasion this season for 3 different scorers, and probably (tho cant be arsed to go back into history) for a very long time. NSC tends to get obsessed with this striker thing but it aint that simple.

It's not as far back as you/I might have thought: it's just back to the beginning of the year. Wolves 3-3 Brighton (Connolly, Maupay - p, Dunk)

 

[Guinness Boy]

1. The table doesn't lie.
2. If you want to progress up the table it is wins - not draws - you need.
3. Most importantly, to get wins you need clinical finishers who will score that one chance that comes their way.

Do we play more attractive football than Palace? Yes.

Does that make us better than Palace? No.

We have scored more goals than them, we have conceded less goals than them, we have lost fewer games than them BUT - crucially - they have 3 more wins than we do. How can this be? In a nutshell, we've scored 32, missed 35 big chances. Palace have scored 31, missed only 19 big chances.

There is other stuff that we need to improve on, i.e. we concede too many from set pieces, we let too many points slip from winning positions.

However, we are on course to increase our goal tally for the 4th successive season AND decrease goals conceded for the 2nd successive season.

So, in summary, we are a club that is improving, and is getting more things right than we are getting wrong. It would be nice to reach 42 points / 14th or higher and have something tangible to show for our work.

This is exactly where I am. Hopefully 2020 was the last calendar year where we win one single home game as things appear to be on the up. The set piece defending has become much better with Sanchez in goal. The game management will get a proper test against better sides than Newcastle. The finishing? It may improve with *new* strikers but we certainly won't be paying £40 mill for a striker, nor does that guarantee anything at all (c.f. Joelinton) so they will be *other* similar strikers. And lose Maupay and you lose an awful lot of the movement that creates the chances in the first place.

I'm much more positive than I was in December but (sorry [MENTION=5306]Questions[/MENTION] ) league tables do not lie. That still means we have a chance for a best place and points finish, we quite possibly should be higher than that but we are six points away from the merde for all the reasons highlighted in the quoted post.

 

[vagabond]

Are you really going back and looking up what people voted ? Aye Carumba.

Well only 10 voted out! No offence intended to the lad, just genuinely curious as I largely agreed with his positive OP so was a bit shocked.

 

[vagabond]

I think we should expect a push for top 10 provided Potter is backed in the transfer window. This is even on assumption that we cash in on Biss (four internationals queuing up to replace him) and White (Webster & Veltman are equally effective in his position of RCB).

The £100m+ we’re likely to pull in on the two aforementioned players should halt the loses and give us a bit to spend on a striker and left back. I think we’ll also sell another half dozen including Locadia, Andone, Izquierdo (release?), Bernardo & possibly Davy P.

If we get the right striker and he hits a vein of form, we’ll be comfortably top 10, probably pushing on the top 6. Only bad luck can stop us now.

I just hope we can find this elusive striker. Because aside from this position I think most of us agree our club have recruited very well. So it must say something if they’ve not been able to bring a striker in.

Nunez is the smoking gun that proves we’re willing to spend serious coin if the right player comes available. And given AC Milan are now rumoured to be buying him for £40 odd million shows we are spotting good talent.

Here’s hoping we land our striker next time.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Many on here are getting carried away by two wins against a Saints side in freefall since their 9-0 drubbing and Newcastle side in total meltdown.

The table shows that we are a below average Premier League side when it comes to results. There is potential for us to be better but ultimately points make prizes and we are not making any great strides towards improving that since we have been in the top division. That is not a comment on either CH or GPs management - it is a matter of fact.

I really hope that we can kick on next season and get more wins but something will have to change to make that happen.