[Albion] Investment Required for Further Progress

[Not Andy Naylor]

We also missed out on Rhian Brewster who was available for £24m.

And who has looked completely out of his depth so far at Sheffield United. Watkins was also a prospect rather than a proven striker, and apart from one game against Aston Villa, I think the jury is still out. Welbeck was probably as good as we were ever going to get without going up a level to £30m plus.

It's all a gamble, though, isn't it? Which of us would ever expected serial flop Bamford to have suddenly become a star Premier League-level striker? He failed everywhere at this level before this season.

 

[pb21]

IMO Welbeck is a top striker, if he stays fit he will score goals, provided he has opportunity to do so.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

IMO Welbeck is a top striker, if he stays fit he will score goals, provided he has opportunity to do so.

Maupay got more goals last season than Welbeck has ever scored at this level. He's never hit double figures in the Premier League.

He's a good player but not a regular scorer

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[Live by the sea]

The big problem is that a proven premier league striker , one that can score 15 plus goals per season is very hard to get and if we could get would cost at least £50 million and be on wages of £100k plus a week.

That’s out of our league so we have to try other options . Southampton will find replacing Danny Ings very difficult to do in a few years .

We were very unlucky with the penalty but probably didn’t do enough to win the game .

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I would like us to spend somewhere in the region of £25/30m as that seems to be the going rate for a top striker. We were clearly willing to do that on Nunez but he chose to go elsewhere. That’s for enough so who else is on the scouting teams radar in that bracket. Had we really only identified one target.

There are players on the books we could sell to fund most of that fee if required without seriously damaging the first team squad, Davy Propper being one. In hindsight maybe we should have also sold one of our multiple centre half’s to fund the deal.

In terms of wages they should be near the top of the salary bracket we have, you pay for what you get.

In 11 league games out strikers have 6 league goals between them. That’s what will see us relegated. You can only get away with doing it on the cheap for so long and if we chose to do that fine but let’s not blame Potter as we haven’t given him the tools for the job.

Could 'of' had Callum Wilson or Ollie Watkins this past transfer window and still had change from £30M. Each would have been a sound investment. And, yes, wages probably WOULD be a problem, in that their agent might press for all they and their client can get. That's the name of the EPL game the club signed up for, like it or loathe it

 

[Guinness Boy]

Specialist DM required.
Leaving Bissouma to rampage, White as a CB.

An upgrade on Ryan.

I don’t think we require big investment. The margins are small.

This. Shoving White into midfield just so he can play makes very little sense. Ryan is part of the reason we can't defend set pieces. If we have a couple of players keeping the goals against down to where they should be based on xGa and Bissouma making chances then Welbeck and Maupay should be capable of putting them away.

Our only attacking creative plan at the moment appears to be Lamptey so teams are just shutting him down. With a bit of steel at the back and a completely different creative option we'd be turning these performances into points.

 

[maltaseagull]

Yeah, I think I'm there too with Ryan. There was a moment quite late in the second half when Mccarthy came and claimed a corner fairly far from his line when we had them under pressure and it was an important moment. Ryan can't do that so I'm not criticising him, but it is the next step for us, more than another striker imo

I thought exactly the same at that point.

 

[Danny Wilson Said]

Could 'of' had Callum Wilson or Ollie Watkins this past transfer window and still had change from £30M. Each would have been a sound investment. And, yes, wages probably WOULD be a problem, in that their agent might press for all they and their client can get. That's the name of the EPL game the club signed up for, like it or loathe it

But would either of them have scored goals in our team?

 

[Justice]

Our limited spending in the summer really predicted how this season would pan out.

 

[southstandandy]

With huge losses due to be announced, to see us spending upwards of £20m on a striker I'll just put down to the Santa is real, the earth is flat, and Elvis is alive theories.

More chance of Kevin Bremner making a comeback than us spending anything in January I'm afraid.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Maupay got more goals last season than Welbeck has ever scored at this level. He's never hit double figures in the Premier League.

He's a good player but not a regular scorer

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Yeah true.

The search for the elusive 20 goal a season striker goes on.... and on....and on....

In truth what I want to see is a partnership like Murray/Baldock (only better).
I'm hoping Maupay Welbeck could be it.

 

[Reddleman]

With huge losses due to be announced, to see us spending upwards of £20m on a striker I'll just put down to the Santa is real, the earth is flat, and Elvis is alive theories.

More chance of Kevin Bremner making a comeback than us spending anything in January I'm afraid.

Which is okay and understandable from Tony Blooms perspective. I think we can all understand the rationale but we then need to temper our expectations of what we can achieve this season and we need to give the manager more leeway. We haven’t given him the tools he needs for the job and he is doing the best he can with what he has got.

 

[Badger Boy]

No. No excuses, the squad is big enough and talented enough and cost enough to be doing far better than we are. There is no excuse for Potter not being able to get more out of this team.

 

[Icy Gull]

No. No excuses, the squad is big enough and talented enough and cost enough to be doing far better than we are. There is no excuse for Potter not being able to get more out of this team.

Hard to argue after the second half capitulation last night. GP has done wonders with the style he now needs to work out how to get the passion back into the players over 90 mins. We have been outfought by WBA and Saints in two very poor second halves and Potter’s motivational skills at half time are in question imo

 

[KZNSeagull]

Before splashing even more large amounts of cash, if I were TB I would want to see Ali J given a decent run in the team. He knows where the goal is. He may not turn out to be the answer, but at least give him a chance.

 

[Justice]

No. No excuses, the squad is big enough and talented enough and cost enough to be doing far better than we are. There is no excuse for Potter not being able to get more out of this team.

Welbeck (my Jack Russell has a far superior first touch) Maupay who seems pissed of all the time and can’t hit a barn door these days, Connolly not good enough at this level. Hardly bags of talent.

 

[Reddleman]

No. No excuses, the squad is big enough and talented enough and cost enough to be doing far better than we are. There is no excuse for Potter not being able to get more out of this team.

That’s just simply not true though is it. We haven’t spent hardly any money on a decent premier league striker. Potters coaching had turned us into a team that create loads of chances but we can’t take them. That’s not a coaching issue it’s what comes of not investing in a decent striker.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Hard to argue after the second half capitulation last night. GP has done wonders with the style he now needs to work out how to get the passion back into the players over 90 mins. We have been outfought by WBA and Saints in two very poor second halves and Potter’s motivational skills at half time are in question imo

Looked very much like the Saints team came out in the second half with far more attacking intent, far more fire in their bellies. Can't imagine Potter being capable of inspiring much passion in his half-time talk, unless he delegates that stuff to Billy Reid. Face it, Potter And Passion are like Chalk And Cheese. Group Hug anyone?

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

For me the missing piece of the puzzle in relation to turning performances into results is our willingness to invest in a top striker.

I fully accept that during a pandemic Tony Bloom May judge that is not prudent to make that investment and I fully trust his judgement but until we can make that investment we will not significantly move forward. We should also stop laying so much of the blame on Potter as he hasn’t been given the tools to do the job properly.

Every week we say the same, play well but can’t finish the chances. That is because we have a youngster in Connolly who simply isn’t yet ready to lead the line in PL, Welbeck who has never been prolific and Maupay who is a good player but not a proven PL goal scorer. I’m not even counting the Swiss youngster as he’s nowhere to be seen. For the record I like all of our strikers and wouldn’t want to see them leave but none of them are a proven premier league striker that can guarantee goals.

Until we invest in one who can I expect this pattern to continue.

Disagree. We now have 3 strikers so are in a much better place in that regard than we have been in the past. Some of our best chances are being missed by wing backs, midfielders and center backs. They should be invited to practice converting chances a little more. Simply upping the amount of money we are supposed to spend on strikers every time we lose a game is not the solution.

 

[Badger Boy]

You can all make as many excuses for Potter as you like but he wanted Maupay, we signed him. He wanted Welbeck, we signed him. He has the talent but what he doesn't have is a system which gets the most out of them. He has a system to shoehorn his favourite defenders into the team but to hell with everyone else. If he really wanted us to score more goals he'd drop a defender or two and play a system which would allow our expensive attacking players to be more creative, score more goals and win more games.

This squad with a better manager would be doing a LOT better. Argue about it amongst yourselves if you want but it's true. He's underperforming and his miserable press conferences are not hiding it. More and more people are starting to notice.