[Albion] Is Mr Potter, Chris Hughton II...

[Stat Brother]

Can’t believe you got a thumbs up on a BHA message board for that

The more astute would have noticed the title ISN'T:-

Is Mr Potter JUST Chris Hughton II.

Being Hughton II is far from a criticism and says considerably more about the club's top table than it does whomever is the manager in question.

Sadly all that got lost in the tantrums, misrepresentation, hissfits and swooning to the floor.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Olympic finalist maybe? Cucurella?

I’m guessing there isn’t one, hence I never received a reply.

 

[Stat Brother]

I’m guessing there isn’t one, hence I never received a reply.

I did give you a for spotting my error.
Had I replied you just would have looked for all the other ones!

I accidentally elevated Veltman.



One thing though as and when somebody clumsily tries a 'Forgotten they played for the Albion' thread.
If I remember (doubtful) Im going straight in with Montoya.

 

[The Fits]

I’m guessing there isn’t one, hence I never received a reply.

Don’t know if it’s been mentioned above- Ajax got into the UEFA cup final and Veltman played and then they had that excellent run in the Champions League. I’m assuming the poster means Veltman but he definitely never played in a CL final.

Edit....just read the post above me. Must read threads better!

 

[rippleman]

I think we look better, play better and are more successful (although I admit to not checking the stats) when we play three at the back and utilise our speedy wing-backs.

We no longer have White or BDB so all it took was the injury to Webster and we don't have the quality resources. Was Potter happy to offload White & Burn without getting a quality replacement?

Did Potter request / sanction recruiting the two long term sicknotes on huge wages (who are taking up squad spaces that could have been used to bring through youngsters)?

If these were Potter initiatives then I think we need to look at his decision making processes. If they were foisted on him from on high then we can't consider sacking the fella as the errors we have made can't be laid at his door.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I suppose we're finding out what Potter is. A capable, but limited manager at this level. He has managed to get more than Hughton did, albeit with far better players.

On the up ledger for Potter, he has bought through some young players, made them better and got them knocking it about very very nicely at some times

I have three main criticisms though

1) His sarcy comments about history lessons were a very bad idea. Talk about making yourself a hostage to fortune
2) For a manager who's built his reputation on tactical flexibility, he doesn't half stick to formations and strategies which are manifestly failing
3) The lack of goals and wins at home over a long period of time is really testing the fans patience, there is a sense that many are drifting away

 

[Bold Seagull]

I suppose we're finding out what Potter is. A capable, but limited manager at this level. He has managed to get more than Hughton did, albeit with far better players.

On the up ledger for Potter, he has bought through some young players, made them better and got them knocking it about very very nicely at some times

I have three main criticisms though

1) His sarcy comments about history lessons were a very bad idea. Talk about making yourself a hostage to fortune
2) For a manager who's built his reputation on tactical flexibility, he doesn't half stick to formations and strategies which are manifestly failing
3) The lack of goals and wins at home over a long period of time is really testing the fans patience, there is a sense that many are drifting away

We have no idea whether he is a limited manager at this level or whether what the club is doing to the squad limits him. He plays attacking football and needs a really good functioning back like. We've sold White and Burn consecutively without replacing them.

What are you watching if you cannot see our tactical flexibility? Even Saturday you could see the changes being made during the game. Or maybe not...

Are they drifting away? A cost of living crisis, price rises, interest rate rises, and we still have nearly 22k fans renewing their STs. Capacity is as big as it's been, ticket exchange has been opening and only opens when we've sold out.

 

[JBizzle]

I suppose we're finding out what Potter is. A capable, but limited manager at this level. He has managed to get more than Hughton did, albeit with far better players.

On the up ledger for Potter, he has bought through some young players, made them better and got them knocking it about very very nicely at some times

I have three main criticisms though

1) His sarcy comments about history lessons were a very bad idea. Talk about making yourself a hostage to fortune - He isn't wrong though is he? Fan expectations in some very vocal quarters back that up a fair bit
2) For a manager who's built his reputation on tactical flexibility, he doesn't half stick to formations and strategies which are manifestly failing - To my count, he changed tactics at least 5 times on Saturday alone. 3-5-2, 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 3-4-3 and 4-2-3-1.
3) The lack of goals and wins at home over a long period of time is really testing the fans patience, there is a sense that many are drifting away - Agree on this one, but it's been there for all to see that we need a striker who can score goals. Maupay does well, but he can't do much when Trossard gives up after 40 mins, Mac Allister drops deeper and deeper to get the ball because Bissouma has suddenly decided that running isn't his thing

Ultimately, he's limited by his squad and budget. We'll see how good he is when he leaves and a) does at a club with a different budget and b) how we do afterwards.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Ultimately, he's limited by his squad and budget. We'll see how good he is when he leaves and a) does at a club with a different budget and b) how we do afterwards.

Not too many manager's aren't

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

We have no idea whether he is a limited manager at this level or whether what the club is doing to the squad limits him. He plays attacking football and needs a really good functioning back like. We've sold White and Burn consecutively without replacing them.

What are you watching if you cannot see our tactical flexibility? Even Saturday you could see the changes being made during the game. Or maybe not...

Are they drifting away? A cost of living crisis, price rises, interest rate rises, and we still have nearly 22k fans renewing their STs. Capacity is as big as it's been, ticket exchange has been opening and only opens when we've sold out.

Making a sub or changing from 4 at the back to another formation isn't flexibility. Any idiot can do that. It's about being honest about what you've put in place which isn't working (like the speed of our build up play for example) and finding an alternative strategy. If in a team, the same players are continually struggling to solve the same problem and every fan and every pundit are pretty uniformly able to identify the problem, you're probably not a manager with great tactical flexibility.

I'm not saying he's a bad manager, I just don't think his reputation is accurate.

 

[JBizzle]

Not too many manager's aren't

That's my point. The sign of a decent manager at this level is whether they make their squad more than the sum of their parts and on balance, I think Potter does. He's not been helped by the "top 10 aspiration" because I don't think we have the budget to back that up.

The bigger concern for me is that Sanchez appears to have lost his mind recently and key players like Bissouma and Trossard generally look completely bored. Sorting out the problems in their heads will be the real challenge over the next couple of weeks.

 

[Swansman]

Making a sub or changing from 4 at the back to another formation isn't flexibility. Any idiot can do that. It's about being honest about what you've put in place which isn't working (like the speed of our build up play for example) and finding an alternative strategy. If in a team, the same players are continually struggling to solve the same problem and every fan and every pundit are pretty uniformly able to identify the problem, you're probably not a manager with great tactical flexibility.

I'm not saying he's a bad manager, I just don't think his reputation is accurate.

First.. I think Brighton is one of the more tactically flexible teams in the league. There's been lots of occasions when pretty much the entire playing style has been swapped for something else. For instance most times DW is playing, the team plays a lot more direct (which has both advantages and disadvantages). Sometimes the intention is clearly to play through the wings and other times the plan seems to be to combine centrally.

But ultimately there is not too much options to do the really wild stuff (like when BDB played almost as a left winger against Liverpool last season and they really struggled with just ignoring their pressure and make the game an aerial battle between BDB and TAA).

There is 18 outfield players (and this includes Evan Ferguson) in the squad with any PL experience. Some player types are missing, in some other roles there's no decent options. If Leandro Trossard has a bad day or if you want two Leandro Trossard on the pitch... too bad, there is no option. Want a strong target player up top? Doesnt exist. Welbeck is doing a good impression of it sometimes but he is better without the ball than with it. Ferguson is not ready and appears to be more of a poacher.

Want a pacy central defender to deal with counter attacks? One year ago there was three - BDB, White and Webster. None of them are available. Veltman, Duffy and Dunk are all good defenders, but slow ones. Trying Cucurella in the role has not been too succesful most of the times.

If you want to see Brighton be less predictable and more varied, you have to give GP/CH/Steve Bruce/your mum/whoever coaching more options. Dont need gigantic squad like (at times) last year but two-three players with a different set of abilities would change a lot.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Making a sub or changing from 4 at the back to another formation isn't flexibility. Any idiot can do that. It's about being honest about what you've put in place which isn't working (like the speed of our build up play for example) and finding an alternative strategy. If in a team, the same players are continually struggling to solve the same problem and every fan and every pundit are pretty uniformly able to identify the problem, you're probably not a manager with great tactical flexibility.

I'm not saying he's a bad manager, I just don't think his reputation is accurate.

This uniformly able to identify the problem - I would say is as you've said 'the same players', and that statement could well be aimed at the club rather than the manager. At the end of the day, we've known this attack lacks goals for the last 3 seasons, and we've bought in very little to address that. You've obviously not seen any flexibility other than formations, but we've tried different approaches in different games and within games, however some of those rely on the personnel. A prime example is Webster being able to bring the ball out well into the oppositions half to start attacks, another is the longer diagonal ball, as well as the familiar drawing the opposition out. When attacking at pace, it relies on quality of touch and move from your attackers, so often our switch to a quick attack breaks down because Maupay just gives it away, or it rolls out of touch, so we build again. Honestly, if you can't see the flexibility then I'm not going to be able to change your mind in an NSC post. What I will end on is that you can only coach / take players so far to their limitations. I'd say one or two players have been pushing theirs for a while. I think Shearer summed it up fairly well on MotD, the positions these players were in was excellent, the support they had, the turning around of the opposition, everything you could want tactically and coaching wise to get them to where they needed to be, but crucially it's then having to rely on the players to show that next level of quality when it matters. If you could just coach any old player to play the right final ball or score, why would we even have high transfer fees and salaries?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

That's my point. The sign of a decent manager at this level is whether they make their squad more than the sum of their parts and on balance, I think Potter does. He's not been helped by the "top 10 aspiration" because I don't think we have the budget to back that up.

The bigger concern for me is that Sanchez appears to have lost his mind recently and key players like Bissouma and Trossard generally look completely bored. Sorting out the problems in their heads will be the real challenge over the next couple of weeks.

A bit of second season syndrome. He'll come good, though he should be dropped, as should any player not performing. Not great that we don't have a back up the manager trusts to play in the PL

 

[Bold Seagull]

That's my point. The sign of a decent manager at this level is whether they make their squad more than the sum of their parts and on balance, I think Potter does. He's not been helped by the "top 10 aspiration" because I don't think we have the budget to back that up.

The bigger concern for me is that Sanchez appears to have lost his mind recently and key players like Bissouma and Trossard generally look completely bored. Sorting out the problems in their heads will be the real challenge over the next couple of weeks.

Exactly, for everyone outside our fanbase, or maybe just NSC, Brighton staying an entire season above 14th or so, the majority of it in the top half, would be seen as a huge success. As it is we've reached that classic PL point when the reality of this league really starts to bite. That it's tough. Look at Southampton, one minute on a roll, next minute consecutive home defeats to Watford and Newcastle, after a drubbing at Villa.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

No. Right now Brighton is a development side, developing talents for our future in every way. Doing that whilst being comfortably mid table is a heck of an achievement, and Hughton didn't show signs that he could do that. Instead CH had a team of battle hardened experienced pros that kept us up for a couple of seasons, but they're was always the worry about what would happen when they were past their prime.

The Brighton right now is a totally different beast to the Brighton under Hughton, one that has many more opportunities for future improvement and upwards trajectories, and we should recognise that

 

[Milano]

No. Right now Brighton is a development side, developing talents for our future in every way. Doing that whilst being comfortably mid table is a heck of an achievement, and Hughton didn't show signs that he could do that. Instead CH had a team of battle hardened experienced pros that kept us up for a couple of seasons, but they're was always the worry about what would happen when they were past their prime.

The Brighton right now is a totally different beast to the Brighton under Hughton, one that has many more opportunities for future improvement and upwards trajectories, and we should recognise that

I agree with this. My concern though is that it will never all come together at the same time.
First half of this season we had Bissouma looking like the £60m player I think he could become. Trossard looking like he could slot into a CL side. The back line settled with 2 top 10 full backs. The midfield fluid and dynamic. What was (still) missing was a true EPL level striker. My concern is that if/when we find one it will coincide with one or all of Bissouma, Trossard, Lamptey, Cucu, no longer being at the club and those positions become the new problem.

Huge opportunity missed this season.

 

[JBizzle]

A bit of second season syndrome. He'll come good, though he should be dropped, as should any player not performing. Not great that we don't have a back up the manager trusts to play in the PL

Yeah I agree. He's a super keeper in a horrible rut. The lack of a settled defence hasn't helped either

 

[The red pepper kid]

id like to moan, we have lost momentum lately, however i think we will get a few more points this season. Another few years we might become genuine top 10 contenders - currently dont think we have the budget

 

[Dibdab]

Got to be honest I'd like us to get the one win we need to ensure safety pretty quick and then get lots of our future stars on the pitch alot more. Let's see what Ferguson, Caceido, and Sarmiento can actually do over a decent run of games and get them ready for next season. They literally cant do much worse than some of our so called stars on current form.