[Albion] Is the equation as simple as, no striker in before the end of the transfer window = Down

[Icy Gull]

12-1 a couple of games ago.

How much did you get on for?

 

[SeagullCrow]

Owen suggesting this morning that we're in for a 'quiet final week'. Does that mean that we're not going to get there striker we all yearn for?

https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/18186393.albion-see-sub--5m-aaron-mooy-shrewd-business/

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Some people think that Liverpool are where they are just because they’ve got good players. Not true - they are good but work harder than any other team in the league. They don’t just play from the back. They mix it up. I am hopeful that Potter will see the error of his ways in being too predictable and believe, if he does, and the players put double shifts in, we do have a chance of turning this around.

 

[Zebedee]

I'f we don't invest in one or two strikers in the January transfer window, and we go down, the club will only have themselves to blame. The offensive options that we have in the side at the moment are little short of a joke for a Premier League club.

I often wonder the club's heart is really in the Premier league.

 

[Shooting Star]

Not at all. We all thought this during our first season in the Prem but getting Locadia and Ulloa in the January transfer window didn't impact on our survival one iota.

However, if we lose Murray in the process, I believe that will negatively affect us.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Some people think that Liverpool are where they are just because they’ve got good players. Not true - they are good but work harder than any other team in the league. They don’t just play from the back. They mix it up. I am hopeful that Potter will see the error of his ways in being too predictable and believe, if he does, and the players put double shifts in, we do have a chance of turning this around.

The manager is the key to survival. You are right, we are far too predictable at the moment. Fine playing out short if you are Man City, who have high quality players, who can play decisive and accurate 30-40 passes and in the blink of an eye can switch from defence to attack. We cannot. It is too slow, too predictable and lacks the accuracy demanded. Dunk does a manful job but Webster has a minimum of two critical errors in him every game and we all know that before long, in any game, he is going to pass it straight to the opposition from within his own penalty. As nervous as Bournemouth were on Tuesday, they sensed that once they had seen out our spell of dominance early on, we would make mistakes under a little bit of pressure and we did. Its almost as if our players get lulled into a false sense of security that they can roll the ball about between each other for 30 minutes and the opposition will crumble.
I watched a glorious game between Wolves and Liverpool on Thursday, both teams mixing it up all the time, never afraid to go long when the situation demanded. If Potter has only got one game plan, we are going down. If we can mix and match and try and use the pace of our front men more via quick release from Ryan, we have a chance.
It is clear we need more bite upfront. Midfield and defence have contributed 15 PL goals this season. Strikers ( incl Andone ) have 10. We have a choice. Go for a PL striker out of favour ( e.g Tosun..who is costing Palace nothing at the moment, as Everton have waived both wages and loan fee in lieu of Palace agreeing to Everton's figure for him at the end of the season ) or dip into the Championship for a Watkins, Bowen or Dack. If we get someone in who can get 5-6 goals and Potter is more flexible in tactics we have a real chance of survival. Either way its going to be tight and the next two games are huge.

 

[GREASED WEASEL]

Potter has to evolve as a manager,at the moment he's been sussed

I think he has the makings of a really good manager
he will get better,but time isn't something you get alot of in football these days

 

[portslade seagull]

No new striker will equal relegation. Connolly has lost all confidence, Maupay needs some one alongside him not good enough as a lone striker. Potter does not have one iota of faith in Murray hence his total lack of game time.

 

[Weststander]

The two teams that you mention are willing and able to battle. I am not convinced we have enough muscle or nastiness to do that and it’s a big part of a relegation battle imo. I confess to being concerned at how easily we are bullied and it seems to be happening more often now to the detriment of the great football we played earlier in the season.

Yes, I think we have a decent chance of going down without a new quality forward unless the midfield start chipping in. We have no presence up front so defenders are never in an aerial or physical battle in open play either.

I agree with everything you say.

So frustrating watching very average Mings arrogantly strolling around with little Maupay and Connolly in his pocket, playing at being VVD for the day.

In so many other games this season Villa have conceded goals, Mings has looked shite, mistakes aplenty across their defence.

I’d love TB to do something about this in these final days of the January window. It does NOT mean abandoning footballing principles, just adding a powerful CF with presence.

 

[Weststander]

Yes, because I truly believe we're capable of going on a run and beating anybody barring Liverpool and City.

We’d need 4 or 5 wins amongst those remaining tricky fixtures, a big ask for a relegation candidate squad.

Hopefully 4 or 6 points from West Ham and Watford will ease the pressure, and give us momentum.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

I watched a glorious game between Wolves and Liverpool on Thursday, both teams mixing it up all the time, never afraid to go long when the situation demanded. If Potter has only got one game plan, we are going down. If we can mix and match and try and use the pace of our front men more via quick release from Ryan, we have a chance.

Excuse me? "The pace of our front men"?

Who are you talking about? Apart from Izquierdo, we have an almost embarrassing lack of pace throughout the team.

 

[Machiavelli]

Can you imagine if Maupay got injured?!!

Right now I can only see us finishing above Norwich, maybe Villa. We're so so soft. Too nice for a battle. We're down right now.

What a lift a new forward would be.

Bloom's Moneyball approach does tend to take a big risk with forwards. You're right about Maupay, but the same applied to Murray in the first season (we had a bit more cover last season). Such a risk will only pay off for so long.

 

[Machiavelli]

Excuse me? "The pace of our front men"?

Who are you talking about? Apart from Izquierdo, we have an almost embarrassing lack of pace throughout the team.

How quick do you think Maupay and Connolly are then?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

PL opposition seem to have the key to unlocking our defence sadly. In January alone we've been zapped by Azpilicueta, Richarlison, Callum Wilson and Grealish. Hoping for the best but expecting the worst that the sequence won't be extended by Haller for West Ham and Deeney for Watford. This is where we're losing out. Our front man with the quality to unlock PL defences just isn't there at the moment, despite the valiant and hard graft efforts of the current encumbents. It really is the one area of the pitch where you can't really SKIMP and hope to muddle through at this level.

 

[vagabond]

I don’t think it’s as straightforward as: “No striker in = relegated”.

That’s a bit too simplistic for me. We can still scrape our way to safety without a new striker.

However scoring goals and taking advantage of our possession clearly does seem to be a problem. It does seem reasonable to suggest that we haven’t replaced Andone or Locadia. Glenn is clearly declining, so with Maupay as our only out and out CF we do seem very light In this area.

The cost of relegation is far more than the price of a new striker, surely.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

How quick do you think Maupay and Connolly are then?

Maupay is quite pacey but Connolly isn’t.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I don’t think it’s as straightforward as: “No striker in = relegated”.

That’s a bit too simplistic for me. We can still scrape our way to safety without a new striker.

However scoring goals and taking advantage of our possession clearly does seem to be a problem. It does seem reasonable to suggest that we haven’t replaced Andone or Locadia. Glenn is clearly declining, so with Maupay as our only out and out CF we do seem very light In this area.

The cost of relegation is far more than the price of a new striker, surely.

This. Plus deliberately breaking up the Dunk-Duffy partnership just so that Dan Burn can gallop about all over the field and Webster can do half the job that Duffy could do, just seems to me to be very naive of the manager. It's a perfect storm, sadly

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Southampton = Ings -
Watford - Deeney
Villa will go down
Norwich - Pukki
Bournemouth - can go down
West ham - could go down...


common denominator? - striker.... Us? Maupuy on 6 and .... nothing else.

Therefore - hell yes!!!

How on earth does that maths work?

Ings - 14 goals
Pukki - 11 but probably still going down
Maupay - 7 but according to you we're down
Grealish - 7 but according to you villa are going down
Callum Wilson - 6 Bournemouth could be in trouble
Cantwell - 6 why are Norwich in trouble again?
Haller - 6 West Ham could be in trouble
Deeney - 5 but according to you Watford are safe

Totally muddled thinking

 

[WilburySeagull]

It seems to me that we do have 2 reasonably pacy strikers but what we need is also a pacy midfielder to provide another option. I hope that this could be trossard but not sure. The other approach is to go for a plan b if plan a is not working which would mean finding a Murray type front man and using trossard gross and AJ to get accurate crosses in. The difficulty is that flexibility acts against the benefit of creating a settled team who all know each other. There is clearly merit in using Duffy against Deeney and Burnley but not against more pacy different styles.

 

[junior]

Yes. That simple.