[Albion] Lack of squad depth will cost us

[portslade seagull]

Think this will be one of De Zerbis statements when he meets up with TB and PB in the summer to talk squad improvement

 

[GT49er]

How I saw it. Great chances for Mitoma, Enciso, MacAlister, March - they just capitalised on what really were unforced errors. If and buts BUT they don’t get a lucky goal before HT and it’s a comfortable second half for us with a tense home crowd. Each mistake we made gave them a bit more impetus.

Hard to take after Sunday but I would have picked that team.

Yes - maybe I wouldn't have picked quite that team, but I certainly had no complaints. At some point though, we just needed to put the ball up there quickly for the likes of nippy players like Mitouma, Enciso and Buomanotte to chase (and cause them a bit of panic). Not RDZ's way? Hmmm ........ Don't see what's wrong with a Plan B (even if you don't like it) when Plan A isn't working.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

OK, I'm pleased to announce that we now have a full and fit squad . . . . of NCS members signed up to a suicide pact.

Form an orderly queue over there, somewhere. There....that's lovely. And I'll be over with a bucket of cyanide for you . . . shortly.

 

[GT49er]

I refer again to my OP in the “Team for Forest” which is referenced in the post you quoted. In fact, I humbly invite you to re-read the post you’ve just quoted.

I humbly refer you to the fact that I'm tired now!

 

[Greenbag50]

Players we are missing who we would have hoped to have fit
Mwepu - out forever
Moder - I guess we knew he was out most or all of season
Lamptey - means gross is having to play right back and he is a lovely football but gets caught. Or lamptey could give March a rest
Veltman - was he not fit enough to start?
Lallana - makes us tick
Ferguson - star man these days
Welbeck - not fit enough to start.

We sold Trossard.

We bought a couple of promising youngsters but we simply don’t have the squad to have game changers on the bench and allow rotation.

Despite us being poor by our standards, we were still the better side but gave away two dumb pens and some shocking mistakes.

I don’t think I have seen caicedo and dunk have worse games for us in the premier league. Mitoma was fine for the first half but lost all confidence after his bad miss. Alexis was okay. Enciso looked okay in patches. Colwell looked poor today and if fit Webster should have played because he is more robust.

Oh well. Let’s hope that is the little blip before we come alive and play brilliantly for the rest of the season. Europe is still on (although villa are annoying me now).

At least if we miss out we can all complain about the shocking var calls that did this. (I think both pens were correct calls today although dunk being given and not Maguire the other day stinks).

Perspective. We will need to strengthen though to sustain top 10 next season. Suspect will move on a few; Gilmour, Undav and we have a number of loanees who will be looked at in summer.
We do look a little light when we have injuries. A very fine balancing act the club is charting.

 

[trueblue]

True although a lot of it can be masked but having no striker readily fit killed us tonight. We could not hold anything upfront and it meant our midfield got swarmed constantly. Julio offered very little

Enciso looks a fantastic prospect to me.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Not completely sure if it was tiredness or simply not being very good that cost us tonight

 

[Greenbag50]

Think this will be one of De Zerbis statements when he meets up with TB and PB in the summer to talk squad improvement

Suspect they already know

 

[jcdenton08]

Not completely sure if it was tiredness or simply not being very good that cost us tonight

I believe it is the latter caused by the former. Comfortably our worst performance of the season.

 

[GT49er]

OK, I'm pleased to announce that we now have a full and fit squad . . . . of NCS members signed up to a suicide pact.

Form an orderly queue over there, somewhere. There....that's lovely. And I'll be over with a bucket of cyanide for you . . . shortly.

Well .... only if you've tested it first. If it seems OK then, and you can assure us say, a day later, that there were no unwanted side-effects and all that .............

 

[wellquickwoody]

Who is going to pick all these toys up out of everyone’s prams!!??

Haven’t seen any toys chucked out whatsoever.

Seems opinions on football are getting like those in politics, you either completely agree with me or you are an idiot/facist/bedwetter.

Our squad is a little thin when compared to others around us, even more noticeable with injuries to key players. Some of our players are looking tired right now. RDZs choice of starting striker has raised some eyebrows. A European place is looking quite tough now.

But it seems daring to voice concerns like this makes you a Judas. Not so, just a realist who ain’t wearing rose tinted specs. We are having a great season, but we have to want to push onwards. If we aim to stand still we effectively go backwards.

One final thought, what hell was Solly doing almost playing a centre forward role towards the end? He is having a good season, but the shoot on sight policy he or RDZ has chosen is a little optimistic for a one footed player. No, I hold no grudge about the missed penalty, that’s life. But he is not the Messiah, in fact his position is one of those needing an upgrade most urgently. Right winger who cannot cross with right foot

 

[Bold Seagull]

I believe it is the latter caused by the former. Comfortably our worst performance of the season.

I actually thought we were worse than that against them at home. Arsenal we were poor too by did rally a bit toward the end. Despite winning the game we weren’t that much different home to Bournemouth to be honest. Results and performances don’t always correlate. We’ve played like we’ve played tonight and won games, tonight mistakes cost us more than they usually do.

 

[jcdenton08]

I actually thought we were worse than that against them at home. Arsenal we were poor too by did rally a bit toward the end. Despite winning the game we weren’t that much different home to Bournemouth to be honest. Results and performances don’t always correlate. We’ve played like we’ve played tonight and won games, tonight mistakes cost us more than they usually do.

I think our passing was so uncharacteristic. It reminded me of Liverpool on a tired day trying their gegenpress under Klopp with a knackered Milner and Henderson in midfield. Some shocking individual performances from Pervis, Dunk, Caicedo, Groß really hurt the core of the team.

Just one to forget and big, big rotation on Saturday I am sure we are all now agreed.

 

[albionalex]

Squad depth wasn't why we lost tonight.

Unlukcy goal on the stroke of halftime, Mitoma wasting a glorious chance and rare Caciedo + Dunk mistakes.

Fine margins but we could have easily won that tonight.

 

[BN41Albion]

Can’t believe professional football players can’t play a game on Sunday , then on Wednesday,
I suppose they will be tired on Saturday as well
ridiculous

They can. But every game they play they are playing against another set of elite professional sportsmen. It's fine margins. Not being quite as sharp as the opposition physically and or mentally (but still extremely sharp compared to the rest of us mere mortals) can lead to precisely what happened tonight.

 

[Greenbag50]

I actually thought we were worse than that against them at home. Arsenal we were poor too by did rally a bit toward the end. Despite winning the game we weren’t that much different home to Bournemouth to be honest. Results and performances don’t always correlate. We’ve played like we’ve played tonight and won games, tonight mistakes cost us more than they usually do.

Pretty sure that’s the worst we’ve been all season, or close to it. The boys have done brilliantly, need some support.
RDZ obvs doesn’t fancy certain players to fill gaps or provide backup when needed.
Big calls on TB this summer on squad redesign.

 

[Bozza]

I actually thought we were worse than that against them at home. Arsenal we were poor too by did rally a bit toward the end. Despite winning the game we weren’t that much different home to Bournemouth to be honest. Results and performances don’t always correlate. We’ve played like we’ve played tonight and won games, tonight mistakes cost us more than they usually do.

Agreed. We were decent enough for a long period of that game but, as is our way, spurned great chances.

Enciso fired straight at Navas when a foot either side was a goal and Mitoma really should have scored when he only had Navas to beat. To miss the target completely from there is very poor. I also recall a few "If only Mac Allister could bloody shoot" moments - same as most games, really.

They scored from a freak deflection, us being caught in possession and a penalty from a handball.

If you take the penalties out of the equation (they account for 0.8xg each, I believe) then we out-xGed them comprehensively.

 

[phoenix]

Well .... only if you've tested it first. If it seems OK then, and you can assure us say, a day later, that there were no unwanted side-effects and all that .............

Harry did test it and this is what we are left with, he's just not the same anymore. Got to say he's a lot more fun since his cyanide trip

 

[Winker]

Players we are missing who we would have hoped to have fit
Mwepu - out forever
Moder - I guess we knew he was out most or all of season
Lamptey - means gross is having to play right back and he is a lovely football but gets caught. Or lamptey could give March a rest
Veltman - was he not fit enough to start?
Lallana - makes us tick
Ferguson - star man these days
Welbeck - not fit enough to start.

We sold Trossard.

We bought a couple of promising youngsters but we simply don’t have the squad to have game changers on the bench and allow rotation.

Despite us being poor by our standards, we were still the better side but gave away two dumb pens and some shocking mistakes.

I don’t think I have seen caicedo and dunk have worse games for us in the premier league. Mitoma was fine for the first half but lost all confidence after his bad miss. Alexis was okay. Enciso looked okay in patches. Colwell looked poor today and if fit Webster should have played because he is more robust.

Oh well. Let’s hope that is the little blip before we come alive and play brilliantly for the rest of the season. Europe is still on (although villa are annoying me now).

At least if we miss out we can all complain about the shocking var calls that did this. (I think both pens were correct calls today although dunk being given and not Maguire the other day stinks).

Not forgetting Sarmiento, who was looking like a better prospect than Enciso before he was injured.

 

[warmleyseagull]

TBH, I think 8th place may be blessing in disguise given how non top 6 sides seem to struggle in PL when playing in Europe (West Ham are latest, but Burnley and Leicester went backwards too after qualifying for Europe). Gives us a chance to build the squad.