[Albion] Lack of squad quality

[sydney]

Not about quality today, it was all about disgusting, negative tactics. Start of the second half was ridiculous, there was absolutely no intent or aim to go forward and even try to win the game. CH at blame today, tried to be negative and play for 0-0 and got what we deserved for such tactics at home against a team below us in the league.

im not sure you you can blame CH for that woefully inept performance .......the players really need to give themselves a slap.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

I would argue that he definitely isn’t

And you’d be entitled to argue that point.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Our players just seem to constantly give off this mentality of "oh no please don't come and tackle me, I just want to play, stop closing me down, I'd better pass back to the keeper, I wouldn't want to lose the ball".

There is a secret to beating us, and it has nothing to do with playing well.

High energy closing down / get in our faces.

That's all there is to it. You do that against us, you win. End of.

Semi right, but also half wrong. The key isn’t pressing our players en mass. The key, as shown again today, is pressing the best players in our team in packs. What became clear after about 5 minutes was that they had zero intention of pressing Duffy, for example, as they simply didn’t consider him a threat. But they set clear traps for those they did consider a threat and it meant we struggled to get past that first line because Murray isn’t actually that great at holding the ball up and we lack pace in the forward areas to stretch their press.

 

[OzMike]

I think we do have the qualities , but are not given the chance to use them.
The tactics are all wrong and the players may think this too, as they certainly played that way yesterday.
Can’t help giggling when Duffy gets to head in front of goal though, comedy gold.
Not keen on staying up on all-nighters to watch this shit anymore and being like a zombie the next day.

 

[sydney]

I think we do have the qualities , but are not given the chance to use them.
The tactics are all wrong and the players may think this too, as they certainly played that way yesterday.
Can’t help giggling when Duffy gets to head in front of goal though, comedy gold.
Not keen on staying up on all-nighters to watch this shit anymore and being like a zombie the next day.

it's not staying up till 1.00 a.m its the length of time it takes to calm down after watching such utter , pointless , clueless bollocks.

 

[Captain Sensible]

We badly lack a number 10, Bissouma might come good one day but we miss Gross a lot. I still can’t work out why we don’t seem to be able to cross the ball past the fullback. Yet our fullbacks rcseem to allow cross after cross to come into our box. Any free kick or corner is always hit too close to the keeper. We have Murray ffs and no service comes into him at all, we also can’t hit on the counter fast enough. Redmond showed what we lacked today, an attack minded, fast, counter attacking player. Speed and counter attacking is vital when you are a bottom half of the table side. We just weren’t very good at anything today.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Not sure what people expected. This is exactly the experience of lower tier PL clubs.

Average football for 75% of games a chore to watch and lots of rolled eyes and sighs.

Just have to make the most of the 25% of games where that trend is bucked.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I think we do have the qualities , but are not given the chance to use them.
The tactics are all wrong and the players may think this too, as they certainly played that way yesterday.
Can’t help giggling when Duffy gets to head in front of goal though, comedy gold.
Not keen on staying up on all-nighters to watch this shit anymore and being like a zombie the next day.

Have to agree. At least in Perth you're on a better time zone for games than us in the east

 

[Guinness Boy]

The issue I have is every time Murray starts it is bleeding obvious how we are going to play and most opposition get it straight away, sad but true

Can’t help giggling when Duffy gets to head in front of goal though, comedy gold.

We badly lack a number 10, Bissouma might come good one day but we miss Gross a lot. I still can’t work out why we don’t seem to be able to cross the ball past the fullback. Yet our fullbacks rcseem to allow cross after cross to come into our box. Any free kick or corner is always hit too close to the keeper. We have Murray ffs and no service comes into him at all, we also can’t hit on the counter fast enough. Redmond showed what we lacked today, an attack minded, fast, counter attacking player. Speed and counter attacking is vital when you are a bottom half of the table side. We just weren’t very good at anything today.

Without reading the whole thread you three have hit my talking points from the game in these posts on the last page.

Murray is knackered and, frankly, I'm probably faster. Great finisher and club legend but we simply cannot rely on him to lead the line. We need Andone and Locadia to step up a bit for the rest of the season and, in the close season, we need to buy someone similar to Mitrovic. Glenn could still give us a few goals off the bench but father time is not being kind to him.

That said, without Gross in a 4-4-1-1 he is totally isolated. No one played the advance role from midfield yesterday and Ali J and Knocky were too wide.

But what really infuriates me is how Duffy can head the ball out on to a sixpence from his own box but can only put it in row Z, his own toes or the corner flag when attacking

 

[dazzer6666]

Without reading the whole thread you three have hit my talking points from the game in these posts on the last page.

Murray is knackered and, frankly, I'm probably faster. Great finisher and club legend but we simply cannot rely on him to lead the line. We need Andone and Locadia to step up a bit for the rest of the season and, in the close season, we need to buy someone similar to Mitrovic. Glenn could still give us a few goals off the bench but father time is not being kind to him.

That said, without Gross in a 4-4-1-1 he is totally isolated. No one played the advance role from midfield yesterday and Ali J and Knocky were too wide.

But what really infuriates me is how Duffy can head the ball out on to a sixpence from his own box but can only put it in row Z, his own toes or the corner flag when attacking

Said pretty much exactly this yesterday too. Interestingly, saw Hughton at least twice very animatedly what looked clearly like telling the wingers to get narrower...........

 

[southstandandy]

It's very rare for a club of our size to sign top players.

We have the right approach in looking for relatively good players around Europe that bigger clubs might miss.

ALL of our players would walk into top Championship clubs... but yet all of them would struggle to get into other Premier League sides.

All we can do is strengthen our squad every season we are up, which we have been doing.

What - even Ali J?

 

[Guinness Boy]

What - even Ali J?

Ali J looks exactly what he is. An international with a poor to minor country in the grand scheme of things who has been a big fish in a small pond in Holland. Bundles of technique and nice tricks but has neither the pace nor strength for English football.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

But what really infuriates me is how Duffy can head the ball out on to a sixpence from his own box but can only put it in row Z, his own toes or the corner flag when attacking

I'm prepared to forgive the fellow just about anything. If we had eleven players with half of his level of commitment, we could conquer the world. Or at least the bottom half of the PL. Even at the death he was giving his all to try and force the ball into the net by sheer force of will. And that's on top of his heroic do-or-die work in defence. The fact that he is our second highest league scorer this season after Murray says everything about his contribution, as well as showing up the glaring inadequacies of most of his teammates. Top man is Shane!

 

[fleet]

It’s true that we have no pace (tactics and/or players to blame) and lack enough clinical finishers in the side. We have to improve on that. I do think Bissouma will be mega next season though, as will Bernardo.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I think we have the quality. Maybe not top half quality but enough to stay in the division. The problem for me is that too many times this season we've been lackadaisical, lethargic and listless.

We are a team. Not a group of players with one or two stars. We look a decent, hard to beat side when everyone is doing their job properly and putting the hard yards in. For large periods of this season we haven't had that and when that happens we get the turgid, uninspired shite that we got yesterday. We can't rely on one or two players to carry usbigwave: palace...).

The big question for me is why? And how do we change it?

Hughton's natural cautiousness doesn't always help but we saw in the championship that we can play good, attacking football under him. So why are we so limp and negative now? Why are we making so many careless mistakes and giving away so many soft goals?

Have we already got to the point, in only our second season in the top flight, where the players are happy to go through the motions? Do we need a shake up of the coaching staff? Do we need to ship out players?

 

[Captain Sensible]

We start so slowy (at home, away we don’t start at all) and just go through the motions. The away side ups their game and suddenly we are behind. It’s only then that we go for it and attack. Why? It’s the same game after game.

 

[tigertim68]

What we need is a couple of strong midfield players with pace

 

[Knocky's Nose]

Hughton's natural cautiousness doesn't always help but we saw in the championship that we can play good, attacking football under him. So why are we so limp and negative now? Why are we making so many careless mistakes and giving away so many soft goals?

Have we already got to the point, in only our second season in the top flight, where the players are happy to go through the motions? Do we need a shake up of the coaching staff? Do we need to ship out players?

As you say, Hughton is naturally cautious. In the Championship, when he knows we're better than the opposing team and we're not really likely to get punished if we make a mistake, he sets up to attack. This is what he did. Great attacking football against some dire sides with lots of wonder-goals.

However, we're in the Premier League now. One single mistake from one single player can cost us three points. A bottom six club can beat a top six club on any given day, and nothing is 'guaranteed' (maybe Man City v Huddersfield, I'll give you that - but you know what I mean.)

How about this approach : Flying out of the traps, f*cking up, going one down, going gung-ho and chasing the game, leave ourselves open, two down, heads go down, players get frustrated, three down, lots of yellow cards, lack of discipline, four down... That's what happens when you don't have a Galactico squad in the Premier League.

As for CH 'taking us as far as we can go' - Yes! So, who do we get in who can do better? Pochettino? Ancelotti? How about we try for Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp? These are the managers we'd need to take us to this hallowed 'next level' - Oh, and about £500m for new players please, thank you very much TB.

We are still in the PL and we're in the Semi-Final of the FA Cup. If we were bottom of the PL, relegated already, and out of all competitions we'd be whittling on about having a manager of CH's calibre. Give it a rest!

 

[Icy Gull]

As you say, Hughton is naturally cautious. In the Championship, when he knows we're better than the opposing team and we're not really likely to get punished if we make a mistake, he sets up to attack. This is what he did. Great attacking football against some dire sides with lots of wonder-goals.

However, we're in the Premier League now. One single mistake from one single player can cost us three points. A bottom six club can beat a top six club on any given day, and nothing is 'guaranteed' (maybe Man City v Huddersfield, I'll give you that - but you know what I mean.)

How about this approach : Flying out of the traps, f*cking up, going one down, going gung-ho and chasing the game, leave ourselves open, two down, heads go down, players get frustrated, three down, lots of yellow cards, lack of discipline, four down... That's what happens when you don't have a Galactico squad in the Premier League.

As for CH 'taking us as far as we can go' - Yes! So, who do we get in who can do better? Pochettino? Ancelotti? How about we try for Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp? These are the managers we'd need to take us to this hallowed 'next level' - Oh, and about £500m for new players please, thank you very much TB.

We are still in the PL and we're in the Semi-Final of the FA Cup. If we were bottom of the PL, relegated already, and out of all competitions we'd be whittling on about having a manager of CH's calibre. Give it a rest!

You forget just how many games in the Championship where we took the lead and then defended. The last 20 mins of most games were real nailbiters, but it worked out because we are very organised at the back.

We then totally ****ed up winning the league....

 

[Acker79]

How about this approach : Flying out of the traps, f*cking up, going one down, going gung-ho and chasing the game, leave ourselves open, two down, heads go down, players get frustrated, three down, lots of yellow cards, lack of discipline, four down... That's what happens when you don't have a Galactico squad in the Premier League.

How about this approach: Flying out of the traps, push them back so on the occasions they get the ball, they're so deep we have time to get back and defend and repel their attacks, setting up for a breakthrough to go 1-0 up, keep that momentum going pushing for a second and making it 2-0 knocking the confidence out of our opponents, keep our discipline, control the game, get a third to go 3-0 up, sit back, knowing the job is effectively done, showing confidence and discipline as our opponents try to get a consolation pick them off on the break to make it 4-0. That's what can happen when you're playing one of the many other teams in the premier league that don't have a Galactico squad.


I really don't get this attitude from fans that seem to make it an either/or situation. "If we attack, they'll cut through us and score and we'll lose" Well howTF are we going to ever get a goal? Of course there are teams we can't go all out against, but there are also teams that we can, because they're not world class either. Those are the teams around us. Like Southampton. They only managed to score one goal and it came during a period of defensively, patiently passing it around at the back, not while trying to attack