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[Albion] Locadia, prove us wrong



Seasider78

Well-known member
Nov 14, 2004
6,011
Maybe when GP or DA one day move a long you could send your CV to Tony, "I got drunk in Workington back in 1963 when they beat the Albion - I know football. Please put me in charge of shaping your team and investing your millions wisely". :shrug:

Football knowledge does not have that much with longevity to do. It is sort of like with movie science, you can watch hundreds of movies, appreciate them or not and learn the names of all the actors, but when you study it is when you'll really start to understand how they are made and what the directors are doing. Mind you, both football and movie science is utterly useless unless you are going to work with it so generally speaking you're better off without it. But it still a thing.


The movie science analogy is interesting yes some do study movies forensically down to the minor detail to form opinion others just watch it and go ‘great movie’ or ‘nah a bit shit’ that is just how opinions work.

It may have escaped your attention but this is a football messaging board not an application to run the club where people voice their opinions about the Albion (and other things).

Some of those opinions I agree with from my experiences watching the Albion others I do not but I respect other fans views as being different to mine especially given that many have invested a lot of time and money into a club they love.

I find your responses to people on this board incredibly condescending as a self appointed guru on all things Brighton. You can analyse things forensically from your bedroom but that does not make your opinion on anything more valid than others on this board however much you convince yourself it does. You are just another voice and opinion amongst the many.

Unless I am missing something and you are in line to replace GP? Maybe brush up the CV
 






Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,465
Hove
I don't HATE Connolly but, like Elvis and Kemy before him, he is a player I want to see leave the club.
:shrug:

I don’t disagree with reasonable assessment of AC at this point, however he has one attribute that cannot be taught or gained through learned experience - pace.

Now the talent and guile needed to compliment that may never catch up, or maybe much later when he hits is mid 20s or even later, BUT the club clearly don’t want to lose that potential at this point.

You can practice finishing, game awareness, touch, movement, but you’ll only ever be as fast as your body allows you to be. I’d stick with him for a while yet.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
57,327
Back in Sussex
I dont think it is completely understandable.

Its not like I get thrilled every time I see Aaron Connolly playing or if someone posts his Instagram shit or whatever it may be. He is not my favorite player. I dont know him so I refrain from saying bad things about him as a person but I can see how he is not "likeable".

But I still dont think it is "understandable" to pour shit over him.

He is a young man. Flesh, blood, troubles, feelings. I used to be one of those not long a go. A young columnist. If I wrote something that wasnt quite good or that people didnt like, I would get hundreds of comments of how shit I was a writer and how ugly I was or how shit I was a person. For the first few years and occasionally after that, it felt really, really bad, like the whole world hated me. I dont think it is "understandable" to hate people because they are not always performing or because they look weird on a picture or because they think Warcraft 3 is a shit PC game. It is common, but it is not understandable.

I think Connolly is a pretty talented player. Or rather, he is, because you cant score any goals in the Premier League whatsoever - not a single one - without being a decent footballer. Career could go any way. I think the chances of him succeeding is better if people avoid to make him feel like the worst player and worst human on the planet.

His talent is not the main reason why I frankly get pissed at the way he is treated. If I know young people and young footballers in particular right, he will be reading this forum, obviously not daily but when he's been involved. Among all the shit people are pouring, he needs a few voices that defends him from "criticism" that is either exaggerated ("he is a shit footballer") or based on very little but a few tabloid papers and some talk in town ("he is a shit human"). He needs people to defend him, every person who is recieving massive hatred needs that or things can go very bad.

So yeah.. I dont think it is "understandable". Plenty of people in here have kids or grandkids and if they became public people and people treated them like they treat Connolly, they would be angry and devastated. So why contribute to a world where that could quite easily happen? It is not understandable. Aaron Connolly is a young man, someones son, someones grandson. Not some kind of object. That should be very easy to understand but apparently not. Treat Aaron like you would want other people to treat your kiddos.

I’m not saying it is acceptable.

But I still state that it is understandable.

And I say that as someone who has been going to watch live football in England for over 40 years and been involved in fanzines and messageboards for well over 20 years now.

A player with the attributes of AC and the performances he has put in will get grief from a section of the fans. It happens at Brighton and it would happen at any other club in the land.

That’s why I understand it, whilst not condoning it.

As a football fan, it’s understandable.
 


Seasider78

Well-known member
Nov 14, 2004
6,011
I don’t disagree with reasonable assessment of AC at this point, however he has one attribute that cannot be taught or gained through learned experience - pace.

Now the talent and guile needed to compliment that may never catch up, or maybe much later when he hits is mid 20s or even later, BUT the club clearly don’t want to lose that potential at this point.

You can practice finishing, game awareness, touch, movement, but you’ll only ever be as fast as your body allows you to be. I’d stick with him for a while yet.

The problem for Connelly is at 21 he needs games to develop and in the last two seasons he is just not getting it in the PL (even off the bench) this is despite us having shortages in his position and at times misfiring first picks.

Someone at the club said recently some players take the elevator to the top others the stairs is feels like someone has thrown AC in the elevator when he needed the stairs. I wonder if us missing out on striker targets in the summer has prevented us giving him the loan we all feel would give him the game time to properly develop him.

If we keep him in the PL squad I can just see him festering on the fringes and dropping further down the order as we recruit in each window.

At this current point AC very much reminds me of Jake Forster Caskey who had played through the youth international scene, burst into the first team with lots of promise and then started to go backwards.
 




SeagullsoverLondon

......
NSC Patron
Jun 20, 2021
3,884
I really want AC to do well, but felt last year he couldn't buy a goal which would have done his confidence a world of good. As GP has hardly played him this season except for cup games, even with Welbeck being injured, I assume he is likely to be a back up striker at best.

As a matter of interest, does anyone have the breakdown on the xG stats for individual players for last season. Did AC underperform any worse than NM or LT (who hit the post at every opportunity) or even Webster and Dunk from set pieces? My guess is that only Welbeck and Dunk had an actual goal count close to their xG scores.

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk
 


NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,592
Maybe when GP or DA one day move a long you could send your CV to Tony, "I got drunk in Workington back in 1963 when they beat the Albion - I know football. Please put me in charge of shaping your team and investing your millions wisely". :shrug:

Football knowledge does not have that much with longevity to do. It is sort of like with movie science, you can watch hundreds of movies, appreciate them or not and learn the names of all the actors, but when you study it is when you'll really start to understand how they are made and what the directors are doing. Mind you, both football and movie science is utterly useless unless you are going to work with it so generally speaking you're better off without it. But it still a thing.


There you go again ridiculing a poster suggesting that they don't know anything about football and that they are stuck in 1963.

You obviously think Connolly is good enough for PL and that's fine. We all have opinions and everyone's opinion is a valid one but we shouldn't knock others for having a different one.

I too asked a similar question when Aaron was scoring a lot of goals in the U23s. The response I got was that he wasn't ready. He needs to go out on loan and play against better players and that he wouldn't be able to complete against PL defenders who are some of the best in the world. Sadly he got injured during his loan spell so should have gone back out on loan the following year.

And when I did ask about would he come out of the Youth side I was advised that the one more likely to come out of the pack from the forwards in that youth team it was suggested that Goykeres was the more likely of the two but he also wasn't ready at that point in time. For that reason I think that Goykeres might progress more in the future because he is currently playing at the level suited to his current abilities
 


Audax

Boing boing boing...
Aug 3, 2015
3,273
Uckfield
I can see why some like Connolly. He's got skills and attributes that make him useful on the pitch for us. But I also see where the negative comments come from as well, because the one attribute he's meant to be on the pitch for he's just not managed to get going with: scoring goals.

The problem with Connolly at the moment is that he's meant to be capable of leading the line and being our main goal threat. If we lose Maupay for any length of time, it's supposed to be Connolly who takes his place in the centre. But despite everything else he does well, his finishing has been dire for far too long. Potter clearly doesn't trust him to take on that main goal threat role, and as a result he continues to warm the bench.

If we weren't so well stocked for attacking midfielders in behind the strikers, I'd suggest trying him in a role behind Maupay and (when fit) Welbeck. Let him use the strengths he's shown so far but take the goal-scoring pressure off a little. But then he has to compete for a start against Trossard, MacAllister, Gross, etc ... he'd still not get a start, IMO.
 




Iggle Piggle

Well-known member
Sep 3, 2010
5,987
Really ? REALLY ?

He has no pace. No power. He doesn't hold it up, by his own admission he can't head the ball, his 2nd touch would be a tackle if he could be bothered to make one. He doesn't get into dangerous areas, I've seen more movement and mobility from a traffic bollard. But TECHNICALLY there is little wrong with him ?

Christ, I'm glad you're not on our scouting team. Or maybe you were, because we got well and truly done up like a kipper signing this mug. I never want to see him on a pitch again, until its for some other club he's somehow stolen a living from.

I made a point of watching him on Wednesday to see if he was as bad as I remember. He was actually worse. In no particular order :

1. He doesn't understand the concept of pressing. Jogging in the general direction of the ball and giving the defender time to pass round him was worse than doing nothing.
2. Constantly out of position and as much help as a cone defensively. If someone else filled in, he'd make no effort to get to the gap.
3. He did get into a couple of promising positions but either the quality of the cross or the defending was good enough. It was the only time I saw him run rather than amble. Naturally, when the attack broke down, the run was replaced with the park ran style jog back to position.
4. His first touch at times was utterly woeful County league standard. .
5. Vestegard went through him early and he visibly avoided him thereafter. In mitigation, he wasnt generally playing in the centre but there was nothing to suggest he was up for a physical battle.

He was by far and away our most inept attacking threat. Connolly at least got into attacking positions albeit showed as much composure as my dog at dinner when he did and Sarmeinto looked extremely promising I was amazed he didn't get hooked. On that showing, he shouldnt waste a space on the bench at the weekend.
 


Wardy's twin

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2014
8,876
The problem for Connelly is at 21 he needs games to develop and in the last two seasons he is just not getting it in the PL (even off the bench) this is despite us having shortages in his position and at times misfiring first picks.

Someone at the club said recently some players take the elevator to the top others the stairs is feels like someone has thrown AC in the elevator when he needed the stairs. I wonder if us missing out on striker targets in the summer has prevented us giving him the loan we all feel would give him the game time to properly develop him.

If we keep him in the PL squad I can just see him festering on the fringes and dropping further down the order as we recruit in each window.

At this current point AC very much reminds me of Jake Forster Caskey who had played through the youth international scene, burst into the first team with lots of promise and then started to go backwards.

Forster-Caskey looked great in 5 games he played ( scored twice) then went on loan and game back a different (worse) player. He lost or his natural instinct. Remember seeing two contrasting set pieces he took, one for England U21 where he just quickly put the ball forward to the wing and it was knocked across quickly for Wilson to score. A couple of weeks later he took one for Brighton, roughly same part of pitch and he was looking back at the bench for instruction. He lost it as many do and that was that for his career.
 


Wardy's twin

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2014
8,876
There you go again ridiculing a poster suggesting that they don't know anything about football and that they are stuck in 1963.

You obviously think Connolly is good enough for PL and that's fine. We all have opinions and everyone's opinion is a valid one but we shouldn't knock others for having a different one.

I too asked a similar question when Aaron was scoring a lot of goals in the U23s. The response I got was that he wasn't ready. He needs to go out on loan and play against better players and that he wouldn't be able to complete against PL defenders who are some of the best in the world. Sadly he got injured during his loan spell so should have gone back out on loan the following year.

And when I did ask about would he come out of the Youth side I was advised that the one more likely to come out of the pack from the forwards in that youth team it was suggested that Goykeres was the more likely of the two but he also wasn't ready at that point in time. For that reason I think that Goykeres might progress more in the future because he is currently playing at the level suited to his current abilities

Interesting comments about Gyokeres but he was another player who was young and getting lots of grief - maybe he has found his level but IF he continues at the current rate he will get 25+ goals and people on here will be saying we need to re-sign him....

Regards Connolly , a difficult one but calling him sh*t is probably not going to help. Potter needs to read back through his books and see if he has missed something but given he is the only other striker option at the moment (unless we bring in an U23 player) then supporting him is what we should be doing.
 




Bold Seagull

strong and stable with me, or...
Mar 18, 2010
30,465
Hove
The problem for Connelly is at 21 he needs games to develop and in the last two seasons he is just not getting it in the PL (even off the bench) this is despite us having shortages in his position and at times misfiring first picks.

Someone at the club said recently some players take the elevator to the top others the stairs is feels like someone has thrown AC in the elevator when he needed the stairs. I wonder if us missing out on striker targets in the summer has prevented us giving him the loan we all feel would give him the game time to properly develop him.

If we keep him in the PL squad I can just see him festering on the fringes and dropping further down the order as we recruit in each window.

At this current point AC very much reminds me of Jake Forster Caskey who had played through the youth international scene, burst into the first team with lots of promise and then started to go backwards.

To be fair JFK didn’t go backwards, he just didn’t go forwards with the rest of the club. He’s a decent League One player and an able Championship one, which is what he was with us. Connolly has had to burst into a progressing PL team.

If we’d signed another striker maybe he would have gone out on loan, right now I don’t think the decision to keep him in the first team squad has been made for his benefit, but as a result of necessity.
 


DJ NOBO

Well-known member
Jul 18, 2004
6,821
Wiltshire
I dont think it is completely understandable.

Its not like I get thrilled every time I see Aaron Connolly playing or if someone posts his Instagram shit or whatever it may be. He is not my favorite player. I dont know him so I refrain from saying bad things about him as a person but I can see how he is not "likeable".

But I still dont think it is "understandable" to pour shit over him.

He is a young man. Flesh, blood, troubles, feelings. I used to be one of those not long a go. A young columnist. If I wrote something that wasnt quite good or that people didnt like, I would get hundreds of comments of how shit I was a writer and how ugly I was or how shit I was a person. For the first few years and occasionally after that, it felt really, really bad, like the whole world hated me. I dont think it is "understandable" to hate people because they are not always performing or because they look weird on a picture or because they think Warcraft 3 is a shit PC game. It is common, but it is not understandable.

I think Connolly is a pretty talented player. Or rather, he is, because you cant score any goals in the Premier League whatsoever - not a single one - without being a decent footballer. Career could go any way. I think the chances of him succeeding is better if people avoid to make him feel like the worst player and worst human on the planet.

His talent is not the main reason why I frankly get pissed at the way he is treated. If I know young people and young footballers in particular right, he will be reading this forum, obviously not daily but when he's been involved. Among all the shit people are pouring, he needs a few voices that defends him from "criticism" that is either exaggerated ("he is a shit footballer") or based on very little but a few tabloid papers and some talk in town ("he is a shit human"). He needs people to defend him, every person who is recieving massive hatred needs that or things can go very bad.

So yeah.. I dont think it is "understandable". Plenty of people in here have kids or grandkids and if they became public people and people treated them like they treat Connolly, they would be angry and devastated. So why contribute to a world where that could quite easily happen? It is not understandable. Aaron Connolly is a young man, someones son, someones grandson. Not some kind of object. That should be very easy to understand but apparently not. Treat Aaron like you would want other people to treat your kiddos.

Is your point that you think Connolly is good enough?
Or do you just take exception to what you see as the abuse of him on here?
You may well be right that some of the criticism is too personal and harsh .
But that doesn’t mean Connolly is good enough at this level. And that seems to be most people’s points on this thread.
That said, he does get a lot of support at games. You really should come to a game. I think it would be a real eye opener. You’d like the pies.
 


NooBHA

Well-known member
Jan 13, 2015
8,592
Is your point that you think Connolly is good enough?
Or do you just take exception to what you see as the abuse of him on here?
You may well be right that some of the criticism is too personal and harsh .
But that doesn’t mean Connolly is good enough at this level. And that seems to be most people’s points on this thread.
That said, he does get a lot of support at games. You really should come to a game. I think it would be a real eye opener. You’d like the pies.


He wouldn't get past the sniffer dogs at the station - I jest of course [MENTION=38333]Swansman[/MENTION] . Just trying to lighten the mood :)
 




Swansman

Pro-peace
May 13, 2019
22,320
Sweden
Is your point that you think Connolly is good enough?
Or do you just take exception to what you see as the abuse of him on here?
You may well be right that some of the criticism is too personal and harsh .
But that doesn’t mean Connolly is good enough at this level. And that seems to be most people’s points on this thread.
That said, he does get a lot of support at games. You really should come to a game. I think it would be a real eye opener. You’d like the pies.

1. Yes, good enough to be the 3rd option for Brighton and with a good chance of getting better.
2. Yes I want to counter the abuse.

I dont have to choose between these two.
 


herecomesaregular

We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
Oct 27, 2008
4,658
Still in Brighton
I am not implying anything about Graham Potter. I just suggest that if there were overtures to play Connolly before he arrived then the same overtures may still be there.

Your arrogance knows no bounds in the way that you reference other posters on here.

So glad you never knew BensGrandad on here. He came out with the wackiest ideas on here but at least the majority of people who rejected his wacky ideas joked about them. Your tone when you disagree with someone's opinion is one of ridicule and dismissiveness. It isn't a very nice trait.

Much of what you say is very clever and well thought through but the way you sometimes speak to and about others is extremely disrespectful.

Nailed it. Shame really. Not that Swansmum would care (and rightly so, hopefully) but he ruins all his sometimes brilliant work on here by being a bit "AC dislikeable" ?! :lolol: edit - but hey who cares it's just the internet, here's a cute cat (as Ricky Gervais would say).
 




Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,377
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
Since having to let my season ticket go this year i watch the lads on a bad stream :blush:

I’m not aware of you telling people they’re bad fans when they’ve criticised a performance by someone who earns more in a week than they have in a year (that they’ve dropped something over £50 on to see the whole pitch all of the time when you’ve seen part of the pitch for free).

But maybe you have :shrug:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 




herecomesaregular

We're in the pipe, 5 by 5
Oct 27, 2008
4,658
Still in Brighton
I’m not aware of you telling people they’re bad fans when they’ve criticised a performance by someone who earns more in a week than they have in a year (that they’ve dropped something over £50 on to see the whole pitch all of the time when you’ve seen part of the pitch for free).

But maybe you have :shrug:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No you just touched a bad-fan nerve, no worries.
 


Weststander

Well-known member
Aug 25, 2011
69,380
Withdean area
To be fair JFK didn’t go backwards, he just didn’t go forwards with the rest of the club. He’s a decent League One player and an able Championship one, which is what he was with us. Connolly has had to burst into a progressing PL team.

If we’d signed another striker maybe he would have gone out on loan, right now I don’t think the decision to keep him in the first team squad has been made for his benefit, but as a result of necessity.

Lee Harvey Oswald killed that football career.
 


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