[Albion] Now everyone has had their 'fun', perhaps time to calm down a little?

[Kalimantan Gull]

I'm sure its not just me that's got a little worn out by the schizophrenia on this board of late. Win a game and we're heading for the Champions League. Lose a game and we should sack the manager. Two up on Leicester and we're ole ole-ing our way to Europe. Terrible 45 minutes against Palace and the NSC collective is pensioning off Dunk, slagging off Pedro, fretting about Mitoma and calling Fab all names under the sun. We're so miserable that a thread suggesting the return of Potter isn't filled with wall-to-wall vitriol against our teeth-sucking former boss!

Perhaps - perhaps - it might just be time to cool the hyperbole a little?

I think there has been all kinds of naivety amongst Brighton fans this season. The silly kind - those who think that football is easy and our baby-faced manager and bunch of kids on the pitch should by rights be swatting aside all and sundry, who become horribly disappointed and rather angry when we don't; and the fairer kind, those of us who just really wanted to believe in fairy tales, that this wunderkind and his crew really were going to keep it up all season and march us into Europe, despite all the logic which says that just isn't possible - I'm one of those, and its a bit sad when reality punched us in the face. But that's left a gap in the 'realism' corner, which seems to have been filled by the pessimists who think we are permanently shite. Normally confined to the matchday thread, they are popping up everywhere with their special brand of misery.

We should all of us have been expecting a bumpy ride with ups and downs, and we should all of us be pleased that there have been more ups than downs so far. Its not a bad reality in the great scheme of things, despite listening to those f***ing Palace twats belting out three years worth of songs that they've been saving up for a win over us....

 

[jcdenton08]

Two separate posters here have apologised for their reactions post-game, I think the majority of regular posters who overreacted are keeping their heads down for now. The same handful of trolls will do their thing as usual. Nothing to see here.

Edit: worth mentioning that people have sobered up now, and are trying to forget the bits they remember

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Agree, it was becoming wearing and it felt that some of our fans were ‘thriving’ on it a bit too much (IMO)….

 

[Guinness Boy]

There are some legitimate concerns. Our defence for a start. It's very unlucky that we have four players out injured who could all play right back better than Lamptey but I'm with those who are concerned about Dunk. He's not the same player since Roma and he must be finding it odd that, as captain, he's older and more experienced in the Premier League than our coach. And our style of football, or rather lack of it, leads us to be open far too often.

Neither of those are causes to chuck the baby out with the bathwater though. The only way players and coaches get experience is to do it, live in the Premier League. The biggest way to learn quickly and to become successful is, IMO, to have a couple of failures. I'm not sure there's much we learned from our great start if I'm honest.

Reset our expectations? Yes. Get rid of the coach? Embarrassing idea.

 

[The Optimist]

Two separate posters here have apologised for their reactions post-game, I think the majority of regular posters who overreacted are keeping their heads down for now. The same handful of trolls will do their thing as usual. Nothing to see here.

Edit: worth mentioning that people have sobered up now, and are trying to forget the bits they remember

Perhaps Bozza needs to look into some AI that can tell when a poster is drunk and flag as a post as being written under the influence!

 

[Justice]

 

[Guinness Boy]

Perhaps Bozza needs to look into some AI that can tell when a poster is drunk and flag as a post as being written under the influence!

AIs have to be trained. Perhaps we could start with many of the posts by @sydney

 

[albionalba]

we should all of us be pleased that there have been more ups than downs so far.

...and the likelihood of the down aspects have always been made clear by PBOBE on this journey which will take a good few more seasons with plenty of good times along the way.

Reset our expectations? Yes. Get rid of the coach? Embarrassing idea.

True.

some AI that can tell when a poster is drunk

.....but don't let NSC be another thing that AI will suck the fun out of.......

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Let’s get to 40 points then let the dreaming start

To be clear I don’t think there’s any evidence at the minute of us going down but watching Muff / West Ham last night reminded me we are no better than these or the likes of Fulham, Forest, Brentford and dare I say a settled palace.

Success for us is still having the option to battle against these regularly for top ten, sometimes getting results against the established premier league clubs and the occasional Europe / cup run.

I’ll include myself it in, we’ve got a bit giddy the last. Few seasons based on the success we’ve had, but we’ve got to be realistic, it can’t happen all the time based on the resources we have.

Enjoy the highs, it’s the whole point of it, take the lows it’s association football

 

[Kosh]

There are some legitimate concerns. Our defence for a start. It's very unlucky that we have four players out injured who could all play right back better than Lamptey but I'm with those who are concerned about Dunk. He's not the same player since Roma and he must be finding it odd that, as captain, he's older and more experienced in the Premier League than our coach. And our style of football, or rather lack of it, leads us to be open far too often.

Neither of those are causes to chuck the baby out with the bathwater though. The only way players and coaches get experience is to do it, live in the Premier League. The biggest way to learn quickly and to become successful is, IMO, to have a couple of failures. I'm not sure there's much we learned from our great start if I'm honest.

Reset our expectations? Yes. Get rid of the coach? Embarrassing idea.

Completely agree, as I often do with your balanced and nuanced points.

We are suffering because of injuries, but at times we’re sooooooo naive… as I’ve said elsewhere Fab needs to put several things right and a large part of that is mentality… as well as fixing the tactical blind spots that other coaches have clearly noted…

He’s got work to do, and shouldn’t be immune to criticism if performances continue along the recent trajectory.

I’m prepared to give him the season and see what we all think come the reckoning.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Getting a bit bored of posters and fans at the grounds, banging on about £200m wasted.
The quality in the squad in forward areas is undeniable.
We have had the most injuries of any team and yet our starting 11 and bench is far stronger than any time I can remember.

My worry is, we seem to be only able to achieve the high intensity play we need, fora about 20 minutes per game.
When it clicks, we are fantastic. If we fail to score in that period, we are generally screwed.

The truth is that we were always in a false position, early on in this season.
The luck was on our side in general over the first 5 or 6 games.

IMO, the jury is still out on Huerzeler.
It will be interesting to see if there are any changes in our play when the new assistant coach joins.

 

[sparkie]

It's not just the Palace game but the cumulative disappointment after disappointment of the last 4 games.

But today is a new day. Let's now beat West Ham and Brentford and get back on track.

 

[Clive Walker]

I kept my head down and kept my fury to myself.

I will say this though. I think we’ve ridden our luck at times this season and we haven’t been as good as our table position reads.

 

[Is it PotG?]

I'm over it now, already looking forward to getting turned over at West Ham on Saturday.

 

[Bodian]

We are suffering because of injuries, but at times we’re sooooooo naive… as I’ve said elsewhere Fab needs to put several things right and a large part of that is mentality… as well as fixing the tactical blind spots that other coaches have clearly noted…

The thing is with injuries is that we have largely spent this summer to increase the depth in the squad - so that injuries should lead to a similar (or almost similar) quality player coming in to replace the injured one. By-and-large this is gradually happening - except at the back. This means that we shouldn't have the drop-off that we have had when suffering injuries in the past few years.

So, my conclusion is that we haven't made the first 11 better, but overall any 11 we put out will be more consistent in quality.

Hence......

watching Muff / West Ham last night reminded me we are no better than these or the likes of Fulham, Forest, Brentford and dare I say a settled palace.

Success for us is still having the option to battle against these regularly for top ten, sometimes getting results against the established premier league clubs and the occasional Europe / cup run.

This is where we are at. I think we are better equipped to stay and be in this battle over the next 3-4 seasons than we were at the beginning of last season.

 

[Surf's Up]

Daniel Niedzkowski - the messiah?

 

[5Ways Gull]

We are not (yet) a club that will go a season without a "bad patch". I made the point yesterday in the "positives" thread that we got to mid December before our first home defeat. Ok there were a few draws that could have been better and the home defeat when it did come was against the worst possible opposition.

Think Hurzeler is obviously finding his way, I mean apparently he's the youngest coach in the Premier league ever. I think the new assistant coach will make a difference.

Injuries are really having an impact again. If you look at the last 4 results, the likes of Veltman, Kadioglu, Hinshelwood, I think would have made a difference. We have great attacking options, but just feel a bit lightweight.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Completely agree, as I often do with your balanced and nuanced points.

We are suffering because of injuries, but at times we’re sooooooo naive… as I’ve said elsewhere Fab needs to put several things right and a large part of that is mentality… as well as fixing the tactical blind spots that other coaches have clearly noted…

He’s got work to do, and shouldn’t be immune to criticism if performances continue along the recent trajectory.

I’m prepared to give him the season and see what we all think come the reckoning.

What’s he got on you?

 

[LamieRobertson]

Getting a bit bored of posters and fans at the grounds, banging on about £200m wasted.
The quality in the squad in forward areas is undeniable.
We have had the most injuries of any team and yet our starting 11 and bench is far stronger than any time I can remember.

My worry is, we seem to be only able to achieve the high intensity play we need, fora about 20 minutes per game.
When it clicks, we are fantastic. If we fail to score in that period, we are generally screwed.

The truth is that we were always in a false position, early on in this season.
The luck was on our side in general over the first 5 or 6 games.

IMO, the jury is still out on Huerzeler.
It will be interesting to see if there are any changes in our play when the new assistant coach joins.

It has to be …..not even halfway through his first season….time to judge maybe after one/two seasons

 

[RandyWanger]

Next 2 games will be very telling, both winnable and we should be walking away with 4 points minimum.