[Albion] Opening paragraph of Guardian match report

[Greavsey]

This is obviously the problem. . . getting someone better than we have on our budget. . .

trouble is the forward players we have are going backwards. . . . that desperately needs addressing as well.

Great post, sums up the situation perfectly. We are obviously not just going to shell out on A.N. Other striker for the sake of it, and Maupay is probably at the top of our budget as it stands.

My thinking is that perhaps we should try a specialised forward coach. All current first team coaches - Potter, Reid and Bruno were defenders by trade and Hamberg was never a pro player. From my limited personal experience as an amateur coach having played as a defender, it is far easier for me to coach the position I played in. You just know body positioning and the runs to make/cover from experience.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

no, not a striker, correct, and i said as much a few pages back. but for the purposes of looking at how the attacking players have developed, I'd consider him part of the equation simply because it's looking at how they all fit in the system.

Maupay hasn't improved, that is correct, but perhaps he's hit his ceiling. We know the kind of market we've been shopping in, and if we paid £16 million for someone who's found their ceiling at 8-10 goals a season in the prem, that's probably an okay deal. Particularly when you consider how integral he is to our build up play and how even toothlesser we looked when he came off on Saturday.

Connolly has gone backwards and it's up to the club and Potter to a) figure out why and b) address it, I would agree with that, and personally having watched the u23s a lot last season I noticed a marked improvement in zeqiri's build up and hold up play as he's gotten more used to the kind of football we want him playing.

Potter has often spoken about improving the players we have rather than spending on someone new, and I think the question needs to now be rather than launching an inquest into why player x or y hasn't improved, saying okay they haven't improved, now do we need to maybe try a different route in order to get where we want to be, I.e new investment..

Not sure you watched too much u23s as Zeqiri didn't play for for them.

Also not sure Maupay has reached his ceiling when he was playing better in his first season with us than in his second or third.

 

[macbeth]

Not sure you watched too much u23s as Zeqiri didn't play for for them.

Also not sure Maupay has reached his ceiling when he was playing better in his first season with us than in his second or third.

u23s as in the second string who were in the fa cup, also saw him for the Swiss u21s. yes it was relatively few times and I'm probably being optimistic, but I saw the second string more last season than I really had before so I was impressed, he certainly had more finesse than I was expecting and he's fitted in at Augsburg much better than I was expecting (thought a loan to a top league was too far at this stage), but I'm digressing here.

Maupay was still missing those chances in his first season, not quite as egregiously as Saturday, which represented a new low, but it was still happening. Also obviously had the anomaly of lockdown in the middle, and you obviously have to weigh in the fact that he was an unknown quantity in that first season, players have since worked out how to defend him better perhaps?

This is all besides the point though, which is that I'm not sure we'll find the answers we want by asking why these players have or haven't improved under Potter. Can he just not develop attackers? well no because we saw him mentor Dan James and Oli McBurnie into sellable assets. Or are the players we have simply limited?

 

[Swansman]

OK, Trossard is definitely improving yes. Not a striker through. Zeqiri has hardly played for us, much less up front, so I can't agree with that.

Maupay should be a better player at 25 than he was at 22 and he isn't. Connolly should be a better player at 21 than at 18. He isn't. Those are the real questions he has to answer about improving players in these positions

If only it was that simple.



Sometimes you cant notice progress in some areas because some other areas overshadow it. Maupay and Connolly could be 20% better players technically now than a few years ago but if their confidences are 50% worse, they are going to give you the impression that they have not developed. Thats the case quite often. Wayne Rooney was fantastic when he was 21 and horseshit when he was 25, before being better than ever at 26. Did this mean he went backwards a.k.a. unlearned skills between 21 and 25? No, but because of circumstances.

Some other times indeed a player stops developing which could be about one or multiple reasons: attitude, personal life, injuries, coaching, conflicting interests. That is just how it is. Arsene Wenger helped 50+ players turn into great footballers but there was also 50+ players who turned into shit. Same with Ferguson, Guardiola or anyone.

 

[zefarelly]

I do wonder if theres some unlearning going on in order to relearn and improve

one things for sure. a tap in is a tap in and anyone professional should be able to do it 9 times out of ten, not 9 out of 38.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

If only it was that simple.

View attachment 142440

Sometimes you cant notice progress in some areas because some other areas overshadow it. Maupay and Connolly could be 20% better players technically now than a few years ago but if their confidences are 50% worse, they are going to give you the impression that they have not developed. Thats the case quite often. Wayne Rooney was fantastic when he was 21 and horseshit when he was 25, before being better than ever at 26. Did this mean he went backwards a.k.a. unlearned skills between 21 and 25? No, but because of circumstances.

Some other times indeed a player stops developing which could be about one or multiple reasons: attitude, personal life, injuries, coaching, conflicting interests. That is just how it is. Arsene Wenger helped 50+ players turn into great footballers but there was also 50+ players who turned into shit. Same with Ferguson, Guardiola or anyone.

That one on the right. Maupay and Connolly's development doesn't look anything like that. They are both below where they were 2 years ago. Hopefully they will improve, but the signs aren't good.

 

[Swansman]

That one on the right. Maupay and Connolly's development doesn't look anything like that. They are both below where they were 2 years ago. Hopefully they will improve, but the signs aren't good.

Well, that is your guess.

I think they are both better footballers today and think they would agree with that.

 

[Frankworthington]

I'm totally with you on this TH but what is the going rate? And what are the wages on top of a transfer fee?

I was disappointed to see Tammy Abraham go to Roma, that said I wouldn't have been comfortable with the Albion paying a player a reported £200,000 a week.

Pardon the cliche but it really is a Catch 22 situation, we do need a striker but to reiterate at what cost?

I remember being outraged when i heard Jimmy Case was on £1300 a week!!

How times change eh Lenny?

 

[Soul Finger]

Someone reminded us of the 0-4 against Darlington, played at Priestfield. I was at that game. For all I know TB was there too.

He knows.

I had a little cry as the fourth goal went in questioning my sanity and reason for following such a useless bunch of ****s. Still didn't boo though.

 

[zefarelly]

I had a little cry as the fourth goal went in questioning my sanity and reason for following such a useless bunch of ****s. Still didn't boo though.

we were so bad in the 90's it was mostly laughable, don't recall every crying, maybe a tear as we left the Goldstone. Plenty of booing, at the ref or opposition.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I had a little cry as the fourth goal went in questioning my sanity and reason for following such a useless bunch of ****s. Still didn't boo though.

As Gillingham is only 20 minute's drive from Faversham, and my domestic situation wasn't great at the time, those games came as a blessed relief. I can remember on occasion we made three consecutive passes to one of our players without losing posession. I remember Scunthorpe running us ragged. We though that Minton was interstellar compared with the other grunters, and yet his time with us was a career pinnacle. There are probably 30 NSC posters, including the board's owner, who I met at Gillingham. We would meet in the Cricketer's before the games. Weird bitter-sweet days.

However we are not allowed to consider our history any more, so some say, and the only game in town is the club's abject failure to do what all the other clubs, all 92 of them are doing, which is singe a world class goalscorer and win trophies. We are a failing failure of a club and the board and manager are disgraces to themselves and their families.

 

[schmunk]

singe a world class goalscorer.

Could do a job...

 

[b.w.2.]

I must have missed that post.

What!? All of them!?


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[b.w.2.]

As Gillingham is only 20 minute's drive from Faversham, and my domestic situation wasn't great at the time, those games came as a blessed relief. I can remember on occasion we made three consecutive passes to one of our players without losing posession. I remember Scunthorpe running us ragged. We though that Minton was interstellar compared with the other grunters, and yet his time with us was a career pinnacle. There are probably 30 NSC posters, including the board's owner, who I met at Gillingham. We would meet in the Cricketer's before the games. Weird bitter-sweet days.

However we are not allowed to consider our history any more, so some say, and the only game in town is the club's abject failure to do what all the other clubs, all 92 of them are doing, which is singe a world class goalscorer and win trophies. We are a failing failure of a club and the board and manager are disgraces to themselves and their families.

But that is not what is being said, is it? What IS being said is that an extremely well run club is failing in one aspect of its brilliant development. That is signing a decent Premier level striker.

And, yes, time to move on from the gory years or we will never meet our stated top 10 ambition.


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