[Albion] Potter critics: where do you think we should be in the league?

[El Presidente]

A shit 30 minutes against West Brom doesn't make us a shit team or Potter a shit manager.

A few weeks ago many on here were clamouring for the return from Celtic of Shane Duffy on the back of a couple of goals in the pub league he plays in, since then those people have disappeared.

Change isn't the same as improvement.

 

[London Irish]

I don't regard myself as a Potter critic, silly way to talk about fans who expect all managers, whoever they are, to take the team forward.

We've not spent big this window but have bought in high profile players in who may well be on good wages. Last year Potter spent more than any other Brighton manager. So yes, with that, comes an increase in expectations above the usual relegation fight drudge. So the answer to the question is somewhere above 16/17th place - a season floating about between 12th place and 15th place is a reasonable expectation for a manager taking Brighton forward. Other teams at our level Southampton, Villa, Palace etc seem on course for this at this early stage - so let's join them

 

[El Presidente]

As this is the clubs 4th season I’d expect some improvements wouldn’t you ? But it’s the same old shite bottom 5/6 all season

Last season Watford and Bournemouth were both relegated, that was in their 5th season

In 2017/18 Stoke, West Brom and Swansea were relegated, that was in their 10th, 8th and 7th season respectively.

Ambition is to get out of the bottom six, but it's going to be tough, and tough to watch at times too.

 

[doogie004]

Really ... CH who’s team produced some of the worse performances seen by an Albion team since being at the Amex in his last few months at the club. Bournemouth, Cardiff, Southampton anyone?


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Last seasons table and this so far don’t lie either


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[neilbard]

Last season Watford and Bournemouth were both relegated, that was in their 5th season

In 2017/18 Stoke, West Brom and Swansea were relegated, that was in their 10th, 8th and 7th season respectively.

Ambition is to get out of the bottom six, but it's going to be tough, and tough to watch at times too.

To be honest, I thought Tony's ambition was top 10?

Stoke City Highest position 9th
West Brom Highest position 8th
Swansea Highest position 8th
Watford Highest position 11th
Bournemouth Highest position 9th

Last 8 seasons..

 

[El Presidente]

To be honest, I thought Tony's ambition was top 10?

Stoke City Highest position 9th
West Brom Highest position 8th
Swansea Highest position 8th
Watford Highest position 11th
Bournemouth Highest position 9th

Last 8 seasons..

Fair point, the gap between rich and poor is ever growing though. Villa, Wolves, Leeds have all come into the Premier League and have thrown money about as if it doesn’t exist.


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[neilbard]

Really ... CH who’s team produced some of the worse performances seen by an Albion team since being at the Amex in his last few months at the club. Bournemouth, Cardiff, Southampton anyone?


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To be fair I was at those matches and the players downed tools, thus condemning Hughton, they were ****ing lucky they didn't end up back in the Championship, I think it was a draw at Wolves that prevented that?

Potter has produced a better playing style, but with no cutting edge, so at the moment we are still going to be in the relegation mix.

Let's hope for improvement, jury is still out.

 

[Paris]

Bloom isn't a knee-jerk chairman as Hyppia's departure proved. Potter was Ashworth's man from the off, so we're unlikely to see a new manager anytime soon. The only way I could see him getting an in-season P45 would be us going on a long losing run and Potter appearing to have lost the players respect/trust.

At this stage of the season we should keep our powder dry. Anything against Spurs will be an unexpected bonus. The next home game versus Burnley is key for overall morale before the international break.

 

[albionalex]

There aren't many managers who could get us to play as well as we did against United. But there are many who could have gotten us to beat West Brom.

The pros and cons of Potter.

 

[vagabond]

You have to accept our first four matches were against teams well above our standard however yesterdays opponents should have provided three points for us particularly as we are unlikely to pick up points at Spurs

How did Chelsea do against West Brom?

 

[DJ NOBO]

going by his results and Premier League managerial changes over time, Potter is already fortunate to still have his job.
Also, Albion fans are far more understanding and patients than at some other clubs.

 

[Silverhatch]

How did Chelsea do against West Brom?

West Brom are not a bad side. At the moment they are having good spells and shit spells. We were poor in the second half but they were good. They were better than Palace or Newcastle. We were bloody fortunate to get a point in the end.

 

[keaton]

When West Brom played Chelsea they hadn't had their best centre back sold hours before kick off

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

More bemusement from me.. still reading comments about "no cutting edge". We have scored in every game. Our current tally of 10 is 4 behind the league leaders, 5 more than the bottom club. We have scored more than Man City, Man Utd, Wolves, Arsenal, Newcastle, Palace and the same as Southampton. Newcastle/palace aside, would any of the other sides be regarded as having no "cutting edge?". I am not saying that we couldn't score more, or don't need to improve chances/goals ratio, but to suggest that we are toothless doesn't make sense to me. The bigger issue has been about conceding silly goals from our mistakes, something that we didn't do on Monday - the one positive for me to take from an abject 2nd half.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

We haven't made the progress I would have hoped since promotion, and I don't blame Potter so much as the recruitment department (and the philosophy that underpins it) that has landed him with this unbalanced squad of largely not-bad-but-not-quite-good-enough players.

We've signed around 30 first-team players since promotion, but we've wasted a lot of money. Gross, Alzate, Bissouma, Lamptey, Trossard in flashes, Izquierdo when fit have looked like value for money, and Lallana is a steal if fit, but the rest? Apart from Murray we still haven't found a player that you honestly think will score when he has a goalscoring chance.

If you could go back and spend the same amount of money we've splurged since promotion on about half the number of players but get in more proven quality, then we might be getting somewhere. And we badly need some backbone in certain positions. We're still a soft touch and seldom look anything but frightened rabbits in the headlights of top five teams.

Arsenal are the big club we beat most regularly and the reason is that they are the top team most like us - trying to play pretty football and score the perfect goal but with a soft centre when anyone attacks them. I'm sure the 'No dickheads' policy makes for a nice atmosphere at the training ground, but in the meantime, we regularly get beaten by teams who are willing to put up with a dickhead or two.

We have tried to use analytics to sign players on the cheap and the risks of that are clear. A few have paid off, but in my opinion too many haven't. For the time we've been in the Premier League and the money that uncle Tony has paid out, I'd say we should be around 12th. But with the squad we've got, we're where we should be.

 

[zefarelly]

More bemusement from me.. still reading comments about "no cutting edge". We have scored in every game. Our current tally of 10 is 4 behind the league leaders, 5 more than the bottom club. We have scored more than Man City, Man Utd, Wolves, Arsenal, Newcastle, Palace and the same as Southampton. Newcastle/palace aside, would any of the other sides be regarded as having no "cutting edge?". I am not saying that we couldn't score more, or don't need to improve chances/goals ratio, but to suggest that we are toothless doesn't make sense to me. The bigger issue has been about conceding silly goals from our mistakes, something that we didn't do on Monday - the one positive for me to take from an abject 2nd half.

not just silly goals, massive flukes as well, 2 against Chealski.

Back to the OP question, we could/should have 3 more points than we do . . .everyone, well most, would be happy then.

 

[vagabond]

We haven't made the progress I would have hoped since promotion, and I don't blame Potter so much as the recruitment department (and the philosophy that underpins it) that has landed him with this unbalanced squad of largely not-bad-but-not-quite-good-enough players.

We've signed around 30 first-team players since promotion, but we've wasted a lot of money. Gross, Alzate, Bissouma, Lamptey, Trossard in flashes, Izquierdo when fit have looked like value for money, and Lallana is a steal if fit, but the rest? Apart from Murray we still haven't found a player that you honestly think will score when he has a goalscoring chance.

If you could go back and spend the same amount of money we've splurged since promotion on about half the number of players but get in more proven quality, then we might be getting somewhere. And we badly need some backbone in certain positions. We're still a soft touch and seldom look anything but frightened rabbits in the headlights of top five teams.

Arsenal are the big club we beat most regularly and the reason is that they are the top team most like us - trying to play pretty football and score the perfect goal but with a soft centre when anyone attacks them. I'm sure the 'No dickheads' policy makes for a nice atmosphere at the training ground, but in the meantime, we regularly get beaten by teams who are willing to put up with a dickhead or two.

We have tried to use analytics to sign players on the cheap and the risks of that are clear. A few have paid off, but in my opinion too many haven't. For the time we've been in the Premier League and the money that uncle Tony has paid out, I'd say we should be around 12th. But with the squad we've got, we're where we should be.

[emoji122][emoji122][emoji122][emoji122]

 

[Baldseagull]

More bemusement from me.. still reading comments about "no cutting edge". We have scored in every game. Our current tally of 10 is 4 behind the league leaders, 5 more than the bottom club. We have scored more than Man City, Man Utd, Wolves, Arsenal, Newcastle, Palace and the same as Southampton. Newcastle/palace aside, would any of the other sides be regarded as having no "cutting edge?". I am not saying that we couldn't score more, or don't need to improve chances/goals ratio, but to suggest that we are toothless doesn't make sense to me. The bigger issue has been about conceding silly goals from our mistakes, something that we didn't do on Monday - the one positive for me to take from an abject 2nd half.

But we have one of the worst rates of converting chances into goals, also, we are good at limiting chances for the opposition, but they all seem to convert at a better than expected rate against us.
Something is missing, and personally I think it is passion. Someone needs to inject a bit more fire into the bellies of the players, it doesn't have to be Potter himself, but if it isn't, he needs to find the players/coaches to do that for him.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

We haven't made the progress I would have hoped since promotion, and I don't blame Potter so much as the recruitment department (and the philosophy that underpins it) that has landed him with this unbalanced squad of largely not-bad-but-not-quite-good-enough players.

We've signed around 30 first-team players since promotion, but we've wasted a lot of money. Gross, Alzate, Bissouma, Lamptey, Trossard in flashes, Izquierdo when fit have looked like value for money, and Lallana is a steal if fit, but the rest? Apart from Murray we still haven't found a player that you honestly think will score when he has a goalscoring chance.

If you could go back and spend the same amount of money we've splurged since promotion on about half the number of players but get in more proven quality, then we might be getting somewhere. And we badly need some backbone in certain positions. We're still a soft touch and seldom look anything but frightened rabbits in the headlights of top five teams.

Arsenal are the big club we beat most regularly and the reason is that they are the top team most like us - trying to play pretty football and score the perfect goal but with a soft centre when anyone attacks them. I'm sure the 'No dickheads' policy makes for a nice atmosphere at the training ground, but in the meantime, we regularly get beaten by teams who are willing to put up with a dickhead or two.

We have tried to use analytics to sign players on the cheap and the risks of that are clear. A few have paid off, but in my opinion too many haven't. For the time we've been in the Premier League and the money that uncle Tony has paid out, I'd say we should be around 12th. But with the squad we've got, we're where we should be.

Tend to agree to a point, but in terms of GP, whilst he gets a lot right, as did his predecessor, he gets significant bits wrong as well, particularly around the defence IMO.

With the ball we are often wide open defensively and this is key, because when you lose it, we can’t react. Other than towards the end of Hughton’s reign we rarely conceded goals from good attacking positions in our favour. Of course a lot of that is because he was more defensive minded, but the point remains.

Similarly, because of the type of player GP goes for (or is recruited for him), we are now soft and vulnerable on set pieces.

I’m sure stats will be quoted, but these are skewed in many ways as we were so poor towards the end with Hughton.

I think if we were a little bit more Potter than Hughton in terms of balance we’d do better.

Some would say Poyet [emoji6][emoji57]


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[Guinness Boy]

We haven't made the progress I would have hoped since promotion, and I don't blame Potter so much as the recruitment department (and the philosophy that underpins it) that has landed him with this unbalanced squad of largely not-bad-but-not-quite-good-enough players.

We've signed around 30 first-team players since promotion, but we've wasted a lot of money. Gross, Alzate, Bissouma, Lamptey, Trossard in flashes, Izquierdo when fit have looked like value for money, and Lallana is a steal if fit, but the rest? Apart from Murray we still haven't found a player that you honestly think will score when he has a goalscoring chance.

If you could go back and spend the same amount of money we've splurged since promotion on about half the number of players but get in more proven quality, then we might be getting somewhere. And we badly need some backbone in certain positions. We're still a soft touch and seldom look anything but frightened rabbits in the headlights of top five teams.

Arsenal are the big club we beat most regularly and the reason is that they are the top team most like us - trying to play pretty football and score the perfect goal but with a soft centre when anyone attacks them. I'm sure the 'No dickheads' policy makes for a nice atmosphere at the training ground, but in the meantime, we regularly get beaten by teams who are willing to put up with a dickhead or two.

We have tried to use analytics to sign players on the cheap and the risks of that are clear. A few have paid off, but in my opinion too many haven't. For the time we've been in the Premier League and the money that uncle Tony has paid out, I'd say we should be around 12th. But with the squad we've got, we're where we should be.

This condemns some of our biggest signings and our youth development.

Ali J has disappointed despite his own massively long thread being bounced in “I told you so” glee every time he completes a cross, but really he’s been a desperate waste of money. Ditto Locadia. But would you really say that about Maupay, 10 goals in his first PL season and 4 already this for 20 million? And Webster, a similar price, looking the best of our back three this season, chipping in with goals last season and skippering on Monday?

Trossard gets in your pluses (sort of) but for me is our most frustrating player. A full Belgian international who only turns up one in three games and can’t finish.

Meanwhile we have White, one of the Championship players of the season last season for nothing, although being played out of position and Connolly who just needs to learn to stay on his feet more (or dive better). If we’re saying our player development is making us soft centred as well as our signings, then we’re stuffed.

I do think we have signed far too many samey players, particularly as “attacking options”. You could play half the squad at 10 if you had to, yet Potter seems to want to attack mainly from wingback this season.


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