[Albion] Potterball failure?

[One Love]

Was it? We were winning one nil when he took off the second striker and we conceded with one up top. We also seemed to do ok at Arsenal with those two playing. One striker against Villas back three would have been a joke. In fact we only started looking ok again when he brought Murray on and back to 2 strikers..

We did well in the first half with 2 up top but Villa changed things at half time, mainly realising they didn't have to double man-mark Mooy, then things went awry immediately. It didn't help that Trossard went invisible.

IMO we were not looking ok in the second half with 2 strikers on.

 

[Beach Hut]

Potterball is a shit word but what concerns me is whilst this style looks good and we have possession and we pass the ball a lot is does not hide our total lack of belief and being clinical when we have a chance to score which to be honest has been the issue since season 2 in the Premier League.

 

[Weststander]

We did well in the first half with 2 up top but Villa changed things at half time, mainly realising they didn't have to double man-mark Mooy, then things went awry immediately. It didn't help that Trossard went invisible.

IMO we were not looking ok in the second half with 2 strikers on.

I found the entire second half, right from the off, painful to watch, I found myself clock watching. Time stood still, looking up at the scoreboard clock, FFS it was the same as last time. A fired up Villa came out for second half early, clearly fired up, and it was no surprise at all that we weren’t at the races. Potter’s response, the square sum of nothing, he just stood there for 23 minutes.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Alazte at right back is a mystery i cannot fathom.

I assumed the plan was always to take Mooy off on the hour and swap alzate for Mooy and Montoya pick up at right back.
Could be wrong, but it didn't make much other sense other than a pre-planned substitution.

Possibly trying to be too clever?

 

[Weststander]

Yes but I think we do look better when playing with two strikers and that pretty much means Maupay and Connoly with current squad.

I agree that it was amazing against Everton and Arsenal.

But young players in their breakthrough season often run out of gas and confidence, and older opponents set out to fairly bully them out of games. Unfortunately Minger did that.

 

[RandyWanger]

I don't think we've seen "Potterball" for a while now. I don't know what's happened, but some of the recent games feel like last season.

 

[Hamilton]

Not losing faith in Potterball.

I would have liked to see us press the Villa defence with a bit more urgency. We would have put the game to bed then as they were awful.

I'm worried that you can see a lack of confidence starting to show a few roots in the team. We've got to have belief.

Also, we are making too many unforced errors and that has got to stop.

 

[Seasider78]

Unlike the start of the season we are now so slow moving the ball from back to front which means by the time we are in an attacking position the opposition have reset behind the ball. The only exception to this Saturday was when Maupay won the ball off a villa player on the halfway line and we broke and scored.


The driving centre back runs have stopped and the midfield have reverted to passing side to side and back.


Desperately need some drive and pace back in our squad and play otherwise the deep possession is pointless as we are not exposing the spaces it leaves in behind

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Unlike the start of the season we are now so slow moving the ball from back to front which means by the time we are in an attacking position the opposition have reset behind the ball. The only exception to this Saturday was when Maupay won the ball off a villa player on the halfway line and we broke and scored.


The driving centre back runs have stopped and the midfield have reverted to passing side to side and back.


Desperately need some drive and pace back in our squad and play otherwise the deep possession is pointless as we are not exposing the spaces it leaves in behind

I think many have forgotten that if Reina hadn't dived to save Maupay's shot with a superb one handed stop, we cou;d have nicked that game at the end (well 88th minute).
There does seem to be a lot of knee jerk reaction in this thread.

 

[GT49er]

I don't think we've seen "Potterball" for a while now. I don't know what's happened, but some of the recent games feel like last season.

Yes, and that's a big worry. Dropping back to defend deep, slowing the game down, trying to hang on to a lead - we need to get back to the way we were playing in September/October.

 

[Blue3]

What's changed from earlier in the season what's changed.

We were playing out from the back not just across the back we were using wing backs who were bombing forward plus wingers this created loads of chances we did not take enough of those chances but loads of chances were being made

We are missing Dan Burn and Solly March that's the reason for the lack of chances

 

[doogie004]

What's changed from earlier in the season what's changed.

We were playing out from the back not just across the back we were using wing backs who were bombing forward plus wingers this created loads of chances we did not take enough of those chances but loads of chances were being made

We are missing Dan Burn and Solly March that's the reason for the lack of chances

Missing Solly March ? [emoji23][emoji23]don’t make me laugh if you think he is the answer god help us all. Too light weight and fails to go around defenders


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zefarelly]

I think many have forgotten that if Reina hadn't dived to save Maupay's shot with a superb one handed stop, we cou;d have nicked that game at the end (well 88th minute).
There does seem to be a lot of knee jerk reaction in this thread.

I don’t think it is knee jerk, There’s been more than a few ding dongs Of the bell in recent weeks and the abject second half performance, and inability to change it, despite a dominant (albeit fairly average) first half set the alarm bells off. Its not a good start to our 6-10 point safety requirement of the 4 game run.

 

[Sue1983]

I think our first touch needs to better, I think this something that needs work.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I don’t think it is knee jerk, There’s been more than a few ding dongs Of the bell in recent weeks and the abject second half performance, and inability to change it, despite a dominant (albeit fairly average) first half set the alarm bells off. Its not a good start to our 6-10 point safety requirement of the 4 game run.

It's all about expectation. People expected us to win because Villa are below us and quote the usual 6 pointer mantra. We haven't beaten Villa in 9 games so I wasn't expecting a win on Saturday. A point is another point towards safety but it's not good enough for many.
Some of the posts are so miserable, you'd thought we'd lost. Each to their own.

 

[DavePage]

It's all about expectation. People expected us to win because Villa are below us and quote the usual 6 pointer mantra. We haven't beaten Villa in 9 games so I wasn't expecting a win on Saturday. A point is another point towards safety but it's not good enough for many.
Some of the posts are so miserable, you'd thought we'd lost. Each to their own.

I would imagine that every fan of a Premier team is moaning at the moment, with the exception of Liverpool and most likely Sheffield United. Imagine following one of the perceived top six and the hundreds of millions they have spent

 

[Steve Foster]

What's changed from earlier in the season what's changed.

We were playing out from the back not just across the back we were using wing backs who were bombing forward plus wingers this created loads of chances we did not take enough of those chances but loads of chances were being made

We are missing Dan Burn and Solly March that's the reason for the lack of chances

…………. your post has made me laugh or wept ! Solly March is an average championship player at best as is Connolly - heaven forbid both in our starting lineup !!! We're be dooooomed

 

[zefarelly]

It's all about expectation. People expected us to win because Villa are below us and quote the usual 6 pointer mantra. We haven't beaten Villa in 9 games so I wasn't expecting a win on Saturday. A point is another point towards safety but it's not good enough for many.
Some of the posts are so miserable, you'd thought we'd lost. Each to their own.

I agree, expectations are somewhat elevated. the biggest dissappintment for
Me is underperforming and a lack of intent/nous to change it during the second half. We know the pakeyrs can do it and we've seen the manager do it. But on Saturday, they colectively failed against a seemingly lesser team

 

[Eric Youngs Contact Lense]

Unlike the start of the season we are now so slow moving the ball from back to front which means by the time we are in an attacking position the opposition have reset behind the ball. The only exception to this Saturday was when Maupay won the ball off a villa player on the halfway line and we broke and scored.


The driving centre back runs have stopped and the midfield have reverted to passing side to side and back.


Desperately need some drive and pace back in our squad and play otherwise the deep possession is pointless as we are not exposing the spaces it leaves in behind

But isn't this just indicative of how teams are now setting up against us now compared to earlier in the season? We are struggling to find those forward passes ("between the lines") because teams are setting up to nullify that, especially to Mooy. I expect B'Muff to try and do the same as they are in such a desperate situation now. It's no coincidence that against a team like Arsenal (pre-Arteta), Norwich who want to play too and B'Muff when they are not so desperate, we may look as though we are playing better because the spaces are there. Sheffield United, Villa (2nd half) are good examples of this I think? The odd-one was Palace - I expected them to be much tighter that they were. They will be different at our place.
The team will have to try and adapt to find a way through in some games, but I think we have to recognise other teams tactics rather than just our own perceived short-comings.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I agree, expectations are somewhat elevated. the biggest dissappintment for
Me is underperforming and a lack of intent/nous to change it during the second half. We know the pakeyrs can do it and we've seen the manager do it. But on Saturday, they colectively failed against a seemingly lesser team

Why are they a seemingly lesser team? That's what I mean about expectation. Grealish is a pain in the backside who always scores against us. I think if another keeper had been in goal, then Maupay's shot would have been the winner, but Reina pulled off a great one handed save. Just my opinion. Yes we were poor in parts of the game, but it's odd moments that win matches.