[Albion] Potter’s Greatest Flaw

[pocketseagull]

Players aren't good enough in the end.

Aren't good enough for what?

We're a quarter way into the season and top half of the table.

That's the target, don't think Bloom is aiming to win the Premier League right now tbh.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

That stat does not look good but not all of it Is down to the manager. He did the right thing today in bringing on Mac Allister. He’s the player we have to create something. With him and Lallana on the pitch we should have enough. It was also right to bring on Maupay. Trossard up top looks more like a set up for the away games.

If neither of players did it today then that’s the position the club is in. We’re not going out to spend the £40m on the player that we may need.

Fair point by the OP though.

 

[Seasider78]

When teams sit with two banks behind the ball we simply do not have the quality of attacking player to break through them.

In these games we need an alternative like a target striker we could mix up a few balls up to. We have seen yesterday too often against these teams where slow passing between the lines just fizzles out when we are left with wide players outnumbered and Trossard as the only target in the box.

I cannot blame GP as he only has the tools to play one way.

 

[Icy Gull]

In hindsight the lack of a mobile big out and out striker in the squad is the problem rather than there being a flaw in the system. There were some good crosses that were not met. The game could have been out of sight by half time.

Edit, I see [MENTION=3147]Seasider78[/MENTION] has just said effectively the same thing

 

[Guinness Boy]

I spent a lot of last season getting slated for saying much the same as the OP. Last night was another game where we were the better side for the first 45 (because Newcastle are DREADFUL), the worse side for the other 45, had no way of dictating the pace against a low block and made poor tactical and substitution choices.

We should have lost the game, simple as that. Sanchez saved us but, in doing so, will result in us playing Villa, who have lost their last 5, with a third choice keeper.

Quite clearly we've returned from the heady days of nicking three points in the last minute against the mighty Burnley and Brentford to playing very nicely against good sides and not doing enough against the bad ones.

 

[big nuts]

It’s very hard to compete and score the goals required to put these games to bed, when your only available recognised strikers are Maupay & Connolly.

Couple that with an annoying habit of raising or lowering our game to match the opposition.

If Potter had a better array of strikers we’d have more points. As is stands 17 from 11 is a minor miracle.

 

[Stat Brother]

Potter’s Greatest Flaw - His fan club who can see no wrong!!

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

It was curious from Potter to go with Trossard again, not because he hasn’t been excellent but because there was never going to be space behind their defence to run into. The Mwepu substitution was correct as he was having zero impact on the game as, like Trossard, he has no room to run into. Teams that sit deep and dig in will always be our undoing as we’re just not built to play them, they’re our kryptonite.
It was a disappointing 2nd half but it’s exactly what I expected.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

When teams sit with two banks behind the ball we simply do not have the quality of attacking player to break through them.

In these games we need an alternative like a target striker we could mix up a few balls up to. We have seen yesterday too often against these teams where slow passing between the lines just fizzles out when we are left with wide players outnumbered and Trossard as the only target in the box.

I cannot blame GP as he only has the tools to play one way.

Agree with this, Potter doesn’t have the variety of players in his squad to play a different style against tasks that have no intention of playing, sure he experiments with formation and personnel but the end result is always the same style of football. So, without player options available it really is on him and his staff to conjure up a formula to break dogged opposition down, as yet this remains his biggest flaw.

 

[elwheelio]

The OP has called this one right. There are teams we should beat - because we've got a better team. There are teams Citeh should beat - and they do 9 times out of 10; there are teams we hould beat - unfortunately we only manage about 3 or 4 out of those 10.

....... and this isn't all about us not getting a striker - 'any striker' - in. Fed up with all that bolleaux.

Very true. People moan about Maupay but it's not like he ever gets much service. We could have Lewandowski up there but if he never receives the ball in dangerous positions, he won't score.

 

[Skaville]

Pep Guardiolas Man City lost to Palace a week or two ago. Might not be ready for a big club.

About "teams we should beat" there is a collision of reality and fantasy:
The reality is that there are no such teams. There are no teams like that, not for Manchester City and certainly not for Brighton.

Obviously, the record against bottom teams involves Grahams tactics and choices. He makes mistakes. And when the team plays well, its also partly because of him. But the players on the pitch is, in success and failure, always the most important part in determining the outcome of a game. There is an almost frightening correlation between wages and where you end up in the league. Because player quality is the number one determining factor - and while we are saying "this and this guy, look how great they are" others are saying "look at the nice results GP is getting with such a shit squad". The truth is somewhere in between. Its a decent team with decent players and could overachieve compared to wage budget, but there are no "should" beat teams.

City should beat Palace. That’s a reality.

The league table after ten games is a perfect form table. We were 8th, they were 20th and we were at home. According to the bookmakers we were 1/2, they were 5/1. We were expected to beat them and it’s up to us to exploit our current ascendancy over them to do so.

It was the same in games against Sheffield United and West Brom last season. It’s no different to Norwich a few weeks ago. I appreciate that you have Potter tinted spectacles; we all do, but you can’t ignore the obvious.

 

[Skaville]

Very true. People moan about Maupay but it's not like he ever gets much service. We could have Lewandowski up there but if he never receives the ball in dangerous positions, he won't score.

Agreed. Maupay got no service at all and ended up coming deeper and deeper to try and influence the game

 

[Justice]

Very true. People moan about Maupay but it's not like he ever gets much service. We could have Lewandowski up there but if he never receives the ball in dangerous positions, he won't score.

I’m confident Lewandowski would of put away at least one of the Lamptey cross the Lamptey chance and the perfect ball from Trossard that Cucurella got all wrong. Shame we didn’t show any ambition in the summer Arsenal could of bought us a decent striker if you look at it differently with the BW transfer.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It's something that needs to get better, yes. Is it a 'flaw' though? That speaks as if it's something permanent, that cannot be changed. I completely disagree.

Indeed, i think this latest switch to try the false 9 is all about finding ways to improve this part of the have, to beat teams who sit deep and defend. Potter recognises the issue and is trying to combat it. I could go into depth about why it's not quite working at the moment, why the personnel aren't quite right for this tactic, but a flaw on Potter's part I don't see.

Finally, the ONLY teams who routinely beat the bottom half, whether they are putting up defensive walls or not, are the top 3 or 4. Everyone else will be frustrated by these teams several times a season.

 

[el punal]

Brilliant manager, coach and technician, the best we’ve ever had. So good at analysing top opposition who will play their own style to try and beat us.

Whenever we’re the underdog we seem to out perform expectation, always in performance and often with results. However, as soon as the onus is on us to dictate a game we should win we largely fail. He can’t instil a game plan that gets results.

He talks a lot about ‘personality’, but the next step in our evolution has to be to find a way to put sides we should be beating to the sword. We need our own ‘personality’. It’s his biggest failing and he’s not ready for a ‘big club’ until he can master it. Good news for us I guess.

It’s the expectation bit we can’t seem to handle. Two teams, Norwich and Newcastle, who everyone expects us to put to the sword both survive because we are frustratingly disappointing in not converting our dominance into goals. Yet again, in both games, the opposition have come back at us in the closing stages. In some respects we are the ones that are clinging on for the point at the end.

On the other hand, welcome to the world of football. Who would have thought we would get a point at Liverpool after being 2-0 down, or Burnley grafting for a draw at high flying Chelsea, or Norwich, at last, getting a win at Brentford?

So after a getting a disappointing one point instead the expected three we climb the table to sixth place. It’s a funny old game, Saint.

 

[Doc Lynam]

Imho.

He’s Guardiola-esque in tactics - possession, hunting the ball back, inter-changeability of players, passing it into the net, pushed upfield.

Which is fine when a team wants to play ball - Arsenal, Watford, Liverpool. Exploiting their gambles.

But it so often comes to a shuddering halt when the opponents are savvy, aren’t suckered into throwing bodies forward, keep their defensive shape. Hodgson robbed us with exactly that, relying on just two or three to counter attack, Benitez’s Everton too. Others offer little ambition, but love the 6 yard chaos of set pieces to deny us.

Often, he hasn’t got the answers to that.

True why can’t he beat them at their own game, 2 teams neither one stepping over the half way line.

Both teams guaranteed at least a point.

But in all seriousness it’s the next step of our evolution, beating teams that just sit off us.

 

[el punal]

I’m confident Lewandowski would of put away at least one of the Lamptey cross the Lamptey chance and the perfect ball from Trossard that Cucurella got all wrong. Shame we didn’t show any ambition in the summer Arsenal could of bought us a decent striker if you look at it differently with the BW transfer.

How do you know there was a lack of ambition from the club on trying to sign a striker? It could be any number of reasons why we were unsuccessful. The club are not going to broadcast who they were targeting, or give an update on progress of negotiations, or reasons for not signing a player. If it happens and all is good then an announcement is made - unless of course you’ve got a hotline to Tony Bloom’s inner sanctum and are privy to all the gen that’s going on.

 

[A1X]

I think there’s a mindset thing involved too which Potter needs to drum out of some, once we went ahead we looked complacent and, dare I say it, a little lazy. We stopped doing the basics as though we felt “that’s the win in the bag”. When Newcastle improved second half we then panicked as this wasn’t what we saw coming, and when they eventually equalised we looked totally shot from a confidence perspective, when we should have gone straight back to basics. The Sanchez red was a classic example of a team panicking, for instance.

It’s not the first time we’ve done this under Potter and I’d have hoped he’d have started coaching this out of us by now, but seemingly not.

 

[BadFish]

True why can’t he beat them at their own game, 2 teams neither one stepping over the half way line.

Both teams guaranteed at least a point.

But in all seriousness it’s the next step of our evolution, beating teams that just sit off us.

This.

lots of teams that struggle with this. We are not alone. we are still building and still improving .

I think we have got a little ahead of ourselves this season.

 

[Mackenzie]

We put a couple of decent crosses in today to no forward. We could do with a Murray in there.