[Albion] RDZ in

[Zeberdi]

Statement from our Coach today, says nothing short of complete dedication and a desire to win with us …

““I am very proud to be be back in this country with my team,” Roberto said. “I usually fall in love with my teams and my players, like in Foggia, Benevento, Sassuolo, even Shakhtar where I only spent six months…I always feel very attached to the team and the environment, but this is a team that I really love. This is a team that can lose 3-0, that can be trashed, it can be overwhelmed, but you look at the level of this team and it always bounces back. They always react after a heavy defeat…We pick ourselves up and we do it by playing with pride, with hunger…

I have been coaching for ten years now and I have had five or six teams and this is the team where the players are most similar to me in terms of pride, hunger, dignity, motivation, values. Both the young and senior players in how they live football, they are very similar to me.

With the injuries, we have two ways to approach it. We can either complain and cry about it, or we take it as a chance to compete without these missing players... Plus, there are no guarantees [that even] with the injured players like Joao Pedro, Kaoru Mitoma and James Milner we would go through. I don’t want to listen to any complaints because we have enough to be competitive.”

Full article on BHA

'We can be trashed, but we will always bounce back'

De Zerbi expects his team to show their fighting spirit in Rome on Thursday night.

www.brightonandhovealbion.com

(Edit - seems right to also acknowledge @jackalbion whose thread this is who has been injured in Roma - sorry you’ve been injured and really hope you get to the Stadio Olimpico to see the match this afternoon, Jack. UTA!)

 

[Normandy seagull]

Shame the bloke can’t organise a defence to save his life. A major failing sadly. That saying, the personnel aren’t good enough in defence

 

[Mancgull]

Shame the bloke can’t organise a defence to save his life. A major failing sadly. That saying, the personnel aren’t good enough in defence

It’s not the defence as individuals though, it’s more our lack of defensive structure.

 

[Zeberdi]

It’s not the defence as individuals though, it’s more our lack of defensive structure.

Yeah - covered this in an earlier post - if you have a full back system that repeatedly leaves too much space behind the ball when we press high, you can’t not expect the opposition to exploit the inside channels in the counter especially on the left and behind the defensive midfield pivot.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

I just hope he is poached by a ‘big’ club soon and Potter is still available. The longer we go away from Potter’s side, the worse we get.

 

[Weststander]

Anyone here dream of a team who does defence too?

It worked last season due a far, far superior best 11. Colwill, Caicedo and MacA were great and improved the players around. With a fit, prime Veltman.

Post Plucky at the end of Sept we’ve often been sh1t. A poor AEK team tore us apart, it was pinball in our box.

The very occasional highlight in that period …. destroying CP and Wilder twice.

Assuming RDZ walks … who’ll replace him and will Bloom try to sign quality DM’ers?

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Anyone here dream of a team who does defence too?

It worked last season due a far, far superior best 11. Colwill, Caicedo and MacA were great and improved the players around. With a fit, prime Veltman.

Post Plucky at the end of Sept we’ve often been sh1t. A poor AEK team tore us apart, it was pinball in our box.

The very occasional highlight in that period …. destroying CP and Wilder twice.

Assuming RDZ walks … who’ll replace him and will Bloom try to sign quality DM’ers?

After tonight and recent results, if RDZ really had something about him, he would come out in the next few days and sign that contract extension. He’s clearly not ready for a top club yet and needs to knuckle down, keep learning his trade and get through this difficult stage to really prove himself. Think of the boost that would give to morale in the club where everyone apparently loves him ahead of next Thursday where hopefully we can at least save a bit of face. He could then start planning for next season and really attack the PL without European distraction.

We’ve been very good for his career and whilst he’s done a decent if not spectactular job for us, I think he owes us this.

 

[Weststander]

After tonight and recent results, if RDZ really had something about him, he would come out in the next few days and sign that contract extension. He’s clearly not ready for a top club yet and needs to knuckle down, keep learning his trade and get through this difficult stage to really prove himself. Think of the boost that would give to morale in the club where everyone apparently loves him ahead of next Thursday where hopefully we can at least save a bit of face. He could then start planning for next season and really attack the PL without European distraction.

We’ve been very good for his career and whilst he’s done a decent if not spectactular job for us, I think he owes us this.

1. It’s obvious he’s hedging his bets, seeing if a big spending club comes in for him.
2. What can TB and he agree on regarding summer 2024 acquisitions? If TB lays the law down on; more first teamer sales, with no significant signings to replace them and deal with DM/LB …. I think it’ll be a parting.

 

[American Seagle]

This is definitely a bad spell for him. His first here. The big test is how he comes through it.

 

[mile oak]

RDZ is here for the long term. Ridiculous these calls for him to go.

 

[Forster's Armband]

RDZ is here for the long term. Ridiculous these calls for him to go.

I think after this poor run he will be here for at least one more season. On the other points, I agree it's the tactics not the personnel that is the issue in defence.

 

[dazzer6666]

The very occasional highlight in that period …. destroying CP and Wilder twice.

Assuming RDZ walks … who’ll replace him and will Bloom try to sign quality DM’ers?

Beating Ajax twice
Winning in Athens
Marseille at home
Cutting Spurs to shreds

We’ll limp to the end of the season now and finish 8th or 9th I reckon. Given the ridiculous injuries, that plus topping our EL group is ok in what has been a steep learning curve of a season for everyone. Regroup, add a few in the summer (and offload a few) and we’re well set for next season.

 

[American Seagle]

Beating Ajax twice
Winning in Athens
Marseille at home
Cutting Spurs to shreds

We’ll limp to the end of the season now and finish 8th or 9th I reckon. Given the ridiculous injuries, that plus topping our EL group is ok in what has been a steep learning curve of a season for everyone. Regroup, add a few in the summer (and offload a few) and we’re well set for next season.

Yup.
The pressure will be high in De Zerbi to get off to a good start though. That and eyes will be on the injury situation....a second season in a row with a bad series of injuries is not unlucky.

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Beating Ajax twice
Winning in Athens
Marseille at home
Cutting Spurs to shreds

We’ll limp to the end of the season now and finish 8th or 9th I reckon. Given the ridiculous injuries, that plus topping our EL group is ok in what has been a steep learning curve of a season for everyone. Regroup, add a few in the summer (and offload a few) and we’re well set for next season.

I think @Weststander has a point. We’ve not played well for a long time, bar against proper shite opposition. The Spurs home game we played well but a lot of that was because they let us play. Other teams don’t do that. Marseille at home was probably the last game where we played well against a team who had a game plan to stop us, and even then we needed Pedro magic.

Agreed re: learning curve

However, is it not only a really useful learning curve for us if we qualify for European football again with many of the same faces? I guess some of the younger guys could hopefully be here still if we manage it again.

 

[Weststander]

Beating Ajax twice
Winning in Athens
Marseille at home
Cutting Spurs to shreds

We’ll limp to the end of the season now and finish 8th or 9th I reckon. Given the ridiculous injuries, that plus topping our EL group is ok in what has been a steep learning curve of a season for everyone. Regroup, add a few in the summer (and offload a few) and we’re well set for next season.

To me, there’s three parts to our season:
- PL Aug/Sept on fire.
- EL will live in the memory.
- PL post Bmuff …. often meh. I don’t subscribe to the unlucky within a huge number of losses and draws narrative that some people try to push, over a large sample size, results are representative. Where we’ve blown it at home against a phalanx of less adventurous teams we were the architects of our own downfall.

Colwill/MacA/Caicedo hugely missed, the injuries, RDZ not his previous self mid game when things turned …. perhaps missing the on pitch leaders of 2022/23?

So much in flux just now, as is the case with most clubs, I don’t think too far ahead about who’ll be the manager either way. RDZ is no longer a deity to me, but I also feel sorry for him with last summer’s transfer window. Will Pedro still be an Albion player next September? Time will tell.

 

[peterward]

RDZ is here for the long term. Ridiculous these calls for him to go.

Not sure if he's here for long term, but agree, anyone saying he needs to go, should give their head a wobble.

 

[dazzer6666]

To me, there’s three parts to our season:
- PL Aug/Sept on fire.
- EL will live in the memory.
- PL post Bmuff …. often meh. I don’t subscribe to the unlucky within a huge number of losses and draws narrative that some people try to push, over a large sample size, results are representative. Where we’ve blown it at home against a phalanx of less adventurous teams we were the architects of our own downfall.

Colwill/MacA/Caicedo hugely missed, the injuries, RDZ not his previous self mid game when things turned …. perhaps missing the on pitch leaders of 2022/23?

So much in flux just now, as is the case with most clubs, I don’t think too far ahead about who’ll be the manager either way. RDZ is no longer a deity to me, but I also feel sorry for him with last summer’s transfer window. Will Pedro still be an Albion player next September? Time will tell.

The catastrophic injury list - and timing of those injuries - has been the major factor in my view, way more so than the window……and despite that we would have been in reasonable shape now if we’d had Pedro and Mitoma firing as we expected along with Enciso returning. Add Caicedo leaving (unexpectedly perhaps - too good an offer to refuse) to that and not being able to replace him with someone at least capable of doing that job in a DeZ formation and we were never going to repeat last season’s massive over-achievement. I get why RdeZ seems dejected at times - must be frustrating as hell for someone so relentlessly competitive. Long term, though, a top-half finish (still doable) and a decent run in our first European effort isn’t a bad return all at the club will have learned hugely from it and we’re in fantastic shape (including financially unlike most clubs) to reset for next season (with or without Roberto but I think and hope with as I don’t think he’s ready for a top job yet). I don’t see many unwanted outgoings - clubs simply don’t have the free cash we’d demand at the moment.

 

[dazzer6666]

I think @Weststander has a point. We’ve not played well for a long time, bar against proper shite opposition. The Spurs home game we played well but a lot of that was because they let us play. Other teams don’t do that. Marseille at home was probably the last game where we played well against a team who had a game plan to stop us, and even then we needed Pedro magic.

Agreed re: learning curve

However, is it not only a really useful learning curve for us if we qualify for European football again with many of the same faces? I guess some of the younger guys could hopefully be here still if we manage it again.

No…we don’t need (and shouldn’t expect) to qualify for Europe every season just because we’ve done it once. There will be ups and downs. I don’t see many players looking at us and thinking ‘no Europe ? I’m off/not going there’.

 

[dwayne]

No…we don’t need (and shouldn’t expect) to qualify for Europe every season just because we’ve done it once. There will be ups and downs. I don’t see many players looking at us and thinking ‘no Europe ? I’m off/not going there’.

Yer players aren't that fussed about Europe. All about the money most of the time.

 

[dazzer6666]

Yer players aren't that fussed about Europe. All about the money most of the time.

Yep - we’re a well-paid stepping stone to a top 5/6 club……vast majority of players outside that bubble would love to play for us.