[Albion] RDZ - “we don’t need a striker in January”

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

This high-wire balancing act without one or more credible strikers at this level must have a limited life-span now shirley. Seem to be getting away with it for now, just about, but REALLY pushing our luck to extend it much further. It's starting to smack of misplaced complacency by the club

 

[Zeberdi]

Couldn’t read the article - met with a pay wall;

Anyway, I’m sure this argument will go on ad nauseum regardless of how Brighton are doing at any given time but is it realistic to bang on about getting a ‘striker’ for Brighton at the moment? And why trot out this tired old trope when Brighton are having (since the end of last season) their highest goal scoring period since being promoted?

- The way it seems to me is that the amount of money you’d have to spend on a striker that’s going to come with a goal stat of the sort some folks are looking for (20+ per season with a proven record in a comparable mid-PL level) would cost at least £60-75m (and don’t forget the ongoing wages that would need to be commensurate with that level).

This does not seem fit in with what Brighton/Zerbi are trying to do (at the moment!) imo - at least from what I can see - neither in line with the Club’s sustainable financial development (with academy/youngsters & shrewd signings for high sell-ons) or in his style of play. He is building up a defence style that can play out from the back (and don’t need to keep it there!), push forward in an passing attack build up to an aggressively attacking midfield. To this end, we already have several potential regular goal scorers in the midfield that are themselves still improving under the new coach (eg. March, Caicedo, Mac Allister, Gross) and an exciting addition to that plan is Pervis. Yes, a lot of pressure is on Trossard, (and my comments are contingent on him being here!) but Welbeck is still a powerful presence in the box, even if it’s just to ward off defenders until others move up - significantly, I think we will see Enciso regularly add to our overall goal scoring stats by the end of the season - apart from a few careless/inexperienced errors v Chelsea, I thought he was very impactful.

In addition, I am very encouraged by the signing of Facundo Buonanotte - he is another attacking midfielder who will hopefully add to our squad’s forward strength and potential goal scorers. Judging by some of his marketing clips, he is potentially another massive signing for us. The philosophy under Potter and under De Zerbi is very much that goal scoring is a team effort and I think we can see that in the choice of recent signings and style of play - until the resources already available are maximised, including players improving under transition, recent signings bedding in, it doesn’t make sense to me to splash out on a ‘striker’ (yet?).

That doesn’t mean to say we don’t need to be more clinical in front of goal/work on the last 25m - we do and both GP and RDZ recognised that (as does everyone!) but a striker should not be bought in IMHO to compensate for existing attacking midfielders and new signings having not reached their potential and not if it creates an unbalance in the team both in terms of play strategy and skill level - at the end of the day, Strikers don’t win matches, teams do and until we have a team and the finances that would be justified putting a £60m man up front and playing & paying well enough to keep him there, I think we are muddling along fine (IMHO!) and I remain excited with how Brighton are doing at the moment.

oops sorry, just realised what a ridiculously long post this is

(edit - The line up today would seem to illustrate the above)

 

[Swansman]

This high-wire balancing act without one or more credible strikers at this level must have a limited life-span now shirley. Seem to be getting away with it for now, just about, but REALLY pushing our luck to extend it much further. It's starting to smack of misplaced complacency by the club

Strange how this alleged incompetence and complacency that you go on about year after year after year still somehow - probably entirely down to luck, as you say - still manage to improve every pretty much every single year.

 

[Seagull58]

I agree with the manager. The game isn't played with an out and out striker anymore...or at least we don't. Multi positional is the name of the game and with the likes of Ferguson, Peupion and Miller or even Moran looking the part in the u21's, we have enough up and coming cover to keep NSC bleating for the next couple of years!

Yes, because City are shit with the orc upfront.

 

[b.w.2.]

…because Welbeck and Trossard can play in that position”
Also wants Solly to “score more” , likes Mitoma - wants him to play 2-3 games “in a row”.
Says he will sit down during World Cup with the recruitment team and talk about what he needs.

Roberto De Zerbi not targeting a striker for Brighton in January

Roberto De Zerbi isn’t targeting a striker for Brighton in January. The Italian head coach’s side destroyed Chelsea 4-1 last Saturday with opening goal scorer Leandro Trossard playing as the No 9 in place of the ill Danny Welbeck. De Zerbi says: “We don’t need a striker in...

theathletic.com

Mistake. Conveniently forgetting 3 games without a goal and our only real striker has zero goals

 

[b.w.2.]

Excellent. Look forward to Welbeck, March & Trossard continuing in their rich goal scoring form to take us into Europe this season

You mean Tross only

 

[b.w.2.]

BW2 will be incandescent with rage

I am

 

[KZNSeagull]

Non story. TB doesn't like doing transfer business in January anyway.

 

[b.w.2.]

We are DOOMED!! Where is b. W. 2 when you need him?

Lol

Nobody said doomed. The goal is officially top 10

 

[macbeth]

- The way it seems to me is that the amount of money you’d have to spend on a striker that’s going to come with a goal stat of the sort some folks are looking for (20+ per season with a proven record in a comparable mid-PL level) would cost at least £60-75m (and don’t forget the ongoing wages that would need to be commensurate with that level).

agree with everything else you said but this is a complete fallacy. aside from one or two people at the extreme end of the spectrum, the vast, vast, majority of people asking for a new striker would be content with a £20-£30 million-ish player who can get 10-15 goals a season (though we may actually already have one of those this season, and granted that still isn't cheap)
but the suggestion that the fans are largely demanding we spend excess of £50M on a striker just feeds into the 'ungrateful' narrative that the likes of naylor and o'hara have been peddling for the past couple of weeks, and is actually a total misrepresentation of a perfectly reasonable debate that fans have been having.

 

[b.w.2.]

Is that what you actually think, or what you've been told to say under duress from b.W.2?

Even I don’t think that

 

[Icy Gull]

on a serious note, if he says we don't need one then so be it. but surely that means he has assurances that we're holding on to leo

I suggest Chelsea will make that decision

 

[Frankworthington]

Nobody said doomed. The goal is officially top 10

Didn't we finish in the top 10 last season?

I Was joking. I think we should be trying to sign Chris Wood in the new window. Slower than a steam roller, can't hit a cows arse with a banjo and no resale value! Lol

Nice to have you back

 

[Zeberdi]

agree with everything else you said but this is a complete fallacy. aside from one or two people at the extreme end of the spectrum, the vast, vast, majority of people asking for a new striker would be content with a £20-£30 million-ish player who can get 10-15 goals a season (though we may actually already have one of those this season, and granted that still isn't cheap)
but the suggestion that the fans are largely demanding we spend excess of £50M on a striker just feeds into the 'ungrateful' narrative that the likes of naylor and o'hara have been peddling for the past couple of weeks, and is actually a total misrepresentation of a perfectly reasonable debate that fans have been having.

I take your point but I am still not convinced a/ it is necessary ( because of the midfielders we have who are very capable of getting forward and scoring goals and because of Trossard, and b/ we could realistically get a striker with a proven track record of scoring 10-15 goals a season at PL level or equivalent for £20-30m. (The fact that Undav scored 26 for Union in his last season there and has only since made half a dozen appearances for Brighton with no goals illustrates the very different/high level of football required to score 15-20 goals a season in the PL.

It will be very interesting to see how today’s 4,5,1 line v Wolves up does in the light of this discussion!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Strange how this alleged incompetence and complacency that you go on about year after year after year still somehow - probably entirely down to luck, as you say - still manage to improve every pretty much every single year.

Like I say, it's a high-wire balancing act that won't last forever. Probably not past January in fact when Trossard gets cherry-picked by Arctic Benny or Smug Eddie

 

[b.w.2.]

Didn't we finish in the top 10 last season?

I Was joking. I think we should be trying to sign Chris Wood in the new window. Slower than a steam roller, can't hit a cows arse with a banjo and no resale value! Lol

Nice to have you back

Well wouldn’t be my choice either. Newcastle wiz robbed

 

[macbeth]

I take your point but I am still not convinced a/ it is necessary ( because of the midfielders we have who are very capable of getting forward and scoring goals and because of Trossard, and b/ we could realistically get a striker with a proven track record of scoring 10-15 goals a season at PL level or equivalent for £20-30m. (The fact that Undav scored 26 for Union in his last season there and has only since made half a dozen appearances for Brighton with no goals illustrates the very different/high level of football required to score 15-20 goals a season in the PL.

It will be very interesting to see how today’s 4,5,1 line v Wolves up does in the light of this discussion!

yeah I'm not gonna argue either way, ultimately we're doing really well, so I'm happy to stick with the same decision making process. I do think we absolutely could, however, find a player who would score double figures for around that figure. Whether they'd be someone who could play the role welbeck does is another question. But that's still a far cry from anyone actually seriously demanding we spend £50+M on a striker, which really doesn't happen that often (that being the overall point of my post). However it appears there's no need to find out if I'm right or wrong!

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I agree with those suggesting a striker is still our main transfer priority.

There's still a load of games like Forest at home, where the technical midfield types knocking it around endlessly run into a brick wall of 10 behind the ball. The next stage for us is to be able to find a goal in those home games.

 

[Weststander]

Goals are flowing from midfield.

I'll take that

 

[Oh_aye]

Judging by the Chelsea Game it's clear enciso also carries a threat.