[Albion] RDZ’s mentality and ‘balls’

[macbeth]

seems a bit silly to me to throw away what was clearly a great project last season just because we’ve looked very low on confidence this season.

some won’t like to hear this but, and RDZ holds as much blame as anyone else, this all comes down to the recruitment last summer being poor. everyone knew we needed a right back, many suspected we needed another midfielder. and then january was too difficult of a market to operate in.

it’s irritating that there’s been all this negativity in a season full of club firsts, and the manager has contributed to that, but ultimately the ‘balls’ he spoke about last season is confidence, and that’s very easy to come by when you beat liverpool and chealsea twice and win 3-0 away at arsenal. so it’s no wonder that hasn’t been the same this season. the issue, as ever, has been too many points dropped against teams who just sit back and look to counter. i don’t know what people are expecting RDZ to do about that when he has no mitoma, no march, a weak midfield and a poor defence.

so, as i said, it seems silly to say that we need to throw away what looked like a very good project last season just because it hasn’t been all roses this season. he’s still a young manager, he’s still learning, give him better players in the summer and remove the passengers like fati and milner, improve on players like lamptey and lallana, and if we’re still in the same situation this time next year then fair enough, sack him

 

[J2 DOG]

The biggest problem apart from not scoring enough goals at the moment is the fact we give the ball away far too cheaply. This has been a factor this season and I think De Zerbi thinks that it doesn’t matter as we can play with arrogance in risk and reward. Well there is very little reward at the moment in the all important terms of goals scored! 2 of Arsenals goals today came from us losing the ball at key times or areas.? Something Arsenal never done all game.What is our xpg at the moment. It cannot be even 1.

 

[GT49er]

28 points from last 25 league games. It’s worse than not great - as you say unlikely to be relegation form but it is 16th/17th place form. Certainly not a team hoping to finish top half, let alone in Europe.

Do get your facts right before 'correcting' mine. After 6 games we had 13 points (P6, W4, D1, L1) -
https://www.goalometer.com/incremental_tables/2023_6_games.php
Edit: the information in this link is incorrect - as pointed out, we had 15 points, not 13 this time round. Apologies for quoting an inaccurate source; still not getting relegated though!

We've now played 31 (31-6=25) and have 43 points (43-13=30). That's 30 points from 25 - 1.2 points per game; that equates to 46 points over a full 38 game season. You ain't ever going to get relegated with 46 points! Higher than 16th/17th. place too!

But still not top ten though.

 

[Weststander]

28 points from last 25 league games. It’s worse than not great - as you say unlikely to be relegation form but it is 16th/17th place form. Certainly not a team hoping to finish top half, let alone in Europe.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Do get your facts right before 'correcting' mine. After 6 games we had 13 points (P6, W4, D1, L1) -
https://www.goalometer.com/incremental_tables/2023_6_games.php

We've now played 31 (31-6=25) and have 43 points (43-13=30). That's 30 points from 25 - 1.2 points per game; that equates to 46 points over a full 38 game season. You ain't ever going to get relegated with 46 points! Higher than 16th/17th. place too!

But still not top ten though.

Errr, calm down old fella, you might want to do your research again before wrongly trying to correct my facts!

 

[Dave the OAP]

So was RDZ right about the transfer window?

 

[raymondo]

-caicedo and mac not replaced.
-awful summer signings since we lost our recruitment team which we only get worse seeing as Chelsea took our last one standing: Milner, fati, dahoud. All crap.
-injuries
-signing no one when 3 players were needed in jan

= why he has lost his mojo and fair enough.

He doesn’t suit well with bloom so will be for the best he leaves but can’t see anyone touching him, maybe an average Italian team.

Agree with much of that...but Dahoud and Fati were RDZ'S choices as far as I understand.

 

[A1X]

 

[zefarelly]

Jeez . . . Thought I'd been hacked and logged on to a Chelsea forum . . . . Maybe you lot are supporting the wrong team.

 

[chickens]

Wow. We’re really precious when we lose.

I just hope we don’t all demonstrate the same level of insecurity in our personal relationships.

“He’s going to leave us.”
“He’s looking at other teams.”
“He doesn’t even notice us any more.”
“He’s stopped caring.”

These are all lines I expect to hear delivered to a confidant by a distraught middle-aged woman in an overly melodramatic soap opera.

I don’t like losing either, but get a grip.

 

[Garyoldfan]

We don’t shoot, don’t like to shoot, have the bottle to shoot. We are just not a very shooty team. This I believe is a big issue (the lack of shooting).

 

[A1X]

We don’t shoot, don’t like to shoot, have the bottle to shoot. We are just not a very shooty team. This I believe is a big issue (the lack of shooting).

Apart from Enciso, who shoots every time

 

[GT49er]

Errr, calm down old fella, you might want to do your research again before wrongly trying to correct my facts!

Quite calm. Facts checked. My maths is still correct. 46 points a season is safety, so sort of OK but not very exciting - but it is a bit Palace-y I suppose.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Quite calm. Facts checked. My maths is still correct. 46 points a season is safety, so sort of OK but not very exciting - but it is a bit Palace-y I suppose.

But your ‘facts’ were wrong after you tried saying I was wrong! You were using 2022/2023 season stats!

 

[pocketseagull]

At times today we were still putting together some clever passes and those balls that cut through the middle, our problem right now is we seem scared to take on a shot.

 

[GT49er]

But your ‘facts’ were wrong after you tried saying I was wrong! You were using 2022/2023 season stats!

No, it's the 2023(-2024) season. The arrow on the left near the top will take you to the 2022(-2023) season if you wish. Both seasons we had 13 from the first 6 anyway................

 

[Zeus]

Feels to me that De Zerbi checked out when the Jan window reinforcement signings didn’t arrive and now the players have too. I just can’t imagine TB is that impressed with how he has conducted press conferences either. Personally I think it will be best for all concerned if he moves on end of season, protects his legacy as our best ever manager, and TB gives someone a good pre season to plan for next campaign.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

No, it's the 2023(-2024) season. The arrow on the left near the top will take you to the 2022(-2023) season if you wish. Both seasons we had 13 from the first 6 anyway................

No we didn’t!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had 15 from the first 6 games this season!!! FFS!

 

[Me and my Monkey]

Bonkers. I'm speechless. Although I will say some people seem to have gone barking mad.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

At times today we were still putting together some clever passes and those balls that cut through the middle, our problem right now is we seem scared to take on a shot.

Wasn't easy to find the space to take a shot tho, Arsenal's defence is pretty well-drilled. And on Wednesday Brentford just parked the bus