[Albion] Still keeping the faith with Potter?

[Weststander]

It’s the one thing that does bug me this season . It wasn’t broken so why have we tinkered with it . Was the best thing about us these last two seasons


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There’s shirley a happy medium.

 

[spence]

I wish Potter teams could achieve defensive shut outs.

There’s no shame in having a great defensive set up, and clean sheets.

It’s not as if we’re being served up Champagne attacking football, goals galore and wins, to compensate. We’re not.

If we go down it will be our horrific defending. that costs us. We give away so many cheap goals.

 

[Weststander]

If we go down it will be our horrific defending. that costs us. We give away so many cheap goals.

Fact.

 

[Stat Brother]

6 months and 1 transfer window into a long term project.

Give me today over last seasons defensive solidity, away to Spurs, any day of the week.

 

[TottonSeagull]

Agree, for all the plaudits that have been given to GP for our style of play, he seems unable to produce a safe and steady defence. It’s all ok employing defenders that can pick a pass and run with the ball but I’d rather have defenders that have ability in defending first. The defence has been our strong point for the last 2 seasons. He needs to sort this out. Unfortunately the defence and goalkeeper have been at fault for far too many goals this season. It wouldn’t be so much of a problem if we were banging in loads of goals but we are struggling to score.
Currently 2 pts off the bottom 3. Jury is out for me!

 

[GT49er]

"I’ve long said if we go down I can see us sticking with GP to bring us back up."

That's what the majority of people on here were saying about Hughton this time last year...

I wonder if we had gone down, would we now be relying on CH's undoubted ability to get us back up again? Perhaps it was keeping us up - especially in the way that was achieved - that cost him his job.

 

[Mackenzie]

Yes.

A win against Bournemouth and I’ll feel a lot happier though as the results have been pretty depressing recently (Arsenal aside).

 

[Acker79]

If we go down it will be our horrific defending. that costs us. We give away so many cheap goals.

We also waste too many good attacking opportunities. We can't expect to dominate Newcastle for 75 minutes and not score. Dominate Palace for 75 minutes and only get one goal. We can't expect to miss good chances to score and make it 2-0 against Spurs, and expect to get away with it.

Our lack of finishing, overplaying, making the wrong decisions in the final third is playing as big a part in our sense of failing to achieve what we should have as our defensive weaknesses.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

6 months and 1 transfer window into a long term project.

Give me today over last seasons defensive solidity, away to Spurs, any day of the week.

This.

This season has been far more enjoyable than the last two.

 

[Acker79]

Give me today over last seasons defensive solidity, away to Spurs, any day of the week.

I dunno, last year we knew what to expect and it played out exactly that way. This year we maybe expected a loss (or at least I did), but then we took the lead and that seed of hope started to develop and flower, only to be painfully ripped out. Last season was much less stressful and antagonising.

 

[Stat Brother]

We also waste too many good attacking opportunities. We can't expect to dominate Newcastle for 75 minutes and not score. Dominate Palace for 75 minutes and only get one goal. We can't expect to miss good chances to score and make it 2-0 against Spurs, and expect to get away with it.

Our lack of finishing, overplaying, making the wrong decisions in the final third is playing as big a part in our sense of failing to achieve what we should have as our defensive weaknesses.

What do you expect with only 2 strikers?

We knew this was going to happen as soon as Andone and Big Jurg were off loaded and not replaced.

The fact that 'this' is a really issue now, just 2 games from the window being thrown open again is the best possible result.


A striker will be bought (I guess returned is also a very unlikely possibility) and the team goes again, but this time just a little bit stronger.

 

[GT49er]

This.

This season has been far more enjoyable than the last two.

Harsh. Very harsh. More enjoyable than the second half of last season, yes.

 

[Stat Brother]

I dunno, last year we knew what to expect and it played out exactly that way. This year we maybe expected a loss (or at least I did), but then we took the lead and that seed of hope started to develop and flower, only to be painfully ripped out. Last season was much less stressful and antagonising.

Cos it was shite and we didn't care.



It's the hope that kills yer.

 

[Simster]

We are clearly in a relegation battle but I still have faith in what I see with my own eyes. i.e we did seem to go toe to toe with Champions League finalists, even with our best player out ill. Oh and I watched the last 20 mins of Villa Norwich and neither team looked remotely as good as the Albion.

We haven't had much luck - only Everton at home. I wouldn't be that surprised to see us take 4 or even 6 points from our next two games, and we will be top half and knocking on the door of the top 6 again. That's the way this league is. You wouldn't usually say the league table lies, but with half the league separated by a handful of points, I'm really not so sure.

 

[Acker79]

What do you expect with only 2 strikers?

That's four feet and two heads - more than enough to take shots and score goals!

I don't think it all lays at the feet of our strikers. Yes, the options there are limited, but the second line of attack - Alzate, March, Trossard, Gross, Proper, Stephens, Burn, Montoya, Schelotto, Bissouma, Mooy - they are as big a problem - not shooting when they should, not passing when they should, overplaying, not putting crosses in, and so on.

 

[Eeyore]

Apart from the last couple of games, Albion have played lovely football this year. Really enjoying it.

Bit annoying to be close to the bottom three. But it's an enjoyable season. Playing enjoyable football trumps playing ugly negative stuff. Depends what you want. I'd rather be in the Championship playing nice football than the Premier League serving up tedium. Enjoying seeing Albion was always more important to me.

Hopefully I can still have both.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Harsh. Very harsh. More enjoyable than the second half of last season, yes.

In what way harsh? I’m just stating I have enjoyed this season a lot more. Hughton did a great job in our time with us but even the games we won last season were hard work to watch.

Personally I think the football we’re playing this season is on a different level and in the long run will move us a lot further forward than the way we played the last 2 seasons. It is still really early days under Potter and yet he has improved us massively.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I dunno, last year we knew what to expect and it played out exactly that way. This year we maybe expected a loss (or at least I did), but then we took the lead and that seed of hope started to develop and flower, only to be painfully ripped out. Last season was much less stressful and antagonising.

Can’t quite agree with that....if we take last seasons game at Tottenham it was like a battle at the Alamo with no chance of winning and we duly conceded and agonisingly lost ...tad different than today....but I do agree with your other post about not taking chances I don’t think we are making many ‘clear cut’ ones and when we do we are just not converting enough of them...if AC had tucked away that header from roughly the six yard box it would have been game over ....looking a tad toothless up front

 

[Stat Brother]

That's four feet and two heads - more than enough to take shots and score goals!

I don't think it all lays at the feet of our strikers. Yes, the options there are limited, but the second line of attack - Alzate, March, Trossard, Gross, Proper, Stephens, Burn, Montoya, Schelotto, Bissouma, Mooy - they are as big a problem - not shooting when they should, not passing when they should, overplaying, not putting crosses in, and so on.

True.

But at the end of the day strikers are only as good as their goals.
Although Maupay has been good & Connolly industrious neither have been prolific.

Sure plenty of other haven't been either, but with 15 minutes to go and the team needing a goal GPott has had nobody to turn too.

 

[zefarelly]

Apart from the last couple of games, Albion have played lovely football this year. Really enjoying it.

Bit annoying to be close to the bottom three. But it's an enjoyable season. Playing enjoyable football trumps playing ugly negative stuff. Depends what you want. I'd rather be in the Championship playing nice football than the Premier League serving up tedium. Enjoying seeing Albion was always more important to me.

Hopefully I can still have both.

I completely agree, we are however on the verge of playing enjoyable to watch football to a sustainable PL standard . . . . just another rung up the ladder . . . . we're clawing at it now . . . . Keep Mooy and sign a 6' tall strong striker under 30 and it should be happy daze!