[Albion] Still keeping the faith with Potter?

[Kalimantan Gull]

I do, and I think he will go on to be a great manager at places bigger than us. I just hope we don't balls this season up though.

One gripe.. He should have made the sub of Connolly to a midfielder straight away, not wait till half time. Those 10 minutes we were ripped apart ultimately cost us the game

 

[Newick Seagull]

. . how many points dropped. . ?

Sorry - not read all replies so apologies if repeating. But if you look at our performances vs what points we arguably should have picked up but didn’t, then it 100% supports GP has got us going very quickly in a way better direction. You could argue . .

• We deserved homes wins v West Ham and Burnley = 4pts . . we would be 7th, just above Spurs

• We deserved away win at Newcastle = 2pts . . we would be 6th, just below Arsenal

• We deserved draws in those two red card games v Southampton and Villa = 2pts . . we would be in 5th, in same points as Chelsea and Leicester

• We were going to win those red card games v Southampton and Villa had we stay as 11 on the pitch = 4pts . . we would be 2nd, wedged between Liverpool and City.

Over a season, I think good luck / bad luck pretty much evens itself out. Last year we had luck front half, winning games which we perhaps shouldn’t have done . . but that luck ran out and evened itself up by the end of the season. What the team mustn’t do is to loose confidence or start doubting themselves.

Personally I think we’re 5 points down on what would be a fair review of deserved points which we’ve not got . . so we deserve to be in 7th place . I’m not sure we’ll achieve that but if we continue to play like we have, keep confidence high and don’t pick up too many key injuries, then I’m going for 12th - 10th place finish.

 

[Wardy's twin]

I am one of the few who still regards Poyet as an Albion legend... and even I would say what we're experiencing now under Potter surpasses what Poyet did with that struggling League One team who went on to win the league "****ing brilliantly".

Our time in the Premier League so far has been as expected. We have been relegation fodder who has relied on rigid defensive displays to grind out results.

Not anymore.

Under Potter, we are playing like the big clubs do. We're coming at our opposition with confidence. We're dominating possession. We're making and scoring plenty of opportunities. We can beat sides including the Champions League finalists 3-0 on our day.

We go 1-0 up. Sit back and defend? No. We're looking for a 2nd. A third. Like the big clubs play.

Down to 10 men? Backs to the wall? No. We will stick to our philosophy and play football. We were so unlucky not to get a deserved point v Villa.

Potter has been a true revolution so far. I really can't believe how a manager can change a club so much in such a short time.

Don't disagree with the sentiment but in terms of exciting football (especially given the higher level of opposition) I would say Potter is currently shading it BUT i think we need to tighten the back a little.

 

[whosthedaddy]

I absolutely loved watching us dismantle Spurs at the Amex and I thought yesterday would be another fantastic game for us.

For some twenty or so minutes we were brilliant but as It turned out the bleeding International break came right at the wrong time. It robbed Mooy of his common sense due to him being absolutely knackered no doubt from globetrotting (that's my thoughts anyway) as couldn't see him being that f***ing stupid if he wasn't so tired and cranky from playing for his country twice on the 10th and 15th Oct against Napal and Chinese Taipei.

 

[Megazone]

You don't get points based on how well you play, you get them based on scoring as many or more goals than your opponents.

Entertainment is still the key thing though, that's what we're truly paying our money for, not points.

 

[Wardy's twin]

I think it has been brilliant this season. I do have a question mark over some of the decision making e.g. I would have persisted with Alzate as he really looks good , I would have had Murray on at the end if we wanted to see the game out and just get him to get people to think a bit more. But some of the football has been brilliant, more pure football in the Spurs game than in all the second half of last season.

There has been a bit of discussion about luck and I believe you can influence your luck e.g. in the 94th minute you play keep ball not attack but there is still genuine random luck and its just not happening at the moment.

 

[vagabond]

I am one of the few who still regards Poyet as an Albion legend... and even I would say what we're experiencing now under Potter surpasses what Poyet did with that struggling League One team who went on to win the league "****ing brilliantly".

Our time in the Premier League so far has been as expected. We have been relegation fodder who has relied on rigid defensive displays to grind out results.

Not anymore.

Under Potter, we are playing like the big clubs do. We're coming at our opposition with confidence. We're dominating possession. We're making and scoring plenty of opportunities. We can beat sides including the Champions League finalists 3-0 on our day.

We go 1-0 up. Sit back and defend? No. We're looking for a 2nd. A third. Like the big clubs play.

Down to 10 men? Backs to the wall? No. We will stick to our philosophy and play football. We were so unlucky not to get a deserved point v Villa.

Potter has been a true revolution so far. I really can't believe how a manager can change a club so much in such a short time.

Spot on [emoji106]

 

[London Irish]

I’m not a 12 year old fanboy, I’ll judge any manager on his results. If Potter gets the points I think we should get with the current players, I’ll back him. If he doesn’t, I won’t. It’s just too early to tell at the moment

 

[Megazone]

I’m not a 12 year old fanboy, I’ll judge any manager on his results. If Potter gets the points I think we should get with the current players, I’ll back him. If he doesn’t, I won’t. It’s just too early to tell at the moment

Why not just be happy for him to keep us up? That's what we're currently doing and so may it continue. Such early days to hope for anything more, especially after last seasons dire display.

 

[London Irish]

Because the current results don’t indicate anything more than a tough relegation struggle. We actually started better last season. I want to see some consistency in results, it may well come and I’ll be happy when that happens

 

[Napper]

Lots of it is refreshing .

Bit concerned we are playing well and not getting the points . Doesn’t bode well for when we have a bad patch .

 

[Icy Gull]

You really are......

I would say you must be the most positive poster since the season has begun......

As opposed to turning into one of the most negative by the end of last season...hoping to stay positive even if the worst happens. I am loving the way we are playing and look forward to every game now whereas I began to dread going to games as last season wore on. I’m in the “entertain me” camp over the “ results justify the means” camp. Each to their own eh?

When we were raped and pillaged as a club I was 100% behind whatever shit was on display on the pitch because survival was all that mattered. Now I don’t care what division we are in as long as we play entertaining football, but obviously hope it carries on being at the top table.

I could have happily given up on going if we’d carried on playing like we did most of last season. I would have become an armchair fan quite possibly. Yeah I know, bad fan but these days there are plenty to take my place.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I can hand on heart say despite the overall results so far GP is our most exciting manager since Poyet.

It is a results business undoubtedly, and the bed wetters will soon start speaking up. But anyone who has watched all our games this season (full 90 mins, not highlights on Match Of The Day) can surely see the immense revolution Graham is under-seeing here. The football we are playing is superb and unrecognisable from last season. And we finally have a manager who’s tactically flexible and not afraid to throw youngsters in.

I sincerely believe if we had the run of the green we’d be about 7 points better off.

I’m still keeping the faith. Are you?

Much more sense than a daft Potter out poll!��

We thrashed West Ham 1-1.
We thrashed Newcastle 0-0.
First half sending off probably affected the result against Saints and Villa.

 

[blue'n'white]

Ridiculous to even think that we would get shot of him.

 

[Billy the Fish]

[MENTION=12595]Acker79[/MENTION] touched on it a few posts above - Potter needs a couple of transfer windows before he can be judged properly. This season will be one of transition so there's bound to be ups and downs. We're terribly weak in both full back positions and that needs to be fixed because it's costing us points at the moment.

Overall I'm happy with what he's trying to do. Just the fact that we go to away games expecting to have some possession and a few shots is amazing.

 

[Wellesley]

I'm already worrying about the day he leaves.

 

[jimhigham]

Absolutely!

 

[nwgull]

I'm loving it. Maybe us dropping all these points due to sendings off and late equalisers is a good thing. If we had an extra 8 points at this stage, we'd all be shitting ourselves that Man U or Spurs would poach him.

I'll go so far to say that based on the entertainment provided so far, I'd want him to stay if we got relegated.

 

[Swansman]

Obviously.

I've had faith in the man since Östersund dominated two games against Athletic Bilbao with a team of former benchwarmers, rejects and bargains from the lower divisions. I genuinely believe that if you give him a few years he will build a team that challenges for CL spots.

And like I wrote in one of my first NSC posts this summer:

"About three years ago I was reading about Graham Potter, his methods and attitude, and found him to be a very inspirational individual with very good values. With good values I dont mean the abstract "peace on earth" bullshit, but making every player feel seen, and his "obsession" with making the city he's working in also identify with the team on the pitch. No big egos, no flashy signings. The thing he did in Östersund where he took players with difficult backgrounds - former talents, ex-criminals, people who got off track in life - and turning them into excellent players and people - really spoke to me."

None of this has changed. Maybe 1% of me or so was worried he would be more careful/boring in the PL and I couldnt know how much focus he would have on developing the players/humans when he reached this level, but its obvious that same thing is happening here. Seeing Dan Burn becoming some kind of Roberto Carlos character in the first few games sort of said it all.

I think Brighton will stay up with some margin this season (although I find Dale Stephens worryingly important and could see issues if he gets injured) and then challenge for top 10 next season. Even in the alien scenario where Brighton gets relegated I could see Tony Bloom not sacking him.

And I dont see the "bad discipline" trend being something persistent either.
ÖFK 2016


ÖFK 2017


Swansea 18/19

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Saturday ‘s loss was entirely down to Mooy. Nothing to do with the new style. We were ripping Villa apart first half hour. The tactic of Ryan passing short at goal kicks to two defenders in the box worked a treat with Villa constantly drawn in and loads of space created in midfield.