[Albion] The OFFICIAL what’s gone wrong with our season thread

[The Wookiee]

Please post your opinions on what you feel are the reasons we have gone from a free scoring top premier league team to a team that would struggle to avoid being relegated??

Injuries

Yep, but why didn’t we strengthen in January?

Still in Europe but didn’t strengthen, big mistake and we are paying the consequences.

 

[Springal]

The only thing Souness was right to call out was Roberto history of short spells at clubs - I think we are seeing why.

RDZ believed his own hype , lost focus - and his ‘trip to the dentist in Italy’ was a bit odd

 

[Stat Brother]

Dunno what happened but do know when it happened (kind of)

Somewhere between 06.01.24 & 09.02.24.

 

[chickens]

Confidence. Players who haven’t experienced the dizzying highs before are also unequipped for the lows of a European exit and the need to keep performing with nothing at stake.

We’ve either been fighting against relegation or for the European spots before.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Obviously injuries have been ridiculous, but…..

The insistence on playing one style, with minimal flexibility, despite being exposed in the same manner in successive games…..

Perhaps with a full squad might have resulted in a different approach, but I’m not sure it would…..

Still, this season has given us some great memories, it just feels disappointing how it is all ending…..

 

[Weststander]

1. A summer 23 transfer window that left glaring first team quality holes at DM, LB and RB. [Dahoud for example in Germany was not a DM’er, he was an average man’s Gundogan in terms of position]. Especially in light of a schedule including additional Thursday evening games. Also stemming from that, our entire CM lacks pace, other than a young player learning his trade Baleba.
2. Injuries.
3. The coach only has one overall strategy to win games.

Outplaying the worst Ajax team in 65 years, for many, masked the growing issues.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

We sold most of our best players

All our other best players have been or are injured.

The replacements aren't up to the required standard.

There is a large beach near by.

 

[Deadly Danson]

Injuries.
RDZ got stroppy in January. This transmitted to the players. Makes noises that he may not be here next season. Players levels consequently drop as they always do when they suspect a manager won't be here next season.
More injuries.
Consequent loss of form and then consequent loss of confidence.
More injuries and became obvious that RDZ had no idea how to stop the rot.

 

[jcdenton08]

I think we have a pipeline of transfer options in various stages of progression. Contracts, release clauses, transfer fees, player availability for our targets all has to line up. For whatever combination of reasons, none of our targets were signed in January which left a squad in need of a boost very light.

I think our strong start to the season was due to motivation and desire from certain players to prove we can do it without Mac, Caicedo, Sanchez and Trossard. Many players were playing at a far higher individual level than they are now.

Our recruitment was underwhelming. Fati, Milner and Dahoud will be considered flops and didn’t come close to replacing Mac, Caicedo, Trossard and Undav.

Poor individual form from key players; Dunk, Estupinan, Fati, Ferguson, Adingra, Veltman.

Repeated and key injuries (not only to our best players, but to our most in-form players such as Hinshelwood) have hurt the quality of the team in every department.

In short, we aren’t as bad as our recent form suggests, nor are we as good as early season forms suggests. With a fit team with key players available consistently and a bit of confidence, we are a top half side.

If our transfer pipeline bursts in the summer and we recruit as well as we have in prior years, we can challenge for Europe once again next season.

All in all, fairly content given our European adventure (beating every side we faced, including football giants like Roma and Ajax), but disappointed with De Zerbi’s media conduct and strange pass-agg comments all the time.

 

[macbeth]

all started with selling the midfield in the summer and not properly replacing it. caicedo i can kind of forgive because i don’t think we saw him leaving last summer, but to replace mac allister with milner and dahoud was atrocious recruitment and clearly done on the cheap. then key holes in the wide positions and full back were also not address, which many people pointed out, so it’s not hindsight.

we had some awful luck with the specific players who’ve been injured long term, but that’s been compounded by the poor squad depth. and there are too many players in the squad who just aren’t good enough, and because of the poor depth, they’ve had to play.

and then we come to the manager. we’ve played some nice football at points, but it just hasn’t worked with our key men missing. and rather than try and take stock, calm the nerves of fans and motivate the squad, and maybe try to be slightly tactically pragmatic, the manager has fanned the flames of uncertainty, repeatedly called out the board and certain players, leaning in to speculation linking him with other jobs, and just generally contributed to a wholly negative attitude at the club.

and now we’re in a downward spiral because of all these things, and nobody seems to have the wherewithal or desire to arrest the decline, leading to a total sense of apathy. we now need a monumental refresh and reset in the summer. the recruitment department, medical team and manager, if he chooses to stay, need a good kick up the arse. and we need to immediately sack the set piece coach and find a new one.

i think that about sums it up

 

[Hiheidi]

It's unsustainable losing so many key people in such a short space of time.

2022:
Technical Director
Goalkeeping coach
Head of recruitment
Recruitment analyst
Potter & co
Bissouma, Mwepu

2023:
Club doctor
Replacement club doctor
Head of medical & performance
Performance manager
Lead performance analyst
Trossard, Caicedo & Mac Allister (Undav)

2024:
Head of recruitment

There's probably more. How many have been replaced with improved candidates? Some haven't yet been replaced. Yes, there are problems on the pitch, but there's been a huge 'brain drain' off it.

 

[Ethelwulf]

When Alexis and Moses were sold and no where near Good enough replacements brought in
RDZ was not given the tools to do his job but in the last few months he has given up and I think there is a split in the camp which is causing these odd and bad results .
The lickers saying we have nothing to play for are talking shite as every point every place is worth millions

 

[nwgull]

The only thing Souness was right to call out was Roberto history of short spells at clubs - I think we are seeing why.

RDZ believed his own hype , lost focus - and his ‘trip to the dentist in Italy’ was a bit odd

Maybe me, but I didn't find the trip back to Italy for dental surgery that odd. More than understandable to want to keep your regular dentist who speaks the same first language as you.

All seemed to start going wrong after we humbled Man Utd at Old Trafford with a side that wasn't our strongest starting 11 available and didn't include Evan Ferguson in the who had scored a hat-trick in the previous game. Not sure what caused us to be so poor against a much weaker AEK Athens team a few days later, as we couldn't really blame fatigue at that stage, but we never really recovered that early season form. And the complete loss of form of Ferguson since he scored that hat-trick and then missed Ireland's Euro qualifiers in the next international break is something else.

 

[Is it PotG?]

It's football, we over achieved for a bit and normality has resumed.
Move on, bring on 24/25.

 

[Seagull27]

A number of things combined. But we also have to be conscious that even if we continue to improve over the next 5-10 years, there will be more seasons like this, progress in football is not linear. But we will be back in Europe in that timeframe, I'm confident of that.

 

[mile oak]

Thameslink and Southern Rail.

(that was a joke by the way).

Either expectation or realism. Seems unless you twist the fair play stuff like Man Sh1ty or Chelsea you cannot compete. I'm no suggesting we cheat by the way. A lot has gone well this season its not like we've played in Europe before!

Ultimately Bloom is a gambler and its not worked (at least so far) we let players go and replaced them with ones not as good as. Whether that pays off in the long run is another matter.

 

[mile oak]

It's football, we over achieved for a bit and normality has resumed.
Move on, bring on 24/25.

I never understand the "over" achieve, you either achieve or not.

 

[Weststander]

Injuries.
RDZ got stroppy in January. This transmitted to the players. Makes noises that he may not be here next season. Players levels consequently drop as they always do when they suspect a manager won't be here next season.
More injuries.
Consequent loss of form and then consequent loss of confidence.
More injuries and became obvious that RDZ had no idea how to stop the rot.

The rot set in long before then. Home draws against clubs losing most weeks …. Sheffield United, Fulham and Burnley.

 

[ROSM]

We have had 14 players who have missed 6 or more games in a row through injury, out of a squad of 25. We have had 7 who have missed over a quarter of the season or more.

We recruited poorly in the summer and woefully in January.

We are now at the point where if plan a fails (and it does regularly as the players available aren't good enough to do it) we don't have the right players to do a plan b.

We either need to back the manager with players to play his way and his plan b (he does have one) or we need a manager who can work with what we have. But I will say that howe, moyes, silva, edwards, o'neil, iraola wouldn't get a better tune out of what is available at the moment.

 

[dazzer6666]

There wouldn’t be quite the same outpouring if we’d finished say 10th or 11th last season but a properly crap few months (had to check today, last goal I saw was Danny’s v Roma FFS) looks even worse when compared to that huge over-achievement. Injuries are at the root of it for me, then exacerbated by failing to recruit a deep/strong enough squad………and things (including confidence and motivation as he says) have naturally gone in ever-decreasing circles since with DeZ being tactically found out a bit as well as not having the tools to play ’his’ game.

FWIW I think he‘ll be here next season, we’ll make some key signings and without any European distraction we’ll have a good season. TB/PB always learn from their mistakes.