[Albion] We look such a poorly coached team

[SeagullinExile]

Calm down. That's completely unreasonable mate.

It most certainly is not...

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

If we work harder than the opposition then we are more likely to win. Not the best tactical nouse, hard to maintain, and likely to burn defenders out if he continues with the high line. We might get away with it for a while but let’s see. If we are in the top half in the new year I’ll be happy.

That's big of you.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

That's big of you.

Thank you.

 

[Weststander]

So you skipped over the calls to get rid of FH? As to Potter, I was always "Potter in" simply because I could see how we were playing and how the games had gone against us, as it turned out the Potter Ins (although there are still hardcore twits who will not admit they were wrong) were shown to be correct. The way people carry on you'd think the squad and manager haven't got a clue, don't care, are just in it for the money. The second half showed how FH wants us to play, really exquisite passing, and everyone helping out. He has already said the defense needs looking at, give the bloke some slack 6th in the PL after 7 games is f***ing magic, yes we have rode our luck but the second half showed where we are heading.

A few people over reacting in the moment isn’t going to annoy me or warrant an attack on them. They’re the equal of anyone post match after timing.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Honest question. Did you go to Stamford Bridge last week and say, wow I enjoyed that! At halftime today did you turn to your mate next to you and say bit bad conceding two goals but this is an enjoyable ride

Enjoy the ride is typically an expression of ups and downs along the way. To your other point - clearly sales from other windows have left us with a void to fill this summer, especially with the likes of Dahoud, Undav not working out as well.

Being happy right now with progress and meeting expectations doesn’t mean there aren’t disappointments and criticisms too, but on balance things are looking good.

 

[brighton_tom]

We all said at the start of the season with him being a new manager, a young manager, and with lots of new players in the squad having to learn his tactics that we would need to have patience. There was inevitably going to be some ups & downs in his first season... and 7 games in people are starting threads like this.

& add to that last night he was missing Pedro, Van Hecke, and O'Riley. All would start in that spine of the team.

 

[Reddleman]

We all said at the start of the season with him being a new manager, a young manager, and with lots of new players in the squad having to learn his tactics that we would need to have patience. There was inevitably going to be some ups & downs in his first season... and 7 games in people are starting threads like this.

& add to that last night he was missing Pedro, Van Hecke, and O'Riley. All would start in that spine of the team.

That’s what NSC is for, expressing opinions. Between the Chelsea game and the first half of the Spurs game that is the most lost I have seen us look defensively in years and I am including the way we press in that.

We also showed tactical and defensive frailties v Forest and Wolves.

I think he will continue to learn and he’s got us into a great position but that was how I saw it in that moment.

 

[brighton_tom]

That’s what NSC is for, expressing opinions. Between the Chelsea game and the first half of the Spurs game that is the most lost I have seen us look defensively in years and I am including the way we press in that.

We also showed tactical and defensive frailties v Forest and Wolves.

I think he will continue to learn and he’s got us into a great position but that was how I saw it in that moment.

Fair enough. But we all saw what a toxic place Chelsea became last season when their fans were slaughtering all the new players for any little mistake. It would benefit us not to create that atmosphere, so I feel we need to initially give the manager a bit of grace in those moments while he's still getting used to his surroundings & learning the league.

 

[Reddleman]

Fair enough. But we all saw what a toxic place Chelsea became last season when their fans were slaughtering all the new players for any little mistake. It would benefit us not to create that atmosphere, so I feel we need to initially give the manager a bit of grace in those moments while he's still getting used to his surroundings & learning the league.

I was sat at home. I really hope the manager was not reading NSC at half time! Also for balance I regularly start the positives from today threads when we don’t win! I hope he does read them!

 

[Simster]

That’s what NSC is for, expressing opinions. Between the Chelsea game and the first half of the Spurs game that is the most lost I have seen us look defensively in years and I am including the way we press in that.

We also showed tactical and defensive frailties v Forest and Wolves.

I think he will continue to learn and he’s got us into a great position but that was how I saw it in that moment.

I've said it already but at half time there was nothing controversial in what you said. You didn't demand he was sacked, you didn't decide we were in a relegation battle. You just said it as you saw it, and you weren't wrong. I just resent the sanctimonious twats absolutely slaughtering you for daring to say it.

I have to say, as much as I was alarmed and adjusting my own expectations for the season at half time, I am equally impressed at the tweaks he made that turned the game around. It's worth mentioning that Ange had half-time to make the changes to protect his lead, and didn't. Even as our goals poured in, he did nothing and it took 10 minutes after the third goal before he decided to make any changes.

FH seems very switched on tactically and that pleases me. It's not that he hasn't made mistakes with our system, but when that has happened he has made the right changes.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

Apologies if this has been covered already but from what I can see, the coaching plan seems to align with everything the club say about finding an edge. There is limited pragmatism and we balance risk and reward and gamble a little. I think about the RDZ games against Everton; the 4-1 away where what we were doing worked and the 1-5 at home where it spectacularly failed. What we're talking about is execution of the tactical plan and the tactical plan is risky.

I watched back the game this morning and there isn't much difference tactically between what we did first half and second. It's all about execution and in our case as FH says, it was about intensity and winning your battles. It also helped that Spurs dropped their intensity - probably a result of the midweek European game.

Initial couple of chances were due to a positioning issue and lack of intensity from Ferdi which are entirely forgivable given his limited time in the team and premier league. First goal was Georginio caught in possession and Dunk standing off. Second Bart should have saved. Costly mistakes.

Conversely, you look at the first Welbeck chance and there is no real error from Spurs and he could well have scored.
Minteh's is obviously a Spurs mistake but Georginio's goal isn't a clear Spurs mistake either. Welbeck's you would argue Spurs could have cleared.
Udogie's chance is due to a missed challenge but Bart saved well.

All in all, I see us creating good chances in open play and generally getting punished for our mistakes.
Tactically, I think it's a really encouraging system which creates good open play chances. We just need to get to grips with the defensive line and manage the mistakes a little better than we did against Chelsea and Spurs.

The key thing for me to do is adjust my mindset around the defensive line - similar to how I had to adjust with the "fannying around at the back" under RDZ. It feels uncomfortable but football is about the management of space and you have to leave space somewhere. This is the FH gamble but to execute it we have to be on it.

 

[brighton_tom]

FH seems very switched on tactically and that pleases me. It's not that he hasn't made mistakes with our system, but when that has happened he has made the right changes.

This is the learning curve that I feel we need to give him a bit of grace with this season. There will be ups and downs. No 31 year old manager was ever just going to get everything right all the time.

 

[Professor Plum]

That’s what NSC is for, expressing opinions. Between the Chelsea game and the first half of the Spurs game that is the most lost I have seen us look defensively in years and I am including the way we press in that.

We also showed tactical and defensive frailties v Forest and Wolves.

I think he will continue to learn and he’s got us into a great position but that was how I saw it in that moment.

No one's saying you shouldn’t be able to express an opinion, but equally, if your opinion seems a bit wild and over-negative, expect to get something back. That’s the deal.

Nothing winds me up more than kneejerk whiney negativity among a fan base. That doesn’t mean we should be blindly positive in all circumstances but the role of supporters is, erm, to support. The problem is people are too short-termist. A defeat and a couple of poor performances means we’re hurtling towards relegation, and have to sack the coach. Despite having probably many years, perhaps even several decades of experience in how fortunes rise and fall over a season, we just never ever seem to learn.

Who among us really thought that Fab was already, aged 31, in his first Prem season, some sort of Guardiola-Klopp composite? No one. Allow him to develop over the season. If things are going wrong on the pitch, no one will be more aware and more concerned about that than Hürzeler. Have a bit of faith.

We are 6th in the Premier League.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

The thing I was tearing my hair out about, was the lack of intensity in the first half.
We are very poor in those moments and they seem to happen quite often.

I don't think this is a coaching issue, more an issue with the players not being fully up to speed with the tactics yet.

It is f***ing infuriating though.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Second half he did what the majority of fans had already pointed out was the problem on this thread and dropped the defence back 10 yards.
No longer were we getting shredded and started to play football.
The high line was making the players nervy different game at Chelsea if we had adopted the same strategy from kick off.

Those now being smug did you place a bet on us to turn it around second half? Of course you didn’t nobody would we were garbage.

Nothing wrong with the OP discussing his concerns the majority agreed the same after Chelsea.

I don't think we did drop the high line 2nd half. We continued to press very high but seemed to be more solid defensively until we got the third and then, last 25 we dropped VERY deep (with long goalkicks ) and did a great job of killing the game. Both halves of the 2nd half were impressive in completely different ways.

 

[Justice]

I just love how you lot are retroactively turning down the rhetoric.

What did you think the problem was last week at Chelsea and first half yesterday?

 

[Simster]

What did you think the problem was last week at Chelsea and first half yesterday?

Well as it turned out, saying it was the high line that caused the issue wasn't right because we continued to play with a high line after the break. It looked like that alone was causing the problem at half time, but it turns out this wasn't true.

 

[Hovegull]

This thread is so funny, and the exact conversations were playing out behind me.

First half: “He’s atrocious, this player is awful, we are awful, manager needs sacking etc”

Second Half: “he’s bloody brilliant, this player has been impressive today, what a game”

 

[Bold Seagull]

What did you think the problem was last week at Chelsea and first half yesterday?

Personally I think it’s about the team understanding there are different risk factors in areas of the pitch you might previously thought you were more safe to lose the ball.

Spurs first was given up cheaply in an area we now cannot afford to lose it in if pushing up high, and the second was decent play from Spurs that ended with should have been a regulation PL keeper save.

With more time on the training pitch and with the manager, hopefully collectively they instinctively react better to higher risk situations.

 

[DJ Chi]

What did you think the problem was last week at Chelsea and first half yesterday?

Individual errors for most goals along with elite attacking play from Cole Palmer and facing two of the best attacking sides in world football?