[Albion] What WAS Roberto thinking?

[Colonel Mustard]

That's where I am. Can't pretend to not be a little bit pissed off at losing esp in that manner but our players, manager and the club are learning on the job in terms of being a top-6 contender. When RDZ joined we heard that there'd be highs and lows, and so it's proved. The smooth more than makes up for the rough so far though.

In fact, shortly after I was born I seem to remember hearing a voice advising me there’d be highs and lows. And certainly once I started following football, and specifically, the Albion, I heard those words again. Y'know, looking back over these past 30 years since I first watched Brighton, I rather think that late 22 to late 23 represents the "high" of those 'highs and lows'. Odd results like today are just a bit of background noise, a bit of texture to this crazy, wonderful ride.

 

[The Wizard]

It doesn’t seem like exceptional insight to opine that losing Caicedo and Mac would weaken us. Did a single person suggest otherwise? We’ve brought in other players to help offset the loss, and in the longer term, we will get through this, but surely no one expected us to instantly be stronger without these two? Remember that Mac and Moises themselves were slow burners. You’ll drive yourself nuts if you expect to win all the time, and for everything to go swimmingly. It doesn’t, and it balances out those games, like Newcastle at home and ManU away, that I didn’t expect to win!

I did NOT expect our midfield to be stronger or the same level without two world class players no.

At the start of the summer, I DID expect if we sold the said players, we would replace them with decent replacements, we’ve ended up with basically our second string midfield from last season taking over which has been fine when both are fit, but a few injuries and we are left with a young lad in there?

I’m not angry about the loss today I’m just worried about what this signals for the rest of the season.

 

[Littlemo]

Yes it would have been a risk, but would a big six team sign him from our reserves in January? He’d have done himself up.

Yeah they would, because the big clubs know what he can do and they’d know why he was in the reserves. He would just be a lot cheaper then.

What’s the point of holding onto him if he ended up in the reserves because he goes on strike and we can’t use him anyway? It’s no going to help us.

It would also be worse for us in attracting younger talent, if we refuse to let them move on when the time comes to step up a level. Our model is based on letting players go at the right time for the right money, we go back on that and players will go elsewhere because they want to take these chances when they come.

 

[Weststander]

I thought we were poor today , awful in the first half against Bournemouth , not very good against AEK , and pretty average against Chelsea , something needs to change

For @Harry Wilson's tackle

 

[Guinness Boy]

But surely you weren't expecting an immediate Caicedo replacement?

No, I was expecting us to be able to cover for losing him in an upcoming 60 game season.

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I did NOT expect our midfield to be stronger or the same level without two world class players no.

At the start of the summer, I DID expect if we sold the said players, we would replace them with decent replacements, we’ve ended up with basically our second string midfield from last season taking over which has been fine when both are fit, but a few injuries and we are left with a young lad in there?

I’m not angry about the loss today I’m just worried about what this signals for the rest of the season.

How do you replace Moises and Mac? Especially Moises who departed a few days before the transfer window shut. Not like-for-like replacements but we brought in Fati and Baleba at the last minute and I still think they’ll be star players for us this season.

 

[The Wizard]

How do you replace Moises and Mac? Especially Moises who departed a few days before the transfer window shut. Not like-for-like replacements but we brought in Fati and Baleba at the last minute and I still think they’ll be star players for us this season.

We knew Moises was leaving for weeks, he was AWOL and obviously leaving.

I think I’m being misunderstood, I’m not saying replacing either of them is easy, probably our 2 best players, but losing the engine room of your team and ‘replacing’ them with Baleba (who obviously wasn’t/isn’t ready) and Dahoud wasn’t anywhere near enough recruitment if Alzate was going to be allowed to leave as well.

But when you watch a game like today and how inferior our misfield was to villas it really does strike home how thin our squad is in midfield areas, they had tielemans on the bench who would have walked into our midfield today.

 

[Bakero]

No, I was expecting us to be able to cover for losing him in an upcoming 60 game season.

We have the bodies but replacing that ability just wasn't going to happen straight away, not even with our succession planning and scouting.

 

[DJ NOBO]

Someon really should have realised Caicedo was good and tried to keep hold of him. That Argentinian kid too.

Shut up and drink your champagne

 

[Icy Gull]

As the final whistle went he probably thought “I’ve f***ed up here and the players have too”

Heaviest defeat since we arrived in the PL must have been a tough pill to swallow

 

[Bakero]

Shut up and drink your champagne

Qué?

 

[origigull]

Here's my postcard:

RDZ is playing the long game. Its a long season and players will get tired. So rotating, resting, giving minutes to young players and trying out different things is more important than the result.

Villa away is easily one of our four or five hardest fixtures of the season. Losing it doesn't matter that much in the great scheme of things.

We also forget how much of a development squad we are. Ferguson, Bart, Gilmour, Facu, Adingra, JP, Hinsh, Joao Pedro, Baleba are all youngsters. Lamptey, Fati, Dahoud haven't played that much of late. They need minutes and they need to be given time.

So, long season, don't really expect or need a result at Villa, so rest, rotate and give minutes to youngsters. Losing 6-1 probably wasnt part off the plan though.

Remember last season our players were out on their feet the last 6-7 games of the season and this comes into the thinking of RDZ - Rotating the players but some will say we have only played 7 games so far in the PL and a few cup games. Like KG said its a long season with extra games in the cups so rotating is the key. Saying that I did think we could get a result today. Oh well.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

To be controversial (and I love Gross) but I don’t think even if he were fit and played, that the result would have been much different. He isn’t an especially strong DM himself, and has looked overrun in games before himself. It may have been the difference in a few goals tbf, but I think it would be the same result.

Not controversial at all. IMO, we needed to match up with them, not play Welbeck and Ferguson again, which for the second league game running, showed it didn’t work….

Of course, I’m equally fairly sure, that I wouldn’t have won 5 games previously……

 

[DJ NOBO]

Qué?

We have raised crazy amounts of money….but it’s come at a cost in terms of player quality, that’s not nice to look at.

 

[Horses Arse]

Football, cigarettes and a camberwell carot 5 skinner.

 

[Bakero]

We have raised crazy amounts of money….but it’s come at a cost in terms of player quality, that’s not nice to look at.

We didn't really have a choice though. Tony himself has said he wanted to keep Caicedo but the player wanted to leave. We're not running a prison camp.

 

[nwgull]

We have raised crazy amounts of money….but it’s come at a cost in terms of player quality, that’s not nice to look at.

Yes, in the short term. But we’ve spent 70m on three players with an aggregate age of 62, so it’s not unreasonable to think that it could strengthen us further down the line.

 

[indy3050]

Midfielders lost/sold over the last 12 months…
Mac Allister
Caicedo
Mwepu
Trossard


Midfielders unavailable today
Lalana
Milner
Gross
Moder

Add Bissoma and Alzate to that then there is a massive hole, we can all see this. So can the club.

I’ve no doubt missed one or two but it is what it is

If we’d lost 1-0 to Villa it wouldn’t have looked so bad but we are obviously short in midfield and no matter how hard RDZ tries, he can’t stick square pegs in round holes. I do worry about Dahood being benched, it’s not like he’s played every minute is it?

I started this post 40 minutes ago but now I’ve sunk half a bottle of wine so I’ll press send anyway

 

[DJ NOBO]

We didn't really have a choice though. Tony himself has said he wanted to keep Caicedo but the player wanted to leave. We're not running a prison camp.

Sure . Block our stars’ big moves and the next generation aren’t coming.
Overall we have papered over the cracks very well this season.
Today was one where we badly missed Mac and Caicedo. And Colwill, to an extent.
They would have disrupted villa. We played the game on villa’s terms.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Up there with Hyypia’s decision to play Solly and Jake Forster Caskey in the middle away at Derby…..