Yep. And because the hike form is poor. If it was the other way around then people wouldn’t be moaning as much.
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[Albion] With our current set of players
- Thread starter Ethelwulf
- Start date
southstandandy
WEST STAND ANDY
- Jul 9, 2003
- 6,188
Most of us were quite excited last summer not only with the money spent on new players but the number of new faces coming in too.
Now into the 2nd half of the season do we really think the recruitment was ultimately that good?
Rutter - arguably the best and most productive so far (but still can't make consistent starting 11's)
Minteh - very hit or miss so far (somewhat inconsistent)
Wieffer - injury prone and unable to command a regular starting spot
Gruda - raw and again inconsistent (possibly needs a loan)
Kadioglu - Unlucky with injuries but not seen enough of him to judge
O'Reilly - again finding it difficult to get a regular starting spot
Gomez - just arrived so again too early to judge
Yalcouye - had a great start in Austria but won't be with us until next season
Cozier-Duberry - on loan so will have to wait until next season
That's just about £200m in outgoing fees
It's hardly surprising that we are currently struggling with really Rutter being the only one from that list that's had any real impact.
There's still plenty of time but is anyone else starting to question whether our recruitment is all that?
Now into the 2nd half of the season do we really think the recruitment was ultimately that good?
Rutter - arguably the best and most productive so far (but still can't make consistent starting 11's)
Minteh - very hit or miss so far (somewhat inconsistent)
Wieffer - injury prone and unable to command a regular starting spot
Gruda - raw and again inconsistent (possibly needs a loan)
Kadioglu - Unlucky with injuries but not seen enough of him to judge
O'Reilly - again finding it difficult to get a regular starting spot
Gomez - just arrived so again too early to judge
Yalcouye - had a great start in Austria but won't be with us until next season
Cozier-Duberry - on loan so will have to wait until next season
That's just about £200m in outgoing fees
It's hardly surprising that we are currently struggling with really Rutter being the only one from that list that's had any real impact.
There's still plenty of time but is anyone else starting to question whether our recruitment is all that?
- Oct 12, 2022
- 2,900
I do get it (to a point) - I’m largely an armchair fan these days, I generally get to one match (two if I’m lucky) a season in person and the rest are watched from comfort. I’m not weekly slogging my way to the ground, queueing interminably to get in, then for an overpriced pint and pie, and then for transport home. I haven’t been to any matches this season. (health has not allowed)
I’d be less philosophical about it if I’d sat in January temperatures to watch, on the day at least. Especially when it felt like a familiar story.
We have always struggled against a low block. We clearly need a different game plan for opposition that play this way. I’d argue that all our managers have got better against this type of opposition over time, but it is incredibly frustrating that each time we change manager we seem to “reset” and go back to trying to beat them with our regular (ineffective against low block) game plan.
I don’t understand why our players aren’t feeding back to the coaches that this won’t work. Having said that, going after our young head coach and his young players doesn’t feel helpful or productive to me. He was there too, he saw that our approach didn’t work. He’s already proven multiple times that when something doesn’t work he looks for a solution.
For me, we have to be patient with him and our players. We won’t improve anything by getting on their backs, and some of what gets posted here after a loss (probably in frustration) goes beyond what’s called for. I still think we’re where we should be however, and at the top end of where we should be as well.
oldboyroy
Well-known member
It's the fact that we see Forest and Bournemouth doing so well in a season that's seen the likes of spurs united and even City falter which has made the chance of European qualification more achievable. Whether RDZ could've had us doing better with current squad who knows but he had a system that worked (until injuries decimated us) whereas 6 months into this season I have no idea what our system is under Fab? We played our best half of football away at leaders Liverpool yet played our worst half yesterday (1st half) against Everton.
The sheer numbers set alarm bells ringing - put all those in the team and it wouldn't feel like 'our' team; too many too soon - and spending money that freely felt kike breaking the (very successful) mould.
No yet, absolutely not. Numbers in, but upgrades??
Rutter - arguably the best and most productive so far (but still can't make consistent starting 11's); fair comment.
Minteh - very hit or miss so far (somewhat inconsistent); upgrade on Adingra? Not sure. March? - no. Young - can learn, maybe better doing that on loan;
Wieffer - injury prone and unable to command a regular starting spot; loan, see if he can cut it at lower PL or Championship level.
Gruda - raw and again inconsistent (possibly needs a loan); agreed.
Kadioglu - Unlucky with injuries but not seen enough of him to judge; did look as if he might be one of the better buys.
O'Reilly - again finding it difficult to get a regular starting spot; SPL to PL, too big a gap. Lower PL or Championship loan - also needs too change his name, as current name is far too difficult for some NSCers to spell.
Gomez - just arrived so again too early to judge;True.
Yalcouye - had a great start in Austria but won't be with us until next season; Doing very nicely ........ in the Austrian league!
Cozier-Duberry - on loan so will have to wait until next season; not setting the Championship alight.
Frankly, yes.
Easy option - let's blame the rookie manager - after all, anyone with a decent pair of high density rose-tinted specs knows for a fact that RDZ would have had this lot in the CL places, leading the Liverpool chasing pack!......yeh, right!
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This is down to the coach. Either he doesn’t learn or doesn’t have the nouse to address it, either is concerning
The recruitment in the summer seemed rushed, naive and scattergun. Not Like Brighton at all.
One inflated transfer fee after another, based on what the player could become in the future if all went brilliantly , rather than what they are now. All the risk on those fees is on us.
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oldboyroy
Well-known member
Perhaps Tony's algorithms not working as well?
But it was the same under Roberto, minus the heavy defeats (Everton, West Ham, Luton..)
Stains second half takes some beating. We allowed one of the three worst teams in PL history to open us on repeat. Fck all was done about it. Not just Dibling!
oldboyroy
Well-known member
Yep. Saints 2nd half was worse and I put that down to us thinking we'd already won the game (leading 1 nil). I get this feeling that sometimes the players get too complacent, cocky even? Maybe a mental thing? Going back to the Wolves and Leicester capitulations, scoring a 2nd late on and thinking games over only to concede then panic. Fortunately, they seem to have learned from those.
The key constant in your post is the word ‘consistency’.
I find it quite difficult to understand why people expect the sort of player that we sign (young, from another league, bags of potential and needs us to develop them over a few seasons before being sold for big money) to be consistent. If you want consistency then you buy players like Caicedo / MacAllister / White etc, i.e. the ones that we sold, who are proven top end Premier League players. And they cost £50-£100 million. Which we can’t do.
Quite - after lockdown I’m pretty sure we had threads on here saying we should be loaning out or even selling Mac Allister , who was a bit older than most players we have playing for us now
Not Andy Naylor
Well-known member
I think we are exactly where we should expect to be.
We have invested in potential because TB has judged that we can't afford the sort of established, experienced 27-to-29-year-olds that would take us higher. So sometimes our young side will embarrass tired, poorly-coached sides like Manchester United and sometimes they will fall short against well-organised, determined and cynical outfits such as Everton.
Whereas we once had Ally Mac and Pascal Gross in midfield, we now have the immensely promising but still developing Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari, where the clear plan in pre-season was for James Milner and Mats Wieffer to be there. As a result we can appear one-paced and short of ideas and know-how.
We have invested in potential because TB has judged that we can't afford the sort of established, experienced 27-to-29-year-olds that would take us higher. So sometimes our young side will embarrass tired, poorly-coached sides like Manchester United and sometimes they will fall short against well-organised, determined and cynical outfits such as Everton.
Whereas we once had Ally Mac and Pascal Gross in midfield, we now have the immensely promising but still developing Carlos Baleba and Yasin Ayari, where the clear plan in pre-season was for James Milner and Mats Wieffer to be there. As a result we can appear one-paced and short of ideas and know-how.
7th - 8th
martin tyler
Well-known member
- Jan 25, 2013
- 6,015
Hard to say tbh. So many new signings have hardly played as they have been injured. The ones out on loan have thrived more.
Yesterdays starting 11 is basically the same as last years bar Gruda and Ayari playing and Gruda has had his own issues. There is massive potential but it is just that. I’d say 8-11th area
Yesterdays starting 11 is basically the same as last years bar Gruda and Ayari playing and Gruda has had his own issues. There is massive potential but it is just that. I’d say 8-11th area
Washie
Well-known member
Our squad isn't great yet. We spent £200 million on players for the FUTURE. Rutter is only 22, Minteh is 20, as is Gruda. Kadioglu, Weiffer and O'reilly are really the only ones that are experience, but none have played in the prem so would need to time to adapt which Weiffer looked like he started to do before his injury. Veltman is a right sided center back who plays well at RB but as we saw yesterday, if his dark arts don't work, he's rather limited. Dunk is now in the twilight of his career. Ayari is still yound but coming on leaps and bounds, same with Baleba. Mitoma has never been a great crosser of the ball, but can dribble well then pass into a dangerous opportunity. Adingra is only 23 so is still young. Our back up striker in Ferguson is only 20 so has a lot of learning still to do. So we are probably where we should be or a bit above.
So far the voting suggests exactly where we were.
I hope you will take the data forward and create an interesting and entertaining narrative from it.
I actually reached for sarcasm in my post above.Jesus Christ - this place after a defeat
What was I thinking?
That's how much NSC has degraded my soul these last 18 hours.
(Shall we start a 'how close are you to ripping up your season ticket' thread?)
southstandandy
WEST STAND ANDY
- Jul 9, 2003
- 6,188
No - I'm in total agreement. That's why I won't lose the plot if we have some poor performances like yesterday. It will take time for all these new faces and manager to settle and I'm happy to wait. Seems though many on here just seem to want and expect instant success because we splurged a lot of cash last summer.
I do think it's debatable whether all the signings will be a success, and undoubtedly a few will turn out to be a disappointment or not work out - that's football.