[Albion] With our current set of players

[Iggle Piggle]

We can match the better teams but can't beat the ones we are favourites on the betting to do so. What that translates to as where we should be is hard to say. We outplayed Liverpool for 45 minutes but also made Southampton look like prime Real Madrid for the same period of time.

The cynic in me thinks that playing well against the better teams is no coincidence as some of our players are eyeing a move to these clubs. Pedro is the biggest culprit and is almost always poor against the bottom teams but a world beater against the big 6. I get the argument we look better against teams that come to play (or away when there is more onus on the home team to attack) because it suits our style better but I also think there are 1 or 2 who are playing for their next move. I suppose my point is that if we get to the heights they need to play as a team and for the team first and park the egos.

 

[Weststander]

We can match the better teams but can't beat the ones we are favourites on the betting to do so. What that translates to as where we should be is hard to say. We outplayed Liverpool for 45 minutes but also made Southampton look like prime Real Madrid for the same period of time.

The cynic in me thinks that playing well against the better teams is no coincidence as some of our players are eyeing a move to these clubs. Pedro is the biggest culprit and is almost always poor against the bottom teams but a world beater against the big 6. I get the argument we look better against teams that come to play (or away when there is more onus on the home team to attack) because it suits our style better but I also think there are 1 or 2 who are playing for their next move. I suppose my point is that if we get to the heights they need to play as a team and for the team first and park the egos.

Imho that’s because some big spenders always play to score, leaving opportunities at the other end. If Klopp or Slot employed Dyche or Nuno tactics, with superior players it’d be almost impossible to open them up. So often in games you see VVD and Konate at the centre circle, on their lonesome, doing a Dunk/JPVH.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

9th to 13th is where we should be.

Ignore the £200m spent over the summer, it’s not £200m end product ready it’s an investment for the future due to pending FFP rule changes and our significant profit shortly
Falling outside of the FFP range. I believe TB has come out and suggested we won’t have a window like the summer for a while as a result.

We are an average mid table side who should be focusing on regular top 10 finishes before getting giddy.

 

[HangletonGull]

We are where we are

 

[Knocky's Nose]

Just above mid table is fair. We lack that killer instinct the really successful teams have (which drops us points regularly).

Still... we're in the Premier League and have become 'established' as such. You've got to be happy about that

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

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.

As I see it there are two ways to beat a low block.

1. Don't be so good. Give the ball away, invite pressure, lose battles in our third - that at least will give space for attacks. But you've just as much chance of losing

2. If you are good enough to dominate possession, win the ball back, stop them attacking, then it isn't a tweak in tactics you need to score, it's simply having better players. City and Liverpool beat the low block by winning and scoring direct freekicks, winning penalties, dribbling like Salah, or whacking the ball in from 30 yards.

They're were a couple of points yesterday when Pedro or Mitoma could have won a foul in the box, it's the kind of thing you need to do to score against these guys.

 

[pocketseagull]

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.

I thought the point of our famed starlizard algorithm was the ability to spot these players before they cost too much for us?

 

[chickens]

As I see it there are two ways to beat a low block.

1. Don't be so good. Give the ball away, invite pressure, lose battles in our third - that at least will give space for attacks. But you've just as much chance of losing

2. If you are good enough to dominate possession, win the ball back, stop them attacking, then it isn't a tweak in tactics you need to score, it's simply having better players. City and Liverpool beat the low block by winning and scoring direct freekicks, winning penalties, dribbling like Salah, or whacking the ball in from 30 yards.

They're were a couple of points yesterday when Pedro or Mitoma could have won a foul in the box, it's the kind of thing you need to do to score against these guys.

Agree. However, with option one, it can be a bit more nuanced than “play worse.”

We can absolutely invite them on to us, with the aim being to dispossess them much closer to our own penalty area than theirs, and then play the ball forward as fast as we can. It’s high risk, but if we’re going to go behind to teams who play the low block then we’ve largely been the architects of our own downfall, and we need that in our locker.

It would be ideal to lull the opposition into a “they’re dominating” mindset and then turn the tables, but it’s not a skill set I’ve seen us demonstrate.

 

[Titanic]

8th-9th

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Perhaps Tony's algorithms not working as well?

Seem to have bought too many middling-level players that will do little - if anything - to improve the overall health of the squad

 

[banjo]

We are where we are.