[Albion] Just be more direct?

[Giraffe]

Is it just me wondering why, in the end, what changed under Potter was he just went more direct. Two seasons of passing it round in a horseshoe was suddenly replaced with a few long balls and we started scored for fun.

Now we have gone back to a horseshoe passing game again.

Is that over simplistic?

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

Probably. Felt like it though. Stoppage time, passing it around the back. Jesus wept

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Probably. Felt like it though. Stoppage time, passing it around the back. Jesus wept

True, it was very frustrating to watch, and the worst thing was we all knew we wouldn’t break them down.
but what do you do, we looked for spaces, passed the ball well, they had 11 behind the ball all the time.
I found Lampty a bit frustrating as he had the chance a few times to take on the defenders and checked back, I think the blatant strangulation tackle knocked his confidence to do it again, you want them to charge into the box and draw a foul at least, but the team are told to keep the ball, too many times we’ve dominated games, and lost the ball up the field in attack and been punished by a quick breakaway, that didn’t happen and for a reason we kept the ball.

on another day we would have been 2-0 at half time, the post and a good save denied us that, it was frustrating but inevitable after the first half.

I saw lots of positives from tonight, we still pass and keep the ball, dominating games with possession.
finishing has been an issue even with Potter.

On Potter he knew we were on a good run that would come to an end, he knew our limitations.
We are not or never will be top six, so he jumped knowing he can’t take us any higher.
With De Zerbi so far we are still dominating games, and have the same issues Potter had.
give him time, Bloom will back him in the market I’m sure, I’m actually feeling positive.

 

[aolstudios]

True, it was very frustrating to watch, and the worst thing was we all knew we wouldn’t break them down.
but what do you do, we looked for spaces, passed the ball well, they had 11 behind the ball all the time.
I found Lampty a bit frustrating as he had the chance a few times to take on the defenders and checked back, I think the blatant strangulation tackle knocked his confidence to do it again, you want them to charge into the box and draw a foul at least, but the team are told to keep the ball, too many times we’ve dominated games, and lost the ball up the field in attack and been punished by a quick breakaway, that didn’t happen and for a reason we kept the ball.

on another day we would have been 2-0 at half time, the post and a good save denied us that, it was frustrating but inevitable after the first half.

I saw lots of positives from tonight, we still pass and keep the ball, dominating games with possession.
finishing has been an issue even with Potter.

On Potter he knew we were on a good run that would come to an end, he knew our limitations.
We are not or never will be top six, so he jumped knowing he can’t take us any higher.
With De Zerbi so far we are still dominating games, and have the same issues Potter had.
give him time, Bloom will back him in the market I’m sure, I’m actually feeling positive.

Re Tariq. That's been his game now for 18 months, sadly. He's been checking back ever since that injury. Something's gone, hope it's not permanently

 

[Seagull1989]

Teams have done their homework on us. The Spurs, Brentford and Forest games were all exactly the same. They defend narrow, are quite happy to to let us go side to side, closing off the space in the middle, forcing us out wide and will deal with the crosses all day long.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

The second half was so predictable but it was the first half that pisses me off, March stood there with a quarter of the pitch to himself time and time again Veltman had a clear pass yet turned and passed sideways/backwards Why? WHY ?? f***ing WHY AGAIN

 

[Wardy's twin]

The second half was so predictable but it was the first half that pisses me off, March stood there with a quarter of the pitch to himself time and time again Veltman had a clear pass yet turned and passed sideways/backwards Why? WHY ?? f***ing WHY AGAIN

This. 4 times in first 30 mins at least he was clear in space and not picked out. The team is under a don't lose possession regime which is not conducive to creating goal scoring chances.... Other times the ball needed to go straight to him but was put to a player to knock it onto him thus losing momentum...

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

This. 4 times in first 30 mins at least he was clear in space and not picked out. The team is under a don't lose possession regime which is not conducive to creating goal scoring chances.... Other times the ball needed to go straight to him but was put to a player to knock it onto him thus losing momentum...

Don't lose possession regime yet give the ball to Webster to er pass?

 

[Wardy's twin]

Don't lose possession regime yet give the ball to Webster to er pass?

I know and it doesn't work ...

 

[Justice]

The second half was so predictable but it was the first half that pisses me off, March stood there with a quarter of the pitch to himself time and time again Veltman had a clear pass yet turned and passed sideways/backwards Why? WHY ?? f***ing WHY AGAIN

Can you blame him, he does f all when he gets the ball.

 

[Wellesley]

This is where we miss Mwepu. Powerful, direct and seemed our best striker of the ball.

 

[beorhthelm]

mixing possession and direct works. dont understand why any manager in this league would try sticking to the possession only approach, only really works when you have top players to make the difference in the final third. we dont.

 

[raymondo]

Re Tariq. That's been his game now for 18 months, sadly. He's been checking back ever since that injury. Something's gone, hope it's not permanently

and i feel there's little point in playing Lamptey in a game where the opposition defend with 11 guys - he can't do anything when he receives the ball on the halfway line with a standing start. Only play him/sub him on when it's an open game and both teams going for it, otherwise it's a waste of time (sadly). Would have been better to try Sarmiento, up the middle, or inside channels, to try to unlock them - far more chance of success.
They actually defended Lamptey well, as most teams now do when set out to defend. Foul him when he's looking dangerous, take a few yellows, keep him out wide with cover, job done. And I didn't feel we backed him up enough, he often looked isolated when he went upfield.
Hey ho, a clean sheet and a point.

 

[Machiavelli]

Is it just me wondering why, in the end, what changed under Potter was he just went more direct. Two seasons of passing it round in a horseshoe was suddenly replaced with a few long balls and we started scored for fun.

Now we have gone back to a horseshoe passing game again.

Is that over simplistic?

I like your horseshoe analogy, but would offer that we did go long a few times last night. It's obviously a riskier strategy, and our success rate wasn't great.
Back to the horseshoe thing: it was very noticeable (especially in the first half -- although that might have been due to where I was sitting) that when we had the ball deep in our half, Forest defended with a flat back four in a line, and their other six players' starting-point position was extremely central but some more advance than others. They pressed from in to out. But that does illustrate how your horseshoe analogy works, because that's the way (for most of the time) we chose to play around it.

 

[Giraffe]

The horseshoe is the only way I can explain our tactics to non Brighton fans. We try down one side, it fails we go back round the horseshoe, Dunk, Webster, Veltman and try the other side. And repeat. It’s only when we do something different to this we actually look like scoring a goal.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

No.

The style is fine. In the last 3 games we've shot, 583 times don't you know.

What's needed is people in the attacking positions who are better at scoring goals

 

[Swansman]

If you have a good opportunity to attack quickly, it is the best option. If you don't have a good opportunity to do that, it is better to keep the ball and the formation.

Nottingham Forest played the ball more direct than any PL team I've seen in a long time. Not like they created dozens of chances. Its no magic solution.

 

[The Fits]

Cucu made a huge difference. He offered us more both in attack and defence. Allowed us to play higher up the pitch and take more risks. No point hitting it long if there's nobody to hit it to. We are playing narrower and deeper since RDZ took over.
Players seems way more fixed to traditional positions.

 

[GT49er]

Can you blame him, he does f all when he gets the ball.

Bollocks. He's put in some fine crosses recently, and is a regular pick for the first team. Still, I expect Hughton, Potter and RdZ all didn't/don't know what they're doing, eh?

 

[Shooting Star]

Teams have done their homework on us. The Spurs, Brentford and Forest games were all exactly the same. They defend narrow, are quite happy to to let us go side to side, closing off the space in the middle, forcing us out wide and will deal with the crosses all day long.

Biggest problem with that is that we do absolutely diddly squat with corners. I get so tense when Albion concede a corner, expecting the opposition to do something with it. Opponents must breathe a sigh of relief whenever we get a corner with our 0.0001% score rate from them. This has been an issue for ages now.