Put Knockaert in the number 10 role?

Finchley Seagull · Aug 21, 2017

Icy Gull said:
Are you suggesting that I might have trouble seeing the printed word Chailey ?

Just bigging up the size doesn't mean he can play no 10, I can't say I know better than CH and LR but my eyes told me yesterday that they may be clutching at straws! Let's see what happens next time out. He is nothing like Baldock though, can we agree on that?

I sometimes find it hard to believe some of our fans. So you trust your own opinion based on one game more than the club's professional scouts and recruitment team who have no doubt seen him much more than you.

Commander · Aug 21, 2017

Finchley Seagull said:
I sometimes find it hard to believe some of our fans. So you trust your own opinion based on one game more than the club's professional scouts and recruitment team who have no doubt seen him much more than you.

Me too. There's people saying we should drop Matt Ryan because he 'clearly isn't working out'. A guy our recruitment team would have been tracking and watching for months, if not years, to get an idea of whether he is the right calibre of player we need, before finally coming to the conclusion that he is, and parting with £5 million for his services. Yeah let's just give up with him after two games. Morons.

Megazone · Aug 21, 2017

Finchley Seagull said:
I sometimes find it hard to believe some of our fans. So you trust your own opinion based on one game more than the club's professional scouts and recruitment team who have no doubt seen him much more than you.

I think that's why they say football is a game of opinions.

You have to admit, Football would be pretty boring if everyone based their opinions on what a few specific scouts thought.

Finchley Seagull · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
I think that's why they say football is a game of opinions.

You have to admit, Football would be pretty boring if everyone based their opinions on what a few specific scouts thought.

It's not the difference of opinion that bothers me. Clearly we will all have that. It was more the arrogance of the post I quoted e.g. 'my eyes told me yesterday they may be clutching at straws'. Or maybe he just needs time to adapt to the English rather than supporters slagging him off after two games, one of which he played okay in (and also had a good pre season).

Finchley Seagull · Aug 21, 2017

Commander said:
Me too. There's people saying we should drop Matt Ryan because he 'clearly isn't working out'. A guy our recruitment team would have been tracking and watching for months, if not years, to get an idea of whether he is the right calibre of player we need, before finally coming to the conclusion that he is, and parting with £5 million for his services. Yeah let's just give up with him after two games. Morons.

People were the same with Stockdale and now they say Stockdale improved. What actually happened was he was nowhere near as bad as people thought he was at the time but they can't admit to being wrong. Now the same people who slagged off Stockdale in his first season are saying we should never have let him go (a certain irony) or that we should recall Walton (a player with only a couple of games at Championship level).

I had hoped this season, with us being in the Premier League, that our fans would show some understanding that patience would be required. Sadly, if anything there seems to be less patience now. The reality is that we will lose a lot of games this season, even if we finish above where we are hoping to. If every defeat ends with the forum like it has been this weekend, it will be unbearable.

chaileyjem · Aug 21, 2017

Here's Gross positioning on Saturday via https://twitter.com/ElStatto

Commander · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
I think that's why they say football is a game of opinions.

You have to admit, Football would be pretty boring if everyone based their opinions on what a few specific scouts thought.

I think it's more that people attempt to disagree with a team of expert scouts who've put in months, if not years of research on someone, based on seeing them play 2 games of a football in a completely new league in a new country. It's utterly ridiculous.

Imagine if you got headhunted to go and start a new job for a company in Germany. After a long interview process you finally accepted and offer and uprooted everything, moved your family over, and started trying to get to grips with the new environment / language etc. and on day 2 of your new job you heard people saying "The new guy is shit, he's never going to last, I can tell already".

Pretty sure you'd think 'FFS give me a chance!'

I will never understand why so many football fans don't seem to get this.

Megazone · Aug 21, 2017

Finchley Seagull said:
People were the same with Stockdale and now they say Stockdale improved..

I remember Adam Virgo (Football expert and Withdean goal scoring legend) giving him some stick on twitter over his early mistakes. It's not just the fans.

Finchley Seagull · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
I remember Adam Virgo (Football expert and Withdean goal scoring legend) giving him some stick on twitter over his early mistakes. It's not just the fans.

He did but it doesn't make it any more true. Stockdale had the same problem as Ryan seems to be getting. Every goal that could possibly be blamed on him, was blamed on him (e.g. I really don't see how Ryan could do anything about Leicester's second goal on Saturday and if it had been a different keeper, I am confident there would have been no criticism). I don't get the agenda that some people who watch Albion have against certain players.

Commander · Aug 21, 2017

Finchley Seagull said:
People were the same with Stockdale and now they say Stockdale improved. What actually happened was he was nowhere near as bad as people thought he was at the time but they can't admit to being wrong. Now the same people who slagged off Stockdale in his first season are saying we should never have let him go (a certain irony) or that we should recall Walton (a player with only a couple of games at Championship level).

I had hoped this season, with us being in the Premier League, that our fans would show some understanding that patience would be required. Sadly, if anything there seems to be less patience now. The reality is that we will lose a lot of games this season, even if we finish above where we are hoping to. If every defeat ends with the forum like it has been this weekend, it will be unbearable.

We all knew this was going to happen. I said on here numerous times last year that if we got to the Premier League then NSC would be horrendous, and it's started already after only two games, against the two previous Premier League Champions. There was enough moaning last season, when we had the most successful season in a generation, and still people weren't happy.

Some people just can't accept that we are going to lose a lot more than we win this season. You all wanted to get to the Premier League, well here we are, so deal with it and stop being such a bunch of cry babies.

chaileyjem · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
I think that's why they say football is a game of opinions.

You have to admit, Football would be pretty boring if everyone based their opinions on what a few specific scouts thought.

Yep. But its all a bit Trumpian on here sometimes.

For example. the facts are Hughton has been playing Gross in a No. 10 role all pre-season and for the first 2 games, using a 4-4-1-1 formation. Gross is experienced at playing that advanced midfield role, he said that is one of the key reasons he was bought, CH and other players refers to him as a No.10 and confirmed all this when he announced the signing is really not up for debate.

Whether he should be picked there, is any good at it, or that CH should play 4-4-2 or sign other players to play in that position is at least an opinion. Debate or argue away. Call him a square peg in a round hole or useless or not up to it or part of being £15m spunked up a wall ...etc etc. but don't deny that was the job he was hired to do. It was.

Megazone · Aug 21, 2017

Commander said:
I think it's more that people attempt to disagree with a team of expert scouts who've put in months, if not years of research on someone, based on seeing them play 2 games of a football in a completely new league in a new country. It's utterly ridiculous.

Imagine if you got headhunted to go and start a new job for a company in Germany. After a long interview process you finally accepted and offer and uprooted everything, moved your family over, and started trying to get to grips with the new environment / language etc. and on day 2 of your new job you heard people saying "The new guy is shit, he's never going to last, I can tell already".

Pretty sure you'd think 'FFS give me a chance!'

I will never understand why so many football fans don't seem to get this.

I agree, obviously after 2 games where we played much better opposition, it's harsh to single out any player.

I think the confidence in our recruitment teams ability shouldn't be seen as flawless as some are making out though. Manu, Toko, Roland Bergkamp, Colunga are just a few recentish signings who our club scouts must have watched plenty of times before deciding they were good enough for us....

Finchley Seagull · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
I agree, obviously after 2 games where we played much better opposition, it's harsh to single out any player.

I think the confidence in our recruitment teams ability shouldn't be seen as flawless as some are making out though. Manu, Toko, Roland Bergkamp, Colunga are just a few recentish signings who our club scouts must have watched plenty of times before deciding they were good enough for us....

In fairness, all except Manu were by a different recruitment team under David Burke. Nobody would argue they were flawless.

Agree re Manu and nobody is saying they are flawless. What people are trying to say is give the new signings a chance and don't think you can judge them better after two games than the scouting staff who have seen them numerous times.

Megazone · Aug 21, 2017

Finchley Seagull said:
In fairness, all except Manu were by a different recruitment team under David Burke. Nobody would argue they were flawless.

Agree re Manu and nobody is saying they are flawless. What people are trying to say is give the new signings a chance and don't think you can judge them better after two games than the scouting staff who have seen them numerous times.

But to be fair, we judge these players on how they play for the Albion in competitive matches. Neither scouts, coaches or fans have seen anymore of him playing competitively for us.

That's where everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Finchley Seagull · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
But to be fair, we judge these players on how they play for the Albion in competitive matches. Neither scouts, coaches or fans have seen anymore of him playing competitively for us.

That's where everyone is entitled to an opinion.

So you think two games is fair to judge players? I really don't see your point. I accept fully that people are entitled to their own opinion but when it is based on just two games, I don't see it as valid. I also don't have a valid opinion yet on any of our new signings but want to give them all a chance, which I get the feeling some on here don't want to.

Megazone · Aug 21, 2017

Finchley Seagull said:
So you think two games is fair to judge players? I really don't see your point. I accept fully that people are entitled to their own opinion but when it is based on just two games, I don't see it as valid. I also don't have a valid opinion yet on any of our new signings but want to give them all a chance, which I get the feeling some on here don't want to.

I'm not trying to be snide, but this isn't a therapy lesson for footballers. Most people tend to watch just the one game before they've developed opinions on players they've barely seen before. I'm sure we all do it when watching the away team play us. I doubt you sat there last season and thought, "that Jordan Rhodes looks very overpriced but hey, what do I know? I've only watched him once!"

It's football. Would you prefer us all to not have any sort of opinion until a certain amount of appearances?

Nixonator · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
But to be fair, we judge these players on how they play for the Albion in competitive matches. Neither scouts, coaches or fans have seen anymore of him playing competitively for us.

That's where everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Granted, but the criticism for Ryan started before he'd even played a game for us.

We have new outfield players who have made as many glaring errors but seem to have escaped a thread named after them so everyone can have a collective whinge after 2 ****ing games against opposition we (should have) expected 0pts from.

Megazone · Aug 21, 2017

Nixonator said:
Granted, but the criticism for Ryan started before he'd even played a game for us.

We have new outfield players who have made as many glaring errors but seem to have escaped a thread named after them so everyone can have a collective whinge after 2 ****ing games against opposition we (should have) expected 0pts from.

Fingers crossed Ryan isn't too emotionally damaged from all this.

Wardy's twin · Aug 21, 2017

But a number of his goals came when he got in the box or cut in from the wing. Having seen both games live he did change the way we played when he came on.

mejonaNO12 aka riskit · Aug 21, 2017

Megazone said:
I I doubt you sat there last season and thought, "that Jordan Rhodes looks very overpriced but hey, what do I know? I've only watched him once!"

Especially as we didn't face Jordan Rhodes last season.

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