[Albion] Six Games In, how do you feel about our season so far?

Stat Brother · Sep 25, 2018

Were it not for the Utd game I'd assume this season was heading in the same direction as CH's first 6 months, as we'll not be staying up due to the acumen of the manager, just that there are 3 teams shittier than the Albion.

The only difference is this time we are watching nearly £100m worth of talent having the life sucked out of it.

At least we have a new Leon (not the) Best.

Icy Gull · Sep 25, 2018

Bakero said:
Were you expecting Andone to go straight into the starting line up after recovering from injury?

We seem to specialise in signing injured or injury prone strikers. Since he’s left Baldock seems to have got over his constant niggles, although it is still early days but not sure he often went as long uninjured as he has done this season. Has he played all 9 league games this season?

Publius Ovidius · Sep 25, 2018

Personally I think that the performance against Tottenham summed up really a lot of our football the last couple of years.

If we are stating that we don't care at all how we play against the top 6 sides, and we all know who they are, we are concentrating on finishing in the division and winning our game s against our mini league, then the first half performance against Spurs was entirely expected. If lamella would have started from the beginning with Kane, I think it would have been a lot more than 1.

We looked totally clueless and surrendered the ball to them all the half. It was only that Spurs had an off day that we got away with that.

We really need to look at the two games against Fulham and saints who are more in our mini league and we gave both of them a a 2 goal lead and had to fight back to get a point. Yes it shows resillience BUT we can't expect us to do this every week. It will be interesting to see these next two games at home vs hammers and wolves where that will be more of a pointer than Man City...as it appears most people on here would be happy with anything less than 5-0 defeat.

Hughton's tactics of playing 1 up front is his tried and tested method and I bet he won't change that, which means we have spent a lot of money on strikers who will basically be bench players or one side to be brought on for the last 10 minutes to rescue the game. Murray has the shirt and barring injuries is undroppable, therefore if you are an expensive forward, you can look forward to a weekend of 10 minutes football at the best!

Still, it is early days and we have some interesting games coming up.

goldstone · Sep 25, 2018

How do I feel about our season so far? Frustrated.

Only one win. Not good enough. Draws against Fulham and Southampton - not good enough. Defeat against Watford - not good enough. Slow out of the blocks in every game bar one - not good enough.

We need a shake up. Change of tactics and time to give the new boys starts.

Horses Arse · Sep 25, 2018

It's a transition into a different style, slightly more is being asked after last season. It's evolution and it takes a little while to take hold and an evolving playing staff to properly implement. 13th after the horrendous fixture list we were handed is a pretty good return. Not disappointed at all although deeply frustrated with elements of games (missed Watford.. ).

Happy to travel to city on Saturday to see further evolution and a really good test. Another Liverpool style performance and I'll be happy. Not expecting any points though.

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GT49er · Sep 25, 2018

Bakero said:
Were you expecting Andone to go straight into the starting line up after recovering from injury?

Maybe not, but neither do I expect a player we've paid multi million pounds for to be waiting their turn for a 45 minute run out with the U23s.

dazzer6666 · Sep 25, 2018

GT49er said:
Maybe not, but neither do I expect a player we've paid multi million pounds for to be waiting their turn for a 45 minute run out with the U23s.

We're always super-cautious with new players, and players returning from injury....Andone is both so it's hardly surprising.

Bakero · Sep 25, 2018

GT49er said:
Maybe not, but neither do I expect a player we've paid multi million pounds for to be waiting their turn for a 45 minute run out with the U23s.

He came back from injury, had a run out with the u23s, then got a place on the bench with the 1st team. Seems pretty standard to me.

darkwolf666 · Sep 25, 2018

Bladders said:
Bit bored to be honest . Spent money in the summer and aren’t using any of them.

Bissouma only getting a game cause Gross is out and Montoya is in cause Bruno is close to drawing his pension .

I could understand Hewoughton cautious tactics in our first season but we’ve spent £100 million since promotion and are still mainly playing the championship line up. Either the manager hates change or the recruitment hasn’t been as good as we all thought . Who knows .

Probably the most boring team in the league to watch this season , which is a shame .

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Why do you insist on misspelling Hughton's name, maybe it's because I am getting old, maybe it's an injoke I'm not party too, but quite frankly it makes you look like a bit of a tit and makes any valid points you may have redundant! Sorry...

GT49er · Sep 25, 2018

dazzer6666 said:
We're always super-cautious with new players, and players returning from injury....Andone is both so it's hardly surprising.

Like Dunk.......

Bakero said:
He came back from injury, had a run out with the u23s, then got a place on the bench with the 1st team. Seems pretty standard to me.

Yes, that's rather what concerns me. Are we getting/will we get VFM from our latest big money buys?

Weststander · Sep 25, 2018

darkwolf666 said:
Why do you insist on misspelling Hughton's name, maybe it's because I am getting old, maybe it's an injoke I'm not party too, but quite frankly it makes you look like a bit of a tit and makes any valid points you may have redundant! Sorry...

It was alright the first time, but then repeated = zzzzzzz.

Bakero · Sep 25, 2018

GT49er said:
Yes, that's rather what concerns me. Are we getting/will we get VFM from our latest big money buys?

I'd be more concerned if we were sticking someone in the starting line up before they're match fit.

GT49er · Sep 25, 2018

Bakero said:
I'd be more concerned if we were sticking someone in the starting line up before they're match fit.

Dunk............

Thunder Bolt · Sep 25, 2018

blue-shifted said:
I feel ok.

It’s irritating that our performance levels are wildly inconsistent between and within games. Oddly this isn’t so much individual players as the whole team are either really good or really bad.

What you’ve got to remember this season, is that there’s never been a league in the history of football where 20 teams have been able to amass such a concentration of talent. So you’ve got 2 promoted teams paying (at a total guess) 5 or 6 players each 80k per week and anyone shining in any of the top divisions around Europe, (unless they are at Bayern or Barca etc) are getting hoovered up by premier league relegation candidates including us. This results in us conceding goals like the one we did at Southampton (my guess is that 5 years ago whoever their holding midfielder was wouldn’t have been able to hit a ball like that and whoever Watford’s winger was wouldn’t have been signed from Juventus) and conceding goals to world cup winners.

Because of this, it’s difficult to be too harsh on our team. We are going to have to continue to rely on superior team spirit and organisation to overcome greater individual talent. This will come into sharp focus for the West Ham game. That said I do think we need to be braver than we are.

Agreed

The_Viper said:
I'm feeling pretty good about it. After 7 games we'll have played 4 of the top 6 and came away with 5 points minimum. Our squad at the start of this season was weaker than the end of last in my opinion.

Izquierdo out
Andone out
Alireza not fit
Bissouma not PL ready at the time
Bernardo not PL ready

We've lost Dunk, Bruno, Gross and Dale now all within the first 6 games, something we never had last year.

Our strongest starting 11 this season without injuries is undoubtedly stronger than last year, we've just been worse off this year so far compared to last year. Let's get through City away and wait and see. We've got a long long way to go before I start panicking, and I certainly won't be when we've had 4 of our first 7 against the big boys. Come back to me in January.

Agreed again.

GT49er said:
Maybe not, but neither do I expect a player we've paid multi million pounds for to be waiting their turn for a 45 minute run out with the U23s.

All the time you keep putting money labels on a player, you will be disappointed.

It's all about expectations, and we knew it would be a difficult start. The attitude of 'we should be beating teams like Watford (who have had a cracking start to their season - underestimated by many) and Southampton (who are always difficult to beat) then we will be disappointed.
The season is going as I expected, therefore I am neither worried, nor unhappy.

We are in 13th place, and playing world class players. That isn't giving them too much respect, but realising these players do have something about them, that they can consistently produce the goods. Obviously we need to cut out mistakes, but we are competing, and holding our own.

If you're fretting and worrying now, you will not enjoy the season.

dazzer6666 · Sep 25, 2018

GT49er said:
Like Dunk.......

Yes, that's rather what concerns me. Are we getting/will we get VFM from our latest big money buys?

Dunk is 'special' it seems. Also think it was a mistake personally.........

Deleted member 18477 · Sep 25, 2018

I feel quite bored about this season so far. Table is shaping up pretty much as expected and we’ll be in a relegation battle at this rate. I didn’t really expect anything else though looking at our opening 8 fixtures.

I feel on NSC you always have to follow that kind of statement up with ‘at least we’re not at the Withdean and in league 1 still’

Eric Youngs Contact Lense · Sep 25, 2018

I don't share the angst on the season so far. When I looked at the fixtures, I could easily have seen a scenario whereby we might only have 1 or two points by the end of September.

Reasons that I am encouraged :

Watford aside we look like scoring in every game - I didn't feel that way last season.

I don't agree that we started slowly against Fulham - we started really quickly for the first 20-25 minutes or so - we didn't convert the pressure into a goal - had we scored the penalty who knows?

Against Spurs, Liverpool and Man Utd. we have kept ourselves in the game and given ourselves a chance of getting something (and nearly did against Liverpool and Spurs). I don't get why some people seem to believe that "Spurs were there for the taking" - the reason that they are in the Champions League again is because they simply don't lose 4 games in a row.

Picking up points against those sides is often more about how they play rather than just how we play. To my mind, we played poorly vs. expectations at Watford and first half against Southampton. We could have snatched points against Spurs, Liverpool and did against Manchester United. (From possible 9 points against Big 6 we have taken 3 - scored 4 and conceded 5 - I would have bitten your hand off had I been offered a draw against all 3 and still had same points total).

We should have beaten Fulham, got a point away to Southampton, fighting back from 2 goal deficits (again something we just could not do last season) and were truly dreadful against this seasons early surprise package. Happy enough; ahead of my expectations in terms of points, creating good chances, scoring more goals (I haven't checked the stats but it feels like it!), fighting back after being behind , and not been thumped yet.. Its not perfect, far from it, but I think there's a great deal to be positive about!

dazzer6666 · Sep 25, 2018

Eric Youngs Contact Lense said:
I don't share the angst on the season so far. When I looked at the fixtures, I could easily have seen a scenario whereby we might only have 1 or two points by the end of September. Reasons that I am encouraged : Watford aside we look like scoring in every game - I didn't feel that way last season. I don't agree that we started slowly against Fulham - we started really quickly for the first 20-25 minutes or so - we didn't convert the pressure into a goal - had we scored the penalty who knows? Against Spurs, Liverpool and Man Utd. we have kept ourselves in the game and given ourselves a chance of getting something (and nearly did against Liverpool and Spurs). I don't get why some people seem to believe that "Spurs were there for the taking" - the reason that they are in the Champions League again is because they simply don't lose 4 games in a row. Picking up points against those sides is often more about how they play rather than just how we play. To my mind, we played poorly vs. expectations at Watford and first half against Southampton. We could have snatched points against Spurs, Liverpool and did against Manchester United. (From possible 9 points against Big 6 we have taken 3 - scored 4 and conceded 5 - I would have bitten your hand off had I been offered a draw against all 3 and still had same points total). We should have beaten Fulham, got a point away to Southampton, fighting back from 2 goal deficits (again something we just could not do last season) and were truly dreadful against this seasons early surprise package. Happy enough; ahead of my expectations in terms of points, creating good chances, scoring more goals (I haven't checked the stats but it feels like it!), fighting back after being behind , and not been thumped yet.. Its not perfect, far from it, but I think there's a great deal to be positive about!

You'll get nowhere posting sensible perspective on here............

Bakero · Sep 25, 2018

GT49er said:
Dunk............

How did that work out?

Lifelong Supporter · Sep 25, 2018

I think it needs to be appreciated that the players bought in are by and large no better than those in the team already. They have been acquired to give greater strength in depth and more options. The benefits of this should be seen as the season progresses. £50million sounds a lot but it does not buy many good players these days.

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