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[Albion] Garth Crooks Team of the Week



dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Mar 27, 2013
52,011
Burgess Hill
"In danger of collapsing of exhaustion by January"

What playing one game of 90 minute football each week.

Honestly some of these pundits are clueless. They see the name Brighton (or any other recently promoted underdog) and their default analysis is to tarnish us with the relegation dead certs brush.

No reasoned argument and no knowledge of our quality and togetherness. If Garth actually took the time to analyse us properly he'd realise that in Knocky, Bruno, March, Dunk, Duffy, Isquierdo, Ryan, Propper, Gross, we have players more than good enough for the prem. Not withstanding in our last two seasons in the championship we only lost 15 out of 92 games - but of course Garth wouldn't know that.


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Spot on. CH has already commented on this himself.....not having to play twice a week etc, particularly in relation to, for example Bruno taking his age into account (he looked as fresh as a daisy in the post match interview on the pitch anyway).

Crooks is a bellend.
 


dwayne

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
14,860
London
Thought punditry from carragher and Neville was great on friday. There are some gems around. But it's a bit embarrassing that US TV now seems to have better insight and less clowns.

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Mo Gosfield

Well-known member
Aug 11, 2010
6,276
"In danger of collapsing of exhaustion by January"

What playing one game of 90 minute football each week.

Honestly some of these pundits are clueless. They see the name Brighton (or any other recently promoted underdog) and their default analysis is to tarnish us with the relegation dead certs brush.

No reasoned argument and no knowledge of our quality and togetherness. If Garth actually took the time to analyse us properly he'd realise that in Knocky, Bruno, March, Dunk, Duffy, Isquierdo, Ryan, Propper, Gross, we have players more than good enough for the prem. Not withstanding in our last two seasons in the championship we only lost 15 out of 92 games - but of course Garth wouldn't know that.


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Classic case of lazy and ill-informed punditry.
Most PL observers don't have a clue about the merits of Brighton or Huddersfield. They don't study the lower leagues. They don't think its necessary. They don't appreciate that the strengths that get you promoted, can have benefits in the PL. Its not all about highly paid talented players. Teamwork, organisation and spirit can get you a decent way. They don't stop to consider that these two teams have competent and settled management, unlike a number of PL teams. Fans are the same. " We should be beating teams like Brighton/Huddersfield." Man Utd fans will be berating their team and saying what a disgrace it was to lose. How poor they were on the day. Even though Huddersfield are in the same division, fans don't even think they deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. It is a complete and utter lack of respect that the elitist PL has bred.
Even if we both survive this season, we will be written off next time around. " They will be found out next season " No thought about consolidation and improvement and skillful management. They hate the status quo being ruffled and find that they have to spend all season justifying their predictable pre-season predictions of a rapid return from whence we came.
 




LamieRobertson

Not awoke
Feb 3, 2008
46,487
SHOREHAM BY SEA
Spot on. CH has already commented on this himself.....not having to play twice a week etc, particularly in relation to, for example Bruno taking his age into account (he looked as fresh as a daisy in the post match interview on the pitch anyway).

Crooks is a bellend.

Not saying i'm agreeing with GC...but late November into December will bring the challenge of midweek games and test the squad.. not a problem when you are getting points but a run of defeats tends to test the mettle...and we have Man Utd/Liverpool/Tottenham and Chelsea to play in that period and they will certainly make us work harder than the likes of West Brom/Everton and West Ham
 




MattBackHome

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
11,689
See football365 mediawatch page every Monday for a dissection of Garth Crooks bollocks. He's been at it for years and he ain't stopping anytime soon.
 




Two Professors

Two Mad Professors
Jul 13, 2009
7,617
Multicultural Brum
I would expect him to eat humble pie at the end of the season.However,I have no confidence whatsoever that he will have left any sort of pies,the rotund punter.
 




Dick Head

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jan 3, 2010
13,612
Quaxxann
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Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
12,898
Central Borneo / the Lizard
Thanks Garth...

"His performances this season have been a steep learning curve but the player has coped admirably in some difficult circumstances. His performance against West Ham proved the point that Dunk is a player very capable of surviving in the Premier League. I'm still not convinced Brighton can."

I have a theory that Garth Crooks is actually trying not to jinx us, in the same way the likes of [MENTION=4019]Triggaaar[/MENTION] hate to do on here. He's a good mate of Hughton's apparently and comes to see him/us quite a bit, so he won't want Brighton going down, and must surely believe CH is good enough to keep us up.

Nevertheless reviewing all the 'non-big club players' by saying they could be on the move soon is classic premier league shit. According to that article Dunk, Duffy, Hughton and Mooy are all candidates for imminent moves to 'bigger clubs'


"In danger of collapsing of exhaustion by January"

What playing one game of 90 minute football each week.

This is the one part of his analysis of his I kind of agree with - the need for reinforcements. Stephens and Propper are playing blinders, but who is behind them when one or the other inevitably gets fatigued / injured / suspended? Sidwell and Kayal are both on the slow road back from injury, not close to match-fit; neither of Brown or Gross would seem like an ideal replacement; Molumby has been on the bench but is not ready yet - if he was close he'd have had 10 minutes against West Ham. Schelotto maybe? Either way its a slight concern at the moment.
 




Thunder Bolt

Ordinary Supporter
I have a theory that Garth Crooks is actually trying not to jinx us, in the same way the likes of [MENTION=4019]Triggaaar[/MENTION] hate to do on here. He's a good mate of Hughton's apparently and comes to see him/us quite a bit, so he won't want Brighton going down, and must surely believe CH is good enough to keep us up.

Nevertheless reviewing all the 'non-big club players' by saying they could be on the move soon is classic premier league shit. According to that article Dunk, Duffy, Hughton and Mooy are all candidates for imminent moves to 'bigger clubs'




This is the one part of his analysis of his I kind of agree with - the need for reinforcements. Stephens and Propper are playing blinders, but who is behind them when one or the other inevitably gets fatigued / injured / suspended? Sidwell and Kayal are both on the slow road back from injury, not close to match-fit; neither of Brown or Gross would seem like an ideal replacement; Molumby has been on the bench but is not ready yet - if he was close he'd have had 10 minutes against West Ham. Schelotto maybe? Either way its a slight concern at the moment.

Kayal played 60 minutes last week.
 


Weststander

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Aug 25, 2011
63,401
Withdean area
Big difference is that Hughton has clocked up a 100 Premier league games now while Aitor Karanka had no experience. As the season wears on this is my slight concern. Hopefully a couple of signings and a re-jiggle of the 25 man squad should strengthen us further. People like Skalak or Murphy etc could be moved on to free up space.

Karanka was a devisive figure like Poyet. Went AWOL in the middle of the promotion season after a falling out, until Gibson grovelled. Came across as overtly moody during their losing runs.

Hughton by nature is professional and always positive. Rubs off on the players.
 


Greg Bobkin

Silver Seagull
May 22, 2012
14,747
This is the one part of his analysis of his I kind of agree with - the need for reinforcements. Stephens and Propper are playing blinders, but who is behind them when one or the other inevitably gets fatigued / injured / suspended? Sidwell and Kayal are both on the slow road back from injury, not close to match-fit; neither of Brown or Gross would seem like an ideal replacement; Molumby has been on the bench but is not ready yet - if he was close he'd have had 10 minutes against West Ham. Schelotto maybe? Either way its a slight concern at the moment.

With the exception of Akbom, I would say ever player that was called upon last season – and this, in the case of Bong and Uwe, for example – has stepped up to the plate*. I see no reason why this shouldn't happen again for the remainder of the season. Hemed came back in when Murray was injured – scored goals. Sidwell came in last season when required and was an important and experienced head on the pitch. Rosenior is more than capable in fitting in to a number of positions. Ryan gets injured and TIM KRUL is waiting in the wings. Jamie Murphy (who seems a bit of a Marmite player) has impressed a number of times when needed. And so on...

There is A LOT of quality in the squad and while replacements might not be as good/fit/up to speed as the guys that are currently starting, you can't say categorically that it will be a disaster if they are called up.


*In the League – I'm not on the two-bob performance at Lincoln in the cup.
 




Jim in the West

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Sep 13, 2003
4,530
Way out West
"Brighton, though, are in perilous need of reinforcements. If not, they are in serious danger of running out of gas. If these players keep performing at the rate they will all collapse from exhaustion by January." I seem to remember a couple of years ago we got a serious bout of injuries in December and went about 7 games without a victory. I think Crooks is completely wrong with the "running out of gas" thing - but we could suffer a few critical injuries. If we lost Gross, Propper or Dunk/Duffy for any length of time, I'd be worried.
 




Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
45,919
at home
Can't disagree with that side to be fair!
 


joeinbrighton

New member
Nov 20, 2012
1,853
Brighton
I tend to read Crooks' team of the week most Mondays while I'm on my lunch break. I find it quite amusing to read, albeit from Crooks' point of view, in a quite unintentional way.

When you read it on a regular basis, you can come to realise that Crooks has pretty entrenched views and pre-formed opinions which he finds it hard to shift from and his team of the week column gives him a platform to present his views in all his usual bluster and pomposity.

One of those views that he has presented over several weeks now is he clearly doesn't rate the strength in-depth of Brighton's squad. He's brought it up on several occasions, although he certainly surpassed himself with his latest column, somehow managing to turn a compliment about Brighton's defence into a diatribe about how he thinks Brighton will struggle to keep working as hard as they are in games after the New Year.

Crooks, in keeping with some other pundits who contribute in the written press, doesn't seem to entirely understand Brighton's transfer policy, how the club has meticulously made its transfers these past few years. You'd think from him that a brown substance has been thrown against the wall in the hope it will stick.

Crooks' team of the week is usually an enjoyable read, mainly because of the absurdity of some of the comments he makes, the show-off formations he picks which involves shoehorning someone into an unfamiliar position and the flowery language he uses to back up his points. You get the impression he wishes in a former life that he could have been Oscar Wilde or Byron. But if it's insight you are looking for, forget it, because Crooks never provides that.
 






Invicta

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Nov 1, 2013
3,195
Kent
He's been an idiot for years - BBC don't exactly give him prime roles! All about creating headlines
 



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