[Albion] It's Just Sunk In...

[Pavilionaire]

Oscar's football DNA will guarantee he tries to get us playing swift passing football. I doubt whether he or his coaching staff even know how to play long ball football, let alone foist it on the team.

Gus's side kept the ball well but the build-up was often so slow it was easy to defend against and get 11 men in front of us. Middlesbrough did a particularly good job on us at The Amex in this regard, as did Watford. a 5 man midfield where everyone gets a touch doesn't make for a lot of chances and my impression of CMS last season was of a man permanently exasperated by moves that broke down.

If Oscar asks us to up the tempo by 10 or 20% then there are players at this club who do not have the requisite skill to control and then get rid of the ball at speed. We just need to hang in there until New Year, then look to come late once Oscar's style begins to bed in.

I'm expecting a lot less draws than last season, so a lot more patchy form as Oscar experiments.

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

I beg to differ. We have the best squad in the division.

That's the spirit fella. (Wow though)

 

[TonyW]

I'd love to know why some people are shit scared of mediocre sides that were relegated last season. Absolutely senseless. Teams very rarely bounce back. And it won't happen this season either.

 

[London Irish]

Gus was an incredibly frustrating manager, and I was first in line at times to question the caution, the lack of variety in our play and the persistence with some players. But we've all (myself included) taken for granted that he actually got an awful lot of basic elements of football absolutely spot on, and up and down this country there are football teams without those. I'm talking about simply being able to defend, to have a style and a belief, to play with commitment, to have technical quality like almost no other team in this league. Apart from the utter disaster of 13/05/13, you can count on one hand the number of times we badly let ourselves down under Gus. I think we've all come to expect a certain level as though it is the norm, when actually it was incredibly high class.

Now, we're left with a manager who has no experience of England, a weakened squad at his disposal, and what looks alarmingly like a lack of money to spend. I'm not enough of an idiot to genuinely question him after two matches, we need two or three months to form any sort of definite opinion of him. But my early impression is that he doesn't fill me with any confidence, and that he has a lot of circumstances going against him that will make this a tough job this season. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm fully expecting a bottom half finish.

This sums up my view - but I feel the board will spend money to ensure we don't finish bottom half.

 

[stss30]

I'd love to know why some people are shit scared of mediocre sides that were relegated last season. Absolutely senseless. Teams very rarely bounce back. And it won't happen this season either.

I think your deluded if you think teams like Reading and QPR won't finish above us and we have a better squad than them.

 

[London Irish]

If Oscar asks us to up the tempo by 10 or 20% then there are players at this club who do not have the requisite skill to control and then get rid of the ball at speed

Quite, and I reckon that's why Poyet was pushing hard on the budget front to get those players replaced. I tend to think we have a little bit overinflated view of how many Premiership quality or top 6 Championship quality players we actially have, but that was part of Poyet's success in getting us to really rate our team

 

[TonyW]

That's the spirit fella. (Wow though)

It is.
Just take a look at the squad.
Brilliant keeper.
International centre backs
Bridcutt!!!!!
David, Orlandi, Bickley, Ulloa.
Bruno.
La Liga quality all over the place.
Wingers that will rip this division apart under Oscar.
Very solid midfield with a decent amount of flair too.

We were the best team last season, and we still are.

 

[Monsieur Le Plonk]

It is.
Just take a look at the squad.
Brilliant keeper.
International centre backs
Bridcutt!!!!!
David, Orlandi, Bickley, Ulloa.
Bruno.
La Liga quality all over the place.
Wingers that will rip this division apart under Oscar.
Very solid midfield with a decent amount of flair too.

We were the best team last season, and we still are.

That's not a squad you mentioned......in fact that's not even 11 players

 

[TonyW]

That's not a squad you mentioned......in fact that's not even 11 players

CMS
Agustien
Crofts

All either internationals or have Prem experience.
Barnes and Dunk

The youngsters coming through...
March, Barker, JFC.

Excellent squad.

 

[TonyW]

Oh yeah, and the transfer window is still open!!!

 

[Smeagull]

I'd love to know why some people are shit scared of mediocre sides that were relegated last season. Absolutely senseless. Teams very rarely bounce back. And it won't happen this season either.

You're kidding right?

Wigan's squad will trounce most teams this season I would have thought. QPR's squad is very strong and although I don't think Reading will be top 2, I think they'll be in the playoffs.

 

[One Love]

and have now turned up to The Amex expecting to see high-quality football every week./QUOTE]

We haven't had that at the Amex though until towards the end of last season so they should be used to it.

Our home form was patchy last year and sometimes boring and uninspiring.

 

[One Love]

You're kidding right?

Wigan's squad will trounce most teams this season I would have thought. QPR's squad is very strong and although I don't think Reading will be top 2, I think they'll be in the playoffs.

We thought that last year with squads on paper but it didn't turn out that way.

 

[TonyW]

You're kidding right?

Wigan's squad will trounce most teams this season I would have thought. QPR's squad is very strong and although I don't think Reading will be top 2, I think they'll be in the playoffs.

Just like Wolves did, and Bolton?

Teams are relegated for a reason.

 

[London Irish]

It is.
Just take a look at the squad.
Brilliant keeper.
International centre backs
Bridcutt!!!!!
David, Orlandi, Bickley, Ulloa.
Bruno.
La Liga quality all over the place.
Wingers that will rip this division apart under Oscar.
Very solid midfield with a decent amount of flair too.

We were the best team last season, and we still are.

Don't mean to be a Buzz Killington III but let's take a critical look:

Brilliant keeper - yes but let's hope he doesn't get injured cos the back-ups.....
International centre backs - unless you have ones from nations high up Fifa rankings, doesn't tend to say much. Jury is out how good Greer really is, El Abd faded badly after Barnsley away game, Upson undoubted class
Bridcutt!!!!! - Granted not on NSC, but opinions do differ just how good he is, the journos put him in Champ team of the year, his fellow pros didn't
David, Orlandi, Bickley, Ulloa - yes all really good players
Bruno - great player when he arrived, concerning what we are seeing now
La Liga quality all over the place - Villarreal gave the lie to that!
Wingers that will rip this division apart under Oscar - when they were both picked against Newport that's what we certainly hoped that night - but?
Very solid midfield with a decent amount of flair too - solid yes, the flair without a Vicente or a Stephen Ireland gamebreaker type is questionable

Lots of work for Oscar and David Burke to do

 

[Hotchilidog]

Oscar's football DNA will guarantee he tries to get us playing swift passing football. I doubt whether he or his coaching staff even know how to play long ball football, let alone foist it on the team.

Gus's side kept the ball well but the build-up was often so slow it was easy to defend against and get 11 men in front of us. Middlesbrough did a particularly good job on us at The Amex in this regard, as did Watford. a 5 man midfield where everyone gets a touch doesn't make for a lot of chances and my impression of CMS last season was of a man permanently exasperated by moves that broke down.

If Oscar asks us to up the tempo by 10 or 20% then there are players at this club who do not have the requisite skill to control and then get rid of the ball at speed. We just need to hang in there until New Year, then look to come late once Oscar's style begins to bed in.

I'm expecting a lot less draws than last season, so a lot more patchy form as Oscar experiments.

Very good analysis. You can already see how Garcia is trying to up the tempo of the passing and the position on t field where this passing takes place. It's actually asking a lot of the players to get this new style down quickly. I think it will take time for the squad to adjust to Garcia's style but when they do (if they can) then I expect us to be very good indeed, just not any time soon. No need to panic imo.

 

[Commander]

We haven't had that at the Amex though until towards the end of last season so they should be used to it.

Our home form was patchy last year and sometimes boring and uninspiring.

We lost three games at home last season, only one more than Palace and Cardiff who had the best home records in the division. I'm not sure how you can describe that as 'patchy'.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

Oscar's football DNA will guarantee he tries to get us playing swift passing football. I doubt whether he or his coaching staff even know how to play long ball football, let alone foist it on the team.

Gus's side kept the ball well but the build-up was often so slow it was easy to defend against and get 11 men in front of us. Middlesbrough did a particularly good job on us at The Amex in this regard, as did Watford. a 5 man midfield where everyone gets a touch doesn't make for a lot of chances and my impression of CMS last season was of a man permanently exasperated by moves that broke down.

If Oscar asks us to up the tempo by 10 or 20% then there are players at this club who do not have the requisite skill to control and then get rid of the ball at speed. We just need to hang in there until New Year, then look to come late once Oscar's style begins to bed in.

I'm expecting a lot less draws than last season, so a lot more patchy form as Oscar experiments.

Agreed and I think Oscar will get the best out of CMS without a doubt.

Gus.... Who.....

 

[One Love]

We lost three games at home last season, only one more than Palace and Cardiff who had the best home records in the division. I'm not sure how you can describe that as 'patchy'.

What I'm saying is sometimes the football was sublime but quite a bit of the time uninspiring and we just couldn't seem to get going.

Oh and by the way just forget all the draws.

 

[banjo]

A good win on Saturday will lift the NSC spirits. Come on Albion!