Utter bollocks. Why do you think two out and out strikers will solve everything? Do you honestly think that this is the solution, and that Oscar Garcia, a man with 20 goals for Barcelona (who don't play with two strikers), just hasn't thought of it? How many top teams play with two strikers? When was the last time a team won the Champions League, World Cup, or Euros with two strikers?
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lets hope these results don't keep papering over the cracks.
- Thread starter Silver flying chariot
- Start date
Utter bollocks. Why do you think two out and out strikers will solve everything? Do you honestly think that this is the solution, and that Oscar Garcia, a man with 20 goals for Barcelona (who don't play with two strikers), just hasn't thought of it? How many top teams play with two strikers? When was the last time a team won the Champions League, World Cup, or Euros with two strikers?
The Wizard
Well-known member
- Jul 2, 2009
- 18,383
The more you think about threads like tihs, the more they bemuse me. We've had some horrific luck with injuries this season, including not having arguably our two best players for large periods (Bridcutt/Ulloa) and we are still 8'th and in there with a fighting chance of getting the play offs. I seriously don't get the negativity, reading some posts in this thread its like we are in the bottom 8 not the top 8.
8'TH IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP
Have some perspective.
8'TH IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP
Have some perspective.
Creaky
Well-known member
Football unfortunately has changed from what it used to be and BHAFC has bought into that change. Fans will return, in fact they'll probably never leave, but customers are a different thing altogether.
Football is now part of the commercial entertainment business which has, certainly in the case of BHAFC, provided numerous beneficial side effects for the fans but are primarily aimed at the customers which it needs to survive. I don't know what the proportion of customers to fans is at the moment but I'm fairly certain that over the next 10 or 20 years the number of customers will increase whilst the fan base will fall.
If my premise is correct then the entertainment value provided by clubs is every bit as important as any rebuilding exercise. Football in the top two divisions is now a corporate exercise, all centered around money.
deletebeepbeepbeep
Well-known member
- May 12, 2009
- 20,970
The most distinct change from Poyet is that we now press much higher up the pitch, we don't pull it off every time but a few times yesterday we pressurised Doncaster into making mistakes on the half way line. Well only get better at that with time.
Not Andy Naylor
Well-known member
Watching professional sport is my job. So naturally I look forward to taking a break from it to watch the Albion. Oh wait, that didn't quite come out right, did it ...?
Seriously, I haven't seen us win or even play really well this season, apart from maybe the Reading away game (and the bad news - sorry everyone - is that I'll be at the Leeds match) but I still maintain that Oscar has had so many problems with injuries and personnel changes that we still can't make a sound judgement on his team or expect coherent performances for a few more weeks yet.
This time last season we seemed to have lost our way but we ended up a couple of Ashley Barnes efforts away from the play-off final, so there's still time for Orlandi, Ulloa and Spanish Dave to rediscover their form.
Pretty pink fairy
Banned
- Jan 30, 2008
- 31,981
HantsSeagull
Well-known member
Albumen
Don't wait for me!
Potentially 1 point off the playoffs in 8th place. That's pretty thick paper that's covering a rather some crack.
London Irish
Well-known member
Thought it was a poor advert for Championship football, Donny very limited but still their makeshift defence containing recent loan signings looked pretty comfortable most of the game. Two clearcut chances, Sharp missed open goal but Ulloa took his after a lovely cross by Wardy. But could easily have been the other way round and everybody who was there knows it.
Good 3 points, but disappointing performance. The passing remains a long way below the standard of last season and is making these games a lottery. The amount of aimless long balls and cheaply surrendered possession made the game ugly to watch for long periods.
Agree that we are unlikely to see a change from the 451 that both Gus and Oscar favour. My only hope is that LuaLua becomes a regular first choice starter because the formation becomes attacking with him in it, he never stops driving at defenders. The likes of March, Conway and obviously Buckley are fine players all but are less direct than Kaz, so for me give defenders more breathing space.
But a fortunate 3 points gives us a chance to show we can do better against Leeds - and we will need to.
Good 3 points, but disappointing performance. The passing remains a long way below the standard of last season and is making these games a lottery. The amount of aimless long balls and cheaply surrendered possession made the game ugly to watch for long periods.
Agree that we are unlikely to see a change from the 451 that both Gus and Oscar favour. My only hope is that LuaLua becomes a regular first choice starter because the formation becomes attacking with him in it, he never stops driving at defenders. The likes of March, Conway and obviously Buckley are fine players all but are less direct than Kaz, so for me give defenders more breathing space.
But a fortunate 3 points gives us a chance to show we can do better against Leeds - and we will need to.
There has only ever been one 0-0 with no shots on goal under Gus. v Bristol City away, and there were extenuating circumstances, Barnes falling ill the morning of the game, CMS got injured in the first half (still not back from that), unsettling the team and the game.
But Gus and the team got criticised for that game (which came last season when we got our highest league finish in how many years?) Bad performances will be criticised. Flaws in our side that have been there all season will be highlighted by people even when we win (especially if others are ignoring them based simply on us winning).
And while we may be taking more shots under Garcia (13.17 shots per game this season vs 10.46 last season), we are still getting fewer on target (3.79 shots on target per match this season versus 5.31 last season).
I don't think two up front would make any difference. You can play dominant attacking football with one up front. At the end of the day, given all that's happened, change of manager, loads of injuries etc you can't grumble with how we're positioned in the league table. That said I fully agree with those saying we're not very good. I don't see any tactical plan really (ok we press higher), we just seem to go forward and look up to see what we can do, rather than knowing what we're doing 5 passes in advance. People can call me a moaner if they want, but I was fine with McGhee when everyone wanted him sacked. It's just opinions and that's what the forums all about.
1234andcounting
Well-known member
- Mar 31, 2008
- 1,609
Not everyone believes that winning is what matters. If you do, fine. I go to be entertained, part of that entertainment comes from success, but 23+ ninety minutes a season becomes unbearable if the football is too dull.
London Irish
Well-known member
For all the guff and hype on here, there appears to be only one difference between Gus and Oscar - the formations are the same, we have the same type of good technical players, the ambitions are the same. The one difference is that Gus would have bollocked non-stop those players making those aimless passes yesterday and yelled at them to value the ball - Oscar and Nathan Jones appear more happy for our players to take greater risks with possession. Does this make us more "attacking" now? Surely the better question is does it make us more effective? Gus favoured a dominating style of possession football that could be slow and dull to watch but was damn effective in making us the number one team of the division from Christmas onwards last season. At the moment Oscar seems to lack that kind of strong vision, players can seemingly do what they want. It's more messy and chaotic and it's hard to see that it will be more effective, despite a bigger budget this season. But ultimately it's down to the players, if they can flourish under this new tactical freedom that Oscar gives them, then all well and good but it's in the balance pretty much. Bloom has clearly said he will be disappointed with anything less than top 6 this season so it's interesting we have many fans who are less ambitious than that.
Icy Gull
Back on the rollercoaster
- Jul 5, 2003
- 72,015
I'll be disappointed, I won't be surprised though. We are close to where we were at this stage last season, Gus had already had three years to get us there. Oscar has had a few injury ravaged months and the fall out from last season as well and yet we are still on touch.
I am looking forward to what the next three months bring, but it would be incredibly impressive if we could match last seasons run in. One thing I'm pretty certain of, it won't end with as much angst as last season did.
We're the Stripes
Well-known member
Did he not say something along the lines of, "assuming we don't have bad luck with injuries etc.. top six has to be the aim and anything less we'll not be happy with"? I'm wouldn't be surprised if Bloom, like most sensible fans, may have re-adjusted his expectations accordingly.
Really can't have too many complaints with where we're positioned currently. Think we'll only improve, attacking-wise as the new/returning players continue to settle in.
Surrey_Albion
New member
If we wi every game one nil we can make the play offs
London Irish
Well-known member
It's true Oscar deserves a lot of credit for picking up points during our injury crisis - but that was the first part of his job and he now faces the really important stuff - the business end of the season where we are in good shape squad-wise. We have a settled defence, options in midfield, options up front with the signing of DR and CMS back soon, and reasonable options out wide, though we could do with a steady eddie like Conway back. It's special pleading now to say our injury situation is any worse than our rivals - Oscar has the tools and he needs to get top 6 or this will be a disappointing season - and having funded a bigger squad I doubt if Bloom will revise lower his expectations. One pretty consistent feature of his reign (and his pre-reign when he was power sharing with Dick) was that he expects a hell of a lot from his managers. In NSC terms, I think he would actually be "a moaner".
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
after you've sucked a few you start looking for a new flavour
regards
DR
But you still keep coming back to that old one
London Irish
Well-known member
Sure, but as a seasoned observer of all things Albion, I bet you won't be surprised if there's a lot of angst if we fall away from the play-offs?
Oscar did get a lot of extra goodwill from fans because of the Gus mess but I think that extra dividend will fade now - Gus is doing well at Sunderland, we are in the play-off hunt, surely no one gives a monkeys about the Gus issue anymore, we are united again - but that means the sole focus is now on Oscar and just how good he is in getting our decent squaud of players over that finish line.
LamieRobertson
Not awoke
Ive yet to see evidence of this ''bigger'' budget.
I would have thought Bloom is a realist as well....but more importantly he is a football person...he would have understood the impact of the messy business over the summer and also the injuries we suffered at the first half of the season....you can add that to a pretty unsettling time in the transfer window..you talk about squad depth but look at the middle 2 yesterday...Ince in not only his first season in the first team but as a midfielder..add to that Stephens who only played his second game for the club.....anyway back to play off targets..yes he said that was achievable..but then he was hardly going to say before the season sorry fans but its a season of rebuilding...bear with us and dampen any hopes we had