[Albion] Potter

[BN41Albion]

I think he's done a great job. Hopefully, after today, he has kept us up while bringing through some younger players and changing tactics. Today wasn't great but we got the job done in the type of game we have often lost in previous seasons e.g. Cardiff home last season.

Looking forward to signing a couple of attacking players to make our chances count more next season but overall very happy so far

If you think back to all those games during the first half of the season especially when we were storming games playing lovely stuff but not winning. we could and should have been much further up the league. Does bode well if (and its a big if!) we can sign a few quality attacking players. Fingers crossed!

 

[edna krabappel]

Norwich were rubbish all over the pitch but we needed the post to bail us out at the very end

A small bugbear of mine. A shot that hits the post is a miss. It didn't bail us out: if the post hadn't been there, it would still have been a miss. It's a header off target that just happened to be quite close!

If you're playing basketball and your intended three pointer hits the rim and bounces out, it's not a good shot just because it was close. It's a miss.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

If you think back to all those games during the first half of the season especially when we were storming games playing lovely stuff but not winning. we could and should have been much further up the league. Does bode well if (and its a big if!) we can sign a few quality attacking players. Fingers crossed!

Agreed. And I think Maupay, Trossard, Bissouma etc have all improved since then. Mac Allister has joined too. So hopefully our options are better already.

And Potter has shown he can adapt and play a more solid system if we need it.

 

[Weststander]

A small bugbear of mine. A shot that hits the post is a miss. It didn't bail us out: if the post hadn't been there, it would still have been a miss. It's a header off target that just happened to be quite close!

If you're playing basketball and your intended three pointer hits the rim and bounces out, it's not a good shot just because it was close. It's a miss.

Always this.

Hitting the woodwork and the ball not ending up in the net, is an off target miss. Fact.

 

[whosthedaddy]

Firstly, well done to the team on getting a win today, reaching 36points, and keeping a clean sheet, Potter also deserves great credit for his tactical nous. With the right attitude we are a match for anyone on our day, bar the top two sides.

Today was a nervous affair, we witnessed countless passes that went astray from both teams, and for some reason we appeared to want to slow down the game from the very first minute. This tactic I understand if we are going to catch teams out on the break with our rapid forward movement, but this is not a team blessed with an abundance of fast runners so these moves tend to break down far too easily. The goal itself was a sublime piece of football and deserved the end result from Trossard, apart from that it was in the main a forgettable game, a neutral watching that would be well within their rights to feel cheated of entertainment.

I hope we can play with a bit more about us in the coming games and take on Southampton, Newcastle and Burnley, you'll notice I don't mention the next two opponents, suffice to say, don't all crowd around the back of the sofa

UTA

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Always this.

Hitting the woodwork and not ending up in the net, is an off target miss. Fact.

Reminiscent of Andy King at Swindon in the playoffs when they kept hitting bar.

 

[Napper]

shit show since xmas but another season in the money league

need to strenghten big time though

 

[HalfaSeatOn]

Four seasons of progressive squad building puts us at a massive advantage over Leeds, WBA.

 

[Guinness Boy]

A small bugbear of mine. A shot that hits the post is a miss. It didn't bail us out: if the post hadn't been there, it would still have been a miss. It's a header off target that just happened to be quite close!

If you're playing basketball and your intended three pointer hits the rim and bounces out, it's not a good shot just because it was close. It's a miss.

I have to admit there's a post from me in the official match thread that says something like "the post wasn't part of the plan".

However, you are bang on with that assessment. As a Chicago Bears fan I should have recognised it. Those on the NFL thread will know what I'm talking about.

 

[BN41Albion]

I fully expect the NSC moan brigade to be here claiming it was "embarrassing" etc. The performance was on a par with the man utd one which they described that way. Pathetic set of fans really.

Do you ever browse opponents message boards before and/or after games? All message boards are the same, some a lot worse than NSC, in terms of negativity etc when they lose.

Always makes me chuckle when people think our fans are any different to others. It's the same the world over in any sport. Certain percentage of sports fans anywhere are pessimistic by nature, just as in life in general

 

[warmleyseagull]

shit show since xmas

Hardly. 20 points from 19 at halfway stage; 16 from 14 since then.

 

[Mackenzie]

Do you ever browse opponents message boards before and/or after games? All message boards are the same, some a lot worse than NSC, in terms of negativity etc when they lose.

Always makes me chuckle when people think our fans are any different to others. It's the same the world over in any sport. Certain percentage of sports fans anywhere are pessimistic by nature, just as in life in general

You are very polite.

 

[Stat Brother]

Hardly. 20 points from 19 at halfway stage; 16 from 14 since then.

I'll take a little piece from [MENTION=28481]neilbard[/MENTION] here, in the apology thread.

It has felt very Hughtony.

Plotting a course to not get relegated, as opposed to imposing Potter's will and winning or die trying.


When this team has been good, it's been sensational.
But there's been a lot of attrition as well, certainly far more than we were sold 12 months ago, and in August.

Obviously I accept there's a degree of 'if the cloth fits', but I still expected more, because I was promised more.

Today could have been an embarrassment, Norwich weren't fit to be in the same division and yet were never put to the sword.

I do expect more, considerably more, next season, despite what you can read here we have a sensational squad who from now on must be looking up and only up.

 

[dazzer6666]

I'll take a little piece from [MENTION=28481]neilbard[/MENTION] here, in the apology thread.

It has felt very Hughtony.

Plotting a course to not get relegated, as opposed to imposing Potter's will and winning or die trying.


When this team has been good, it's been sensational.
But there's been a lot of attrition as well, certainly far more than we were sold 12 months ago, and in August.

Obviously I accept there's a degree of 'if the cloth fits', but I still expected more, because I was promised more.

Today could have been an embarrassment, Norwich weren't fit to be in the same division and yet were never put to the sword.

I do expect more, considerably more, next season, despite what you can read here we have a sensational squad who from now on must be looking up and only up.

Yes. Potter has had to go a bit more pragmatic at times to make sure we stay up.......that he was able to adjust, and do that, to me is further validation we’ve got a good’un, not a negative. If he’d blindly followed his preferred philosophy (like Farque has done for example) we might have been fooked. Now he’s done that (barring miracles), he can prepare for next season and have a full transfer window to further shape the squad how he wants. Happy days.

 

[lawros left foot]

I think the difference between out last two managers is that Potter can play like a Hughton team, Hughton would never play like a Potter team.

 

[Pickles]

He doesn’t always get it right but he’s not afraid to try. Keeping us up with a good style of football in the prem deserves huge credit. Well done GP and his team and we’ll done Albion for taking the risk.

Sheebs, you sum up my thoughts entirely on this, and I suggest many others.

It now puts to bed all the non Albion people that said we wrong to sack Chris, and bring in Magic Harry Potter.

I'm genuinely chuffed for Uncle Tony and Magic Potter, and our future , whatever it brings, will be exciting and defo Albion, our way.

 

[Weststander]

Can't speak for other clubs no. But there seems to be a growing never of "fans" here who like to jump on any tiny error by a player and scapegoat them for everything.
This must be one of, if not, the best squads we have ever had and yet some moan about Ryan letting in too many and not passing well, Webster not being able to defend, Stephens being shit, gross being slow and shit, march being shit etc etc. I truly wonder if they are actually fans of this club. I really do.

I think of it in reverse.

Some people seem to detest a player, they personalise it for some very odd reason in their heads, then they fit the ‘bad player‘ evidence around their spiteful opinion. Mid match, almost revelling in mistakes or failings from March, Stephens, Connolly, Webster or Duffy. Past victims have included Muzza, but his annoyingly immense Albion goal tally has sent them reluctantly to ground.

 

[Acker79]

I think of it in reverse.

Some people seem to detest a player, they personalise it for some very odd reason in their heads, then they fit the ‘bad player‘ evidence around their spiteful opinion. Mid match, almost revelling in mistakes or failings from March, Stephens, Connolly, Webster or Duffy. Past victims have included Muzza, but his annoyingly immense Albion goal tally has sent them reluctantly to ground.

I remember a player, I think it was Gary Dicker, being criticised for a fan in the west lower for a) taking a poor corner b) failing to get on the end of that same corner in the 6 yard box and seconds later c) putting the rebound shot over from outside the area. If I remember rightly, not only was it impossible to be the same person for more than one of these, I don't think any of them were Gary Dicker.

Similarly there was a moment when one non-Greer player gave the ball away cheaply, it was tidied up and cleared but some guy in the crowd yelled 'FFS Greer!' and there was a ripple of confusion and it was followed up with '... you're the captain, you should sort it out'. You could almost hear the guy thinking 'whoops, it wasn't greer, better somehow make it about him...'

 

[ShandyH]

Yeah, but setting an expectation that we have to win games like that by playing better football is unnecessarily harsh on the team.
This was our only 6 pointer of the restart. Sertting the team up to be expansive would have been foolhardy.
We set up to contain Norwich. They had some half chances which they missed. Don't think Ryan made a save, worthy of the name.

Very few players played poorly, so I wouldn't have called it a poor performance.


Worth noting also that we scored a goal of absolute quality. Which we haven't managed in games where we have played much better football.

Agree with this.

That goal was a classic case of slow, slow, slow, quick. It was incisive and designed that way. Like the winner against Arsenal, it was a lovely goal. Not a GOTM contender but something I will enjoy for.a while; similar to Murray’s flick against Man Utd.

Also, we’re not yet at the level where we can put teams away 2-0, 3-0 or 4-0 but we’re already doing the nil away from home and we have a team with real skill to build the goals. This is by far and away the best combination of manager and players we have had in the PL, and possibly ever.

I think it’s fair to say GP has improved almost all of our squad. The football system is evolving and he’s teaching the players to adapt and make their own decisions going forward (encouraging counter attacks like he did at Swansea) whilst being very disciplined defensively.

There is nothing I don’t like about the way Brighton are evolving. It’s the best trajectory I can remember although I was only 5 in 1979.

Long live GP!

 

[ShandyH]

A great manager? sorry but that's totally laughable, especially when said just after a narrow victory against a very poor and doomed Norwaich side.

Yes ok, so we are almost certainly safe from the drop now, and maybe that alone should be classed as us having a suiccesful season, maintaing our Premier League place, but many posters are going way over the top here in their praise for our manager
.

I suppose you will expect us to earn a European place at the end of next season Spence?

I think what most people are trying to say is that he’s kept us up (fingers crossed) whilst overseeing a complete transformation in the way we play, the addition of the use of an entire squad including the younger players. We can shift between about 10 formations.

We’ve done all this with fewer goals conceded, more chances made, more goals scored.

Isn’t this progress? I would say so.