[Albion] We are the idiots, not Hughton

A1X said:

I agree with a lot of the post but I actually think 4-3-3 was borne out of necessity rather than anything. When Gross went down injured we had become too reliant on playing someone in a #10 role, so had to change the system as we had no obvious backup. This could have been addressed in January but wasn't, had it been we would probably have abandoned 4-3-3 months ago.

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NooBHA said:

I have one major gripe about something which happens in the midfield of the pitch and I only noticed it in the last 2 games - When there is a loose ball bobbing about in the air. Neither Stephens or Propper try to win it. They try to let it drop in the hope that their presence is enough to stop their opponent winning it and then if it is lost then they are caught up ahead of the ball and that is leaving the defence exposed.

I would like to see them told to stop that and for them to go ad try and win those Arial 1 v 1s in the middle of the pitch - They are not the only ones who seem to have a fear of heading the ball. Only Murray, Andone and the two Centre backs seem comfortable in Arial duels. Every other player in the team seems unwilling to head the ball.

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Mellotron said:

Somewhere inbetween, perhaps? We've seen Hughton be a very good manager before. We've also seen pretty much all of these players play very well before they joined us.

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Shooting Star said:

Fully expect to be shouted down for this but I really don't care.

We had 25 points by Christmas and were sailing towards Premier League safety but fans weren't happy with the style of football we were playing. We weren't satisfied with gritty, defensive 1-0's here and there. So Chris eventually had us playing 4-3-3, trying to be more open and expansive. Has it worked? No. Why? Because of the constraints of the players he has to work with.

Now, he's rightly calling for us to be more defensive and to stop shipping goals i.e. return to what has made us so successful this season. The approach of trying to be attacking is clearly not working with the bunch of players we have. I think sometimes as fans we sit in our ivory towers and create some mental picture of the players we think AJ, Davy etc. could be, without having the slightest bit of knowledge about the players they actually are because we're not on the training ground with them day in, day out. Naylor, Paul Hayward and other journalists/pundits who are worth their salt can see this, but we're too blinded by where we imagine Albion should be.

Hughton's not a flaming idiot. Do people think he genuinely wants us not to score, to be relegated and to lose his job and the livelihood for his family? He played attacking football in the Championship but we are on a completely different level of play right now. The players we've got aren't going to play the football we want and get the results we need. Look at Fulham.

It's ironic that the attitudes we criticise Palace fans for when they've throw their toys out of the pram about Hodgson is precisely the same reaction many of us are having right now regards to Chris.

I'm as upset that we've sleepwalked to a relegation battle as anyone else. CH going back to what he knows this group of players do best is our best last chance of surviving. If he has at any point this season listened to us, he really needs to stop and have faith in his own ability rather than a bunch of armchair pundits.

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Nixonator said:

We can't win a second ball either at the moment.

Competing in most of our remaining games is entirely off the table. 10 behind the ball, ride our luck and see if they can break it down.

Recall our Championship back 4, Stephens Kayal in middle.

Last 10mins make a change and ask a few questions of them.

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Charlies Shinpad said:

Propper plays 10 for Holland so suited for the role.
Just had to bring Kayal into the 11 and would have been fine IMHO

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Mo Gosfield said:

Two things are certain.
1) Death
2) The majority of teams in the PL will be relegated, sooner or later.

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Nixonator said:

He found himself in the space that a 10 operates several times on Tuesday.

His first trick was to lose possession in a dangerous area and jog back as they stuck it in our net. Second trick was, instead of running into clear space (the feckin seas parted for him) he turned and passed it laterally. The other times he checked, turned around and gave it back to Stephens who in turn kicked it out to touch.

He doesn't win us back possession, he doesn't make runs, he doesn't track runners, he doesn't find runners, he doesn't run at them, he doesn't produce ANYTHING other than flattering to deceive with an occasional bit of tidy ball control.

His only bit of genuine creativity all season was a punt up field that we all thought was a masterful defence splitting pass, which even blinkered enough to be believed, still had to be redirected by whatever turd CB Arsenal employ these days straight into the path of our latest Chuba Akpom to slot in.

If the only answer we have to our current crossroads is to stick Davy Proper in the 'ole, then **** me the situation is even more harrowing than I imagined.

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Charlies Shinpad said:

Obviously the Dutch national team manager knows nothing about football then .

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Shooting Star said:

Fully expect to be shouted down for this but I really don't care.

We had 25 points by Christmas and were sailing towards Premier League safety but fans weren't happy with the style of football we were playing. We weren't satisfied with gritty, defensive 1-0's here and there. So Chris eventually had us playing 4-3-3, trying to be more open and expansive. Has it worked? No. Why? Because of the constraints of the players he has to work with.

Now, he's rightly calling for us to be more defensive and to stop shipping goals i.e. return to what has made us so successful this season. The approach of trying to be attacking is clearly not working with the bunch of players we have. I think sometimes as fans we sit in our ivory towers and create some mental picture of the players we think AJ, Davy etc. could be, without having the slightest bit of knowledge about the players they actually are because we're not on the training ground with them day in, day out. Naylor, Paul Hayward and other journalists/pundits who are worth their salt can see this, but we're too blinded by where we imagine Albion should be.

Hughton's not a flaming idiot. Do people think he genuinely wants us not to score, to be relegated and to lose his job and the livelihood for his family? He played attacking football in the Championship but we are on a completely different level of play right now. The players we've got aren't going to play the football we want and get the results we need. Look at Fulham.

It's ironic that the attitudes we criticise Palace fans for when they've throw their toys out of the pram about Hodgson is precisely the same reaction many of us are having right now regards to Chris.

I'm as upset that we've sleepwalked to a relegation battle as anyone else. CH going back to what he knows this group of players do best is our best last chance of surviving. If he has at any point this season listened to us, he really needs to stop and have faith in his own ability rather than a bunch of armchair pundits.

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Mouldy Boots said:

You missed a third and fourth.
3) When a manager loses his team and fans he never gets it back.
4) Managers will be sacked.

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NooBHA said:

And No 5 is - When your default position is ''sack the manager'' there is no turning back - I would love to go back and read your posts in the season the club avoided Relegation from the Championship. That was probably sack the Manager as well but I can't be bothered to look back and find out.

This is a difficult time and the football hasn't been great. But it is at a level of football a lot higher than it was when CH arrived. And that is down to 3 years of hard work from that guy. No one makes no mistakes but mistakes are best resolved by someone who finds their own mistakes and rectifies them rather than someone who comes in and blames a previous regime if they can't resolve it. Your ''default position'' might seem'' like a fix but it isn't.

There isn't a stroke of a pen which is a fix. It took CH 3 years to fix what went before. If you want to wait 3 years to fix what you think might be broken then your ''default position is a valid one; however, what if you wait 30 years which Liverpool have had to do. What then?

Anyone who started to take one of their kids to matches for the first time 3 years ago have been spoilt. Those kids are fans for life now. I guarantee they wouldn't all be fans for life if they were getting battered in the Championship week in week out. Not only did CH build a team to get to the PL but captured the imagination of everyone in and around Brighton during that period.

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BLOCK F said:

So it's all our fault ,is it?
What a load of shit!

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Icy Gull said:

I totally get why you are so strong in your defence of CH. I’d like to know your take on why a team that worked so hard for each other has slowly fallen apart game by game until they looked like players who had never played together before once we went behind against Cardiff. Is it really just a confidence thing or do you believe there is more to it than that?

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Albion my Albion said:

Negative vote--thumbs down.

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