Absolutely agree.
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[Albion] NEW: Barber on Hughton, and our big signings.
- Thread starter chaileyjem
- Start date
Absolutely agree.
The irony to all these discussions as to what went wrong lately is the main person I recall in last week or so saying things DID go wrong is one we will all be celebrating on Sunday .. el Capitan Bruno
Being the true leader he is has been very careful not to say in public WHAT he thinks went wrong .. just that players need to have along think about it over the summer and make sure it don't happen again ( though can bet your life he will have told them all in private what he thinks it was )
True leader of men
Being the true leader he is has been very careful not to say in public WHAT he thinks went wrong .. just that players need to have along think about it over the summer and make sure it don't happen again ( though can bet your life he will have told them all in private what he thinks it was )
True leader of men
Hampster Gull
New member
- Dec 22, 2010
- 13,462
All smelling of roses at the Albion then, or at least that’s the propaganda
- Jun 27, 2012
- 13,911
- Thread starter
- #124
Did Barber say that ? I think he said that Hughton would have been at the forefront of fixing what went wrong during our spell of poor form.
'Any Premier League manager who goes through a period of losing games without scoring is going to be criticised.
"The pressure will build naturally. It comes from fans, media, pundits, but it also comes from the manager himself. Chris sets and demands and maintains very high standards, not just for his players but also for himself."
He was also clear that signings don't work out, that the 2nd half of the season has been "difficult' , and said that the back to back defensive games against Wolves and Spurs were "hard and it's not particularly exciting if you are a Brighton fan" and a strategy of just keeping in the Premier League , is for a fan, not "inspiring".
Yes, we'll have to agree to disagree. Although I'll try and do it without the insults.
Yes, I disagree. In that period we went to Wembley and played well. We were the better side against Southampton, but we were negative at the back and got what we deserved for that. We were generally the better side against Cardiff too, except for where it counts - sticking the ball in the net. They took their chances, we didn't. Cardiff deserved their victory for their finishing, but it's not like our players weren't trying, or that Chris got it all wrong. Mendez-Laing scored with a great strike, and we lost confidence (not surprising after the 5-0 defeat against Bournemouth). You disagree, that's fine.
Just like we'll never know if there's a god or not. The fact is, there's absolutely nothing to back up the nonsense rumours, so why pay them any credence?
Careful, Icy Gull will call you arrogant, condescending and argumentative
sussex_guy2k2
Well-known member
- Jun 6, 2014
- 3,740
The issue I have with your comment is double sided. One, there’s absolutely no point in putting forward names when they’ll have absolutely no bearing on who would become our manager were CH to be replaced. Such talk is basically on the same level as “I’d rather like Messi to come play for us” in terms of how productive and sensible it is. And point two, the other side have filled our time with as many cliches, from “he’s done so well with a limited budget”, to “give me a name who could do better”, to “he kept us up against all odds”. These are the other end of the spectrum in the sense that they’re too positive and overlook just how poor we’ve been for much of this season, whilst also overlooking how little progress there’s been on the pitch.
Silverhatch
Well-known member
Good find. And understandable on so many levels - not least second-season syndrome which we've (just) overcome.
- Jun 27, 2012
- 13,911
- Thread starter
- #128
"just how poor much of the season" - all of the season ? from August onwards ?
"little progress" ? Has there really been none ? Anywhere ? Again - its fine - everyone acknowledges that that home run was shocking (Burnley, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Saints) the big signings especially Ali J offered little but Hughton kept us up for a 2nd season, took us to the semi final of the cup, had a (slightly) better record against top 6, decent wins against Wolves, West Ham, Everton, Man Utd and Palace and more away wins is not a "poor much of the season" season.
And its ridiculous to suggest that all of that was because we didn't deserve it , or it was nothing to do with the players or Hughton or because we were lucky.
Bold Seagull
strong and stable with me, or...
What they don't do is automatically equate poor performance with the manager. Burnley's start of the season to January was shocking, just the other way round to our season, was Dyche at fault for that, or circumstances? If you've made your mind up that the manager needs to be changed, you may as well put glasses on that obscure every other opinion. I've seen people defend the performances of say Jahanbakhsh by saying 'it's not a system to suit him...' etc. It is possible to be balanced, that yes he maybe finding it hard in our system, but also share the opinion that he's simply finding the step up in quality and pace very difficult.
So there are cliches everywhere, what I did find interesting is how closely Barber works with Hughton, and how between them, Barber and Bloom have a huge swathe of information we are not privy too; personal circumstances of players, what is going on at the training ground, and the fine detail of running a football club.
We didn't make progress for 4 months of the season. It's hardly crime of the footballing century that a manager and their team has a poor spell at some point. I'd argue that other than Jan - April this year we have made progress every other 1/2 season under Hughton, 8 out of 9 if you like. I'm certainly inclined to give the benefit of doubt, which clearly others aren't.
You really can't put any quantitative argument around 'progress'. League position? Points gained? Goals for/against? They really are all much of a muchness and I'm sure to any neutral we've just stood still or maybe gone backwards. Picking a slightly improved away record or slightly better record v top 6 is as unconvincing as the counter argument which could be we've conceded more goals, have a worse home record, or have had less possession, or whatever. If you look at facts we just haven't moved.
All of us would have hoped we might have kicked on a little but what I've seen on the pitch is a team that looks less confident, made many more mistakes and has sat deeper than I've ever seen before. I'd argue that we got lucky (the three 1-0's were spectacularly fortunate, and you can look at the stat's). All just an opinion of course, no facts!
So now we've got 2nd season syndrome out of the way what next? I suspect that the three teams coming up next season are going to be far more capable than the three going down and unless we up our game (and by that I mean performances), then I can't see we have a prayer of staying up
- Jun 27, 2012
- 13,911
- Thread starter
- #131
Well it’s all fine margins. A point here or there but the OP said we’d been poor “much” of the season and implied no progress at all but yep obviously no step change. I just don’t buy the idea that when we’ve won , we don’t really deserve it . Just gives cover for those who imply there’s nothing to be upbeat about.
As for Norwich and Sheff Utd or even West Brom etc - why ? Seen their budgets ?
southstandandy
WEST STAND ANDY
- Jul 9, 2003
- 5,644
Even though I personally don't think Ali J for example is quite of the standard we need, I suspect being on a 5 year deal, he will be one of those not rushed out of the door. Possibly still has some potential if played in a different system? Also in his case who would buy him this summer as he looked so poor this year and hardly pulled up any trees? I suspect the most likely outcome with him is that he will stay unless he specifically requests to go out on loan (possibly back to Holland)?
Locadia is a different story for me. He may have only been here one and a half seasons but does anyone really think he can have an impact into what will effectively be a third season with the club? Coupled with his frustrations expressed in the media at the end of last year, I think somehow the club will find a way of moving him on, again I suspect on loan back to Holland.
Players likely to be released in my view will be : Schelotto, Suttner, Kayal, Towell, Hemed, Locadia and possibly Steele (coupled with the retirement of Bruno). I also have gut feeling Balogun may go (no evidence to suggest this, but wonder how happy he is behind 3 other centre halves - assuming that Dunk and Duffy stay).
Andone has again had little impact for me but I still feel he's worth keeping with Murray and 1 or 2 new strikers that hopefully we can try to find in the summer.
Locadia is a different story for me. He may have only been here one and a half seasons but does anyone really think he can have an impact into what will effectively be a third season with the club? Coupled with his frustrations expressed in the media at the end of last year, I think somehow the club will find a way of moving him on, again I suspect on loan back to Holland.
Players likely to be released in my view will be : Schelotto, Suttner, Kayal, Towell, Hemed, Locadia and possibly Steele (coupled with the retirement of Bruno). I also have gut feeling Balogun may go (no evidence to suggest this, but wonder how happy he is behind 3 other centre halves - assuming that Dunk and Duffy stay).
Andone has again had little impact for me but I still feel he's worth keeping with Murray and 1 or 2 new strikers that hopefully we can try to find in the summer.
Blue Valkyrie
Not seen such Bravery!
Totally agree with you on Ali J. As for the others mentioned...
Schelotto - Injured, no chance of moving on before January.
Suttner - Surely sold this summer.
Kayal - May depend on whether Pröpper goes to Ajax or not.
Towell - Don't think we'll take up the option, or if we do it'll be with a view to getting a sale fee.
Hemed - Out of contract, "walks away on a free".
Locadia - We'll try to sell, surely.
Steele - Big competition next season from Walton ( is he off, though ? ) and Sanchez.
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boik
Well-known member
Jan-Apr wasn’t exclusively cr@p. First half against Fulham we were excellent. And 90 mins against Watford we were incredibly dominant. It was a terrible period, but there were some ups as well as downs.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
I thought we were good against Burnley too. Take out one Dunk slip, and add in the most blatant of all the penalties that we haven't been given this season, and it might have been an entirely different result.
Agreed. Up to and including that game, we’d probably improved our overall approach from the first half of the season, but did seem to have a run of bad luck in games that could have gone either way. I think what the season proved is that a team like ours, which has to be absolutely at 100% to compete, simply can’t afford a drop in confidence. We haven’t got the options to pull out of that downward spiral easily. We immediately looked a different team once the pressure was off and the players could relax a little.
I think you attacked a very good post with not to much substance in your reply.
You put it forward well but there wasn't any content to it.
Brighton in the second half of this season tried to over reach too early before they were ready for it.
We all watch the men's first team and that's all that fans are concerned about.
Brighton have a great Chairman and backroom staff behind that; however, the are fighting on about 4 different fronts. They are trying to progress the women's side of the game. They are trying to expand the Academy and youth squads. They are trying to expand their influence in the local community in general and they want to progress the first team.
It is really hard to try and fund all of these things all at once but we are trying to and Brighton are novices at this level of football.
We sort of saw an opportunity with say 10 games to go with a points cushion to play more expansively. In hindsight it was too soon. We learn from that and move on and do it at a nose sustainable pace from now on.
That's my thoughts anyhow.
Machiavelli
Well-known member
I'm with you all the way. Despite what many are saying on here, I really didn't think we played that well in the first half of the season, and those three wins in a row were gritty, rather than being good, we were resilient. Wolves battered us, but somehow we kept them out.
We really need to sign some quality in this window. Ideally, RB, dynamic or sitting CM, striker are key. Beyond that, we might pick up a loan, and then some promising talent that Ashworth knows. I remain to be convinced that CH will get the best out of better players, but will support him all the way.
forumwayseagull
Well-known member
Obviously a striker has to be the priority! ( and a new no 10 as AN has hinted at twice now) then as you stated the RB and CM
Johnny RoastBeef
These aren't the players you're looking for.
- Jan 11, 2016
- 3,158
Looking back over our results since the FA cup match against Millwall, it seems this was when our real problems started. It looks like the players lost focus and our levels dropped.
3 days after that match we lost a crucial home game to Southampton 0-1. Managing only 1 shot in target.
Then lost 3-0 away to Chelsea, again managing only one shot on target. A long distance effort by Bernado.
Then we played quite well in the Semi at Wembley. But still just 2 shots on target.
Then we simply downed tools, much like we did the year we got promoted. Losing 2 must win home games in the most pathetic manner.
0-5 to Bournemouth, 1 shot on target.
0-2 to Cardiff, 2 shots on target.
Thankfully since then we managed to crawl over the line to safety, but that period of 4 matches either side of the Wembley match nearly cost us our Premier League status.
So upon reflection I hope that next season we get dumped out of the cup early, this season's cup run was great, but did it distract the players from the more important job of league survival?
3 days after that match we lost a crucial home game to Southampton 0-1. Managing only 1 shot in target.
Then lost 3-0 away to Chelsea, again managing only one shot on target. A long distance effort by Bernado.
Then we played quite well in the Semi at Wembley. But still just 2 shots on target.
Then we simply downed tools, much like we did the year we got promoted. Losing 2 must win home games in the most pathetic manner.
0-5 to Bournemouth, 1 shot on target.
0-2 to Cardiff, 2 shots on target.
Thankfully since then we managed to crawl over the line to safety, but that period of 4 matches either side of the Wembley match nearly cost us our Premier League status.
So upon reflection I hope that next season we get dumped out of the cup early, this season's cup run was great, but did it distract the players from the more important job of league survival?
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