[Albion] Fab OUT

[DJ NOBO]

I think there are some serious blue and white tinted glasses on with the quality he apparently has had to work with. Most of the signings made are either injured, young and experienced at this level or struggling to adapt to the league. What he has is potential that is learning and that combined with injuries means he has players or inconsistent quality which creates unsettled performances and results (even across halves as well as games).

I think given this is also his first season he is doing wonders to keep us in the mix with what he been juggling

Mitoma, Pedro, Baleba, JPVH, Veltman, Holland’s number one…top quality internationals off the top of my head. Before you get the £200m investment.
As for injuries - you won’t find an equivalent messageboard in the land where fans don’t complain about injuries.
He hasn‘t worked wonders.

 

[DJ NOBO]

Quite. Although, again, you can’t put all of that on the manager. Dunk, for example, is just of an age where there was likely to be a drop off eventually.

It is an inexact science. On the whole though, player progression has been low imo. I don’t see Fab improving top players much with his coaching (by himself or delegated). I honestly doubt whether he could, at this point in his career and with his limited experience.
Which is part of the problem. Great for him to get the chance to learn on the job, not so good for an ambitious club looking to make a very difficult step up.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

It is an inexact science. On the whole though, player progression has been low imo. I don’t see Fab improving top players much. I honestly doubt whether he could, at this point in his career and with his limited experience.
Which is part of the problem.

No, I agree.

And tactically I think he makes it difficult for his players to truly shine. Someone like Mitoma is a prime example. We’re so slow getting the ball to him, and we have been for most of the season, meaning he often can’t isolate his full back in the way he could under RDZ. Saying that, Mitoma is in his prime - I’m not entirely sure how my much improvement was really available with him. But his finishing, for example, which has always been a weaker part of his game, still remains weaker, so the clear parts of his game that could’ve been improved don’t seem to have.

 

[Steve in Japan]

If you get the plaudits when you win 6 on the spin, you'll get shit when you lose 3 in a week. Nature of the beast, isn't it?

By any measure it's been an absolute, stinking TURD of a week. Fab needs to do better.

 

[tigertim68]

We have played 3 good teams in the last week , they all play a low block , other teams this season have also played a low block , you would of thought a good manager would of change his tactics against these teams by now , instead of doing the same thing thing game after game , 1 goal in 3 matches about sums it up

 

[Lever]

Get shot he is out of his depth

With that bland remark I think you show you are out of your depth in any informed, nuanced, mature debate......

 

[Hometownglory]

Fab has been given a woefully imbalanced squad, although large, he lacking cover in a number of positions.

Yesterday is on the players. Very dissapointing reaction to two defeats against our rivals. Hopefully with a full week rest/training they can regroup.

I do think there is a emotional disconnect with the fans and Fab, it was similar with Potter. Perhaps it's their approach and personalities which is fine. But RDZ, even during the end times, had the fans singing his name. Most other clubs of our size sing their managers name too like Frank, Iraola, Glasner, Silva etc. There's something missing there...

 

[DJ NOBO]

No, I agree.

And tactically I think he makes it difficult for his players to truly shine. Someone like Mitoma is a prime example. We’re so slow getting the ball to him, and we have been for most of the season, meaning he often can’t isolate his full back in the way he could under RDZ. Saying that, Mitoma is in his prime - I’m not entirely sure how my much improvement was really available with him. But his finishing, for example, which has always been a weaker part of his game, still remains weaker, so the clear parts of his game that could’ve been improved don’t seem to have.

We have been cohesive for spells this season but it’s in the more crafty, tactical situations that we’ve most seen the effect of having a manager who has skipped a couple of stages in his career. See Forest away line up.
I agree with you re Mitoma. Although at times, over the course of a season, he has also been a prime example of an already quality player whose individual brilliance has flattered Fab‘s record. Or to put it another way, there is only so badly a manager of any quality would have done when inheriting that squad. Even Hypia would have kept us up.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

We have been cohesive for spells this season but it’s in the more crafty, tactical situations that we’ve most seen the effect of having a manager who has skipped a couple of stages in his career. See Forest away line up.
I agree with you re Mitoma. Although at times, over the course of a season, he has also been a prime example of an already quality player whose individual brilliance has flattered Fab‘s record. Or to put it another way, there is only so badly a manager of any quality would have done when inheriting that squad. Even Hypia would have kept us up.

I totally agree. Outside of the little run post-Forest where we had more players in midfield and dropped a little, we’ve been tactically poor for much of the season, and pretty much got points because of player quality rather than tactical ability.

I thought that was changing post-Forest. Luckily for him, he can still hide behind injuries as a reason for the recent losses… for me though, if you lose key players to injuries, you sometimes need to adapt your style of play to become harder to beat and we don’t seem to have done that. Another lesson to learn for FH I guess.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Mitoma, Pedro, Baleba, JPVH, Veltman, Holland’s number one…top quality internationals off the top of my head. Before you get the £200m investment.
As for injuries - you won’t find an equivalent messageboard in the land where fans don’t complain about injuries.
He hasn‘t worked wonders.

I don't doubt that every team's message board will complain about injuries.

BUT

We have lost over 50% more days to injury than the next worst affected team and have had more injuries than any other team.

 

[Doonhamer7]

Can’t believe theses comments - yes disappointing but let’s remember how much experience we have lost from match day squad: we lost Gross and Lallana, and now both Milner and Veltman are injured, we failed to sign Hummels in the summer. Even top of the league teams are struggling to break down the low block - Liverpool and Man City haven’t done great against Forest for example. Aston Villa are spending 95% of revenue (which I expect is higher than ours) on wages - they also bought in quality on loan in Rashford and Asensio in January, Newcastle have the best in form striker in the premier league.

I don’t think we’ve played our best xi all season (as it needs Kadioglu at right back), I think we only need 2 new players - a fast centre back and another Welbeck/Lallana experienced player

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Can’t believe theses comments - yes disappointing but let’s remember how much experience we have lost from match day squad: we lost Gross and Lallana, and now both Milner and Veltman are injured, we failed to sign Hummels in the summer. Even top of the league teams are struggling to break down the low block - Liverpool and Man City haven’t done great against Forest for example. Aston Villa are spending 95% of revenue (which I expect is higher than ours) on wages - they also bought in quality on loan in Rashford and Asensio in January, Newcastle have the best in form striker in the premier league.

I don’t think we’ve played our best xi all season (as it needs Kadioglu at right back), I think we only need 2 new players - a fast centre back and another Welbeck/Lallana experienced player

We don't need another experienced player.

We need some players in their peak years.
Not going to happen.

But it's what we need.

 

[sagaman]

This is not hindsight but for 2/3 seasons I have said we needed to sign defenders with pace.

I couldn’t understand our massive quantity of signings with too many players for some positions and too few in others.

Hopefully next season will show that Fab has learned

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

This is not hindsight but for 2/3 seasons I have said we needed to sign defenders with pace.

I couldn’t understand our massive quantity of signings with too many players for some positions and too few in others.

Hopefully next season will show that Fab has learned

In fairness, the “rate our signings” threads at the start of the season are always a blast. You inevitably have the “it’s a 10/10 window” group who think everything is shiny, even when the more pragmatic amongst us sit here and say that we’ve still not improved the areas of weakness, for the 3rd season running…

Which is all fine and dandy, but you can’t bring in a manager who wants to play on the half way line and expect them to get great results against low block sides if you don’t bring in those players to fit the system.

We’ve all seen how Spurs, who play in a similar manner to us, have got on this season when they’ve had their speed merchant CBs out for months.

The problem is, and this is where is comes back to the manager, you do need someone’s who’s pragmatic enough to adapt his tactics to the players available. And whether it’s inexperience or pig headedness, outside of a small window of games post-Forest, FH just hasn’t done that.

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

I just think until we get a player of that quality we are going to struggle to push the top 6. Every game we drop points this season, I think last season who provided the quality to win/draw the game and it was pascal. I just think we’ve attempted to replace that quality and got absolutely nowhere near it.

I miss Pascal

 

[bobbysmith01]

My god we have some of the worse moaning fans in football, let’s look at the facts, young team, squad, manager, worst injury list in the league, lost 2 of last 9? Games, won 6. Could have got something out of those 2 loses, although did not deserve, but were close games. We are still in a European slot with on paper an easier run in than other teams. We have just lost to another low block team, yes we need to improve that, but come on we are Brighton punching above our weight. I assume a lot of the moaners are kids who only have tasted relative success? Give heads a wobble please.

 

[Seasider78]

Mitoma, Pedro, Baleba, JPVH, Veltman, Holland’s number one…top quality internationals off the top of my head. Before you get the £200m investment.
As for injuries - you won’t find an equivalent messageboard in the land where fans don’t complain about injuries.
He hasn‘t worked wonders.

Oh yes the investment

- Rutter - looked a quality signing under Fab but now out for season since forest
- Weiffer - struggled with injuries and adapting to the pace of the league
- Gruda - young and inexperienced at this level adjusting to league as you would expect
- Ferdi - been out for pretty much the whole time since joining us
- Gomez - been here 5min and adapting to the league and team
- O Reilly - showing glimpses but by his own admission is learning to adapt to playing style, role and league

We have invested in potential but Rutter aside none have shown they are ready made quality that would not look out of place in a top 6 side. Managers have so much they can do but their influences is massively over egged it comes down to quality on the pitch and consistency of selection and that is not something that has been available to this manager this season.

You can’t brush off the injury issue we are way out ahead with the most games and minutes missed by players this season (many of them key cogs in the squad) and are currently playing a midfielder at right back.

 

[GloryDays]

If you get the plaudits when you win 6 on the spin, you'll get shit when you lose 3 in a week. Nature of the beast, isn't it?

By any measure it's been an absolute, stinking TURD of a week. Fab needs to do better.

Ah, bUt We dIDnT LosE to FoReST.

 

[keaton]

I don't doubt that every team's message board will complain about injuries.

BUT

We have lost over 50% more days to injury than the next worst affected team and have had more injuries than any other team.

Last year Mitoma, March and Enciso started something like 21 games in total combined. Leaving us with Adingra who had 1(possibly 2 injuries) and went to the African nations cup. And people still blamed RDZ

 

[Han Solo]

Go back and watch the 1-3 loss against Palace in December or the 2-2 against Villa and compare the performances to our three losses this week.

We've taken massive steps forward and if we don't reap the rewards now, we'll do it next season.

Overall this season, the results have been slightly better than expected and the performances slightly worse. The latter part has improved a lot do and losing a few games doesn't remove that progress.