[Albion] Great read, where do you stand on the subject?

[Arthur]

Pretty basic and very easy fix that can be done straight away.......stop scouting in the Dutch league!

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Not really an easy comparison as Murphy never played in the Premier League.

Murphy actually played in our first Premier League game, at home to Man City.

He missed a big one on one with Ederson, with the score at 0-0.

 

[rippleman]

IMO both Bissouma and Bernardo are a significant upgrade on what we had previously. I'm not entrenched in the anti-Bong camp by any means, I just think Bernardo is a class above.

Bissy has the potential to become a great player. He is young and inexperienced and he will inevitably make mistakes. But his work rate and slinky skills make us a far more potent attacking side. I think we look so much better when he starts than "sideways Stephens".

Two classy recruits with huge potential. Great job by the recruitment team. The mystery is why Hughton is so reluctant to play them.

Ali J & Andone - jury's out. Locadia - think we have seen enough now; bad business. Time to go.

 

[Icy Gull]

Murphy actually played in our first Premier League game, at home to Man City.

He missed a big one on one with Ederson, with the score at 0-0.

I was there and I don’t remember!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Says it all really that our top PL scorer this season is Murray with 10 goals, then Duffy with 5 and the rest pretty much nowhere. Where's the contribution from midfield? Or anywhere else for that matter? Just won't do next season if we're lucky enough to scrape through this season and stay up.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

It's an oversimplistic article. Izquierdo has been injured most of the season. Andone arrived injured and Murray was in decent form when he finally recovered. Then, as Murray declined, he managed to get himself banned for three games. Propper has been more or less ever present when fit, Montoya and Bruno have traded the shirt and are really horses for different courses given their respective strengths and weaknesses. Burn and Balogun were bought as back up. On their day Duffy and Dunk are one of the best pairings in the league and this was certainly the case pre-Christmas. Ditto the two keepers were always back up. A new signing at the start of last season (Gross) is keeping out a new signing from the start of this season (Bissouma) though I personally hope that's about to change.

There are areas where we have bought poorly. Locadia is just not good enough. Ali J has shown very little (though, again, there was an injury issue). These two have been a massive dissapointment so far. The constant selection of Bong in place of Bernardo is absolutely baffling. It makes zero sense to me.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that injuries and suspensions seem to be ending at about the same time (and the new one we picked up is Gross, out of form and hopefully replaced by Bissouma). We could go out on Saturday with genuine pace and excitement. Bissouma in the middle. Bernardo at LB. A front three of Andone, Knockaert and izquierdo (though, of course, March will predictably play instead). If we fail to use these sorts of players when the old guard are failing then the writer will have a point. But, right now, not only does the article ignore injuries, it ignores the fact that many of these signings were only ever signed as back up.

It definitely feels like it's been written by an outsider looking in without any context.

Although he does ask the crucial question of whether we've bought good players that aren't being played or whether we've bought ones that CH thinks are worse. Afterall, there have been plenty of occasions this season when he could've played Andone, Bissouma and Bernardo and hasn't. And yet Ali J who's been very very poor up to now has played most of the time he's been fit. So I think, despite his lack of context, he has every right to question this and it's quite a poignant point.

 

[sussex_guy2k2]

Says it all really that our top PL scorer this season is Murray with 10 goals, then Duffy with 5 and the rest pretty much nowhere. Where's the contribution from midfield? Or anywhere else for that matter? Just won't do next season if we're lucky enough to scrape through this season and stay up.

Do you think there are tactical reasons behind our midfield not really threatening though? Or do you think it's just that they're not good enough?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Do you think there are tactical reasons behind our midfield not really threatening though? Or do you think it's just that they're not good enough?

They're not good enough. They're pretty panicked within their own zone, and highly unlikely to press forward beyond their zone and cause the opposition many problems. As the stats show. Beram Kayal often looks the Man Most Likely To, albeit his skill level doesn't quite match his fighting spirit and commitment to the cause.

 

[Simster]

Totally agree. The club's scattergun approach to recruitment has been an abject failure overall.

Easily said in hindsight with the club in it's worst run of form in years.

Not really true though - we stayed up easily last season and were mid-table at the turn of the year. We've had some shit luck, haven't played badly recently, and could yet win our next 5 matches which would leave us mid table again. And that leaves aside the fact that Izquierdo - one of the best of those recruits - has been injured for ages.

And this is what I meant. Two wins later, the double done over Palace, mid-table safety now looking far more likely and a better than evens chance of a Wembley cup semi final appearance, and it's probably fair to say the club's scattergun approach to recruitment HASN'T been an abject failure overall.

Then again we might lose next week and ultimately be relegated - but taking a snap shot at a mid-season low point didn't prove anything did it?