[Albion] How much better are we, one year on?

[vagabond]

This.
It won’t matter who our manager is if we have Propper and Stephens in the centre of the park. Bissouma has been a breath of fresh air, to take the next step we need another CM who is as mobile as he is.
I also don’t think it was ever the plan to sell Andone so Potter has been a striker down for pretty much the entire season.

[emoji106]

 

[portlock seagull]

And so it will be next season.The whole intensity at the club needs cranking right up
Far to bloody slow all round.Get a grip up the ante on the park,work rate, bit more bottle
Be more direct get the players thinking they are good enough to compete with anyone and don’t fear anyone
Bit like Cloughie and Taylor did at Forest turned average players into a class team UTA

Agree heartedly.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Would love us to start games like we generally finish them. We are a team of two half’s

Need to see off a few players to improve

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

This.
It won’t matter who our manager is if we have Propper and Stephens in the centre of the park. Bissouma has been a breath of fresh air, to take the next step we need another CM who is as mobile as he is.
I also don’t think it was ever the plan to sell Andone so Potter has been a striker down for pretty much the entire season.

We already have that mobile CM - Steven Alzate.. Obviously the plan was to rest him for the remainder of the season but we may have to play him in a couple of games, groin injury or not.

 

[Acker79]

It's interesting, this conversation was much more positive last weekend.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Potter binned off both cups which was an insult to the fans and then we get another relegation battle. Nowhere near good enough.

I have no real comment to make other than to say "binned off" has always been, and remains thus, one of my favourite ever expressions.

Please carry on.

 

[pocketseagull]

Unless you have a bias, we have clearly progressed this season. The style of play has been so much better generally and we are more fun to watch

We have progressed and yet there were many games this season in which we were far from fun to watch.

Being a possession based team with no end product has been at times more frustrating than a defensive based team that were really good at defending.

 

[FatSuperman]

We have progressed and yet there were many games this season in which we were far from fun to watch.

Being a possession based team with no end product has been at times more frustrating than a defensive based team that were really good at defending.

That may be true, but last season the majority of our games were horrendous to watch. God forbid if we scored early - backs to the wall defending for 80 minutes, I lost five years off my life last season

 

[DavePage]

It’s a work in progress and progressing we are.
Earlier this season we were playing much better the our points tally would suggest, many games we were just not getting the rub of the green.
Against the New Champions home and away we made a good account of ourselves and made them think about us.
Our style is going to cause us problems, but once we have gained the confidence in each other, things will improve.
City put five past us, but did they not put 4 past the new champions a couple of games prior.
We have quality youth on loan, waiting in the wings. Two of which are the standout players in those teams this season.
I’m thinking that even though I have spilt a little (hic) my glass is still more than half full.

Note to self, stop spilling your wine.

 

[OzMike]

Same points as last year with 3 more games to go, scored more goals and not being accused of playing anti football.
That looks better to me.

 

[HastingsSeagull]

We still have way too many average Prem players (not bad just very average). The matchday 18 looks a similar standard to last year but much younger and with more potential. We need to make 1 or 2 signings that add quality to the starting 11 not 6 depth signings equal to what we have but blocking our talented young players from coming through.

The manager change will certainly help the younger players and in the medium term make us a better team than under the exceptional C.H.

 

[OzMike]

Replace Propper and Stephens with pacier, harder tackling forward looking midfielders.
With Walton breathing down Ryan's neck, just watch the results improve.

 

[BadFish]

Being someone that watches games at ungodly hours of the night I have noticed that it is much easy to stay up and watch us this season. I love Chris Hhughton but when you were watching games at 3am it was damn hard to stay awake.

 

[darkwolf666]

It's interesting, this conversation was much more positive last weekend.

I know, anyone one would think we have just been beaten by Villa and Bournemouth, not Liverpool (who we gave a good game) and City (who we didn’t)...

 

[darkwolf666]

Replace Propper and Stephens with pacier, harder tackling forward looking midfielders.
With Walton breathing down Ryan's neck, just watch the results improve.

Agree on changes needed to midfield, couldn’t agree less about Walton, he is not a Premier League keeper, in my opinion.

 

[OzMike]

Agree on changes needed to midfield, couldn’t agree less about Walton, he is not a Premier League keeper, in my opinion.

Maybe, but might encourage Ryan to jump a bit higher and dive a bit longer.

 

[darkwolf666]

Maybe, but might encourage Ryan to jump a bit higher and dive a bit longer.

Too tall

 

[father_and_son]

So, yeah, it’s been a year or so since we made our ‘progressive’ appointment. The question being, just how much or indeed little genuine progress have we made?

No loaded question, just after thoughts...

My thoughts centre around two fine managers, two wholly differing approaches, same singular outcome. We’ve found a new way to win, and a new way to lose - with style? Hmmmmmmmm

Points wise, we’ve not really progressed, style wise (sometimes) yes, sometimes not really for me. The highs we saw under CH (at this level) Utd at home (for a start) were brilliant deserved victories as was this year at Arsenal... ultimately though, if you remove the gloss... yes we’ve arrested the CH slide, but not really much else.

The core of our squad remains, unable to push beyond its obvious limitations and thus a rebuild is required... that or a bigger influx of academy level Alzate types... who can cut it.

Two different approaches, same outcome = obvious issue with resources. I sincerely hope we let a few move on this summer as apposed to hoping GP can finally turn Dale Stephens (for example) into Patrick Viera.

It’s that or settle for our perennial battle against the rest of the bottom five.

Money will be a real issue, so I suspect youth is the road map but surely we all recognise the dire need for actual ****ing quality.

Thoughts?

A little surprised that you have equated New Manager with New Squad. Of course GP inherited the same players we had at the core of our squad, but it would, on average, take 5 years to change the squad given our spending power (assuming we were paying for like-for-like or better).

The change in attitude for the club between CH and GP is immense. The blooding in of youth being the biggest factor but also the talent that has arrived.

Survival is still the priority, but now only because we are a work in progress. We will lose a couple of the Old Guard at the next window and replace with younger, faster, better players and at the next and so on. Sometimes new players don't fit and we have to accept that but we are improving in quality but until it's across the whole pitch we won't see much in the way of overall improvement... But when we get there, if we managed to survive, then we press on to the next level.

Patience is required... But in really short supply among a lot of our fan base.

 

[Icy Gull]

I think that anyone who can’t see how much better and more competitive we have been this season has been watching a different team to me

 

[nwgull]

I think that anyone who can’t see how much better and more competitive we have been this season has been watching a different team to me

I think it’s knee jerk on the basis that we’ve just lost 0-5 to a team that seem to be making a habit of beating better teams than us 4 and 5 nil!