[Albion] Is FH really performing that badly?

[pay no mind]

Give me all the stats you want but it won't change the fact that I simply don't like the fucker very much which is a shame because I like most people associated with the club. Fortunately, I have no say in the matter.

 

[Change at Barnham]

I've been trying to avoid NSC recently because of what I feel are some over the top, unfair comments that seem to be mostly based on results. It's almost as if some people haven't got a clue about the players that are injured or the fact that Fab has only had 9 months in the job.

This thread has helped to restore my faith in NSC, as I feel that it shows many people remain realistic even though they are disappointed with our current run of form.
I find about this time of the season that my love of the game diminishes and I get miserable about the game.

Hopefully we can begin next season with a healthy squad of players.
Hopefully we can manoeuvre our squad successfully in the summer, both out and in.
Hopefully Man City get fairly punished for their gross cheating (the world's best barristers will get them mostly off the hook).
Hopefully Chelsea fail to qualify for the Champions League, and their financial skullduggery fails.
Hopefully Manchester United fail in their Europa League quest and are penalised by PSR from further big spending next season.
Hopefully Trump, Putin and Farage crash and burn and the world becomes a safer and happier place.

The chances of that lot happening? = Slim.

In the meantime I'll try and just focus on West Ham on Saturday and will be cheering on the Albion hoping they can get three points to boost how we feel.
The team need our support now, more than at any time this season.

I'm firmly in the Fab cab.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

We are completely shit and should only be allowed to play in the National League South













FFS grow up people.

 

[Change at Barnham]

Give me all the stats you want but it won't change the fact that I simply don't like the fucker very much which is a shame because I like most people associated with the club. Fortunately, I have no say in the matter.

It's interesting that posts like this seem to mostly come from people with a very low post count.
Strange that.

 

[cjd]

I truly don't know the answers but perhaps the statisticians among you all , can post the number of minutes Weiffer sat on the bench alongside O'reilly, and Gruda and even Rutter or Pedro, and Minteh and Adingra.

Just saying they only played X number of minutes is just a nonsense. If they are on the bench....they are fit. It is just FH,s decision not to play them.

I'm not disputing their ability to play, but I do question FH,s decisions and lack of inspiration.

After 61 years of watching the Albion , I do WANT him to succeed.

And I now have a 1901 ticket for the West Ham game...yayyyyyy.

 

[pay no mind]

It's interesting that posts like this seem to mostly come from people with a very low post count.
Strange that.

Oh dear, the 'low post count' argument? How quaint.

 

[Change at Barnham]

We are completely shit and should only be allowed to play in the National League South
FFS grow up people.

It could be worse.
As a Bognor fan (just relegated) imagine how I felt on Monday with Horsham fans singing to us "Hassocks away olé olé".

Still, a retort of "Que sera, sera, we're going to Broadbridge Heath" soon shut 'em up.

 

[Change at Barnham]

Oh dear, the 'low post count' argument? How quaint.

Enjoy your day at Wembley.

 

[pay no mind]

Enjoy your day at Wembley.

I'm not even sure what your problem is. I am FH out because I really don't like him. I even said it's a good job I don't get to make the decision.
Enjoy the rest of your day finding people to fight with.

 

[BluesRockDJ]

Firstly, forgive the long post - trust me there is some interesting stuff in it!

Looking purely from a data perspective and not from what different eyes are seeing (lets face it, it's a results driven business over a season, rather than what's currently pretty to the naked eye!) when comparing the data between RDZ and FH (and obviously a bit of Potter in the 2022-23 season) the data is quite telling.

A lot has been made of our defense under FH, so looking at average goals conceded over the last 3 seasons, it's not quite as bad as the short term view of the last "x" matches, although some additional data may explain that (injuries, having no fit RBs and only 2 fit or available CBs for a few games and one of them is gash apparently)

Average Goals Conceded per game:
2022-23 = 1.39 (38 games, Potter/RDZ)
2023-24 = 1.63 (38 games, RDZ)
2024-25 = 1.61 (33 games, FH)

If we split the goals conceded between the first 19 games and the last 19 games or 14 games for this season over the last 2 seasons:

2023-24 games 1-19 = 1.74 (RDZ)
2024-25 games 1-19 = 1.47 (FH)
2023-24 games 20-38 = 1.50 (RDZ)
2023-25 games 20-33 = 1.79 (FH)

So the first half of last season our defense was performing worse than the first half of the season under FH - this has flip flopped - ironically we conceded less goals in the second half of last season, but couldn't score for love nor money (we were averaging 2 goals a game for the first half of the season and 1 goal per game for the last half!) Obviously our defense has performed worse in the second half of this season, possibly down to injuries and available personnel, but it's not performing any worse than the first half of last season under RDZ?

A lot has been made of Lewis Dunk's contribution, particularly recently. Also a lot has been made initially when Igor was dropped to accommodate a fit again Lewis and more recently, the injury to Adam Webster, which saw Lewis back in the side. This is not a dig at Lewis, he's a legend of the club, but these stats are alarming - maybe he just doesn't fit into FH's system:

Lewis has played 21 games out of 33 this season - in those games, we have conceded an average of 2.08 goals per game and picked up an average of 1.10 points per game.
In the 12 games where Lewis was absent, we have conceded an average of 1 goal per game and picked up an average of 1.95 points per game.

For balance these are the games that Lewis missed, so there can be no accusations that they were all easier games (are games against the bottom 3 easier for us anyway!)

Wolves (H)

Liverpool (A)

Man City (H)

Bournemouth (A)

Southampton (H)

Arsenal (H)

Ipswich (A)

Chelsea (H)

Southampton (A)

Bournemouth (H)

Fulham (H)

Man City (A)

Maybe FH's defensive system does work, he adapted after Chelsea, but is what the naked eye is currently seeing a consequence of his system or the players currently available - it's clear in the short term, he needs to adapt again......

Just for the hell of it, if you change our Forest drubbing from a 7-0 loss to a 2-0 loss, our average goals conceded per game would be 1.45 which is close to the number of our 2022-23 season where we made Europe!

I gave up when you put an American 's' in defenCe !

 

[Right Back]

The vast majority of the FH out voters would also have wanted Potter out. In the end Potter came good and it was the right decision to be patient. At every club there there is always a percentage of fans who want the manager sacked when they have a poor run.
Bloom is patient and is why we are in the Premier League and Watford are in the championship. At some point Bloom may well sack FH but I’m sure he will give him a proper chance.

 

[Flounce]

The vast majority of the FH out voters would also have wanted Potter out. In the end Potter came good and it was the right decision to be patient. At every club there there is always a percentage of fans who want the manager sacked when they have a poor run.
Bloom is patient and is why we are in the Premier League and Watford are in the championship. At some point Bloom may well sack FH but I’m sure he will give him a proper chance.

i never once called for Potter to be sacked and I held off on FH until Saturday.

With GP it was obvious what he was trying to do, even though it took ages to get there. With FH I really can’t see the game plan and some games we get lucky, others we don’t but it’s all too chaotic for me. Yes I have loved some of our results and absolutely hated how he’s been found out by just about any team, no matter how shit, when they low block us.

In fairness more teams low block us than they did before the last few months of GPs tenure. FH just seems a bit thick in playing tactics to suit the opposition when we go on a bad run. Back to basics is what we should be doing imo, especially with the injuries we have. Said the same about RDZ when we had so many injuries and he just gave up until very late in the season, when he did adjust tactics. Maybe he was trying to avoid the inevitable dismissal.

I don’t think TB will sack FH unless we lose all our remaining games…when I think he might.

Really hoping to see some structure and good tactics this weekend. I can take losing to bad luck, shit finishing or deflected goals if so. But not how we lost to Brentford.

 

[Balders]

I gave up when you put an American 's' in defenCe !

From somebody who loves a bit of pedantry, I will take it on the chin and note to myself to check my spell checker. Fair play

 

[dazzer6666]

It's interesting that posts like this seem to mostly come from people with a very low post count.
Strange that.

Not low enough

 

[Albion my Albion]

It's defence, not defense.

I've spelled it defense my whole life.

And I very much support the Albion using defense.

 

[Albion my Albion]

Ferdi, zilch. O’Reilly, Wiffer and Rutter have or have had long spells out. And when he needs a CB he gets a rookie in Cashin!

and Kadıoğlu nothing.

 

[Barham's tash]

Whilst I enjoy all these statistics being reeled out to support whatever side of the fence people sit on, it cannot be ignored that this season a significant amount of funds have been spent to upgrade the level of players in the club, compared to previous seasons.

That fact, along with what I see as rather insipid inspiration from our coach is my major concern for the near future.

This is exactly where I am. Factor in the expenditure, and it’s not about expectation per se, but FH definitely has the most talented packed squad in our entire history, and that I think he cannot motivate at an individual or collective level in totally underwhelmed. 4 points better off or not.

I’m not advocating for a change because I don’t rate him as such - there have been some very pleasing results and passages of play but it’s not consistent, and I couldn’t really tell you what his style is or isn’t beyond pressing and a high line.

I think TB will not be happy with the ROI. Also there will not be another season with relative under performance from traditionally bigger clubs - Spurs, Utd, Chelsea and City. This was the opportunity to push on and it’s fallen so flat.

Sure injuries contributed heavily at times but there was more than enough juice in the squad to get EVEN better results. Especially when you factor in lost points from winning positions, never mind those points lost in the last ten minutes of game, or more recently conversely for me lost in the first ten minutes of games where we’ve shot ourselves in the foot.

Simply for me all things considered it really isn’t good enough.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

This is exactly where I am. Factor in the expenditure, and it’s not about expectation per se, but FH definitely has the most talented packed squad in our entire history, and that I think he cannot motivate at an individual or collective level in totally underwhelmed. 4 points better off or not.

I do not agree the current squad is the “most talented”. It’s not at the same level as the one Potter left and RDZ inherited, no way. By what metric are you measuring this? It’s a bigger squad, I’ll agree with this, but “most talented” it isn’t.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Sure injuries contributed heavily at times but there was more than enough juice in the squad to get EVEN better results. Especially when you factor in lost points from winning positions, never mind those points lost in the last ten minutes of game, or more recently conversely for me lost in the first ten minutes of games where we’ve shot ourselves in the foot.

Simply for me all things considered it really isn’t good enough.

I had a similar discussion, some time ago, with a supporter who listed each game where we dropped points, didn’t perform, lost etc. If we’d won all the games they listed we’d have been top of the table with Liverpool breathing down our necks. Teams do drop points, it’s disappointing, but that’s football and it’s very much football for a team with a rookie manager and a bunch of new recruits with no EPL experience. As it is, we will finish with our second highest EPL points tally.

TL DR - wait until this time next year to judge him.

 

[DJ NOBO]

The recruitment splurge imho has been a triumph of quantity over quality. As a much wiser man than me said in the Daily Seagull, it's like somebody's been allowed to run amok with the company credit card. Even allowing for injuries, adding a rookie manager to the mix hasn't helped much either

Pretty fair analogy from how it looked from the outside. We got a lot of deals over the line in a short space of time. The impression at the time was that we were overpaying, and we didn’t address some obvious weaknesses in the squad make up.
It would be interesting to know how much it was ”just get them signed” and how much of it was a proper strategy, in line with how we usually do business.