[Albion] We are where we should be. Where do the Potter haters think we should be in the league?

[Weststander]

17th in the wages league

Anywhere above 17th is good, anywhere below isn’t

Both Potter and Hughton have kept the club at least 17th

That’s it


Hughton was sacked - he kept us up twice

Potter hasn’t yet been sacked, and has kept us us up once, playing mostly attractive but frustrating football
Lately it’s not attractive and very frustrating

In summary, I expect us to be 17th, the Board may have a different target

15th this season according to our football finance guru. Presumably spending more than Burnley, Leeds, Fulham, WBA and Sheff Utd.

We’re on a par with Newcastle and Stains.

 

[vagabond]

Come on then, what you thinking?

10 years?
15 years?
20 years?

Hurry up and answer then, the suspense is killing me and I need to be in bed by 1 a.m.

Well as individuals, as teams, as companies, as humans, it’s proven that having a clear identifiable goal works well to unify people to work towards it. So it’s something you often see done in businesses and by entrepreneurs.

By definition there is no short term thinking, so certainly this season and next season wouldn’t be considered..

Now if we do go down, and/or circumstances drastically change which may impact us negatively, then you can imagine discussions would be had (ie, if we were in Sheff Utds place).

But right now, I’m sure Tony and co. are as bitterly frustrated as all of us, but they won’t be sounding the alarm bells because we lost to Leicester tonight, and certainly not because 10th this season looks unlikely.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

1 home win in 2020 is not good enough regardless of budget.

The combination of the style of football he wants to play aligned to the budget he has kind of opens us up to this type of potential though doesn't it?

Hughton decided you couldn't play the style of football wanted with the budget available and stay up.
Potter has shown that you can - but you aren't going to make it much further up the table.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

15th this season according to our football finance guru. Presumably spending more than Burnley, Leeds, Fulham, WBA and Sheff Utd.

We’re on a par with Newcastle and Stains.

Are we?

I'd be interested to understand how that really breaks down, as I seem to recall lots of comments regarding wages being significantly higher at both clubs.
I assume we must be paying for more players? Is that possible?

 

[blue-shifted]

The club are getting a lot right developing players, but some of the money we're saving on the likes of Dunk, White, March, Alzate needs to be spent on a quality striker.

Teams down the bottom have moved to safety by buying Ings, Wilson, Watkins, yet we have not done that and so we'll continue to flirt with relegation until we bring in a proven striker. Sell Bissouma, White or Dunk if you have to because we have some cover but this striker crisis has been going on for too long.

Yes agree. We've allowed ourselves to be outmuscled in the transfer market, especially for strikers. Dross like Newcastle and Villa are miles above us for this reason.

Don't agree, we should be selling Bissouma, White or Dunk

 

[BeHereNow]

Its worrying that all the teams that we aspire to be in and around in the division are all progressing this season. Southampton 23 pts...WHU 20...Villa 18...Palace 17...Newcastle 17. All have won at least 5 games already. All will definitely finish comfortably above us. Leeds are likely to finish above us. That leaves three from five. And we are firmly in that mix.
We are poorly coached defensively and its costing us dear, let alone our lack of quality in the final third. To me, we are mixed up at the moment. He keeps tinkering and regularly gets it wrong. We could easily be in the relegation zone on Wednesday.

To be honest, with a bit more clinical finishing and a bit of luck we would have a lot more points. I don’t think our league position is indicative of how well we have actually played in general, tonight’s performance did look like a relegation side though, although we were playing a far better team and, once again, we should’ve been ahead.

I guess my point is that Potter does (most of the time) get the team playing better than what our budget allows for, but for some reason, we don’t take nowhere near as many chances as we should.

I think a lot of managers would agree that we are one of the hardest teams (outside the top 6) to play against, generally.

Anyway, Arsenal game is a relegation 6 pointer

 

[vagabond]

The club are getting a lot right developing players, but some of the money we're saving on the likes of Dunk, White, March, Alzate needs to be spent on a quality striker.

Teams down the bottom have moved to safety by buying Ings, Wilson, Watkins, yet we have not done that and so we'll continue to flirt with relegation until we bring in a proven striker. Sell Bissouma, White or Dunk if you have to because we have some cover but this striker crisis has been going on for too long.

Good post, and I agree, recruitment does seem to be a problem for key players.

I’m led to believe by the financial stattos here that the like of Watkins were not possible due to our wage budget.

If that’s the case we will struggle regardless of manager.

 

[TottonSeagull]

I like the way he starts a post and then goes awol!

A big test at school tomorrow!

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

The combination of the style of football he wants to play aligned to the budget he has kind of opens us up to this type of potential though doesn't it?

Hughton decided you couldn't play the style of football wanted with the budget available and stay up.
Potter has shown that you can - but you aren't going to make it much further up the table.

I appreciate what you’re saying, but 1 win? Come on.

 

[Blackadder]

Stains 7 wins, us 2.

Is Hassenhuttl far better than Potter at earning wins, or do the club recruit inferior players?

FWIW If we had Ings, Ward-Prowse and Vestergaard under GP I think we would be a heck of a lot higher in the league.

 

[hart's shirt]

Top half based on creativity and possession.

Bottom 3 based on finishing and set-pieces.

 

[vagabond]

I appreciate what you’re saying, but 1 win? Come on.

But the seasons not over yet is it. We’ve played 12 games, won 2, drawn 4, lost 6.

Granted, we shouldn’t play woulda shoulda, but you’d have to be a very cold hearted man to not think we deserved more points in some of these and were downright robbed in others (Man Utd 101st min penalty).

 

[TugWilson]

The club are getting a lot right developing players, but some of the money we're saving on the likes of Dunk, White, March, Alzate needs to be spent on a quality striker.

Teams down the bottom have moved to safety by buying Ings, Wilson, Watkins, yet we have not done that and so we'll continue to flirt with relegation until we bring in a proven striker. Sell Bissouma, White or Dunk if you have to because we have some cover but this striker crisis has been going on for too long.

I wouldn`t sell Bissouma for all the cider in Dorset , but i would sell White for 50m buy a 40m striker and use the other 10 for the first 2 years wages . There is talk from Leeds ( surprise ) and i think Arsenal and Spurs for him , and he doesn`t look like he is happy . Maybe i am reading him wrong , but he just doesn`t seem to have a connection with the team , and we have plenty of cover at the back .

 

[Blackadder]

I expect us to have progressed from when we first got promoted four seasons but the truth is we haven’t. In that time a few teams have come up and quickly achieved more in their first one or two seasons than we have in four, so it’s not an unrealistic goal. But here we are, still desperately hoping to be a bit less shit than three others.

I think the most frustrating thing of all is that we have suffered from the same failings for a long, long time and the club does very little to deal with it. Scoring goals has been a major issue ever since promotion yet we’ve not invested in any proven quality in that area of the pitch.

Looking purely at the Potter era, we just seem to watch the same game every week. We are very pretty, albeit harmless, in 90% of the pitch but woefully inadequate in the two areas that matter. But nothing ever changes in a bid to find an answer. I just get the feeling it’s all too easy and there are no consequences for poor results. I know this isn’t the case, but we almost play like a team that is happy if we have 60% and isn’t really bothered by how many goals go in at either end.

To answer the question, we came up with Newcastle and I see no reason why we shouldn’t be roughly where they are in the table.

To be fair, while we don't always have the rub of the green with our results (I don't include tonight) I think NUFC have been fortunate with some of their results, We could easily have been equal or above them at the moment.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

I appreciate what you’re saying, but 1 win? Come on.

It's not a good statistic, but what does it actually mean?
I said this after Monday night.
It's a bit of an anomaly isn't it?

1 home win is a bad stat.
But only if the norm holds and we get more points at home than we do away.
We stayed up last Season and are ahead of the pack (just) this time.

Would you rather have Sheff Utd's 5 home wins for 2020?

 

[The Fits]

I wouldn`t sell Bissouma for all the cider in Dorset , but i would sell White for 50m buy a 40m striker and use the other 10 for the first 2 years wages . There is talk from Leeds ( surprise ) and i think Arsenal and Spurs for him , and he doesn`t look like he is happy . Maybe i am reading him wrong , but he just doesn`t seem to have a connection with the team , and we have plenty of cover at the back .

There is bound to be a part of him still wishing he was at Leeds. Looks fun playing for them.

 

[Weststander]

FWIW If we had Ings, Ward-Prowse and Vestergaard under GP I think we would be a heck of a lot higher in the league.

Add Alex McCarthy. I agree.

 

[Blackadder]

Add Alex McCarthy. I agree.

I nearly did.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I wouldn`t sell Bissouma for all the cider in Dorset , but i would sell White for 50m buy a 40m striker and use the other 10 for the first 2 years wages . There is talk from Leeds ( surprise ) and i think Arsenal and Spurs for him , and he doesn`t look like he is happy . Maybe i am reading him wrong , but he just doesn`t seem to have a connection with the team , and we have plenty of cover at the back .[/QUO

We have Veltman, Dunk, Burn and Webster to cover White, and we are desperate for strikers. If we don't have £30 mill then we have to wheel and deal - sell Andone, Maupay and Connolly if we have to - instead of White - but we can't carry on like this.

 

[Tiptoe through the NSC]

We've played ten of the top 12 and two of the bottom 8. I guess that means we're about right. If we are no higher after 19 games I may start to worry. But we will be so I won't.