Match Day Thread Brighton v Saints Sunday 29th October 13:30pm - Goals galore thread.

Tadic being hugely out of form doesn't help things. Then you only have a out of form Redmond to replace him. Our attack is so damn light

 

Yeah its not entirely the managers fault, but he isn't helping himself with his tactics and formation. With the back four and cdm solid we can afford to have players playing higher up the pitch and playing closer together. We sit deep too many times and it comes back to haunt us.

 

I don't know that Pellegrino is helping matters, but we need a clearout in the worst way. Significant portions of this team have to be turned over in the summer, rather than simply adding an attacker to this group and hoping that it resolves the issue.

 

The drifting back happened under Puel as well. Imo it is all part of a team that thinks they can't score so have to defend at all costs.

 

Not so sure. When we scored we just looked to start taking our time with safe passing no risks, no runs. Feels like the gaffer to me.
Glad to see Boufal start, thought he did well. Liked his work rate, the way he'd do a trick, beat someone then lay it off. Didn;t always pan out, but got noticed.

 

It"s not only about strikers. For example, I think Bertrand is an attacking player, he can be very dangerous in the final third. Yet he has barly taken part in any attacking action this season. We know he's able to, so it got to be down to the formation/manager

 

Why do you think I can tell you?

 

Not if it ever became that the best we can expect is a draw or a really flukey win. I really don't want that. You'd take a season, well last season was pretty drab towards the end. What do you think is reasonable in terms of how many boring seasons are acceptable. Is your mantra stay up at all cost. I actually like a teams fans saying how exciting we play. We've lost that.

 

Pellegrino is a naturally cautious manager I think. I don’t think we will win many games by more than a single goal during his tenure.

Not surprised how little impact, in a positive sense, he has had on the team.

 

Bertrand wanted to leave and fell out with Puel big time. Also rumours City will bid for him in Jan. He has been poor it a lot of games since he had a strop

 

Because you've said you saw what's Puel trying to do, so I assume you see what's Pellegrino trying to do now.

 

Same happened under Puel tho. We scored then defended deep as hell. So it's either the players or the board wanting it that way. Two managers don't play exact same way

 

Well, Puel has already made an impact, because Gray (who I still covet) started and just single-handedly created a goal.

 

He's only out of form because he's continually being asked to play on the right. He was awful there under Koeman too. I think the same is true for Redmond although i don't have as much evidence for that.

 

I wanted Puel to have another season and think he was badly treated. My issue is actually more with the players rather than MP at the moment, particularly Tadic.

I would like to point out that I haven't seen any real sign of loopy fans or a melt down, just fans airing their opinion.

 

He was also bad under Puel. Tadic is very lazy mental wise. It isn't just a position thing.

 

Yes and no. A great attacker would improve our team significantly. It is our biggest need by far.

OTOH, it still would not get us to a top four spot if that is what we want. And, great attacking players are not cheap and hard to find.

So we need two attacking players better than what we have, but not world beaters. Possibly a GK. I think we are okay at DM/generic MC as it stands. Good at CB. Could maybe improve at fullback. But need depth plus we will likely lose some guys and some of our players are not getting any younger.

So as a practical reality, probably a clear out is necessary.

We have needed at least a mini-clear our for awhile now. The urgency is growing. I wondered prior to the start of last season why we were extending so many older, merely okay players. But I got shouted down for it. Everyone thought those moves were fantastic at the time.

 

Tom Davies doing his best to shirt pull everyone in this game when on the counter.

 

he was played on the right under Puel too...

 

Hey, I can definitely go along with that. Presumably we think we have the management that is going to steer us through it. It was sort of well known that we wanted Vietto, I don't know much about him but at least we can assume that someone is thinking about who to sign next. There is the Gao factor too.

I think I'm in line with everyone else (leaning happy clapper) on that, it's just the Pellegrino criticism that I don't understand. I don't think we really have the options or ability that some others think he is not using.*


*that bit not aimed at you or anyone else