Albion v Bristol C team news/matchthread

[Whicka_Mon]

Fair enough Whicka, so you’re happy with our defending then?

For the record, I couldn’t attend due to not finishing work near to kick off time. After being a season ticket holder for 28 years, why I’m justifying that on here fck knows, just the prickly nature of this site I suppose.

Ho hum.

Couldn't care less if Brian Potter was in our defence as long as we score more than the opposition. I wouldn't trade any of Pulis's masterclass in defending games for that one last night.
But that's just me
Not having. a dig at you by the way. This site is full of people that hardly ever go yet are quick to spout about what we are doing wrong. In effect giving me someone else's opinion.

[Whicka_Mon]

100% agree with this.

What I wanted this season was excitement and a change of philospohy. There's also been an attempt to reduce the age of our squad (Hoolahan and Mears are in on short term deals, I can't see them being here next season)

And that's what we are getting. People whinging about our defending are the same people who were whinging about Pulis for 3 years, just love complaining. Would you rather we won 4-2 last night or defended Pulis style and won 1-0? I know what I would rather..

Its not going to be easy, we are clearly in transition. Our manager is asking our defenders and goalkeeper to play it out from the back and trust each other on the ball. I have my doubts if they are good enough, but I'd rather that than watch them put 10 men behind the ball and just hoof it up to Rondon for 90 minutes.

We're 3rd in the league, and the 2 games we have lost this season have been last minute winners against us.

I'm fully behind this new style of play, its exciting and its better than the crap we've had to put up with in the last couple of seasons,

Stop whinging and embrace it.

Exactly
22 goals in 8 games

[Whicka_Mon]

Seriously Wicka, what we want is a team that could challenge for promotion this year. Like everyone has observed this season, we are atrocious at the back whilst going forward we look sharp and decisive. In my opinion, I believe that we need two central defenders and two proper full backs yet we still persevere with the Pulis gamble of playing centre backs at full back. I would like to see Dawson and Tosin play those two central roles with Gibbs and one other across the back. That way we are not parking the bus but defending properly.

Disagree . I like the formation.
We don't play centre halves as full backs. Gibbs and Phillips play wing backs neither are centre backs.

[WBA123]

Disagree . I like the formation.
We don't play centre halves as full backs. Gibbs and Phillips play wing backs neither are centre backs.

I think a lot of people saying we should go to 4 at the back don't realise we're scoring so many goals because this formation allows us to have 2 up front and a playmaker in behind them. Plus we have two wing backs who can be attacking threats also.

If we went to 4 at the back, we wouldn't be able to play 2 up front, we'd have to have a lone striker. We started off playing 4-4-2 and we were outrun by Bolton and Forest in the first two games.

There's nothing wrong with the formation. I'm happy with it and I'm happy with the philosophy, we need a couple of transfer windows to get the right players in. Because for me, the centre halves (with exception to Dawson) don't cut it. And the two sitting midfielders need to be looked at also. Barry did ok last night, but he's not going to be around forever. I think Field is the natural long term solution there if we stick to this system..

[The Minn Junta]

100% agree with this.

What I wanted this season was excitement and a change of philospohy. There's also been an attempt to reduce the age of our squad (Hoolahan and Mears are in on short term deals, I can't see them being here next season)

And that's what we are getting. People whinging about our defending are the same people who were whinging about Pulis for 3 years, just love complaining. Would you rather we won 4-2 last night or defended Pulis style and won 1-0? I know what I would rather..

Its not going to be easy, we are clearly in transition. Our manager is asking our defenders and goalkeeper to play it out from the back and trust each other on the ball. I have my doubts if they are good enough, but I'd rather that than watch them put 10 men behind the ball and just hoof it up to Rondon for 90 minutes.

We're 3rd in the league, and the 2 games we have lost this season have been last minute winners against us.

I'm fully behind this new style of play, its exciting and its better than the crap we've had to put up with in the last couple of seasons,

Stop whinging and embrace it.

And the difference is?

You just want to have pop this morning as nobody thought to bring you biccies with your tea!

[The Minn Junta]

It's not that we aren't applauding our new style of attacking football because I certainly am, it's our shambolic defending that I'm concerned about. There's nothing that states that just because a side is attack minded that they can't be strong at the back as well. I realise that to play it out from the back is proving difficult for us at the present moment and that is probably because our defenders aren't good enough to play this system. We are much too vulnerable and need to tighten up, whether that is to persist with a back three and hope that we improve or revert to a flat back four. It also has to be taken into consideration that we are now playing at a lower level to last season and that opposition strikers, in the main, have not truly capitalised on our poor defending. I'm not advocating a return to the turgid football of previous seasons but we can't rely on the maxim 'If you score three we'll score four'. There has to be a happy medium whereby good defending is as important as being a strong attacking outfit.

Very balanced and well put LB, we'll soon see in the end of season shake up whether it will all be to our cost or benefit, right now let's hope the oppo' keep missing and Johnston keeps away from the Lurpak!

[saltnshake]

We started the season with a flat back 4 and had the same issues we were getting over-run in midfield, the problem with the current system is when we play out from the back teams have worked out if you stop the pass to the 2 midfielders we have no out-ball the front 3 need to make space to receive the ball but a lot of the time are standing still and as good as Barnes is going forward when we don't have the ball he needs to be the player who drops back and helps out the midfield he doesn't do that so we are still getting over-run we also don't really have anyone who can play upfront on their own so i'm not really sure what the answer is and by the looks of it neither is Big Dave.

[Whicka_Mon]

Are we trying to solve problems that at this present moment in time do not exist?
We are top scorers in the league, we have lost two games in the last minute.

Big Dave is learning . He dropped Brunt. Last night he subbed Barnes and put an extra man in midfield which is what it was crying out for.

[SwedishBaggie]

Exactly
22 goals in 8 games

I think it is 20 goals in 8 games - otherwise I agree. 😊

[billsbest]

We are very good going forward but I am terrified every time our defenders try to play out from the back! However, I am for the first time in what seems an age, being entertained when I watch Albion. I am confident the present squad will get us in the playoffs. I think we need to buy a couple of players in January to win automatic promotion. I don't like Bartley and we definitely need a new midfielder. I am surprised by the amount of doom and gloom surrounding Albion and I don't particularly mean this thread or even this site. I find it shocking that some fans are talking about having to get rid of Big Dave! I think he is doing a decent job. He and the coaching staff can't work miracles but I believe we are headed in the right direction.