[4evaabaggie]

if you want premier league next to your name and premier league money in the bank then this is what you put up with ....... teams like us haven't got the budget / income to compete playing attractive football, it becomes survival at all costs. Not happy about it but that's the truth as I see it ......

We could try to tippy tippy our way to success but many clubs have tried that .... where are they now.

Not saying it's right, I want to be entertained ....... it's why I loathe the premier league, the FA, the whole damn shenanigans .....

Albion til I die

[Zinman]

if you want premier league next to your name and premier league money in the bank then this is what you put up with ....... teams like us having got the budget / income to compete playing attractive football, it becomes survival at all costs. Not happy about it but that's the truth as I see it ......

We could try to tippy tippy our way to success but many clubs have tried that .... where are they now.

Not saying it's right, I want to be entertained ....... it's why I loathe the premier league, the FA, the whole damn shenanigans .....

Albion til I die

But there's a balance. Away against the big boys I'd accept setting up to get a point....but against Brighton (and Stoke and bottom of the table Villa, etc etc)? All I ask for is a team that is actually set up to try to score goals other than just from set pieces but I honestly don't think Pulis is capable of doing this.

[BaggieSteve]

To be fair, 4Eva, Stoke didn't play tippy tappy football, they just gave it a go against the best team in the league. We set out not to lose against a team who'd failed to score so far, that was the level of our ambition. I saw the comments from Pulis after the game when he cited fatigue for those players on international duty. He specifically mentioned Rondon. Considering he can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo and he's also seemingly knackered, then why the f**k did he select him? There were alternatives to playing Rondon up front. Pulis didn't mention our creative midfield in his list of excuses. Or maybe I just missed it

[drewks]

I wouldn't mind so much if was Man City or Chelsea we'd played, but Brighton have got to be one of the easiest teams we are going to face this season, and we go 3-0 down to them. For ****'s sake.

But Brighton have got some quality players, they work really aaaard............

---

Probably like most of us on this site, I can't stand Mark Hughes; he's a moaning, whingeing bloke who never admits that he or his team were beaten by a better side. It's always someone else's fault.

However, I've just watched Stoke play Manure, top of the table and the form team of the moment who have been scoring for fun and conceding bugger all. Hughes set up his Stoke team with pace, midfield creativity, a clear willingness to attack, a desire to win and a centre forward who happens to know how to score. It was a really good 2-2 draw that did not flatter Stoke at all. Contrast that with events in Brighton today. We play a team who haven't scored ever and, whilst undoubtedly enthusiastic, will be a wee bit low on confidence. So, do we decide to take the Mark Hughes approach, select a team to create and win? Do we heck! We pick a team that is, frankly, boring and defensive. We get what we deserve. Right now- and it pains me to say this - the Stoke fans are right in taking the p*ss out of us and our manager. As much as I dislike him, I'd rather have Hughes managing the Albion than I would Pulis right now.

NOOOO! Things can NEVER be that bad! Shame on you BS!

[Salopbaggie]

I don't think we need to be so doom and gloom just yet, after all one training session together before yesterdays game. Give them a couple of games and if it is still no better, that is the time to lay in. I am going to give them that before I start moaning (again )

[Sir Megson]

I don't think we need to be so doom and gloom just yet, after all one training session together before yesterdays game.  Give them a couple of games and if it is still no better, that is the time to lay in.  I am going to give them that before I start moaning (again )

I'd second that as well Salop. 

Any mentions of sacking the manager after one loss this season are downright laughable. Once the team got announced yesterday everyone in the concourse I spoke to thought it was a decent enough line up to beat Brighton, and on here reading back through the thread only Beefy pointed out before kick off that he wasn't happy Gibbs hadn't been included. 

The truth is all in the starting XI yesterday were picked on merit and recent past performances and then collectively went on to have one of the worst performances I've seen for a while. The only exception being Barry to be honest, hasn't put a foot wrong so far from what I've seen.

I don't like putting individual players into the spotlight, but I felt very sorry for Nyom as he had an absolute stinker and it will surely knock his confidence after what was a decent start of the season for him (assist for Rodriguez vs Stoke and good performances elsewhere). The misread of the flight of the ball cost us the first goal, missing an absolutely basic header like that is a tough one to understand. He also really struggled to adjust his bodyshape yesterday when receiving the ball out on the left flank and it was the most awkward I've seen him play in that respect since he first signed. 

This really slowed down our typical counter attacking style and we had the pace of Rodriguez and Phillips to utilize but I felt Dawson and Nyom both struggled to help move the ball up through to pitch quickly enough for this. Brighton were very narrow and the flanks were where we needed to hurt them.

For the second goal the complete lack of closing down of the player was shocking, and Foster didn't particularly cover himself in glory to be honest - it had the look of a soft goal down low in the corner that a keeper like Joe Hart often lets into his net on a regular basis. By this point on the third goal Evans also got into the mix on misreading the ball and was nowhere near either the ball or player to prevent the header. He also spent more time arguing with the rest of the back line yesterday than getting involved in the play from what I recall. Certainly not his greatest performance in an Albion shirt.

Rondon, Rodriguez and Phillips also really had games to forget, with Rondon having his worst effort since signing for us imo. I had to wipe my eyes and check it wasn't Giles Barnes out there at certain points of the game.

It's all well and good picking apart a selection in hindsight, but I don't think anyone would have predicted those players to put in such a poor performance - judging by most who do the prediction league I don't think anyone on here did predict it! As much as we didn't get our counter attack going yesterday I'm not going to take anything away from Brighton. They clearly targeted the game as one they could win and did a great job of making us look bad. I think it would be unfair to them to just make it out to be a win for them just because we were crap, when they created their chances they took them, and that's what we need to be doing against West Ham next weekend!

COYB!

[4evaabaggie]

Guys my comments at the top of the page in no way suggest I am happy with our very defensive tactics, I was looking at it from the point of view of an owner, the money is in the greed league, you need to be in the greed league, don't lose games you get points, don't concede goals you win points sometimes even games, enough points more greed league money therefore defend at all costs ........ man city probably spent more money this transfer window than we have spent in all our premier league windows. We cannot compete by playing pretty tippy tappy, possession football, more attacking though would be good, it sickens me that 70% of the division are playing to avoid relegation and nothing else. That's modern football and probably not just in England. Our early premier league years were spent trying to play football ..... result ...... relegation ...... sad but true. There must be a halfway point surely.

Salop, I in no way was advocating sacking TP, or any Albion manager, I did not moan either, disappointed with the result especially as my best mate is a seagull, no not a Brighton fan, a seagull, I feed it chips on the sea front, I jest, I texted him yesterday asking if they had any strikers yet and he replied no and he feared it would be a bad day ........ who has egg on his face this morning.
But one drop of rain does not make a hurricane .... onwards and upwards to next week and a more settled, rested squad.

[valpayne]

My take on this was before KO team selection particularly defence rather surprised me.
We have Gibbs and Brunt either of which should have been LB yesterday. Nyom who's done well as RB played there instead and we resorted to Daws at RB harking back to when we had little choice. I was baffled about this set up and then Evans straight back in with Hegazi where daws has been doing pretty well with just 1 goal against in 3 matches this selection was as it turned out a disastrous shuffling of what had been a decent back line.

Oh well I thought lets see what happens and boy did it happen soon as i started reading that brighton had only managed 6 shots in first three matches and 0 goals I knew the plot was bound to thicken then i read it would be the first back to back away wins for albion in two years my heart sank. I was at work yesterday and i work a lot of saturdays and sundays many times till 11/12 at night. I don't live with a GF/wife I live alone I look forward to returning home late at night and watching a scintillating baggies victory with a beer in one hand and a bag of cheesy wotsits in the other shouting with joy at the telly with nobody to tell me to calm down put the bins out take dog for walk tell the kids off. It is folks, pure batchelor heaven, but wait, I'm an albion fan. So the flip side of this is all my mates at work who support Manure Spuds and arse went home joyous last night to their wives GF's and kids and don't care a jot about all the mundane trappings of living with THE MISSUS where as I had to watch yet more QI back episodes on my own with a consolation beer and bag of chumpsticks and nobody to moan to about the pain of supporting this bloody club season after season of let down at all the wrong sodding times and against all the teams we should really SHOULD NOT be getting thrashed by.

I can't say anything about how anyone played or the formation tactics etc because once again I haven't seen it due to work commitments and no interest in watching lowlights AGAIN! But like others here I hope and pray that this was a case of time and team needing to gel together and it will come good but like others Im very concerned we are approaching every single game with a massive emphasis on defensive tactics and players all over the pitch when we have actually bought some quality players in that can attack. In fact G Fran himself said how excited he was about Gibbs and his attacking wing play but they need to work on his defensive side of the game. Does that mean nullify his attacking ability and continue to approach every team and every game with more caution than a health and safety officers convention.

Time will tell but I'm very P****d off about that result yesterday more so because I could see it coming. Soon as they went 1-0 up I knew it was game over at 2 switched my attention elsewhere and 3, well, that just crowned the lot off and even when we got 1 back I knew we still wouldn't do what many teams have done to us at 3-0 up and pulled us back to 3-3 Remember Cardiff, West Ham, anybody?

'WBA a batchelors tale by Valpayne' see you all next week and lets hope for better

[Worldclassalbion]

I was in Belgium doing my Battlefield things but wasn't surprised when I finally managed to get a connection and saw that Pulis had left Gibbs out and put Nyom at LB. The bloke is a complete Twat who makes the most stupid decisions. He's stubborn. Everyone including me were more than happy with our signings but deep down knew he wouldn't use them correctly.  Burke and Gibbs are both Rapid and ideal for counter attacking BUT Pulis decides to leave them on the Bench and JayRod out wide is pointless. Drop Rondon and put him up top with Morrison, HRK or Chadli in the hole.

Not difficult is it. Wingers on the wing, striker down the middle. Attacking midfielder in the hole. LB at LB and so on. The bloke is a moron.

[Slick_Footwork]

I suspect Pulis will play Gibbs at left back, but just didn't want to drop Nyom after his man of the match performance against Stoke. At the same time, he couldn't resist slotting Dawson back in at right back, for the extra impetus from attacking set plays with Dawson + 2 centre backs.

Rightly or wrongly, attacking set plays is a massive part of Pulis' selections. IMO this was why Dawson was moved back to right back rather than keeping the same 4 as last week but swapping Evans in for Hegazi.

It will be interesting to see if Hegazi plays next week, as he made another error yesterday and was close to making a second - but without him, we only really have Dawson who can attack corners and free kicks.

Either way, Gibbs will start next week. It'll just be interesting to see how the other 3 line up.

It will also be interesting to see what happens in the midfield. Krychowiak and Barry have both come to play football, or they could've stayed where they were. At the same time, Pulis paid decent money for Livermore, but it's clear they can't all feature together. I guess Livermore will be dropped, but we'll see, he appears to be one of Pulis' favourites at the moment.