Smug Eddie

Somebody posted something along these lines after the Burnley game but "Togetherness" is what's been missing. Against Burnley the tactics were poor, the players not set up to execute them effectively, low on confidence and lacking belief from the off. Vs Brighton we delivered a backs to the wall mentality from kickoff and grew in confidence as the game went on. Every goal was celebrated with passion and as a team.

You can argue the influence of Cook and Boruc in the improvement of confidence but ultimately every player performed together and bought into the game plan. Credit where due to Eddie and Jase for achieving this for the first time in a long run of games.

The crowd were another massive part of the togetherness IMO, contributing to a fantastic atmosphere and getting behind the players more than I have seen in a long time.

It was a thoroughly cathartic performance for me and for me shows the potential of what we have if we can set up correctly with all cogs working together. Most of all it demonstrates that we already have the tools in the box to do the job correctly.
 
Our performance v Brighton was better yes and to a degree, we found our identitiy again, however, I for one am not going to get too excited about banging in 5 against a poor, deflated 10 man team who havn't scored in 4 games now (I think) and registered 1 shot on target (which was sh*te) against us... A team that has conceeded... a lot...

Gosling is still not the answer in the middle and neither is Ake at left back... Yet both played well on Saturday, and it was a very good response to justified critisism of 'both' Eddie and the players...

The applause after the game felt different... It felt as if it was an olive branch to the fans to say thx for still being here, and being here in numbers... and being vocal...

Eddie wil realise that unless we back the Brighton result up by beating Fulham and at least putting in a good performance against Soton, it will all be worth nothing.

I didnt boo after Burnley as it's not something I do... but I think it is perfectly acceptable to show your disapproval one week and then approval the next... based on how the team performs... The team feed off of this emotion just as much as the fans feed off the team's performances...
 
Red Sky said:
Somebody posted something along these lines after the Burnley game but "Togetherness" is what's been missing. Against Burnley the tactics were poor, the players not set up to execute them effectively, low on confidence and lacking belief from the off. Vs Brighton we delivered a backs to the wall mentality from kickoff and grew in confidence as the game went on. Every goal was celebrated with passion and as a team.

You can argue the influence of Cook and Boruc in the improvement of confidence but ultimately every player performed together and bought into the game plan. Credit where due to Eddie and Jase for achieving this for the first time in a long run of games.

The crowd were another massive part of the togetherness IMO, contributing to a fantastic atmosphere and getting behind the players more than I have seen in a long time.

It was a thoroughly cathartic performance for me and for me shows the potential of what we have if we can set up correctly with all cogs working together. Most of all it demonstrates that we already have the tools in the box to do the job correctly.
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Fine margins tbf. If we'd have conceded two in quick succession from set pieces like we did against Burnley there's every chance it would have gone the same way as our confidence drained. Likewise if we'd have taken our chances to go 2-0 up against Burnley we may have picked them off for more goals as they desperately tried to get back in a must-win game leaving themselves open to the counter.
 
SteveJonesLegend said:
Our performance v Brighton was better yes and to a degree, we found our identitiy again, however, I for one am not going to get too excited about banging in 5 against a poor, deflated 10 man team who havn't scored in 4 games now (I think) and registered 1 shot on target (which was sh*te) against us... A team that has conceeded... a lot...

Gosling is still not the answer in the middle and neither is Ake at left back... Yet both played well on Saturday, and it was a very good response to justified critisism of 'both' Eddie and the players...

The applause after the game felt different... It felt as if it was an olive branch to the fans to say thx for still being here, and being here in numbers... and being vocal...

Eddie wil realise that unless we back the Brighton result up by beating Fulham and at least putting in a good performance against Soton, it will all be worth nothing.

I didnt boo after Burnley as it's not something I do... but I think it is perfectly acceptable to show your disapproval one week and then approval the next... based on how the team performs... The team feed off of this emotion just as much as the fans feed off the team's performances...
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There should be no expectation to beat anyone in this league. It’s a dangerous mindset to get into, one which we have taken advantage of in the past.

It was the manner of the win on Saturday rather than the 5 goals. We were relentless after the break. How often do you see teams go down to 10 men only to win the game through the same backs to walls mentality we showed? Clearly Brighton were lacking in confidence. So were we against Burnley. We showed no lack of confidence in taking Brighton apart though. Nor were we content to sit on a 2 goal lead.

Let’s not downplay the significance of the win or the lessons we can take from it. No, we probably wouldn’t have got the same result against a top 6 team but we would have given it a bloody good go at getting the 3 points. The Chelsea game showed it’s possible. With Gosling in Midfield.
 
If we assume that we will once again be an inconsistent, mid- table team....but we still have the amount of players and a style that gets goals....we will always have the advantage over most of the others that play more cautious defensive stuff ! Of course, keeping Ake, Fraser, Wilson and Brooks is essential if we want to build anything better!
Looking at the managers some clubs have and the ones they are getting through in general....Christ.....im happy to have Eddie and Jason here for ever!
This season has tested Eddie quite severely in terms of patience and resources.. and his skills.....I expect he has used Introspection....cant see how he would not have! But that...for a guy like him can only be positive!
He has more to come out yet. He knows from our high score defeats and from some high score wins what can happen in this Div after a few lapses in players concentration..plenty of results material to work on! Age on his side too!


On his Record and with his Resources He has to be among the top Six Managers !
 
SlowDownDerek said:
Fine margins tbf. If we'd have conceded two in quick succession from set pieces like we did against Burnley there's every chance it would have gone the same way as our confidence drained. Likewise if we'd have taken our chances to go 2-0 up against Burnley we may have picked them off for more goals as they desperately tried to get back in a must-win game leaving themselves open to the counter.
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Fine margins can work both ways as you say. In recent history we have been one of the better PL teams at coming back from being behind. I feel that much of that has been down to the togetherness aspect. More recently games have been more flat, and lacking in that combined concerted drive to get back into the game. Especially away from home it’s been more like ‘here we go again’. Even against Huddersfield who let’s face it were worse than Brighton, I felt like we gave them too many chances and they were a shot on target away from a goal.

Although we did not go behind against Brighton I felt we had that same drive to take them apart every time we attacked. Tactically it felt like everyone knew what they were doing with or without the ball, particularly as we settled into our rhythm.
 
Red Sky said:
There should be no expectation to beat anyone in this league. It’s a dangerous mindset to get into, one which we have taken advantage of in the past.

It was the manner of the win on Saturday rather than the 5 goals. We were relentless after the break. How often do you see teams go down to 10 men only to win the game through the same backs to walls mentality we showed? Clearly Brighton were lacking in confidence. So were we against Burnley. We showed no lack of confidence in taking Brighton apart though. Nor were we content to sit on a 2 goal lead.

Let’s not downplay the significance of the win or the lessons we can take from it. No, we probably wouldn’t have got the same result against a top 6 team but we would have given it a bloody good go at getting the 3 points. The Chelsea game showed it’s possible. With Gosling in Midfield.
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At 2-0 down and at 10 men, Brighton saw nothing but an impossible uphill struggle. Like us, they're in that position where things are not clicking (well, potentially before last Saturday for us), so when you see your efforts rewarded with being 0-2 then that is going to take it's toll... Same as us Vs Burnley...

I don't play down the benefits of that result, and the performance... It was the perfect tonic for us and hopefully a great foundation for the reminaing few games now. However, I don't think we can all of a sudden say we're back to our best and instantly everything is right with the World...

Yes the togetherness seemd there, the lads did celebrate with passion, and I too thought our fans were in fine voice (something which doesnt ususally happen at the AMEX) but our style of play still seemed a long way from the style that has served us so well in the previous 3/4 years... Possession football. I actually thought we scored against the run of play. We still allowed BHA to dominate the play to an extent and I thought their midfield were getting the better of Gosling and Lerma... However, our first, and then more so the second, sucked the life out of BHA and we took control. it was good to see us passing the ball around a bit like we know we can...

Underestimate Fulham and we do so at our peril, however, if we can do one over them, and continue to get our swagger back, then Eddie will have gone a long way to getting us back on track, and I will begin to look forward to giving Soton a decent game...
 
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SteveJonesLegend said:
At 2-0 down and at 10 men, Brighton saw nothing but an impossible uphill struggle. Like us, they're in that position where things are not clicking (well, potentially before last Saturday for us), so when you see your efforts rewarded with being 0-2 then that is going to take it's toll... Same as us Vs Burnley...

I don't play down the benefits of that result, and the performance... It was the perfect tonic for us and hopefully a great foundation for the reminaing few games now. However, I don't think we can all of a sudden say we're back to our best and instantly everything is right with the World...

Yes the togetherness seemd there, the lads did celebrate with passion, and I too thought our fans were in fine voice (something which doesnt ususally happen at the AMEX) but our style of play still seemed a long way from the style that has served us so well in the previous 3/4 years... Possession football. I actually thought we scored against the run of play. We still allowed BHA to dominate the play to an extent and I thought their midfield were getting the better of Gosling and Lerma... However, our first, and then more so the second, sucked the life out of BHA and we took control. it was good to see us passing the ball around a bit like we know we can...

Underestimate Fulham and we do so at our peril, however, if we can do one over them, and continue to get our swagger back, then Eddie will have gone a long way to getting us back on track, and I will beign to look forward to giving Soton a decent game...
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It's funny, I actually see the way that we let the opposition have more possession as an evolution of our playing style rather than a negative. Obviously it only works if you are in control ie can break down attacks and counter quickly and penetratively. When done well like against Brighton and Chelsea it plays to our forwards strengths. But I agree that there have also been games where we have struggled to gain a foothold and have been chasing shadows, like against Leicester for example. Primarily though we need to be able to mix things up and not just rely on a single approach.

I agree we definitely can't say everything is fixed just yet, but there should be no reason to go back to a Burnley type performance now that players have had reward for playing with passion and belief.
 
red_house said:
I see they have followed it up with 'The Bournemouth example of succeeding'

https://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?372003-The-Bournemouth-example-of-succeeding

Has it finally dawned on them that £270 million of concrete / glass and real estate guarantees absolutely naff all other than some over inflated sense of entitlement ?
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It has for now. Fast forward to beating Cardiff 1 - 0 tomorrow it will be Tony Bloom being a life long supporter and building the Amex that kept them up. Like they always knew he would.
 
....there seems to be some reasonable comments on there about us, let's face it we both come from the same places in the lower leagues and are punching in The PL...that is enough for me!
 
redharry said:
there is almost a hint of jealousy creeping in
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This from a Brighton fan;

One other thing that is apparent about Bournemouth is that they have the odd exceptional performance and result. They have beaten Chelsea and Watford (away) 4-0 this season. Last Saturday it was us. In amongst these amazing results there is also a fair bit of dross, they lost 4-0 to Burnley, 2-0 to Cardiff etc. What it says to me is that they have a manager who has conditioned his players to be prepared to gamble for success without fear of blame for failure. He has been prepared to play two strikers away from home knowing it will mean the odd tonking and throw caution to the wind when chasing a game.

Admirable.

They are occasionally excellent, they have been since going up. Maybe we shouldn't be beating ourselves up too much about Saturdays result.
 
The thing that amazes me about that lot is the complete disregard for their history prior to moving to that ground.

It's as if they think we buy into it too and also disregard the fact that we've played them well over 100 times over the years - they have literally been at the same level as us for the majority of their history.

Then there's the apparent disregard for our struggle for a new ground, which is entirely down to the historic issues we've had from being skint. Of all the sets of supporters in the world that should understand how poor decisions from previous owners can leave you stuck in situations that are less than ideal it should be them, but no.

Then there's the weird notion that their sugar daddy is better than ours... now I'm sure those wonderfully woke folk of Brighton aren't suggesting this is because there's is English and ours is foreign but I'm not seeing much else to distinguish them.
 
It's amazing what you get from reading a fans forum compared to chatting to them in the pub. The forum is often bitterness and bile, the face to face stuff both home and away has been sensible conversation and exchange of views with a decent bunch of fans. Oh and a lot of great banter (we've got more sand than you etc etc :)) at Barnham railway station at the enforced delay on the way back.
I still hold a grudge from 1971 mind you ;)
 
SlowDownDerek said:
The thing that amazes me about that lot is the complete disregard for their history prior to moving to that ground.

It's as if they think we buy into it too and also disregard the fact that we've played them well over 100 times over the years - they have literally been at the same level as us for the majority of their history.

Then there's the apparent disregard for our struggle for a new ground, which is entirely down to the historic issues we've had from being skint. Of all the sets of supporters in the world that should understand how poor decisions from previous owners can leave you stuck in situations that are less than ideal it should be them, but no.

Then there's the weird notion that their sugar daddy is better than ours... now I'm sure those wonderfully woke folk of Brighton aren't suggesting this is because there's is English and ours is foreign but I'm not seeing much else to distinguish them.
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Add the fact that our rich owner works in petrochemicals and so is obviously dodgy shady and bent. Whereas their rich owner runs a professional gambling syndicate, which is obviously whiter than white, and far morally superior?
 
redharry said:
Oh and a lot of great banter (we've got more sand than you etc etc :)) at Barnham railway station at the enforced delay on the way back.
;)
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Did they manage to get the trains going again eventually?
We got kicked off the train at Chichester. Then it, and the one behind it, disappeared and we had to get a taxi to Southampton to complete our journey.
 
LewSwimmin said:
Did they manage to get the trains going again eventually?
We got kicked off the train at Chichester. Then it, and the one behind it, disappeared and we had to get a taxi to Southampton to complete our journey.
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Think the trains were cancelled all night. We were lucky as we were staying overnight in Chichester anyway, I think coaches were sorted by about 9.30
 
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