Albion Battle '20

For the first time in a long while I was out of town, which was awesome, even if it was a relatively slow-paced trip. This also meant I was free from watching football. Well, not completely, seeing as Saturday afternoon I managed to get something splintered into my foot, meaning I was on the couch for the dreadful United-Chelsea match. I wasn't focused on that whatsoever, so it wouldn't make sense to dissect that one. Thus, I'll be doing the battle of the Albion on Monday, a few hours after writing this intro.

Short preview: Basically, I don't want to drone on here, because the point is to cover what actually happens and what I learn from it. Coming in, neither team is in a rich vein of form, hovering above the current bottom three by 3 and 1 point, respectively. Burnley, one of the teams below, play Spurs after this match and have an additional game in hand. This is all to say that even though it's early, this game could have implications for the rest of the season. In this league, the majority of teams play not to lose, while a few play to win (Leeds, Liverpool, Man City). The bottom few are just there to make up numbers, even at this point, and some could be historically bad. Maybe not Derby levels, but nowhere close to staying up. The main problem with Brighton is they can't score, despite playing "good football". Losing in added time to the stoppage time against United highlights their issue. They bossed that game and still managed to lose. To be fair, they hit the post at least 4 times, which I've heard is a record. Still, United were terrible and Brighton played as well as they could, but the end result shows the three points heading back to Manchester. The Newcastle game is the only bright spot, and that was largely due to Newcastle being horrible more often than not. I'm not sure what to say about West Brom. I look at the squad and how they play and it reeks of a Championship team. The sustained stint they had in the league saw them defensively strong, while quite labored in attack. Now, in 5 games, they already have a goal difference of -8, having scored 5 with 13 against. Two draws isn't bad, although one was to a disturbingly abject Burnley. It's the manner of the Chelsea result, though, and the way they were taken apart by both Leicester and Southampton, two sides that often struggle with the ball. My expectation for this game is Brighton will dominate possession, who knows if they'll manage to score this time, and West Brom will do what they can to make up for their clear lack of talent.

Pre-game: WBA lineup as expected, the 4-5-1/4-3-3 they often played last season. Brighton, on the other hand, I have no idea what's going on. Potter has gone with 5 out and out defensive players, despite the fact that Dunk is suspended. The way it could go is either a weird 4-4-2 with Burn and Veltman as full backs, Webster and White at CB, Lamptey and March as wingers, Bissouma and Lallana at CM, leaving Maupay and Trossard to play up front. What it'll be, however, is the usual 3-4-3 with players in their "usual positions" outside of White, who slots in at CM with Bissouma. Mind you, this is also with Alzate and Gross on the bench, two guys you'd think would fit at CM in the system, allowing White to play his natural position. Maybe this tinkering is partly why they don't score goals. Oh, and this is against a promoted side that can't defend, and it's not like they have great attacking options. Strange is an understatement. Another weird move I'll quickly mention well after the fact is letting both Mooy and Stephens go, only to bring in a past it/injury prone Lallana, who had 6 months in like 5 years of stellar form before either missing games or being mediocre. The only reason I'm writing this and watching this game is it's free. Last WBA game that I watched because it was free was 0-0 vs Burnley, a game nobody should watch, paying extra or not. I now have zero hopes for this game.

Analysis/reaction: As I was watching the game, it became apparent that what I'd written pre-game was accurate. My focus was mainly Brighton, because I wanted to gauge whether they'd be in a relegation battle or not. By half time, I stopped watching, it was that bad. I set the second half to record and did something else. I checked back in as soon as Grant's equalizing goal went in, and it was predictable as ever. Let me go back; the first half was bad. Brighton played their usual "attractive on the eyes, but completely ineffective" football, and the goal was calamitous from a West Brom defensive perspective. Another point I want to make is Brighton aren't good at defending, they just play a bunch of them. That's something I didn't expect from Potter, mostly because I'd heard good things about him from his stints in Sweden and Wales. I'd probably compare it to Parker's Fulham or Leverkusen since Bosz took over. Possess the ball for the sake of it, do nothing in the attacking third, occasionally create a half decent chance that the striker spurns, and eventually concede goals from defensive lapses.

It's a conundrum. I only like watching two teams in the league, Leeds and Liverpool, and the latter is only because I've followed closely since 2012/13 (the football is not "heavy metal" and hasn't been since 2017/18, but they win most games). When Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and United all struggle to do anything with the ball, there's not much in the entire league to be excited about. The absence of the #10 in the traditional sense is obvious in the robotic and boring nature of football these days, especially in England. Spain is the same, and you won't catch me streaming that league anymore.

But yeah, getting back to this game, neither of these teams are any good, and if you add Burnley, Fulham, Sheffield Utd, (to an extent) Newcastle and West Ham, none of these would look out of place in the Championship. I like the way Potter set the team up, aside from one too many CB's (which I pointed out pre-game). In the 3-4-3/4-4-2 you rely greatly on either width creating the chances or the two in midfield linking up with the forwards. I use the Atalanta example too often, so I'll point out Roma. They have a hit-or-miss CM in Pellegrini, who sometimes plays behind Dzeko with Pedro/Mkhitaryan, and the two wingers I mentioned can play together. The CB's, a combo of Ibanez, Kumbulla, Mancini and Smalling, allow the rest of the team to get forward, including the wing backs (usually Spinazzola and one other). The point is, when I see Brighton and others trying the back 3, the coach either lacks the positional personnel or the quality in his squad to properly implement it. Finally, just looking at the xG, I'm not making ish up in terms of this game (and most PL games this weekend) being absolute dross. 0.5 for the hosts (plus the pitiful OG) and 0.4 for the visitors, so a draw was warranted.

One graphic I thought I'd attach is from Football Slices, and it's Yves Bissouma. It doesn't make sense to pair the Malian with Ben White, in addition to playing a back three, as I explained multiple times above. This, again, is at home against a Championship level side when you have a chance to make a nice gap this early in the season. Zero creativity in a side that already doesn't finish its chances. It's just bad coaching. Four shots against that mess of a defense is unacceptable. I don't know the fitness of Connolly or Welbeck, but they were unused subs... The only positive is all of the teams below lost and have one measly point each.