Yea Why Not wrote:Laugh it off what ever. The fact that some people are happy with that performance against Brighton just shows how far we have fallen
Happy needs to be clearly defined
I was happy
enough to grind out a win
I was happy
enough to see a very well drilled West Ham side, that never really looked like conceding
I was happy to see a very solid, well organised defence where everyone knew their job, and no one was shirking.
I was happy to see that we bounced back well from defeat in the previous game.
I was exceptionally happy to see Jack Collison get a full 90 and not hold back once in anything he did
There are times when I do enjoy watching a well drilled side soak up all the pressure against a more expansive side and win through. The Swiss beating Spain in the WC being a prime example.
But...
Brighton are hardly Spain! There's no question we should have a lot more to offer going forwards
On the other hand, it ain't much different to what we've been used to for the last few seasons, big isolated striker with no support, etc, etc. The difference being that whereas before we'd be gutless at both ends of the pitch, we do at least seem to have sorted one end of our side out.
And in fairness, it's the area I would have started first, in trying to turn us around from the shambles we have become in recent years, and I'm happy
enough to see the progress made there
Of course I'm not happy playing route one hoofball, not happy with a lot of our attacking side of the game
But I'm happy
enough with the thought that there is more to come
So I guess I would say I'm somewhere between two stools on the performance last night. Frustrated at the lack of fluid football, but happy enough at the spirit, determination, organisation and other areas we've needed to improve for some time.
If I thought last night was all we had to offer, I'd be less happy. If I thought Sam had all the options available to him, had wide options but chose to play narrow, etc, I'd be less happy
There's no doubt that we need to start playing the ball on the deck more, need better options in attack, play some entertaining stuff... but I'm not giving up yet, and still live in hope that as this team grows the better passers will get a chance to have more of a say in dictating the way we play