Poyet says big changes are needed (From The Argus)

Poyet says big changes are needed

5:00pm Monday 16th April 2012 in Albion By Andy Naylor

Gus Poyet has warned Albion will need to make big improvements to the squad over the summer to become genuine Championship promotion contenders.

Saturday’s 6-0 humiliation at West Ham all but ended their hopes of making the play-offs.

The Seagulls also conceded six at Liverpool in the FA Cup in February and the shocking scale of their defeat at Upton Park gave the manager plenty of food for thought.

Poyet told The Argus: “We were naive. I thought Liverpool was an accident because it happened once. No it wasn’t.

“I know what I am going to change probably for next year, I know what we need to improve.

“I won’t be that hard on the players because last Tuesday against Reading you would have thought we were the team at the top.

“But without any doubt we need to change if we really want to tell people we are competing for the Premier League.

“Next year we are going to have three top class teams coming down, plus probably three well-known teams coming up, plus the ones that haven’t gone up.

“So to compete with them we need to be better, stronger, quicker, more intelligent. We need to have better players.”

Poyet wants to add more Premier League experience to his squad but not on short-term loans.

He said: “If it is a season loan yes, if it is three months no because unfortunately for Joe (Mattock), for example, and Gonzalo Jara (Reyes), it’s not easy for them without having the time to work on things we do to adapt quickly.

“In the end they pay the price because they are the ones that don’t play, not because of the quality and how much they can give you but the way they need to understand how we do things.”