West Brom (h) post-match thread

[Cornish_Blue]

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We will not make top 5 this season.

 

[Kippax77]

Honestly it feels like slow Chinese torture.
We needed a defender, it takes a season to buy 1.
Now we need a striker, it will take another season for the glaring obvious to take hold and us buy 1.
In the meantime we need some creativity, but again we will have to wait, while the media reminds us.
Who the fuck as hold of the purse strings at the club?
It seems like we have agreed in court that we wont splash the cash unnecessarily to appease "the yank owned clubs".
We came out of the court case with Pep aggressively saying to the wank 10 who stabbed us in the back " come talk on the pitch, not behind our backs".
I bet the snide fuckers are now thinking "and what?"
This is now getting a seriously bad situation for Pep, the players and club.
To say we are one of the richest clubs on the planet, and yet we struggle to beat any team in the division (apart from Burnley) is fucking scary.
Big decisions need to be made !

 

[Tricky_Trev]

The worrying thing is, what exactly are we transitioning to?

Feels like last season was the transitional season and this season we have arrived at our destination. It’s been 18 months now, not just this campaign. When a team is transitioning to something better, you can always see what they are trying to do. When we were learning playing out from the back and were making a hash of it and getting pressed, you could see that with time we’d get it. But what are the crumbs of hope right now for this team? What is the plan? I don’t see anything.

 

[willipp]

Play the way we were in the Centurions season, with better attackers and midfield than we currently have.

And include an option in the squad to have a battering ram style forward if that isn't working in the odd game. Cause havoc in the box and someone could get a tap in or anything. Probe a few times by all means, but if that is failing to break down a ten man defence get a few lads in the box and fucking launch it. I betwith a big lad in tneir like Haaland someone would get on a knock down in that situation.

Need aggression in midfield, some drive and will to win, including diving and pressuring officials, tactical fouls, etc. Put in some proper crunching tackles on opponents' danger men.

Basically have the squad than can allow us to try different options throughout a game.

But mostly, have some bloody shots at goal instead of passing sideways and backwards for its own sake.

What i feel we need is a midfielder who is comfortable stepping out of the DM position and either beating a man or the ability to pass it forward and break the lines. Yaya was incredible at both and so was fern up to a few years ago. That took out 2 or 3 of the opposition midfielders on so many occasions in games that allowed the likes of Kev and Silva the chance to take it on the turn and spring forward at defenses. We just dont have the players now to do that. I'd actually like to see Rodri gone and Kev to maybe play deeper and try and do that. Gundo was great yesterday and that goal and his second half was like the gundo we all hoped we'd signed from Dortmund. Try and play bernardo back into form in there maybe, or try Foden in there as when he was coming through that was what i liked about him so much, his ability to take the ball on the half turn in dangerous areas and his only thought being forward and offensive.

One thing i really think is killing this team is Rodri. He offers nothing other that making the game easy for the oppositions. I hoped after last season he would improve and second season settled in would see him kick on. However he has got so much worse and everything goes through him which just over highlights the problem.

 

[daflanger]

The probability that we might not finish top 4 and miss out on Champions League next year is getting bigger when we cannot finish this kind of games!!

Pep is stubborn and doesn't want to change. Playing Sterling and Foden tucked in close to Jesus, whilst Mendy and Cancelo played wide???!!!

I cannot believe we just drew with West Brom who lost all their away matches this season. We are truly sub standard. I am more afraid now of what will come especially with our next game being against Southampton who is in form.

How are we supposed to attract top players next year if we miss out on CL? Honestly I don't see us finishing top 6 even at this rate! We deserve our current position in the league honestly.

I am so angry now!

 

[willipp]

Feels like last season was the transitional season and this season we have arrived at our destination. It’s been 18 months now, not just this campaign. When a team is transitioning to something better, you can always see what they are trying to do. When we were learning playing out from the back and were making a hash of it and getting pressed, you could see that with time we’d get it. But what are the crumbs of hope right now for this team? What is the plan? I don’t see anything.

Honestly dont know where we are heading now. Like you say, the transition from greatest side to ever grace the premiership to what is quite frankly average is unbelievably alarming. Scary thing is I have no faith in our recruitment to go out and have a big summer and sign the right players, i have no faith that we will give young players who look so exciting a chance and as much as i love Pep, he is fast becoming a major part of the problem. Nothing points towards us turning this slide around any time soon.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Is Rodri even better than Javi Garcia?

Id probably have him above Fernando and that’s about it.

You've nailed it. Javi Garcia.

Remember when he was the fallback for De Rossi!!

We've wasted some serious money.

 

[blue for life]

Slept on it and woke up feeling no better than when I went to bed. Just depressingly average we are at the moment. Done OK in Champs League and have played much better in that for some odd reason. But some decisions have to be made like taking Sterling out of the team!!! Put Bernie back in. One of the few players with tenacity and pace. Obviously him and Laporte are persona non grata at the moment with Pep !

 

[BlueCityfan]

This season is a complete write off. Funny how some people really thought we could win the league this season. You can't win the league when you can't even score goals. 12 game in and we've barely been in the top 4. We are in a top 4 fight. And it's going to be a struggle.

 

[OB1]

Desire passion and pace for a start. Playing players in their correct position, and not being confused by baffling tactics alien to how we were playing that players were comfortable with. Using subs and making the right subs with enough time to make an impact. Using youngsters with energy and desire to prove themselves. And fuckin' off this two man 'pivot' bollocks!

Don't have time for a long debate but I don't think most of that is a solution to the issue or indeed the problem.

The two man pivot is not bollocks. Pep has arrived there for a very specific reason and that side of things seems to be working but I'm afraid we need to see more of it in the near term. Ultimately, we will probably need to find a new DM to add tot the squad who is more like Dinho, ideally a cross of the right elements of Dinho and Yaya but not sure that even exists!

One pivot might help us add creativity to the line-up but if the players getting on the end of chances don't finish, it won't help a lot and the final third is crowded enough with the way our opponents play.

An aerially commanding centre forward would give us a different option but they need to be more than that. There's perhaps one player that the club need to break the bank for but will they?

I still believe that if we continue to defend as we have been, we will begin to rack up wins. Last night as disappointing as the performance was, our failure to keep a clean sheet was down to an unlucky o.g.

 

[Father Paul]

Honestly it feels like slow Chinese torture.
We needed a defender, it takes a season to buy 1.
Now we need a striker, it will take another season for the glaring obvious to take hold and us buy 1.
In the meantime we need some creativity, but again we will have to wait, while the media reminds us.
Who the fuck as hold of the purse strings at the club?
It seems like we have agreed in court that we wont splash the cash unnecessarily to appease "the yank owned clubs".
We came out of the court case with Pep aggressively saying to the wank 10 who stabbed us in the back " come talk on the pitch, not behind our backs".
I bet the snide fuckers are now thinking "and what?"
This is now getting a seriously bad situation for Pep, the players and club.
To say we are one of the richest clubs on the planet, and yet we struggle to beat any team in the division (apart from Burnley) is fucking scary.
Big decisions need to be made !

Splashing the cash is not the answer or even an option. The entire globe is on the verge of an economic meltdown and nobody is immune from that reality. We are not in good shape currently and the short term prospects are somewhat concerning but getting out the cheque book is not really feasible or desirable.

 

[give it to gordon]

In the passed City could draw teams out so City had room up front. Now teams wont be draw out City could knocked the ball around in our own penalty area for 90 minutes and the other team still would move 18yrds from their penalty box !
If one team doesnt want to win or play its makes it a very hard boring game. Even Merlin in his prime would find it hard. When KDB picks the ball up looks forward to see 11 defenders what options does he have ?

The premier league seems to be heading towards the Italian style of defence style football, spurs are top with a negative boring style. Other clubs are doing the same if it carries on it's going to be hard for the premier league to attract big money tv rights. Very few fans want to watch a defensive game.

 

[Saddleworth2]

In the end, i'm happy enough with a point, because it was beginning to look like one of those 'just not your night' games where they would knick a goal at the end, or var would give them a stoppage time pen or something.

Sometimes, things just go against you, the own goal from a free kick that was never a foul, multiple missed chances and top top saves that on another night would have gone in. The game itself, out of context, these ones happen.

Again, we are hugely underestimating the effect fans in the stands would have had in that game, the extra pressure it would put on their defence in those last 20 minutes, the bit of belief it would give our forwards. Enough to get that winner. Let's not bullshit ourselves, we have had these games every time we won the league, we found ways to win them and it was marginal. We also had suckerpunch losses too.

The problem is has been happening a few times.

The bigger issue for me is the narrative this creates. We've already rewritten the last season, and a fair few now seem to be going into kickoff with a low expectation, and then watching the game to try confirm it.

We Are slower than we have been, we are less 'frightening'. But we still keep the posession and we still create the chances. What seems to be missing is belief and confidence. You can see it, from half an hour in, players are in despair and disbelief at missing chances as if it is the 90th minute. It almost looks as if they have convinced thenselves the goals aren't coming.

The narrative around pep will start to build too, can't hack it more than 3 years, anywhere else he'd be sacked, and that will feed into the cycle.

We need a big scoring dominant game to shed the weight, and to follow it up with a basic win. Then it might kick a bit of self belief off.

I think pep should be using torres way more, and regularly, because he is the one player currently not bogged down with this mentality. He is new to the team and league, has that fresh naivity but also that pure hope, has confidence and belief in himself, and the hunger to prove himself and justify his big move. And that will produce goals where a currently fragile sterling or mahrez will miss them.

Well done mate. You cheered me up just a little.

 

[Blue Til Death]

Slept on it after a post match vitriolic outburst but nowts changed, not quite as heart stoppingly angry but I’m still totally fucked off after being subjected to another gutless City performance...

 

[Invisible Man's Bandage]

On a brighter note, it was heartening to see that Mendy has rediscovered his endearing habit of smashing uncontrollable passes at team mates. This is his trademark and one of the main reasons we paid big bucks for him

 

[sir baconface]

If I were Sheikh Mansour I wouldn’t get my wallet out again after spending what the best part of £600m.

Plus in these difficult times your saying get rid of maybe 8 players, won’t happen, manager likely to go first.

If I were the Sheikh, I’d be getting some dubbin on me boots right now.

 

[HelloCity]

When it comes to buying a striker in the summer we absolutely cannot gamble. We have to be buying a ready made goal scorer even if it means doubling our record transfer fee. I’ll be absolutely fuming if we go out and buy some guy averaging like 15 goals in 40 games in the hope of saving a bit of money.

 

[willipp]

You've nailed it. Javi Garcia.

Remember when he was the fallback for De Rossi!!

We've wasted some serious money.

The thing i have a problem with on this is he is playing exactly how he always has. Now i don't watch much spanish football, but i presume this was his type of role for athletico and i doubt he was some forward thinking, tough tackling, dynamic midfielder for them, i imagine he was exactly what he is for us for athletico. So why the hell did we spend so much money on him? From day 1 he has looked slow, very uncomfortable doing anything that requires an iota of offensiveness and on the whole very average on the ball. At first i thought he was taking time to get used to the pace of the PL, but that clearly isnt the issue. Whoever scouted him, analysed his performances for athletico, agreed he would fit our style of play and where we were heading should never have a say in transfers again.

There was one moment last night that summed him up. In the first half Sterling broke into the box and Rodri with the ball and no one around him. He tried to clip a ball over the defense and Sterling is clean in on goal at an angle, the kind of position we used to get in 5 or 6 times a game. He just knocked the ball straight out of play for goal kick. That to me summed him up.

 

[Del_Bosque]

If this grim, narrow unattractive football is the only way we can play without our CM’s getting bypassed on the counter attack, it’s time for new CM’s

 

[Tricky_Trev]

The thing i have a problem with on this is he is playing exactly how he always has. Now i don't watch much spanish football, but i presume this was his type of role for athletico and i doubt he was some forward thinking, tough tackling, dynamic midfielder for them, i imagine he was exactly what he is for us for athletico. So why the hell did we spend so much money on him? From day 1 he has looked slow, very uncomfortable doing anything that requires an iota of offensiveness and on the whole very average on the ball. At first i thought he was taking time to get used to the pace of the PL, but that clearly isnt the issue. Whoever scouted him, analysed his performances for athletico, agreed he would fit our style of play and where we were heading should never have a say in transfers again.

There was one moment last night that summed him up. In the first half Sterling broke into the box and Rodri with the ball and no one around him. He tried to clip a ball over the defense and Sterling is clean in on goal at an angle, the kind of position we used to get in 5 or 6 times a game. He just knocked the ball straight out of play for goal kick. That to me summed him up.

Because some people said he was the next Busquets and we are obsessed with trying to be Barca. We’re even copying their decline into nothingness, that’s how much we admire them.