West Brom (a) pre-match thread

[blue b4 the moon]

First team to have played us twice with the cup game, wonder if clubshop will have seen anything to exploit or a change in tactics?

 

[ChicagoBlue]

That's encouraging, one of my favourites........

Weak.

Always looks scared to me. Just look at him when he’s the 4th official. Total wuss.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

One of the few times i wish we had NDJ back.

If we can get a few goals ahead, might be time for Yaya to come on and do him. Won’t miss Yaya for 3 games!

 

[domalino]

Baggies will have seen how effective a minimum Back 5 defence disrupts and stifles the play. Wolves managed it, no doubt Pulis will try it too. His hackers will be on show, coupled with a weak referee, this might be close.
I’ll take a 1-0 win for us now and no injuries.

Wolves didn't do anything new, nearly everyone we've played has tried that, Pulis tried exactly the same in the last game. The difference is that our first 11 makes relatively short work of it.

 

[Mr. Wednesday]

Wolves didn't do anything new, nearly everyone we've played has tried that, Pulis tried exactly the same in the last game. The difference is that our first 11 makes relatively short work of it.

The one thing Wolves did well was to ensure they got men crowding the box so quickly that City were never able to engineer those simple tap-ins from a ball played across the 6-yard line, something which has become a hallmark of a number of City's goals this season.

The team changes and less intensive pressing probably contributed to that as well. City still surely too strong.

 

[Silva top]

In my opinion it is essential when playing a team with eleven defenders to play quickly from the back to prevent the opposition from re forming on the few occasions they do get into our half and to play wide so as to create as much space as possible against eleven at the back. We have done this well this season except v Wolves when we were very very slow. It may be that we made lots of passes to each other in our own half but they were all 2/3 yards between players sometimes two players tapping the ball 2 yards to each other whilst the opposition were getting back into position. Sané coming on (albeit too late) gave the game some width. The slow build up continued all throughout the game. Hope we revert to speed on Saturday.

 

[domalino]

The one thing Wolves did well was to ensure they got men crowding the box so quickly that City were never able to engineer those simple tap-ins from a ball played across the 6-yard line, something which has become a hallmark of a number of City's goals this season.

The team changes and less intensive pressing probably contributed to that as well. City still surely too strong.

IMO That was not Wolves, that was our lack of width in the team. Zinchenko didn't want to go very wide, Jesus came inside as expected, Bernardo kept drifting right which made Sterling come inside, and end result was Wolves only having to defend the width of their box. When Sterling did go to the byline, he put in a dangerous ball most of the time.

Slow balls from the CBs didnt help either.

 

[eversince 76]

Been a while since we played away. The karaoke-leg vs WBA seems like it was played only yesterday though. We totally outplayed them up until the moment they kicked out Gundogan and derailed the rythm only to make the game even more physical after that. And as we tried to go along, we lost control and looked vulnerable.

We know we have the better team. And we know WBA will try and make it hard for us. It's all about taking our chances and be clinical. We know we will create plenty. If we have a tough game it's because we bring this on to ourselves. That is how good we are nowadays. So I expect a win and it'll be a bonus if we do it in an entertaining way like we have been doing most of the time so far this season.

 

[Withnail]

Just seen Pullis pre match press conference on sly. Morrison out, Robson Kanu a doubt, but JFE ........ should be fit.

 

[Cityisland]

We have won 12 games in a row that makes us feel we are due to lose points. After the first goal, I'm sure we will be thinking of how many more we can score.

Just a feeling I have. Like I say, I hope I'm wrong.

I would never dream of thinking "how many " until the third has gone in. Anything can happen in this league. Just see how quick stoke gobbled up our 3 goal lead. Yes, I know we went up a gear but things could have gone South and had a different outcome.