West Brom (h) post-match thread

I suppose a small positive can be drawn is that Covid spared us of of all the criticism and jokes about the ground emptying early. There would have been fewer left inthe ground for added time than there were in the Metro queue.
 
It's sub-standard from so many players.

I'm pleased for Gundo, I have given him pelters for so many performances in recent seasons but it is now abundantly clear he isn't the problem, it's that big lump next to him.

Gundo is the only risk taker in the team outside of Kev, with arguably more end product this season.

He looks leaner than I have seen him before and has been out best player this season.

You can see why Pep continues to rotate Foden, he doesn't impact games half as much starting, same goes for Jesus.

I'm just frustrated as in the half-time matchday forum I said the obvious was to take Mendy off and put Walker in, yet Pep left it too late.

For me, to countenance that City have paid £230m for Mendy, Cancelo, Rodri and Mahrez, is a failure that cannot be easily excused.

Still confident we will be there at the business end but a striker in January wouldn't go amiss!
 
Coatigan said:
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.
Click to expand...
You deserve credit for this well meaning if somewhat desperate attempt to lift spirits.
 
Coatigan said:
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.
Click to expand...
100% Spot on.
 
Jesus, Ake, Rodri, Sterling, Cancelo & Mendy

not good good enough at all

Pep sulk over Laporte needs to stop now, Ake shouldn’t be starting over him ever
 
I was looking for a bounce back after the rags game and we just got served up the same. We managed to make the rags look good on Saturday and did the same for the PL whipping boys yesterday. Fuck sake there is not a lot to be cheerful about just now but there was a time we could at least look to the team to lift our spirits.

We are so slow in thought. When we try and play quicker we cant seem to find the man like we used to. Its not even lack of effort, they are clearly trying hard individually. Its a team dynamic that is wrong. Without stones, we looked weaker in defence albeit most problems were caused by our full backs who jointly served up the worst performance of full back play I have seen. Yes it was that bad. Mendy cant help it, Cancelo is an arrogant, moaning ****.
Our double pivot works alright in defending the back four but bloody hell it puts 100% onus on Kev to create and he certainly isn't rising to that challenge. he looks out of sorts and frustrated which is not a great look when you are captain. He got little support from Sterling or Foden who we should be looking at for creativity as well. Jesus had nothing to work with neither did Kun apart from the one chance. We have to start making more clear cut chances again. We maybe had 5 or 6 yesterday and scored 1. Create double those chances and we might get 2. We are just so lacking in clinical finishing. It pains me to say it, but Spuds or the Dippers would have won that game comfortably yesterday playing as badly as we did.

I cant see the solution. If we can the double pivot, we need Bernie or Foden to start to provide clear cut chances from attacking midfield to help Kevin. No evidence based on recent form that they can do that. Gundogan would probably be a better bet playing further forward. Drop Kevin deeper? Not sure about that as he gives the ball away too much at the moment. And other than Walker who has his own penalty brain farts we don't have a reliable trustworthy fullback (whilst Angelino continues to tear up the turf).

I apologise for being negative. It just reflects how I feel about football just now.
 
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