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.