West Brom (h) post-match thread

[john blue]

13 wasted corner kicks too

Corners, are you allowed to score off them. !

 

[madloaf]

thought we had got " a good un " when we first got bernardo, , whats gone wrong.

He stopped playing him.

 

[Father Paul]

Bollocks. We purposely try being famous by not breaking our record transfer fee of 65 million, regardless of Covid. We dream of players like Haaland etc but we will bauk at the price, for what?
If we don't want to spend cash then we need to show faith in our youth policy, but we have a manager that doesn't seem to even have faith in his bench.
Sterling Rodri etc starting every game for him even though its clear they are the cause of our dismise
And dont even dare say there's no dismise cos this team is going fucking backwards.

Given the times that are in it at present we spent a considerable amount in the window just past we also seemed prepared to shell out a substantial amount to acquire the services of a certain Argentinian. Money likewise will be put aside to replace the legend known as Kun Aquero.
The failure of the manager to utilise talent coming through the academy is a separate issue and one which no doubt will continue to divide opinion.
Team selection and the recent poor performances of late is something I am very concerned about and express this concern regularly on the forum.
I can't and won't disagree with your view that the team is going backwards but I do contend that the point I made in the post above is valid and cannot be dismissed as "bollocks".

 

[eyalluvitt]

DAVID SILVA

How we miss you

Yes we really do, the man who unlocks packed defenses with close control, skill and intelligence.Silva could find space in a single bed with Luke Shaw.

 

[the-ecstacy-of-eight]

Who is playing the ball through their lines, our two CDMs?

Do opponents get pulled out of position by static attackers?

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but we aren't playing the game you describe. It might be what we're trying to do but we aren't actually doing it. It's not more effective than not -- it's more ineffective, which is why we have more combined draws and losses than wins in the Prem.

I don't disagree either. Very frustrating season so far, but....

what I meant was that our style of play used to be "more effective than not".
We've regularly faced parked bus teams for many a season and if you look of our past records and achievements, I'd say that it illustrates that our tactics have been "more effective than not".

The reasons (or my opinions of the reasons) why it's not working NOW are what I was trying to outline in my original post. Last night we faced a bank of 6 across their backline (who didn't really break formation for the full 90 minutes) with a deep line of 4 in front of it. An entire team hell bent on defending. And we see this sort of thing with depressing regularity these days. More organised and less ambitious defences (due to my original reasoning) result in less dangerous spaces for our attackers to run into. They may appear to be static (they're not) but that's because there's no space to run into. Total gridlock!

The attacking qualities of our team are being blunted and it's very, very frustrating to watch as there doesn't appear to be an easy solution. Pace and urgency might work but fatigue is a major player this season so we can't use that tactic every week and unfortunately we face packed, organised defences every week so it's not really a feasible option.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

I’m still in a really really bad mood.

I am too and normally when we put in a crap performance I moan, and get over it, and then I start looking forward to the next match, usually with either optimism or dread. But this time it's just resigned acceptance that against Soton we're going to see exactly the same set up, and play exactly the same way. And it's boring. And it's not getting results.

 

[Tommy_Catons_Perm]

They had 8/9 back then but look how much quicker we moved the ball and the width we had. Look at the left side we had Sane hugging the left touch line, Delph who obviously no superstar but someone who could play one and 2 touch to Silva or Sane. Half the time it takes Mendy 3 touches to get it out of his feet. Teams parked the bus just as much but we played much quicker, had better players and weren't scared to take chances. Scouse win tonight and we're 8 behind. Good luck closing that gap again given how we have been playing for 18 months now.

You're spot on about Delph compared to Mendy. I recall the match away at Chelsea in Peps second season a 1-0 win with De Bruyne scoring a screamer. It was good as anything seen in the prem. Conti and Chelsea were run ragged. And Delph was key because of his quick passing, one or two touches, pass and move. Too many players cant do that quick enough now.

 

[balotellishaircut]

You're spot on about Delph compared to Mendy. I recall the match away at Chelsea in Peps second season a 1-0 win with De Bruyne scoring a screamer. It was good as anything seen in the prem. Conti and Chelsea were run ragged. And Delph was key because of his quick passing, one or two touches, pass and move. Too many players cant do that quick enough now.

Well we have the best training facilities in world football, maybe we should use it.

 

[percypawpaw]

Every time Mendy plays its like playing with 10 men, the same with Mahrez. I don't understand Pep with these two.
The first half was dreadful, I thought he would change it at half time by taking Mendy off, and putting another striker/winger on, as West Brom were not going to catch us on the break, they were no threat. When no change was made, I thought Pep would change on 60 minutes, but still no change, when the change came it was too late. The only positive I got from the game was that we hammered them for the final 15 minutes, we could and should have scored, but there was not enough time, but that final effort was good, everyone on the pitch put a lot of effort into that final period, and looked a lot more like we should be. Pep at fault, he also needs to take a good look at those two.

 

[FantasyIreland]

I am too and normally when we put in a crap performance I moan, and get over it, and then I start looking forward to the next match, usually with either optimism or dread. But this time it's just resigned acceptance that against Soton we're going to see exactly the same set up, and play exactly the same way. And it's boring. And it's not getting results.

Would you still be in such a mood if the Gundogan or the Jesus headers had gone in?