West Brom (h) post-match thread

franksinatra said:
There were two passages of play which illustrated perfectly our problems.

Sterling fed the ball inside the fullback to Mendy, yet instead of crossing he pulled it back to De Bruyne, on the edge of the box, who then tried to recycle it (got intercepted) to the other flank, to a player in a worse position to cross the ball than Mendy was in initially.

We play with such a lack of intensity and desire to hurt sides, with the constant recycling of the ball from side to side its almost robotic now. There is so little fantasy in the side or Individuality of play to try something different.

The one time we had the overload KDB swept the ball out to Foden, who, by virtue of being on the wrong side, then had to cut inside resulting in the shot being blocked and the chance having gone.

In our pomp (2017/18) Silva and KDB would find the pockets of space, created by the wingers playing on the touchlines and so making the pitch big, play the pass inside the fullbacks and the winger then cross to Aguero or the opposite winger for a tap in.

Now the wingers Mahrez/Sterling by playing opposite flanks want the ball to their feet to cut inside as they do not feel comfortable running behind only to receive the ball on their weaker foot which they would have to cross with.

Consequently they do not run behind the fullbacks, the midfielders rarely have a forward pass and the opposition, retreats to the 18 yard box, where finally the wingers will receive the ball, but have the whole defence in front of them. Result the issue is perpetuated and the ball starts to get recycled infield once again.
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Players are living happily in their shadows. I feel sorry for their shadows... :)
 
razinho said:
Gundogan MOTM by a country mile tonight, rest would be lucky to pass a 5/10. The issues are blatantly obvious - no matter what fullbacks we play, none of them are very good football players are they?

Playing 2 pivots in midfield against a team with 6 points for far and languishing at the bottom of the table is laughable.

Foden shouldn't play wide in a front 3, drop him back or dont play him - on the topics of who to replace him, we have Mahrez who is frankly appalling in a Pep system, Torres who has looked good but hardly a superstar and a Bernie who hasn't been in form for nearly 18 months.

Up front, Jesus is a good player but will never ever hit 30 goals a season - if he's not getting played with a striking partner he's nullified for 90 minutes. Aguero is hardly fit, one of our best players but hardly been dependable for 2 seasons now.

Lastly, we need to replace David. We can point at replacements and say Phil can do it but in reality we have lost the player who decided what pace we played at. There's a reason he was a mainstay in one of the most technical and efficient club and international teams we've seen for decades and its because his technical and mental abilities made it easy to dictate how we played. We're slow, cumbersome and easy to predict.

We really need to dig deep this season and hope we can manage some sort of form until summer hits and then cull half this team - I won't even go down the road of naming because I'm fuming at yet another profligate and shite game but its there for all to see.

On a brighter note, our centre back pairing looks much better this season (ignoring some of Ake's play tonight but on the whole).
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Pretty much my view. I think the squad is too big. We need a tighter bond and risk injuries and priorities should be league and European games.
 
oddfellows said:
And its not going to change for the rest of the season, we will play teams pretty much every week with 11 behind the ball and they will say cmon City score.

The question is, will we ?
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Sadly doubt it pal, before a ball was even kicked this season I thought top 4 would be a struggle, but over a quarter of the season has gone and we haven't beat a side in the top ten! Worst squad we've had in a decade, but to be fair what a decade it's been!!!
 
Billy:
I'm scared Poncho.

Poncho:
Bullshit. You ain't afraid of no man.

Billy:
There's something out there waiting for us, and it ain't no man. We're all gonna die.
 
franksinatra said:
There were two passages of play which illustrated perfectly our problems.

Sterling fed the ball inside the fullback to Mendy, yet instead of crossing he pulled it back to De Bruyne, on the edge of the box, who then tried to recycle it (got intercepted) to the other flank, to a player in a worse position to cross the ball than Mendy was in initially.

We play with such a lack of intensity and desire to hurt sides, with the constant recycling of the ball from side to side its almost robotic now. There is so little fantasy in the side or Individuality of play to try something different.

The one time we had the overload KDB swept the ball out to Foden, who, by virtue of being on the wrong side, then had to cut inside resulting in the shot being blocked and the chance having gone.

In our pomp (2017/18) Silva and KDB would find the pockets of space, created by the wingers playing on the touchlines and so making the pitch big, play the pass inside the fullbacks and the winger then cross to Aguero or the opposite winger for a tap in.

Now the wingers Mahrez/Sterling by playing opposite flanks want the ball to their feet to cut inside as they do not feel comfortable running behind only to receive the ball on their weaker foot which they would have to cross with.

Consequently they do not run behind the fullbacks, the midfielders rarely have a forward pass and the opposition, retreats to the 18 yard box, where finally the wingers will receive the ball, but have the whole defence in front of them. Result the issue is perpetuated and the ball starts to get recycled infield once again.
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This. We need width and to this day can’t see why Pep fucked it off. I don’t remember it going stale.
 
Blue tiger said:
I get what you are saying, but it's the managers fault that other managers know that if they pack out their defence there is a good chance they'll get something. The slow sideways football is the managers fault. Playing Rodri and Gundogan together is the managers fault. After the '18 & '19 season I never thought I would ever question him, but for the money spent on this team, this is not good enough. After such a negative performance on Saturday to earn a hard earned point at Old Trafford, to then knock out that shit show tonight its only natural that people question the manager.
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If we get in behind we score. How many times did we actually get wide and in behind them ? We used to do it for fun. It's a simple game and the play is way too narrow right now. He surely knows it. But hes stubborn and doesn't see the need to change it . Until that happens it's even more draws .
 
Bernardo is the closest thing we have to Dave,not the same but the closest and he hardly gets a game. Should be playing every week to get form back.

Wtf anyone saw in Rodri, be good in walking football.

Just imagine not winning this season's league, that's what is happening and its absolutely disgraceful considering the money spent on dross.
 
Scouse Blue said:
What an odd season. After 12 games, won exactly the same number of games as Palace and Newcastle, yet still not out of the title race!
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The title race is out of the question, none of our performances have suggested title race, besides Burnley maybe... we are way off the pace and boring to watch.
 
2 things:

couple times their defenders were quicker than our forwards. They either wanted it more or their defenders are simply quicker either way its a joke.

Another thing is this cut back, we make a run we have a chance to cross without the closest players attempting to block but no we do not cross, we cut back, pass it back to Rodri, KDB, Gundo centrally about 25 m from goal and start the passing again only to have it played wide someone making a run, check if they can cross without being blocked instantly only to cut back again. rinse and repeat.

We have no confidence in crossing the ball so we just recycle it. then Sterling or KDB gives away maybe Rodri makes a total bad shot.

We have no chance to make headers from crosses, but some strong crosses that can deflect anywhere we should try more often. The stronger the shot is the harder to clear it, it can bounce anywhere and that has a better chance to end up front of Jesus or Gundo or Sterling than if we would would want to accurately play the ball to them.
 
Blu1 said:
I agree but nobody is moving for him plus for some reason he’s playing too high up the pitch. Kev is best whipping balls in or flying through the middle. This season he’s almost playing centre forward. It’s crazy.
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Good point, he is way too high. We often have a static line of 4 players across their defensive line. Zero movement. Easy to mark.
 
Blu1 said:
God I miss feeling happy & buzzing after city games.
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Its getting to the point where you have to be wasted to get through the game. This is a problem for me as these games start at 9am in NZ!

Since moving over here 5 years ago I have got up in the middle of the night to watch every game. On Sunday I will get up and watch the highlights as I have no confidence in being entertained.
 
Not working and it hasn't done all season. We became alarmingly like a one man team last season and now he's not performing we're toothless.

The whole team is gripped by fear. No confidence at all. Bernardo has got a bit of grief lately, but he's a symptom. There is no belief in them. Any of them
 
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