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+----- Thread: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread (/showthread.php?tid=908)
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - Zinman - 03-12-2014
How ironic that in his last 45 minutes as our head coach, Irvine finally decides to attack. Mind you I do think that Brunt's injury was probably more relevant to the change than anything Irvine did or said. Big question for me is how Varela can go from not good enough to get in the squad to a performance like that in just a few days? Who knows, Blanco and Gamboa might soon make a similar dramatic improvement.
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - albionmadandy92 - 03-12-2014
Actually thought we played well second half. We know we can play now, and be exciting, its just getting the formation right. YM looked good when he came on and on another day we would've equalised. Keep the faith folks, we can win saturday if we put our minds to it.
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - DanTheSmethwickMan - 03-12-2014
Says it all when Varela comes on and looks an absolute cut above anyone else, just shows what a muppet Irvine is for not even including him on the bench until now. He did more in 20 mins than any of our midfield has done all season, he actually stepped foot on the touchline, something Dorrans hasn't done all year.
Sorry but this could be a kick up the backside for Irvine and hopefully instead of looking at his watch he was looking at the game and will include varela and ideye in Saturdays line up.
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - Salopbaggie - 03-12-2014
How desperate have we become that we look at last nights game as we played well in parts. We did play well for the first 12 minutes after that I was not impressed at all. The first 12 minutes yes that was not to bad at all, we scored then reverted to form, you can not defend a 1-0 lead for 80 minutes.
Yes there was some exciting moments in the second half mostly supplied by Varela, but lets be honest there were not any tactics, it reminded me of when I was at school and the tactic if you were behind in the second half was simple to put all the strikers on and hope, we even used to let the goalkeeper come forward as well, just like Fossie did last night. I am not sure that was the smartest move when relegation may be down to goal difference, for a corner or free kick maybe, but not as an extra outfield player.
Desperate measures from a desperate coach
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - Worldclassalbion - 03-12-2014
(03-12-2014, 12:03)Salopbaggie Wrote: How desperate have we become that we look at last nights game as we played well in parts. We did play well for the first 12 minutes after that I was not impressed at all. The first 12 minutes yes that was not to bad at all, we scored then reverted to form, you can not defend a 1-0 lead for 80 minutes.
Yes there was some exciting moments in the second half mostly supplied by Varela, but lets be honest there were not any tactics, it reminded me of when I was at school and the tactic if you were behind in the second half was simple to put all the strikers on and hope, we even used to let the goalkeeper come forward as well, just like Fossie did last night. I am not sure that was the smartest move when relegation may be down to goal difference, for a corner or free kick maybe, but not as an extra outfield player.
Desperate measures from a desperate coach
Salop, agree with all that except I would say 'desperate measures form a clueless coach'
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - WBA-Josh - 03-12-2014
Well desperate times did call for desperate measures. Irvine may have thought that if the result stayed the same then he was going to lose his job so to try to save it, he went for very desperate measures by throwing on attacking players and ending up in a 3-2-1-4 formation.
There were some positive signs to take from last night. Irvine finally gave Varela his chance, Varela made a very good impact in his 30 minutes and Irvine showed signs of changing things with moving Berahino to the left side from the start which was a positive change because we finally had pace out wide from the start. It is now up to Irvine to keep these positive changes against Hull. Varela needs to start, Blanco needs to be on the bench, Ideye needs to be used if he is needed etc.
If Peace decides to make a change in the future because things don't get any better then he can't just stop with Irvine and Kelly. There are more underlying problems that need to be addressed. He will have to move Kiely back to just being goalkeeper coach and try to move Downing back to the under 21's. The current set-up with Head Coach and Director of Football is fine but the right guy will have to be brought in as Head Coach. Someone who has proper experience as a Head Coach is a must and he must be allowed to bring his own Assistant(s) with him. If he only brings in 1 Assistant then keeping Downing as one of the coaches could be useful. My choice is still Quique Sánchez Flores with a Spanish Assistant who has experience working in England. When Flores almost took over at Villa 3 years ago he wanted to bring in Paco Ayestarán with him. Ayestarán was Benitez's Assistant at Liverpool. The new Head Coach should also be backed fully. No more 12-18 month contracts with break off clauses after 6 months. Give the Head Coach at least a 2 year contract with full support and backing.
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - talkSAFT - 03-12-2014
Some very sensible comments on the match on here.
I'm coming round after the last few days of depression, and want to put another view on an incident in the game....that of Ben Foster's 93rd minute venture into the WHam penalty area:-
I always think any goalie going up for a corner is ridiculous. I know a 6'3" extra bloke to mark is a handful for defenders but (apart from Glass the Carlisle keeper, who kept them in the League some 20 years ago) I've never seen it doing any good. And more often the defending team break quickly and score. Irvine must have been having kittens, especially as Ben stayed up while the ball was played back out to the right wing. I wondered whether he was going to take the next throw-in!
Alan Wade, the old FA Coaching guru used to say that it's better not to fill the box with attackers because with 20+ players in the 18 yard box the space is restricted, and players just get in each others' way.
Don't do it again, Ben.
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - Ska'dForLife-WBA - 03-12-2014
I seem to remember Paul Robinson (of England/Spurs/Blackburn fame) making a hero of himself at last-gasp corners once or twice. Definitely won Blackburn at least one stoppage-time penalty which led to an equaliser.
It probably is more risk than it's worth, but at the same time, there's a kind of childish excitement at the prospect of your goalkeeper scoring the equaliser that I like. Yes, it's high time I grew up
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - WBA-Josh - 03-12-2014
As a former goalkeeper myself, the sight of a goalkeeper going up the pitch is always quite funny but nice to see especially when it was like Foster last night. Foster staying up the pitch as a right winger showed his true commitment to our cause.
When I used to play as a kid/teenager, I never used to have the chance to go up for the corners in the last minute of matches because my team either won 5-0 or lost 5-0 but in training I always used to run the whole length of the pitch during our training matches just to join in with the attack at the corners. I even managed to score a couple of times. As a goalkeeper who is essentially shackled to his penalty area, it can be quite nice to play striker sometimes.
You should see some of the South American keepers who take the penalties and free kicks for their club. Brazilian Rogerio Ceni is famous for it.
RE: WBA vs West Ham - Match Thread - derbybaggie - 03-12-2014
Is it true that Ben Foster spent more time in the oppositions half against West Ham than any of our forwards did in the first half against Arsenal?
