WBA vs Wigan & Derby

Beefy 1965 · 25-10-2018, 19:43

You're right he actually moved Laugh

4evaabaggie · (This post was last modified: 25-10-2018, 21:37 by 4evaabaggie.)

(25-10-2018, 19:43)Beefy 1965 Wrote: You're right he actually moved

I thought clubs had statues of players commissioned after retirement not whilst still in their playing careers and definitely not during a game ...... but we seem to have erected several thorough our midfield last night.

Slick_Footwork · (This post was last modified: 26-10-2018, 00:59 by Slick_Footwork.)

I've calmed down since last night. Now, on reflection, 4-1 did flatter them.

But that said, we were very poor.

We started the better team but when we gifted them the goal, they got confident and dominated the midfield with the extra man. They pressed us high a bit like Bristol City did earlier in the season, but on that day Livermore and Barry were able to play through the press, Brunt and Field were not able to.

Field was particularly frustrating as he seemed to be far too slow going forward. All too often he would miss a simple forward pass and play it safe. I realise he's a bit of a fan favourite because he's a local lad, but in all the games he's played, he only seems to be useful at plugging gaps when we're playing all out defensive football (a la Pulis in the Premier League). I simply don't see any more in him than that.

I've had my say about 3 at the back since first game of the season. I don't think we have the personnel for it. We don't have ball playing or carrying centre backs. This formation also means that our attacking wingers, Burke and Sako, are defunct, while Phillips spends far too much time operating at full back.

We have the personnel to play 4-4-2, Mears would be fine at right back, while Gibbs and Townsend are both traditional left backs. Instead, with this 3 at the back we have square pegs in round holes all over the place with Phillips at wing back, Mears at left wing back (spent his whole career as traditional right back and now 34).

We're over complicating things and asking too many players to do jobs they aren't capable of doing and haven't ever done before in their careers. We have a very decent set of players at this level and really do need to get back to basics.