[wba_1996]

Whilst everyone is boo-hooing about how THEY feel having not watched their beloved Albion win for a few weeks, has anyone spared a thought for our players bustin-a-gut for absolutely no return? How do we think the players feel today after finally getting something for their efforts away from home and keeping a clean sheet?

Just a thought.

Come off it, I'd play professional football for a living for £500 a week, these players are earning £20-40k a week. It's their job to put a shift in, they are paid to do it, if they didn't they should be sacked just like a normal employee would. At the moment though they aren't doing their job to a satisfactory standard so don't deserve the praise you believe they do, mind you it is highly likely that the reason they are performing below par is because their boss is a secondary school P.E teacher.

Tidy, do you actually want AI to remain as our manager? Fair play if you are truly that loyal, because 92% of the rest of us aren't.

[Foxman_WBA]

As for the clean sheet. I recon i could have been in that defense and kept a clean sheet. They had one shot on target all game that was straight at the keeper. They were so bad up front that i think if we'd have played without a defense we'd have kept a clean sheet!

[tidy]

I, personally, don't think we are that far off being OK. I don't think the fixtures have been too kind to AI either. Newcastle, Chelsea, Arsenal and then West Ham, all of them in the top 6.
No single team in the prem would realistically expect to get much out of them fixtures.

Alan Irvine was always on a hiding to nothing, no supporters wanted him and clearly, still don't. Trouble is, this has been going on now for at least the last 2 years. Last year was the 'get rid of the Manager' campaign at the end of the SC reign, then we had months of the 'get rid of the players' campaign with St Pepe Mel, who could do no wrong, now we are back on another 'get rid of the manager' campaign. There seems to be no end!!

JP may well be looking to replace AI, who knows, (the result v's Villa may be the straw) but as I have said on here before, I'm not joining the lynch mob.

[Mosestheballwinner]

Tidy, I think we're a mile off being ok mate. Too many triangles being played with our backs to their goal. One pass forward, two sideways or back. Huge space between our strikers and midfield and everything played at pedestrian pace. We're awful to watch.

I'm hoping Santa brings me Nigel Pearson and Shakey in the next couple of weeks.

[Foxman_WBA]

I do have to be honest when you look at the fixtures previously we were dealt the short straw and we were always going to struggle and so I haven’t been too hard on the team until now. Failing to beat a (IMO) very poor hull side is unacceptable. I very honestly doubt we will play an easier game this season, but I do agree that it wouldn't have taken much for us to have won that 3/4-0. Anyone who watched that game would agree that defensively they were weak. All Anichebe had to do was stand there with the ball and get brought down, we barely had a shot from inside the area. If you don’t attack you will never win a game and if you’re not brave enough to attack such a weak hull side then you’ll be too scared to attack anyone! Which will mean at best we will draw or lose, which will result in relegation.

[Luke_East_Baggie]

I sort of side with Tidy to some extent - I too don't think we are "too far off" being okay.

If were not too far off "okay" then it means were poor - which is true. I also think that AI needs to play one or 2 different personell, and just get people to move and pass forward, and get up in support. I don't think that is yoo much to ask, and I think then, that would make us "Okay".

The problem lies when it's been apparent for weeks and weeks that the same issues are happening - we have no creativity, there is no-one playing through balls or incisive passing in a forward motion and/or people getting forward - which in turn means whoever is up top is starved of service until the last 5 minutes of the game.

By this time we usually have 3 or 4 strikers on the pitch..... I can't see how the players can (or that can) work. He openly admits to having a game plan - and he sets us up with 1 striker on the pitch 9 times out of 10. He OBVIOUSLY thinks this is best formation (which is fine) - and he starts with it all the time. How on earth we finish the game in whatever formation we end up is a little embarassing and desperate..

[silverbaggie]

I know that we kept a clean sheet and, from the sound of it Hull didn't offer much up front but, how did GMac and Lescott gel together.
Or was it too easy a ride to tell.

Will Dawson now throw his toys out of the pram again now that he's been rested/dropped.??

[DanTheSmethwickMan]

Being 'Okay' isn't really good enough in this division when there are teams around us who are actually looking to win games. We need to better those teams, performance and points wise. At the moment we are abysmal and boring to watch, its embarrassing. At least the teams around us are actually fighting and giving it a go, going forward, we look like we are playing for a draw every single game.

[tidy]

Being 'Okay' isn't really good enough in this division when there are teams around us who are actually looking to win games. We need to better those teams, performance and points wise. At the moment we are abysmal and boring to watch, its embarrassing. At least the teams around us are actually fighting and giving it a go, going forward, we look like we are playing for a draw every single game.

Apart from Hull, of course, who, as has been pointed out to me, are extremely piss poor and I should also mention the West Ham team that parked their team bus at the Hawthorns and 'let' us have 20 odd shots at goal.
There are small margins in football. I would be feeling a lot better if Berahino had not been called offside when clean through and clearly NOT offside or if he had not hit the woodwork near the end. I would also feel better had Dorrans not missed a pen and McGregor not pulled of a worldy and stopped Gardners stinger.
AI is not faultless, a bit too defensive imo, but if one or two things had gone our way recently then we wouldn't be having this conversation.

However, I do admit that if we lose to Villa then he's in REAL big trouble.

Did some one mention Pearson?....seriously?

[Baggievicar]

The other twist with regard to AI is that both Lescott and Foster have been quoted in the press as saying the players want him to stay. They're important players, and JP will have to bear it in mind. We (mostly) may think they're misguided, but you don't want a pissed-off dressing room for the 2nd half of the season if you can avoid it.