[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Well, we're not quite as stuffed as the Christmas turkey yet, but Saturday's VAR-assisted slaughter at the Hawthorns pretty much tore out our giblets, fed them to the dog and then turned the oven up to gas mark 4. Now the hunt for points takes us on the road for a week, with back-to-back fixtures at Newcastle and Manchester City.

For a few days it looked like a Covid outbreak might spare us the St James's Park trip, but at the time of writing the match is set to go ahead. Having had their last fixture postponed, Newcastle are well rested, and also well placed for another comfortable season in mid-table, chalking up fairly regular wins in recent months. Our last visit there, en route to relegation in 2018, ended in a 1-0 win that kept us alive for a little longer, and there's no question that we'll need more of that magic this time round.

And Man City? Well, we all know how that one goes. Our record against them, home and away, is currently an unbroken chain of 14 defeats on the trot. In all competitions, it's a winless streak of 17. At the Etihad we haven't picked up a single point since August 2005, and have never won. Our last triumph over City in Manchester came when Neil Clement and Big Dave handed us a 2-1 victory at Maine Road on 1st February 2003. If you tot up the scores in this fixture over the last decade, it stands at Albion 9-42 Man City. And to make matters worse, after an iffy start, they've just started to pick up steam and climb the table.

Time for a Christmas miracle? Give us four or five of them and we might be in business.

[Onetruebaggie]

You look at those fixtures and think nil-pois! The Vile coming soon too, like you say, were a stuffed as the Christmas turkey.
I dont know about anybody else, but i've become quite blase about this season and quietly look forward to going back to our level again!
Hey ho, Merry Christmas all, eat drink and be Merry, don't let them get you down!!

COYB

[Stairs]

If you believe the press then this could be SB’s last match as manager for Albion unless we get a victory.

I know they are all on the gravy train and so sympathy is normally unwarranted, but I like the man and so I do feel for him. Fancy everyone at work being told, and notice boards having articles to the fact in them, that if you don’t do your job well this week you are for the boot!

SB is between a rock and a hard place.

We were hardly killing them at the end of last season in the Championship, we were JUST better than the rest. He was not really supported by the club after getting promotion and has had no real money to spend and so just secured the few loan players we had.

Yet he is being ripped to pieces for failing to perform on the Premier League stage.

Our club is and mostly always has been a tight arsed shambles and we seem happy to be ‘average’ rather than strive for higher things.

If the owners and management are, as they seem, content to fall back into the Championship then why not keep the manager who has proven himself in that league rather than go through the cost of change - unless they have already found a cheaper option.

It will always be about cheaper it seems rather than better option.

[wba13]

If you believe the press then this could be SB’s last match as manager for Albion unless we get a victory.

I know they are all on the gravy train and so sympathy is normally unwarranted, but I like the man and so I do feel for him. Fancy everyone at work being told, and notice boards having articles to the fact in them, that if you don’t do your job well this week you are for the boot!

SB is between a rock and a hard place.

We were hardly killing them at the end of last season in the Championship, we were JUST better than the rest. He was not really supported by the club after getting promotion and has had no real money to spend and so just secured the few loan players we had.

Yet he is being ripped to pieces for failing to perform on the Premier League stage.

Our club is and mostly always has been a tight arsed shambles and we seem happy to be ‘average’ rather than strive for higher things.

If the owners and management are, as they seem, content to fall back into the Championship then why not keep the manager who has proven himself in that league rather than go through the cost of change - unless they have already found a cheaper option.

It will always be about cheaper it seems rather than better option.

 You must remember that all the loan players were who Bilic wanted to resign and that Ivanavic and Grant were his choices. On the Diangana point it was presumed he would not be for sale, so when the opportunity arose we took it.  So to say Bilic has not been backed is wrong. We know he wanted more but you can only back the manager with so much money. Don’t get me wrong I would like him to stay but the results say he should go and a loss against a depleted Newcastle will probably be the final straw. I just hope we have someone lined up and we don’t let it drag on until the new year.

[BaggieSteve]

Personally, I would not like to see Slaven sacked. Accepting results have been poor and selections at times have been baffling, I’m not sure what anyone else will do with a squad of players that are clearly not premiership quality. I know he signed many of them but we were all made up when we got Pereira and Diangana permanently and, I think, most of us were pretty pleased when Grant signed. They’ve been massively disappointing and, of course, fingers will be pointed at the manager, and that’s fair enough. I just can’t think of anyone who could come in and transform this set of players, except Klopp, Guardiola or our old friend Woy. I’d stick with him, recognise our chances of staying up from the outset were small but demand from the players that we give it a go. If they do that I think most fans will forgive them and the manager if we go down. Norwich did this last year and they also stuck with Daniel Farke; it seems to be working for them this season

[Salopbaggie]

I can think of a few reasons to keep SB, but not any to get rid of him short of Sir Alex deciding to come back into football. Who are you going to replace him with? We have been here so many times over recent and I can not think of once when it turned out well. These are not normal times, lets not forget we were promoted a year before plan, our squad is being created for a certain style of play and I am only really seeing the press repeating some of the fans comments. Though I did think the statement from SB thanking the fans for their ongoing support a little strange. I don't want to see SB going anywhere.......... just yet.

[Stairs]

I know he was backed to get the loan players signed. But that just retained the Championship side. It did not build upon it.

Grant fair enough was an addition and he so far has not shined. Ivanovic was just a desperate late play. He has so far been better value for money than Grant

[Blue Baggie]

I think we all like Bilic, but he has got players in he wanted and he must have believed they were good enough for the PL. Yes he added Grant and Ivanovic but IMO we still have no midfield general. Let's not forget his failures some who cost good money. Zohore, Austin, Kipre, Peltier, Grosicki, etc - our points record is what it is, but A Irvine got more and he is rated as our worst manager, so where does that leave Bilic? I've always believed we would struggle and accepted relegation before we played our first game. All I have asked is we put up good performances. None of this white flag raising that we are seeing far to much of. The Newcastle game is irrelevant, for me it's the performance of the guys. Another we give up like last week and Bilic simply has to go. Those that want him to stay fair enough, but we all have to accept change is needed and Bilic is NOT going to be getting another £50 million to spend on players. We need a manager who can organise and motivate players, sadly Bilic has shown it is beyond him. Good luck to him in the future though.

---

Black and White Stripes 3
Blue and White Stripes 0

[Slick_Footwork]

I think it's a must win, given Newcastle are missing several key players which includes their captain and star man in St Maximin.

Looks like their defence is makeshift with Hayden having to play centre half.

Needs to be a minimum of 3 points and a few goals IMO. 8 goals in 11 is not good enough, it's time to put it right against a side playing a midfielder at centre half.

I do expect we will see an improvement without the passenger Pereira though, who for all his talent offers zero defensive contribution. We looked better when he was out against Spurs, so hopefully we can have another good performance with all of the lads pulling together. Fingers crossed, because we need the 3 points. And while I feel we are on a hiding to nothing with this manager, I think the points are absolutely essential today. It's the day we find out if the lads actually have it in them to obtain some points on the road and see if they are interested in actually playing for the manager.

[Baggie_One]

24 seconds