[Worldclassalbion]

I have to admit I was disappointed VARELA was nowhere to be seen again. Yes great clean sheet but Berahino was covering the left back area?

TP is going for stability at the minute, to get them defending as a unit, which sadly sees POCO replaced by Baird, sacrificing power, speed and getting forward for a solid defence. I can see the method in what we think is madness.

Brunt for Varela for me again I can see it BUT I really don't like it. There was no killer pass from Brunty which to be honest is all he has left in him. Once again on the rare occasion we got forward he played a ball in between the front two which was cut out by an Everton defender......What does Brunt do.......Yes you've guessed it throws his arms up in the air blaming the forwards for a shit pass from himself

I honestly wasn't impressed with us as an attacking unit because we had NIL shots on target, last time that happened was 3 years ago and also at Goodison.

However I am pleased with a point, but I honestly believe if the right starting 11 were picked from the off we could have beaten them as they are nothing special.

Once he has the squad doing what he wants, we will be hard to break down and will have great counter attacking play. Keep the faith, give him time and I am sure we will stay up.

My only worry is why is he after 2 wingers, what exactly is going on with VARELA because he's been a great player when given the chance, maybe TP wants lightning fast wingers. He could utilise GAMBOA on the right wing and see how that goes because that boy is like shit off a shovel.

COYB

[Squirrel Regis]

TheBaggieMan,
Can you tell me the last time we did see exciting attacking football ? I can't remember any ?
Mind you I did see 11 Baggies players putting in a 100% shift last night and battling for every ball to get a massive point in a game we would have lost normally......
As I say give Pullis 3-4 new signings then judge the team.
Result wise you have to admit that is a great away point gained ?
Purists may not be happy but we are going to have to do what ever needs doing in the short term to stay in the prem. We go down and the last 10 years goes down the pan.
Plenty of teams in the championship who have gone down that route and I don't want us to be one more.

[tidy]

Football is strange, isn't it?

If that had been Alan Irvine who had sent a team to park the bus, not have a single shot on target and only have 30% possession, he would have been slaughtered. Just like he was when he eeked out a point away at Hull, the worst team in the Prem who we narrowly beat at home recently.

However, for me, the difference was playing Yacob...

[Squirrel Regis]

Tidy,
Everton are playing badly but they are so much better than Hull.
Irvine would have lost that game last night.
The difference is TP will not be that negative at home, Irvine had one way of setting his team up home & away.
We must win home games and grind out points away.
Clean sheets = points
The garden isn't rosey yet by any means but the rot has been stopped. It's time to build on what we have and with a few new faces we can start causing teams problems.
Rome wasn't built in a day.

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Agree with you on Yacob though, Mulumbu might be better option than Gardner with an on form Yacob.
I like Varela but maybe he is one for home games when we take the game to the opposition ?

[Slick_Footwork]

Football is strange, isn't it?

If that had been Alan Irvine who had sent a team to park the bus, not have a single shot on target and only have 30% possession, he would have been slaughtered. Just like he was when he eeked out a point away at Hull, the worst team in the Prem who we narrowly beat at home recently.

However, for me, the difference was playing Yacob...

I think the difference for me is Irvine's lack of tactical quality in comparison to Pulis.

Irvine often did set the side out to defend first, yet Yacob and Mulumbu were nowhere to be seen.

The decision to put Yacob in has instantly improved us from a defensive point of view. Going forward, I think we'll be a work in progress because we don't have the quality to take all of our chances on the break yet.

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Tidy,
Everton are playing badly but they are so much better than Hull.
Irvine would have lost that game last night.
The difference is TP will not be that negative at home, Irvine had one way of setting his team up home & away.
We must win home games and grind out points away.
Clean sheets = points
The garden isn't rosey yet by any means but the rot has been stopped. It's time to build on what we have and with a few new faces we can start causing teams problems.

Of course, we can only speculate on how the result would've gone with Irvine but I share the opinion that we would've got beat.

Everton absolutely wiped the floor with us at home, they bossed the ball, created loads of chances. We didn't create anything that day and just played hoofball.

IMO, for TP to set us up to go there and not even concede a chance, with the same players, is an obvious step in the right direction.

He will know we need to be better on the break and I think his 'idea' to play Saido on the wing (where he was excellent at times last season) was to try and move us forward quicker and add an extra goal threat. It didn't work from an attacking point of view, but going forward will be a work in the progress, the improvements defensively are there for all to see.

[drewks]

Yeh, I must agree with all you're saying Squirrel. Draws away, and wins plus the odd draw at home and we'll be laughing.
Also as we've already said this is TP tinkering with someone else's team - 2 or 3 changes, and 2 or 3 weeks into his methods and hopefully we'll be much more solid and also more dangerous in possession

[tidy]

I'm not disagreeing with the sentiments, guys. There seemed to be more application and determination last night from a defensive point of view and I can only assume that is down to Pulis.

I was, ever-so-slightly, tongue-in-cheek pointing out that if Irvine had tried to pull the same stunt, he would have been murdered. Also, had Everton scored the pen then the mood on here would have been completely different. Pulis got away with it last night by the skin of his teeth.

Point to note re Hull. They themselves had just visited Everton just before we played them and come away with a point. Defensively they are no mugs as their GD shows. Having said that, they were shocking on Sat.

[Squirrel Regis]

Yeah fair points tidy,
Hull defended well against us but I really feel we are a better team. Could be argued Everton held Man City at home and their home record is still very very good.
As for the penalty....how was that a deliberate handball ? Yes it's one of those that you can see a ref giving but the ball bounced up and hit his hand so for me it wasn't deliberate and its a shame so much discussion on sky on who should have taken it not on the bloody decision itself !
Still let's keep clocking up the points cos I really think there could be a shock at the end of the season with Villa in the mix !!!!
Now that would be something eh !
Think we may see a new face before the week is out. Would love Aaron Lennon but maybe the Wigan lad may be more likely. Another forward please too.
Am imagining us solid at the back and hitting teams fast on the break like under Roy.
C O Y B

[JH Baggie]

We were fortunate against Hull. They lost both Jelavic and Hernandez, early on. Would of been a much tougher test had those two lasted longer.

[aries22]

Football is strange, isn't it? If that had been Alan Irvine who had sent a team to park the bus, not have a single shot on target and only have 30% possession, he would have been slaughtered. Just like he was when he eeked out a point away at Hull, the worst team in the Prem who we narrowly beat at home recently. However, for me, the difference was playing Yacob...

We should have beaten Hull away - we missed a penalty to do so - and under Alan Irvine we would have lost at Everton last night, guaranteed. At least we seem able to defend now.

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We were fortunate against Hull. They lost both Jelavic and Hernandez, early on. Would of been a much tougher test had those two lasted longer.

I think we were due some luck - look at Stoke's two goals at the Britannia recently - both jammy deflections.

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If anyone can justify Brunt starting please share your wisdom with me!  We can’t afford to carry passengers any more! Up the Baggies!

If we manage to sign Callum McManaman from Wigan, I think Brunt's place in the team will be in serious trouble.