[Luke_East_Baggie]

On the way back. We were fairly poor throughout.

Ollsons constant long balls are driving me crazy. Rondon has 0 service in general, yes he should of got 1 tonight, but alas in general he has to pull it out of the air 30 yards away from goal, and do something amazing with it, when the nearest players are 25 yards away... Lambert very poor, mainly his first touch, and was absolutely shattered at the end.

Mcmanaman very bright when he came on again. Some very good penalties from us tho.

---

Oh and yacob was good in the middle, was even running down the line near the end of extra time, like a slow jerome Thomas!

[betterthanbaird]

I don't understand the argument that this game proves we need more players in.  That was a near full-strength team (and bench) full of players with years of Premier League  and international experience.

I take your point but people use the argument cos this talented and experienced team couldn't score in two hours. 

[Squirrel Regis]

Just got home. Even I can't say that was acceptable.
1st half was just long ball garbage. 2nd half a lot better and we could have scored 2 or 3 but...
Why wasn't poco on the bench ? Chester looked like a fish out of water at LB !
Glad we won and fair play to Vale but come on that is not good enough.

Got to be up for work in 5 1/2 hours 

[Dingle-Dingle]

Up in 5 1/2 hours........ I wish. Glad i`m retired cause that tonight was GARBAGE. DD

[WBA Will]

I ended up going to the game and I really wish I hadn't. First my view of the players. The only real bright spark was Gnabry, who I thought looked really good. Scared them whenever he picked up the ball and ran at them and surprised me a little by tracking back. Lambert was awful aside from a couple of long shots so hopefully he's just a bit rusty. The back four didn't play well; their passing out from the back was woeful and they mostly resorted to aimless long balls. Rondon I thought was unlucky, hit the bar on a couple of occasions and things generally weren't falling for him.

Now, across all the sites we've all posted on over the years, I've never been one to call for the sacking of a manager. Until now. I want Tony Pulis out of this football club. I'm well aware I'm going to get stick for this but I can't take it any more. The standard of football has been atrocious ever since he took over and it's getting worse and worse, just endless long balls and it does my head in. I know they say "football is a results business" but it's surely supposed to be entertainment as well and we're not even getting the results these days! It's entirely possible he'll start to get the odd 1-0, as he does, but I will never be able to enjoy watching a team managed by a guy who gets a hard on at the idea of a centre half playing full back and lumping the ball up to a big striker, repeat ad nauseam. We're about to lose our best player of last year because Pulis insists on playing him at left back, for pity's sake! It's infuriating, dull, soulless and entirely devoid of excitement. I'm genuinely embarrassed by the team I've supported since I was a kid. And to make things worse, he's so staggeringly arrogant that to appease him we've had to destroy the entire structure of the club, the structure that has been the foundation of our success over the last decade so we'll be in a much sorrier state when he leaves than when he arrived. It's maddening.

[aries22]

Hardly fair and not true that TP has destroyed the entire structure of the club. Terry Burton has gone, thank God, as most of his transfers in were useless, and Mervyn Day has gone as well. The two scouts who left have also carried the can for last summer's transfer activity for evidently making poor recommendations.
As for the team, the players have got to start taking chances. Morrison's spot-kick against Chelsea was a piss-poor penalty, and Rondon has to start putting his chances away, and when he does, things must get better, but I still think he seems expensive. All in all, 19 shots last night and only 4 on target isn't good enough when none of them went in.
We have to give TP the full transfer window, the only one he's had since joining Albion, and then we have to watch and take stock in mid-season, see where we are in the table and what the performances are like.

[aries22]

And I'm well aware that the chance I advocate we give to TP is far more than any chance I was prepared to give Alan Irvine. That's because Irvine came with an underwhelming CV of Championship and League One football, including a relegation with Sheffield Wednesday; plus we gave him enough time before it became clear we were heading for relegation under him, whereas TP kept us up, and our first three league games this season have included Man City and Chelsea - games which won't define our PL status come next May.

[BaggyBomber]

I ended up going to the game and I really wish I hadn't. First my view of the players. The only real bright spark was Gnabry, who I thought looked really good. Scared them whenever he picked up the ball and ran at them and surprised me a little by tracking back. Lambert was awful aside from a couple of long shots so hopefully he's just a bit rusty. The back four didn't play well; their passing out from the back was woeful and they mostly resorted to aimless long balls. Rondon I thought was unlucky, hit the bar on a couple of occasions and things generally weren't falling for him.

Now, across all the sites we've all posted on over the years, I've never been one to call for the sacking of a manager. Until now. I want Tony Pulis out of this football club. I'm well aware I'm going to get stick for this but I can't take it any more. The standard of football has been atrocious ever since he took over and it's getting worse and worse, just endless long balls and it does my head in. I know they say "football is a results business" but it's surely supposed to be entertainment as well and we're not even getting the results these days! It's entirely possible he'll start to get the odd 1-0, as he does, but I will never be able to enjoy watching a team managed by a guy who gets a hard on at the idea of a centre half playing full back and lumping the ball up to a big striker, repeat ad nauseam. We're about to lose our best player of last year because Pulis insists on playing him at left back, for pity's sake! It's infuriating, dull, soulless and entirely devoid of excitement. I'm genuinely embarrassed by the team I've supported since I was a kid. And to make things worse, he's so staggeringly arrogant that to appease him we've had to destroy the entire structure of the club, the structure that has been the foundation of our success over the last decade so we'll be in a much sorrier state when he leaves than when he arrived. It's maddening.

Did you go Sunday?  Entirely different.  I agree with Aries' comments.

As a matter of interest, your replacement would be......?

[devwakey]

Went to the game last night, first time in nearly 2 years.

I was literally like a kid at Christmas yesterday, persuaded my dad to come with me, both buzzing and excited.

The game was flat and lacked creativity.

Gnabry head and shoulders above everyone, only player that showed pace and a desire to attack with purpose.

I must say, it became blindly obvious that once brunt went off, our defensive look clueless for distributing the ball. It's probably an unnoticed thing however everything form the back does generally go through Brunt so hopefully he isn't out for long!

The thing that stood out for me was that the only players looking like doing something were McManaman and Gnabry. And this is down to their pace. I think our team is too slow all over the pitch and this results in the type of football where it is in to feet, lay off, back to someone else etc etc...

There is a lack of driving forward, dribbling, bursts of speed.

I think we are crying out for Gamboa to get a game and last night was the perfect chance!

Sessengon would have made a good impact in that game as well, again because he is direct and pacey.

I was optimistic after the Chelsea performance, feel a bit delfated now and to be honest once the final penalty went in it was more of a relief the game was over and we could head back up the M1 to Leeds rather than an ecstatic feeling that we had win a tight game.

Hope Pulis puts a rocket up them today!

[WBA Will]

Hardly fair and not true that TP has destroyed the entire structure of the club. Terry Burton has gone, thank God, as most of his transfers in were useless, and Mervyn Day has gone as well. The two scouts who left have also carried the can for last summer's transfer activity for evidently making poor recommendations.
As for the team, the players have got to start taking chances. Morrison's spot-kick against Chelsea was a piss-poor penalty, and Rondon has to start putting his chances away, and when he does, things must get better, but I still think he seems expensive. All in all, 19 shots last night and only 4 on target isn't good enough when none of them went in.
We have to give TP the full transfer window, the only one he's had since joining Albion, and then we have to watch and take stock in mid-season, see where we are in the table and what the performances are like.

Sacking the head of recruitment and director of football during the summer transfer window with no intention of replacing them was purely done to give more power to TP, which is what he wanted the  whole time. If JP had intended to keep the structure, he could have brought in new people but it doesn't seem like he's tried. I admit that I didn't like Pulis before we gave him the job which has maybe meant I've got less patience with him than I've had with previous managers but I don't think anything will change dramatically. 


BaggyBomber, I did go to the game against Chelsea. I don't think it was that different. Endless aimless long balls fired up from Olsson which Chelsea dealt with easily for the most part. We only put them under any sort of pressure after they'd got a man sent off. We also looked incredibly vulnerable defensively so what was the point of our lack of attacking ambition?