WBA vs QPR & Sheff Utd - Match Thread

Kennyg · 24-02-2019, 10:00

Was there yesterday. Sheffield United played typical "Pulis" tactics. Score a break away goal, then defend with 11 men and 3 buses behind the ball, time waste as much as possible from the 15th minute onwards, (how their keeper was not booked is beyond me!), feign injury to slow the game down (Johnstone never touched their forward yet he went down like he had been shot! Two match ban for deceiving the referee? I thought not!) etc.
West Brom didn't have the guile to overcome these tactics. We passed the ball out too slowly, Gayle was out on the wing again, our midfield was pedestrian, players weren't tracking back. All in all a poor performance.
Also thought the referee and linesmen were appalling. Did they arrive on the United coach?
We need to improve for Friday night's game! At least results are better away from home!
Come on you Baggies!

Blue Baggie · 24-02-2019, 13:05

(24-02-2019, 10:00)Kennyg Wrote: Was there yesterday. Sheffield United played typical "Pulis" tactics. Score a break away goal, then defend with 11 men and 3 buses behind the ball, time waste as much as possible from the 15th minute onwards, (how their keeper was not booked is beyond me!), feign injury to slow the game down (Johnstone never touched their forward yet he went down like he had been shot! Two match ban for deceiving the referee? I thought not!) etc.
West Brom didn't have the guile to overcome these tactics. We passed the ball out too slowly, Gayle was out on the wing again, our midfield was pedestrian, players weren't tracking back. All in all a poor performance.
Also thought the referee and linesmen were appalling. Did they arrive on the United coach?
We need to improve for Friday night's game! At least results are better away from home!
Come on you Baggies!

West Brom didn't have the guile to overcome these tactics?
Why would anything change on Friday? we will play the same players in the same positions with the same tactics all the time.

Beefy 1965 · 24-02-2019, 13:40

It works different away from home though ...
Teams come on to us more and leaves us more and leaves us more space to exploit on the counter. ..
This is however what bugs me with Big Dave,
Why in earth doesn't he change it at home we clearly need two up top at home,
Playing Gayle wide is criminal it's like Kane taking corners for England ...
We have no pace in the middle of the park, I may be shot down here but I think Hoolahan has been way underused especially with our fixture list he has more about hin than Livermore,Brunt and the likes Harper won't do it every week at his age .
I just don't get his tattics at home at all 2 wins in 13 wow ...
Automatic is now all about 3 points on Friday, even a draw I think will condem us to the playoffs where pulis will beat us by the odd goal Angry

4evaabaggie · 24-02-2019, 13:48

My hope and optimism after our last gasp win over the hoops has evaporated like a summers morning mist, hope really is a fragile thing, I now feel that automatic promotion is out of our reach ..... away from ... walk to the title, home from .. mid table.

A 4 3 3 is not working at home we lose the battle in midfield, we do not have the pace to cover the gaps / overlaps, we cannot play out from the back and it feels as though we have started playing over fifties walking football .... some of our squad aren't far off being eligible.

Tactics at home have stopped us walking this league ..... we have not been good in a lot of games .... we're still fourth ..... . How bad is this league, how s£@t are the vile, big Dave needs to reassess his game plans, listen to his, or get new, advisers.

It will either be a 93 (port vale ) type promotion or a 07 (derby ) players playing for their escape transfers type defeat. I fear the latter, being done by Pulis's, the ultimate shame.

Somebody give me a renewed sense of hope, pleaassssse.

Blue Baggie · 24-02-2019, 17:25

(24-02-2019, 13:40)Beefy 1965 Wrote: It works different away from home though ...
Teams come on to us more and leaves us more and leaves us more space to exploit on the counter. ..
This is however what bugs me with Big Dave,
Why in earth doesn't he change it at home we clearly need two up top at home,
Playing Gayle wide is criminal it's like Kane taking corners for England ...
We have no pace in the middle of the park, I may be shot down here but I think Hoolahan has been way underused especially with our fixture list he has more about hin than Livermore,Brunt and the likes Harper won't do it every week at his age .
I just don't get his tattics at home at all 2 wins in 13 wow ...
Automatic is now all about 3 points on Friday, even a draw I think will condem us to the playoffs where pulis will beat us by the odd goal

I agree with everything you have said.
Your point about Hoolahan is interesting, he reminds me of Mozza when he has played and should certainly played more games.
Sadly DM & GJ have adopted a game plan and will not change it. Nobody understands the tactics. We don't even know how to use a sub.
I think the players are now lost in the "do it this way" tactic. The motivation has also dropped considerably IMO.
This season is over - your all aware of my thoughts on DM / GJ - its just a season wasted as we didn't rebuild the squad.
I expect us to lose 6 loans, 6 retires & 6 sold players in the summer (18 in total)
Regardless of who comes in or goes would I trust DM / GJ to get us promoted next year with a weaker squad.
Not a hope in hell. Then the parachute money is gone and so are we.
The blaming Pulis - Pardew - Jenkins - Lai - Pearce has to stop -
Darren has a good squad and I blame him 100% for his management of the current situation.
He has had chance after chance to amend the tactics and systems and FAILED time and time again.
If he was rebuilding the squad I would be fine even with a mid table finish, but without the rebuild we as a club are done for. Now that chance has been and gone IMO. All these people who think he's a legend need to wake up. He's a nice guy, but manager not a clue. The writing was on the wall before Xmas - we as a club have always been guilty of not making managerial decisions soon enough. It's history repeating it'self again.
It's only a matter of time before people say he's had long enough - it gives me no pleasure in saying these things.

baggietrousers · 24-02-2019, 19:22

Oh Phil, you've criticised DM again!!!
Despite the fact you are absolutely spot on with your assessment of his managerial short comings, of which there are quite a few, the DM love in brigade will no doubt jump right to his defence and point out what a great baggie legend he is and how well we are doing this season under his guidance.
Well let's just see where we are at when next season starts.

aries22 · (This post was last modified: 24-02-2019, 19:51 by aries22.)

I can’t find league tables that show the split between home and away - the BBC don’t seem to publish them - can anyone point me to any? So I’ve compiled my own. As has been pointed out, our away results are better than our home results and that has to be down to home teams giving us more space as they attack.

Venue P. W. D. L. F. A. GD. Pts. Per game
Home 17 7 6 4 37 24 13 27 1.59
Away 17 10 3 4 29 19 10 33 1.94
Total 34 17 9 8 66 43 23 60 1.76

Our home goals for of 37 was boosted by the 7-1 win over QPR

If we assume 90 points will secure automatic promotion (Norwich have 66 points after 34 games) then Albion are going to have to get 30 points from 12 games, an average of 2.5 points per game - we are nowhere near that so far. Even if we beat Leeds away, it’s a tall order. Our home results have done for us. In 8 of our 17 home games we’ve conceded first and those 8 games have finished W1 D3 L4. The win was against Reading (4-1) and the losses were against Bolton 1-2, Derby 1-4, Boro 2-3 and Sheff U 0-1. We just seem to give ourselves too much to do.

WBA-Josh · (This post was last modified: 24-02-2019, 20:08 by WBA-Josh.)

I’d like to see us tweak the system at home to 4231. Livermore and Barry in the middle, Phillips on the right, Murphy or Montero on the left, Harper as the 10 and Rodriguez or Gayle as the striker. I think that would give us a better balance where we can defend solidly with two banks of four and then attack with 4 attacking players and the full backs.

Away from home we then have the choice of 433/4141 and 4231 which can tweaked simply by how the opposition’s centre midfield is lined up.

Blue Baggie · 24-02-2019, 20:19

(24-02-2019, 19:22)baggietrousers Wrote: Oh Phil, you've criticised DM again!!!
Despite the fact you are absolutely spot on with your assessment of his managerial short comings, of which there are quite a few, the DM love in brigade will no doubt jump right to his defence and point out what a great baggie legend he is and how well we are doing this season under his guidance.
Well let's just see where we are at when next season starts.

It's difficult to keep Darren out of the spot light - I can't wait for Darren's fan club to tell me he's still learning and I should be supporting him.
Do they realise our home record this year is worse then Pardew's last year? YES guys Just let that sink in.
His excuses are like his tactics - A game to far - lethargic players.
Gayle just had a 2 game ban - Livermore just back after a 4 game ban - Phillips just back after a 5 game injury - Harper has played 15 games this season.
Barry has missed several games through injury, Most of the team missed the 2 FA Cup games. Holgate has played 10 games this season, we just got 3 loanee's who have hardly played - oh and then they are not fit is the next excuse. And the Sheff Goalkeeper who made super saves another excuse - we had 2 shots on target - yes 2 shots.
We were saving our players for this 6 pointer against Sheff Utd - but that's been conveniently forgotten. On paper the side selected it was as strong as it gets. No doubt about that. Alas if you play Gayle as a winger - say no more. The errors are with us as long as Darren is. Don't know why but I still like the guy and have respect for him.

Arcane Astral Aeons · 24-02-2019, 23:12

can`t believe i`m reading this
this season was basically a consolidation term after a woeful premier league campaign
we have a manager who is going to make mistakes
i`m not defending him but i am defending him his first major managers job
yes i have questioned his tactical nous
i`m not DM biggest fan but as a baggies fan
no i`m not happy with the certain formations he plays
the guy is learning and also suffering
we feel let down when we lose.....how do you think he feels?

i`m probably the only one on here that is praying we dont go up this season......Why?
as you phil have been advocating all season give the kids a chance
i would rather give the kids..and yes..they should be given a chance....in the championship
we aint ready for another campaign in the premier league with what we have.

please don`t think i`m having a go at anyone
but promotion would only end up with a 2019/20 season looking worse than Huddersfield