[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Denied a Boxing Day game for the second year in a row, Bank Holiday Monday sees us venture up to Pride Park for a 3pm kick-off against Derby. With Thursday's scheduled game against Preston now postponed due to a Covid outbreak in the North End camp, this will be our last match of 2021, and most won't be sorry to see the old year go.

The Rams will also be glad to see the back of these twelve months, which have seen them hit by a points deduction that's sent the club to the bottom of the Championship, needing to maintain promotion-level form for the remainder of the season just to escape relegation. Even without the points penalty they'd have been firmly in the dogfight, but that's no guarantee that Albion can simply breeze by Rooney's men, considering our indifferent showing in the fog at Oakwell and a woeful historical record in Derby that's seen us win just one of our last thirty matches up there, back in 2003-04. The Rams star forward Tom Lawrence has recently hit a vein of home form, netting four goals and creating another, so Albion will need to show some resilience. The masterplan? Take what we can get from this, then dive into the transfer window quicker than a burglar on Boxing Day.

[talkSAFT]

Oh shit! 1-0 Rams

[Dingle-Dingle]

We`re saved Hug Hill`s on.

DD

[talkSAFT]

Phew! Hugill on

---

Johnstone's value drops a couple of £m

[BaggieSteve]

Hard to know where to start. The goal was unbelievable and completely Johnstone’s fault. I know we slag Hugill but, for me, Robinson is as bad. His was a performance that deserved a minus score. We talk about needing a striker - which is true - it we need more than that. Furlong is dreadful, we lack creativity in midfield even when Mowatt is playing - there is no calmness, it’s frenetic and rushed, with the inevitable crap final pass.
I thought Tom Fellows played well when he came on so he’ll be ditched now.
This is one of the worst teams I’ve seen in Albion shirts for a very long time. Promotion would be humiliating

[Minizin]

The fact Fellows and TGH (and O’Shea, Ferguson before then) look so bright and positive is a damning indictment on what we call our first team players. We need a striker more than anything, but half the team could be dumped

[baggietrousers]

The very fact TGH was on the bench shows this coach is a f##king numpty

[Slick_Footwork]

Performance wise, it wasn't the worst performance away from home IMO.

Don't get me wrong, it was bad. But at times we played a few "glimmers" of football. Such as when we created Robbo's back pass, I mean chance...

Often we can play a game away without even having a single move.

0-0 would've been a fair result as neither team were capable of actually scoring a proper goal. Unfortunately, Derby's defenders and goalkeeper were not bearing gifts like we were. Not sure what Johnstone was doing out of the box when our defenders are goal side of the Derby players. At the same time, I'm not sure why Kipre heads it blindly back without looking. Just a total lack of concentration and quality.

Our strike force remains as shambolic as ever. There were several times when Robbo picked up the ball in good positions and could've slipped someone in, but instead chose to go alone with a hopeful punt against someone's leg. We're incredibly difficult to watch, but if one of our 3 strikers could drop in and actually knit play, the games might be passable.

The only time we really looked threatening was when Bartley went forward at the end. You do wonder why Ismael starts with 3 small 2nd strikers almost every week when his tactic seems to be to load the box with high balls. We might be better off playing Semi Ajayi up top as he's clearly more prolific than any of our strikers and would pose an extra threat from our long throws and corners. Which embarrassingly, appear to be our best method of trying to score. Although I think we've seen enough to know the manager never has a plan B.

I think we need 3 reinforcements:

• An out and out striker
  
• A number 10 who can drop off the front and link play
  
• A replacement for the woeful Darnel Furlong
  

It seems that the Woodrow deal will come off, but I'm not sure how he fits into what we need. Screams of desperation. but I hope I'm wrong.

I'd like to see us invest some of that Pereira cash on a replacement number 10, perhaps someone like John Swift at Reading, who is out of contract in the summer. Then supplement him with loans for Dwight Gayle and Doherty from Spurs, who are both surplus to requirements at their clubs. Unfortunately we seem to be shopping in the bargain basement like we were in the summer and I'm sure that Pereira cash has already disappeared into the ether.

I would be calling for the manager's head, but the only thing that saves him is the fact that he's inherited garbage after multiple poor transfer windows. Our summer dealings were for the best part, poor, but clearly we were just scraping the barrel for players we could add to the squad for nothing i.e. Hugill and Reach. If we do spend a bit of money this window then he will have no excuse. As far as I can see, Woodrow will command a fee, so I'll be expecting him to come in and hit the ground running as the manager knows him. It's time for the manager to prove he's not a clueless buffoon.

[drewks]

Haven't seen enough of us this season to add anything useful but the constant opinion of trusted posters on here is enough to convince me that basically we're sh t.
This must be a very poor Championship if we're where we are at the turn of the year! As has been said, fluking promotion would be a bloody disaster.
I foresee a good long spell in mid table at best, hoping that mateybo**ocks will eventually find a buyer when our price falls low enough and he sells to cut his losses. Maybe only then can we look forward with any degree of optimism.

[BaggieSteve]

Performance wise, it wasn't the worst performance away from home IMO.

Don't get me wrong, it was bad. But at times we played a few "glimmers" of football. Such as when we created Robbo's back pass, I mean chance...

Often we can play a game away without even having a single move.

0-0 would've been a fair result as neither team were capable of actually scoring a proper goal. Unfortunately, Derby's defenders and goalkeeper were not bearing gifts like we were. Not sure what Johnstone was doing out of the box when our defenders are goal side of the Derby players. At the same time, I'm not sure why Kipre heads it blindly back without looking. Just a total lack of concentration and quality.

Our strike force remains as shambolic as ever. There were several times when Robbo picked up the ball in good positions and could've slipped someone in, but instead chose to go alone with a hopeful punt against someone's leg. We're incredibly difficult to watch, but if one of our 3 strikers could drop in and actually knit play, the games might be passable.

The only time we really looked threatening was when Bartley went forward at the end. You do wonder why Ismael starts with 3 small 2nd strikers almost every week when his tactic seems to be to load the box with high balls. We might be better off playing Semi Ajayi up top as he's clearly more prolific than any of our strikers and would pose an extra threat from our long throws and corners. Which embarrassingly, appear to be our best method of trying to score. Although I think we've seen enough to know the manager never has a plan B.

I think we need 3 reinforcements:

• An out and out striker
  
• A number 10 who can drop off the front and link play
  
• A replacement for the woeful Darnel Furlong
  

It seems that the Woodrow deal will come off, but I'm not sure how he fits into what we need. Screams of desperation. but I hope I'm wrong.

I'd like to see us invest some of that Pereira cash on a replacement number 10, perhaps someone like John Swift at Reading, who is out of contract in the summer. Then supplement him with loans for Dwight Gayle and Doherty from Spurs, who are both surplus to requirements at their clubs. Unfortunately we seem to be shopping in the bargain basement like we were in the summer and I'm sure that Pereira cash has already disappeared into the ether.

I would be calling for the manager's head, but the only thing that saves him is the fact that he's inherited garbage after multiple poor transfer windows. Our summer dealings were for the best part, poor, but clearly we were just scraping the barrel for players we could add to the squad for nothing i.e. Hugill and Reach. If we do spend a bit of money this window then he will have no excuse. As far as I can see, Woodrow will command a fee, so I'll be expecting him to come in and hit the ground running as the manager knows him. It's time for the manager to prove he's not a clueless buffoon.

Agreed, Slick. I think he has a replacement for Furlong in TGH but won’t play him. For me, it also showed - and has done all season - just how much we miss Pereira, not just for his personal contribution but also how he made those around him better players, particularly thinking of Diangana and Robinson.
Also agree with you comment on the tactic of punting high balls into the area when we have largely a dwarfish set of “strikers”. We have used the long ball tactic via throw ins to some success but even that is drying up now.
Like you, I’m not calling for the manager’s head if only because I’m not sure who’d replace him and the fact that there are deeper issues within the club that make that position very difficult. However, a poor transfer window and a finishing position outside the play offs and I reckon it’s curtains for him. Having said that, who was the bright spark who gave our third choice manager a four year contract? Genius!